The Phoenix and the Turtle: A Stratfordian vs. An Oxfordian View
Cairo, Egypt
“It is naive to believe that Shakespeare and Elizabeth, the two giants of the age, lived in two different worlds. You need to open your eyes. I see Elizabeth everywhere.”
-Dr. Michael Delahoyde
One of the most beautiful works in the Shakespeare Canon is a short poem titled The Phoenix and the Turtle. The poem was first published in 1601 in Robert Chester’s Loves Martyr or, Rosalins Complaint. Allegorically shadowing the truth of Loue, in the constant Fate of the Phoenix and Turtle (Mowat and Werstein).There are two drastically different ways of interpreting this poem. The first is the Orthodox or Stratfordian View, and the second, and more enlightening, is the Oxfordian View.
Hearts remote yet not asunder,
Distance and no space was seen
’Twixt this turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder (Shakespeare).
The Stratfordian View
The Orthodox interpretation of the poem recognizes the mythological story of the phoenix rising from the ashes. Reading it from this viewpoint, however, lacks depth. As stated on the Folger website,
“…historical interpretations of the poem no longer command wide assent.”
From this point of view, the poem is like the Sonnets, just a literary exercise.
The Oxfordian View
An Oxfordian reading of the poem is much more interesting. In it, the phoenix and the turtle are allegorical elements for Queen Elizabeth I and Edward De Vere. In his blog, Hank Whittemore described an incident which took place at Whitehall Palace on January 21, 1581, when the Earl was 30. After proving victorious at a jousting tournament, the Earl’s page delivered a message to the Queen:
“a solemn vow to incorporate his heart into that Tree,” adding that “as there is but one Sun to shine over it, one root to give life unto it, one top to maintain Majesty, so there should be but one Knight, either to live or die for the defense thereof” (Whittemore).
It is interesting to compare the first stanza of The Phoenix and the Turtle, published twenty years later:
Let the bird of loudest lay
On the sole Arabian tree
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey (Shakespeare).
The Queen used the phoenix as a symbol of her rebirth and the continuation of the Tudor Dynasty. This was obviously known to Oxford who depicted the queen as the Phoenix, and he as her loyal knight or Turtledove. Twenty years later, in 1601, the theme was revisited in The Phoenix and the Turtle.
Conclusion
Reading the poem through an Oxfordian lens is much more rewarding than an Orthodox reading. In it, the works become reflections of the author’s life. Students of the Authorship Question know that Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, and Oxford in 1604. The poem is much more potent when read as a last lament for the both of them.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer (Shakespeare).
Works Cited
Hilliard, Nicholas. Elizabeth I Phoenix Portrait. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14899/elizabeth-i-phoenix-portrait/
Mowat, Barbara and Werstein, Paul. About Shakespeare’s “The Phoenix and the Turtle.” Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-phoenix-and-turtle/about-shakespeares-the-phoenix-and-turtle/
Shakespeare, William. The Phoenix and the Turtle. Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-phoenix-and-turtle/read/
Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/
