VIVERE!

Handsome, brilliant and precocious, young Edward De Vere is living an idyllic life at Castle Hedingham as the son and only heir of John DeVere, Sixteenth Earl of Oxford. Not only will he one day inherit his father's lands and title as the Earl of Oxford, he is also relatively certain that his tall good looks and formidable athletic ability will gain him fame and adoration as a champion in the tiltyard and on the battlefield. As well, he is becoming the consummate Elizabethan courtier, known for his intellectual pursuits in languages and translation as well as for his masterful grace on the dance floor. It is, unfortunately, what he does not know about his future that will prove to turn his life into a Sophoclean tragedy. When England's intoxicating Virgin Queen visits his father's estate, the thirteen year old earl is flattered by her flirtatious attentions.She makes it her business to see that the boy falls hopelessly and inexorably in love with her, and when his father dies within the year, young Edward is taken to London as a ward of the Crown. Despite his aspirations of living a life of untarnished virtue in the mold of the Arthurian code of chivalry, the boy soon submits to the tempting immorality of life at court. His reputation is tarnished by several scandals, but it is not until Elizabeth herself takes him as a lover that he realizes the depth of his own potential for depravity. To his horror she confesses to him that he has unwittingly been a participant in incest as she is the woman who in reality gave birth to him in secret, and he is plunged into a depression that nearly results in full blown madness. Edward finds a reason to live and a kind of exoneration from his heavy burden of guilt by becoming a champion on the battlefield and in the tiltyard, gaining fame as a defender of England, beloved by the people for his courage and ferocity. On undertaking a tour of the continent, he also becomes inspired to use his prodigious literary talent as well as his financial resources and position as the preeminent nobleman in England to recreate an English theatrical tradition equal to that of ancient Greece. He finances the building of England's first freestanding theatre, a wooden representation of the ancient ruins of circular theatres he saw in Italy and becomes the patron of a group of talented young playwrights and actors. He furthers the growth of what will become the theatrical phenomenon that characterizes the English Renaissance by penning many plays himself and by lending his magnificent voice and person to their performance on the stage. Unfortunately he is unable to rid himself of his passion for Elizabeth and is eventually lured back to her bed. From this incestuous union is born a son whose existence will set into motion a chain of events that will ultimately cause the pages of history to be effectively scrubbed clean of the name and accomplishments of the splendid but tortured soul known as Edward De Vere.