Like a clueless critic on a timed deadline
missing the evidence
and wording with sarcastic comments,
instead of the clew to guide through a maze,
I gave a mistaken opinion.

I had dismissed his poems
with a cursory glimpse
not seeing the messages within.
I said that those lines of poetry
had no real lasting quality.

The first reading was running through research.
Next, they were read as a second sight,
and his indications were not  overlooked.
Aware that one should not pay attention,
but give it.

My apologies to Edward de Vere
for ignoring that depression is found here.
The call is one of agony
with anguish and anxiety
emphasized by melancholy.

And so now to make amends
by quoting those poetic trends.
Seeing Edward’s words, you can decide
if internal torture would override,
or might be a recipe for suicide.

From “The Paradise of Dainty Devises.”
“Oppressed with Sorrow, He Wisheth Death,”
and talks of – “my deep despair.”

In “Echo Verses” –
“Sitting alone upon my thought in melancholy mood.”

How he tries to hide his depression.

“I am not as I seem to be
For when I smile. I am not glad;
A thrall, although you count me free,
I, most in mirth, most pensive sad,
I smile to shade my bitter spite
. . .
Thus contraries be used to find
Of wise to cloak the covert mind
. . .
Some purge their pain by plaint, I find.
But in vain to breathe my wind.”
FINIS EO.

Regarding the loss of good name  and entitled,
“Framed in the front of forlorn hope past all recovery.”
“. . . My sprites, my heart, my wit and force,  in deep distress are drown’d;
the only loss of my good name is of these griefs the ground.”

How depression overtakes his moods and personality.

“Fain would I sing, but fury makes me fret,
And rage hath sworn to seek revenge of wrong;
My mazed mind in malice so is set,
As death shall daunt my deadly dolours long,
Patience  perforce is such a pinching pain,
As die I will, or suffer wrong again.”
. . .
(Last line) “I rest revenged on whom I am abused.”

FINIS Earle of Oxenforde

The definitive depressive’s poem.

“Grief of Mind”
“What plague is greater than the grief of mind?
The grief of mind that eats in every vein;
In every vein that leaves such clots behind;
Such clots behind as breed such bitter pain;
So bitter pain that none shall ever find,
What plague is greater than the grief of mind.”
E of Ox

That he links his depression to a blood vessel
and clots, demonstrates how ahead of his time he was.
Depression that “eats in every vein,” medically describes
an erosion of a blood vessel caused by this condition.
“That leaves such clots behind,” describes what happens
when a vessel is damaged and clots are then formed.
Heart attack victims, who become depressed after the
event, do not recover so well and are prone to other attacks.

In the poetry, there is some hope and a little redemption
from depression, when he feels liberated from the pain.

“In praise of a contented mind.”

“My mind to me a kingdom is
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
That world affords or grows by kind.
Though much I want most men have
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

Look what I lack my mind supplies;
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.
. . .
But all the pleasure that I find
is to maintain a quiet mind.”

In another poem he ponders the serenity of being alone.

“To entertain my thoughts, and there my hap to moan
That never am I less idle lo! than when I am alone.”
FINIS  E. Ox.

Here he links your situation to your position.

“Were I a King I might command respect;
Were I obscure unknown would be my cares,
And were I dead no thoughts should me torment,
Nor words, nor wrongs, nor love, nor hate, nor fears.
A doubtful choice of these things which to crave
A kingdom or a cottage or a grave.”
Vere

COMMENTARY
Hamlet, written around 1600 and published about 1602, was a tragedy about
murder, betrayal, suicide, depression and death. It was probably cathartic for
Edward de Vere, but his sudden, unheralded death in 1604 might well have
been a suicide.

When depression is overtaken by suicidal thoughts, a speech, “To be or not
to be”, is composed—structured from his view of life versus death.

Of the six “whips of time” that he lists, two are connected to the Law.
They are – “the law’s delay”, and – “he himself might his quietus make . . . “

Edward spent much of his adult life in litigation. He also had some legal
training, so would be familiar with the word – quietus. Whether as a final
settlement in accounting terms, or the medieval Latin version meaning –
at rest; or the third meaning of a release from life, as in death. Quietus is
mentioned in all three versions of Hamlet’s speech, or Edward’s contemplation.