Rima Greenhill – Oxford: His Russia

Rima Greenhill follows up her book "Shakespeare, Elizabeth and Ivan: The Role of Russian-English Relations in Love’s Labours Lost" with this presentation connecting the true author, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to the references to Russia she found in the play

We know of the Earl of Oxford’s links to the French court, but who served as a source of knowledge about Russia? This presentation will attempt to demonstrate the Earl of Oxford’s exposure to Russian affairs from his early childhood, all through his teenage years spent at Cecil House, and all through his adult life, both in and out of court. Rima discusses various 16th-century written sources the author could draw on about Russia, which were only accessible to the Queen and a select few, and identifies the English envoys to Russia, the members of the Muscovy Company and the leading courtiers that could have acted as a direct source of information.

Bio: Rima Greenhill has an MA and a PhD in Russian Language and Literature from University College, London. A senior lecturer in the Department of Slavonic Languages and Literatures at Stanford University, she has lectured widely on Shakespeare in the Slavic world and has spoken at numerous SOF conferences. Her book, Shakespeare, Elizabeth and Ivan: The Role of English Russian Relations in ‘Love’s Labours Lost’ was published by McFarland.