Did Shakespeare Steal This Scene? Mary de Vere and the Real Paulina in The Winter’s Tale

How Mary de Vere Outmaneuvered a Duchess, the Queen, William Cecil, and Her Brother, Edward de Vere.

Did Shakespeare base Paulina in The Winter’s Tale on a real Tudor woman?

Not all Elizabethan battles were fought by men in armor. Some of the fiercest, and most effective, were fought in quiet interiors by women who never raised their voices, and rarely lost.

Decades before The Winter’s Tale was written, an English duchess held out a baby to an angry nobleman, hoping he would recognize the child as his own and take back his wife. The scene is strikingly familiar. It is almost exactly what Paulina does with Perdita and Leontes in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

A remarkable 1577 letter suggests that Shakespeare did not invent that moment. He borrowed it from a real-life Elizabethan court drama engineered and implemented by Mary de Vere in one of the boldest pieces of interpersonal diplomacy in Elizabethan England. Her objective? To marry the man she loved, Peregrine Bertie.

What’s even more interesting are the strikingly parallel details between what Mary historically devised, how her plan played out, and what Shakespeare wrote. Let’s explore.

Initially, Mary needed the consent of four powerful people in Queen Elizabeth I’s court. All opposed the love match between herself and Peregrine:

• Peregrine’s mother, Katherine Bertie, Duchess of Suffolk had both strong reservations about Mary’s family and another bride in mind for Peregrine. 

• Mary’s brother, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford had betrothed her to someone else.

• William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer and Queen Whisperer Extraordinaire, had enough problems already with Edward de Vere.

• Queen Elizabeth’s permission was required because Mary served her as a Lady of the Privy Chamber.

Mary began her uphill campaign by winning over the Duchess. If you want to see how Mary pulled off that masterly maidenly maneuver, start here:

👉 Was Shakespeare's Imogen Based on a Real Tudor Woman?  

And then here:

👉 How Mary de Vere Risked Everything to Marry Peregrine Bertie - and Outmaneuvered Everyone.

With one adversary turned into an ally, Mary only had three to go.

Private correspondence from the Duchess to Burghley reveals not only the Elizabethan secret that Mary de Vere could run rings around the most sophisticated members of Elizabeth’s court, but also a Shakespearean secret.

Shakespeare was a thief. Or, shall we say, not above borrowing a brilliant scene and his characters from real life.  

Mary’s battle plan so impressed Shakespeare that he re-deployed it in The Winter’s Tale. We’ve been enjoying formidable Paulina trying to convince Leontes to accept Perdita as his child and take back his wife, Hermione, for 400 years. But, the real story behind The Winter’s Tale is that we’ve mistakenly credited Shakespeare’s creative genius, instead of the Earl of Oxford’s very clever sister’s.

⚔️ Mary de Vere’s Brilliant Strategy

William Cecil, Lord Burghley did not rise to become Queen Elizabeth's chief minister by leaving his private correspondence around for curious playwrights to pilfer for their plots. 

Mary’s strategy depended on a domino effect. Having already won over the Duchess, Mary needed the Duchess to win Burghley’s support. After that, she needed Burghley to win the Queen’s consent. Then, Mary’s brother would remain the lone opponent to Mary’s marrying Peregrine. He could not object forever, if the Duchess, Burghley and the Queen favored the marriage.

But this needed to be approached delicately. Mary could not risk alienating the Duchess or Burghley by letting them know they were being used.

Fortunately, Mary knew exactly what each of the Duchess and Burghley wanted most. And she knew how to grant their wishes.

The Duchess wanted Burghley in her debt. Few prizes at Elizabeth’s court were sweeter than having the Queen’s chief minister owing you a big favor.

And what did Burghley want?  Here’s the exquisite beauty of Mary’s plan, which leads right to the famous scene in The Winter’s Tale. Burghley had a personal problem he could not solve.

Mary’s brother, Edward de Vere, was Burghley’s son-in-law. Burghley desperately wanted him to reconcile with his estranged wife, Anne Cecil, Burghley’s daughter. Their separation had become a political embarrassment to Burghley who held the kingdom together, but could not fix his daughter’s marriage.

Edward de Vere had always resisted marrying Anne Cecil. He had been coerced into it with promises of saving the life of his cousin, the Duke of Norfolk, who had been accused of treason. With pressure from Burghley, and promises from the Queen, de Vere had reluctantly wed Anne.

(Spoiler alert: History teaches not only to never to trust a Cecil (as the famous saying goes), it also teaches to never trust Queen Elizabeth’s promises.)

The marriage had never been happy, but it collapsed when Anne delivered a daughter, Bess, that de Vere claimed wasn’t his. Several Elizabethan secrets suggest that de Vere was right: Bess had indeed been fathered by someone else. Sneak a peek at one of those under-the-covers confidences here:

 👉 Abortion and the Secret Language of Elizabethan Women's Medicine.

For two years de Vere had refused to see the child. Cuckoldry is no minor matter. His honor was at stake. To an Elizabethan nobleman, honor was everything.

Mary gambled that if she could set up the Duchess to take some action towards solving Burghley’s family crisis, a grateful Burghley would petition the Queen to solve Mary’s problem. Meanwhile, Mary could remain behind-the-scenes, as the secret and seemingly uninvolved beneficiary.

Here’s how Mary set the scene and cast it with the actual players.

She sent a relative of Burghley’s wife Mildred Cooke Cecil, Harry Cooke, on a social visit to the Duchess and Peregrine’s sister, Susan Bertie. Harry, (with nudges from Susan) casually suggested to the Duchess that de Vere might be willing to see Anne’s daughter.

The Duchess later told Burghley she dismissed the idea at first, “[b]ecause it was but a young man’s words, I took no great hold of it.”

See any resemblance between Mary de Vere’s 1577 strategy and this scene from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, written decades later? Or is that just a remarkable coincidence?

But the seed had been planted. And the Duchess hadn’t a clue.

A few days later the Duchess visited Mary. Mary asked her what she would think if her brother “would take his wife again.”

“Truly,” replied the Duchess, “nothing could comfort me more, for now I wish to your brother as much good as to my own son.”

Mary then gently repeated the idea already planted in the Duchess’s mind: her brother might be willing to see the child. He was simply reluctant to ask.

The Duchess was enchanted.

Swearing Mary to secrecy, the Duchess unveiled to Mary what she claimed was her own brilliant solution: she would invite de Vere and Mary to her house. Then she would bring out Bess and watch what happened. Perhaps, she hoped, nature would work in him when he saw the child and he would declare it was his own!

🎭 The Scene Shakespeare Stole (or Borrowed)

If this sounds familiar, it should.

Here’s how Shakespeare stages the moment in The Winter’s Tale when Paulina (the Duchess) brings baby Perdita (Bess) to Leontes (de Vere) to try to convince him to take back his wife Hermione (Anne):

PAULINA:  Behold, my lords

Although the print be little, the whole matter

And copy of the father – eye, nose, lip,

The trick of ‘s frown, his forehead, nay, the valley,

 The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek, his smiles

 The very mold and frame of hand, nail, finger . .

LEONTES:  A gross hag!. . .. Once more take her out!”

Baby Bess probably did not resemble de Vere, but the resemblance between Shakespeare’s characters in The Winter’s Tale and the historical individuals Mary deployed in her strategy is hard to ignore.

It was also enormously risky. The hidden real-life playwright, director, producer and stage manager had staked her marriage and her happiness on it.

🎖️ Strategy Worthy of a General

Mary’s breathtakingly clever maneuver required the foresight to have Susan Bertie and Harry Cooke bait the trap, and the self-discipline to allow the Duchess to think the idea her own and take all the credit with Burghley. It also required knowing how to manipulate the secret wants and needs of Burghley and the Duchess, and possessing the fortitude to withstand her brother’s justifiable anger if (read: when) he found out Mary was behind the ploy.

Courage and a battle strategy worthy of a general.

If you enjoy uncovering the real stories behind Shakespeare’s greatest scenes like this, you’re in exactly the right place. If you enjoy learning about the real Tudor women behind Shakespeare’s female characters, you are also in exactly the right place. Paulina is not an exception to the pattern. Shakespeare repeatedly based his characters on real people, giving us women who speak, act and defy. Their stories make the case that, for his time, Shakespeare was a feminist. Really.  See 👉  Shakespeare Was a Feminist. Really.   

🎲  Did Mary’s Plan Work?

One of the most astute men in Elizabeth I’s court, Edward de Vere, 17^th Earl of Oxford (likely depicted here) was out maneuvered by (of all people) his younger sister.

Not for everyone. Or more correctly, not for Burghley.

Like Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, de Vere did not suddenly embrace the child or take Anne back. But time softened his anger towards Peregrine for seducing his sister. He yielded to Mary the right to choose the man she loved, not something to be taken for granted by Elizabethan noblewomen facing arranged marriages.

And so, a brilliant man, outmaneuvered by his (even more) brilliant sister, admitted she had won the field. Maybe that was what Shakespeare so admired. The principle that Mary fought for, a woman’s right to choose her husband, drives the action of more than a few Shakespearean plays:

Cymbeline

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Romeo and Juliet

The Merchant of Venice

All’s Well That Ends Well

Othello

Mary de Vere had lived that drama herself. She and Peregrine were finally wed in early 1578.

🪶 One Last Shakespearean Mystery

The Duchess’s sent her letter describing this episode privately to William Cecil, where it remained unpublished, locked among Burghley’s papers, and preserved to this day.

Which raises an awkward question:

How did William Shakespeare of Stratford gain access to private correspondence locked among Burghley’s papers?

In 1577 he was thirteen years old and living 150 miles from the private noble homes in which  Mary set her campaign.

Some Elizabethan secrets remain stubbornly unsolved.

Others simply hide in plain sight.

📬  If you enjoy uncovering the hidden stories, scandals and heroines behind Shakespeare’s plays and the clever, formidable women of Elizabethan England, be sure to subscribe here so the next post lands straight in our inbox. A packet of exclusive Elizabethan Secrets will be sent as a thank you!

🎥 If you want to learn more about Mary de Vere, be sure to check out this lecture, available on YouTube: Mary de Vere Bertie and What She Tells Us About Shakespeare

🎥 If you want to learn more about who fathered Anne Cecil’s baby, be sure to check out this lecture, also available on YouTube: Anne Cecil de Vere and What She Tells Us About Shakespeare