The First Thing We Do

· Contact information and legal fine print ·

• The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.

• Dick the Butcher
• Henry VI Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2

Contact options:

• • Contact form
• If subsequent email correspondence is warranted (at my discretion), I will reply with an address. Unpleasantness or spam goes straight to the bin.

• • Bluesky: @ned.edevere17.com

• • Mastodon: @edevere17@mastodonapp.uk

• Message me privately to get my attention on either Bluesky or Mastodon.
  

• • Xitter: @edevere17
• (Nov 2025) I made it to ten years but only barely. I reached my tolerance limit, and the account is gone.

Legal:

• • All rights are reserved for original work written and posted at edevere17.com, Twitter/X, Mastodon servers, Bluesky, or any other location not specifically listed here, by the author of that work using either of the pseudonyms Ned Devere or edevere17.

• • My work here is based on my earlier work widely available under an incorrect attribution. Online sources include, but are not limited to, The Bodleian First Folio and Open Source Shakespeare. I wrote a lot of words, and it’s been a while.

• • REUSE: Posting short excerpts with source links included is permitted (informing me of the URL is requested and appreciated), but archiving, aggregating, inclusion in AI programs or training datasets, or other use of the original content on this blog is prohibited. I’m happy to consider specific requests if you ask first, but if AI is involved see the Privacy Policy and the post Ill School’d AI before you bother.
  

• • INFRINGEMENT: I have no desire or intent to infringe upon rights held by others for quoted or embedded work appearing here, such as excerpts, photos, videos, etc. The last thing I want to do is misuse anyone else’s creativity, the idea is far too ironic. If you see something that’s yours and you believe I’ve overstepped the bounds of fair use, please contact me and we’ll resolve it promptly.

• • SOCIAL MEDIA: If you converse with me online there’s a very, very small chance that I might want to screencap or quote something from the conversation and post it on this blog. By communicating to me or with me you acknowledge that you’re okay with this. By the numbers it’s an extremely rare occurrence, but my inner solicitor says to spell it out. I post nothing that isn’t already public (I do not quote from email or private messages), and I obscure avatars and usernames unless permission is given to include them. Screencaps are not linked. For non-trivial quotes I do my best to obtain prior permission. Here is an example where permissions were obtained, and here is one with the ID obscured. You can contact me at any time to request that I not quote you, in which case I won’t.

• • CITATIONS: I’m a dead poet, not a Cambridge don. If you hold me to academic-journal standards for references and citations, your disappointment will be your own fault. My posts are not dissertations, nor are meant to be. I work hard not to make (much) stuff up, and if you ask nicely I can probably tell you where something originated if it was elsewhere than my own head. Relevant source information is given at the ends of posts, and many of the links serve as pointers to references. I’m here on my own shilling to have fun, not to publish-or-perish. I’ve already done both of those.

• • WEBSITE DISCLAIMER: edevere17.com has been online since 2015, free to read without paywalls, external advertising, or other annoyances. There are no current plans to end creation, maintenance, or financing for the site, but neither is its present form or its eternal existence guaranteed. The lesson of Ovid’s Metamorphoses applies especially to the internet: things can change.

• • GENERAL DISCLAIMER:

To this writer’s certain understanding, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the creator of the body of work which has been egregiously miscredited to William Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon. Edward de Vere died in 1604. He did not have a blog.

The portrayal of Edward de Vere on this website and elsewhere, and all new writing and other content posted by this writer under the names of Ned Devere or edevere17, are intended and presented as entertainment, for the purpose of inducing mirth and thought.

• Banner:
• • Interrogation of a suspect by lawyers (detail) [queensoldlibrary.org]
• · from Praxis criminis persequendi (The Practice of Prosecuting Crime), a handbook on criminal procedure
• · Jean Milles de Souvigny, Paris, 1541
• · image scanned from the copy owned by my teacher, Sir Thomas Smith. See Shake-Speare’s Schoolbooks, posted 26 September 2019.

VERO NIHIL VERIUS