"Fair Youth" explores the legend that a love affair between Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, 20, Lord Great Chamberlain, and Queen Elizabeth I, 37, produced a son, Henry, born in secret and given to a nobleman whose heir died in infancy. Acting as Lord Chamberlain in charge of producing plays for Elizabeth's court, Oxford circulates sonnets that idolize a "Fair Youth" and hint that he is an unacknowledged heir to the Tudor throne. Believing...