Chapter IV: Preface (1)

The Cipher discoveries in some of the literature of the Elizabethan period, as set forth in _Francis Bacon’s Biliteral Cypher_--a book recently published in America and England--are most strange and important. To those not familiar with them, a few words are requisite for an understanding of the methods of the production of this Cipher play--_The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn_.

Two principal Ciphers have been found to exist in the works of Bacon. The first, the Bi-literal, by the use of Italic letters in different forms, concealed the rules and directions for writing out a second of greater scope--a so-called Word Cipher, in which key words indicate sections of similar matter, that, brought together in a new sequence, tell a different story. Both were invented by Bacon in his youth. The primary, or Bi-literal Cypher, is fully explained in _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, but it is only recently that it has been found to exist in the Italic printing of a number of the books of the Elizabethan era--books ascribed to different authors but now proved to have been written by Bacon.

On pages following are extracts from the _Bi-literal Cypher_, as published, relating in the words of the inventor himself the manner of using the Key-Word Cipher for the segregation and reconstruction of the hidden narratives, infolded in the pages as originally printed, with which we are familiar. These directions are fragmentary, scattered through many of the books deciphered, and are many times repeated in varying forms of expression.

The more important only are here gathered, which, with the “Argument” and the keys, now given, of this tragedy, will outline the plan of this work. It may be interesting to know that the use of the key words is progressive, and that a small number only are used at one time: the first six or seven writing the prologue, a few of the next the opening scenes of the play, and so on through the entire work, some being dropped as others are taken up successively until all have been used. An appendix gives the book and page from which the lines are taken that have been brought together as the “great architect or master-builder directed.”

In the reconstruction, especially when prose is changed to verse, the order of the words is slightly changed to meet the requirements of “rythmic measure in the Iambic.” The great author used large parts of many scenes in two distinct plays--open and concealed--now and then with the same _dramatis personae_, again with others clearly indicated as belonging, historically, to these particular scenes. This fact may jostle our ideas somewhat, as we find new speakers using the familiar lines, but there is an added interest, when the transposition gives the accuracy of history to the beauty of dramatic expression. This _seems_ the reverse of the natural order, but it is seeming only, for the literary world became acquainted with the rewritten plays three centuries before the hidden originals came to light.

In the banquet scene of this tragedy, the first part is almost identical with that of _Henry Eighth_, although--when “like joins like,” something from Macbeth, from Hamlet, from Romeo and Juliet, etc., etc., is added--while other diversions of that festival night are not given openly in any of the works. The handkerchief scenes of the imagined tragedy of Othello belong to this real, but concealed, tragedy of Anne Boleyn, and the accusations against the Queen of Sicilia are a part of the charge against this martyred Queen; the reply, a part of the pathetic but brave response she made. The second part was never before in any published drama.

It would seem that Bacon learned from Cicero the method of preparing matter which could with slight variations be adapted to more than one purpose. We find this in the _Advancement of Learning_ (1605, p. 52).

“And Cicero himselfe, being broken unto it by great experience, delivereth it plainely; That whatsoever a man shall have occasion to speake of, (if he will take the paines) he may have it in effect premediate, and handled in these. So that when hee cometh to a particular, he shall have nothing to doe, but to put too Names and times, and places; and such other Circumstances of Individuals.”

A little further on (p. 56), is an instance where an inquiry about the tablets in Neptune’s Temple is ascribed to Diagoras, while in the _Apothegms_ this same question is put in the mouth of Bion. And, in the First Folio of the Shakespeare Plays, a very marked example occurs in _Romeo and Juliet_.

Romeo speaking, says:

“The gray ey’d morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checkring the Easterne Clouds with streakes of light,
And darknesse fleckel’d like a drunkard reeles,
From forth dayes pathway, made by Titans wheeles.”

Then almost immediately after, the Friar gives the same lines, with very slight but distinctive changes:

“The gray ey’d morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checkring the Easterne Cloudes with streaks of light,
And fleckled darknesse like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies path, and Titans burning wheeles.”

The modern editors cut out one _quatrain_ as a supposed mistake, the decipherer discovers by the keys and joining-words that each has a place--the first in one work, and the second in another.

As the tragical events of this period in the history of the ill-fated queen, now known to be Bacon’s ancestress, have little by little unfolded in the deciphering, there has been a deepening sense of the pathos of the story. Like dissolving views the scenes appear, and fade, and _this_ mightiness meets misery so soon that we feel the shock. There is the gentle Anne’s appearance at the banquet, “when King Henry for the first time cometh truely under the spell of her beautie”--his infatuation--his determination that nothing should stand in the way of making her his wife--the divorce from Katherine--the coronation--the disapproval of the people, not of Anne but of the King--the insulting song at the coronation festivities--the birth of Elizabeth, Bacon’s mother, and the King’s disappointment that the princess was not a prince. Later there is the King’s fickleness, which prompted the false charges against his wife--the mockery of the trial--the true nobleness of the victim--the injustice of her condemnation--the pathetic message to the King, as she was led to the scaffold--the cruelty of her execution.

It is no wonder that Bacon felt this deeply, nor that “every act and scene is a tender sacrifice, and an incense to her sweet memory.”

ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP.

Detroit, November, 1901.

ARGUMENT .OF THE PLAY.

As may bee well knowne unto you, th’ questio’ of Elizabeth, her legitimacie, made her a Protestant, for the Pope had not recognis’d th’ union, tho’ it were royale, which her sire made with fayre Anne Boleyn. Still we may see that despite some restraining feare, it suited her to dallie with the question, to make a faint shew of settling the mater as her owne co’sie’ce dictated, if we take th’ decisions of facts; but the will of th’ remorse-tost king left no doubt in men’s minds concerning th’ former marriage, in fact, as th’ crowne was giv’n first to Mary, his daughter of that marriage, before commi’g to Elizabeth.

In th’ storie of my most infortunate grandmother, the sweet ladie who saw not th’ headsman’s axe when shee went forth proudly to her coronation, you shall read of a sadnesse that touches me neere, partlie because of neerenesse in bloud, partlie from a firme beliefe and trust in her innocencie. Therefore every act and scene of this play of which I speake, is a tende’ sacrifice, and an incense to her sweete memorie. It is a plea to the generations to come for a just judgement upon her life, whilst also giving the world one of the noblest o’ my plays, hidden in Cy’hre in many other works.

A short argument, and likewise th’ keies, are giv’n to ayde th’ decypherer when it is to be work’d out as I wish. This doth tell th’ story with sufficient clearnes to guide you to our hidden storie.

This opeth at th’ palace, when King Henry for the first time cometh truely under the spell of her beautie,--then in th’ highest perfection of dainty grace, fresh, unspoiled,--and the charme of youthlie manners. It is thought this was that inquisition which brought out feares regarding th’ marriage contracted with Katharine of Arragon, so that none greatly wond’red whe’ prolonged consultation of the secret voyce in his soule assur’d the questioner noe good could ever come from the union. Acti’g upon this conviction he doth confer money and titles upon his last choise to quiet objections on score of unmeetnes.

But tho’ an irksome thing, truth shall be told. Tho’ it be ofttimes a task,--if selfe-imposed, not by any meanes th’ lesse, but more wearisome, since the work hath noe voyce of approvall or praise,--I intend its completion. For many simple causes th’ historie of a man’s life cometh from acts that we see through stayned glasse darkelie, and of th’ other sexe, a man doth perceyve lesse, if possible, but th’ picture that I shall heere give is limn’d most carefully. However m’ pen hath greatly digress’d, and to returne.

Despite this mark of royall favour, a grave matter like the divorcement of a royall spouse to wed a maide, suited not with fayre Anne’s notions of justice, and with a sweete grace she made answere when the King sued for favour:--“I am not high in birth as would befit a Queene, but I am too good to become your mistresse.” So there was no waye to compasse his desires save to wring a decree out o’ th’ Pope and wed th’ maide, not a jot regarding her answer unlesse to bee the more eager to have his waye.

Th’ love Lord Percy shew’d my lady, although so frankly return’d, kept the wish turning, turning as a restless mill. Soone he resolv’d on proof of his owne spirit, doe th’ Pope how he might, and securing a civill decree, privately wedded th’ too youthfull Anne, and hid her for space of severall daies untill th’ skies could somewhat cleare; but when th’ earlie sumer came, in hope that there might soone bee borne to them an heyre of th’ desir’d kinde, order’d willinglie her coronation sparing noe coste to make it outvie anie other.

And when she was borne along, surrounded by soft white tissew, shielded by a canopie of white, whilst she is wafted onwards, you would say an added charme were to paint the lillie, or give the rose perfume.

This was onely th’ beginning of a triumph, bright as briefe,--in a short space ’twas ore. Henry chose to consider th’ infant princesse in the light of great anger of a just God brought upon him for his sinnes, but bearing this with his daring spirit, he compelleth the Actes of Supremacy and Succession, which placed him at the head of the Church of England, in th’ one case, and made his heires by Queene Anne th’ successours to th’ throne. Untill that time, onely male heyres had succeeded to th’ roiall power and the act occasioned much surprise amongst our nobilitie.

But Henry rested not the’. The lovelinesse of Anne and her natural opennesse of manner, so potent to winne th’ weake heart o’ th’ King, awaken’d suspition and much cruell jealousie when hee saw th’ gay courtiers yielding to th’ spell of gracefull gentility,--heighten’d by usage forrayn, as also at th’ English Court. But if truth be said, th’ fancy had taken him to pay lovi’g court unto the faire Jane Seymour, who was more beautifull, and quite young,--but also most ordinary as doth regard personall manner, and th’ qualitie that made th’ Queene so pleasing,--Lady Jane permitting marks of gracious favour t’ be freelie offered.

And the Queene, unfortunately for her secret hope, surpris’d them in a tender scene. Sodaine griefe orewhelming her so viole’tlie, she swound before them, and a little space thereafter the infant sonne so constantly desir’d, borne untimely, disappointed once more this selfish monarch. This threw him into great fury, so that he was cruellie harsh where [he] should give comfort and support, throwing so much blame upon the gentle Queene, that her heart dyed within her not long after soe sadde ending of a mother, her hopes.

Under pretexte of beleeving gentle Queene Anne to be guilty of unfaithfullnesse, Henry had her convey’d to London Tower, and subjected her to such ignominy as one can barelie beleeve, ev’n basely laying to her charge the gravest sins, and summoning a jury of peeres delivered the Queene for tryal and sentence. His act doth blacken pitch. Ev’n her father, sitting amidst the peeres before whom shee was tried, exciteth not so much astonishment since hee was forc’d thereto.

Henry’s will was done, but hardly could hee restraine the impatience that sent him forth from his pallace at th’ hour of her execution to an eminence neare by, in order to catche th’ detonation (ation) of th’ field peece whose hollow tone tolde the moment at which th’ cruell axe fell, and see the blacke flag, that signall which floated wide to tell the world she breath’d no more.

Th’ hast with which hee then went forward with his marriage, proclaym’d the reall rigor or frigidity of his hart. It is by all men accompted strange, this subtile power by which soe many of the peeres could be forc’d to passe sentence upon this lady, when proofes of guilt were nowhere to bee produced. In justice to a memorie dear to myselfe, I must aver that it is far from cleare yet, upon what charge shee was found worthie of death. It must of neede have beene some quiddet of th’ lawe, that chang’d some harmlesse words into anything one had in minde, for in noe other waye could speech of hers be made wrongfull. Having fayl’d to prove her untrue, nought could bring about such a resulte, had this not (have) beene accomplish’d.

Thus was her good fame made a reproache, and time hath not given backe that priceles treasure. If my plaie shal shew this most clearly, I shall be co’tente. And as for my roiall grandsire, whatever honour hath beene lost by such a course, is re-gain’d by his descendants from the union, through this lovi’g justification of Anne Bulle’, his murther’d Queene.

Before I go further with instructions, I make bold to say that th’ benefits we who now live in our free England reape [are] from her faith and unfayling devotion to th’ advancement, that she herselfe promoting, beheld well undertaken. It was her most earnest beliefe in this remarkable and widelie spread effecte on th’ true prosperitie of the realme, and not a love o’ dignity or power,--if the evidence of workes be taken,--that co’strain’d her to take upon her th’ responsibility of roialtie. And I am fullie perswaded in mine owne minde that had shee lived to carry out all th’ work, her honours, no doubt, had outvied those of her world-wide famed and honour’d daughter who continu’d that which had beene so well commenc’d.

I am aware many artes waned in the raignes of Edward and bloodie Mary, also that their recovery must have requir’d patient attention and the expenditure of money my mother had no desire so to imploy, having many other things at that time by which th’ coffers were drayn’d subtly; but that it must require farre greater perseverance in order to begin so noble work, devising th’ plannes and ayding in their execution, cannot be impugn’d. Many times these things do not shewe lightness or th’ vanitie which some have laid to her charge.

However th’ play doth reveale this better, farre, then I wish t’ give it in this Cypher, therefore I begge that it shall bee written out and kept as a perpetual monument of my wrong’d, but innocent ancestresse.

My keies mentio’d in the beginning of this most helpfull work, will follow in this place:--

The King Henry Sevent, Kath’rine th’ Infanta, Prince Arthur, Catholicke Spaine, Prince of Wales, King Henry th’ Eight, Rome, nu’cio, Pope, Protestant, Anne Bullen, prelate, Wolsey, divorce, fury, excommunication, France, Francis First, marriage, ceremony, brother, pageant, barge, Richmond, Greenwich, Tower, procession, cloth, tissue, panoply, canopy, cloth o’ gold, litter, bearing-staves, pageant, streets, coronation, crowne of Edward, purple robe, roiall ermine, mace, th’ sword, wand, esses, French, Spanish ambassadours, advance-guards, mayor, dutchesse, Duke Suffolke, Norfolke, Marquesse Dorset, Bishop London, same Winchester, th’ Knights of th’ Garter, Lord Chancellour, judges, Surrey, Earle, quirrestres, lords, ladies, _et al._, Westminster, Rochford, Wiltshire, manors, castles, land, valew, titles, Marchionesse of Pembrooke, ports, countesses, roiall scepter, stile, power, title, pompe, realme, artes, advancement, liberty, treasure, warre, treaty, study, benefit, trade, priest, monastery, restitution, acts, supremacy, succession, Elizabeth, daughter, sonne, heyres, unfaithfulnesse, treason, Norris, Weston, subtile triumph, hate, losse, evill, jealousie, love, beautie, Tower, tryall, proofe, sentry, sentence, executed, burning, choyce, the axe, block, uncover’d face, report, black-flag, freedom, marriage-vow, Edward.

As hath most frequentlie bin said these will write th’ play, but th’ foregoing abridgeme’t, or argument, wil ayde you. In good hope of saving th’ same from olde Father Time’s ravages, heere have I hidden this Cypher play. To you I entruste th’ taske I, myselfe, shall never see complete, it is probable, but soe firme is my conviction that it must before long put up its leaves like th’ plant in th’ sunne, that I rest contente awaiting that time.

CONCERNING THE
BI-LITERAL CYPHER

_PROS AND CONS
OF THE CONTROVERSY_

THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF FRANCIS BACON.

ARTICLES FROM MAGAZINES AND OTHER SOURCES.

In the following pages will be found the statement of its discovery in the Works of Bacon, and discussions by the public Press. Inquries, objections and answers from so many different points of view would seem to cover every phase of the matter. Unreasoning prejudice is, of course, beyond reply. To those of open mind this exposition of the discovery will be most interesting. Its importance cannot be overestimated. A new literature, buried these three hundred years, as interesting as it is surprising, has been unearthed. Its authenticity is placed beyond question.

BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF FRANCIS BACON.

BACONIANA.

To thousands who tread unthinkingly the earth’s fair surface, the mineral constitution of the globe, or the history of its formation, is as a sealed book. The geologist, however, pointing out the parallel lines in a rock will tell us they indicate the glacial period. From a piece of coal he will describe the forests and plant life which formed the coal measures of the carboniferous era. He finds where volcanic action reveals strata from unknown depths, and reads their history like a printed page.

In architecture, the ages stamped, each its own, peculiarities upon column and temple, and the student of that science will declare the date of the ruins which accident or excavation have brought to view.

We see a tapering obelisk inscribed with hieroglyphics, and say this is Egyptian. The eye educated to discriminate will study the writings upon the stone that has been preserved from remote ages, and will say, this is the hieroglyphic proper; this ideographic; this the phonetic, or of this or that peculiar character, this is the Egyptian Hieratic; this the Phœnecian; these the Cuniform characters of the ancient Persian or Assyrian inscriptions, and few will challenge the correctness of the decipherings.

The _savant_ will tell us that the environment, the nationality and personality are unmistakably impressed upon the literature of every country, mark the times and character of its people and the stage of its progress. Year by year, decade by decade, age by age, time passed and wrought its changes until that period was reached in which the English people of the present day are interested because of the discussion which it has aroused--the latter part of the XVIth and beginning of the XVIIth Centuries. Knighthood had passed its flower but the English Court still loved the tales of Knightly deeds and found delight in the fancies of the Shepheard’s Calender and Faerie Queene. Legitimate drama began to develop, replacing masques and mysteries. History was written and its lessons emphasized by dramatic representations. Essays brought the truth “home to men’s bosoms and business,” and experimental science made clear that “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

This was the age when Francis Bacon lived and wrote, and fantasy, and essay, and drama began to appear, at first anonymously, and then under names of men as authors, whose lives, habits and capabilities presented the most incongruous contrasts to the works produced. They were days of peril and secret intrigue, when the words from the lips of the Courtier were often farthest removed from the thought of the brain, and when all secret communications were committed to cipher.

Of all the weighty secrets of that time, none save the Queen of England herself bore any more momentous than that prolific author. So momentous were they that few traces of their import found place upon the public records in connected or intelligible form, and were supposed to have died with those most intimately connected with them.

Bacon placed in his De Augmentis Scientiarum the key to a simple but most useful Cipher, of his own invention, and we now find that through its instrumentality the secrets so jealously guarded in his life time, were committed to his works, and waited only the hand and vision of a decipherer to be revealed to the ages which should follow.

Because the writer of this article has for seven years worked upon the Ciphers of Bacon, not as a _dilettante_, but as one who realized the importance and vastness of the undertaking, urged on by the fascination of a great discovery and a growing interest in the developments of it, the statements made concerning the “Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon” are not “uninspired guesses,” nor mere conjecture, but such as come from knowledge gained by the hardest work and closest application, until the eye has been trained to that degree of discrimination by which, like that of the geologist, it is able to make hidden things plain.

In pursuit of the same objects as other students of things Baconian, my own investigations have been in quite a different field from theirs, and have met with most successful, as well as most surprising results, not less surprising to myself, than they will be to my readers. I have been glad to submit the results of my years of study for the edification of those interested in the same subject, for they supply missing links in the literature of that era and explain much, if not all, that has been mysterious and difficult of explanation.

The last two numbers of Baconiana have presented varied comments upon the published results of my investigations. Naturally opinions differ, according to the point of view. Although the things discovered and brought to light are those which have been so diligently sought for, and believed to exist by the deepest students, yet the wider field unexpectedly disclosed and the marvelousness of it all, prompt to incredulity.

The objections urged against a belief in the cipher disclosures appear in a variety of forms. The astounding revelations are beyond the dreams of the most ardent believers that Bacon’s sphere of action and achievements were far greater than had been acknowledged, and some have gone so far as to think the recent publication of the “Bi-literal Cypher” must have been a romantic creation of my own, the words made to fit the differing forms of the Italic letters in the old books, and written out in imitation of the forms of thought and manner of speech of the old English language, enriched by the vocabulary of the great Francis. To suggest such a thing, with all that it implies, would bring its own refutation.

It is true that the Cipher Story does not in all respects accord, or stop with what has been supposed to be the “facts of history.” Authorities do not agree as to what the “facts” were, nor is it believed that all have found place on the records, and historians have filled gaps with deductions and conjectures, some of which have been most extravagant and impossible. Especially does this appear to be true in the light of the cipher disclosures, and whatever of variation there may be will furnish a profitable field for the investigators, and there is little reason to doubt their ultimate harmony. Cyphers would not be used to hide known facts, and could be useful only in recording those that had been suppressed.

Some have given expression to the thought that the Cipher Story shows a most unpleasant phase of character in Bacon, and a lack of that princely spirit which should have actuated the son of Elizabeth, entitled to the throne, in not trying to possess himself of royal power at any cost. Essex, of a more martial spirit, essayed to seize it, when Francis refused to make open claim to being Prince, in the face of the denials of the Queen,--and Essex was beheaded for the attempt. The murder of two princes of the blood royal by Richard Third; the imprisonment and execution of another, by Henry Seventh; the juggling with all rights by Henry Eighth, were not remote,--quite near enough to chill the blood of the peace-loving student and deter him from making himself sufficiently obnoxious to invite a similar fate. Later, his own account, in the Cipher, of the reasons for not striving to establish himself upon the throne appear quite adequate,--the succession established by law, and quite satisfactory to the people,--“our witnesses dead, our certificates destroyed,” etc., (pages 33, 38, 47, 201, and other references). He submitted to the inevitable as did Prince Napoleon, and as others have done in our own time,--for “what will not a man yield up for his life.”

Whether or not Bacon has “told the truth” in the Cipher, is not in the province of the decipherer to discuss. A decipherer can only disclose what is infolded. As to “slandering the Queen” in the statements which the Cipher records,--if so, Bacon would not be alone, for the old MSS, and as reliable and recent an authority as the National Dictionary of Biography admit the motherhood of Elizabeth, though they do not give the names of the offspring. This is supplied by the Cipher, written by the one person most likely to know. If the Cipher exists, and we _know_ that it does, there must be some more reasonable theory for its being written into so many published books for more than fifty years, than for the purpose of slander or falsification. The peril of its discovery in the early days of its infolding would be enhanced by its being a slander, and the head would have “stood tickle on the shoulders” of anyone guilty of so causeless a crime.

Francis would have been more “lunatic” for risking such matter in cipher if not true, than “coward” for not daring openly to proclaim the truth which was being so carefully suppressed.

Many inquiries have reached me, asking “how is the Cipher worked,” and expressing disappointment that the inquirer had been unable to grasp the system or its application. It would be difficult to teach Greek or Sanscrit, in a few written lines, or to learn it by a few hours study. It is equally so with the Cipher. Deciphering the Bi-literal Cipher, as it appears in Bacon’s works, will be impossible to those who are not possessed of an eyesight of the keenest, and perfect accuracy of vision in distinguishing minute differences in form, lines, angles and curves in the printed letters. Other things absolutely essential are unlimited time and patience, persistency, and aptitude, love for overcoming puzzling difficulties and, I sometimes think, _inspiration_. As not every one can be a poet, an artist, an astronomer, or adept in other branches requiring special aptitude, so, and for the same reasons, not every one will be able to master the intricacies of the Cipher, for in many ways it is most intricate and puzzling,--not in the system itself, but in its use in the books. “It must not be made too plain lest it be discovered too quickly nor hid too deep, lest it never see the light of day,” is the substance of the inventor’s thought many times repeated in the work.

The system has been recognized, and used, since the day that De Augmentis was published, and has had its place in every translation and publication since, but the ages have waited to learn that it was embedded in the original books themselves from the date of his earliest writings (1579 as now known) and infolded his secret personal history. To disbelieve the Cipher because not “every one” can decipher it, would be as great a mistake as it would be to say that the translations of the character writings and hieroglyphics of older times, which have been deciphered, were without foundation or significance, because we could not ourselves master them in a few hours of inefficient trial. I would repeat, Ciphers are used to hide things, not to make them plain.

The different editions of the same work form each a separate study and tell a different Cipher Story. The two editions of De Augmentis form an illustration. The first, or “London” edition, was issued, according to Spedding, in October, 1623. The next, or “Paris” edition, was issued in 1624. They differ in the Italic printing, and some errors in the second do not occur in the first. The 1624 edition has been deciphered; and the hidden story appears in the “Bi-literal Cypher” (page 310). The 1623 edition has not, as yet, been deciphered. It seems to be a rare edition. I found a copy in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian library at Oxford, two in Cambridge, and one in the choice collection of old books in the library of Sir Edwin Durning Lawrence.

In the course of my work, Marlowe’s Edward Second had been deciphered before De Augmentis was taken up. At the end of Edward Second occurs this “veiled” statement, referring to De Augmentis (page 152 Bi-literal Cypher). “... the story it contains (our twelft king’s nativity since our sovereign, whose tragedy we relate in this way) shall now know the day....” Had Francis succeeded to the throne, he would have been the twelfth king (omitting the queens) after Edward Second, hence the inference that De Augmentis would contain much of his personal history. My disappointment was great when instead of this the hidden matter was found to be the Argument of the Odyssey, something not anticipated, or wanted, and would never have been the result of my own choice or imagination. At the close of the deciphered work in Burton’s Anatomy, in which the Argument of the Iliad was most unexpectedly found--another great disappointment--is this “veiled” statement: (page 309) “... while a Latin work--De Augmentis--will give aid upon the other (meaning the Odyssey). As in this work (meaning the Iliad) favorite parts are enlarged (in blank verse) yet as it lendeth ayde ...,” etc.,--i. e., sets a pattern for the writing out of the Odyssey in the Word Cipher. This explained the 1624 edition, and the inference is that the 1623 edition will disclose the personal history referred to on page 152.

In the 1624 edition there are some errors in the illustration of the cipher methods and in the Cicero Epistle which do not occur in the 1623 edition. The Latin words midway on page 282, “qui pauci sunt” in the 1623 edition, are “qui parati sunt” in the 1624, page 309,--an error referred to on page 10 of the Introduction of the “Bi-literal Cypher” as wrong termination, there being too many letters for the group, and one letter must be omitted. Other variations show errors in making up the forms on pages 307 and 308 in the 1624 edition, whether purposely for confusion or otherwise, it is impossible to tell. The line on page 307,

“_Exemplum Alphabeti Biformis_,”

should be placed above the Bi-formed Alphabet on page 308, while

“_Exemplum Accommodationis_”

should be placed above the example of the adaptation just preceding. The repetition of twelve letters of the bi-formed alphabet could hardly be called a printer’s error, as they are of another form, unlike those on the preceding page, and may be taken as an example of the statement that “any two forms will do.” In these illustrations the letters seem to be drawn with a pen and are a mixture of script and peculiar forms, and unlike any in the regular fonts of type used in the printed matter. No part of the Cipher Story is embodied in the script or pen letters on these pages. Whether or not the changing of the lines was done purposely, the grouping of the Italic letters from the regular fonts is consecutive as _the printed lines stand_, the wrong make-up causing no break in the connected narration. There are many “veiled” statements throughout the “Bi-literal Cypher,” such as are noted in Edward Second and in Burton. To the decipherer they have a meaning, indicating what to look for and where to find that which is necessary for correct and completed work, as well as to guard against errors and incorrect translation.

My researches among the old books in the British Museum the past season have borne rich fruit, for there were found the earlier cipher writings. Shepheard’s Calendar, which appeared anonymously in 1579, contains the first, and discloses the signification of the mysterious initials “E. K.” and the identity of this person with the author of the work. The Cipher narrative begins thus: “E. K. will be found to be nothing less than the letters signifying the future Sovereign, or _England’s King_.... In event of death of Her Ma., who bore in honorable wedlock, Robert, now known as sonne to Walter Devereaux, as well as him who now speaketh to the unknown aidant decypherer ... we, the eldest borne should by Divine right of a law of God, and made binding on man, inherit scepter and throne.... We devised two Cyphers, now used for the first time, for this said history, as safe, clear and undecipherable, whilst containing the keys in each which open the most important.... Till a decypherer find a prepared or readily discovered alphabet, it seemeth to us almost impossible, save by Divine gift and heavenly instinct, that he should be able to read what is thus revealed.”

Following Shepheard’s Calender, the works between 1579 and 1590, so far deciphered (but as yet unpublished) are:

Arraignement of Paris, 1584.
Mirrour of Modestie, 1584.
Planetomachia, 1585.

Treatise of Melancholy, 1586. Two editions of this were issued the same year, with differing Italics. The first ends with an incomplete cipher word which is completed in the second for the continued narration, thus making evident which was first published, unless they were published at the same time.

Euphues, 1587; Morando, 1587. These two also join together, with an incomplete word at the end of the first finding its completion in the commencement of the Cipher in the second.

Perimedes the Blacke-smith, 1588; Pandosto, 1588. These two also join together.

Spanish Masquerado, 1589. Two editions of this work bear date the same year, but have different Italicising. In one edition the Cipher Story is complete, closing with the signature: “Fr. Prince.” In the other the story is not complete, the book ending with an incomplete cipher word, the remainder of which will be found in some work of near that date which has not yet been indicated and deciphered.

These, while not all the works in which Cipher will be found between the years 1579 and 1590, unmistakably connect the earlier writings with those of later date than 1590 which have been deciphered--as published in the “Bi-literal Cypher”--so that we now know that the Cipher writings were being continuously infolded in Bacon’s works, from the first to the last of his literary productions.

ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP.

THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF SIR FRANCIS BACON.

_A NEW LIGHT ON A FEW OLD BOOKS._

BY ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP.

[_Mrs. Gallup professes to find in certain of Bacon’s works,
the first folio of Shakespeare, and other books of the period,
two distinctive founts of italic type employed. All the letters
of one fount stand for the letter_ a _in the cipher, those of
the other for_ b. _Hence it is possible to translate, as it
were, any given line of type into a series of_ abbba, abaab,
baaba, abaaa. _and so on, according to the type employed,
and thereby, to spell out words and sentences in accordance
with the principles laid down by Bacon himself in his account
of the so-called “Bi-literal” cypher in his “De Augmentis
Scientiarium.” In a further article which she is now preparing
Mrs. Gallup will deal with a number of the individual writers
who have taken part in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy during
the last few weeks, whose criticisms_, we _learn by cablegram,
and only now before her. This preliminary paper will enable our
readers to acquaint themselves with the nature of Mrs. Gallup’s
laborious investigations._--ED. P. M. M.].

PALL MALL MAGAZINE, MARCH, 1902.

It is a pleasure to respond to the cabled invitation from the PALL MALL MAGAZINE to write an article upon the “Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy,” although I have really never been concerned with it, except incidentally. I did not find myself a Baconian until the discovery of the Bacon ciphers answered the questions in such a final way that controversy should end.

I think my best plan will be to give a clear, authoritative, and somewhat popular exposition of my book, _The Bi-literal Cypher of Sir Francis Bacon_, which was recently very kindly and appreciatively reviewed by Mr. Mallock in the _Nineteenth Century and After_. I had not the pleasure of knowing Mr. Mallock, and his article was wholly a surprise.

In giving to the world the results of my researches, I have felt, as have my publishers, that my work should be left without attempt upon our part to influence or mould opinion in any way other than by setting forth what I have found.

Some one has said, “any man’s opinion is the measure of his knowledge.” If his knowledge is ample his judgment should be true, and I am well aware there has been little opportunity for men of letters or the reading public to know about this new phase of the old subject.

The book itself is much wider in its range, and much more far-reaching in its literary and historical consequences, than the mere settlement of the Bacon-Shakespeare question. It concerns not only the authorship of much of the best literature of the Elizabethan period, but the regularity of successions to the throne of England; and it transfers the “controversy” from the realm of literary opinion and criticism to the determination of the question whether I have correctly and truthfully transcribed a cipher.

That this will at once meet with universal acceptance is not expected. On the face of things it seems improbable--almost as improbable to the world as the revolution of the earth about the sun was to Lord Bacon, who declared it could in nowise be accepted. “Galileo built his theory ... supposing the earth revolved.... But this he devised upon an assumption that cannot be allowed--_viz. that the earth moves_.” (_Nov. Org._)

Two limited editions of the book were published, mostly for private circulation, while my researches were going on, but with little effort to obtain public audience, awaiting the time, now arrived, when I could present the first of the cipher writings from early editions of works in the British Museum.

The interest it has excited has been considerable, varying in its expression from more or less good-natured doubts as to my sanity and veracity, from those who are satisfied with first impressions; to the careful examination by such writers as Mr. Mallock and some others who have regarded it as worthy of serious consideration.

For myself, I have been satisfied to wait for the verdict. It will be that I have at great cost put before the public a most detailed and elaborate hoax--or worse; or that Francis Bacon was a cipher writer and the most extraordinary personage in literature the world has yet known.

Assuming for the moment the cipher as a fact, what are the claims made in it for himself? Briefly, but startlingly stated, they are: That he was the author of the works attributed to Edmund Spenser, and those of Greene, Peele, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, a portion of those published by Ben Jonson, also the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ known as Burton’s, besides the works to which Bacon’s name is attached; that these, instead of being in fact the outpourings of literary inspiration, are literary mosaics, the repository of other literature--much of it then dangerous to Bacon to expose--made consecutive by transposition, and gaining in literary interest by the new relations. The bi-literal cipher gives the rules by which the constituent parts of these mosaics are to be reassembled in their original form by the “word-cipher,” so called, a second system permeating the same works and hiding a larger and more varied literature than the first. It is also asserted that Bacon was the true heir to the throne of England, through a secret marriage between the Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth, which took place prior to her accession, while both were confined in the Tower of London; that for obvious reasons of state the marriage could not be announced before the coronation, and that the Queen afterwards refused to acknowledge it publicly; that the unfortunate Essex was in fact his younger brother, and the otherwise inexplicable rebellion was undertaken by Essex to compel from the Queen recognition of his descent, with expectation of the throne if denied to, or not claimed by, Francis.

The personal matter, scattered in the bi-literal cipher through the numerous volumes, is repeated in different forms many times--evidently in the hope that the claims asserted to the throne and the events of his life would be detected and deciphered, from some, if not from all his works, at some future time.

The book itself contains about 385 pages of deciphered matter, written in the old English of the Elizabethan period, and relating to men and things, literary and historical, then existing. It affords the most ample and serious materials for what may be called “the higher criticism”; and such criticism is very cordially invited, for reasons more important than anything concerning my own abilities or personality. The most sceptical will admit industry, and some sort of capability, in producing a work of the kind. It is due to the public that in a presentation of this kind I should offer a _prima-facie_ case.

The question most nearly related to the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, from a literary standpoint, is: Was Bacon’s imagination, fancy and ability, equal to the production of such poetic and dramatic literature as is embraced in the Shakespeare plays and other works named? The dicta obtainable from mere comparisons of style are scarcely final. Individual judgments, in this field, are far from conclusive or satisfactory. There is as much difference in style between the laboured, interminable sentences of Bacon’s philosophical works and the polished sentences of the Essays as there is between the Essays and the epigrams of the Plays.

Bacon has been somewhat out of fashion of late. His philosophy, once strong and new, has been developed into the daily practice of these forceful and effective times, and is now interesting principally to the curious. His life,--reduced by Pope to the inconclusive epigram, “the wisest, brightest, and meanest of mankind,”--ending in his disgrace, does not now attract the average reader, while the compactness of the Essays deters many from a second reading. It is well, therefore, to refresh our minds concerning the man, and the estimation in which he was held before the present-day rush for new things had become so absorbing.

Briefly, the well-considered opinions of those best fitted to judge are, that his abilities were transcendent in every field. Lord Macaulay tells us that Bacon’s mind was “the most exquisitely constructed intellect that has ever been bestowed upon any of the children of men”; Pope, that “Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any other country, ever produced”; Sir Alexander Grant, that “it is as an inspired seer, the prose-poet of modern science, that I reverence Bacon”; Alexander Smith, that “he seems to have written his Essays with the pen of Shakespeare.” Mackintosh calls his literature “the utmost splendour of imagery.” Addison says, that “he possessed at once all those extraordinary talents which were divided among the greatest authors of antiquity ... one does not know which to admire most in his writings, the strength of reason, force of style, or brightness of imagination.” Mr. Welch assures us: “Lord Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet and majestic rhythm which satisfies the sense, no less than the superhuman wisdom of his philosophy satisfies the intellect.” While H. A. Taine, a Frenchman, recognising throughout the differences of language the force of the poetic thought, gives us this in his _English Literature_:--

“In this band of scholars, dreamers, and inquirers, appears
the most comprehensive, sensible, originative of the minds of
the age--Francis Bacon, a great and luminous intellect, one
of the finest of this poetic progeny.... There is nothing in
English prose superior to his diction.... His thought is in the
manner of artists and poets, and he speaks after the manner of
prophets and seers.... Shakespeare and the seers do not contain
more vigorous or expressive condensations of thought, more
resembling inspiration.... His process is that of the creators:
it is inspiration, not reasoning.”

Again, Lord Macaulay tells us: “No man ever had an imagination at once so strong and so thoroughly subjugated. In truth, much of Bacon’s life was spent in a visionary world, amidst things as strange as any that are described in the Arabian tales.”--“A man so rare in knowledge of so many several kinds, endued with the facility and felicity of expressing it all in so elegant, significant, so abundant, and yet so choice and ravishing array of words, of metaphors and allusions, as perhaps the world has not seen since it was a world,” said Sir Tobie Mathew.

The German Schlegel, in his _History of Literature_, calls him
“this mighty genius,” and adds, “Stimulated by his capacious
and stirring intellect ... intellectual culture, nay, the
social organisation of modern Europe generally, assumed a new
shape and complexion.” While again from Lord Macaulay we quote
this: “With great minuteness of observation he had an amplitude
of comprehension such as has never yet been vouchsafed to any
human being.”

In the _Encyclopoedia Britannica_ we read: “The thoughts are weighty, and, even when not original, have acquired a peculiar and unique tone or cast by passing through the crucible of Bacon’s mind. A sentence from the Essays can rarely be mistaken for the production of any other writer. The short, pithy sayings,

Jewels five words long
That on the stretched forefinger of all Time
Sparkle for ever,

have become popular mottoes and household words. The style is quaint, original, abounding in allusions and witticisms, and rich, even to gorgeousness, with piled-up analogies and metaphors.”

In the presence of these acknowledged masters in literary judgment, I may well be silent. These quotations might be extended indefinitely. Anything I could add of my own would be repetition. In the face of these well-considered opinions, the flippant adverse judgment of newspaper critics, in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, thrown off in the hurry of daily issues, may for the present be disregarded. The writers of such articles have never read Bacon well, if at all,--perhaps not Shakespeare thoroughly.

My work in the past eight years of constant study of the subject has led me, of necessity, through every line and word that Bacon wrote, both acknowledged and concealed, so far as the latter has been developed. The work I have done upon the word-cipher in reassembling his literature from the mosaic to its original form has given me a critical knowledge at least, and a basis perhaps possessed by few for forming, to the extent of my abilities, a critical judgment; but I would merely add, that he was, assuredly, master in many fields of which even they who knew him best were unaware.

Granting him these literary powers, was he at the same time a cipher writer? and did he particularly affect this bi-literal method of cipher writing?

For the first I refer, for brevity’s sake, to the article on cryptograms in the _Encyclopoedia Britannica_; and for the second to the original Latin _De Augmentis Scientiarum_ (editions of 1623 and 1624), and its very excellent translation by Messrs. Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, where the bi-literal cipher precisely as I have used it is described and illustrated by Bacon in full, with the statement that he invented it while at the Court of France. This was between his sixteenth and eighteenth years. His first reference to it was in 1605. Its first publication was in 1623, after he had used it continuously forty-four years, confiding to it his wrongs and woes, and intending, in thus explaining and giving the key, that at some near or distant day his sorrows and his claims should be known by its decipherment.

The cipher, described by Bacon in _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, is simplicity itself, being in principle mere combinations and alternations of any two unlike things, and in practice as used by him consisting of alternations of letters from two slightly different founts of Italic type, arranged in groups of five. This affords thirty-two possible combinations, being eight in excess of the twenty-four letters of the alphabet he used. The free use of these Italics is a notable feature in all his literature, and has been the cause of much speculation. Sometimes the differences between the letters of the two founts are bold and marked, often delicate and very difficult for the novice to distinguish, but possible of determination by the practised eye. The differences, especially in the capitals used in the 1623 Folio of the Shakespeare Plays, are apparent to the dullest vision, and photographic copies of it are in nearly every public and many private libraries, and so accessible to all.

In making up his alphabet the two founts are called by him the '_a_ fount’ and the '_b_ fount,’ and the several groups of five, representing each letter of the alphabet he used in the cipher, are as follows: _aaaaa, a_; _aaaab, b_; _aaaba, c_; etc., etc.

After the full exposition of this cipher by Mr. Mallock, a repetition here would seem superfluous, and I will only take space to say that the detailed explanation is to be found in _De Augmentis Scientiarum_ in every edition of Bacon’s complete works.

One of the interesting incidents of the use of this bi-literal method is, that it did not at all require taking the printer into the writer’s confidence. A peculiar mark under the letter would indicate the fount from which the letter was to be taken. The printer may have thought Bacon insane, or what not, but the marking gave him no clue to the cipher.

Perhaps I cannot better illustrate the scope of the researches that have brought out such strange and unexpected disclosures than by giving the bibliography of my work. This will have an attraction for many, who will sympathise with me in the pleasure I have known in working in these rare and costly old books.

The deciphering has been from the following original editions in my possession:

The Advancement of Learning 1605
The Shepheards’ Calender 1611
The Faerie Queene 1613
Novum Organum 1620
Parasceve 1620
The History of Henry VII. 1622
Edward Second 1622
The Anatomy of Melancholy 1628*
The New Atlantis 1635*
Sylva Sylvarum 1635*

and also a beautifully bound full folio facsimile of the 1623 edition of the Shakespeare plays, bearing the name of Coleridge on the title page.

*These three bear dates after Bacon’s death, and were
undoubtedly completed by Dr. Rawley, his secretary, whose
explanation regarding them is found on pages 339-340 of the
Bi-literal Cypher.

In the Boston Library I obtained:

Richard Second 1598
David and Bethsabe 1599
Midsummer Night’s Dream 1600
Much Ado About Nothing 1600
Sir John Oldcastle 1600
Merchant of Venice 1600
Richard, Duke of York 1600
Treasons of Essex 1601
King Lear 1608
Henry Fifth 1608
Pericles 1609
Hamlet 1611
Titus Andronicus 1611
Richard Second 1615
Merry Wives of Windsor 1619
Whole Contention of York, etc. 1619
Pericles 1619
Yorkshire Tragedy 1619
Romeo and Juliet (without date)

From the choice library of John Dane, M.D., Boston:

The Treasons of Essex 1601
Vitae et Mortis 1623

From the library of Marshall C. Lefferts, of New York, I had:

Ben Jonson’s Plays, Folio 1616
A Quip for an Upstart Courtier 1620

From the Lenox Library, New York:

Midsummer Night’s Dream 1600
Sir John Oldcastle 1600
London Prodigal 1605
Pericles 1619
Yorkshire Tragedy 1619
The Whole Contention, etc. 1619
Shakespeare, first folio 1623

and from Mrs. Pott, of London, England:

Ben Jonson’s Plays 1616
De Augmentis Scientiarum 1624

During the five months spent at the British Museum:

The Shepheards’ Calender 1579
Araygnement of Paris 1584
Mirrour of Modestie 1584
Planetomachia 1585
A Treatise of Melancholy 1586
A Treatise of Mel. (2nd. Ed.) 1586
Euphues 1587
Morando 1587
Perimedes 1588
Spanish Masquerado 1589
Pandosto 1588
Spanish Masq. (2nd Ed.) 1589