Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-28
DoNNE11Ys SHAKESPEARE.
Outlines of the New Book to be Issued
by the Hon. Ignatius Donnelly.

/ Outlines of the New Book to be Issued
by the Hon Ignatfus DOnnelly.
A discovery has been made In TINS
| State. saws a correspondent Of the MIN
neapolis Tribune, which is certain to pro
/ duce a worldwide sensation. The Hon
/ Ignatius DonnelIy Of Hastings, Mimi.
4 author of "Atlantis" and 'RagnaroA,
found, four years ago, in the writings O
Francis Bacon, a description, twice re-
| peated. of a cipher, whereby one writing
| could be infolded and hidden IN anotneI.
s'omnia per Omnia--the writing lnlol I'll.
/ holding a quintuple relation 10 the VIII
/ ing infolded."
He also noted in Bacon's "De Aug
/ mentiso Book W., chap IL. that ne was
I in favor of removing certain secrets "
I KnOwIedge,' bv ssobscurity OF delivery
/ from ssthe capacities of the vulgar" anO
/ to "reserYe them TO selected AUDITORS oI
wits of such sharpness as can pierce the
veil"
As Mr.. Donnellv was convert to the
theory that Francis Bacon was the real
author of the plays attributed to Shak-
speare, and as he did not believe that the
writer Of such works could forever re-
nounce them, it occurred to him that
this cipher rule was intended by Bacon as
a hint that there was such a cipher IN the
plays, in which he asserted his autnor-
ship of them. Mr.. Donnelly has worked
for four years past with the greatest IN
dustry and perseverance, and has at last,
within the last three months, found the
rule and solved the problem.
Lately Mr.. Donnelly was visited at his
residence by Appleton Mogan, author OF
EsThe Shaksperean Myth" and himself a
disbeHeYer IN the Shakespeare authorship,
though. as he has expressly stated, by no
means committed to a Baconian author
ship. Mr.. Morgan looked at first rather
skepticaIly at Mr.. DOnnelly's work, but
ultimately expressed himself as satisfied
that, s.if it was not a cipher-written into
the plays examined by the method de-
scribed by Bacon in the Sixth Book, chap.
H., of his DE Augmentis'-it was most
marvellous sequence of identical cOinci-
dences, and one forbidden by any known
or conjectured law Of chances"
The law of chances, in fact, makes it
impossible that whole consecutive,
coherent sentences could be worked out
by a consistent rule if there was no
cipher.
The words OF the hidden story hold a
fixed and regular relation to the scenes
and acts Of the plays, to be determined by
counting; hence the results are not matter
of guess work, but as demonstrable as a
sum in arithmetic.
The play MIR. Donnelly has been princi-
pally working on is the first part Of ''Henry
w." He was attracted to this play by
the fact that within few pages (act 2,
scenes /, 2, and 4, and act, 4, scene p, he
found the words "Francis," Bacon"
twice repeated), Nicholas twice re-
peated), "Bacon's,' ''son," master"
sskings,'' ''exchequer st. Albans''-the
latter, as is well known, being the name
of Bacon's place of residence. In act 2,
scene 4, he found the name "Francis"
BacOn's first name, repeated on one
page twenty times; while in a scene in the
merry Wives" act 4, scene l J, the name
civilian" the first name of Shakespeare
is repeated eleven times in one short verse,
as if by one reiteration Of these two names
to call attention to the fact that there was
cipher in the plays. The
name of Shakespeare occurs
as shake and ''speare," ''sphere" or
as ''Shakes" and "peer,' and these COM
binations are found in every one Of the
plays. 1t was upon these clews Mr.. Don
ely lRbOred until he has discovered the
rule and worked out enough of the cipher
story to show that the plays contain a
narrative OF Bacon's own life and a
secret history Of the reign Of Elizabeth.
1t seems that Elizabeth during the
Essex troubles became, as is known, in
censed at the use made of the play Of
Richard H." in which is represented the
deposition and killing of the King; and
she made il one OF the points of pFOsecu-
ton which cost Essex his head, that he
had hired the company of players to
which Shakespeare belonged, to represent
it ''moTe than forty times in open streets
and in tavern yards" in order to prepare
the public mind for her own deposition
nd FOL ne
caused the arrest Of HaywaTde, who
wrote prose narrative of the deposition
Of Richard H., and dedicated it to Essex,
and he narrowly escaped a State pOsecu-
ton. The cipher, as worked out by Mr..
DOnnellY, shows that at the same time
Shakespeare was arrested as the author of
the plays; he was threatened with the
torture, and disclosed to the officers Of the
Crown the fact that Bacon was the real
author of the plays. Bacon threw him
self on the protection Of his uncle, Lord
Burleigh. the great Lord Treasurer, who
saved him from exposure and prosecution,
but revealed the truth to Elizabeth; and
this is the explanation or the fact that, as
long as Elizabeth lived, she kept Bacon
out of office and in poverty.
Such a discovery would be the most eX-
traOrdinary in modern literature; it
would settle the IOng-vexed question of
closures that would then be revealed by
the cipher narrative might even recon-
struct the history of the reign of the
greatest Queen Of England. Bacon
alludes to her, in the cipher, as ''the jade"
''the wanton," "the old termagant," ETC.,
and narrates, among other things, the
well known scene where she struck Essex
a box on the ear for turning his back upon
her. Bacon doubtless wrote in cipher
that which would have brought his head
to the block if written in any other way.
Mr.. Donnelly has kept his secret from
all but few personal friends, and it was
not his intention to have revealed his dis
covery until he had worked out the whole
story, and until his book containing it was
ready for publication; but he has recently
been nominated for Congress in the Third
district of Minnesota, and will be en-
gagged in the canvass for some time to
come, and this will necessarily delay his
work. On the advice of his friends,
therefore, he has consented to file a caveat,
so far as to permit the announcement Of
the fact that such a cipher has unques-
tionably been found.
His book will probably not be ready for
publication until next spring or summer,
for the work of translating the cipher is
a very slow and tedious one; every word
has to be carefully counted, for the mis-
count of a single word would throw out
the work of whole DaQpS.