The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-17
POOR sHAKESPEARE.
Minneapolis Tr,bune.l


 wide sensation. The Hon. lgnatius Oon- nelly, of Hastings. Minnesota, author of "Atlantis" and Ragnarok," found four years ago in the writings of Francis Bacon a description. twice repeated, ot a cipher whereby one writing could be in- folded ard hidden in ano'her, "omnis per omnia-the writing infolded holding 8 qrintnple relation to the writing in- folded"
 He also noted in Bacons "De Aug mentis" [book VI, chapter ID that he was in favor of removing certain "secrets ot kno~.edSe' hy "ohscurity of de- livery" from the capacities of the vul- gar," and to "reserve them to selected auditors. or wits of such sharpness as can pierce the veil
 As Mir. Donnelly was convert to the theory that Francis Bacon was the real author of the plays attributed to Shake. speaIe, and as he did not believe that the writer ot such works could forever re- nounce them, 1t occurred to him that this ciper rule was intended by Bacon as hint tha, there was such a cipher ln the plays, in which he asserted his auth orship of them. Mir. Donnelly has worked for four years past with the greatest industry, and has at last, within the past three months, found the rWtes and solved the problem.
 l Lately MT. Donnelly was visited at his residence by Appleton Morgan. editor of the Shakespearean Myth" and kimseh a disbeliever in the Shakespeare aathor- ship, though, as he has expressly stated, by no means committed to a BAconian authorship. MT. Morgan looked al first rRther slceptically at Mir DouneiH's work, bat ul,imasely expressed himself es satis. 6ed thak, "it 1t was not a cipher written into the plays examined by the method described by Bacon in the book VI, tchapter II, of his De Augmentis it is a mos marvellous sequence cf tdeptical coinotdences, aud one forbidden by any known or conjectuved law Of chaaces"
 Tke law of chances, in tact, makes 1t impossible that whole consecutive, CO., hercnt sentences could be worked out by a constituent rule If there was no ciphe..
 The words of the hidden stery hold a fixed and regular relation to the scenes and acts of the plays, to be determined
 by counting; hence the resatts ase not matter of guesswork, but as 'Saemonstra-
 ble as sum in arithmetic.
 The play MT. Donnelly has been pria- cipally working on is his first part of " Henry w" He was attracted to this } play by the fAct that within few pages
 act 4 scenes i 2 and 4, aisi act t, scese
 2l he tound the words "Frarcis," :" "Ba- con twicerepeated), "B2oons D" soa, "master," "kings," excheqrex St. Ai.
 bans "-the latter, as is weR known,
 being the naRne of Bacon's place of resi- deace. In act 2 scene 4 he found the name of "Ftancis Bacon Erst name) repeated on one page twenty times while in a scene in " The Merry Wives D tact s, scene f the name of William (the first aane of ,6hakespease) is re- poa,ed eleven times in one short verse, as If by oae reitcration of these two names to cAK attention to the fact tn at theTe was cipher in the plays. The name of Shakespeare occurs as Shake and peer" or sphere" or as "Shakes and peer" and those combinations arc found in every one of the plays. It was upon these cle~s MT iDonnelly iabored until he has discovered the rUie and 1 worked out enough ofthe cipher story to show that the plays coaiain narrative of Bacon's own life and a secret history of the reign of Elizabeth.
 It -eesms that Elizabeth, duriaG the Essex troubles, became, as is known, in- cense6 eat the nse made of the play of Richard IT," in which is represented the deposition and killisg of the king. and she made t one of the points of prosecution which cost Essex his heac, that he had hired she company of players to which Shakespeare belonged to repse- sent t Ignore than forty time in open streets and in tavern yaSds,~ in order te | prepase tho public mind rfog her own d. \ position and murdeT. HissOry tells as khat she eazsed the arrest 0f HaywaTds, who wrote prose nAszative sf the dep0- Ssition of Richard II, and dedicated it e Essex, and Ae narro~&g escaped a state prosecutios. The cipAex, as Worked out hy Mir. Doa0clly, sho~s khaf s4 the same time Shakespeare was arrested as the author of the plays; he ~as threatened w,th the soresse, and kisciose4 to the OfSoers of the cGown the fact thst Bacon was the real asshor of the elsys. Bacon threw himself oa the protection of his 1 treasupeg, who saaed him ke0 exposure and prosecution, kut revealed shs truth to Elizabeth {; and this is the explanation l of the f.c4 that 90 lsng as Elr sbetA 6wed she kept Bacon oE of ofSoe and h povery.
 Such discovery would be the asst extraordinary in modem literasHxe, it would settle the long ~exed question of the authorship Of the plays; and ths dis- closures that veald then be revealed hV tse eiRAsT narrative m;eks esen recon struct the histosy of the reign of fhe greasest queen of England. Bacon d. 1udes to her in the cipher e "ths jade, i" the wanton, tho old tssnagast, etc, and narYafss, among other things, the veli-k -knowu scene where she struck Essen 1 a box on the ear for turning his back on l her. Bacon doubtiess wrote in cipher | that which would have brought his head to the block fl written # written in any othss way. Mr. Donnelly has kept his secret from all but fev peSsonal friends, and It vas I