The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-06-04
sSIsAKsPEABE AND BACON.
Fhc Literary Event Of the century
Wiz. Donueiiy's Discovery.


VIZ. DonUeIiy's Discovery.
A representative of the indianapolis SEN
tjael recently visited the Hon. Ignatius
Donnclly, of Minnesota, at his residence
three miles from the city of Hastings, to
make inquiries as to the alleged discovery, by
him, Of a cipher i'll the plays attributed to
William Shakespeare, which prove that they
were written by Sir Francis Bacon.
Hastings is pleasant town of about four
thousand inhabitants, oil the west bank of
the Mississippi River, twenty miles below
st. Paul, it contains many handsome resi-
denees, and an unusual number Of cultured
people. They have a flourishing library
and a circle of the Chautauqua Literary
society. Mr.. Donnelly lives upon his farm
of about one thousand acres, upon the
banks of the Mississippi River, to the west
of Hastings, i'll the midst Of a country of
rare natural beauty. He is well known in
Minnesota and throughout the Northwest
having been Lieutenant Governor of the
State for four years; and Governor during
part of the civil war; he was subsequently
member of Congress for six years. and
State Senator for five years. lie has pub
lished two books, which lave made con
siderable sensation, and passed through
many editions, to wit: atlantis, the Ante
diluvian World. +" and ''Ragnarok; the Age
of Fire and Gravel.
Upon stating to Mr. Donnelly my pur-
pose in calling upon him he received me
cordially, and took me into his library and
showed me part of his work He had a
large photograph copy of the original first
folio edition of the Shakespeare plays, pub
lishcd in 1923, seven years after the death
of Shakespeare. 1t showed excessive use
and industrious handling; and in many
places was patched and mcnded to keep Il e
well-thumbed leaves together Mr.. Don
nelly has been working at the cipher, al
most continuously, for five years past
He also showed me the main principle 81
the cipher. 1t is based upon the paging Of
the 1923 folio. The cipher story was first
written by Bacon and then skeletonized,
and the plays written to fill it in. If the
cipher story told Of fight, the scene was
made to describe battle, etc. Mr. Don
nelly says that the ingenuity with which
this work was performed is perfectly mar
vellous; and when revealed, it will always
remain the wonder of the world
He became satisfied years ago that there
was a cipher in the play; the collocation, on
two or three pages, of the words Francis,
Bacon, Nicholas, Bacon's, Son, etc (See /,
Henry ", act H., scenes, I, ., y, he says
could not be paraIeled in any other work
not biography of Bacon-before or since
that time; while the repeated occurrence of
St. Adams, Bacon's country seat, and the
name of Gray's Inn, the law building
where he had his city lodging, and the fur
Their fact that the name Of Stratford does
not occur at all in the plays satisfied him
that there was some hidden story in the
text OF the plays He found on counting
the words on each page that these signf-
cant words Were all the multipes Of the
pages on which they are found. For in
stance, these results come out:
Page 80, Henry ", 53x7-37l; the
31lst word is Bacon
Page 90, / Henry ", 56x4-294 the
224tl word is Francis
Page "a, Henry ". 54x12-G4s; the
6isth work is Nicholas
Page 81, Henry ". 17X6-109; the
1920 word is St. Adams.
And he called my attention to many other
significant words, which in every case were
multiples Of the pages on which they oc-
cured.
M Donnelly handed me some sheets OF
paper to examine. These sheets were ruled
to order, somewhat in the fashion of a
bookkecper's ledger. Each sheet contained
two columns of words which made con-
tinuous coherent narrative. Each word
was The result of little sum in arithmetic
on the left-hand side. When | came to ex-
anime the sums found that every word
was derived primarily from the same root,
we will say SSS This figure SSS was put
through certain changes, but the changes
were uniform and continued through all
the columns. The following will give
some idea of the results as they appeared:
SIS minus 250tsi0. His
SSS plus ll0:99S. .SDcech
Sss minus 25O=630. WAS
$50 plus ll0=9S. rude
SIS minus 25G=6S0. land