The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-16
NEW CLAIM FOR BACON
IGNATIUS DONNELLY THINKS HE
WROTE "DON QUIXOTE."
Minnesota's POpulist Author at Work
ON a New BacOnian CryptOgram-
Delayed by His Love Affair.

ST. PAUL, Jan. 15.-Jgnatius Donnelly is
at work upon a new Baconian cryptogram
which he expects to place in the hands Of
the publishers within few weeks In his
new book he will take even wider and more
startling grounds than he did in his first
book. He claims to have discovered a new
rule governing the cipher. In brief. he will
claim that Bacon not only wrote the
Shakespeare plays and sonnets, but that his
facile pen was probably responsible for the
great Spanish work, Don Quixote." For
this he expects another castigation at the
hands of the critics
Mr., DonnelIy gave out to-day the first
authentic outline of what the book will be,
and when asked when the work would be
issued he said smilingly: "Well, had ex-
pected to have it in the hands of the pub
fishers by the end of February but there
are other things in life besides literature,
and as / have incontinently tumbled into
love with a very charming young woman
l find that Francis Bacon is not so at
tractive as he was. All this, of course,
breaks into my time and delays the book
However, / expect to have it in the hands
of the publishers about the middle of
March, and perhaps before. / have about
six hundred pages of typewriter copy
ready for the printer and have another
one hundred pages, part of which are al
ready in rough form, and when these are
completed it will end the work.
i can scarcely expect the public will ac-
cept unqualinedly my statements as to what
| expect the book will establish. / think
everything which / set forth in my first
book, the Great Cryptogram,' was true,
but in an incomplete form. had found the
cipher numbers upon which the inner story
of the Shakspearean plays were based, and
| worked out in an imperfect way d good
deal Of that narrative At that time, how
ever, had not discovered the rule on which
the narrative proceeds, so that finding one
word of the story, / could not tell just
where to look for the next
During the past ten years all my spare
time has been devoted to the elaboration OF
a new rule, and now have no doubt that
my book will establish in the minds of the
people the truth that a cipher story really
exists in Shakspeare's plays. But the new
book Will go beyond this in some respects.
There was originally over Shakspeare's
grave store containing this rude insc-ip-
ton:
Good friends, for Jesus sake, forbaar
TO dig the dust enclosed here.
Blest be the man who spares these stones
And curst be he who moves my bones"
This continued Mr.. Donnelly, "was
given in what the biographers of an carly
period called strange mixture of large
rhyme or reason Francis Bacon, in one of
his, philosophical works, DE Augmentis,'
be expressed as by two different kinds of
alphabets or different sizes. l will show in
my new book that the odd inscription on
Shakspeare's gravestone, when the Bacon
bliiteral cipher is applied, works out, by a
regular and consecutive rule, these words:
" Francis Bacon wrote the Greene, Mar
lowe and Shakspeare's plays
Mr.. Donnelly made this observation with
considerable force, showing that he, at
least, believed all he said was incontrovert-
ible. Continuing, he said: THE book will
then proceed to prove, not by arithmetical
rule, but by striking evidences and illustra-
tions, that there is a cipher in the Shak-
spearean sonnets, which describe the events
in the times during which they were writ
ten. They describe the religious wars CT the
period, the establishment of the first ,.ews-
paper, the discoveries of Calico and other
striking and remarkable matters. The name
of Francis Bacon, the words Francis Ba-
con- and Bacon occur repeatedly In JON
sons plays and the name of Ben Jonson'
itself is found in the text of these plays.
There are, even as incredible as it may
seem, allusions to the great Spanish work
Don Quixote, the author of which died in
the same year that Shakespeare did, which
creates suspicion that that work, too, was
from the brain of. the same ubiquitous and
universal genius, Francis Bacon.
1.-THE closing part of the forthcoming book
of the cipher story, as the first and second
Henry " plays. in which the whole history
of Shakspeare's youth is narrated Some of
this was given in my first book, but, as
have said in an imperfect manner. / believe
that in the way it will be presented in my
new book il will carry the judgment of
mankind with It.