The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-01-26
IL - To Farmers wholesale
III
III y - ~ and will
I'll
= u.s..
Carl Exchange, Minneapolis

pearean plays were based, and had
worked out in an imperfect way a good
deal Of that narrative At that time,
however, l had not discovered the rule
on which the narrative proceeds, so
that finding one work of the story,
could tell just where to look for the
next. During the past ten years all MY
spare time has been devoted to the
elaboration of new rule, and l now
have no doubt that my book will estab-
llsh In the minds of the people the truth
that cipher story really exists in
Shakespeare's plays, and are held to-
gether by rule as infiexible and self
apparent as the multiplication table.
But the new book will go beyond
this in some respects. There was orig
1nally over Shakespeare's grave. a stone
containing this rude inscriptions:
Good friend, for Jesus sake Forbear,
To dig the Dust Enclosed Here.
Bles't be The Man who Spares These
Stones
And Curst Be He Who Moves My
Bones.
This continued Mr.. Donnelly, was
given in which the biographers of an
early period called Strange mixture of
large and small letters distributed with
out rhyme or reason Francis Bacon, in
one of his philosophical works, DE
Augmentis,' had set forth what he
called a bl-literal, or two-letter cipher,
whereby anything could be expressed as
by two different kinds of alphabets, of
different Sizes l will show in my new
book that the odd inscription on Shakes
peare's grave stone, when the Bacon
Bl-literal cipher is applied, works out
by regular and consecutive rule these
words:
Francis Bacon wrote the Greene,
Marlowe and Shakespeare plays
Mr.. Donnelly made this observation
with considerable force, showing that
he, at least, believed all he said was in
cOntrovertible.
'The book will then proceed to prove.
not by arithmetical rule, but by strik-
ing evidences and illustrations that there
is cipher in the Shakespeare sonnetz,
which describe the events in the times
during which they were written They
describe the religious wars of the period,
the establishment of the first newspaper.
the discoveries of Gallileo and oxher
striking and remarkable matters The
name of Francis Bacon, the words
Francis and Bacon occur repeatedly in
JohnsoHs plays, and the name of Ben
Johnson itself is found in the text Of
these plays
There are, even as startling and in
credible as it may seem, illusions to
the great Spanish works Don Quixote,
the author of which died in the same
year that Shakespeare did which creates
a suspicion that that, too, was from the
brain of the same ubiquitous and uni
versal genius, Francis Bacon.
The closing part of the forthcoming
book is given over to an elaboration Of
that part of the cipher story of the
first and second Henry VI. plays in
which the whole history of Shakes
peare'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, it will carry the judg-
ment of mankind with it.
Just as soon as the manuscript is
ready there will be placed before lie
public an abstract of the substance of
the book and specimens of the cipher
and the interpretations, which will
carry convictions with them. In thu
meantime | am satisfied to work on
quietly as l have for the past ten years.
and leave the whole matter unnOticeJ
until the resume is put forth. | have
been rather roughly treated by critics
and yet cannot greatly wonder at It,
for l was assailing not only the belief,
but the sentiment, and doing it, too, with
an imperfect weapon"
In speaking about the time of publi-
cation, Mr.. Donnelly added:
"A great poet says, "To be wise in love
exceeds mans might. / might add to De
in love and write books at the same
time is a very difficult task