The representative., 1899-11-09

constituting the first line Of the inscr1p-
fion were divided into groups Of Ave let
tiers each. as proposed in Bacons DE
Augmentis," and a b placed under the
capital letters and an a under the other
letters we would have this result:
Good Friend for Jsus SAKE forbeare
beaab aaaaA aAbaa aabbb baaaa
III now we apply to these symbols the
lBaconian alphabet, we have these results:
baaab aaaaA aabaa aabbb baaaa
This last combination, baaaa, stands
!for r., IL read from left to right, for B
jif read from right to left. It then be-
!comes aaaab.
Tho first thing that occurred to me,
based on my cipher studies in the plays,
where the words moved alternatively up
and down the columns. was that it was
mot likely that the cipher would 60
lstraight ahead along the line This
would be too simple scheme for the
lsubt(ety Of the cryptoErapher-the most
penetrating and ingenious intellect that
lever lived.
ut seemed to me that If 8 was the first
letter of the inner sentence, A would be
ithe- third letter and E the fifth letter
what letters could come between 8.
"A and E and make a word?
And then 1t came to me that they
might possibly be HI and X, and that
would give us '
Shake.
IF there is cipher on Shakespeares
tombstone, as seemed certain, and that
icipher is precisely the one invented by
lt'ranc1s Bacon when q youth in Paris.
tthen 1T follows that it must have been
put there by Bacon, or some of his friends
to tell some hidden story. The dead man,
Shakespeare. was not likely to have pre-
pared before he died cipher for his
own gravestOne, and framed it according
to the formula Of the philosopher Of Veru-
lam. II Shakespeare was Shakespeare he
Would nave had no secret to reveal in q
clpner All that would have been needed
on ms gravestone-so far as he was con.
cerned-was his own name: and that
strange to say-did not appear upon It!
Nov. If Francis Bacon, or anv one
Tor him. desired to put a secret writing
over the corpse Of Shakespeare. 1t must
nave been something about the man
Shakespeare or his alleged plays. And,
hence the cipher story would very natur-
ally contain the word 'Shakespere' or
Shakespeare for the former spelling
seemed to have represented the man Of
Stratford, and The latter form his nom de
plume, or the body of writings which are
attributed to him.
But where do we get the letters II and
X which. with A Z will make IN the
first syllable, SHAKE?
1t is clear there Is no X on the first
line; and while there is an H 1t is not in
position to be inserted between and
A We must look elsewhere
There is that pillar-mark that boun.
dary stone, on the second line, formed by
the dash between the and the E.
TO diGG T-E Dust Enclo-Ased
HERE
III we place under each capital letter a
o.. as directed by Bacon, beginning at
the dash, We have this result:
diGGT
aabbb
And this is Bacons letter H.
This gives us the letters:
SHA
The question comes. where is the X,
which, with the third letter of the first
line, will make:
AS A. the third letter Of the word
Shake came from the first line and be-
gan where the first letter terminated 1t
follows that the letter K should come
from the second lire and should begin
where the first letter from the dash (H)
terminated.
"Rut the letter H: 'dlGG T. moving
away from the dash mark, left but two
letters. To-, before 1T reached the begin
nlng or the second line: and TO obtain the
other three letters. necessary to make up
the group Of five, which constitute the
cipher letter. we must go elsewhere. And
where Is 1T more natural to go than to
that same first line, with which we have
8,
S, II and A?
But as the movement Is away from the
dash, then the To is to be read in an in
verse order. and that will give us b.
I'VE go to the beginning Of the first
line and take the first three letters there
or, still progressing backward, we did
with TO- and we have 90 G. Place an
a under the small letters and under the
large letter G and we have a b. Add
the first two letters to this and We have
a b a b
which Is Bacon's sign for K!
Insert this between the A and the E.
on the first line and we have:
''Thus:
Good F''-baaab. ..... ..................s
dice u'-aabbb b...... ..................H
rend I-aaaaa. .................... .........A
to Goo abaab. .......................K
Mr.. Donnelly deciphers the cryptogram
in the plays by system of numbers,
which he obtains by set rules.
In this connection 1t is important to
note that the three first folios of
Shakespeare's plays appearing in 1923,
1882 and 1884 are exactly alike in pagina-
ton, arrangement of type, bracketings
and hyphenations, and even what we
would regard as typographical errors. In
each the same words begin and end every
page Of the three great volumes Of 1000
pages each. Yet it is evident they were
not printed from the same type, nor was
there any method Of stereotyping in that
age If uniformity had not been observed
in all these editions it would have been
impossible for any one to have followed
the cipher as 1t was originally planned.
Mr. Donnelly, by a method which he
explains In his book, obtains a primal
root number. and by series of additions
and subtractions he points to certain
words in the text which follow one an
other in regular order, making intelligent
sentences with historic meaning.
An important example is shown in the
manner in which he deciphers the an
nouncement of Mariowe's death and the
willing to father his plays. BY a system
attic adjustment of the figures in the
play. THE Second Part of Henry the
Fourth this sentence appears:
Ere the tragic ending of Morelow
had commenced to look about among my
friends Of the Curtain to find some one
who will act the part of mask and cloak
for me-
Christopher Marlowe, the playwright,
was killed in d drunken brawl June I,
1893 THE Curtain was the name of |
the theater where many of the so-called |
Shakespeare plays were acted
Then by the same method Mr.. Donnely
finds this sentence:
LAS soon as it is br,ited abroad put a
stop at once to unaccounted rumors sur
mises, jealOusies and reports, which I |
have been constrained to deny many
times
This goes to strengthen report that
even then it was rumored that Bacon
wrote the Shakespeare plays.
More evidence is given on this head in
the fragment:
The old jade (the Queen) listening with
greedy, impatient ears to my hateful
(CeciD strange tale"