The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-14
LITERARY ENGLAND IN ARMS.
Detroit woman's Bacon-Shakspeare
Researches the Cause.
Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Free Press.
Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gsllups "Biliteral
Cipher Of Francis Bacon which was re-
viewed at considerable length in the Free
Press rather more than year ago, mas
aroused an animated controversy In GER
tain Of the great English reviews, notably
the Nineteenth Century. Mrs. Gallup Is
Detroit woman. the biliteral cipher Is her
discovery and she made trip abroad 10
verify and confirm her theory by study
of the original Shakspearian folios in the
British Museum.
To attack Shakspeare's authorship Of the
plays so long known by his name Is 10 the
average individual like attacking the foun-
dations of Anglo-SaXon liberty. 1t goes
against all our prejudices and our tradi-
tons. The public has been rather bored
than otherwise by the cipher theories as
exploited by Ignatius Donnelly, DR.. owen
and others, for, as the Critic says, the
Bacon Shakspeare controversy is to the
London silly season what the sea serpent is
to the dog days in America" Probably the
new biliteral cipher which Mrs. Gallup
claims is Bacon's own invention and ~
described In his DE Arguments" in the
chapter on ciphers, would have fallen fiat
but for the fact that two well-known men
Of letters in England have taken opposing
sides in the matter, and naturally scores
of lesser pens are raised to fight the battle
afresh. Mr.. W. G. Mallock has gone over
in effect "Go to. You can put a cipher
into anything and read out of ii what you
please" This is also the attitude of VIII
liam winter, the DISTINGUISHED dramatic
critic, who recently occupied page of the
New York Tribune I'm the demolition OF the
Mrs. Gallup claims TO have discovered
bhar r,, bacon on not only wrote t all the plays
author of Sponsors "FaeTie Queen" the
whole of Buttons Anatomy of Melan-
choly," together with several Of the
dramas of Marlowe, Greene and Peele... She
also claims to have discovered some re-
markable historical facts-that Bacon was
the son of Elizabeth OF England and her
favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester;
that Essex was his own brother. and that
Romeo and Juliet was written TO COM
memorate Bacons love for the first wife
of Henry of Navarro. the fair but corrupt
Marguerite of Valois. The claim is also
made that the Anatomy OF Melancholy
conceals in cipher translation of a con-
siderable portion of Homer's Had.
There are certainly valid reasons why
Bacon, if he were TO claim royal birth.
should take pains to conceal the fact in a
cipher, for at the first intimation of such
an assumption his royal mother, the "Vir-
gin Queen" would have made short work
of his pretensions at the block. But there
seems no reason whatever for going TO the
infinite trouble of putting a translation of
the Iliad into cipher, and the claim that
Bacon did so certainly seems to substan-
tate Mr.. Lees contention that you can
make cipher prove almost anything.
Ii is to this claim of Bacon's authorship
of the Anatomy" and the presence there
in of the Had in cipher that Mr.. Robert
4. Marston, London publisher, pays spe-
V.
Mr.. Marston undertakes TO show that the
Baconian version Of the Had, which
Mrs. Gallup says she found in the "Anat-
on various English TRANSACTIONS, notably
Popes-Pope, who lived and wrote nearly
century after the death of Francis Ba-
con! In brief, he asserts that the cipher
version was written by somebody wholly
ignorant of the Greek text of Homer and
quite familiar with Pope'S metrical trans
lation. He cites many passages consd-
" no cho r..
Pope deviated from the original, using
words not in the original TO satisfy the
exigencies Of meter; changed the order of
proper names, or introduced bits of de-
scription not in the Greek: and where the
BacOnian cipher according to Mrs. Gallup
followed Pope rather than Homer. Phrases
which Pope invents for picturesqueness.
such as ''watery fields" are used by Ba-
con, while the entire line, Equal in arms
and equal in command" which Pope in
terjects in his summoning of the warriors
of Boetia, and which is not i'm the Greek
text at all. appears in the cipher version
as equal In arms and in command"
though the latler Is In prose and the line
Is unnecessary Tor reasons of rhyme Mr.
Marston, commenting on these curious in
stances of Bacon's plagiarism from Pope.
says:
ut would not be surprising TO find two
translators leaving out the same words
though they are important, but the chances
are a thousand TO one against two trans
latorS inVenting and adding the same
words not in the original'-and doing il
so many times.
If we accept Mr.. Marston's conclusions.
which he has been at infinite pains 10 for
tify and make so apparent that "he who
runs may read" and be convinced. and if
we apply the rule of evidence, False in
one particular false In ALL" we have the
whole laborious "Biliteral CIPHER laid
out as fiat as a punctured tire.
In the meantime We understand Mrs
Gallup is TO defend herself in the March
number of the Pail Mall Magazine LET
US hope she will not overlook Mr.. Mar
ston's pungent arguments.