New-York tribune., 1910-12-24

| leentn century-lS III the press or Ine
Sturgis & Walton Company. The edi-
tion is to be limited one Of six hun
dred copies. The quaint title page in
scribed Letters to Several Persons OF
Honour and dated 1861, is to be repro
duced in facsimile, together with pho
togravure copy OF Lombarts portrait OF
Donne. Mr.. Charles E.. Merrill has
edited the text and contributed many
notes.
Mr.. W. ]. Locke is at work upon a
new novel which will possibly be pub
lished in the spring. It is stated that
he has no intention Of using therein the
studies of American life made by him
during his recent visit to this country.
Lord Rosebery's book on Chatham has
been received here with so much favor
that the Harpers have been obliged TO
reprint it.
Mrs. Katherine c. Thurston, the au-
| thor OF that successful novel, 1.-The Mas
querader'' and of later novel, Max"
| is coming to America IN few months.
|
local color for another book.
An American novelist, Mrs. Mary Rob-
erts Rinehart, is in Vienna, where she
is writing new story and a new farce
as we'll.
Three more volumes have just been
added to the Macmillan Cempanys uni
| 81 y,,1.
are 'tThe Gospel of Superman," The
Will to Power and 1.-The Joyful Wis
| DOM
| Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence. the
latest rabid Baconian to write a book
demolishing Shakespeare, claimed last
month to have discovered a Baconian
anagram in the word "Honorificabi bilitu-
dinitatibus word is to be found
as all men know. in Loves Labor's
Lost The authors anagram, declared
Sir Edwin, as drawn from this fearful
wild fowl Of a word, is
Hi ludi F Baconis natl tuiti orhi
CThese plays f. Bacons children are
safe orphaned).
Delighted with this amazing dscov-
cry. the Baconian enthusiast added: Il
hereby offer one hundred guineas to any
one who can construct, either in Latin or
in English, another sensible anagram
from the long word which shall give the
numbers 136 and 15l'-the long word.
be it noted, being the 151st word upon
page 1876. Several readers Of The Pail
Mall Gazette in which Sir Edwin's let
ter was printed, took UP the challenge.
The result as set forth by THE Gazette
is amusing. Only two of them, Mr. R. ].
Beevor and Mr.. ]. p ellison, observed
the second of Sir Edwin's conditions
that the anagram should have the nu-
merical characteristic of giving the
numbers 1876 and 151. Mr.. Beevor's
Latin anagram was 'Ab iniyit +.
Bacon histrio 1udit'-i. g, Be off, +.
Bacon the actor has entered and is play
ing: and he also offered one in English:
at is in nut. I diabolic author fib''
Mr.. Gilson's Latin anagram was: IT
Jonson, hi libri tut aut f1cti a d.
j. e.. go to, Ben Jonson, these books
are yours or invented by the Devil"
The Gazette requested DR.. Cow, the
headmaster Of Westminster school, to
act as umpire in this matter, and his
judgment was given in these terms:
The word Sensible" varies considerably
in meaning according to its application.
An anagram, I take it. is sensible when
it rearranges given letters into a word
which has a meaning. or into. words which,
taken together, have q meaning. It is not
sufficient that the anagram should produce
several words, each of which means some
thing, if the words when put together have
no continuous meaning.
On this principle i regard Sir Z. Durn-
ing-Lawrence's anagram as not sensible.
His Latin words, though each has a mean
ing, do not make the meaning which he
attributes to them or any other meaning
The only possible translation Of Hi Iudi
I. Baconis natl tuiti orbi'' is "These games
sons Of f. Bacon having protected (arel
orphans
On the same principle rule. out Nlr.
I diabolic author fih.'' These words do
not make continuous sense: Here are
is hardly ina ginable.
ficti a d is Sensible" e.. it may '1ts- 1e-
son: these books are either yours or in
vented by the devil but the final dash
O is probably essential to this mean
ing, and there is no dash in the given let
tiers. Mr.. Beevors abb nivit f. Bacon
Hstrio ludit'' is also ''sensible'-i. e.. it
may legitimately bear the meaning BE off,
playing and various other arrangements
of the same Latin words would also make
sense. Both Mr.. ellison and Mr. Beevor
have given simple rules for deriving the
numbers 1856 and 151 from their Latin
words. and here 1 should observe that. in
assigning numbers to the letters of the
alphabet. they omit j. as Sir z. burning
Lawrence also does.
On the whole, 1 think Sir f. Burning
Lawrence ought to pay Mr.. Beevor. but
that he has some ground for not paying
Mr.. ellison.
The money was forwarded to Mr.
Beevor, Sir Edwin approving, though he
continued to stand by the correct Latin !
ity of his own anagram
In later letter Sir Edwin says that |
good scholars, both in England and Ger
many, have accepted his anagrarn, Hi |
Iudi f. Baconis natl tuiti orbi," as ex-
cellent Latin. He continues:
DIR. Cow has evidently not read the care
fully prepared statements in my book or he |
would have seen that we are told by Sue |
tonius that "iudi' means stage plays in |
contradistinction to circus games, that |
''tuer is used as passive by Varro and |
the legal writer's, that there are two verbs |
'tueor" one with the past participe |
'tutus'' and the other with the past parti- |
ciple ''tuitus" and that "tuitf is quite cor |
rectly translated as ARE preserved or "are |
safe.
And with respect to Mr.. Beevor's words.
almost. the last letter which the great
scholar who has just passed away, Pro-
fessor T., Il. Mayor, wrote was TO the effect
that '.inivit'' was not classical Latin. / |
could have told DR.. Cow this. but thought
that / ought not to interfere.
I ola because