66 James the First, of England, said of Bacon's Novum Organum that it, like the peace of God, surpasseth all understanding." Bacon understood that he was far in advance of his day and age, and that future generations must unravel his wonders of literature. Dryden, and many other writers of the seventeenth century, looked upon the so-called Shakespeare Plays either with indifference or scarcely concealed contempt, and it was years before this, the greatest collection of plays of the world were understood and appreciated. The 1623 edition, in which the cipher code is found, is not all beautiful, and, if it were printed to-day for the first time, without emendations and expurgation, would arouse a storm of criticism. Its glaring inconsistencies, rude lines, unmeaning words, sentences, and tawdry suggestions would condemn much of it in the eyes and ears of the nineteenth century. "Hamlet's Soliloquy," "The Seven Ages of Man," the opening speech of Richard the Third, the murder scene in Macbeth, and a few other noted passages, are studied, learned, quoted, praised, without regard to other portions, where neither beauty, sense nor fitness mark the lines. It has been urged that the author of the Shakespearian plays could not have written the harsh lines in the Epistle to the decipherer, given in the first volume of this Cipher Story, because of the grandeur, beauty and sublimity in the language of those plays which has become classic. This might seem true if all in the plays were of this classic order, but it is not. Will the reader, who is of that belief, turn to "Winter's Tale," Act IV., Scene 4 (page 296, 1623 edition), and compare with them Autolicus' speech; or to " Love's Labor's Lost," the whole of Act III.; or the soliloquy of Bastard in King John, Act I., Scene 1, wherein is the beginning of the deciphered writings: "My dear sir, Thus leaning on mine elbow, I begin,” Those who have doubted the existence of a cipher in the Plays will be interested to read, in connection with the account of the Spanish Armada, the following passages, as they appear in the 1623 edition, commencing with Love's Labor's Lost, Act I.: (page 133.) “A letter from the magnificent Armado,” etc. On the following page, same act : "It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west," etc. A little farther on : "For Jaquenetta (so is the weaker vessel called)." In the same scene, (page 125): Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules club," etc.noting "Spaniard's Rapier," "The Passado," "The Duello," and other vessels of the English and Spanish fleet. In the Comedy of Errors, Act III., page 92, the scene of which is laid in Ephesus, more than a thousand years before the countries named were known, note: "A Poland winter," "Ireland," "Scotland," "France," "England," "Between France and it," "Where Spain," "America," The "Indies," "Spain, who sent whole Armados," "Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands," etc. In King John, Act III., Scene 3, laid in the year 1199, four hundred years before the events of the Spanish Armada: "So by a roaring tempest on the flood, a whole Armado," etc. In Othello, Act I., Scene 3: 'My letters say a hundred and seven gallies." "And mine a hundred forty." "Boorded a Land Carrect." "If it prove a lawful prize, he's made forever." In Twelfth Night, Act V., Scene 1: "Orsino, this is that Antonio that took the Phoenix," etc. In Love's Labor's Lost, Act II.: "I was as willing to grapple, as he was to boord," etc. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II., Scene 1: Boording, call you it?" And in the same play, Scene 2: “This Puncke is one of Cupid's carriers.” In Twelfth Night, Act I., Scene 2: " 'Assure yourself after our ship," etc. In Tempest, Act II., Scene 1: 66 Sir, he may live; I saw him beat the surges," etc. In Comedy of Errors, Act I., Scene 1: "Fastened ourselves at either end of the mast." etc. The following sentences from portions of the Storm in this. book, with references to the works from which they are taken, will give an idea of the building up of the story by means of the Cipher Code. The day is clear the welkin bright and gay From the South furrowed Neptune's seas The bright sun thereon his beams doth beat (Peele) (Faerie Queene) (Marlow) (Greene) (Peele) (Faerie Queene) (Anatomy of Melancholy) (Bacon) As a mirror glass the surface of the water That in the pebble paved channel lay Through whose bright gliding current might appear A thousand naked nymphs whose ivory shine enameling the bank Whom weltering waves environ Along the bubbling brooks and silver glides The water flowers and lilies on the banks Like blazing comets burgen all in ranks (Faerie Queene) (Peele) (Peele) And this cloud hath now o'ercast (Peele) (Faerie Queene) (Winter's Tale) The angry heavens for this fatal jar (Peele) For hell and darkness pitch their pitchy tents and death with (Marlow) (Bacon) The thunders which the winds tear from the clouds with crack of riven air and hideous sound filling the world leaps out and throws forth fire (Greene) Since I was man such sheets of fire such burst of horrid thunder such groans of roaring wind and rain I never remember to have heard (King Lear) Woe the sailor that in cold and quaking tides and whistling winds the bitter broil and beating blow of billows high doth bide (Peele) The town is empty on the brow o' th' sea stand ranks of people From higher ground jutting out into the sea (Othello) (Bacon) One man beckoned to the rest below bowing his head against the steepy mount (Timon) What from the cape can you discern at sea? Nothing at all it is a high wrought flood I cannot twixt the heaven and the maine descry a saile (Othello) But hark; a saile! a saile! a saile! (Othello) Towards the sea turning my troubled eye I saw (Faerie Queene) (Greene) (Faerie Queene) tossed in troubelous seas whom raging winds threatening to make the prey of the rough rocks The mountain tops the surges the threatening winds conspiring with the floods to overwhelm and drown her in greedy grave (Peele) (Faerie Queene) Thou God of winds that reignest in the seas that reignest also in the continent blow up some gentle gale of ease the which may bring my ship ere it be rent into the gladsome port of her intent (Spenser) Without further quotations, the student familiar with the plays will see the frame-work of the battle, the storm, and shipwreck of this "most magnificent Armado," running through them all, the story being completed from sections of Bacon's other works, through which the Cipher runs. The destruction of the Spanish Armada is one of the most interesting of events. The Cipher reveals much which is historical and gives new facts not heretofore recorded, which add greatly to the interest which surrounds the subject. The history begins with a demand made upon Elizabeth, that she should either marry Philip II. of Spain, or should yield the throne of England to him, first by reason of his previous marriage to her sister Mary, and second by virtue of his descent from Katherine and Philippa. The interview between the ambassadors and the Queen is 1 surpassingly dramatic. The language of the ambassadors is that of diplomacy, while the Queen breaks through all barriers of statecraft in her forceful rage. The claim of Philip to the throne by reason of his descent from the daughters of Gaunt, is powerfully presented by the Jesuit ambassadors, while the minister of Elizabeth presents the opposing claim of the Queen through her descent from the elder brother of John of Gaunt, Lionel, Duke of Clarence. This genealogical tree, as given, passes through a period of nearly two hundred years. It has been given the most careful historical examination, by members of the legal profession, who pronounce the title perfect, if the validity of Anne Boleyn's marriage is conceded. In order to obtain this genealogical tree, proving the title of Elizabeth to the throne, the Cipher leads through four of the Plays, viz., Richard II., Henry VI. (parts I., II., and III.), Richard III., Henry VIII., and One of Sir Francis Bacon's works, King Henry VII. These together furnish the chain, which cannot be made complete without the use of the five. These, followed by a consecutive description of the destruction of the Armada, with the names of the vessels engaged in the battles, the names of the Spanish and English commanders occurring in their proper places, demonstrate beyond cavil, first, the presence of the concealed histories themselves; second, the Cipher through which they are obtained; and, third, the impossibility of substantial mistake on the part of the decipherer. A natural comment is, how could these masks be used during the lifetime of the alleged authors? In the decipherings which will appear in their regular order, I have found an epitome of the lives of Shakespeare, Marlow, Green, Burton, Peele and Spenser, under whose names Bacon concealed the identity of his writings, the circumstances under which they were employed and the sums of money paid to each for the use of his name. Anthony Bacon, the foster-brother of Francis, was the unknown owner of the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare, while uneducated, possessed a shrewd wit and some talent as an actor. He received, as a bribe, a share in the proceeds of the theatre, and was the reputed manager. Bacon, with his court education and aristocratic associations, could not be known as the author of plays or the associate of play actors, and put Shakespeare forward as the mask which covered his greatest work. What need for Bacon to hide his history behind these masks? Elizabeth, as viewed to day in the cold light of history, was a curious compound of qualities. In her we find the avarice of Henry VIII., with the parsimony of Henry VII. No promise that she made was fulfilled unless it suited her royal convenience. Her temper was displayed on the slightest provocation, the ladies of her Court received punishment by blows from the royal hand, and the ears of Essex himself were soundly boxed on one occasion for turning his back on royalty. It is believed that the character Katharine, in the "Taming of the Shrew," was drawn from the character of Queen Elizabeth; but Leicester had poor success in attempting to play Petruchio. Her intellect was masculine and powerful. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the royal will, and imprisonment and murder were common instruments in her hands. Dissimulation was her characteristic. She had the hatred and suspicion of Henry VIII. towards all persons who were in the line of succession, and Bacon, if her son, as related, could not escape it. It was an age of cruelty and bloodshed. Philip II., during this period, had deluged the Low Countries with blood, and more than sixty thousand protestants had fallen victims to the blood-thirsty Duke of Alva. In France, Catharine de Medici held control. The marriage of Catharine's daughter was the signal for the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and in England the stake had scarcely yet been replaced by the scaffold, for witches, catholics, dissenters and traitors to the Queen. It was in these times and surrounded by influences such as have been described that Francis Bacon was born, lived and wrote. Elizabeth determined to hide from the world her marriage with Leicester, and to be known as the Virgin Queen. Bacon did not dare to assert his rightful position, and while burning under a sense of shame at his humiliation, he sought to right the great wrong heaped upon him, through the aid of masks and cipher which should eventually be discovered and rescue his name and fame from the cloud under which he was compelled to remain, during the life of Queen Elizabeth and her immediate suc cessors. In those days the business of statesmanship was carried on by force, duplicity, bribery, and concealment. The cipher writing of diplomatic correspondence was itself a science. In this Bacon was an adept. He was master of cryptography, wrote works upon the subject, and at the early age of seventeen, while in diplomatic service at the Court of France, invented the "omnia per omnia" cipher now in almost universal use. The genius of Bacon has never been fully appreciated, and will not be, until the study of the deciphered writings shall be as deep and searching as has been the study of the Plays. His authorship of the Plays, and ability to hide within these and his other works, the matter now being disclosed through the means of the Cipher, add immeasurably to the interest in the literature of the Elizabethan period, and throw upon Bacon's name a fame and lustre, unequaled in brilliancy in the world's history. ORVILLE W. OWEN, M. D. |