=Square table taken from Vigenerio, page 202.b.

This reference is to the work ent.i.tled, "Traicte des chiffres ou secretes manieres d'escrire": par Blaise de Vigenere, which was published in Paris in 1586. Spedding states (Vol. I. of "Bacon's Letters and Life," p. 6-8) that Francis Bacon went in 1576 to France, with Sir Amias Paulet, the English Amba.s.sador. Bacon remained in France until 1578-9, and when in 1623 he published his "De Augmentis Scientiarum"--(the Advancement of Learning) he tells us that while in Paris he invented his own method of secret writing. _See_ Spedding's "Works of Bacon," Vol. 4, p. 445.

The system which Bacon then invented is now known as the Biliteral Cypher, and it is in fact practically the same as that which is universally employed in Telegraphy under the name of the Morse Code.

A copy of Vigenere's book will be found in the present writer's Baconian library, for he knew by the ornaments and by the other marks that Bacon must have had a hand in its production.

Anyone, therefore, reading the Quarto edition of "Loues Labor's lost,"

1598, and putting _two_ and _two_ together will find on p. 202.b of Vigenere's book, the Table, of which a facsimile is here given, Plate 25, Page 109. This square is even more clear than the square table in the great Cryptographic book.

Thus, upon the same page 136 in the Folio, or on F. 4 in the Quarto, in addition to Honorificabilitudinitatibus containing the revealing sentence "Hi ludi F Baconis nati tuiti orbi"--"These plays F Bacon's offspring are entrusted to the world," we see that we are able to discover on line 33 the name of Bacon, and by means of the lines which follow that it is Fra. Bacon who is referred to.

Before parting with this subject we will give one or two examples to indicate how often the number 33 is employed to indicate Bacon.

We have just shewn that on page 136 of the Folio we obtain Bacon's name on line 33. On page 41 we refer to Ben Jonson's "Every man out of his Humour." In an extremely rare early Quarto [_circa_ 1600] of that play some unknown hand has numbered the pages referring to Sogliardo (Shakespeare) and Puntarvolo (Bacon) 32 and 32 repeated. Incorrect pagination is a common method used in "revealing" books to call attention to some statements, and anyone can perceive that the second 32 is really 33 and as usual reveals something about Bacon.

On page 61 we point out that on page 33 of the little book called "The Great a.s.sizes holden in Parna.s.sus" Apollo speaks. As the King speaks in a Law Court only through the mouth of his High Chancellor so Apollo speaks in the supposit.i.tious law action through the mouth of his Chancellor of Parna.s.sus, who is Lord Verulam, i.e. Bacon. Thus again Bacon is found on Page 33. The writer could give very numerous examples, but these three which occur incidentally will give some idea how frequently the number 33 is used to indicate Bacon.[8]

The whole page 136 of the Folio is cryptographic, but we will not now proceed to consider any other matters contained upon it, but pa.s.s on to discuss the great Cryptographic book which was issued under Bacon's instructions in the year following the publication of the great Folio of Shakespeare. Before, however, speaking of the book, we must refer to the enormous pains always taken to provide traps for the uninitiated.

If you go to Lunaeburg, where the Cryptographic book was published, you will be referred to the Library at Wolfenb.u.t.tel and to a series of letters to be found there which contain instructions to the engraver which seem to prove that this book has no possible reference to Shakespeare. We say, seem to prove, for the writer possesses accurate photographs of all these letters and they really prove exactly the reverse, for they are, to those capable of understanding them, cunningly devised false clues, quite clear and plain. That these letters are snares for the uninitiated, the writer, who possesses a "Baconian"

library, could easily prove to any competent scholar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 106 _Surnames_. Plate XXVI.]

Before referring to the wonderful t.i.tle page of the Cryptographic book which reveals the Bacon-Shakespeare story, it is necessary to direct the reader's attention to Camden's "Remains," published 1616. We may conclude that Bacon had a hand in the production of this book, since Spedding's "Bacon's Works," Vol. 6, p. 351, and Letters, Vol. 4, p. 211, informs us that Bacon a.s.sisted Camden with his "Annales."

In Camden's "Remains," 1616, the Chapter on Surnames, p. 106, commences with an ornamental headline like the head of Chapter 10, p. 84, but printed "_upside down_." A facsimile of the heading in Camden's book is shewn in Plate 26, page 113.

This trick of the upside down printing of ornaments and even of engravings is continually resorted to when some revelation concerning Bacon's works is given. Therefore in Camden's "Remains" of 1616 in the Chapter on Surnames, because the head ornament is printed upside down, we may be perfectly certain that we shall find some revelation concerning Bacon and Shakespeare.

Accordingly on p. 121 we find as the name of a village "Bacon Creping."

There never was a village called "Bacon Creping." And on page 128 we read "such names as Shakespeare, s...o...b..lt, Wagstaffe." In referring to the great Cryptographic book, we shall realise the importance of this conjunction of names.

On Plate 27, Page 115, we give a reduced facsimile of the t.i.tle page, which as the reader will see, states in Latin that the work is by Gustavus Selenus, and contains systems of Cryptographic writing, also methods of the shorthand of Trithemius. The Imprint at the end, under a very handsome example of the double A ornament which in various forms is used generally in books of Baconian learning, states that it was published and printed at Lunaeburg in 1624. Gustavus Selenus we are told in the dedicatory poems prefixed to the work is "h.o.m.o lunae" [the man in the Moon].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XXVII. Facsimile t.i.tle Page.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XXVIII. Left-Handed Portion, much enlarged, of Plate XXVIII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 202.--Royal Eagle. Facsimile from p. 93 of Boutell's English Heraldry, 1899. If this is compared with the bird in Plate XXVIII. it will at once be seen that the later is an Eagle in full flight.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XXIX. Right-Hand Portion, much enlarged, of Plate XXVII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.x. Top Portion of Plate XXVII., much enlarged.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xI. Bottom Portion of Plate XXVII., much enlarged.]

Look first at the whole t.i.tle page; on the top is a tempest with flaming beacons, on the left (of the reader) is a gentleman giving something to a spearman, and there are also other figures; on the right is a man on horseback, and at the bottom in a square is a much dressed up man taking the "Cap of Maintenance" from a man writing a book.

Examine first the left-hand picture shewn enlarged, Plate 28, Page 118.

You see a man, evidently Bacon, giving his writing to a Spearman who is dressed in actor's boots (see Stothard's painting of Falstaff in the "Merry Wives of Windsor" wearing similar actor's boots, Plate 32, Page 127). Note that the Spearman has a sprig of bay in the hat which he holds in his hand. This man is a Shake-Spear, nay he really is a correct portrait of the Stratford householder, which you will readily perceive if you turn to Dugdale's engraving of the Shakespeare bust, Plate 5, Page 14. In the middle distance the man still holding a spear, still being a Shake-Speare, walks with a staff, he is therefore a Wagstaffe.

On his back are books--the books of the plays. In the sky is seen an arrow, no, it is not sufficiently long for an arrow, it is a s...o...b..lt (Shakespeare, Wagstaffe, s...o...b..lt, of Camden's "Remains"). This s...o...b..lt is near to a bird which seems about to give to it the scroll it carries in its beak. But is it a real bird? No, it has no real claws, its feet are Jove's lightnings, verily, "it is the Eagle of great verse."

Next, look on Plate 29, Page 119, which is the picture on the right of the t.i.tle page. Here you see that the same Shake-spear whom we saw in the left-hand picture is now riding on a courser. That he is the same man is shewn by the sprig of bay in his hat, but he is no longer a Shake-spear, he is a Shake-_spur_. Note how much the artist has emphasised the drawing of the spur. It is made the one prominent thing in the whole picture. We refer our reader to "The Returne from Perna.s.sus" (see pp. 47-48) where he will read,

"England affordes those glorious vagabonds That carried earst their fardels on their backes Coursers to ride on through the gazing streetes."

Now glance at the top picture on the t.i.tle page (see Plate 27, Page 115,) which is enlarged in Plate 30, Page 122. Note that the picture is enclosed in the magic circle of the imagination, surrounded by the masks of Tragedy, Comedy, and Farce (in the same way as Stothard's picture of the "Merry Wives of Windsor," Plate 32, Page 127).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xII. Scene from "The Merry Wives of Windsor,"

painted by Thomas Stothard.]

The engraving represents a tempest with beacon lights; No; it represents "The Tempest" of Shakespeare and tells you that the play is filled with Bacon lights. (In the sixteenth century Beacon was p.r.o.nounced Bacon.

"Bacon great Beacon of the State.")

We have already pointed out that "The Tempest," as Emile Montegut shewed in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ in 1865, is a ma.s.s of Bacon's revelations concerning himself.

At the bottom (see Plate 27, Page 115, and Plate 31, Page 123), within the "four square corners of fact," surrounded with disguised masks of Tragedy, Comedy, and Farce, is shewn the same man who gave the scroll to the Spearman, see Plate 29, Page 118 (note the pattern of his sleeves). He is now engaged in writing his book, while an Actor, very much overdressed and wearing a mask something like the accepted mask of Shakespeare, is lifting from the real writer's head a cap known in Heraldry as the "Cap of Maintenance." Again we refer to our quotation on page 48.

"Those glorious vagabonds....

Sooping it in their glaring Satten sutes."

Is not this masquerading fellow an actor "Sooping it in his glaring Satten sute"? The figure which we say represents Bacon, see Plate 28, wears his clothes as a gentleman. n.o.body could for a moment imagine that the masked creature in Plate 31 was properly wearing his own clothes.

No, he is "sooping it in his glaring Satten sute."

The whole t.i.tle page clearly shows that it is drawn to give a revelation about Shakespeare, who might just as well have borne the name of s...o...b..lt or of Wagstaffe or of Shakespur, see "The Tempest,"

Act v., Scene I.

"The strong ba.s.s'd promontorie Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluckt up."

There are also revealing t.i.tle pages in other books, shewing a spear and an actor wearing a single spur only (see Plate 35, Page 153).

It will be of interest to shew another specially revealing t.i.tle page, which for upwards of a hundred years remained unaltered as the t.i.tle page to Vol. I. of Bacon's collected works, printed abroad in Latin. A different engraving, representing the same scene was also published in France. These engravings, however, were never reproduced or used in England, because the time for revelation had not yet come. Bacon is shewn seated (see Plate 33, Page 131). Compare his portrait with the engraving of the gentleman giving his scroll to the Spearman in the Gustavus Silenus frontispiece, Plate 27, Page 115, and Plate 28, Page 118. Bacon is pointing with his right hand in full light to his open book, while his left hand in deepest shadow is putting forward a figure holding in both its hands a closed and clasped book, which by the cross lines on its side (the accepted symbol of a mirror) shows that it represents the mirror up to Nature, i.e., Shakespeare's plays.

Specially note that Bacon puts forward with his LEFT hand the figure holding the book which is the mirror up to Nature. In the former part of this treatise the writer has proved that the figure that forms the frontispiece of the great folio of Shakespeare's plays, which is known as the Droeshout portrait of Wm. Shakespeare, is really composed of two LEFT arms and a mask. The reader will now be able to fully realise the revelation contained in Droeshout's masked figure with its two left arms when he examines it with the t.i.tle page shown, Plate 33, Page 131.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xIII. Facsimile t.i.tle Page.]

Bacon is putting forward what we described as a "figure"; it is a "man"

with false b.r.e.a.s.t.s to represent a woman (women were not permitted to act in Bacon's time), and the man is clothed in a goat skin. Tragedos was the Greek word for a goat skin, and Tragedies were so called because the actors were dressed in goat skins. This figure therefore represents the Tragic Muse. Here in the book called _De Augmentis Scientiarum_, which formed one part of the Great Instauration, is placed an engraving to show that another part of the Great Instauration known as Shakespeare's Plays was issued LEFT-HANDEDLY, that is, was issued under the name of a mean actor, the actor Shakespeare. This t.i.tle page is very revealing, and should be taken in conjunction with the t.i.tle page of the Cryptographic book which under the name of Gustavus Silenus, "_h.o.m.o lunae_," the "Man in the Moon," was published in 1624 in order to form a key to certain cyphers in the 1623 Folio of Shakespeare's Plays.

These two t.i.tle pages were prepared with consummate skill in order to reveal to the world, when the time was ripe, that

BACON IS SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER XII.