Concemlnff im 1 
 
 <^9X;M:JZi2Zi2. 
 
 ■ram 
 
 ^aconM-M- 
 
 '><'''9>im^'>Mmci9^y: « 
 
 of the Controtfersy 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 AM In |$ood hope (hat if (h^ first reading 
 move an objection, the second reading 
 will make an answer,— -ilcTv. ofL,
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 u
 
 ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP
 
 CONCERNING THE 
 
 BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF 
 
 FRANCIS BACON 
 
 DISCOVERED IN HIS WORKS BY 
 
 ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP 
 
 PROS AND CONS OF THE 
 CONTROVE RSY 
 
 Explanations, Reviews 
 Criticisms and Replies 
 
 DETROIT, MICH., U. S. A.: 
 HOWARD PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 LONDON : 
 GAY & BIRD.
 
 
 1011592
 
 A]^]STOTJNCEMENT. 
 
 THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF FRANCIS BACON, 
 Deciphered bj Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 THIED EDITION 
 
 This edition embraces decipherings from the commence- 
 ment of the use of Bacon's Cipher inventions — now found to be 
 1579 — and covering the entire period of his literary career, 
 including some works published by Rawley subsequent to 1626. 
 The Cypher has been traced with certainty down to 1651. 
 
 This Bi-Uteral Cypher reveals much secret history concern- 
 ing Queen Elizabeth, who, it is now learned, was the wedded 
 wife of Robert, Earl of Leicester — ^while posing as the Virgin 
 Queen — and was the mother of Francis Bacon. 
 
 It also discloses the existence of a second so-called Key- 
 Word Cipher, of broader scope, running through all of Bacon's 
 literary works, with instructions by which they may be de- 
 ciphered to disclose other hidden dramatical and historical pro- 
 ductions of larger importance and greater historical accuracy 
 than those upon the printed pages which enfold them. These 
 are found also to contain secret history, dangerous to Bacon, 
 who sought by this means to transmit it to a future time in 
 which he hoped the Ciphers would be discovered and the truth 
 proclaimed. 
 
 The method of the Word Cipher is shown in the deciphered 
 Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, published simultaneously with this 
 Third Edition, — also in the Tragedy of Robert, Earl of Essex, 
 — and the Tragedy of Mary, Queen of Scots.
 
 TEE TRAGEDY OF ANNE BOLEYN , 
 Deciphered by Elizabeth Wells Gallup, 
 
 One of the Historical Dramas in Cipher named in the Bi- 
 literal Cypher as concealed in the works of Bacon. 
 
 Part I. 
 Contains extracts from the Bi-literal, with Bacon's in- 
 structions and the Keys by which this Tragedy has been ex- 
 tracted fully illustrating the Word Cipher method of its re- 
 construction. 
 
 An appendix gives the editions used and pages on which 
 may be found the scattered sections brought together in new 
 sequence to form the new play. 
 
 Included in Part I will also be found the decipherings made 
 by Mrs. Gallup in the British Museum subsequent to the publi- 
 cation of the Second Edition of the Bi-literal Cypher, and are 
 from Old Editions appearing between 1579 and 1590, establish- 
 ing the earliest dates this Cypher appeared. They are placed 
 here for the convenience of these having Second Editions only. 
 
 THE TRAGICAL EI8T0RIE 
 
 OF OUR LATE BROTHER, 
 
 PtOBERT, EARL OF ESSEX. 
 
 Deciphered by Orville TV. Owen, M. D. One of the Histori- 
 cal Dramas in Cipher. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL TRAGEDY OF MARY, QUEEN 
 
 OF SCOTS. 
 
 Deciphered by Orville W. Oiuen, M. D. One of the Histori- 
 cial Dramas in Cipher. 
 
 Howard Publishing Co., 
 Gay &■ Bird, Detroit, Michigan, U. S. A. 
 
 London, England.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 (of this volume) 
 
 Frontispiece Portrait Elizabeth Wells Gallup 
 
 Announcements 6 
 
 Title Page "The Bi-literal Cypher" 11 
 
 (Plates from the book) 
 
 Contents of "Bi-literal Cypher" 
 
 Personal 15 
 
 Publishers Note. Third Edition 19 
 
 De Augmentis, Original Title page 1624 21 
 
 Cyphars in Advancement of Learning, 1605 22 
 
 Cyphars in De Augmentis, Wats Translation, 1640 23 
 
 Bi-literarie Alphabet 24 
 
 Bi-formed Alphabet 25 
 
 Cicero's First Epistle — Method of deciphering '26 
 
 Cicero's First Epistle — Cipher infold 27 
 
 Tragedy of Anne Boleyn 29 
 
 (Plates from the book) 
 
 Preface 30 
 
 Argument of the Play 35 
 
 Keys for Deciphering 38
 
 FROM MAGAZINES, ETC. 
 
 BACONIANA— LONDON : 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup — Descriptive 43 
 
 — Explanatory 122 
 
 —Henry VII 222 
 
 Editorial — Book Review 74 
 
 Connonbury Tower 227 
 
 D. J. Kindersley— Henry VII 218 
 
 COURT JOURNAL— LONDON: 
 
 Fleming Fulcher Review 81 
 
 COSMOPOLITAN— NEW YORK: 
 
 Garrett P. Serviss Review 112 
 
 FREE PRESS— DETROIT : 
 
 Editorial, Book Review 69 
 
 LITERARY WORLD— LONDON: 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. Replies MI 150 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER— LONDON: 
 
 W. H. Mallock, Review 94 
 
 NEW YORK TIMES— LITERARY REVIEW: 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup— Reply to C. L. Dana 163 
 
 PALL MALL MAGAZINE— LONDON: 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup — Descriptive 51 
 
 Explanatory 126 
 
 TIMES— LONDON: 
 
 Elizabeth W, Gallup 144 
 
 W. H. Mallock 169 
 
 A. P. Sinnett 172 
 
 A. P. Sinnett 176 
 
 Parker Woodward 175 
 
 REPLIES TO CRITICISMS: 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup 179 
 
 Illustration of Method 198 
 
 Fac-Simile Plates De Augmentis Scientiarum, London 
 
 Ed., 1623 201 
 
 Fac-Simile Plates Paris Ed., 1624 205 
 
 Henry Irving, Princeton Address 211
 
 THE 
 
 Bi-literal Cypher 
 
 of 
 
 S" Francis B 
 
 rancis oacon 
 
 difcovered in his works 
 
 AND DECIPHERED BY 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 x^ 
 
 DETROIT. MICHIGAN. U.S.A.: 
 HOWARD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 LONDON: 
 CAY 6 BIRD 
 
 i2 Bedford St.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Personal — Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup 1 
 
 Explanatory Introduction First Edition 5 
 
 Preface, Second Edition 15 
 
 Argument 18 
 
 Notes on the Shakespeare Plays 28 
 
 Stenography in the tiflae of Queen Elizabeth 35 
 
 Francis Bacon, Biographical 39 
 
 Ciphers 47 
 
 Cyphars in Advancement of Learning, 1605 51 
 
 Gyphars in De Augmentis 52 
 
 Bi-literal Cipher Plan and Illustration 53 
 
 Fac-simile pages from De Augmentis, 1624 57 
 
 ^ Fac-simile pages from Novum Organum, 1620 63 
 
 Fac-simile title page Vitae et Mortis 67 
 
 Shakespeare Plays — Fac-simile Quarto Title Pages 69 
 
 Publisher's Note 76 
 
 BI-LITERAL CYPHER. 
 DECIPHERED SECRET STORY. 1579 to 1590. 
 
 Shepheard's Calender 1579 Anonymous 79 
 
 The Araygnement of Paris. .1584 George Peele 80 
 
 The Mirrour of Modestie.. .1584 Robert Greene 82 
 
 Planetomaehia 1585 Robert Greene 87 
 
 A Treatise of Melancholy. . . 1586 T. Bright 89 
 
 Euphues-Morando 1587 Robert Greene 91 
 
 Perimedes-Pandosto 1588 Robert Greene. 93 
 
 Spanish Masquerado 1589 Robert Greene 94 
 
 12
 
 PART II. 
 DECIPHERED SECRET STORY FROM 
 
 EDMUND SPENSER: 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Complaints, 1591 1 
 
 Colin Clout, 1595 3 
 
 Faerie Queene, 1596 4 
 
 Faerie Queene, second part 7 
 
 SHAKESPEARE QUARTO: 
 
 Richard Second, 1598 10 
 
 GEORGE PEELE: 
 
 David and Bethsabe. 1599 11 
 
 SHAKESPEARE QUARTOS: 
 
 Midsommer Night's Dream, 1600 12 
 
 Midsommer Night's Dream, Fisher Ed 13 
 
 Much Ado About Nothing, 1600 14 
 
 Sir John Oldcastle and Merchant of Venice, Roberts Ed., 
 
 1600 15 
 
 Richard, Duke of York, 1600 18 
 
 FRANCIS BACON: 
 
 Treasons of Essex, 1601 20 
 
 SHAKESPEARE QUARTO: 
 
 London Prodigal, 1605 23 
 
 FRANCIS BACON: 
 
 Advancement of Learning, 1605 25 
 
 SHAKESPEARE QUARTOS: 
 
 King Lear, 1608 33 
 
 King Henry The Fifth. 1608 34 
 
 Pericles, 1609 35 
 
 Hamlet, 1611 36 
 
 Titus Andronicus. 1611 38 
 
 13
 
 EDMUND SPENSER: 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Shepheards Calender, 1611 40 
 
 Faerie Queene, 1613 43 
 
 BEN JONSON: 
 
 Plays in Folio, 1616 49 
 
 SHAKESPEARE QUARTOS: 
 
 Richard The Second, 1615 72 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, 1619 73 
 
 Contention of York and Lancaster, 1619 74 
 
 Pericles, 1619 77 
 
 Yorkshire Tragedy, 1619 78 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, no date 79 
 
 ROBERT GREENE: 
 
 A Quip For an Upstart Courtier, 1620 80 
 
 > 
 
 FRANCIS BACON: 
 
 Novum Organum, 1620 81 
 
 The Parasceve 133 
 
 Henry The Seventh, 1622 136 
 
 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE: 
 
 Edward The Second, 1622 151 
 
 FRANCIS BACON: 
 
 Historia Vitae & Mortis, 1623 153 
 
 SHAKESPEARE PLAYS: 
 
 First Folio, 1623 165 
 
 ROBERT BURTON: 
 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, 1628 218 
 
 "Argument of the Iliad" 220 
 
 FRANCIS BACON: 
 
 De Augmentis Scientiarum, 1624 310 
 
 "Argument of the Odysses" 313 
 
 New Atlantis, 1635 334 
 
 Sylva Sylvarum, 1635, Rawley's Preface 339 
 
 Natural History 341 
 
 William Rawley's Note 368 
 
 14
 
 PERSONAL. 
 
 TO THE READER: 
 
 The discovery of the existence of the Bi-literal Cipher 
 of Francis Bacon, found embodied in his works, and the 
 deciphering of what it tells, has been a work arduous, ex- 
 hausting and prolonged. It is not ended, but the results 
 of the work so far brought forth, are submitted for study 
 and discussion, and open a new and large field of investi- 
 gation and research, which cannot fail to interest all stu- 
 dents of the earlier literature that has come down to us as 
 a mirror of the past, and in many respects has been adopted 
 as models for the present. 
 
 Seeking for things hidden, the mysterious, elusive and 
 unexpected, has a fascination for many minds, as it has 
 for my own, and this often prompts to greater effort than 
 more manifest and material things would command. To 
 this may be attributed, perhaps, the triumph over diffi- 
 culties which have seemed to me, at times, insurmountable, 
 the solution of problems, and the following of ways tor- 
 tuous and obscure, which have been necessary to bring out, 
 as they appear in the following pages, the hidden mes- 
 sages which Francis Bacon so securely buried in his writ- 
 ings, that three hundred years of reading and close study 
 have not until now uncovered them. 
 
 This Bi-literal Cipher is found in the Italic letters that 
 appear in such unusual and unexplained prodigality in the 
 original editions of Bacon's works. Students of these old 
 editions have been impressed with the extraordinary num- 
 ber of words and passages, often non-important, printed in 
 Italics, where no known rule of construction would require 
 their use. There has been no reasonable explanation of 
 this until now it is found that they were so used for the 
 
 15
 
 2 PEKSONAL 
 
 purposes of this Cipher. These letters are seen to be in 
 two forms — two fonts of type — with marked differences. 
 In the Capitals these are easily discerned, but the distin- 
 guishing features in the small letters, from age of the 
 books, blots and poor printing, have been more difficult to 
 classify, and close examination and study have been re- 
 quired to separate and sketch out the variations, and edu- 
 cate the eye to distinguish them. 
 
 How I found the Cipher, its difficulties, methods of 
 working, and outline of what the several books contain, 
 will more fully appear in the explanatory introduction. 
 
 In assisting Dr. Owen in the preparation of the later 
 books of "Sir Francis Bacon's Cipher Story," recently pub- 
 lished, and in the study of the great Word-Cipher discov- 
 ered by him, in which is incorporated Bacon's more exten- 
 sive, more complete and important writings, I became con- 
 vinced that the very full explanation found in De Aug- 
 mentis, of the bi-literal method of cipher-writing, was 
 something more than a mere treatise on the subject. I 
 applied the rules given to the peculiarly Italicised words 
 and "letters in two forms," as they appear in the photo- 
 graphic Fac-simile of the original 1623, Folio edition, of 
 the Shakespeare Plays. The disclosures, as they appear in 
 this volume, were as great a surprise to me, as they will 
 be to my readers. Original editions of Bacon's known 
 works were then procured, as well as those of other authors 
 named in these, and claimed bv Bacon as his own. The 
 story deciphered from these will appear under the sev- 
 eral headings. 
 
 From the disclosures found in all these, it is evident 
 that Bacon expected this Bi-literal Cipher would be the first 
 to be discovered, and that it would lead to the discovery 
 of his principal, or Word-Cipher, which it fully explains, 
 and to which is intrusted the larger subjects he desired to 
 have preserved. This order has been reversed, in fact, and 
 the earlier discovery of the Word-Cipher, by Dr. Owen, 
 becomes a more remarkable achievement, being entirely 
 
 16
 
 PERSONAL. 3 
 
 evolved without the aids which Bacon had prepared in this, 
 for its ehicidation. 
 
 The proofs are overwhelming and irresistible that Bacon 
 was the author of the delightful lines attributed to Spen- 
 ser, — the fantastic conceits of Peele and Greene, — the his- 
 torical romances of Marlowe, — the immortal plays and 
 poems put forth in Shakespeare's name, as well as the 
 Anatomv of Melancholy of Burton. 
 
 The removal of these masques, behind which Bacon 
 concealed himself, may change the names of some of our 
 idols. It is, however, the matter and not the name that 
 appeals to our intelligence. 
 
 The plays of Shakespeare lose nothing of their dramatic 
 power or wondrous beauty, nor deserve the less admiration 
 of the scholar and critic, because inconsistencies are re- 
 moved in the knowledge that they came from the brain of 
 the greatest student and writer of that age, and were not 
 a "flash of genius" descended upon one of peasant birth, 
 less noble history, and of no preparatory literary attain- 
 ments. 
 
 The Shepherds' Calendar is not less sweetly poetical, 
 because Francis Bacon appropriated the name of Spenser, 
 several years after his death, under which to put forth the 
 musical measures, that had, up to that time, only appeared 
 as the production of some Muse without a name; nor will 
 Faerie Queene lose ought of its rythmic beauty or romantic 
 interest from change of name upon the title page. 
 
 The supposed writings of Peele, Greene and Marlowe 
 are not the less worthy, because really written by one 
 greater than either. 
 
 The remarkable similarity in the dramatic writings at- 
 tributed to Greene, Peele, Marlowe and Shakespeare has 
 attracted much attention, and the biographers of each have 
 claimed that both style and subject-matter have been imi- 
 tated, if not appropriated, by the others. The practical 
 explanation lies in the fact that one hand wrote them all. 
 
 17
 
 4 PERSONAL. 
 
 I fully appreciate what it means to bring forth new 
 truth from unexpected and unknown fields, if not in ac- 
 cord with accented theories and long held beliefs. ^'For 
 what a man had rather were true, he more readily be- 
 lieves," — is one of Bacon's truisms that finds many illus- 
 trations. 
 
 I appreciate what it means to ask strong minds to change 
 long standing literary convictions, and of such I venture 
 to ask the withholding of judgment until study shall have 
 made the new matter familiar, with the assurance mean- 
 while, upon my part, of the absolute veracity of the work 
 which is here presented. Any one possessing the original 
 books, who has sufficient patience and a keen eye for form, 
 can work out and verify the Cipher from the illustrations 
 given. Nothing is left to choice, chance, or the imagina- 
 tion. The statements which are disclosed are such as could 
 not be foreseen, nor imagined, nor created, nor can there be 
 found reasonable excuse for the hidden writings, except for 
 the purposes narrated, which could only exist concerning, 
 and be described by, Francis Bacon. 
 
 I would beg that the readers of this book will bring to 
 the consideration of the work minds free from prejudice, 
 judging of it with the same intelligence and impartiality 
 they would themselves desire, if the presentation were their 
 own. Otherwise the work will, indeed, have been a thank- 
 less task. 
 
 To doubt the ultimate acceptance of the truths brought 
 to light would be to distrust that destiny in which Bacon 
 had such an abiding faith for his justification, and which, 
 in fact, after three centuries, has lifted the veil, and 
 brought us to estimate the character and accomplishments, 
 trials and sorrows of that great genius, with a feeling of 
 nearness and personal sympathy, far greater than has been 
 possible from the partial knowledge which we have here- 
 tofore enjoyed. 
 
 ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP. 
 
 Detroit, March 1st, 1899. 
 
 18
 
 PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 The publication of the second edition of the Bi-literai 
 Cypher of Francis Bacon, which embraced the period of his 
 Cipher writing between 1590 and the end of his career, 
 emphasized the importance of finding the earlier writings 
 — preceding 1590. The old books necessary to the re- 
 search could not be procured in America, and during the 
 summer of 1900 Mrs. Gallup and her assistant, Miss Kate 
 E. Wells, visited England to carry on the work in that 
 treasure house of early literature, the British Museum. 
 The investigations yielded rich returns, for in Shepheard's 
 Calender of 1579 was found the commencement of what 
 proved to be an important part of Bacon's life work. 
 
 Following Shepheard's Calender, the works between 
 1579 and 1590, so far deciphered, are: 
 
 Araygnement of Paris, 1584; Mirrour of Modestie, 
 1584. 
 
 Planetomachia, 1585. 
 
 Treatise of Melancholy, 1586. Two editions of this 
 were issued the same year, with differing Italics. The first 
 ends with an incomplete cipher word which is completed in 
 the second for the continued narration, thus making evident 
 which was first published, unless they were published at 
 the same time. 
 
 Euphues, 1587; Morando, 1587. These two also join 
 together, with an incomplete word at the end of the first 
 finding its completion in the commencement of the Cipher 
 in the second. 
 
 Perimedes the Blacke-smith, 1588; Pandosto, 1588. 
 These two also join together. 
 
 19
 
 Spanish Masquerado, 1589. Two editions of this work 
 bear date the same year, but have different Italicising. In 
 one edition the Cipher Story is complete, closing with the 
 signature: "Fr., Prince." In the other the story is not 
 complete, the book ending with an incomplete cipher word, 
 the remainder of which will be found in some work of a 
 near date which has not yet been indicated. 
 
 Several months were spent in following, through these 
 old books, the thread of the concealed story until it joined 
 the work which had already been published. Overstrained 
 eye-sight, from the close study of the different forms of 
 Italic letters, and consequent exhaustion on the part of 
 Mrs. Gallup, compelled a cessation of the work before all 
 that would have been desirable to know concerning that 
 early period was deciphered ; and while these are not all the 
 works in which Cipher will be found, between the years 
 1579 and 1590, they are sufficient unmistakably to connect 
 the earlier writings with those of later date which had 
 already been deciphered — as published in the Bi-literal 
 Cypher — so that we now know the Cipher writings were 
 being continuously infolded in Bacon's works, for a period 
 of about forty-six years, from the first to the last of his lit- 
 erary productions, including some matter he had prepared, 
 which was published by Rawley subsequent to 1626. 
 
 These few pages of deciphered matter, now added to that 
 published in the Second Edition, have a unique distinction 
 in the costliness of their production, but they are of ines- 
 timable value, historically, as well as from a literary point 
 of view, in demonstrating with certainty the scope and 
 completeness of the Cipher plan which has so long hidden 
 the secrets of a most eventful period. 
 
 20
 
 FRANCISCI 
 
 BARONI S 
 
 DE VERVLAMIO, 
 
 VICE-COMITIS 
 
 SANGTI ALBANf. 
 DE DIGNITATE ET jiFGMEHTiS 
 
 SClENTlARfM. 
 L I B R I I X. 
 
 ^ D KEG E M S J/" y M 
 
 luxta Exemplar Londim I ttipreflum. 
 
 P A R I S I IS, 
 Typis Petri METTAYER,Typographi K'^gij 
 
 M. DC. X X I V.
 
 Of the Advancement of Learning. 
 
 (London, 1605.) 
 
 CYPHARS 
 
 For C Y p H A R s ; they are commonly in Letters 
 or Alphabets, but may bee in Wordes. The kindes 
 of C Y p H A R s, (befides the Simple Cyphars 
 with Changes, and intermixtures of N v lles, and 
 Nonsignificant s) are many, according to 
 the Nature or Rule of the infoulding : W h e e l e - 
 Cyphars, Ka y-C yphars, Dovbles, 
 &c. But the vertues of them, whereby they are 
 to be preferred, are three ; that they be not labor- 
 ious to write and reade; that they bee impofsible 
 to difcypher ; and in fome cafes, that they bee 
 without fufpition. The higheft Degree whereof, 
 is to write Omnia Per Omnia; which is 
 vndoubtedly pofsible, with a proportion Quintuple 
 at moft, of the writing infoulding, to the writing 
 infoulded, and no other reftrainte whatfoeuer. 
 This Arte of Cypheringe, hath for Relatiue, an Art 
 of Difcypheringe ; by fuppofition vnprofitable ; but, 
 as things are, of great vfe. For fuppofe that 
 Cyphars were well mannaged, there bee Multitudes 
 of them which exclude the Difcypherer. But in 
 regarde of the rawneffe and vnskilfulneffe of the 
 handes, through which they paffe, the greateft 
 Matters, are many times carryed in the weakeft 
 Cyphars. 
 
 22
 
 De Augmentis Scientiarum 
 
 (Translation, Gilbert Wats, 1640.) 
 
 Wherefore let us come to C y p h a R s. Their kinds 
 are many, as Cyphars fwiple; Cyphars intermixt with 
 VXulloes, or non - fignificant Characters; Cyphars of 
 double Letters under one Character; Wheele-Cyphars ; Kay- 
 Cyphars; Cyphars of Words; Others. But the virtues 
 of them whereby they are to be preferr'd are Three; 
 That they be ready, and not laborious to write; That they be 
 lure, and lie not open to Deciphering; And laflly, if it be 
 pofsible, that they be managed without fufpition. 
 
 But that jealoufies may be taken away, we will 
 annexe an other invention, which, in truth, we 
 devifed in our youth, when we were at Paris : and 
 is a thing that yet feemeth to us not worthy to be 
 loft. It containeth the highefl degree of Cypher, which 
 is to fignifie omnia per omnia, y el fo as the writing 
 infolding, may beare a quintuple proportion to the 
 writing infolded; no other condition or reftriction 
 whatfoever is required. It fhall be performed thus: 
 Firft let all the Letters of the Alphabet, by tranfpo- 
 fition, be refolved into two Letters onely ; for the 
 tranfpofition of two Letters by five placings will be 
 fufficient for 32. Differences, much more for 24. 
 which is the number of the Alphabet. The example 
 of fuch an Alphabet is on this wife. 
 
 23
 
 An Example of a 'Bi-literarie Alphabet. 
 
 ^ "B C T> E F 
 
 oAaaaa aaaab aaaba. aaabb. aabaa. aabab. 
 
 G ' H I K L iM 
 
 aabba aabbb abaaa. abaab. ababa. ababb. 
 
 3f O T d Ti S 
 
 abbaa, abbab. abbba. abbbb. baaaa. baaab. 
 
 7 V IV X Y Z 
 
 baaba. baabb. babaa. babab. babba. babbb. 
 
 Neither is it a fmall matter thefe Cypher-Characten 
 have, and may performe : For by this Art a way is 
 opened, whereby a man may expreffe and fignifie 
 the intentions of his minde, at any diftance of 
 place, by objects which may be prefented to the 
 eye, and accommodated to the eare ; provided thofe 
 objects be capable of a twofold difference onely ; 
 as by Bells^ by Trumpets, by Lights and Torches, 
 by the report of Muskets, and any inftruments of 
 like nature. But to purfue our enterprife, when 
 you addreffe your felfe to write, refolve your in- 
 ward-infolded Letter into this "Bi-literarie Alphabet. 
 Say the interiour Letter be 
 
 Fuge. 
 
 Example of Solution. 
 
 F V G E 
 
 aabab. baabb. aabba. aabaa. 
 
 Together with this, you muft have ready at 
 hand a "Bi-formed Alphabet, which may reprefent all 
 the Letters of the Common Alphabet, as well Capitall 
 Letters as the Smaller Characters in a double 
 forme, as may fit every mans occafion. 
 
 24
 
 An Example of a "Bi-formed Alphabet. 
 
 ( a i a i> a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b 
 
 \jiAaa ^Bbh COccDDdd EEee FFff 
 
 ( a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b 
 
 \GGgg HHhh Jlii KKkh LLll MMmm 
 
 i a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b a b 
 
 Xt^iNmi OOoo TPpp Q^Qqq Ti^rr SSss 
 
 ( ababababab a b a b a bababababab 
 
 \ T TttVVvvuu IVWww XXxx YYyy ZZ^z 
 
 Now to the interiour letter, which is Biliterate, 
 you fhall fit a biformed exteriour letter, which fhall 
 anfwer the other, letter for letter, and afterwards 
 fet it downe. Let the exteriour example be, 
 
 zManere te volo, donee venero. 
 
 An Example of Accommodation. 
 
 F V G E 
 
 a a b a b. b a a b b. a a b b a. a a baa. 
 
 (Man ere te volo donee venero 
 
 We have annext likewife a more ample example 
 of the cypher of writing omnia per omnia: An interiour 
 letter, which to expreffe, we have made choice of 
 a Spartan letter fent once in a Scytale or roi.nd 
 cypher'd ftaffe. 
 
 Spartan Dispatch. 
 
 <Jlll is lost. (Mindarus is killed. The soldiers 
 want food. We can neither get hence nor stay longer 
 here. 
 
 An exteriour letter, taken out of the firft Epiftle 
 of Cicero, wherein a Spartan Letter is invnUfd. 
 
 26
 
 Cicero's hirst Epistle. 
 
 Jn all duty or rather piety towards 
 
 a a aaa\abab a\a b a b a\a b a a a\b a a a b \a b a b 
 A \ L \ L \ I \ S \ L 
 
 you, I satisfy everybody except myself. 
 
 a\ a b b a b\i a a a b \ b a a b a\a b a b b\ab a a a \ a b b a a\a 
 
 I o \s\t\m\i\n\ 
 
 (Myself J never satisfy. For so great are 
 
 a a b b\a a a a a\b a a a a\b a a b b I b a a. a b \ a b a a a\ b a a 
 
 d\a\r\u\ S I / \ S 
 
 the services which you have rendered me, 
 
 a b\ a b a a b\ ab a a a \a b a b a\a b a b a\a abaa\aaab b\ b 
 \ K \ I \ L \ L \ E \ D \ 
 
 that y seeing you did not rest in your en- 
 
 a a b a I a a b b b\a a b a a\b a aab\a.bba b \a b a b a \ a a 
 T \ H \ E \ S \ O \ L \ 
 
 deavoiirs on my behalf till the thing was 
 
 abb\abaaa\aa b a a\baaaa\baaa b\b a b a a\ a a a a a\ 
 D \ / \ E \ R \ S \ ly \ A \ 
 
 done, 7 feel as if life had lost all its sweet- 
 
 abba a \ b aa b a\a a b a b\a b bab\abba b\aa abb\babiia\ 
 N \t\f\0\0\d\VV\ 
 
 ness, because J cannot do as much in this 
 
 a a b a a\a a a b a\a ct a a a \ a b b a a \ a b b a a\a a b a a\a b 
 
 E \ C \ A \ N \ N 1^1 
 
 cause of yours. The occasions are these: 
 
 a a a\b a a b a\ a a b b b\ a a b a a\b a a a a\a abb a\a a h a 
 
 I \ T \ H \ E \ R \ G \ E 
 
 zAmmonius, the king' s ambassador, open- 
 
 a I b a a 3 a\ a a bbb\aaba a \ tz b ba-a\aaaba\aaba 
 I T \ H \ E \ N \ C \ E 
 
 ly besieges us with money. The business 
 
 a\a b b a a\a- b b a b \b a a a a \ b a a a h I b a a b a\a a a a a\b 
 \ N \ O \ R \ S \ ' T 1^1 
 
 is carried on through the same creditor s 
 
 a b b a\a b a b a \ a b bab\abba a\a a b b a \ a abaa\baaaa\ 
 Y \ L \ O \ N \ O \ E \ R \ 
 
 who were employed in it when you were 
 
 a a b b b\a a b a a\b a a a a \ a a b a a\a a a a a a a a a a 
 
 H \ E \ R \ E I 
 
 here S-c. 
 
 (Note )— This Translation from Spedding, ElHs & Heath Ed. 
 
 26
 
 (REPRODUCTION .) 
 
 Epistle. 
 
 Jn all duty or rather piety towards you, I satisfy 
 everybody except myself. Myself J never satisfy. 
 For so great are the services which you have rendered 
 me, that, seeing you did not rest in your endeavours 
 on my behalf till the thing was done, 7 feel as if life 
 had lost all its sweetness, because 7 cannot do as 
 much in this cause of yours. The occasions are these: 
 j^mmonius, the king's ambassador, openly besieges us 
 with money. The business is carried on through the 
 same creditors who were employed in it when you 
 were here S-c 
 
 Cipher infolded. 
 
 i/Ill is lost. zMindarus is killed. The soldiers 
 want food. We can neither get hence nor stay longer 
 here. 
 
 The knowledge of Cyphering, hath drawne on with it 
 a knowledge relative unto it, which is the knowledge 
 of Difcyphering, or of Difcreting Cyphers, though a man 
 were utterly ignorant of the Alphabet of the Cypher, 
 and the Capitulations of fecrecy paft between the 
 Parties. Certainly it is an Art which requires great 
 paines and a good witt and is [as the other was] 
 confecrate to the Counfels of Princes: yet notwith- 
 ftanding by diligent previfion it may be made un- 
 profitable, though, as things are, it be of great ufe. 
 For if good and faithfull Cyphers were invented & 
 practifed, many of them would delude and foreftall 
 all the Cunning of the Decypherer, which yet are very 
 apt and eafie to be read or written: but the rawneffe 
 and unskilfulneffe of Secretaries, and Clarks in the 
 Courts of Princes, is fuch, that many times the 
 greateft matters are committed to futile and weake 
 Cyphers. 
 
 27
 
 THE 
 
 TRAGEDY OF 
 
 Anne Boleyn. 
 
 A DRAMA IN CIPHER 
 
 FOUND IN THE WORKS OF 
 
 SIR FRANCIS BACON. 
 
 DECIPHERED BY 
 
 ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP. 
 
 DETROIT, MICHIGAN, U. S. A.: 
 
 HOWARD PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GAY & BIRD, 
 
 22 Bedford St. Strand.
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 The Cipher discoveries in some of the literature of the 
 Elizabethan period, as set forth in Francis Bacon s Bi- 
 literal Cypher — a book recently published in America and 
 England — are most strange and important. To those not 
 familiar with them, a few words are requisite for an under- 
 standing of the methods of the production of this Cipher 
 play — The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn. 
 
 Two principal Ciphers have been found to exist in the 
 works of Bacon. The first, the Bi-literal, by the use of 
 Italic letters in different forms, concealed the rules and 
 directions for writing out a second of greater scope — a so- 
 called Word Cipher, in which key words indicate sections 
 of similar matter, that, brought together in a new sequence, 
 tell a different story. Both were invented by Bacon in his 
 youth. The primary, or Bi-literal Cypher, is fully ex- 
 plained in De Augmentis Scientiaruni, but it is only re- 
 cently that it has been found to exist in the Italic printing 
 of a number of the books of the Elizabethan era — books 
 ascribed to different authors but now proved to have been 
 written by Bacon. 
 
 On pages following are extracts from the Bi-lUeral Cy- 
 pher, as published, relating in the words of the inventor 
 himself the manner of using the Key-Word Cipher for the 
 segregation and reconstruction of the hidden narratives, 
 infolded in the pages as originally printed, with which we 
 are familiar. These directions are fragmentary, scattered 
 through many of the books deciphered, and are many times 
 repeated in varying forms of expression. 
 
 The more important only are here gathered, which, with 
 the "Argument" and the keys, now given, of this tragedy. 
 
 31
 
 II PREFACE. 
 
 will outline the plan of this work. It may be interesting to 
 know that the use of the key words is progressive, and that 
 a small number only are used at one time : the first six or 
 seven writing the prologue, a few of the next the opening 
 scenes of the play, and so on through the entire work, some 
 being dropped as others are taken up successively until all 
 have been used. An appendix gives the book and page 
 from which the lines are taken that have been brought to- 
 gether as the "great architect or master-builder directed." 
 
 In the reconstruction, especially when prose is changed 
 to verse, the order of the words is slightly changed to meet 
 the requirements of "rythmic measure in the Iambic." 
 The great author used large parts of many scenes in two 
 distinct plays — open and concealed — now and then with 
 the same dramatis personae, again with others clearly indi- 
 cated as belonging, historically, to these particular scenes. 
 This fact may jostle our ideas somewhat, as we find new 
 speakers using the familiar lines, but there is an added 
 interest, when the transposition gives the accuracy of his- 
 tory to the beauty of dramatic expression. This seems the 
 reverse of the natural order, but it is seeming only, for the 
 literary world became acquainted with the rewritten plays 
 three centuries before the hidden originals came to light. 
 
 In the banquet scene of this tragedy, the iffrst part is 
 almost identical with that of Henry Eighth, although — 
 when "like joins like," something from Macbeth, from 
 Hamlet, from Romeo and Juliet, etc., etc., is added — 
 while other diversions of that festival night are not given 
 openly in any of the works. The handkerchief scenes of 
 the imagined tragedy of Othello belong to this real, but 
 concealed, tragedy of Anne Boleyn, and the accusations 
 against the Queen of Sicilia are a part of the charge against 
 this martyred Queen ; the reply, a part of the pathetic but 
 brave response she made. The second part was never be- 
 fore in any published drama. 
 
 32
 
 PREFACE. Ill 
 
 It would seem that Bacon learned from Cicero the 
 method of preparing matter which could with slight varia- 
 tions be adapted to more than one purpose. We find this 
 in the Advancement of Learning (1605, p. 52). 
 
 "And Cicero himself e, being broken unto it by great ex- 
 perience, delivereth it plainelj; That whatsoever a man 
 shall have occasion to speake of, (if he will take the 
 paines) he may have it in effect premediate, and handled 
 in these. So that when hee cometh to a particular, he shall 
 have nothing to doe, but to put too Names and times, and 
 places; and such other Circumstances of Individuals." 
 
 A little further on (p. 56), is an instance where an in- 
 quiry about the tablets in K'eptune's Temple is ascribed to 
 Diagoras, while in the Apothegms this same question is put 
 in the mouth of Bion. And, in the First Folio of the 
 Shakespeare Plays, a very marked example occurs in Romeo 
 and Juliet. 
 
 Romeo speaking, says : 
 
 "The gray ey'd morne smiles on the frowning night, 
 Checkring the Easterne Clouds with streakes of light, 
 And darknesse fleckel'd like a drunkard reeles. 
 From forth dayes pathway, made by Titans wheeles." 
 
 Then almost immediately after, the Friar gives the same 
 lines, with very slight but distinctive changes : 
 
 "The gray ey'd morne smiles on the frowning night, 
 Checkring the Easterne Cloudes with streaks of light, 
 And fleckled darknesse like a drunkard reeles. 
 From forth dales path, and Titans burning wheeles.'' 
 
 The modern editors cut out one quatrain as a supposed 
 mistake, the decipherer discovers by the keys and joining- 
 words that each has a place — the first in one work, and the 
 second in another. 
 
 As the tragical events of this period in the history of the 
 ill-fated queen, now known to be Bacon's ancestress, have 
 
 33
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 little by little unfolded in the deciphering, there has been a 
 deepening sense of the pathos of the story. Like dissolving 
 views the scenes appear, and fade, and this mightiness 
 meets misery so soon that we feel the shock. There is the 
 gentle Anne's appearance at the banquet, "when King 
 Henry for the first time cometh truely under the spell of 
 her beautie" — his infatuation — his determination that 
 nothing should stand in the way of making her his wife — 
 the divorce from Katherine — the coronation — the disap- 
 proval of the people, not of Anne but of the King — the in- 
 sulting song at the coronation festivities — the birth of 
 Elizabeth, Bacon's mother, and the King's disappointment 
 that the princess was not a prince. Later there is the 
 King's fickleness, which prompted the false charges against 
 his wife — the mockery of the trial — the true nobleness of 
 the victim — the injustice of her condemnation — the pa- 
 thetic message to the King, as she was led to the scaffold — 
 the cruelty of her execution. 
 
 It is no wonder that Bacon felt this deeply, nor that 
 "every act and scene is a tender sacrifice, and an incense lo 
 her sweet memory." 
 
 ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP. 
 
 Detroit, November, 1901. 
 
 34
 
 AEGUMEXT OF THE PLAY. 
 
 As may bee well knowne unto yon, tli' qiiestio' of Eliza- 
 beth, her legitimacie, made her a Protestant, for the Pope 
 had not recognis'd th' union, tho' it were royale, which her 
 sire made with fayre x\nne Boleyn. Still we may see that 
 despite some restraining feare, it suited her to dallie with 
 the question, to make a faint shew of settling the mater as 
 her owne co'sie'ee dictated, if we take th' decisions of 
 facts; but the will of th' remorse-tost king left no doubt 
 in men's minds concerning th' former marriage, in fact, as 
 th' crowne was giv'n first to Mary, his daughter of that 
 marriage, before commi'g to Elizabeth. 
 
 In th' storie of my most infortunate grandmother, the 
 sweet ladie who saw not th' headsman's axe when shee 
 went forth proudly to her coronation, you shall read of a 
 sadnesse that touches me neere, partlie because of neere- 
 nesse in bloud, partlie from a firme beliefe and triist in 
 her innocencie. Therefore every act and scene of this play 
 of which I speake, is a tende' sacrifice, and an incense to 
 her sweete memorie. It is a plea to the generations to 
 come for a just judgement upon her life, whilst also giving 
 the world one of the noblest o' my plays, hidden in Cy'hrc 
 in many other works. 
 
 A short argument, and likewise th' keies, are giv'n to 
 ayde th' decypherer when it is to be work'd out as I wish. 
 This doth tell th' story with suflBcient clearnes to guide you 
 to our liidden storie. 
 
 This opeth at th' palace, when King Henry for the 
 first time cometh truely under the spell of her beautie, — 
 then in th' highest perfection of dainty grace, fresh, un- 
 spoiled, — and the charme of youthlie manners. It iti
 
 XVIII ARGUMENT. 
 
 thought this was that inquisition which brought out f eares 
 regarding th' marriage contracted with Katharine of Arra- 
 gon, so that none greatly wond'red whe' prolonged consul- 
 tation of the secret voyce in his soule assur'd the questioner 
 noe good could ever come from the union. Acti'g upon 
 this conviction he doth confer money and titles upon his 
 last choise to quiet objections on score of unmeetnes. 
 
 But tho' an irksome thing, truth shall be told. Tho' it 
 be ofttimes a task, — if selfe-imposed, not by any meanes 
 th' lesse, but more wearisome, since the work hath noe 
 voyce of approvall or praise, — I intend its completion. For 
 many simple causes th' historic of a man's life cometh 
 from acts that we see through stayned glasse darkelie, and 
 of th' other sexe, a man doth perceyve lesse, if possible, 
 but th' picture that I shall heere give is limn'd most care- 
 fully. However m' pen hath greatly digress'd, and Lo 
 returne. 
 
 Despite this mark of royall favour, a grave matter like 
 the divorcement of a royall spouse to wed a maide, suited 
 not with fayre Anne's notions of justice, and with a sweete 
 grace she made answere when the King sued for favour : — 
 "I am not high in birth as would befit a Queene, but I am. 
 too good to become your mistresse." So there was no waye 
 to compasse his desires save to wring a decree out o' th' 
 Pope and wed th' maide, not a jot regarding her answer 
 unlesse to bee the more eager to have his waye. 
 
 Th' love Lord Percy shew'd my lady, although so 
 frankly return'd, kept the wish turning, turning as a rest- 
 less mill. Soone he resolv'd on proof of his owne spirit, doe 
 th' Pope how he might, and securing a civill decree, pri- 
 vately wedded th' too youthfuU Anne, and hid her for space 
 of severall dales untill th' skies could somewhat cleare ; but 
 when th' earlie sumer came, in hope that there might 
 soone bee borne to them an heyre of th' desir'd kinde, 
 
 36
 
 OF THE PLAY. XIX 
 
 order'd willinglie her coronation sparing noe coste to make 
 it outvie anie other. 
 
 And when she was borne along, surrounded by soft 
 white tissew, shielded by a canopie of white, whilst she is 
 wafted onwards, you would say an added charme were to 
 paint the lillie, or give the rose perfume. 
 
 This was onely th' beginning of a triumph, bright as 
 briefe, — in a short space 'twas ore. Henry chose to con- 
 sider th' infant princesse in the light of great anger of a 
 just God brought upon him for his sinnes, but bearing this 
 with his daring spirit, he compelleth the Actes of Suprem- 
 acy and Succession, which placed him at the head of the 
 Church of England, in th' one case, and made his heires 
 by Queene Anne th' successours to th' throne. Untill that 
 time, onely male heyres had succeeded to th' roiall power 
 and the act occasioned much surprise amongst our nobilitie. 
 
 But Henry rested not the'. The lovelinesse of Anne 
 and her natural opennesse of manner, so potent to winne 
 th' weake heart o' th' King, awaken'd suspition and much 
 cruell jealousie when hee saw th' gay courtiers yielding to 
 th' spell of gracefuU gentility, — heighten'd by usage for- 
 rayn, as also at th' English Court. But if truth be said, 
 th' fancy had taken him to pay lovi'g court unto the faire 
 Jane Seymour, who was more beautifuU, and quite young, 
 — but also most ordinary as doth regard personall manner, 
 and th' qualitie that made th' Queene so pleasing, — Lady 
 Jane permitting marks of gracious favour t' be freelie 
 offered. 
 
 And the Queene, unfortunately for her secret hope, 
 surpris'd them in a tender scene. Sodaine griefe orewhelm- 
 ing her so viole'tlie, she swound before them, and a little 
 space thereafter the infant sonne so constantly desir'd, 
 borne untimely, disappointed once more this selfish mon- 
 arch. This threw him into great fury, so that he was 
 cruellie harsh where [he] should give comfort and sup- 
 
 37
 
 XX ARGUMENT. 
 
 port, throwing so much blame upon the gentle Queene, 
 that her heart dyed within her not long after soe sadde 
 ending of a mother, her hopes. 
 
 Under pretexte of beleeving gentle Queene Anne to be 
 guilty of unf aithfullnesse, Henry had her convey' d to Lon- 
 don Tower, and subjected her to such ignominy as one can 
 barelie beleeve, ev'n basely laying to her charge the 
 gravest sins, and summoning a jury of peeres delivered the 
 Queene for tryal and sentence. His act doth blacken 
 pitch. Ev'n her father, sitting amidst the peeres before 
 whom shee was tried, exciteth not so much astonishment 
 since hee was forc'd thereto. 
 
 Henry's wdll was done, but hardly could hee restraine 
 the impatience that sent him forth from his pallace at th' 
 hour of her execution to an eminence neare by, in order 
 to catche th' detonation (ation) of th' field peece whose 
 hollow tone tolde the moment at which th' cruell axe fell, 
 and see the blacke flag, that signall which floated wide to 
 tell the world she breath'd no more. 
 
 Th' hast with which hee then went forward wdth his 
 marriage, proclaym'd the reall rigor or frigidity of his 
 hart. It is by all men accompted strange, this subtile 
 power by which soe many of the peeres could be forc'd to 
 passe sentence upon this lady, when proofes of guilt were 
 nowhere to bee produced. In justice to a memorie dear 
 to myselfe, I must aver that it is far from cleare yet, upon 
 what charge shee was found worthie of death. It must of 
 neede have beene some quiddet of th' lawe, that chang'd 
 some harmlesse words into anything one had in minde, for 
 in noe other waye could speech of hers be made wrongf uU. 
 Having fayl'd to prove her untrue, nought could bring- 
 about such a resulte, had this not (have) beene accom- 
 plish'd. 
 
 Thu% w^as her good fame made a reproache, and time 
 hath not given backe that priceles treasure. If my plaie 
 
 38
 
 OF THE PLAY. XXI 
 
 shal shew this most clearly, I shall be co'tente. And as 
 for my roiall grandsire, whatever honour hath beene lost 
 by such a course, is re-gain' d by his descendants from the 
 union, through this lovi'g justification of Anne Bulle', his 
 murther'd Queene. 
 
 Before I go further with instructions, I make bold to 
 say that th' benefits we who now live in our free England 
 reape [are] from her faith and unfayling devotion to th' 
 advancement, that she herselfe promoting, beheld well 
 undertaken. It was her most earnest beliefe in this re- 
 markable and widelie spread effecte on th' true prosperitie 
 of the realme, and not a love o' dignity or power, — if the 
 evidence of workes be taken, — that co'strain'd her to take 
 upon her th' responsibility of roialtie. And I am fullie 
 perswaded in mine owne minde that had shee lived to carry 
 out all th' work, her honours, no doubt, had outvied those 
 of her world-wide famed and honour'd daughter who con- 
 tinu'd that which had beene so well commenc'd. 
 
 I am aware many artes waned in the raignes of 
 Edward and bloodie Mary, also that their recovery must 
 have requir'd patient attention and the expenditure of 
 money my mother had no desire so to imploy, having many 
 other things at that time by whicli th' coffers were drayn'd 
 subtly ; but that it must require f arre greater perseverance 
 in order to begin so noble work, devising th' plannes and 
 ayding in their execution, cannot be impugn'd. Many 
 times these things do not shewe lightness or th' vanitie 
 which some have laid to her charge. 
 
 However th' play doth reveale this better, f arre, then 1 
 wish t' give it in this Cypher, therefore I begge that it 
 shall bee written out and kept as a perpetual monument of 
 my wrong'd, but innocent ancestresse. 
 
 My keies mentio'd in the beginning of this most help- 
 full work, will follow in this place : — 
 
 39
 
 XXII KEYS OF THE PLAY. 
 
 The King Henry Sevent, Kath'rine th' Infanta, 
 Prince Arthur, Catholicke Spaine, Prince of Wales, King 
 Henry th' Eight, Rome, nu'cio, Pope, Protestant, Anne 
 Bullen, prelate, Wolsey, divorce, fury, excommunication, 
 France, Francis First, marriage, ceremony, brother, pa- 
 geant, barge, Richmond, Greenwich, Tower, procession, 
 cloth, tissue, panoply, canopy, cloth o' gold, litter, bearing- 
 staves, pageant, streets, coronation, crowne of Edward, 
 purple robe, roiall ermine, mace, th' sword, wand, esses, 
 French, Spanish ambassadours, advance-guards, mayor, 
 dutchesse, Duke Suffolke, oSTorfolke, Marquesse Dorset, 
 Bishop London, same Winchester, th' Knights of th' Gar- 
 ter, Lord Chancellour, judges, Surrey, Earle, quirrestres, 
 lords, ladies, et al., Westminster, Rochford, Wiltshire, 
 manors, castles, land, valew, titles, Marchionesse of Pem- 
 brooke, ports, countesses, roiall scepter, stile, power, title, 
 pompe, realme, artes, advancement, liberty, treasure, warre, 
 treaty, study, benefit, trade, priest, monastery, restitution, 
 acts, supremacy, succession, Elizabeth, daughter, sonne, 
 heyres, unfaithfulnesse, treason, j^orris, Weston, subtile 
 triumph, hate, losse, evill, jealousie, love, beautie, Tower, 
 tryall, proofe, sentry, sentence, executed, burning, choyce, 
 
 the axe, block, uncover'd face, report, black-flag, freedom, 
 marriage-vow, Edward. 
 
 As hath most frequentlie bin said these will write th' 
 play, but th' foregoing abridgeme't, or argument, wil ayde 
 you. In good hope of saving th' same from olde Father 
 Time's ravages, heere have I hidden this Cypher play. To 
 you I entruste th' taske I, myselfe, shall never see com- 
 plete, it is probable, but soe firme is my conviction that it 
 must before long put up its leaves like th' plant in th' 
 sunne, that I rest contente awaiting that time. 
 
 40
 
 CONCERNING! THE 
 
 Bi-LiTERAL Cypher 
 
 PROS AND CONS 
 OF THE CONTROVERSY
 
 THE BI-LITEKAL CYPHEE OF FEAI^CIS BACOTnT. 
 
 ARTICLES FROM MAGAZINES AND OTHER SOURCES. 
 
 In the following pages will be found the statement of its 
 discovery in the Works of Bacon, and discussions by the public 
 Press. Inquries, objections and answers from so many different 
 points of view would seem to cover every phase of the matter. 
 Unreasoning prejudice is, of course, beyond reply. To those 
 of open mind this exposition of the discovery will be most in- 
 teresting. Its importance cannot be overestimated. A new 
 literature, buried these three hundred years, as interesting as it 
 it surprising, has been unearthed. Its authenticity is placed 
 beyond question.
 
 BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF FRAISTCIS BACOK 
 
 Baconiana. 
 
 To thousands who tread unthinkingly the earth's fair sur- 
 face, the mineral constitution of the globe, or the history of its 
 formation, is as a sealed book. The geologist, however, 
 pointing out the parallel lines in a rock will tell us they indicate 
 the glacial period. From a piece of coal he will describe the 
 forests and plant life which formed the coal measures of the 
 carboniferous era. He finds where volcanic action reveals 
 strata from unknown depths, and reads their history like a 
 printed page. 
 
 In architecture, the ages stamped, each its own, peculi- 
 arities upon column and temple, and the student of that science 
 will declare the date of the ruins which accident or excavation 
 have brought to view. 
 
 We see a tapering obelisk inscribed with hieroglyphics, and 
 say this is Egyptian. The eye educated to discriminate will 
 study the writings upon the stone that has been preserved from 
 remote ages, and will say. this is the hieroglyphic proper; this 
 ideographic: this the phonetic, or of this or that peculiar 
 character, this is the Egyptian Hieratic ; this the Phoenecian ; 
 these the Cuniform characters of the ancient Persian or 
 Assyrian inscriptions, and few will challenge the correctness 
 of the decipherings. 
 
 The savant will tell us that the environment, the nationality 
 and personality are unmistakably impressed upon the literature 
 of ever}^- country, mark the times and character of its people 
 and the stage of its progress. Year by year, decade by decade, 
 age by age. time passed and wrought its changes until that 
 period was reached in Vv^hich the English people of the present 
 day are interested because of ihe discussion which it has 
 aroused — the latter part of the XVIth and beginning of the 
 XVHth Centuries. Knighthood had passed its flower but the 
 English Court still loved the tales of Knightly deeds and found 
 
 43
 
 delight in the fancies of the Shepheard's Calender and Faerie 
 Queene. Legitimate drama began to develop, replacing 
 masques and mysteries. History was written and its lessons 
 emphasized by dramatic representations. Essays brought the 
 truth "home to men's bosoms and business," and experimental 
 science made clear that "there are more things in heaven and 
 earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy." 
 
 This was the age when Francis Bacon lived and wrote, and 
 fantasy, and essay, and drama began to appear, at first 
 anonymously, and then under names of men as authors, whose 
 lives, habits and capabilities presented the most incongruous 
 contrasts to the works produced. They were days of peril and 
 secret intrigue, when the words from the lips of the Courtier 
 were often farthest removed from the thought of the brain, 
 and when all secret communications were committed to cipher. 
 
 Of all the weighty secrets of that time, none save the Queen 
 of England herself bore any more momentous than that pro- 
 lific author. So momentous were they that few traces of their 
 import found place upon the public records in connected or 
 intelligible form, and were supposed to have died with those 
 most intimately connected with them. 
 
 Bacon placed in his De Augmentis Scientiarum the key to a 
 simple but most useful Cipher, of his own invention, and we 
 now find that through its instrumentality the secrets so 
 jealously guarded in his life time, were committed to his works, 
 and waited only the hand and vision of a decipherer to be 
 revealed to the ages which should follow. 
 
 Because the writer of this article has for seven years worked 
 upon the Ciphers of Bacon, not as a dilettante, but as one who 
 realized the importance and vastness of the undertaking, urged 
 on by the fascination of a great discovery and a growing 
 interest in the developments of it, the statements made con- 
 cerning the "Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon" are not 
 "uninspired guesses," nor mere conjecture, but such as come 
 from knowledge gained by the hardest work and closest appli- 
 cation, until the eye has been trained to that degree of dis- 
 crimination by which, like that of the geologist, it is able to 
 make hidden things plain. 
 
 In pursuit of the same objects as other students of things 
 Baconian, my own investigations have been in quite a different 
 field from theirs, and have met with most successful, as well as 
 
 44
 
 most surprising results, not less surprising to myself, than they 
 will be to my readers. I have been glad to submit the results of 
 my years of study for the edification of those interested in the 
 same subject, for they supply missing links in the literature 
 of that era and explain much, if not all, that has been 
 mysterious and difficult of explanation. 
 
 The last two numbers of Baconiana have presented varied 
 comments upon the published results of my investigations. 
 Naturally opinions differ, according to the point of view. 
 Although the things discovered and brought to light are those 
 which have been so diligently sought for, and believed to exist 
 by the deepest students, yet the wider field unexpectedly dis- 
 closed and the marvelousness of it all, prompt to incredulity. 
 
 The objections urged against a belief in the cipher dis- 
 closures appear in a variety of forms. The astounding 
 revelations are beyond the dreams of the most ardent believers 
 that Bacon's sphere of action and achievements were far 
 greater than had been acknowledged, and some have gone so 
 far as to think the recent publication of the "Bi-literal Cypher" 
 must have been a romantic creation of my own, the words made 
 to fit the differing forms of the Italic letters in the old books, 
 and written out in imitation of the forms of thought and 
 manner of speech of the old English language, enriched by the 
 vocabulary of the great Francis. To suggest such a thing, 
 with all that it implies, would bring its own refutation. 
 
 It is true that the Cipher Story does not in all respects accord, 
 or stop with what has been supposed to be the "facts of 
 history." Authorities do not agree as to what the "facts" 
 were, nor is it believed that all have found place on the records, 
 and historians have filled gaps with deductions and conjectures, 
 some of which have been most extravagant and impossible. 
 Especially does this appear to be true in the light of the cipher 
 disclosures, and whatever of variation there may be will 
 furnish a profitable field for the investigators, and there is little 
 reason to doubt their ultimate harmony. Cyphers would not 
 be used to hide known facts, and could be useful only in 
 recording those that had been suppressed. 
 
 Some have given expression to the thought that the Cipher 
 Story shows a most unpleasant phase of character in Bacon, 
 and a lack of that princely spirit which should have actuated 
 the son of Elizabeth, entitled to the throne, in not trying to 
 
 45
 
 possess himself of royal power at any cost. Essex, of a more 
 martial spirit, essayed to seize it, when Francis refused to 
 make open claim to being Prince, in the face of the denials of 
 the Queen, — and Essex was beheaded for the attempt. The 
 murder of two princes of the blood royal by Richard Third; 
 the imprisonment and execution of another, by Henry 
 Seventh; the juggling with all rights by Henry Eighth, were 
 not remote, — quite near enough to chill the blood of the peace- 
 loving student and deter him from making himself sufficiently 
 , obnoxious to invite a similar fate. Later, his own account, 
 in the Cipher, of the reasons for not striving to establish him- 
 self upon the throne appear quite adequate, — the succession 
 established by law, and quite satisfactory to the people. — "our 
 witnesses dead, our certificates destroyed," etc., (pages 33, 38, 
 47, 201, and other references). He submitted to the inevitable 
 as did Prince Napoleon, and as others have done in our own 
 time, — for "what will not a man yield up for his life." 
 
 Whether or not Bacon has "told the truth" in the Cipher, 
 is not in the province of the decipherer to discuss. A decipherer 
 can only disclose what is infolded. As to "slandering the 
 Queen" in the statements which the Cipher records, — if so, 
 , Bacon would not be alone, for the old MSS, and as reliable and 
 recent an authority as the National Dictionary of Biography 
 admit the motherhood of Elizabeth, though they do not give 
 the names of the offspring. This is supplied by the Cipher, 
 written by the one person most likely to know. If the Cipher 
 exists, and we know that it does, there must be some more 
 reasonable theory for its being written into so many pub- 
 lished books for more than fifty years, than for the purpose of 
 slander or falsification. The peril of its discovery in the early 
 days of its infolding would be enhanced by its being a slander, 
 and the head would have "stood tickle on the shoulders" of 
 anyone guilty of so causeless a crime. 
 
 Francis would have been more "lunatic" for risking such 
 matter in cipher if not true, than "coward" for not daring 
 openly to proclaim the truth which was being so carefully 
 suppressed. 
 
 Many inquiries have reached me, asking "how is the Cipher 
 worked," and expressing disappointment that the inquirer had 
 been unable to grasp the system or its application. It would 
 be difficult to teach Greek or Sanscrit, in a few written lines. 
 
 46
 
 or to learn it by a few hours study. It is equally so with the 
 Cipher. Deciphering the Bi-literal Cipher, as it appears in 
 Bacon's works, will be impossible to those who are not pos- 
 sessed of an eyesight of the keenest, and perfect accuracy of 
 vision in distinguishing minute differences in form, lines, 
 angles and curves in the printed letters. Other things 
 absolutely essential are unlimited time and patience, per- 
 sistency, and aptitude, love for overcoming puzzling difficul- 
 ties and, I sometimes think, inspiration. As not every one can 
 be a poet, an artist, an astronomer, or adept in other branches 
 requiring special aptitude, so, and for the same reasons, not 
 every one will be able to master the intricacies of the Cipher, 
 for in many ways it is most intricate and puzzling, — not in the 
 system itself, but in its use in the books. "It must not be made, 
 too plain lest it be discovered too quickly nor hid too deep, lest 
 it never see the light of day," is the substance of the inventor's 
 thought many times repeated in the work. 
 
 The system has been recognized, and used, since the day that 
 De Augmentis was published, and has had its place in every 
 translation and publication since, but the ages have waited to 
 learn that it was embedded in the original books themselves 
 from the date of his earliest writings (1579 as now known) 
 and infolded his secret personal history. To disbelieve the 
 Cipher because not "every one" can decipher it, would be as 
 great a mistake as it would be to say that the translations of the 
 character writings and hieroglyphics of older times, which have 
 been deciphered, were without foundation or significance, 
 because we could not ourselves master them in a few hours of 
 inefficient trial. I would repeat, Ciphers are used to hide 
 things, not to make them plain. 
 
 The different editions of the same work form each a separate 
 study and tell a different Cipher Story. The two editions of 
 De Augmentis form an illustration. The first, or "London" 
 edition, was issued, according to Spedding, in October, 1623. 
 The next, or "Paris" edition, was issued in 1624. They differ 
 in the Italic printing, and some errors in the second do not 
 occur in the first. The 1624 edition has been deciphered; and 
 the hidden story appears in the "Bi-literal Cypher" (page 310). 
 The 1623 edition has not, as yet, been deciphered. It seems to 
 be a rare edition. I found a copy in the British Museum, one in 
 the Bodleian library at Oxford, two in Cambridge, and one in 
 
 47
 
 the choice collection of old books in the library of Sir Edwin 
 Burning Lawrence. 
 
 In the course of my work, Marlowe's Edward Second had 
 been deciphered before De Augmentis was taken up. At the 
 end of Edward Second occurs this "veiled" statement, 
 referring to De Augmentis (page 152 Bi-literal Cypher) ". . 
 . . the story it contains (our twelft king's nativity since 
 our sovereign, whose tragedy we relate in this way) shall now 
 know the day . . " Had Francis succeeded to the throne, 
 he would have been the twelfth king (omitting the queens) 
 after Edward Second, hence the inference that De Augmentis 
 would contain much of his personal history. My disappoint- 
 ment was great when instead of this the hidden matter was 
 found to be the Argument of the Odyssey, something not 
 anticipated, or wanted, and would never have been the result of 
 my own choice or imagination. At the close of the deciphered 
 work in Burton's Anatomy, in which the Argument of the Iliad 
 was most unexpectedly found — another great disappoint- 
 ment — is this "veiled" statement: (page 309) ". . . while 
 a Latin work — De Augmentis — will give aid upon the other 
 (meaning the Odyssey). As in this work (meaning the Iliad) 
 favorite parts are enlarged (in blank verse) yet as it lendeth 
 ayde . . .," etc., — i. e., sets a pattern for the writing out of 
 the Odyssey in the Word Cipher. This explained the 1624 edi- 
 tion, and the inference is that the 1623 edition will disclose the 
 personal history referred to on page 1 52. 
 
 In the 1624 edition there are some errors in the illustration 
 of the cipher methods and in the Cicero Epistle which do not 
 occur in the 1623 edition. The Latin words midway on page 
 282, "qui pauci sunt" in the 1623 edition, are "qui parati sunt" 
 in the 1624, page 309, — an error referred to on page 10 of the 
 Introduction of the "Bi-literal Cypher" as wrong termination, 
 there being too many letters for the group, and one letter must 
 be omitted. Other variations show errors in making up the 
 forms on pages 307 and 308 in the 1624 edition, whether pur- 
 posely for confusion or otherwise, it is impossible to tell. The 
 line on page 307, 
 
 "Bxemplum Alphaheti Biformis," 
 should be placed above the Bi- formed Alphabet on page 308, 
 while 
 
 "Bxemplum Accommodationis" 
 
 48
 
 ■>J 
 
 should be placed above the example of the adaptation just pre- 
 ceding. The repetition of twelve letters of the bi-formed alpha- 
 bet could hardly be called a printer's error, as they are of 
 another form, unlike those on the preceding page, and may be 
 taken as an example of the statement that "any two forms will 
 do." In these illustrations the letters seem to be drawn with a 
 pen and are a mixture of script and peculiar forms, and unlike 
 any in the regular fonts of type used in the printed matter. No 
 part of the Cipher Story is embodied in the script or pen letters 
 on these pages. Whether or not the changing of the lines was 
 done purposely, the grouping of the Italic letters from the 
 regular fonts is consecutive as the printed lines stand, the 
 wrong make-up causing no break in the connected narration. 
 There are many "veiled" statements throughout the "Bi-literal 
 Cypher," such as are noted in Edward Second and in Burton. 
 To the decipherer they have a meaning, indicating what to look 
 for and where to find that which is necessary for correct and 
 completed work, as well as to guard against errors and incor- 
 rect translation. 
 
 My researches among the old books in the British Museum 
 the past season have borne rich fruit, for there were found the 
 earlier cipher writings. Shepheard's Calendar, which appeared 
 anonymously in 1579, contains the first, and discloses the signi- 
 fication of the mysterious initials "E. K." and the identity of 
 this person with the author of the work. The Cipher narrative 
 begins thus : "E. K. will be found to be nothing less than the 
 letters signifying the future Sovereign, or England's King. . 
 . . In event of death of Her Ma., who bore in honorable 
 wedlock, Robert, now known as sonne to Walter Devereaux, 
 as well as him who now speaketh to the unknown aidant 
 decypherer . . . we, the eldest borne should by Divine 
 right of a law of God, and made binding on man, inherit 
 scepter and throne. . . . We devised two Cyphers, now 
 used for the first time, for this said history, as safe, clear and 
 undecipherable, whilst containing the keys in each which open 
 the most important. . . . Till a decypherer find a pre- 
 pared or readily discovered alphabet, it seemeth to us almost 
 impossible, save by Divine gift and heavenly instinct, that he 
 should be able to read what is thus revealed." 
 
 Following Shepheard's Calender, the works between 1579 
 and 1590, so far deciphered (but as yet unpublished) are: 
 
 49
 
 Arraignement of Paris, 1584. 
 
 Mirrour of Modestie, 1584. 
 
 Planetomachia, 1585. 
 
 Treatise of Melancholy, 1586. Two editions of this were 
 issued the same year, with differing Italics. The first ends 
 with an incomplete cipher word which is completed in the 
 second for the continued narration, thus making evident which 
 was first published, unless they were published at the same 
 time. 
 
 Euphues, 1587; Morando, 1587. These two also join 
 together, with an incomplete word at the end of the first finding 
 its completion in the commencement of the Cipher in the second. 
 
 Perimedls the Blacke-smith, 1588; Pandosto, 1588. These 
 two also join together. 
 
 Spanish Masquerado, 1589. Two editions of this work bear 
 date the same year, but have different Italicising. In one edition 
 the Cipher Story is complete, closing with the signature : "Fr. 
 Prince." In the other the story is not complete, the book 
 ending with an incomplete cipher word, the remainder of which 
 will be found in some work of near that date which has not yet 
 been indicated and deciphered. 
 
 These, while not all the works in which Cipher will be found 
 between the years 1579 and 1590, unmistakably connect the 
 earlier writings with those of later date than 1590 which have 
 been deciphered — as published in the "Bi-literal Cypher" — so 
 that we now know that the Cipher writings were being con- 
 tinuously infolded in Bacon's works, from the first to the last 
 of his literary productions. 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 50
 
 THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF SIR FRAXCIS BACOX. 
 
 A NEW LIGHT ON A FEW OLD BOOKS. 
 
 By Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 [Mrs. Gallup professes to find in certain of Bacon's zvorks, the first 
 folio of Shakespeare, and other books of the period, tivo distinctive 
 founts of italic type employed. All the letters of one fount stand for 
 the letter a in the cipher, those of the other for b. Hence it is pos- 
 sible to translate, as it were, any given line of type into a scries of 
 abbba, abaab, baaba, abaaa. and so on, according to the type employed, 
 and thereby, to spell out words and sentences in accordance zvith the 
 principles laid down by Bacon himself in his account of the so-called 
 "Bi-literal" cypher in his "De Augmentis Scientiarium." In a further 
 article which she is now preparing Mrs. Gallup ivill deal zvith a 
 number of the individual writers who have taken part in the Bacon- 
 Shakespeare controversy during the last fezv weeks, zvhose criticisDts. 
 we learn by cablegram, and only nozv before her. This preliniinary 
 paper will enable our readers to acquaint themselves with the nature 
 of Mrs. Gallup' s laborious investigations. — Ed. P. M. M.]. 
 
 Pall Mall Magazine, March, 1902. 
 
 It is a pleasure to respond to the cabled invitation from the 
 Pall Mall Magazine to write an article n]X)n the "Bacon- 
 Shakespeare Controversy," although I have really never bccni 
 concerned with it, except incidentally. I did not find myself 
 a Baconian until the discovery of the Bacon ciphers answered 
 the questions in such a final way that controversy should end. 
 
 I think my best plan will be to give a clear, authoritative, 
 and somewhat popular exposition of my book. The Bi-Jiteral 
 Cypher of Sir Francis Bacon, which was recently very kindly 
 and appreciatively reviewed by Mr. Mallock in the Nineteenth 
 Century and After. I had not the pleasure of knowing;' Mr, Mal- 
 lock, and his article was wholly a surprise. 
 
 In giving to the woidd the results of my researches, I have 
 felt, as have my publishers, that my work should be left with- 
 out attempt upon our part to influence or mould opinion in 
 any way otlicr tlmn by setting fortli what I have found. 
 
 61
 
 Some one has said, "any man's opinion is the measure of 
 his knowledge." If his knowledge is ample his judgment should 
 be true, and I am well aware there has been little opportunity 
 for men of letters or the reading public to know about this new 
 phase of the old subject. 
 
 The book itself is much wider in its range, and much more 
 far-reaching in its literary and historical consequences, than the 
 mere settlement of the Bacon-Shakespeare question. It con- 
 cerns not only the authorship of much of the best literature 
 of the Elizabethan period, but the regularity of successions to 
 the throne of England ; and it transfers the "controversy" from 
 the realm of literary opinion and criticism to the determina- 
 tion of the question whether I have correctly and truthfully 
 transcribed a cipher. 
 
 That this will at once meet with universal acceptance is 
 not expected. On the face of things it seems improbable — al- 
 most as improbable to the world as the revolution of the earth 
 about the sun was to Lord Bacon, who declared it could in no- 
 wise be accepted. "Galileo built his theory. . .supposing the 
 earth revolved. . . . But this he devised upon an assumption 
 that cannot be allowed — viz. that the earth moves." (Nov. Org.) 
 
 Two limited editions of the book were published, mostly 
 for private circulation, while my researches were going on, but 
 with little effort to obtain public audience, awaiting the time, 
 now arrived, when I could present the first of the cipher writ- 
 ings from early editions of works in the British Museum. 
 
 The interest it has excited has been considerable, varying 
 in its expression from more or less good-natured doubts as to 
 my sanity and veracity, from those who are satisfied with first 
 impressions ; to the careful examination by such writers as 
 Mr. Mallock and some others who have regarded it as worthy 
 of serious consideration. 
 
 For myself, I have been satisfied to wait for tlie verdict. 
 It will be that I have at great cost put before the public a most 
 detailed and elaborate hoax — or worse; or that Francis Bacon 
 was a cipher writer and the most extraordinary personage in 
 literature the world has yet known. 
 
 Assuming for the moment the cipher as a fact, what are 
 the claims made in it for himself? Briefly, but startlingly 
 stated, they are : That he was the author of the works attribu- 
 
 52
 
 ted to Edmund Spenser, and those of Greene, Peele, Marlowe, 
 and Shakespeare, a portion of those published by Ben Jonson, 
 also the Anatomy of Melancholy known as Burton's, besides the 
 works to which Bacon's name is attached; that these, instead 
 of being in fact the outpourings of literary inspiration, are lit- 
 erary mosaics, the repository of other literature — much of it 
 then dangerous to Bacon to expose — made consecutive by trans- 
 position, and gaining in literary interest by the new relations. 
 The bi-literal cipher gives the rules by which the constituent 
 parts of these mosaics are to be reassembled in their original 
 form by the "word-cipher," so called, a second system permeat- 
 ing the same works and hiding a larger and more varied liter- 
 ature than the first. It is also asserted that Bacon was the true 
 heir to the throne of England, through a secret marriage be- 
 tw^een the Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth, which took place 
 prior to her accession, while both were confined in the Tower 
 of London ; that for obvious reasons of state the marriage could 
 not be announced before the coronation, and that the Queen 
 afterwards refused to acknowledge it publicly ; that the unfor- 
 tunate Essex was in fact his younger brother, and the other- 
 wise inexplicable rebellion was undertaken by Essex to compel 
 from the Queen recognition of his descent, with expectation 
 of the throne if denied to, or not claimed by, Francis. 
 
 The personal matter, scattered in the bi-literal cipher 
 through the numerous volumes, is repeated in different forms 
 many times — evidently in the hope that the claims asserted to 
 the throne and the events of his life would be detected and de- 
 ciphered, from some, if not from all his works, at some future 
 time. 
 
 The book itself contains about 385 pages of deciphered 
 matter, written in the old English of the Elizabethan period, 
 and relating to men and things, literary and historical, then 
 existing. It affords the most ample and serious materials for 
 what may be called "the higher criticism" ; and such criticism 
 is very cordially invited, for reasons more important than any- 
 thing concerning my own abilities or personality. The most 
 sceptical will admit industry, and some sort of capability, in 
 producing a work of the kind. It is due to the pulolic that in 
 a presentation of this kind I should offer a prlma-facie case. 
 
 The (juestion most nearly related to the Bacon-Shakespeare 
 
 53
 
 controversy, from a literary standpoint, is: Was Bacon's imag- 
 ination, fancy and ability, equal to the production of such poet- 
 ic and dramatic literature as is embraced in the Shakespeare 
 plays and other works named ? The dicta obtainable from mere 
 comparisons of style are scarcely final. Individual judgments, 
 in this field, are far from conclusive or satisfactory. There is 
 as much difference in style between the laboured, interminable 
 sentences of Bacon's philosophical works and the polished sen- 
 tences of the Essays as there is between the Essays and the 
 epigrams of the Plays. 
 
 Bacon has been somewhat out of fashion of late. His phil- 
 osophy, once strong and new, has been developed into the daily 
 practice of these forceful and effective times, and is now inter- 
 esting principally to the curious. His life, — reduced by Pope 
 to the inconclusive epigram, "the wisest, brightest, and meanest 
 of mankind," — ending in his disgrace, does not now attract the 
 average reader, while the compactness of the Essays deters many 
 from a second reading. It is well, therefore, to refresh our 
 minds concerning the man, and the estimation in which he was 
 held before the present-day rush for new things had become so 
 absorbing. 
 
 Briefly, the well-considered opinions of those best fitted 
 to judge are, that his abilities were transcendent in every field. 
 Lord Macaulay tells us that Bacon's mind w^as "the most ex- 
 quisitely constructed intellect that has ever been bestowed upon 
 any of the children of men" ; Pope, that "Lord Bacon was the 
 greatest genius that England, or perhaps any other country, 
 ever produced" ; Sir Alexander Grant, that "it is as an inspired 
 seer, the prose-poet of modern science, that I reverence Bacon" ; 
 Alexander Smith, that "he seems to have written his Essays 
 with the pen of Shakespeare." Mackintosh calls his literature 
 "the utmost splendour of imagery." Addison says, that "he 
 possessed at once all those extraordinary talents which were di- 
 vided among the greatest authors of antiquity. . . one does not 
 know which to admire most in his writings, the strength of rea- 
 son, force of style, or brightness of imagination." Mr. Welch 
 assures us : "Lord Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet 
 and majestic rhythm which satisfies the sense, no less than the 
 superhuman wisdom of his philosophy satisfies the intellect." 
 While H. A. Taine, a Frenchman, recognising throughout the 
 
 54
 
 V 
 
 differences of language the force of the poetic thought, gives 
 us this in his English Literature : — 
 
 ''In this band of scholars, dreamers, and inquirers, appears 
 the most comprehensive, sensible, originative of the minds 
 of the age — Francis Bacon, a great and luminous intellect, 
 one of the finest of this poetic progeny. . . .There is nothing 
 in English prose superior to his diction. . , . His thought is in 
 the manner of artists and poets, and he speaks after the man- 
 ner of prophets and seers . . . Shakespeare and the seers do not 
 contain more vigorous or expressive condensations of thought, 
 more resembling inspiration. . . . His process is that of the crea- 
 tors: it is inspiration, not reasoning." 
 
 Again, Lord Macaulay tells us: "No man ever had an 
 imagination at once so strong and so thoroughly subjugated. 
 In truth, much of Bacon's life was spent in a visionary world, 
 amidst things as strange as any that are described in the Ara- 
 bian tales." — "A man so rare in knowledge of so many several 
 kinds, endued with the facility and felicity of expressing it all 
 in so elegant, significant, so abundant, and yet so choice and 
 ravishing array of words, of metaphors and allusions, as per- 
 haps the world has not seen since it was a world," said Sir Tobie 
 Mathew. 
 
 The German Schlegel, in his History of Literature, calls 
 him "this mighty genius," and adds, "Stimulated by his ca- 
 pacious and stirring intellect ... intellectual culture, nay, the 
 social organisation of modern Europe generally, assumed a new 
 shape and complexion." While again from Lord Macaulay we 
 quote this: "With great minuteness of observation he had an 
 amplitude of comprehension such as has never yet been vouch- 
 safed to any human being." 
 
 In the Encyclopoedia Britannica we read : "The thoughts 
 are weighty, and, even when not original, have acquired a pe- 
 culiar and unique tone or cast by passing through the crucible 
 of Bacon's mind. A sentence from the Essays can rarely be 
 mistaken for the production of any other writer. The short, 
 pithy sayings. 
 
 Jewels five words long 
 That on the stretched forefinger of all Time 
 Sparkle for ever, 
 
 55
 
 have become popular mottoes and household words. The style 
 is quaint, original, abounding in allusions and witticisms, and 
 rich, even to gorgeousness, with piled-up analogies and meta- 
 phors." 
 
 In the presence of these acknowledged masters in literary 
 judgment, I may well be silent. These quotations might be 
 extended indefinitely. Anything I could add of my own would 
 be repetition. In the face of these well-considered opinions, the 
 flippant adverse judgment of newspaper critics, in the Bacon- 
 Shakespeare controversy, thrown off in the hurry of daily is- 
 sues, may for the present be disregarded. The writers of such 
 articles have never read Bacon well, if at all, — perhaps not 
 Shakespeare thoroughly. 
 
 My work in the past eight years of constant study of the 
 subject has led me, of necessity, through every line and word 
 that Bacon wrote, both acknowledged and concealed, so far as the 
 latter has been developed. The work I have done upon the 
 word-cipher in reassembling his literature from the mosaic to 
 its original form has given me a critical knowledge at least, and 
 a basis perhaps possessed by few for forming, to the extent of 
 my abilities, a critical judgment; but I would merely add, that 
 he was, assuredly, master in many fields of which even they 
 who knew him best were unaware. 
 
 Granting him these literary powers, was he at the same 
 time a cipher writer ? and did he particularly affect this bi-liter- 
 al method of cipher writing? 
 
 For the first I refer, for brevity's sake, to the article on 
 cryptograms in the Encyclopoedia BrUannica ; and for the 
 second to the original Latin De Augmentis Scientiarum (edi- 
 tions of 1623 and 1624), and its very excellent translation by 
 Messrs. Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, where the bi-literal cipher 
 precisely as I have used it is described and illustrated by Bacon 
 in full, with the statement that he invented it while at the Court 
 of France. This was between his sixteenth and eighteenth 
 years. His first reference to it was in 1605. Its first publica- 
 tion was in 1623, after he had used it continuously forty-four 
 years, confiding to it his wrongs and woes, and intending, in 
 thus explaining and giving the key, that at some near or distant 
 day his sorrows and his claims should be known by its decipher- 
 ment. 
 
 56
 
 The cipher, described by Bacon in De Augmentis Scientiar- 
 um, is simplicity itself, being in principle mere combinations 
 and alternations of any two unlike things, and in practice as 
 used by him consisting of alternations of letters from two slight- 
 ly different founts of Italic type, arranged in groups of five. 
 This affords thirty-two possible combinations, being eight in~^ 
 excess of the twenty-four letters of the alphabet he used. The 
 free use of these Italics is a notable feature in all his literature, 
 and has been the cause of much speculation. Sometimes the 
 differences between the letters of the two founts are bold and 
 marked, often delicate and very difficult for the novice to dis- 
 tinguish, but possible of determination by the practised eye. The 
 differences, especially in the capitals used in the 1623 Folio of 
 the Shakespeare Plays, are apparent to the dullest vision, and 
 photographic copies of it are in nearly every public and many 
 private libraries, and so accessible to all. ^ j 
 
 In making up his alphabet the two founts are called by him 
 the 'a fount' and the 'h fount,' and the several groups of five, 
 representing each letter of the alphabet he used in the cipher, 
 are as follows : aaaaa, a ; aaaah, h ; aaaha, c ; etc., etc. 
 
 After the full exposition of this cipher by Mr. Mallock, a 
 repetition here would seem superfluous, and I will only take 
 space to say that the detailed explanation is to be found in De 
 Augmentis Scientiarum in every edition of Bacon's complete 
 works. 
 
 One of the interesting incidents of the use of this bi-literal 
 method is, that it did not at all require taking the printer into 
 the writer's confidence. A peculiar mark under the letter would 
 indicate the fount from which the letter was to be taken. The 
 printer may have thought Bacon insane, or what not, but the 
 marking gave him no clue to the cipher. 
 
 Perhaps I cannot better illustrate the scope of the research- 
 es that have brought out such strange and unexpected disclo- 
 sures than l)y giving the bibliography of my work. This will 
 have an attraction for many, who will sympathise with me in 
 the pleasure I have known in working in these rare and costly 
 old books. 
 
 The deciphering has been from the following original edi- 
 tions in my possession: 
 
 57
 
 %/ 
 
 The Advancement of Learning 1605 
 
 The Shepheards' Calender 1611 
 
 The Faerie Queene 1613 
 
 Novum Organum 1620 
 
 Parasceve 1620 
 
 The History of Henry VH 1622 
 
 Edward Second 1622 
 
 The Anatomy of Melancholy 1628* 
 
 The New Atlantis 1635* 
 
 Sylva Sylvarum 1635* 
 
 and also a beautifully bound full folio facsimile of the 1623 
 edition of the Shakespeare plays, bearing the name of Coleridge 
 on the title page. 
 
 In the Boston Library I obtained: 
 
 Richard Second 1598 
 
 David and Bethsabe 1599 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream 1600 
 
 Much Ado About Nothing 1600 
 
 Sir John Oldcastle 1600 
 
 Merchant of Venice 1600 
 
 Richard, Duke of York 1600 
 
 Treasons of Essex 1601 
 
 King Lear 1608 
 
 Henry Fifth 1608 
 
 Pericles 1609 
 
 Hamlet 1611 
 
 Titus Andronicus 1611 
 
 Richard Second 1615 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor 1619 
 
 Whole Contention of York, etc 1619 
 
 Pericles 1619 
 
 Yorkshire Tragedy 1619 
 
 Romeo and Juliet (without date) 
 
 From the choice library of John Dane, M.D., Boston : 
 
 The Treasons of Essex 1601 
 
 Vitae et Mortis 1623 
 
 From the library of Marshall C. Lefferts, of IS'ew York, 
 I had: 
 
 Ben Jonson's Plays, Folio 1616 
 
 A Quip for an Upstart Courtier 1620 
 
 * These three bear dates after Bacon's death, and were undoubt- 
 edly completed by Dr. Rawley, his secretary, whose explanation 
 regarding them is found on pages 339-340 of the Bi-literal 'Cypher. , 
 
 68
 
 From the Lenox Librarv, ^STew York: 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream 1600 
 
 Sir John Oldcastle 1600 
 
 London Prodigal 1605 
 
 Pericles 1619 
 
 Yorkshire Tragedy 1619 
 
 The Whole Contention, etc. 1619 
 
 Shakespeare, first folio 1623 
 
 and from Mrs. Pott, of London, England: 
 
 Ben Jonson's Plays 1616 
 
 De Augmentis Scientiarum 1624 
 
 During the five months spent at the British Museum : 
 
 The Shepheards' Calender 1579 
 
 Araygnement of Paris 1584 
 
 Mirrour of Modestie 1584 
 
 Planetomachia 1585 
 
 A Treatise of Melancholy 1586 
 
 A Treatise of Mel. (2nd. Ed.) 1586 
 
 Euphues 1587 
 
 Morando 1587 
 
 Perimedes 1588 
 
 Spanish Masquerade 1589 
 
 Pandosto 1588 
 
 Spanish Masq. (2nd Ed.) 1589 
 
 In the library of Sir Edwin Dnrning-Lawrence I was able 
 to decipher, from the Treatise of Melanclioly, some pages that 
 were missing from the copy at the British Museum. 
 
 I wish here to express my deep obligation to the manage- 
 ment of the British Museum, and to those numerous friends I 
 was so fortunate as to make while in London, for their uniform 
 kindness to me — a stranger among them — and for the facilities 
 which they, to the extent of their power, never failed to afford 
 me in my work. 
 
 Every Italic letter in all the books named has been exam- 
 ined, studied, classified, and set down "in groups of five" and 
 the results transcribed. Each book deciphered has its own pe- 
 culiarities and forms of type, and must be made a separate 
 study. 
 
 'I'lif 1021} Eolio has the largest variety of letters and ir- 
 regiihiiitics ; but tlic most difficult work was Bacon's History of 
 
 59
 
 Henry the Seventh, the mysteries of which it took me the great- 
 er part of three months of ahnost constant study to master. The 
 reason came to light as the work progressed, and will appear 
 from the reading of the first page of the deciphered matter, 
 with its explanations of ' 'sudden shifts" to puzzle would-be de- 
 cipherers. 
 
 In the deciphering of the different works mentioned, sur- 
 prise followed surprise as the hidden messages were disclosed, 
 and disappointment as well was not infrequently encountered. 
 Some of the disclosures are of a nature repugnant, in many re- 
 spects, to my very soul, as they were to all my preconceived 
 convictions, and they would never have seen the light, except 
 as a correct transcription of what the cipher revealed. As a de- 
 cipherer I had no choice, and I am in no way responsible for 
 the disclosures, except as to the correctness of the transcription. 
 
 Bacon, throughout the Bi-literal Cypher, makes frequent 
 mention of his translations of Homer, which he considered one 
 of his "great works and worthy of preservation," and which 
 had been scattered through the mosaic of his other writings. 
 One of the strongest of his expressed desires was that it should 
 be gathered and reconstructed in its original form. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest surprise that came to me in all my 
 work relates to what was found in the Anatomy of Melaricholy. 
 Several other of the works had been finished before this book 
 was taken up. After a few pages had been deciphered, relating 
 to points in Bacon's history, to my great disappointment the 
 cipher suddenly changed the subject of its disclosures to this : 
 
 "As hath been said, much of th' materiall of th' Iliad may 
 be found here, as well as Homer his second wondrous storie, 
 telling of Odysseus his worthy adventures. Th' first nam'd is 
 of greater worth, beautie and interesse, alone, in my estimation, 
 than all my other work together, for it is th' crowning triumph 
 of Homer's pen ; and he outstrips all th' others in th' race, as 
 though his wits had beene Atalanta's heeles. 'Next we see Vir- 
 gin, and close behind them, striving to attaine unto th' hights 
 which they mounted, do I presse on to th' lofty goale. In th' 
 plays lately publisht, I have approacht my modell closelie, and 
 yet it doth ever seem beyond my attainment. 
 
 "Here are the diverse bookes, their arguments and sundry 
 examples of th' lines, in our bi-literal cipher." 
 
 60
 
 These "arguments," or outlines, are intended as a frame- 
 work about which, with the aid of the keys given, the fuller 
 deciphering from the printed lines is to take form through the 
 methods of the Word-Cipher. 
 
 The presence of lines, identical — or nearly so — with those 
 of Homer, have been noted by close students in all the works 
 now named as belonging to Bacon, and it has needed but to 
 bring the lines together from their scattered positions, transpose 
 names and arrange the parts in proper sequence, to form the 
 connected narrative. 
 
 I can best illustrate this — and it will be of interest to those 
 fond of the classics — ^by adding a few of the lines from some 
 of my unfinished and unpublished work, before I had discovered 
 the bi-literal cipher in the typography of the books I was 
 using. I will say regarding this part of my incomplete work, 
 that a very considerable portion of the material for the first 
 four books of the fuller translation of the Iliad had been collect- 
 ed and arranged in sequence by the word-cipher before the 
 w^ork was laid aside, four years ago, on account of the discov- 
 ery of the bi-literal, the development of which, it became at 
 once apparent, was of first importance. These directions re- 
 garding it occur in the Bi-literal Cypher: 
 
 "Keepe lines, though somewhat be added to Homer; in 
 
 fact, it might be more truly Homeric to consider it a poeme of 
 
 the times, rather than a historic of true events." (p. 168.) 
 
 ". . . In all places, be heedfull of the meaning, but do not 
 
 consider the order of the words in the sentences. I should join 
 
 my examples and rules together, you will say. So I will. In 
 
 the 'Faerie Queene,' booke one, canto two, second and third 
 
 lines of the seventh stanzo, thus speaking of Aurora, write : 
 
 Wearie of aged Tithones saffron bed, 
 
 Had spreade, through dewy ayre her purple robe. 
 
 "Or in the eleventh canto, booke two, five-and-thirtieth 
 
 stanzo, arrange the matter thus, to relate in verse the great 
 
 attacke at the ships, at that pointe of time at which the great 
 
 Trojan took up a weighty missile, the gods giving strength to 
 
 the hero's arme: it begins in llio sixth verse: 
 
 There lay thereby an huge greate stone, which stood 
 
 Upon one end, and had not many a day 
 
 Removed beene — a signe of sundrie wayes — 
 
 This Hector snatch'd and with exceeding sway." (p. 169.) 
 
 61
 
 Illustrative of the argument, the incideut in Book I., 
 where the priest Chryses ''was evilly dismissed by Agamemnon," 
 the bi-literal epitome reads: 
 
 "And th' Priest, in silence, walk'd along th' shore of the 
 resounding sea. After awhile with many a prayer and teare th' 
 old man cried aloud unto Apollo, and his voice was heard." 
 
 In the fuller translation by means of the word-cipher, the 
 lines collected from the different books result in the following- 
 rendering of the passage: 
 
 "The wretched man, at his imperious speech, 
 Was all abashed, and there he sudden stay'd, 
 While in his eyes stood tears of bitterness. 
 The resounding of the sea upon the shore 
 Beats with an echo to the unseen grief 
 That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul. 
 Apart upon his knees that aged sire 
 Pray'd much unto Latona's lordly son: 
 
 "Hear, hear, O hear, god of the silver bow ! 
 Who'rt wont Chrysa and Cilia to protect. 
 And reignest in this island Tenedos, 
 If ever I did honour thee aright. 
 Thy graceful temple aiding to adorn, 
 Or if, moreover, I at any time 
 Have burn'd to thee fat thighs of bulls and goats. 
 Do one thing for me that I shall entreat — 
 
 Phoebus, with thy shafts avenge these tears." 
 
 A little farther on, after Achilles had "summon'd a coun- 
 cill" and charged Calchas to declare the cause of the pestilence. 
 Bacon's lines — that he warns the decipherer to retain, "though 
 somewhat be added to Homer" — gives the altercation thus : 
 
 To whom Atrides did this answer frame: 
 "Full true thou speak'st and like thyself, yet, though 
 Thou speakest truth, methinks thou speak'st not well. 
 It is because no one should sway but he 
 He's angry with the gods that any man 
 Goeth before him ; he would be above the clouds, 
 His fortune's master and the king of men. 
 And here is none, methinks, disposed to yield: 
 For though the gods do chance him to appoint 
 To be a warriour and command a camp. 
 Inserting courage in his noble heart. 
 Do they give right to utter insults here?" 
 
 There interrupting him, noble Achilles 
 Answer'd the king in few words: "Ay forsooth! 
 
 1 should be thought a coward, Agamemnon, 
 A man of no estimation in the world. 
 
 If what you will I humbly yield unto, 
 
 62
 
 And when you say, 'Do this,' it is perform'd. 
 
 I, for my part — let others as they list, — 
 
 I will not thus be fac'd and overpeer'd. 
 
 Do not think so, you shall not find it so: 
 
 Some other seek that may with patience strive 
 
 With thee, Atrides; thou shalt rule no more 
 
 O'er me." 
 
 The transalation by George Chapman, Book 1., page 20, 
 line 11, reads: 
 
 "All this, good father," said the king, " is comely and good right; 
 
 But this man breaks all such bounds; he affects, past all men, height; 
 
 All would in his power hold, all make his subjects, give to all 
 
 His hot will for their temperate law: all which he never shall 
 
 Persuade at my hands: If the gods have given him the great style 
 
 Of ablest soldier, made they that his license to revile 
 
 Men with vile language?" Thetis' son prevented him, and said: 
 
 "Fearful and vile I might be thought, if the exactions laid 
 
 By all means on me I should bear. Others command to this. 
 
 Thou shalt not me; or if thou dost, far my free spirit is 
 
 From serving thy command." 
 
 The translation by William Cullen Bryant, book 1, page 
 13, line 22, reads: 
 
 To him the sovereign Agamemnon said: 
 "The things which thou hast uttered, aged chief, 
 Are fitly spoken; but this man would stand 
 Above all others; he aspires to be 
 The master, over all to domineer. 
 And to direct in all things; yet, I think 
 There may be one who will not suffer this. 
 For if by favor of the immortal gods. 
 He was made brave, have they for such a cause 
 Given him the liberty of insolent speech?" 
 
 Hereat the great Achilles, breaking in, 
 
 Answered: "Yea, well might I deserve the name 
 
 Of coward and of wretch, should I submit 
 
 In all things to do thy bidding. Such commands 
 
 Lay thou on others, not on me; nor think 
 
 I shall obey thee longer." 
 
 The translation by William Sotlieby, M. R, S. L., book 1, 
 page 16, line 21, runs as follows: 
 
 "Wise is thy counsel" — Atreus' son reply'd — 
 "Well thy persuasive voice might Grecia guide. 
 But this — this man must stretch o'er all his sway. 
 All must observe his will, his beck obey. 
 All hang on him — such, such o'erweening pride. 
 Rage as he may, by me shall be defy'd. 
 The gods, who to his arm its prowess gave. 
 Loose they his scornful tongue at will to rave?" 
 
 63
 
 w^ 
 
 Him interrupting, fierce Pelides said: 
 "Be on my willing brow dishonor laid, 
 If I — whate'er thy wish — whate'er thy will, 
 Imperious tyrant! — thy command fulfil. 
 O'er others rule; by others be obeyed; 
 No more Achilles deigns the Atridae aid." 
 
 The Earl of Derby's translation, book 1, page 16, line 12, 
 reads : 
 
 To whom the monarch, Agamemnon, thus: 
 "Oh, father, full of wisdom are thy words; 
 
 But this proud chief o'er all would domineer; 
 
 O'er all he seeks to rule, o'er all to reign, 
 
 To all dictate, which I will not bear. 
 
 Grant that the gods have giv'n him warlike might; 
 
 Gave they unbridled license to his tongue?" 
 ' To whom Achilles, interrupting thus: 
 
 "Coward and slave I might indeed be deemed. 
 
 Could I submit to make thy word my law; 
 
 To others thy commands; seek not to me 
 
 To dicate, for I follow thee no more." 
 
 It is true that the presence of the bi-literal cipher in any 
 work does not prove authorship, being merely a matter of 
 typography which can be incorporated in any printed page, 
 as it was in fact in Ben Jonson's writings, for Bacon's pur- 
 poses. But when it is worked out, and its chief purpose is 
 found to be to teach the word-cipher, and that the latter pro- 
 duces practicable results such as given above, the confirmation 
 of both ciphers is unmistakable. On the other hand, the word- 
 cipher is a complete demonstration of the fact that the author 
 of the interior work was the author of the exterior. 
 
 I am not infrequently asked, and it is a very natural ques- 
 tion, why should Bacon put translations of the Iliad and Odys- 
 sey in his works, when neither required secrecy ? I quote a 
 sentence from the Bi-literal Cypher (p. 341), deciphered from 
 Natural History : 
 
 "Finding that one important story within manie others 
 produc'd a most ordinarie play, poem, history, essay, law-max- 
 ime, or other kind, class, or description of work, I tried th' ex- 
 periment of placing my tra'slations of Homer and Virgil within 
 my other Cypher, When one work has been so incorporated 
 into others, these are then in like manner treated, separated 
 into parts and widely scatter'd into my numerous books." 
 
 64
 
 In this connection I will add another extract from Ad- 
 vancement of Learning (original edition, 1605, p. 52) : 
 
 'And Cicero himselfe, being broken unto it by great ex- 
 perience, delivereth it plainely: That whatsoever a man shall 
 have occasion to speake of (if hee will take the paines), he may 
 have it in effect premeditate, and handled in these. So that when 
 hee commeth to a particular, he shall have nothing to doe, but 
 to put too Names, and times, and places ; and such other Cir- 
 cumstances of Individuals." 
 
 In other words. Bacon first constructed, then reconstructed 
 from the first writing, such portions as would fit the "names 
 and times and places, and such other Circumstances of Individ- 
 uals," about which he wished to build a new structure of 
 history, drama, or essay. The first literary mosaic, containing 
 dangerous matter, as well as much that was not, was transposed 
 — the relative position of its component parts changed — to form 
 the one we have known. The decipherer's work is to restore 
 the fragments to their original form. 
 
 As intimated at the beginning, the value of anything I 
 could say upon the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy resolves 
 itself into a question of fact — Have I found a cipher, and has 
 it been corectly applied ? 
 
 I repeat, the question is out of the realm of literary com- 
 parisons altogether. Literary probabilities or improbabilities 
 have no longer any bearing, and their discussion has become 
 purely agitations of the air: the sole question is — What are 
 the facts ? These cannot be determined by slight or imperfect 
 examinations, preconceived ideas, abstract contemplation, or 
 vigour of denunciation. 
 
 During a somewhat lengthy literary life, I have come to 
 perceive the sharp distinction between convictions on any 
 subject and the possession of knowledge. I know it is no light 
 thing to say to those who love the literature ascribed to Shake- 
 speare, "You have worshiped a true divinity at the wrong 
 shrine," and the iconoclast should come with knowledge be- 
 fore he assails a faith. 
 
 The limits of this article will not permit me to do more in 
 tlie way of illustration ; but I beg to assure the English public 
 tliat I speak from knowledge obtained at a cost of time, money, 
 
 65
 
 and injury to eye-sight and health greater than I should care 
 to mention. 
 
 I am satisfied that my work will not be disregarded ; but 
 instead, given a respectful, kindly and intelligent examination 
 in Great Britain, the home of Shakespeare and Bacon. 
 
 I say nothing at this time of the validity of all the claims 
 Bacon has made; but if they are accepted there will presently 
 be accorded to one of the line of English kings the royal title 
 of "the greatest literary genius of all time." 
 
 66
 
 BOOK REVIEWS
 
 BACON-SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup Throws New Light Upon the 
 Mystifying Question — The Bi-Literal Cipher. 
 
 Detroit Free Press. 
 
 It is always difficult to make headway against a well-estab- 
 lished tradition. Hence argument going to prove that Shake- 
 speare did not write the dramas that have come down to us in 
 his name, is discredited largely because we have so long ac- 
 cepted his authorship as a matter of fact. But the literature of 
 the anti-Shakespeareans is increasing, and the time is past when 
 a contemptuous ejaculation or a shrug of the shoulders can dis- 
 pose of the evidence they have so carefully and patiently con- 
 structed. In truth, the opponents of Shakespeare have been met 
 so often by this sort of rebuttal that they are becoming stronger 
 and more numerous every year. 
 
 That Shakespeare's plays were not written by the William 
 Shaksper of Stratford, was probably first suggested by the dis- 
 crepancy between the plays and what we know of the man. 
 That Francis Bacon, the great scholar, profound thinker and 
 literary genius of the EHzabethan era might be their author was 
 first suggested by similarity of philosophy and sentiment, and 
 parallelisms of thought and expression. 
 
 That Bacon's was the greatest mind of his age is incontro- 
 vertible. Pope calls him "the greatest genius that England, or 
 perhaps any other country, ever produced." Lord Macaulay 
 says : "Bacon's mind was the most exquisitely constructed in- 
 tellect that has ever been bestowed upon any of the children of 
 men;" while Edmund Burke is even more eulogistic : "Who is 
 there that, hearing the name of Bacon, does not instantly recog- 
 nize everything; of genius, the most profound; of literature, 
 the most extensive; of discovery, the most penetrating; of ob- 
 servation of human life, the most distinguishing and refined." 
 
 If we can accept Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup's new book, 
 "The Bi-Literal Cipher of Francis Bacon," as a genuine dis- 
 covery and the story it tells for what it purports to be — Bacon's 
 own — the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy is forever at rest. 
 There can be no further doubt that Bacon wrote not only the 
 plays ascribed to Shakespeare, but also the works appearing 
 
 69
 
 under the names of Spenser and Peele, Greene and Marlowe, and 
 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Mrs. Gallup's discovery of 
 a cipher running through them all explains the remarkable sim- 
 ilarities that have perplexed critics by demonstrating beyond a 
 shadow of doubt — if we accept it at all — that Bacon's genius 
 originated them all. 
 
 Some inquiries naturally suggest themselves. The first and 
 most natural question is, Was Bacon a writer of ciphers? The 
 business of statesmanship required skill in ciphers in his day, 
 and little important court and diplomatic business was carried 
 on except under such cover. Bacon's earliest public experience 
 was with Sir Amyas Paulet for three years in the court of 
 France, and his was one of the brightest intellects of his time. 
 
 The next question is, Did he possess the cipher here used? 
 This must be answered in the affirmative, for it is found fully 
 explained and its uses pointed out in his Latin work, "De Aug- 
 mentis," the original of which, published in 1624, has been sub- 
 mitted to the writer for examination. It is found also trans- 
 lated in full in the standard Spedding, Ellis & Heath edition of 
 Bacon's works, found in every library. 
 
 A third question is, What is the nature and method of the 
 cipher? We cannot do better than quote directly from Bacon's 
 "Advancement of Learning," copied from this volume : 
 
 "For by this art a way is opened whereby a man may ex- 
 press and signify the intentions of his mind at any distance of 
 place, by objects which may be presented to the eye and accom- 
 modated to the ear, provided those objects be capable of a two- 
 fold difference only — as by bells, by trumpets, by lights and 
 torches, by the reports of muskets, and any instruments of a 
 like nature. 
 
 "But to pursue our enterprise, when you address yourself 
 to write resolve your inward infolded letter into this Bi-liter- 
 arie alphabet, * * * together with this you must have 
 a bi-formed alphabet, as well capital letters as the smaller char- 
 acters, in a double form, as fits every man's occasion." 
 
 Bacon calls this the "omnia per omnia," the all in all cipher, 
 and speaks of it as an invention of his own made while at the 
 Court of France, when he was but 16 or 18 years of age. 
 
 This cipher and its obvious adaptations, it is stated, is the 
 basis of nearly every alphabetical cipher code in present gen- 
 eral use — the alternating dot and dash of the Morse telegraph 
 code, the long and short exposure of light in the heliographic 
 telegraph and the "wig-wag" signals of flags or lights in the 
 armies and navies of the world. 
 
 70
 
 As used by Bacon, two slightly differing fonts of Italic 
 type were employed, one font representing the letter a, the other 
 the letter b. These were alternated in groups of five in his liter- 
 ature, each group of five letters representing one letter of the 
 alphabet in the secret work. The full alphabet and several illus- 
 trations of the working of the cipher in the original works are 
 given; in fact, every possible aid to the student and investi- 
 gator who wishes to verify for himself the existence of the 
 cipher and the mode of its deciphering is freely offered in the 
 introduction, prefaces and fac-similes in Mrs. Gallup's work. 
 
 Assuming that the cipher is Bacon's and that it has been 
 accurately transcribed, the story told the world in it is beyond 
 the dreams of romance; it is simply astounding. 
 
 The cipher story asserts that Bacon was the grandson of 
 Henry VIII., the son of Queen Elizabeth and rightful heir to 
 the throne of England. That while imprisoned in the Tower of 
 London, where Lord Leicester was also confined, Elizabeth, 
 before becoming queen, was secretly married to Leicester. The 
 issue of the marriage was two sons, the so-called Francis Bacon 
 — whose life was, there is little reason to doubt, preserved 
 through the womanly pity and compassion of Mistress Anne 
 Bacon — and Robert Devereaux, afterward Earl of Essex. The 
 political exigencies of the time did not admit the public 
 acknowledgment of the marriage. Francis was raised as the 
 son of Nicholas and Anne Bacon, and Elizabeth crowned as the 
 Virgin Queen. It pleased her to continue the deceit and Francis 
 remained ignorant of his descent until about sixteen years of 
 age, when Elizabeth, in one of her historic rages, revealed the 
 truth to him and banished him to France. 
 
 Thenceforward Bacon's life was one long disappointed 
 hope, which found expression in the secrecy of the cipher. This 
 he interwove in every original edition of his works, hoping, 
 and intending, that in the long future the cipher would be read, 
 and he be justified in the opinion of mankind. If his cipher 
 was discovered too soon, his life would pay the forfeit, if never, 
 his labor would be in vain. In 1623, when 62 years of age 
 and near his death, he published the key to the cipher in "De 
 Augmentis" in the hope that it would lead to the unraveling. 
 If this volume is correct, it took 300 years of time and a bright 
 American woman to separate the web and woof. 
 
 If this story seems incredible, the literary claim is still more 
 so. The literary and philosophical works of Bacon are suf- 
 ficiently wonderful, without more. All reviewers and biogra- 
 phers regard him as possessing one of the most wonderful in- 
 
 71
 
 tellects in the world's history. These opinions were based 
 upon his known works. We are now asked to believe that not 
 only these, but the works ascribed to Shakespeare, Spenser, 
 Marlowe, Greene, Peele, Burton, and part of Ben Jonson's were 
 written by him, and that in each and every one of them this bi- 
 literal cipher was placed, to the end that his rights and claims, 
 wrongs and sufferings could become known, at some time, to 
 the world. 
 
 Not the least of these marvels is that the "Anatomy of Mel- 
 ancholy" of Robert Burton is found to have been published 
 under the name of T. Bright, when Burton was lo years of age. 
 A later edition is now found to contain, in the bi-literal cipher, 
 the Argument of the Iliad, with portions freely translated into 
 blank verse, differing in form from any translation heretofore 
 made and remarkable for elegance of style and diction. Take 
 for example a passage describing the outbreak between the 
 Greeks and Trojans, incited by Minerva by the order of Jove, 
 at the solicitation of Juno : 
 
 "As in the ocean wide, 
 A driving wind from the northwest comes forth 
 With force resistless, and the swelling waves 
 Succeed so fast that scarce an eye may see 
 Where one in pain doth bring another forth, 
 Till, on the rockie shore resounding loud 
 They spit forth foam white as the mountain snows, 
 And break themselves upon the o'er-jutting rocks — 
 Thus mightily, the Grecian phalanxes 
 Incessantly mov'd onward to th' battaile. 
 It might not then be said that anie man 
 Possessed power of human speech or thought, 
 So silentlie did they their leaders follow 
 In reverentiall awe. Each chief commanded 
 The troops that came with him — each led his owne — 
 Glitt'ring in arms, bright shining as the sunne, 
 While in well ordered phalanxes they mov'd. 
 
 "The Trojan hosts were like unto a flock 
 Close in a penne folded at fall of night, 
 That bleating looked th' waye their young ones went 
 And filled th' avre with dire confusion — 
 Such was the noyse among the Trojan hosts. 
 No two gave utterance to the same crye, 
 So various were the nations and the countries 
 From whence they came. * * * 
 
 "Like wintry mountain torrent roaring loud 
 That frightes th' shepheard in th' deepe ravine 
 Mixing the floods tumultuously that poure 
 From forth an hundred gushing springs at once, 
 Thus did the deaf'ning battaile din arise, 
 When meeting in one place with direful force 
 In tumult and alarums th' armies joyned. 
 Then might of warriour met an equall might; 
 
 72
 
 Shields clasht on shields, the brazen spear on spear 
 While dying groans mixt with the battaile cry- 
 In awesome sound ; and steedes were fetlock deepe 
 In blood, fast flowing as the armies met." 
 
 Still another chapter in the romance of Bacon's life is dis- 
 closed in the cipher. Because of a late and somewhat mercen- 
 ary marriage, he has been considered as having a cold nature, 
 a conclusion hightened by the loveless comments of his Essay 
 on Love. But the cipher writing discloses an early disappoint- 
 ment as the cause. While in France, and 17, he was violently 
 enamored of the beautiful but dissolute Marguerite, wife of 
 Henry of Navarre, and his senior by something like eight years. 
 A divorce from Henry and her union with Bacon, the rightful 
 Prince of Wales, was actually planned. The fair Marguerite 
 proved fickle also, but his writings are filled with references to 
 his affection for her which her falseness could not, apparently, 
 extinguish. He tells us himself that "Romeo and Juliet" was 
 written to picture their love, saying: "The joy of life ebb'd 
 from our hearts with our parting, and it never came againe into 
 this bosom in full flood-tide." Another interesting episode 
 brought out is Bacon's account of his brother's treason and his 
 self-justification and remorse at his own part in the punishment 
 that was meted out to him. 
 
 The verity of the cipher Mrs. Gallup has so painstakingly 
 and with such unwearied patience unfolded would seem to be 
 sustained by the fact that it is Bacon's own invention, fully — 
 even elaborately — set forth in one of his later writings, when, 
 Elizabeth being dead and he himself near his end, he had less 
 fear of consequences should his secret be discovered — indeed, 
 he came to fear it would not be discovered and that he would 
 not be justified to posterity. 
 
 So much of reserve as is due to lack of personal demonstra- 
 tion is maintained by the writer, but here are 360 pages of 
 deciphered matter, with sufficient means of proof to satisfy any 
 investigator. There can be no middle ground ; one must accept 
 or deny it in toto. Either the decipherer has made a most 
 remarkable discovery to which the key has been open for three 
 centuries, or the book is equally remarkable from an entirely 
 different point of view. If accepted, truly "th' tardy epistle 
 shall turn over an unknowne leaf of the historic of our land." 
 
 73
 
 FRAIs^CIS BACO^T'S BI-LITERAL CIPHER. 
 
 Baconiana, London. 
 
 Before these lines are printed, Mrs. Gallup's very important 
 work on "Tlie Biliteral Cipher of Francis Bacon"* will have 
 been for two months in the hands of the public. Since it is 
 probable that there may be due discussion of its wonderful con- 
 tents, it seems desirable to say a few words, not by way of 
 review or mere expression of personal opinion (in such a case 
 valueless), but in order to draw attention to certain points 
 which, if not at present capable of absolute verification or con- 
 tradiction, yet surely demand and are worthy of the closest 
 investigation. Questions of this kind must naturally arise, 
 "Is this cipher such as any person of ordinary intelligence can 
 follow ? Is it provably correct ? Has any one besides Mrs. 
 Gallup succeeded in decpihering by the same means, and with 
 similar results?" 
 
 These questions may without hesitation be answered in the 
 affirmative. With the explanation given by the great inventor 
 himself, anyone can master the method described in the De 
 Aiignientis (Book VI.). Ordinary patience and contrivance 
 enable us to arrange two different alphabets of Italic letters and 
 to insert these in the printed type, forming cipher sentences 
 one-fifth in length of the "exterior" sentence or passage. Thus 
 to bury one story within another is easy enough. To unearth 
 it is another matter, and more difficult. 
 
 In the first place, there is nothing which particularly invites 
 the decipherer to discriminate between the two forms of Italic 
 letters which are essential to this typographical cipher; or, if 
 differences or deformities in letters are observed, we have been 
 required to believe them "errors," defects in printing, careless- 
 ness of the compositor, or anything else which may explain 
 them away. Be not deceived ; there is no error, but consum- 
 mate skill and subtle contrivance, all helping towards the cryp- 
 tographer's great ends. 
 
 *Pub. : Gay and Bird, London. The Howard Publishing Company, 
 Detroit. 
 
 74
 
 Before beginning the work of deciphering, it is needful 
 thoroughly to learn by heart the Biliteral Alphabet given by its 
 Inventor in the De Aitgnientis. Here we see that the letters of 
 the common Alphabet are formed by the combination of the 
 letters A and B in five places, these two letters (A and B) being 
 represented by two distinct "founts" of Italic type. To dis- 
 criminate between these two founts, is the initial difficulty ; but 
 observing that, in the Biliteral Alphabet, A's preponderate, and 
 that no combination begins with tzuo B's, we judge that the 
 most frequent forms of Italic letters are almost certain to be 
 A's. A decision is best arrived at by repeatedly tracing and 
 drawing out the various letters ; and the decipherer must have 
 keen eyes and powers of observation to detect the minute dif- 
 ferences. For our Francis would not make things too easy. 
 He speaks of "marks" and "signs" to be heeded, and Roman 
 letters are often interspersed. It is also patent (and was found 
 by Mrs. Gallup, and independently by others) that, in every 
 biliteral alphabet, letters are here and there intentionally ex- 
 changed, as a device to confuse and confound the would-be 
 decipherer. 
 
 In many cases we find alphabets suddenly reversed — A 
 becoming B, and B, A, a change hinted by some "mark' or 
 "sign," as a tiny dot. These changes seem to occur most fre- 
 quently in very small books, where the limited space makes it 
 the more needful to set snares and stumbling-blocks at every 
 turn. Such things show that, besides the good eyes and keen 
 wits required for successful deciphering, there must be no small 
 amount of that "eternal patience" which Michael Angelo hon- 
 ored with the title of "genius." 
 
 Let us contemplate the goodly volume presented to us by 
 Mrs. Gallup, and try to realize the fact that every one of those 
 350 pages of deciphered matter was worked out letter by letter; 
 that each ONE letter in this deciphered work represents FIVE 
 letters extracted from the deciphered book — say, Shakespeare, 
 orSpenser, Burton, or any of the eight groups of works indi- 
 cated in the cipher. Not only should such reflections cause us 
 highly to respect the "endless patience," perseverance, and skill 
 of the cryptographer to whose labors we are so deeply indebted, 
 but they should warn us from depreciating or discrediting state- 
 ments or methods which we ourselves are incapable of testing. 
 "Disparage not the faith thou dost not know," is a good, sound 
 principle to begin upon, and bVancis ("cunyng in the humours 
 of persons") had evidently observed the tendency of the human 
 mind to fly. from things troublesome, or to take refuge in dis- 
 
 75
 
 paragement and ridicule. His notes teem with reflections on 
 this matter. "Things above us are nothing to us" — "just noth- 
 ing." "Many things are thought impossible until they are dis- 
 covered, then men wonder that they had not been seen long 
 before." On the other hand, he continually encourages him- 
 self with thoughts, texts and proverbial philosophy, which we 
 find him instilling into his disciples. "Everything is subtile 
 till it is conceived." "By trying, men gained Troy," and so 
 forth. But we must "woorke as God woorkes," wisely, quietly, 
 with persistent patience and unremitting care, and "from a 
 good beginning cometh a good ending." 
 
 So much, then, for the "biliteral" itself. Another crop of 
 inquiries springs up when we attempt briefly to rehearse the 
 wonderful revelations now before us, and which it is within our 
 power to examine and essay to prove. 
 
 Elizabeth, when princess, and prisoner in the hands of 
 Mary, secretly married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Of 
 this secret marriage two sons were born. Francis the elder 
 would have been "put away privilie" by the wicked woman 
 whom he never could bring himself to think of as "mother." 
 Lady Anne Bacon, however, saved his life, and under an oath 
 of secrecy adopted him as her own son. The scene when these 
 facts came to his knowledge, and again when they were tear- 
 fully confirmed by his "deare," "sweete mother," Lady Anne, 
 are graphically described in the cipher narrative extracted from 
 the ''History of Henry VH." (Ed. 1622). Further details of 
 the same extraordinary episode are, as may be remembered, 
 introduced in the "word cipher," discovered, and in part pub- 
 lished, by Dr. Owen, some seven years ago^ From the dis- 
 closures made in the books deciphered, "it is evident," says 
 Mrs. Gallup, "that Bacon expected the biliteral cipher to be 
 the first discovered, and that it would lead to the finding of his 
 principal or word cipher which it fully explains, and to which 
 is intrusted the larger subjects he desired to have preserved. 
 This order has been reversed, in fact, and the earlier discovery 
 by Dr. Owen becomes a more remarkable achievement, being 
 entirely evolved without the aids which Bacon had prepared in 
 this for its elucidation." 
 
 But to return to our story. 
 
 Francis was now sent abroad by Elizabeth's orders {not, as 
 has been declared by his biographers, because Sir Nicholas 
 Bacon wished him to see the wonders of the world abroad, but) 
 in order to get him out of the way at tHe time when he had been 
 the unwitting cause of a Court scandal. He left England in 
 
 76
 
 v/ 
 
 the suite of Sir Amyas Paulet, the EngHsh Ambassador. We 
 know a little, and surmise more, concerning his travels, and the 
 places which he visited, or where he stayed studying and writ- 
 ing. The sad story of his ill-fated love for "My Marguerite" 
 is briefly touched upon, rather as a thing understood to the 
 reader than as a record, and of this more will be related in a 
 future volume. The present extracts are from the undated 4to. 
 of Romeo and Juliet, where we may read : 
 
 "This stage-play, in part, will tell our real love-tale. A 
 part is in the Play previously nam'd or mention'd as having 
 therein one pretty scene acted by the two. So rare and most 
 briefe the hard-won happinesse, it affords us great content to 
 re-live in the Play all that as mist, in summer morning did roule 
 away. It hath place in the dramas containing a scene and 
 theame of this nature, since our fond love interpreted th' harts 
 o' others, and in this joy, th' joy of heaven was faintlie 
 guessed." 
 
 In the closing lines of King John are these instructions : 
 
 "Join Romeo with Troys famous Cressida if you wish to 
 
 know my story. Cressida in this play with Juliet b ," 
 
 which, says the Editor,* "ends the cipher in King John with an 
 incomplete word. Turning to Romeo and Jtdiet (p. 53), the 
 remainder of the word and of the broken sentence is continued, 
 being a part of the description of Marguerite, and the love 
 Francis entertained for her." 
 
 This love never faded from his heart, although before he 
 married, at the age of 47, he had, he says, hung up, as it were, 
 the picture of his love on the walls of memory. We remember 
 the calm and uneffusive fashion in which he then imparted to 
 his friends the news that he had found "a handsome maiden 
 who pleased him well." The tones in which he bewailed his 
 lost love are pitched in a different key. 
 
 "It is sometimes said, no man can he wise and love, and yet 
 it would be well to observe many will be wiser after a lesson 
 such as wee long ago conn'd. There was noe ease to our 
 sufferi'g heart til our yeares of life were eight lustres. f The 
 faire face liveth ever in dreames, but in inner pleasances only 
 doth th' sunnie vision come. This will make clearlie scene 
 why i' the part a man doth play heerein and where-ere man's 
 love is evident, strength hath remained unto the end — the 
 want'n Paris recov'ring by his latter venture much previouslie 
 lost." 
 
 *"Introduction," p. 11. 
 
 tHe speaks in the third person — as a royal personage.
 
 A second son was born to Elizabeth, and named Robert, 
 after his father, the Earl of Leicester. Robert was "made 
 ward" of Walter Devereaux, Earl of Essex, who "died" con- 
 veniently and unexpectedly, when Robert was old enough to 
 succeed to his title and estates. At what period the brothers 
 became aware of their kinship has not yet been told in the cipher. 
 Francis describes the personal beauty, gallantry, and boldness 
 of his brother, and says that for these qualities Robert was a 
 great favorite with the Queen, who thought that he resembled 
 herself. The tale is still incomplete; but enough has already 
 been disclosed to give us a firm sketch of the miserable outline. 
 We see Robert taking advantage of the Queen's doting fond- 
 ness for him, and Francis endeavoring to keep his ambition 
 within bounds, and to smooth matters with his irascible mother 
 when, as was often the case, she became irritated beyond endur- 
 ance by his arrogant audacity. The aim of Essex was, not only 
 in the future to supplant his elder brother, but even in the 
 Queen's lifetime to seize the crown, and rule as king. It is a 
 dark and painful page in history, and the more we read the less 
 we marvel at the efforts made by Elizabeth to destroy or garble 
 the records of her own private life, and of the times in which 
 she lived. Having spoilt and indulged Essex so long as she 
 believed him devoted to herself, she turned upon him "in a tiger- 
 like spirit" when "his treachery became patent, and because 
 Francis had spoken strongly on his brother's behalf, and had 
 endeavored to shield him from the wrath of the Queen, she 
 punished him by forcing him, under pain of death, to conduct 
 the case (in his official capacity) against Essex, whom she had 
 foredoomed to execution. An allusion is made to the ring 
 which the Queen expected Essex to send her, but which miscar- 
 ried. This story has been held doubtful, but it seems as though 
 we may find it true. 
 
 The sentence passed upon Essex was just ; but the horror of 
 the trial and the circumstances connected with the execution, 
 haunted Francis for the rest of his life, his tender and sensitive 
 nature, and his highly strung imagination continually reviving, 
 whilst they shrank from, the recollection of the horrible details 
 of which hereafter we shall have to read. Although Francis 
 speaks in affectionate terms of his "deere" and cruelly used 
 brother, we cannot but think that the tenderness grew out of a 
 deep pity; for Robert had long ago proved himself a most 
 selfish and unsatisfactory person, and a perpetual thorn in his 
 brother's side, but, however this may have been, the gruesome 
 tragedy remained imprinted on his soul, and clouded and embit-
 
 tered his whole Hfe. "His references to the trial and execution 
 of Essex, and the part he was forced to take in his prosecution, 
 are the subject of a wail of unhappiness and ever-present 
 remorse, with hopes and prayers that the truth hidden in this 
 cipher may be found out, and published to the world in his 
 justification. 
 
 "O God! forgiveness cometh from Thee; shut not this 
 truest book, my God ! Shut out my past — love's little sunny 
 hour — if it soe please Thee, and some of man's worthy work; 
 yet Essex's tragedy here shew forth ; then posterity shall know 
 him truly."* 
 
 The Queen commanded Francis to write for publication an 
 account of the Earl of Essex's treasons, and he did so. But 
 the report was too lenient, too tender for the reputation of the 
 Earl to satisfy his vindictive mother. She destroyed the docu- 
 ment and with her own hand wrote another which was pub- 
 lished under his name, and for which he has been held responsi- 
 ble. Such matters as these were State secrets, and we cannot 
 wonder that Elizabeth should have taken care by all means in 
 her power to prevent them from becoming public property by 
 appearing in print. We may well believe that, as the cipher 
 tells us, all papers were destroyed which were likely to bring 
 dark things to light. Nevertheless much must have gradually 
 leaked out through the actors themselves, and more must have 
 been suspected, and only through dread of the consequences 
 withheld from general discussion. "See what a ready tongue 
 suspicion hath" ; in private letters and hidden records the value 
 of which is perhaps now for the first time fully understood, 
 evidence is forthcoming to substantiate statements made in the 
 deciphered pages of Mrs. Gallup, and her forerunner. Dr. Owen. 
 
 The matter gathered from the deciphered pages is not lim- 
 ited to personal or political history. For instance, speaking of 
 the "Anatomy of Melancholy (edition, 1628), the Editor 
 says : — "The extraordinary part is that this edition conceals, in 
 cipher, a very full and extended prose summary — argument, 
 Bacon calls it — of a translation of Homer's Iliad. In order 
 that there may be no mistake as to its being Bacon's works, he 
 precedes the translation with a brief reference to his royal birth, 
 
 and the wrongs he has suffered In the De Aug- 
 
 nientis is found a similar extended synopsis of a translation of 
 the Odyssey. This, too, is introduced with a reference to 
 Bacon's personal history, and although the text of the book is 
 in Latin, the cipher is in English. 
 
 ♦Introduction, p. 8. It seems probable that this was written soon after 
 
 the events in 1601. 
 
 79
 
 The decipherer is not a Greek scholar, and would be incapa- 
 ble of creating these extended arguments, which differ widely 
 in phrasing from any translation extant, and are written in a 
 free and flowing style."* 
 
 Readers must not expect to find in this book which we are 
 noticing, a complete and shapely narrative explaining every- 
 thing, and pouring out before us the true story of our wonder- 
 ful "concealed man" from beginning to end. The cipher utter- 
 ances are, for the most part, nothing if not fragmentary. The 
 writer himself says so, and adds that his objects in thus trust- 
 ing his secrets to the care of his friends and to the judgment of 
 time were, First, that he might hand down to the future age 
 the only faithful account of himself and his history, which 
 would ever be allowed to reach them. Secondly, he proposed 
 to link his unacknowledged works one with another in such a 
 way that hereafter his sons of science should from the hints 
 given in one work be led on to another, and so to another, until 
 the vast mass of books, Historical, Scientific, Poetical, Dramat- 
 ical Philosophical, which he wrote, should be connected, welded 
 together like an endless chain, and the true history of the Great 
 Restauration and of the English Renaissance fully revealed. 
 
 *Introduction, p. 13. 
 
 80
 
 THE BACO]S^IAX CIPHEK*— I. 
 
 By Fleming Fulchek. 
 
 The Court Journal, London. 
 
 Dr. Rawley, "his Lordship's first and last chaplain," relates 
 in his Life of Lord Bacon that "when his History of King 
 Henry the Seventh was to come forth, it was delivered to the 
 old Lord Brooke to be perused by him, who, when he had 
 dispatched it, returned it to the author with this eulogy: 'bid 
 him take care to get good paper and inke; for the work is 
 incomparable.' " \Wq think "the old Lord Brooke" would 
 have been justified in sending this message (with a change 
 of pronoun) to the authoress of The Biliteral Cipher of Sir 
 Francis Bacon (for in its own way it is incomparable), and 
 we think he would have been satisfied with the result. 
 
 The book is divided into two parts, the first containing 
 introductory chapters, portraits, and facsimiles, while the 
 second, rather more than three-quarters of the book, consists 
 entirely of the story deciphered. The introductory chapters 
 are short, pithy, and well-written, and are full of literary 
 interest. The first chapter, from the pen of Mrs. Gallup herself, 
 tells how she came to discover the existence of the cipher in 
 certain books, and gives a brief account of her work, a work, 
 to quote her own words, "arduous, exhausting and prolonged" ; 
 and shows how, though her discovery "may change the names 
 of some of our idols," we are gainers, not losers, by the change. 
 If we can find a fault in this chapter, it is that there is only 
 enough of it to whet our appetite for more details of the 
 progress of her work. Perhaps we may hope that she will 
 satisfy us in this respect on a future occasion when her work 
 becomes widely known and read, as it deserves to be. After 
 Mrs. Gallup's "personal" chapter there follows the introduc- 
 tion to the first edition — printed for private circulation only. 
 It gives a short summary of the principal facts of the cipher 
 story, and touches on points of interest in connection with 
 the cipher, two of which we will briefly allude to here. It 
 shows how the cipher explains the reason for the extraordinary 
 
 *The Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon, by Mrs. Gallup. 
 
 81
 
 mispaging of the original editions, carefully adhered to in all 
 the copies, and of which no one had previously been able to 
 offer a satisfactory explanation ; and it touches on the curious 
 history of The Anatomy of Melancholy, which for nearly three 
 ' centuries has been attributed to Burton, but which the British 
 Museum catalogue shows to have been first published under 
 another name when Burton was about ten years old, and of 
 which in the cipher story Francis Bacon claims the authorship. 
 The preface of the second edition, the one we are now con- 
 sidering and the first given to the public, shows the cogent 
 reasons Bacon had for using the cipher. "Two distinct pur- 
 poses," says the author, "are served by the two ciphers. The 
 Biliteral was the foundation which was intended to lead to 
 the other, and is of prime importance in its directions concern- 
 ing the construction of the Word Cipher, the keys, and the 
 epitome of the topics which were to be written out by its 
 aia. It seems also to have been * * * a sort of diary 
 * * * ^= and, as in many another diary, we find the trend 
 of the inind as affected by the varying moods — sometimes 
 sad and mournful — again defiant and rebellious — and again 
 despondent, almost in despair, that his wrongs might fail of 
 discovery, even in the times and land afar off to which he 
 looked for greater honor and fame, as well as vindication. 
 
 "Chafing under the cloud upon his birth, the victim of a des- 
 tiny beyond his control, which ever placed him in a false posi- 
 tion, defrauded of his birthright, which was of the highest, he 
 committed to this cipher the plaints of an outraged soul. * * * 
 To the decipherer, he unbends — to the rest of the world main- 
 tains the dignity which marked his outward life. * * * It is a 
 wonderful revelation of the undercurrents of a hidden life." 
 
 "Some Notes on the Shakespeare Plays," and a reprint of 
 an article on Shorthand in the days of Elizabeth from the 
 able pen of Mrs. H. Pott, whose clear and logical mind, no 
 less than her deep research into the literature of Bacon's 
 time, makes her writings always welcome; and lastly a brief 
 sketch of the outlines of Bacon's life, complete the original 
 portion of Part I. While the importance of these introduc- 
 tory chapters lies for our immediate purpose in their applica- 
 tion to the Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon, it would 
 be difficult to overestimate their intrinsic merit, literary and 
 historical. We owe a debt of gratitude to the authoress and 
 publishers for their liberality in the matter of facsimiles by 
 which they enable us not only to follow the deciphering but 
 also to familiarize ourselves with the style and appearance 
 of the original editions of many old favorites, a privilege 
 
 82
 
 hitherto ahnost confined to those who have time and oppor- 
 tunity for visiting the great hbraries. In this part are com- 
 prised Bacon's description of his BiHteral Cipher, with 
 examples and double alphabet ; the frontispiece and preface 
 to the Novum Orgamim, preceded by a talDle of the double 
 alphabet, by means of w^hich the cipher is unfolded ; the 
 Droeshout portrait and all the introductory pages of the 
 famous 1623 folio of the Shakespeare plays; and the title 
 pages of several other of the deciphered works. The preface 
 to the Novum Organiun is also given in modern type, the two 
 founts being marked a and b respectively, thus enabling the 
 reader to follow in extenso the method of deciphering. 
 
 The portraits of Bacon, two in number, to which we have 
 alluded, are the well-known one in which he is seen in his Chan- 
 cellor's robes, and the exquisite miniature of Hilyard sur- 
 rounded by the noblest halo that ever adorned a human portrait 
 — "Si tabula daretur digna, animum mallem" (If it were pos- 
 sible to have a canvas worthy, I had rather paint his mind"). 
 
 Of the second part, because it is the most important, we 
 shall say least. The story it tells is startling, fascinating, 
 strange. As fiction it would be unique; as history, though 
 truth is proverbially stranger than fiction, it is unparalleled. 
 Nothing that can give interest to a book is wanting. There 
 is the excitement of discovery; the triumph of hidden truth 
 brought to light, of error refuted ; the romance of a great 
 prince, robbed of his birthright, who finds his consolation in 
 winning a nobler realm — the kingdom of the mind; the trag- 
 edy of a younger brother, a wild though generous spirit, 
 seduced by misdirected ambition into the thorny path of rebel- 
 lion that leads to the question and the block; the pathos of 
 a noble soul torn by the pangs of remorse for the part he 
 was forced to take in that brother's death by the inexorable 
 power of the loftiest sense of justice — that power which 
 impelled Lucius Junius Brutus to "call his 30ns to punish- 
 ment," Marcus Brutus to robe his daggei- in the imperial 
 purple of liberty drawn from the veins of his "best lover" ; 
 while the one note wanting to complete the full chord of 
 romance is struck in the tale of a fruitless passion for the fair 
 Queen of Navarre. Besides the story of Bacon's own life 
 and times, or rather of that part of his life and times hitherto 
 unknown to history, the deciphered story gives directions for 
 working out his "Word Cipher," and summaries of those noble 
 poems of Homer, the Illiad and Odyssey, with some passages 
 translated into blank verse, which we think will compare favor- 
 ably with any previous translations. 
 
 83
 
 A few words must suffice as to the style. As we have 
 already quoted, the book is a diary; and the exigencies of 
 secrecy necessitate much repetition. For, as Bacon himself 
 notes in the cipher story, he could not tell what book might 
 be lost, or in which of those that survived, his decipherer 
 would first light on the discovery. Yet in parts the writing 
 rises to a great height of eloquence. We cannot resist the 
 temptation to quote two passages from the cipher which seem 
 to us, each in its own way, eminently beautiful. The first, 
 though it refers only to the difficulty of constructing the 
 Word Cipher can, we think, hardly be surpassed for happiness 
 of metaphors or grace of diction. "'Tis the labour of years," 
 says Bacon, "to provide th' widely varied prose in which the 
 lines of verse have a faire haven, and lye anchor'd untill a 
 day when th' coming pow'r may say : 'Hoist sayle, away ! 
 For the windes of heav'n kisse your fairy streamers, and th' 
 tide is afloode. On to thy destiny !' " 
 
 The second is the cry of a soul in anguish. 
 
 "O Source infinite of light, ere Time in existence was, save 
 in Thy creative plan, all this tragedy unfolded before Thee. A 
 night of Stygian darknesse encloseth us. My hope banish'd to 
 realms above, taketh its flight through th' clear aire of the 
 Scyences unto bright daye with Thyselfe. As thou didst con- 
 ceale Thy lawes in thick clouds, enfolde them in shades of 
 mysterious gloom, Thou didst infuse from Thy spirit a desire 
 to put the day's glad work, th' evening's thought, and mid- 
 night's meditation to finde out their secret workings. 
 
 "Only thus can I banish from my thoughts my beloved 
 brother's untimely cutting off and my^ wrongfull part in his 
 tryale. O, had I then one thought of th' great change his 
 death would cause — how life's worth would shrinke, and this 
 world's little golden sunshine be but as collied night's swifte 
 lightning — this had never come as a hound of th' hunt to my 
 idle thoughts." Mrs. Gallup's claim to have discovered the ex- 
 istence of Francis Bacon's Biliteral Cipher in many of the works 
 of his time is one which, in view of the story deciphered, will, if 
 substantiated, oblige us to rewrite a page of history and to tear 
 a mask from many an idol before which we have bowed for 
 three centuries. We shall, therefore, require the most convinc- 
 ing proofs of the bona fides of the discovery. The discussion 
 of this question, however, we leave to a future article. 
 
 84
 
 THE BACONIA:^ cipher— II. 
 By Fleming Eulchek. 
 
 Last week we reviewed the subject matter of "The Biliteral 
 Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon" by Mrs. Galhip. This week 
 we have to redeem the promise then made to discuss the claims 
 which the discovery embodied in it has on our credence. Let 
 us first clearly define what that discovery claims to be. It is 
 not that Francis Bacon invented a cipher which he calls 
 "Biliteral." That is a fact which has been known to the world 
 for three centuries. What the authoress claims to have dis- 
 covered is that this cipher is used in all the original editions 
 of Bacon's printed works, and that she has deciphered the 
 hidden story by means of it. If this claim can be substan- 
 tiated, it will decide once for all the Bacon v. Shakespeare 
 controversy in favor of the former, for in the deciphered story 
 Bacon claims the authorship of the Shakespeare plays and 
 poems, as well as of other works which we have been accus- 
 tomed to attribute, in some cases on little or no evidence, to 
 others of his "masques." 
 
 Some fifty years ago the theory was started, independently 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, that "Shakespeare" was in 
 reality only a pen-name of Francis Bacon, and that it is to 
 that great genius, not to the actor of Stratford-on-Avon, that 
 the world owes its finest dramas. A storm of derision, of 
 course, greeted the theory, as it does every theory that attacks 
 a generally accepted belief, however erroneous; and it was 
 only necessary to hold the theory to be at once classed with 
 the inmates of a lunatic asylum — though one would hardly 
 have supposed such an institution a suitable residence (exempli 
 gratia) for Lord Palmerston. Just such a storm of ridicule, 
 coupled with persecution, happily for "Baconians" impossible 
 in the nineteenth century, greeted Galileo's discovery that the 
 earth moves round the sun. "E puo si muove," and during 
 the past fifty years the Baconian theory, under the influence 
 of careful and patient investigation of internal and external 
 evidence, has been steadily gaining ground. A fair example 
 of the way in which the Baconian theory is met by its adver- 
 saries is the reply which was given to a friend of the present 
 
 85
 
 writer by a well-known scholar and "Shakespearian" authority : 
 "If Shakespeare were to rise from the grave and tell me that 
 Bacon was the author of the plays, I would not believe him." 
 Take another typical specimen; it is a criticism (save the 
 mark!) on the work we are now considering that appeared 
 recently in a daily contemporary: — "A fresh campaign by 
 the Baconian zealots is threatened. Mrs. Elizabeth Wells 
 Gallup claims to have discovered and deciphered the mysteri- 
 ous secrets which Bacon, she would have us believe, buried in 
 his writings. In the 'Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon,' 
 Greene, Peele, and Marlowe, as well as Shakespeare, all go 
 by the board; Sir Francis explains to Mrs. Gallup that their 
 dramatic works were written by him alone. The proofs, she 
 says, are 'overwhelming and irresistible.' The day will come 
 when Macaulay's New Zealander will debate whether Bacon 
 was a solar myth or a sort of Homer, who gathered together 
 all Elizabethan literature in a — cipher." But ridicule and 
 invective are not argument, prejudice is not proof. "Some 
 of our friends," we used to be told in our childhood, "are for 
 warning, others for example." Taking those we have quoted 
 for warning, let us give a fair and open-minded consideration 
 to Mrs. Gallup's claims. 
 
 To do this it will be necessary to describe Bacon's Biliteral 
 Cipher. His own description of it may be seen in any edition 
 of his De Augmentis. Its principle is extremely simple, being, 
 in fact, that of the Morse Code at present used in telegraphy — 
 namely, various combinations of two differences. Thus, if 
 we have two dissimilar things or sets of things, represented, 
 let us suppose, by a and b respectively, there are thirty-two 
 different ways in which we can arrange them in sets of five; 
 as, for example, aaaaa, aaaah, a a ah a, and so on. ( It 
 should be noted that in these groups a and h are merely used 
 as symbols to represent two differences which might be equally 
 well represented by dots and dashes or any other convenient 
 symbols.) Now, by using twenty- four such groups, out of 
 the possible thirty-two, and letting each stand for a different 
 letter of the alphabet (in Bacon's day I and J counted as one 
 letter, as did also U and V), we can communicate by means 
 of two differences with anyone who knows what letter each 
 group stands for. Bacon's method, the advantage of which 
 lies in being able to insert anything in anything — omnia per 
 omnia, as he says — is to have two complete sets, or "founts" 
 as they are called, of type, which he designates the a and h 
 fount respectively. All that is then necessary is to write out 
 the secret message in its biliteral form letter for letter over or 
 
 S6
 
 under the matter to be printed, and, as each letter is required, 
 to take it from the a or b fount according as the one or the 
 other letter appears against it. For example, suppose the 
 words to be printed are "The Court Journal," and that we 
 want to "infold" in this the signature "Fr. B.," and suppose 
 our a fount to consist of Latin and our b fount of Italic letters. 
 Now, in Bacon's biliteral alphabet F is represented by a a b a b, 
 R by b a a a a, and B by a a a a b. Our MS. would, therefore, 
 appear thus : 
 
 THE COURT JOURNAL, 
 aab abbaa aaaaaab 
 
 In printing we should take the T and H from the a fount, 
 the E from the b fount, and so on. The words would then 
 appear thus : 
 
 TH£ COURT JOURNAL. 
 
 The decipherer would mark the letters according to their 
 respective founts, divide it into groups of five, and, knowing 
 what letter each group stands for, would read "Fr. B." 
 
 In these days of publicity we find it hard to accept any- 
 thing that savors of mystery, and tolerance of opinion and 
 freedom of speech have made it difficult to credit that a man 
 should have had motive sufficient for putting a cipher in his 
 books. Yet, at the present day all internal state correspond- 
 ence is carried on in cipher. Why? Because every other 
 state is a potential enemy. And this same reason made cipher 
 writing common among individuals in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, for in those days when "a man's head 
 stood tickle on his shoulders" every other individual, with 
 perhaps the exception of a few intimates, was a potential 
 enemy. But in the case of Francis Bacon there are special 
 reasons why we should not wonder at his putting a cipher, 
 and that his own Biliteral Cipher, into his published works ; 
 and we shall be able to show that so far from its being strange 
 that he should do so, it would be strange had he not. He 
 invented this cipher at the age of about sixteen or seventeen, 
 when he was in Paris. Nearly thirty years later, in 1605, he 
 published his great philosophical work Of the Advancement of 
 Learning. It is significant that he should have thought ciphers 
 of sufficient importance to be touched on in his work, and that 
 he should have alluded to this particular cipher as "the highest 
 degree of cyphers which is to write omnia per omnia," 
 
 In 1623 he published a Latin version of The Advancement 
 under the title De Aiiguicntis Scientiarum. This is not even 
 a mere translation. The book has been entirely rewritten and 
 
 87
 
 greatly enlarged, and is translated into Latin professedly 
 because he feared that the English language wanted stability, 
 while he believed that Latin would be the language of the 
 learned for all time. Surely now, after nearly two crowded 
 decades of Statecraft, of Law, of Philosophy, in which he has 
 "sounded all the depths and shoals of honour," the eminent 
 statesman, the learned lawyer, the profound philosopher will 
 find no room in his immortal work for what we are apt to 
 consider an ingenious amusement for a schoolboy. Far from 
 being omitted, however, the paragraph on ciphers is enlarged 
 to some pages, the greater part devoted to a detailed descrip- 
 tion and examples of the cipher alluded to by him nearly a 
 score of years before, invented by him nearly half a century 
 earlier. But before we can realize the full force of these facts 
 it will be necessary to glance at some of the leading traits of 
 Bacon's character. It is not too much to say that most peo- 
 ple's knowledge of this great man is derived — directly or indi- 
 rectly — almost exclusively from one essay and one line of 
 poetry; while few have read anything of his writings except 
 his essays. Macaulay's essay, as far as it deals with the moral 
 side of Bacon's character, is probably the greatest libel on a 
 great man that ever masqueraded in the "weed" of criticism, 
 and Pope's line is the text of Macaulay's essay in half a dozen 
 words. Both have painted as the portrait of Bacon a figure 
 impossible in human nature, "a vast idol," as Hepworth Dixon 
 well expresses it, "the head of gold and feet of clay." But 
 this writer and Spedding have dipped deep into the well of 
 Truth, and with her waters have washed away the mud which 
 had been flung by the envious hands of the pigmy contempor- 
 aries over whom Francis Bacon towered, and have shown the 
 whole figure to be sterling gold from head to foot. Even 
 Macaulay and Pope, however, while they mistake Bacon's 
 moral nature, acknowledge the vastness and exquisiteness of 
 his intellect, though again on this side they fail to appreciate 
 fully his "infinite capacity for taking pains." "His under- 
 standing," says the brilliant essayist, "with great minuteness 
 of observation had an aptitude of comprehension such as has 
 never yet been vouchsafed to any other human being. The 
 small fine mind of Labruyere had not a more delicate tact than 
 the large intellect of Bacon. * * '^ His understanding 
 resembled the tent which the fairy Paribanov gave to Prince 
 Ahmed. Fold it ; and it seemed a toy for the hand of a lady. 
 Spread it; and the armies of powerful Sultans might repose 
 beneath its shade."
 
 Bacon's, then, was just such a temperament as would have 
 dehghted in the continual application of his cipher; one to 
 which the great labor involved — a labor which to most would 
 be insufferable drudgery — would have been a congenial exer- 
 cise or might have proved a welcome distraction from painful 
 memories. There is one more point which has an important 
 bearing in this connection. The guiding star of Bacon's life 
 was utility. Everything he studied — and what did he not 
 study ? — he studied with a view to the use that could be made 
 of it. And utility was_the mainspring of his least actions no 
 less than of his loftiest philosophy. If this be granted, and 
 we believe no one will for a moment dispute it, we have the 
 strongest probability, nay, the absolute certainty, that he used 
 the cipher which he invented and published. But where? 
 Only one answer is possible — "In his printed works." For 
 we have seen that it is to be performed by means of two founts 
 of type. One more question naturally suggests itself. "Had 
 he adequate motives for imposing on himself the labor which 
 the extensive use of the cipher involves?" This can only be 
 answered when the secret is no longer a secret, when the cipher 
 is deciphered. The story as deciphered by Mrs. Gallup gives 
 an emphatic answer in the affirmative. The statements 
 unfolded by her are such that, while their publication during 
 his lifetime would have been productive of no good, it would 
 have cost him his life. But in the interests of truth and for 
 his own justification he wished them to be given to a future 
 age. It was with this object that he began to use the cipher, 
 and he continued its use as a distraction from the agonies of 
 retrospection. We have now established, as we think, beyond 
 contradiction, the fact that so far from being incredulous as 
 to the existence of the biliteral cipher in Bacon's works, we 
 ought to expect it. How is it, then, the reader will say, that 
 it has remained undiscovered for so long? It is the old story 
 once more of Columbus and the egg, or, as Mrs. Gallup aptly 
 quotes from Bacon himself, "in which sort of things it is the 
 manner of men, first to wonder that such a thing should be 
 possible, and after it is found out, to wonder again how the 
 world should miss it so long," 
 
 89
 
 THE BACOmAl^ CIPHER.— III. 
 
 By Fleming Fulchee. 
 
 Our discussion o£ this question last week led us by a priori 
 argument to the conclusion that Francis Bacon had put a 
 cipher story into his printed works. 
 
 Now, either this long-neglected cipher has at last been 
 discovered and deciphered or it has not. That is a truism. 
 In the latter case two, and only two, hypotheses are possible; 
 if they can be shown to be false, the affirmative proposition is 
 established. These two hypotheses are — (i) that a deliberate 
 fraud is being perpetrated; (2) that with perfectly honest 
 intentions our authoress has, to use a familiar expression, 
 "cooked" the cipher, and consecjuently the story is in reality 
 the creation of her own brain. It would be a wonderful brain, 
 indeed, that could have devised and executed such a work. 
 The first supposition, we do not hesitate to say, will be at once 
 dismissed by anyone who has even a slight acquaintance with 
 the authoress. But as this is a privilege necessarily denied to 
 the great majority of our readers, let us examine the question 
 impersonally and impartially on its own merits. The "fraud" 
 hypothesis would mean this — that the author had deliberately 
 invented the whole story, and stated without the slightest 
 foundation in fact that when resolved into Francis Bacon's 
 biliteral alphabet it would be found to correspond, letter by 
 letter, with the two founts of Italic type which occur in such 
 profusion in the works deciphered' — for it is through the Italics 
 that the cipher runs. Of the existence of different founts of 
 Italic type in these works there is no cjuestion. It has long 
 been known, though never hitherto explained ; and anyone can 
 verify this assertion by a glance at the original editions, or at 
 the facsimiles in The Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon. 
 
 Now, to ensure this correspondence between the cipher 
 story and the Italic print it would be necessary to count the 
 letters in the latter — in itself a task almost as great as the 
 genuine deciphering. And this would be but a small part of 
 the labor required. It would be far surpassed by the immense 
 amount of literary, linguistic, and historical knowledge and 
 research indispensable for the avoidance of errors which would 
 
 90
 
 soon be detected by the critics, and which would at once expose 
 the fraud. Again, we might easily conceive that the author 
 of our hypothetical fraud would pretend to find a secret his- 
 tory of Bacon's time, with all its tragic interest, but it would 
 be hard indeed to imagine that the idea would suggest itself 
 of pretending to find summaries of and poetical translations 
 from the Iliad and the Odyssey, or that the author would be 
 capable of expressing them with such true Baconian intuition 
 and freedom as they display. Still less is it likely that the 
 author would run the risk of wearying his readers with direc- 
 tions for working out another cipher, which would also, pre- 
 sumably, be non-existent, or with frequent repetitions, which, 
 however, will be seen to be necessary if the cipher is genuine. 
 These considerations, we are aware, though they amount to 
 a moral certainty of the impossibility of the "fraud" hypothesis, 
 do not constitute a mathematical proof of it. There is, how- 
 ever, one which seems to us to do so. In the case of some of 
 the letters the differences between the two founts are so slight 
 that it would be difficult, without more study than most people 
 would be prepared to give, to pronounce with certainty to 
 which fount these letters belonged. "But, on the other hand, 
 in the case of many of the letters — most of the capitals and 
 some of the small letters — the differences are "so plaine as thou 
 canst not erre therein." Now, as these letters stand in fixed 
 places and must be marked always a or b according to their 
 respective founts, the fraud would at once be detected, for it 
 is a mathematical impossibility that the a's and b's of the bilit- 
 eral form of a story not composed with reference to the actual 
 letters could always fall in the right place. So much for the 
 fraud hypothesis. Tlie hypothesis of unintentional "cooking" 
 may be very briefly dismissed. We had intended tp give some 
 rough calculations which would have demonstrated the unten- 
 ability of this theory, but space and our readers' patience, or 
 rather the certain want of the one and the probable exhaustion 
 of the other, forbid. When, however, it is considered that 
 the cipher story has to be got out letter by letter from the 
 printed matter; that it takes five letters of the latter to make 
 one of the former; and that if one letter were got out it would 
 give no assistance in extracting the next ; unless there were a 
 cipher there, it will be seen that ^lo assistance would be obtained 
 from the doubtful letters, and that it would be impossible to 
 obtain any sense in this way. We have now fairly examined 
 the only two hypotheses on which it is possible that Mrs. 
 Oallup's claim can be a "bogus" one. and proved them false. 
 Thus we are driven by the inexorable force of logic to the only 
 
 91
 
 remaining conclusion : That Francis Bacon did put a cipher 
 into his printed works ; that Mrs. Gallup has discovered it and 
 has translated it. 
 
 We had intended to produce much corroborative evidence 
 which, though we now find it superfluous, we believe would 
 have been interesting. The exigencies of space again prevent 
 us. One piece, however, is so curious that we feel sure our 
 readers will pardon us if we produce it. We can vouch for the 
 fact that it was unknown to our authoress when the statement 
 it corroborates was deciphered. In the north of London there 
 is still standing a square building of red brick, dating from 
 the reign of Henry VIII. , which is known as Canonbury 
 Tower. That in no history of the tower, nor in any life of 
 Bacon is mention made of its being connected with him, is only 
 one of the numerous instances of the mystery which always 
 meets us when we try to search deeper into the life of Francis 
 Bacon. Yet research at one of the public libraries has recently 
 elicited the fact that he took a lease of it for ninety-nine years, 
 that he lived there for some time, apparently in charge of the 
 Princes Henry and Charles, sons of James I., and that he was 
 actually living there at the time he received the seals. 
 
 Close under the ceiling, on the wall, in a dark corner of a 
 passage in the Tower, is painted an inscription consisting of 
 the Sovereigns of England from the Conquest. The names 
 are mostly abbreviated, and with one exception follow each 
 other in the recognized order. But between Elizabeth and 
 James stands, in the same way as the other abbreviations, Fr. 
 No explanation of this interpolation appeared until the 
 deciphered story brought to light the facts that Queen Eliza- 
 beth was secretly married to the Earl of Leicester, and that 
 the great man whom we have known as Francis Bacon was 
 in reality her first-born son, and therefore the true, though 
 unacknowledged, heir to the throne. 
 
 We must not conclude without a slight tribute, not the 
 less sincere that it must of necessity be brief, to the merits of 
 Mrs. Gallup's brilliant discovery, and the patient diligence 
 with which she has gradually unrolled the cerements and 
 brought to light one by one truths so long buried. We feel 
 almost tempted to envy the feelings which must have swept 
 over her as the first sentence came to light from its cipher 
 tomb. They must have been such as stirred the soul of 
 Columbus when, after the long night of impatient expecta- 
 tion, the light of morning broke and revealed to his triumphant 
 gaze the shores of the new continent. Let us fran'kly confess 
 
 92
 
 our gratitude to our authoress, who has enabled us to feel 
 once more the "touch of a vanished hand," to hear once more 
 "the sound of a voice that is still" — a hand that was ever 
 stretched down from lofty height to help and raise humanity, 
 a voice that will ring trumpet-tongued through all ages — the 
 hand and voice of one who "had an aspect as if he pitied men." 
 
 The reference to Canonbury Tower, by Mr. Fulcher, 
 renders the following quotations from a late number of 
 "Baconiana" of especial interest, as tracing the history of 
 this ancient and historic pile. The building is in a good 
 state of preservation. The lines are in an obscure part of 
 the building but are plainly observable, as was verified by a 
 personal examination on the part of Mrs. Gallup, in Novem- 
 ber last. It is one of the interesting corroborations which 
 are accumulating, and now being understood in the light of 
 the cipher disclosures, going to show that Francis was 
 entitled to a place in the line of England's kings. 
 
 93
 
 A ^"EW LIGHT. 
 O^ THE BACO^— SHAKESPEARE CYPHER. 
 
 The Nineteenth Century and After, — London. 
 
 Of all the critical paradoxes that have ever been seriously advo- 
 cated, few have been received with such general and derisive 
 indifference as that which declares Bacon to have been the 
 author of the dramas ascribed to Shakespeare, and which 
 couples this declaration with another — more startling still — 
 that these dramas are not dramas only, but are besides a series 
 of writings in cypher, whose inner meaning bears no relation 
 whatever to their ostensible meaning as dramas, but which con- 
 sist of memoranda or memoirs concerning Bacon himself, and 
 secrets of Queen Elizabeth. The mere theory that Bacon was 
 the real author of the plays, though the mass of Shakespeare's 
 readers still set it down as an illusion, does not, indeed, contain 
 anything essentially shocking to common sense. On the con- 
 trary, it is generally recognised that on purely a priori grounds 
 there is less to shock common sense in the idea that those won- 
 derful compositions were the work of a scholar, a philosopher, 
 a statesman, and a profound man of the world, than there is in 
 the idea that they were the work of a notoriously ill-educated 
 actor, who seems to have found some difficulty in signing his 
 own name. This latter idea, which is still generally accepted, 
 has little evidence to support it beyond tradition, which is strong, 
 and strong only, in the absence of evidence to the contrary ; and 
 were such evidence forthcoming, it would be impossible for the 
 candid mind to reject it on the grounds that it pointed to any 
 improbable conclusion. 
 
 But with regard to the theory of the cypher the case is dif- 
 ferent. This is generally rejected or neglected both by scholars 
 
 94
 
 and the reading public, not on the ground that the evidence for 
 it is insufficient, but on the ground that it is in itself so unlikely, 
 so fantastic, so impossible that it is not worth a sane man's while 
 to consider the misguided ingenuities by which a few literary 
 monomaniacs have endeavoured to make it plausible How is 
 it possible, the ordinary man asks, to believe that the finest and 
 profoundest poetry in the world — that the verses which give us 
 in music the love of Romeo and Juliet, the torture of Hamlet's 
 philosophy, the majestic calm of Prospero's — was composed, or 
 rather constructed, as an elaborate verbal puzzle, the object of 
 which was to preserve for some future decipherer a collection of 
 political and mainly personal information, v;hich the author was 
 too timid to confide himself to his contemporaries ? We might 
 just as well believe that Paradise Lost is in reality a kind of 
 Pepys' Diary, in which the poet has recorded for posterity the 
 curtain-lectures of Mrs. Milton. Such is the argument which 
 the ordinary man uses ; and if he consents to consider the matter 
 a little farther, and finds, as he will find, that the advocates of 
 the cypher theory maintain that Bacon, in the Shakespearian 
 plays, has hidden away not one cypher but six, his dismissal of 
 their theory will be yet more curt and contemptuous. Of this 
 attitude of mind I am able to speak with sympathy, for the excel- 
 lent reason that it was till lately my own. A remarkable vol- 
 ume, however, known at present to surprisingly few readers, has 
 been recently published, dealing with the subject before us — a 
 volume which at first I glanced at with apathetic distrust, but 
 which has caused me, when I read it carefully, to reconsider the 
 question. The contents of this volume I shall here briefly sum- 
 marise, leaving the reader to escape from its conclusions if he 
 can. The volume is called The Bi-literal Cypher of Francis 
 Bacon. It was first, I believe, printed privately, less than two 
 years ago ; and a small second edition was issued last year to the 
 public. I will begin with describing its exact scope, which is 
 limited. Of the six Baconian cyphers alleged to exist in Shake- 
 speare, this volume deals only with one; and it is v/ith this one 
 only that I shall ask the reader to concern himself. 
 
 The biliteral cypher possesses two remarkable character- 
 istics, which it is desirable to mention at starting, because they 
 at once dispose of all those a priori objections which suggest 
 themselves, as we have just seen, against the cypher theory gen- 
 
 95
 
 erally. In the first place this cypher, whether it exists in the 
 Shakespearian plays or not, is demonstrably not the invention 
 of any modern literary lunatic. It was invented by Bacon him- 
 self ; and an elaborate account of it, together with examples of its 
 use, is to be found, as will be shown presently, in one of his most 
 celebrated works. In the second place — and this is a point 
 which it is still more important to urge on the a priori sceptic — 
 the biliteral cypher has nothing whatever to do with the com- 
 position or the wording of the works into which it is introduced. 
 There might be a biliteral cypher in Hamlet from end to end, 
 without any thought of a cypher having been present to the 
 author when he was writing it. It is, in other words, altogether 
 a matter of typography. It depends not on what the author 
 writes, but on the manner in which he is printed. Accordingly, 
 v/hen what we may call the Baconian party informs the world 
 that they have discovered a biliteral cypher, of which the author 
 is Bacon, running through the plays of Shakespeare, they are 
 really indulging in a gross inaccuracy of language, which does 
 much to prevent a fair hearing being accorded to them. What 
 they really mean is that this biliteral cypher runs not through the 
 plays themselves, but through one particular edition of them — 
 that is to say, the celebrated first folio. This edition, as every 
 student knows, is remarkable for many extraordinary anomalies 
 in its typography. Of these anomalies an explanation is now for 
 the first time offered to us. They are presented to us — and it is 
 claimed that they are thus explained completely — as part and 
 parcel of the newly discovered typographical cypher. If we take 
 these devices away the cypher disappears with them. If we 
 resort, with the aid of the printer, to devices of the same kind, we 
 could embody the cypher anew, and every sentence that Bacon 
 committed to it, in any book we might choose to reprint, so far 
 as its length permitted — in Pickwick, in Vanity Fair, in Tup- 
 per's Proverbial Philosophy, in the Apocalypse of St. John, or in 
 the advertisement-sheet of the Times. 
 
 I will now proceed to describe what the nature of the cypher 
 is; and it shall first be introduced to the reader in the words of 
 Bacon himself. In the De Augmentis Scientiarum Bacon writes 
 thus :* 
 
 *The passage quoted is from the translation by Gilbert Wats, 1640, as 
 reproduced in The Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon, at the end of Part I. 
 
 96
 
 Let us come to Cyphars. Their kinds are many, as Cyphars simple. 
 Cyphars intermixt with Nulloes, or Non-significant characters ; Cyphars of 
 double letters under one character ; Wheele-cyphars, Kay-cyphars, Cyphars 
 of Words, Others. . . . But that jealousies may be taken away, we will 
 annexe one other invention, which, in truth, we devised in our own youth, 
 when we were in Paris : and it is a thing which yet seemeth to us not worthy 
 to be lost. It containeth the highest degree of Cypher, which is to signify 
 omnia per omnia, yet so as the writng infolding may bear a quintuple relation 
 to the writing infolded. No other condition or restriction whatsoever is 
 required. It shall be performed thus. First, let all the letters of the 
 alphabet, by transposition, be resolved into two letters onely ; for the trans- 
 position of two letters by five placings will be sufficient for thirty-two differ- 
 ences, much more for twenty-four, which is the number of the alphabet. 
 The example of such an alphabet is in this wise: 
 
 Aaaaaa 1 abaaa Rbaaaa 
 
 B aaaab Kabaab S baaab 
 
 C aaaba L ababa T baaba 
 
 D aaabb M ababb V baabb 
 
 Eaabaa N abbaa Wbabaa 
 
 F aabab O abbab X babab 
 
 G aabba P abbba Y babba 
 
 H aabbb Q abbbb Z babbb 
 
 . . . When you addresse yourself to write, resolve your inward infolded 
 letter into this Bi-literarie Alphabet. Say the interior letter be 'Fuge.' 
 
 Example of Solution 
 
 FUGE 
 aabab baabb aabba aabaa 
 
 Together with this you must have ready at hand a bi-formed Alphabet, 
 which may represent all the letters of the Common Alphabet, as well Capitall 
 Letters as the Smaller Characters, in a double forme ^ as may fit every man's 
 occasion. 
 
 ( a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 \ A Aa a 
 
 BBbb 
 
 CC c c 
 
 DDdd 
 
 EEee 
 
 FF/f 
 
 j a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a babab 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 ( GGgg 
 
 Hllh h 
 
 I li i j j 
 
 KKkk 
 
 LLll 
 
 M Mmm 
 
 ( a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 '/ NlStn n 
 
 OOoo 
 
 PPpp 
 
 QQ <I H 
 
 RRrr 
 
 SS s s 
 
 ( a b a b 
 
 a babab 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 IT T t t 
 
 V Vv V u u 
 
 IV Www 
 
 XXxx 
 
 YYyy 
 
 ZZ z z 
 
 Now to the interior letter which is bi-literate, you shall fit a bi-formed 
 exterior letter, which shall answer the other, letter for letter, and after- 
 wards set it downe. Let the exterior example be, Manere te volo, donee 
 Venero. 
 
 An Exatnple of Accommodation . 
 
 FUGE 
 a abab .baabb. aabba. aabaa 
 M a n e r e t e v <> I o d o n e c v e n [ero] 
 
 97
 
 From this short example Bacon then proceeds to a longer 
 one. He takes an entire page from one of Cicero's letters, and 
 so prints it in italics from two founts, similar to those in the 
 alphabet just given, that it infolds an interior letter from a 
 Spartan general, 'Sent once in a scytale, or round cypher'd 
 staffe.' The quotation from Cicero it is unnecessary to give 
 here. It is sufficient to say that, as printed by Bacon, the ordin- 
 ary reader would detect nothing out of the common in it; but 
 when once his eye is made alert by the knowledge that its char- 
 acters are drawn from two different founts of type, he can, by 
 the aid of the alphabets supplied by Bacon, easily decipher for 
 himself the Spartan message infolded in it. 
 
 It is the above passage, occurring in Bacon's own work, 
 which has led to the alleged discovery set forth in the volume 
 with which we are now dealing ; and the history of the discovery, 
 as we there find it, is curious. For a considerable time an 
 American student, Dr. Owen, had been working at the elucida- 
 tion of another cypher altogether, also alleged to be Bacon's, and 
 to exist in the Shakespearian plays. This is the word-cypher. 
 With its details we need not here concern ourselves. It is 
 enough to say that an American lady, Mrs. Gallup, was his 
 assistant. The above passage from Bacon arrested her atten- 
 tion, and she became convinced that the Bi-literal Cypher had 
 been described by its inventor with special ulterior purpose and 
 might possibly be found co-existing in Shakespearian plays with 
 the others. She was fortified in this idea by the well known 
 and unexplained peculiarities in the printing of the first folio to 
 which I have already alluded, and she claims that on examining 
 this volume she found her suspicions correct. The result has 
 been the book under review. After its publication Mrs. Gallup 
 came to England, her sole object being to examine certain rare 
 old books which could not be procured in America and find if 
 possible the first inception of the cypher writings, and in this she 
 claims to have been successful.* Before going farther I will 
 direct the reader's attention once again to the bi-literal cypher 
 itself, and endeavor to make the nature of it clearer to him 
 than it will probably have been made by Bacon's own, somewhat 
 clumsy, exposition of it. 
 
 *Published, since this article was written, in the Third Edition of 
 Bacon's Bi-literal Cypher. 
 
 98
 
 In the first place it should be observed that Bacon's own 
 name for it — 'bi-literal' — is essentially inaccurate and mislead- 
 ing. He means by the word 'bi-literal' that the letters of his 
 second alphabet are all formed out of two — that is to say, 'a' and 
 'b,' by arranging them variously in so many groups of five. 
 But the letters *a' and 'b/ when used for this purpose, are prop- 
 erly speaking not letters at all. They have no phonetic value, 
 they are simply arbitrary signs. Their function would be ful- 
 filled equally well or better by dots and dashes ( . and — ), or 
 else by the longs and shorts (- and o) which are familiar to 
 every schoolboy as symbols of prosodical quantity. The cypher 
 is a cypher of two signs, not of two letters. It is, in fact, merely 
 a species of Morse Code. Let the reader look back to the bi- 
 literal code or alphabet, as formulated by Bacon himself; and. 
 for an example, let him take four letters — a, b, e, and 1 — which 
 I choose merely because several different words can be spelt with 
 them. He will see that for 'a' the symbol is five Vs (a a a a a), 
 for 'b' four 'a's and a 'b' (a a a a b), for '€ two 'a's, a *b', and 
 two 'a's (a a b a a), and for T two consecutive 'a b's and one V 
 (a b a b a). Let him rid himself of these *a's and 'b's, and sub- 
 stitute dots and dashes ; let every 'b' be a dash, and every 'a' a 
 dot. The result will be just the same, and his mind will most 
 likely be clearer. His code signs for these four letters will be as 
 
 follows : A ;B.... — ;E.. — ..;L. — . — . Now let 
 
 him write, in this code, 'ale,' 'all,' 'ball,' 'bell,' 'Abel. No exer- 
 cise could be easier. 'Ale' will be — . — . . . — . . ; 'All' 
 
 will be — . — . . — . — . ; 'Ball' will be . . . . — 
 
 . — . — . . — . — .; 'Bell' will be . . . .— . . — . . . — . — . 
 
 . — . — . ; and 'Abel' will be — . . — . . . — . — . 
 
 Now we come to the next part of our problem. Having writ- 
 ten 'ale,' 'all,' 'ball,' 'bell,' and 'Abel' in dots and dashes — 
 which constitutes, we will suppose, some message which we wish 
 to convey — our next task is to hide this in a series of words with 
 which, seemingly, our message shall have no connection. For 
 the moment, instead of adopting the precise method of Bacon, 
 let us take a much cruder one, which will be at once grasped by 
 everybody. Let us make every capital letter signify a dot in our 
 code, and every small letter a dash ; and let us arrange the code 
 symbols of our five words in a line, thus : 
 
 99
 
 We have here a series of ninety dots and dashes, and all we 
 need now do is to take any sentence we please — any chance 
 fragment, whether of prose or poetry — which contains not less 
 than ninety letters, and ignoring the ordinary use of small letters 
 and capitals, write it in such a way as to put a capital for every 
 dot and a small letter for every dash. Let us take, for example, 
 the first verses of Gray's 'Elegy,' and write it in this manner. 
 What we shall get is as follows : 
 
 THECU RfEwT OLIST HEKNE UOfP ArTiN GDAYt 
 HELOW InGhE RdWiN DSSLo WLyOE RtHeL EaThE 
 PLOUG HMANh OMeWA RdPlO &c. 
 
 All the five words with which we started are here contained 
 in our cypher; and the decipherer has only to perform the 
 childishly simple task of putting a dot under each capital and a 
 dash under each small letter, and he has them back again in the 
 form given above. To illustrate the complete independence of 
 what Bacon calls the 'infolding' document from the 'infolded,' 
 let us set, one under the other, one of Gray's lines, and some dif- 
 ferent sets of words altogether. 
 
 THECU RfEwT OUST HEKNE LlOfP ArTiN GDAY 
 OFMAN SfIrS TDiSO BEDIE NcEaN DtHeF RUIT 
 SINGA SoNgO FSiXP ENCEA BaBfU LlOfR YEFO (ur)&c. 
 
 Every one of these lines, when resolved into dots and dashes. 
 will be the same, and will read thus : 
 
 a 
 
 V (b) &c./ 
 
 (b) &c. 
 
 Bacon's system differs from this merely in the fact that, 
 instead of using the capitals and the small letters of one ordinary 
 alphabet as the equivalents respectively of his 'a's and 'b's — that 
 is to say, of his dots and dashes — he uses two italic alphabets, of 
 capitals and small letters, complete; both the capitals and small 
 letters of one meaning dots or 'a's, and the capitals and small 
 
 100
 
 letters of the other meaning dashes or 'b's. Let us now proceed 
 to adopt his system a little more nearly ourselves, diverging 
 from it only in the fact that our two complete alphabets, instead 
 of being two slightly different varieties of italics, shall consist, 
 the one of italics and the other of ordinary type, the italics rep- 
 resenting the 'a's or dots, the ordinary letters the 'b's or dashes ; 
 and we will, as preliminary examples, imagine two cases, parallel 
 to that which is alleged to be Bacon's own. The following lines 
 are Byron's, which I quote from memory ; and they are printed 
 in accordance with the principles just laid down : 
 
 Saint Fcter sat at the celestial gate; 
 
 The keys vver^ rusty, and the lock was dull, 
 So little trouble had been given of late. 
 
 Not that the place by any means was iull, 
 But since the Gallic era Ktghty-eight 
 
 The devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, 
 And a pull all together, as they say 
 
 At ^ea, whz'ch drew most souls the other way. 
 
 The angels all were singing out of tune. 
 
 And hoarse with haz/ing little else to do, 
 Eyicepting to wind up the sun and moon, 
 
 And cwrb o runaway young sta[r or two, &c.] 
 
 To this passage, before examining it, let us add some others 
 from Milton, printed in the same manner; and let us imagine, 
 for reasons which will appear presently, that we have an edition 
 of Milton in which certain passages, and certain passages only — 
 those which we shall quote being among them — are printed in 
 these two characters, and are consequently at once distinguish- 
 able from the rest of the text. 
 
 Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
 Of that forhidaen tree, whos^ mortal taste 
 Brought death into the wot Id and all our wo<?. 
 With loss of Eden, till on<r greater man 
 Restore us, and regain those blissful seats, 
 Sing Heavenly Muse. 
 
 A little onward lend thy guiding hand 
 
 To these dark steps — a little farther on, 
 
 For yonder bank has choice oi sun and shade. 
 
 The SUM to me is dark 
 And silent as the moon 
 When she deserts the night. 
 Hid in h^r vacant interlunar cave. 
 
 101
 
 Yet once more, oh ye laurels, and once mor^ 
 
 Ye myrtles hrowti, and it'y yiev^r sere, 
 
 I come to pluck your berries Aarjh and crude, 
 
 And with forced fingers rude 
 
 Shatter your leaves, &c., &c. 
 
 Now in the above passages, if we except only the fact that 
 the dots and dashes of the cypher are represented in these by 
 italics and ordinary letters, whereas Bacon employs two slightly 
 different forms of italics, we have the biliteral cypher exempli- 
 fied completely, though with extreme simplicity. But we have 
 not this only. As the reader will see presently, we have exem- 
 plified in them also another of the claims now made for Bacon 
 in relation to works published under another name. It may 
 amuse some readers to extract the cypher in these passages for 
 themselves. They will begin thus, putting dots under the italics 
 and dashes under the ordinary letters : 
 
 Sz.int F ete r s Q.t at. 
 
 They will then divide these dots and dashes into groups of 
 five, thus : . — ..., — . — ..,. — ...; and on turning to Bacon's 
 code, already given, they will find that these three groups mean 
 I. W. I. Pursuing this method, they will find that in the passage 
 from Byron the following meaning is 'infolded :' 
 
 'I, William Wordsworth, am the author of the Byron poems. 
 Don Juan contains my private prayers.' 
 
 In the passages from Milton, the 'infolded' meaning is this : 
 
 'I, S. Pepys, in this and oth'r poems [Now to my Sams'n] 
 hide my secret frailties [Now to Lycidas] lest my wife, poor 
 fool, should know.' 
 
 The reader will see from these examples how easily, if it 
 were not for the existence of copyright, any author might repub- 
 lish the works of any other, introducing a cypher into them, in 
 which he claimed them as his own composition, and deposited 
 in them any secrets which he wished both to record and hide. 
 The passages taken from Milton illustrate certain farther points. 
 " The bi-literal cypher of Bacon exists, it is alleged, in the first 
 folio of Shakespeare, in those parts only which are printed in 
 italics, the end of one fragment of the secret writing often 
 breaking off in the middle of a letter, which is completed at the 
 beginning of another italic passage farther on, and sometimes 
 
 102
 
 in another play,; and parentheses occur like those in our imagined 
 cypher by Pepys, directing the decipherer where to look for the 
 continuations. 
 
 The general character, then, of this biliteral cypher, and the 
 manner in which it is alleged to have been inserted in one edition 
 of the Shakespearian plays, must now be perfectly clear to even 
 the most careless reader; and we may therefore pass on to 
 another portion of our subject; for the claim of the Baconian 
 theorists does not by any means end with what they declare they 
 have proved with regard to the first folio of Shakespeare. They 
 claim that the same cypher has been introduced by Bacon into 
 early or first editions of a number of other works, some bearing 
 his own name, and admittedly written by himself, others bearing 
 the name of well known persons, his contemporaries. These 
 include his own Advancement of Learning, 1605, his Novum 
 Organum, 1620, and his History of Henry VH., 1622 ; the Com- 
 plaints, 1 591, and the Colin Clout, 1595, published under the 
 name of Spenser, and the edition of the Faerie Queen, 1596 ; cer- 
 tain editions of certain plays ascribed to the four dramatists, 
 Peele, Greene, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson ; and the edition pub- 
 lished in 1628 of The Anatomy of Melancholy. Some of these 
 works, in spite of the presence of the cypher in them, it is nor 
 even claimed that Bacon wrote himself. For example, so we are 
 told, he expressly says in his cypher that he used certam plays of 
 Ben Jonson, with Ben Jonson's own permission, as a vehicle for 
 his secret writing, having had, with the exception of a few short 
 masques, no part in the composition of any of them. Bacon does 
 claim, however, unless his cypher is altogether an illusion, that 
 of many of the works into which the cypher was printed, he was 
 himself the actual author — notably The Anatomy of Melan- 
 choly, and the whole of the plays called Shakespeare's. On this 
 latter point he insists over and over again, declaring that he 
 borrowed Shakespeare's name as a pseudonym, and describing 
 him as being nothing more than the most accomplished actor of 
 his time. ^ 
 
 I say this, let me repeat, on the supposition that the cypher is 
 not altogether an illusion. Before considering whether this sup- 
 position is correct, let us accept it for the moment as being so, 
 and see what are the conclusions which it forces on us. Of the 
 four hundred and fifty pages of which Mrs. Gallup's volume, 
 
 103
 
 The Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon, consists, about three 
 hundred and fifty are occupied with what purport to be secret 
 writings of Bacon's, deciphered letter by letter, from the pas- 
 sages printed in italics, in certain specified editions of certain 
 works, some published under other names, some admittedly his 
 own. Of these three hundred and fifty pages of secret writings, 
 about fifteen have been extracted from Spenser, Greene, Peele, 
 and Marlowe, and twenty-three from Ben Jonson; about a 
 hundred and twenty-five from writings admittedly his own, 
 such as the Novum Organum and The New Atlantis, more than 
 ninety from Burton, and more than fifty from the first folio of 
 Shakespeare. Much more, however, it is averred, remains to be 
 deciphered still. 
 
 And now let us ask what, continuing to suppose them 
 genuine, these secret writings contain, and why the authoi 
 wrote them in such a way. Described generally, they are a 
 species of diary, comparable to that of Pepys, also written in 
 cypher — a diary to which the author confides thoughts and 
 hopes and feelings too intimate to be revealed to contemporaries, 
 and secrets the mere hinting of which would have placed his life 
 in danger. Of these it is enough for our present purpose to 
 mention a few. 
 
 Bacon declares in his cypher over and over again that he was 
 not what he appeared to be. He was not, as the world supposed, 
 the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, but the son of the Queen of 
 England by a private marriage with Leicester — her eldest son 
 and rightful heir to the throne. He was ignorant of the fact till 
 he reached his sixteenth year, when he heard the story hinted by 
 one of the ladies of the Court. The Queen, in a fit of anger, 
 admitted to him that it was true, the marriage having taken 
 place secretly in the Tower of London, when the Queen, before 
 her accession, and Leicester were both confined there. For 
 political reasons it was necessary to keep this a profound secret, 
 and the child was confided to Anne and Nicholas Bacon, to be 
 brought up as their own and educated as a private person, the 
 Queen being determined never, under any circumstances, to 
 acknowledge him. To reveal the truth himself would, he 
 believed, be to forfeit his fife; and hence, smarting under an 
 obstinate sense of wrong, he confided his history to the keeping 
 of elaborate cyphers, trusting that future students would unravel 
 
 104
 
 them for a future age. The moment the Queen found that the 
 boy had discovered his parentage he was sent to France under 
 the care of Sir Amyas Paulet, and did not come back to England 
 till the death of his foster-father. When in France he conceived 
 an absorbing and romantic passion for Marguerite, wife of 
 Henry of Navarre, who returned or pretended to return it. 
 Expectations were rife at the time that she and her husband were 
 to be divorced ; and Sir Amyas Paulet attempted to arrange with 
 Queen Elizabeth that, should the divorce take place, Marguerite 
 and Bacon should be married. The divorce, however, was not 
 obtained, nor would Queen Elizabeth listen to the proposal. 
 This early romance made a profound impression on Bacon, and 
 he wrote, long afterwards, Romeo and Juliet in commemoration 
 of it. 
 
 Another part of the story which he tells is this. He was not, 
 he says, the Queen's only child by Leicester. He had a brother, 
 and this brother was Essex; and of all the incidents of his life 
 with regard to which he is most anxious to set forth the truth and 
 with regard to which he fears that his memory is most likely to 
 be wronged, those connected with his conduct towards his unfor- 
 tunate brother stand foremost. 
 
 That he does not venture openly to give even a hint of the 
 truth with regard to this matter, or his parentage and rightful 
 position, he declares with an almost wearisome and not very 
 dignified persistence; and he is, he says, driven to hide himself 
 in tortuous cyphers, which will keep him safe as a coney hiding 
 in a valley of rocks. 
 
 On the contents of the biliteral cypher, considered under 
 their more general aspect, we need not dwell longer. Enough 
 has been said to show that, if it be a genuine document, the 
 author had intelligible reasons for embodying it in this singular 
 form. What mainly concerns us here is its purely literary sig- 
 nificance, especially as regards the authorship of the so-called 
 p^ays of Shakespeare. The mere fact that this biliteral Baconian 
 cypher is incorporated in the first collected edition of these plays 
 does not in itself prove, as we have seen already, that Bacon was 
 the author of King John and Romeo and Jidiet, any more than 
 it proves that he was the author of The Fox, which, though the 
 same cypher occurs in it, is admitted to be Ben Jonson's. The 
 only evidence as to this point with which the biliteral cypher 
 
 105
 
 supplies us consists not in its existence in an edition of Shake- 
 speare's plays, but solely in the assertions which it contains that 
 Bacon did actually write them, coupled with further statements 
 relating to other cyphers — the word-cypher more particularly, 
 also alleged to be contained in them. So far as concerns the 
 biliteral cypher itself, the mere assertions as to authorship whicli 
 Bacon makes by means of it have as much or as little value as 
 they would have had had he made them openly. Their value 
 depends on the value we are inclined to attach to his word, 
 coupled with the probabilities of the case as estimated by the 
 - critic and the historian. The word-cypher, however, stands on 
 a different footing. It depends on the text itself, not on the man- 
 ner in which the text is printed ; and the author of this cypher 
 must necessarily have been the author of the plays. Now the 
 biliteral cypher contains, if it really be a genuine document, 
 elaborate instructions as to the word-cypher, and directions as to 
 the method of unravelling it. That such instructions should be 
 given if the word-cypher is a mere illusion, we need hardly say 
 is incredible. Hence, according to all rules of common sense, 
 our belief in the former carries with it a belief in the latter ; and 
 a belief in the latter — the word-cypher — also carries v/ith it the 
 further belief that Bacon actually was the author of the Shake- 
 spearian plays. 
 
 Whether such be the case or no, it is not my purpose to 
 inquire. All that at this moment I am anxious to impress upon 
 the reader is the fact that, in taking their stand on this new 
 alleged discovery — this discovery of a cypher heretofore not 
 dreamed of — a typographical cypher depending on the use of 
 two printer's alphabets, nearly alike but yet ascertainably dif- 
 ferent, the Baconians have shifted this controversy to wholly 
 novel ground. The word-cypher is a cypher which, even those 
 who believe in it admit, requires for its interpretation a certain 
 amount of conjecture; but the biliteral cypher, if it exists at all 
 can be proved to exist, or, in the opposite case, it can be proved 
 to be a mere hallucination, by the aid of a magnifying-glass 
 applied to certain printed pages. There is no occasion here for 
 any abstruse literary reasoning. There is no occasion for any 
 literary reasoning at all. Either certain editions of the various 
 books in question — the first folio of Shakespeare being the most 
 important and the most famous of them — are, in so far as the 
 
 106
 
 italicised portions of them are concerned, systematically printed 
 in letters from two different founts of type, or they are not. If, 
 as is absolutely indisputable, two different founts are used, the 
 letters from these founts are used in such a manner that, when 
 separated into groups of five, and expressed as dots and dashes, 
 each of these groups will denote a single letter, in accordance 
 with the code set forth by Bacon himself ; or else they wdll not do 
 this, or will do so only by accident, most of the groups having no 
 meaning whatsoever. And lastly, if these groups do assume a 
 consecutive meaning, and actually give us a series of single let- 
 ters, the letters will form words and intelligible sentences, or 
 they will not. The whole case is one for simple ocular demon- 
 stration. 
 
 To make this demonstration conclusive in the eyes of the 
 world generally would, no doubt, demand some time and labour. 
 The question is, are there sufficient prima facie grounds for sup- 
 posing that possibly the Baconian theory is true, to make it 
 worth while for sceptics to undertake the inquiry ? For my own 
 part, unhesitatingly I venture to say that there are. In the first 
 place, this cypher, as no one can deny, was familiar to Bacon, 
 who claims to have himself invented it. He has himself admit- 
 tedly supplied us with our specimen page of it, a passage from 
 Cicero, reproduced by Mrs. Gallup in photographic facsimile, 
 together with a companion page, in which Bacon has placed side 
 by side the two alphabets employed, so that the differences 
 between their respective letters may be more easily realised. 
 Thus the biliteral cypher exists in one page of Bacon's works at 
 all events. There is nothing, therefore, fantastic in the idea 
 that it may exist elsewhere. The only possibility of any doubt 
 with regard to the question is due altogether to a purely physical 
 circumstance. The types employed in printing the specimen 
 passage from Cicero were designedly made of such a size, and 
 the differences between the two alphabets were accentuated in 
 such a manner, that the ordinary eye could readily learn to dis- 
 tinguish the letters that stand for dashes from, those that stand 
 ior dots. Even here, however, the differences are for the mosf 
 part so small and delicate that, in order to perceive them, we 
 must scrutinise the page attentively ; and an hour of such atten- 
 tion may elapse before we cease to be puzzled. But in the first 
 folio of Shakespeare, as in most of the other volumes in which it 
 
 107
 
 is contended that the same type occurs, the type is much smaller. 
 Although even the naked eye can be soon trained to perceive 
 that in many cases the letters belong to different founts, yet these 
 differences are of so minute a kind that in other cases they elude 
 the eye without the aid of a magnifying-glass ; and even with the 
 aid of a magnifying-glass — I say this from experience — the eye 
 of the amateur, at all events, remains doubtful, and unable to 
 assign the letters to this alphabet or to that. The majority of edu- 
 cated persons, therefore, in the present state of the controversy, 
 if they give to the italicised passages of the first Shakespearian 
 folio and the other books in question only so much time and 
 attention as may be expected from interested amateurs, may 
 reasonably, if not rightly, entertain the opinion that the larger 
 part of the differences alleged to exist between the italic letters 
 employed are entirely imaginary, since their eyes are unable to 
 detect them ; that the supposed cypher is altogether a delusion, 
 and has been read into the texts, not out of them, by Mrs. Gal- 
 lup and her coadjutors. 
 
 On the other hand, the fact that the amateur finds himself, 
 after weeks of study, still completely bewildered in his attempt 
 to allocate the various letters to two different founts of type, in 
 such a way as to elicit a sentence or even a word in groups of 
 dots and dashes, according to the Baconian code, must not be 
 taken too hastily as a proof that the alleged cypher is imagin- 
 ary. Mrs. Gallup has done much, though not so much as she 
 might have done, to enable her readers to settle this point for 
 themselves. She has reproduced in facsimile from the original 
 editions Bacon's preface to the Novum Organum, 1620; and the 
 Epistle Dedicatory of the so-called Spenser's Complaints, 1591, 
 in both of which it is contended that the Baconian cypher occurs. 
 She gives similar facsimiles also of the Epistle Dedicatory, and 
 the Commendatory Verses prefixed to the first folio of Shake- 
 speare. She gives also an enlarged diagram of the different 
 forms of italics used by Bacon in the printing of the Novum 
 Organum; and of his preface to that work, and of the Epistle 
 Dedicatory of Spenser's Complaints, she gives the cypher mean- 
 ing extracted letter by letter, each italic being thus allocated to 
 its own alleged fount. Is this allocation merely fanciful or not? 
 
 I have studied for some weeks Mrs. Gallup's facsimilies my- 
 self, and I give my experience, purely as that of an amateur. 
 
 108
 
 for what it is worth. When I examined the facsimiles first I 
 could make nothing out of them ; and of those from the first folio 
 I can make very little still. All the letters seemed too much 
 alike to allow of my separating- them systematically into two 
 founts of type. Differences which I thought I had discovered 
 at one moment altogether vanished the next, and gave place to 
 others, which soon, in their turn, escaped me. But with regard 
 to the facsimiles from the Novum Organum and Spenser's Com- 
 plaints the case was otherwise, and for a very simple reason. In 
 the facsimiles from the folio the type is extremely small, the 
 original page having been reduced so as to accommodate it to an 
 octavo volume. But in the Bacon and Spenser facsimiles the 
 type is of the size of the original. It is comparatively large, and 
 a study of it is proportionately easier. In these pages I was very 
 soon able to distmguish the different founts to which several of 
 the letters belong. I could presently do the same with regard 
 to several letters more ; and at last I was more or less master of 
 two-thirds of the alphabet in such a way that I was able, with 
 some confidence, to translate them, when in one form into a dot. 
 and when in another form into a dash. I have tried this experi- 
 ment with a large number of passages, and, comparing my inter- 
 pretations with that of Mrs. Gallup herself, I have found that i: 
 coincides with hers, sometimes in four cases out of seven, and 
 not infrequently in five. Many of the letters still continued to 
 baffie me; but with regard to some I found myself always right ; 
 and the dots or dashes into which I had resolved these have 
 invariably coincided with the requirements of the cypher, as 
 Mrs. Gallup interprets it. It appears to me to be almost incon- 
 ceivable that multiplied coincidences such as these can be the 
 work of chance, or that they can originate otherwise than in the 
 fact that in these pages at all events — the preface to the Novum 
 Organum, printed in 1620, and in the Dedication of Spenser's 
 Complaints, printed in 1591 — a biliteral cypher exists, in both 
 cases the work of Bacon; and if such a cypher really exists 
 here, the probabilities are overwhelming that Mrs. Gallup is 
 right, and that we shall find it existing in the first folio of 
 Shakespeare also. 
 
 It is unfortunate that Mrs. Gallup, whilst giving us the fac- 
 similes already mentioned, has not given us any from the Shake- 
 spearian plays themselves, together with specimens of the cypher 
 
 109
 
 in them, interpreted letter by letter, I doubt, however, if such 
 facsimiles would be conclusive if the page of the original folio 
 were reduced to the size of an octavo. The process which ought 
 to be adopted is one entirely the reverse of this. Passages from 
 the first folio should be given not in a reduced but in an en- 
 larged facsimile, so that the letters should, if possible, be some- 
 thing like half an inch high. Copies, moreover, of the letters, 
 in all the forms in which they occur, should be arranged side by 
 side in alphabets, according to the founts to which they belong ; 
 and a very few passages, if enlarged and illustrated thus, would 
 be sufficient to show whether the admitted peculiarities of the 
 type are merely accidental, as has vaguely been assumed hitherto, 
 or are really the vehicle of an elaborately arranged cypher. 
 
 In order to show the reader that Bacon's biliteral cypher can 
 easily be printed in such a way that the inexperienced eye would 
 wholly fail to detect it, and the uninstructed critic would reject 
 its existence as a myth, I subjoin a passage taken from Bacon's 
 own chapter on cyphers : 
 
 Neither is it a small thing these cyplier characters have, and may ferforme. 
 For by this Art a ivay is opened whereby a man may expresse and signifie 
 the intentions of his niinde at any distance of place, by objects which may be 
 presented to his eye ande accommodated to the eare provided those objects be 
 capable of a twofold difference only, as by bells, by trumpets, by lights, by 
 torches, by the report of muskets, and by any instruments of like nature. But 
 to pursue our enterprise when .... 
 
 Into this passage I have printed the following lines in 
 cypher : 
 
 The star of Shakespeare pales ; but, brighter far, 
 Burns, through the dusk he leaves, an ampler star. 
 
 Founts of italic type might be found the differences between 
 which would be much more minute than those existing between 
 the two used here, but which would yet be visible to the trained 
 eye of a printer's reader, and by means of which a cypher might 
 be printed quite legible to the expert, but undistinguishable for 
 all the world besides. If, therefore, a biliteral Bacon's cypher 
 does really exist in the first folio of Shakespeare, we must be pre- 
 pared to find that the unravelling of it is a matter of considerable 
 difficulty, and that the ocular evidences of its existence are a long 
 time in becoming plain to us. 
 
 110
 
 I must now draw attention to another aspect of the question. 
 If the cypher does not really exist, the entire matter, amounting 
 to between three and four hundred pages, which Mrs. Gallup 
 professes to have deciphered, is an elaborate literary forgery. 
 I recommend the reader to study these pages, and ask if their 
 character is such as to suggest this conclusion. I can here quote 
 one passage only, which is alleged to liave been printed, not 
 into the Shakespearian folio, but into the Neia Atlantis. It 
 refers to the writer's supposed early love affair. If it be a for- 
 gery, it is one of extraordinary ingenuity; so full does it seem 
 to me of pathetic and dignified beauty, and so strongly does it 
 bear the marks of genuine and acute sincerity. 
 
 Th' fame of th' gay French Court had come to me even then, and it was 
 flattering to th' youthfull and most natural! love o' th' affaires taking us from 
 my native land, insomuch as th' secret commission had been entrusted to me, 
 which required most true wisdome for safer, speedier conduct then 'twould 
 have if left to th' common course of businesse. Soe with much interessed, 
 though sometimes apprehensive minde, I made myself ready to accompany 
 Sir Amyias to that sunny land o' th' South I learned so supremely to love, 
 that afterwards I would have left England and every hope of advancement, 
 to remain my whole life there. Nor yet could this be due to th' delight of 
 th' country by itselfe ; for love o' sweete Marguerite, th' beautifull young 
 sister o' th' king (married to gallant Henry th' King o' Navarre) did make 
 it Eden to my innocent heart; and even when I learned her perfidie, love did 
 keepe her like th' angels in my thoughts half o' th' time — as to th' other 
 half she was devilish, and I myselfe was plung'd into hell. This lasted 
 duri'g many yeares, and, not until four decades or eight lustres o' my life 
 were outliv'd, did I take any other to my sore heart. Then I married th' 
 woman who hath put Marguerite from my memorie — rather I should say 
 hath banished her portrait to th' walles of memorie only, where it doth hang 
 in th' pure undimmed beauty of those early dayes. 
 
 W. H. MaIvLock. 
 
 Ill
 
 THE NEW SHAKESPEARE-BACON CONTROVERSY. 
 
 By Gaekett p. Sekviss. 
 The Cosmopolitan, New Yokk, March, 1902. 
 
 That smoldering question which nothing seems able to 
 extinguish, "Did Shakespeare write the Shakespeare plays ?" 
 and the related question, "Is there a cipher hidden in those 
 plays, which not only reveals their real authorship but betrays 
 important state secrets of the time of Queen Elizabeth ?" have 
 just been brought before the public mind in a new and start- 
 ling aspect. 
 
 And this time the problem is presented in a form which 
 renders it capable of being submitted to something like a scien- 
 tific test. It is, in fact, put upon a mechanical basis, so that 
 it becomes a mere question of distinguishing between different 
 shapes of printers' types. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth W. Gallup, of Detroit, Michigan, avers 
 that while engaged in an examination of old editions of the 
 works of Francis Bacon, trying to trace there a "Cipher Story," 
 the key to which was discovered by Dr. O. W. Owen, to whom 
 she was acting as an assistant, she became convinced that the 
 careful explanation which Bacon has given in his celebrated 
 work, De Augmentis Scientiariim, of a species of secret writ- 
 ing, invented by him, and which lie calls a "Bi-literal Cipher," 
 was intended to serve some other purpose besides that of a 
 mere treatise on the subject. 
 
 This Cipher is based upon the use of two slightly different 
 fonts of type and, as we shall presently see, has nothing what- 
 ever to do with the literary form or sense of the books in which 
 it is alleged to be concealed. 
 
 Remembering those puzzling italicized passages that occur 
 in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare's Plays, published in 
 1623, and for which no satisfactory explanation has ever been 
 
 112
 
 offered, Mrs, Gallup immediately examined them to see if, 
 perchance, the bi-literal cipher described by Bacon might not 
 be found in them. Apparently she was not confident of suc- 
 cess, but, to her great surprise, as she affirms, the cipher was 
 there ! 
 
 She began to read it out, and if the story of what she says 
 she found is true, nobody can wonder that she felt she had 
 made the literary discovery of the age. 
 
 Let us say at once that it is not only in the Shakespeare 
 Plays that the alleged cipher is hidden, but it appears also in 
 the works that were published under Bacon's own name, being 
 confined, as in the plays, to the italicized portions — italicized 
 for no discoverable reason — and also, surprising to relate, in 
 a variety of other books of the Elizabethan period, such as 
 Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar and Faerie Queene, Burton's 
 Anatomy oi Melancholy, the plays of Peele, Greene and 
 Marlowe, and even some parts of the plays of Ben Jonson. 
 
 Through all of these works, according to Mrs. Gallup, 
 who has just filled a large octavo volume with her asserted 
 revelations, runs a story, composed by Francis Bacon, and 
 repeated over and over again, in varying, but never contra- 
 dictory, forms, in which he affirms that he was the son of 
 Queen Elizabeth by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, to 
 whom she was secretly married in the Tower of London when 
 before her accession to the throne, both she and the Earl were 
 imprisoned there; that, in order to keep his birth secret, he 
 was given, while a child, to Sir ISTicholas Bacon and his wife 
 Anne, who brought him up as if he were their own son; that 
 he did not discover the truth about his birth until he was six- 
 teen years old, when an intimation of it reached his ears 
 through the indiscretion of a lady of the court, and then his 
 mother, the Queen, in a fit of passion, confessed the truth to 
 him, and immediately afterward sent him away to France in 
 charge of Sir Amyas Paulet ; and that while he was in soutliern 
 France he fell in love with Marguerite, the beautiful wife of 
 King Henry of iSTavarre, and the play of Romeo and Juliet 
 was afterward based upon this romantic episode in bis life. 
 In other parts of the story Bacon is represented as affirming 
 that Queen Elizabeth had another son from her secret union 
 
 113
 
 with the Earl of Leicester, this being no less a person than the 
 Earl of Essex, who was afterward executed for high treason 
 by his mother's command. Essex was thus, according to the 
 story. Bacon's younger brother, and, in the Cipher, Bacon 
 appears as constantly lamenting the share which he unwill- 
 ingly had in the tragic fate of his brother. 
 
 This story, whether it truly exists in the alleged Cipher 
 or is the product of imagination, cannot fail to hold the 
 reader's attention, but before pursuing it farther let us see 
 wdiat the Bi-literal Cipher is. 
 
 In his work, De Augmentis Scientiarum, Bacon first 
 shows that a cipher alphabet can be formed by various trans- 
 positions of the two leading letters of the ordinarj^ alphabet, 
 a and h, in sets of five, each set representing one letter of the 
 Cipher, thus: 
 
 Such an alphabet in itself would be of no use for secret 
 writing. For instance, let us print the word ''Bacon" in it. 
 It would run: aaaab, aaaaa, aaaba, abbab, abbaa. If a series 
 of sentences were written, or printed, in that manner it is 
 evident that the merest tyro would quickly discover the key 
 and decipher the message. 
 
 Bacon's next step, then, is to contrive a way in which the 
 alphabet above described can be "infolded" in a printed book 
 so that each set of five successive letters composing the words 
 of the book, without changing their order and without refer- 
 ence to the meaning that they convey to the ordinary reader, 
 shall represent one of the letters of the hidden Cipher. For 
 this purpose it is necessary to employ two fonts of type, in 
 which the forms of the letters slightlv differ. Call one the 
 "a font" and the other the "b font;" then every letter in the 
 "a font" will stand for "a" in making up the sets of fiv(| 
 a's and b's that compose the letters of the cipher alphabet, and 
 similarly every letter of the b-font will stand for ''b." 
 
 Note: An exten'icd illustration of the zuorking out of the cipher is 
 omitted here, the manner of it being fully illustrated in two other 
 parts of the volume. 
 
 114
 
 Thus, by simply printing three sentences, containing one 
 hundred and twenty-five letters in two kinds of type, another 
 entirely different sentence, containing only twenty-five letters, 
 is inclosed in them, and can be read only by one who holds 
 the clue to the double system of types, which Bacon calls a 
 Bi literal Cipher. It is not necessary in any manner to inter- 
 fere with the order of the words in the original work, and any 
 book in existence could be made to hold a cipher of this kind. 
 The only restriction upon the proceedings of the person who 
 inserts the cipher is imposed by the necessity of using up 
 five letters of the original for every one letter of his inclosed 
 cipher. 
 
 In Bacon's alleged use of the Cipher he is said to have 
 included it only in the italicized portions of the books wherein 
 it is found, using two fonts of Italic letters. 
 
 Now, even if the existence of such a Cipher in the Folio 
 Edition of Shakespeare's Plays, whose typographical eccen- 
 tricities have long been a puzzle, can be established, that fact 
 would not in itself affect the question of the authorship of 
 the Plays. Being simply a matter of the types employed, any 
 printer, if he had the opportunity — not to speak of a suffi- 
 cient motive — could have inserted the story which Mrs. Gallup 
 professes to have extracted. 
 
 Of course Bacon himself could thus have inserted it with- 
 out having had anything to do with the original composition 
 of the Plays. In fact, however, he claims in the alleged Cipher 
 Story that he was the real author of those immortal composi- 
 tions, as well as of other books, such as Spenser's Faerie 
 Queene and Marlowe's plays. 
 
 But the reader is likely to say: "This is so simple a 
 matter that it should have been cleared up long ago. If there 
 are two kinds of type used in the Folio Edition of Shake- 
 speare's Plays, and if all the italicized portions are printed 
 in that manner, and filled with a secret story, it ought to be 
 the easiest thing in the world to establish the fact by simple 
 examination," So it would be if the fonts of type alleged to 
 have been employed by Bacon were as clearly distinguished 
 from one another as are those which he used in illustratine: 
 the principle of the Bi-literal Cipher in his De Augmentis, or 
 
 115
 
 those which we have selected for a similar purpose. But, in 
 fact, there is no such clear distinction. It may indeed be said 
 that Bacon would have defeated his own end by making the 
 differences of type manifest at the first glance. He had to 
 choose letters w^hich should be so nearly alike that they would 
 pass under the ordinary reader's eyes without exciting suspi- 
 cion, and yet should be sufficiently varied to be distinguished 
 without too great difficulty when at last the key was discovered 
 and the deciphering begun. 
 
 ]^ot only are the differences admitted by Mrs. Gallup, 
 especially in the case of the small characters, to be so slight 
 that very close examination is required to preceive them, but 
 she avers that Bacon was not satisfied with using only two 
 fonts; he employed many different fonts, and sometimes 
 changed the order of their distribution among the ^'A's" and 
 "B's," apparently for the purpose of more surely concealing 
 his cipher, for he is represented as saying that his life would 
 be in danger if the fact became known that he was using this 
 method of handing down to posterity secrets concerning the 
 highest personages in the State which the few who were ac- 
 quainted with them dared not whisper above their breath. 
 
 As Mr. Mallock has suggested, the thing to do is not to 
 photograph the pages said to contain the cipher down to the 
 dimensions of an octavo, as has been done, but to magnify 
 them, in order that the typographical variations may be made 
 more evident. By adopting that plan it may be possible to 
 submit the whole question to a decisive test. At any rate, it 
 is a question that can be tested by a mechanical examination, 
 and there certainly seems to be no occasion for the display of 
 heat and bad temper that has been called forth in some quarters 
 by the discussion. On the contrary, it is fvdl of interest, which- 
 ever way it may be decided. 
 
 Returning to the revelations which Mrs. Gallup assures 
 us have been extracted from the books named with the aid of 
 the Bi-literal Cipher, we come upon another point more sur- 
 prising still. The Bi-literal Cipher is believed by her to have 
 been intended as a key to other, more difficult, forms of cipher 
 embedded by Bacon in his various works. The most im- 
 portant of these is described as a "word-cipher," the transla- 
 tion of which does not depend upon the use of any special 
 
 116
 
 type, but is to be effected by means of certain key-words and 
 directions given in the Bi-literal Cipher. This Word-Cipher, 
 if it exists, could not have been inserted in a work originally 
 composed without reference to it, but could only be worked 
 into the web and woof of the composition by the original 
 author, and to assert, as the story does, that Bacon was able 
 to compose the finest plays that we know under the name of 
 Shakespeare merely as cloaks for other hidden plays and nar- 
 ratives is indeed to tax credulity to its limit. 
 
 It will be observed that the "word-cipher" does not 
 admit of any such mechanical test as can be applied to the 
 Bi-literal Cipher, but is a subject for choice, judgment and 
 ingenuity in interpretation, so that, to anybody not predis- 
 posed to accept it, it can never appeal with convincing force, 
 as the Bi-literal would do if once the typographical differences 
 on which it is based could be completely established. Let the 
 Bi-literal Cipher's presence be demonstrated beyond a perad- 
 venture, and then the word-cipher would stand a better chance 
 of acceptance, because the other asserts its existence. The 
 word-cipher compels those who accept it to believe that the 
 person, who put the ciphers in Shakespeare's plays and Bacon's 
 learned treatises and the poems and dramatic compositions of 
 Marlowe, Spenser, Peele and Greene and the Anatomy of 
 Melancholy called Burton's, actually produced all of those 
 works. 
 
 Using the Word-Cipher, and following the clues accorded 
 by the Bi-literal, Mrs. Gallup has recently deciphered, as she 
 avers, one of the concealed tragedies of Bacon. It is called 
 The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, and is made up of bits from 
 many of Shakespeare's plays, matched together. For in- 
 stance, we find Romeo's words put into the mouth of King 
 Henry VIII, and applied by him to Anne Boleyn: 
 
 "O she doth teach the torches to burn bright! 
 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night 
 As a rich jewel In an Ethiop's ear; 
 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!" 
 
 All this is well calculated to repel dispassionate investi- 
 gation of Mrs. Gallup's claims because it so far offends tho 
 common sense and judgment of the reader that he must be 
 
 117
 
 tempted to throw the whole thing overboard at once. If the 
 alleged discovery can ever be rendered acceptable to unpreju- 
 diced investigation, it must be on the basis of the Bi-literal 
 Cipher alone. Let Mrs. Gallup successfully meet Mr. Mal- 
 lock's challenge by taking, as he suggests, the epistle from 
 Macbeth to Lady Macbeth (Macbeth, Act. I, Scene 5), which 
 is one of the passages in the first Folio printed in Italics, and 
 indicating under each letter the font to which, according to 
 her interpretation, it belongs. Then let Mr. Mallock have the 
 passage photographically enlarged, so that the dullest eye 
 can detect the smallest differences in the letters, and when 
 the result is printed the public will have a fair chance to judge 
 for itself. 
 
 But, whatever the outcome of the discussion aroused by 
 Mrs. Gallup's book may be, the story that Francis Bacon 
 appears to tell in its pages does not fail in interest. The well- 
 known fact that historical rumor has long whispered hints 
 touching many of his alleged revelations serves to draw atten- 
 tion to them. Some of Mrs. Gallup's critics intimate that those 
 rumors may really be the sole foundation of her decipherings. 
 But they do not accuse her of wilful invention, and if she has 
 dreamed these things it must be admitted that she dreams 
 interestingly. 
 
 Listen to Bacon's complaint of the injustice done him, 
 as Mrs. Gallup says she reads it in the double types of the 
 Advancement of Learning" : 
 
 "Queen Elizabeth, the late soveraigne, wedded, secretly, 
 th' Earle, my father, at th' Tower of London, and afterwards 
 
 at th' house of Lord P this ceremony was repeated, but 
 
 not with any of the pompe and ceremonie that sorteth wel 
 with queenly espousals, yet with a sufficient number of 
 witnesses. 
 
 "I therfore, being the first borne sonne of this union 
 should sit upon the throne, ruling the people over whom the 
 Supreame Soveraigne doth shewe my right, as hath beene said, 
 whilst suff'ring others to keepe the royall power. 
 
 "A foxe, seen oft at our Court in th' forme and outward 
 appearance of a man, named Robert Cecill — the hunchback — 
 must answer at th' Divine Araignment to my charge agains' 
 
 118
 
 him, for he despoyled me ruthlessly. Th' Queene, mj mother, 
 might in course of events which foUow'd their revelations 
 regarding my birth and parentage, without doubt having some 
 naturall pride in her offspring, often have shewne us no little 
 attenntion had not the crafty foxe aroused in that tiger-like 
 spiritt th' jealousy that did so tormente the Queene [that] 
 neyther night nor day brought her respite from such suggestio's 
 about my hope that I might bee England's King. 
 
 "He told her my endeavours were all for sov'raigntie and 
 honour, a perpetuall intending and constant hourlie practising 
 some one thing urged or imposed, it should seeme, by that 
 absolute, inhere't, honorably deriv'd necessitie of a conserva- 
 tion of roiail dignity. 
 
 ''He bade her observe the strength, breadth and com- 
 passe, at an early age, of th' intellectual powers I displaied, 
 and ev'n deprecated th' gen'rous disposition or graces of speech 
 which wonne me manie friends, implying that my gifts would 
 thus, no doubt, uproot her, because I would, like Absalom, 
 steale awaie th' people's harts and usurp the throne whilst my 
 mother was yet alive." 
 
 Bacon appears also as frequently lamenting the tragic 
 death of his (alleged) brother Robert, Earl of Essex, and in 
 King Lear Mrs. Gallup reads from the Bi-literal Cipher a 
 Btatement that Essex's life might have been saved if a signet- 
 ring that he desired to have presented to his mother had reached 
 her: "As hee had beene led to bel'eve he had but to send the 
 ring to her and th' same would at a mome't's warni'g bring 
 rescue or reliefe, he reived vainly, alas ! on this promis'd ayde. 
 ... It shal bee well depicted in a play, and you wil be in- 
 structted to discypher it fully." 
 
 In Ben Jonson's Masques, Mrs. Gallup says, she finds 
 among other things this statement in Bacon's Bi-literal Cipher: 
 
 "The next volume will be under W. Shakespeare's name. 
 As some which have now been produced have borne upon the 
 title-page his name though all arc my owne work, I have 
 allow'd it to stand on manie others which I myself e regard 
 as equal in merite. When I have assum'd men's names, th' 
 next step is to create for each a stile naturall to th' man that 
 
 119
 
 yet should [let] my owne bee seene, as a thrid o' warpe in 
 my entire fabricke soe that it may be all mine." 
 
 In the same work Bacon is represented as saying that 
 Spenser, Greene, Peele and Marlowe have sold him their 
 names. This, it would appear, was not the case with Ben 
 Jonson, of whom he speaks as his friend, and the implication 
 is that Jonson knew what Bacon was doing with regard to 
 the others. 
 
 Several times Bacon is made to refer to the murder of 
 Amy Eobsart, the Earl of Leicester's wife, of whom he inti- 
 mates, as rumor has long done, that the Earl wished to rid 
 himself in order to marry Elizabeth. 
 
 The stories of his royal birth, of his love for Marguerite 
 of Navarre, and all the rest of the tale are repeated again and 
 again from the various books in whicli the Cipher is said to 
 lie. Frequently Bacon appeals to the unknown decipherer 
 whom he trusts some future time to produce, urging him to 
 spare no pains to unearth the hidden things and promising 
 him undying fame for his labor. 
 
 Among other things alleged to be contained in Bacon's 
 Ciphers are translations of Homer and of Virgil, part of 
 which, in resounding blank verse, Mrs. Gallup publishes in her 
 book. And some of her critics aver that it bears evidence of 
 having been based upon Pope's translation of the Iliad, 
 because it contains names and descriptions that Pope intro- 
 duced without any warrant from Homer. 
 
 It is strongly urged by some of Mrs. Gallup's critics that 
 if Bacon wished to tell such a story as is here put in his mouth 
 he would never have done it in so cumbrous a fashion, but 
 would simply have written it down and placed it under seal, 
 in trustworthy hands, to be opened and read by posterity. 
 But if, in spite of such objections, the existence of the Cipher 
 should be proved, the question would then arise: "Who did 
 put it there, if Bacon didn't, and for what end ?" 
 
 120
 
 PROS AND CONS OF THE CONTROVERSY
 
 THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OE SIR FRAXCIS BACOK 
 
 Baconiana, London. 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 Editor Baconiania: 
 
 From reading the January number of the Magazine, it 
 would seem that I had at least furnished a new topic for 
 discussion, and given a new impetus to the study of things 
 Baconian, in the discovery that the Bi-literal Cipher of Francis 
 Bacon was incorporated in the printing of his works, and that 
 a secret story of the great Author was hidden in them. This 
 in itself is a distinct gain for the study had seemed to lan- 
 guish for material upon which to feed until the opening of 
 new channels of thought and research and comparison of ideas 
 upon the new discovery. The object of the Society is investi- 
 gation. First: of Bacon's authorship of a much wider range 
 of literature than has been accredited to him upon the title 
 pages of the books of his time. Secondly: many have believed 
 that Ciphers would be found that would present new phases 
 of his life history which has seemed so mysterious, if only 
 the right ''key" could be touched. The limits of novelty in 
 the discussion of all these things seemed to have been reached, 
 however. Paralellisms in philosophy, language and thought 
 bad been urged until variety of phrases had been exhausted 
 in comparing them, yet all arguments, while morally conclu- 
 sive to the party urging them, were tinged with inconclusive- 
 ness in the lack of physical demonstration. The Ciphers 
 found furnish the missing links which explain much, if not all. 
 
 Naturally the Ciphers and what they tell invite investi- 
 gation and the pages of Baconiania would seem a not inap- 
 propriate forum for their discussion. 
 
 The understandings of different individuals concerning 
 the same subject are almost as varied as the individuals them- 
 selves, hence we must expect a variety of opinions. Con- 
 
 122
 
 course of words has such different meanings to different people 
 that we are compelled to believe that the brain is like a plastic 
 matter of varying degrees of hardness, receiving but the faintest 
 impression, or none, of some things, while others are deeply 
 imprinted upon the recording tablets of memory. Then, too, 
 the sources of information are so varied that the results of 
 studying them are like looking through glasses of differing color 
 and focus, and the individual receives and describes the im- 
 pression from their own particular lense and confidently asserts 
 that to be the only truth, hence investigation, comparison and 
 discussion are needful in the clarifying process. 
 
 Investigation, however, does not mean rejection of that 
 which is new or unpleasant or not in accord with our precon- 
 <3eived ideas, else my own labors upon old books would have 
 stopped years ago, and I should not now be engaged in explain- 
 ing what I have found, and the old beliefs would not have 
 suffered the jar of a ''Cipher discovery". 
 
 Fully conscious of the absolute veracity of the work I 
 have done, and my responsibility in the expression, I knoiu 
 that the Bi-literal Cipher exists in the printing of Bacon's 
 works: I knov that others can follow over the same course, 
 if they have the aptitude and patience for it, and can reach 
 no other correct results. To those who have availed themselves 
 of the opportunity carefully to study and follow my work, no 
 argument is needed to convince them of my assertion. Doubts 
 and objections come from those who have not had that oppor- 
 tunity or have given the work but slight attention. 
 
 There are those who seem to think the deciphered work 
 as published is a creation of my own, — or that I am self- 
 deceived. Thev do me too much honor, — or too little. It is 
 an honor to be thought capabk' of such a production, through 
 the gathering of historical facts, aided by a romantic imagina- 
 tion, and the power to express it all in the pure old English 
 language of Francis Bacon. T^i<l I possess such creative powers 
 I would have devoted them to some more popular theme and 
 spared eyes and brain from the nervous exhaustion of exam- 
 ining seven thousand pages of olrl English printing for the 
 peculiarities of the Italic letters in them. I cannot aspire to 
 the honor of such a "creation."
 
 On the other hand, it is not complimentary to mj judg- 
 ment, or that of my publishers, that I, or they, should go 
 through the constant researches of the last seven years in 
 libraries so widely scattered, — seK deceived as to the resulting 
 work, expending so much of time and strength and substance 
 in developing something that was non-existent; — or if not 
 that — and the Cipher has no reason for existence — what shall 
 be said of so stupendous and brain-racking effort to deceive 
 my readers with so purj)0seless a production. 
 
 It is urged that the Cipher disclosures do not accord with 
 history. This is a field for the investigators. I can only record 
 what I find as I find it. "The facts of history" is an elastic 
 term and the deductions drawn from public records of the 
 earlier ages vary greatly. The conviction is growing that much 
 of interest was not recorded and it is certain that sources of 
 information are too diverse and greatly scattered to be all 
 brought together into an exact statement of facts. If the 
 Cipher had a purpose, it was to record that which was being"^ 
 suppressed. It would have been a work of supererogation to 
 put into Cipher the open records of the day. 
 
 Many inquiries have reached me asking "How is the 
 Cipher worked ?" and expressing disappointment that the 
 writer had been unable after some hours of study, to grasp the 
 system or its application. 
 
 It would be difficult, and hardly to be expected that an 
 understanding of Greek or Sanscrit could be reached with the 
 aid of a few written lines or with a few hours study. It is 
 equally so with the Cipher. Deciphering the Bi-literal Cipher 
 as it appears in Bacon's works will be impossible to those who 
 are not possessed of an eyesight of the keenest and perfect 
 accuracy of vision in distinguishing minute differences in 
 form, lines, angles and curves in the printed letters. Other 
 things absolutely essential are unlimited time and patience, 
 and aptitude, love for overcoming puzzling difficulties and, 
 I sometimes think, inspiration. As not every one can be a 
 poet, an artist, an astronomer or adept in other branches re- 
 quiring special aptitude, so, and for the same reasons, not every 
 one will be able to master the intricacies of the Cipher, for, 
 in many ways it is most intricate and puzzling, not in the 
 
 124
 
 system itself, but in its application, as it is found in the old 
 books. It must not be made too plain, lest it be discovered 
 too quickly, nor bid too deep lest it never see the light of day, 
 is the substance of the thought of the inventor, many times 
 repeated in the work. The system has been recognized since 
 the first publication of De Augmentis, but the ages since have 
 waited to learn of its application to Bacon's works ; and yet the 
 idea seems to be prevalent that "any one" should be able to 
 do the work, once the bi-literal alphabet is known. This is 
 as great a mistake as it would be to reject the translations of 
 the character writings and hieroglyphics of older times which 
 have been deciphered because we could not in a few hours 
 master them ourselves. Ciphers are used to hide things, not to 
 make them clear. 
 
 125
 
 BI-LITEKAL CYPHER OF FRANCIS BACOE". 
 
 A REPLY TO CERTAIN CRITICS. 
 by elizabeth wells gallup. 
 
 Pall Mall Magazine, May, 1902. 
 
 To the March number of the Pall Mall Magazine Mrs. Gallup con- 
 tribute\i a preliminary paper on the controversy which has so stirred 
 the literary world. We now place before our readers a second article 
 in which Mrs. Gallup deals specifically with a number of points which 
 have been raised by certain individual writers during the progress of 
 the controversy. This Mrs. Gallup has not been able to do before, 
 because, as we have already stated, the criticisms were not in her pos- 
 session when her iirst contribution left America. In sending us her 
 second contribution Mrs. Gallup wishes us to point out that the art- 
 icles to which she is now replying occupied considerable space in the 
 magazines publishing them, and the answers, to be at all full and cor- 
 respondingly valuable, require much greater space than zvas placed at 
 her disposal by the Pall Mall Magazine. In fairness to Mrs. Gallup 
 we think it right to precede her paper zvith this explanation. 
 
 Ed. p. M. M. 
 
 I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of replying to some 
 of my critics in the Pall Mall Magazine, as discussions in 
 the daily press sometimes become acrimonious and detrimental 
 to real study and calm judgment, while a presentation of the 
 subject in the pages of a fireside companion can be enjoyed in 
 the hours of leisure and recreation. 
 
 In view of the remarkable expressions in the Times and 
 other papers, and in two or three magazines in England, I 
 should perhaps regard myself fortunate that there is now no In- 
 quisition to compel a discoverer to recant, under penalty of the 
 rack; and I can already sympathise with a contemporary of 
 Bacon who, when forced publicly to deny what he knew to be 
 truth, was said to have muttered, as he withdrew, "E pur si 
 muove !" 
 
 The torrent of questions, objections, suggestions, inferen- 
 ces, and imaginings that have overwhelmed the press over 
 Bacon's Bi-literal Cypher, has shown an astonishing interest in 
 
 126
 
 the subject, and I may congratulate myself, at any rate, upon 
 being the innocent cause of what somebody has called a "tremen- 
 dous propulsion of thought currents." Much of this energy 
 has been expended along lines in no way relating to me or the 
 validity of my work, but we may suppose there is "no exercise 
 of brain force without its value," and in the swirl there may be 
 others who will say with me, "the world does move." 
 
 I had expected, if not hoped, that with the aids I had set out, 
 some adept in ciphers — sufficiently curious to enjoy solving 
 Sphinxlike riddles — would have followed, and so proved my 
 work. I have been surprised to find how few have been able to 
 grasp the system of its application, and how much defective 
 vision affects the judgment. I also regret very seriously the 
 superficiality of most of the investigations. I am therefore 
 obliged to go into details, when I had expected eager research by 
 others would have made it a fascinating race to forestall me in 
 deciphering the old books I was unable to obtain. 
 
 Tex Objections in the "Times." 
 
 "A Correspondent," in the Times, fully discusses and sets 
 out objections, summarising them finally under the following 
 ten heads: 
 
 1. "There are discernible distinct differences of form in 
 certain individual Italic letters used by printers of tlie period." 
 
 This is an important admission of one important fact. 
 Less careful investigators have directly, or by inference, denied 
 that any such discernible differences exist at all. In the Bi- 
 literal Cypher, p. 310, Bacon says : "Where, by a slighte altera- 
 tion of the common Italicke letters, the alphabets of a bi-literate 
 cypher having the two forms are readily obtain'd," etc., which 
 states clearly enough that he had few changes to make to secure 
 his double alphabet. 
 
 It is admitted also that the full explanation of the bi-literal 
 cipher is given in De Augmentis Scientiarum. Gilbert Wats's 
 translation says: "Together with this, you must have ready at 
 hand a Bi-formed Alphabet, which may represent all the Letters 
 of the common Alphabet, as well Capitall Letters as the Smaller 
 Characters in double forme, as may fit every man's occasion." 
 He also says : "Certainly it is an Art which requires great paines 
 and a good witt, and is consecrate to the Counsels of Princes." 
 
 127
 
 So we have, in analysing this first objection, made good 
 progress when we have learned — (1) the admitted differences 
 in the types; (2) from Bacon himself of the use of bi-formed 
 alphabets; (3) the clear and full explanation of the cipher 
 itself, which can be applied to these differences; (4) his state- 
 ment that it is an art which requires great pains and a good wit 
 (and good vision as well) ; (5) that its importance is so great 
 that it is consecrate to the counsels of princes. This really 
 leaves but one question: did Bacon print this particular cipher 
 into his books ? I answer from a study of months and years 
 that he did, and that I have correctly transcribed it. 
 
 2, The correspondent says : "These differences were by no 
 means confined to the period when Bacon lived, or to the books 
 in which Mrs. Gallup alleges a secret cypher — in fact, they are 
 to be detected in similar profusion in books published thirty- 
 five years after Bacon's death — notably in the third folio of 
 Shakespeare, 1661." 
 
 I replied to this in a former communication to the Times, 
 stating that in some old books of the period similar founts of 
 type in two or more forms are used ; that I have endeavoured 
 to find the cipher in some of these, but found the forms were 
 used promiscuously, without method, and the differences could 
 not be classified to produce, when separated into "groups of 
 five," words and sentences in the bi-literal cipher. But this has 
 no direct bearing on the subject. As Bacon's invention con- 
 sisted in making use (by slight alteration) of varieties and 
 forms of type then, as now, in common use, he would have 
 nothing to do with the introduction of the forms, their general 
 use, or continuance. He employed a method by which two 
 forms were arranged in a definite way, to serve his purpose in 
 his own publications, while the method would be absolutely be- 
 yond discovery without the key. This key he withheld until 
 1623. We now know that Bacon used this method from 1579 
 to the end of his career, and that Rawley employed it until 
 1635 for cipher purposes. How much later it was used I have 
 been unable to learn, that being the latest date of my decipher- 
 ing. 
 
 128
 
 "Confi2n'ed to Few Types." 
 
 3. "These differences, in so far as they are well marked, 
 uniform, and coherent, appear to be confined to very few types 
 — in the case of Shakespeare's plays (first, second, and third 
 folios, 1623, 1632, 1661) to some ten or twelve at most of the 
 capital letters." 
 
 This is incorrect, as I have observed in replying to Objec- 
 tion 1. But starting with twelve capitals, there is half that 
 alphabet. The others can be found by closer observation. Many 
 of the small letters are as well marked in some of the types, 
 not only in the First Folio, but especially in the Historie of the 
 Raigne of King Henry the Seventh (1622), and in the first 
 edition oi De Augmentis Scientiaruni (1623). 
 
 Differences Due to Various Causes. 
 
 4. He states: "Apart from such well-defined differences, 
 there are to be observed in the Italic types of the period in- 
 numerable and unclassifiable differences of form, due, it would 
 seem, to many contributory causes, such as defective manufac- 
 ture, broken face, careless locking of formes (involving bad 
 alignment or improper inclination of individual letters), bad 
 ink, bad paper, and the great age of the impression." 
 
 It is true there are differences that are not the distinctive 
 differences governing- their use, but it is very rarely indeed that 
 a letter is found that is not paired with another, which, though 
 like in some respects, is unlike in certain definite features. It 
 involves no more difficulty to find how a number of letters 
 similar, yet with certain distinctive differences, are to be sep- 
 arated into two classes, than to distinguish in the same way a 
 number of letters in entirely different forms. Bacon himself 
 speaks of the multi- or bi-formed type. We have difficulties 
 arising from very natural causes, but there are none that cannot 
 be overcome with time and patient study. 
 
 Me. Mallock's Examples. 
 
 5. "Mrs. Gallup's manipulation of these minor differences 
 follows no clear and consistent rule or rules ; so that types of 
 many differing characteristics are classed by her as belonging to 
 
 129
 
 one fount, while others closely resembling each other are classed 
 by her as belonging to two different founts on different oc- 
 
 casions." 
 
 This is erroneous. There is no "manipulation," and the 
 rules are consistent. In a few instances the same kinds of 
 letters are wrongly marked as a and h because of printers' 
 errors, which are detected by methods elsewhere more specifical- 
 ly set out, or they may be changed in value by a peculiar mark, 
 as explained on the first page of the deciphered work from 
 Henry Seventh. Printers' errors are not infrequent in the 
 works. They are found in Bacon's own illustration in De Aug- 
 mentis Scientiarum (1624), e.g. In conquiesti, line 5, and in 
 quos, line 10, the letter q is from the "h fount." It should be an 
 "Vfount" letter, and was so printed in the first or "London 
 edition" (1623). An I in line 12, and another in line 14, is 
 from the wrong fount. There is also an error in grouping in 
 the 1624 edition, which does not occur in the 1623. 
 
 As it happened, similar printers' errors occurred in one of 
 Mr. Mallock's examples in the Nineteenth Century — the passage 
 from De Augmentis in which he concealed his own couplet: 
 "The star of Shakespeare, etc." — and that work was done by 
 twentieth-century printers, of Mr. Mallock's own selection. 
 The passage he quotes, printed in the two forms of types, can- 
 not be deciphered as printed on account of an error in the tenth 
 group, and a few letters used from wrong founts. I have sent 
 Mr. Mallock the correction; but I have been wondering since 
 whether it were not incorporated intentionally, to test my 
 powers of observation, for after the tenth group the rest of the 
 passage is simply impossible to read in bi-literal cipher, until 
 the short group is detected and a new division made. I cannot 
 think Mr. Mallock made these mistakes in marking his MS. 
 Some errors exist in our own work, which have been dis- 
 covered since publication, and may quite possibly be found 
 by those who study the book. 
 
 Printers and "Digraphs." 
 
 6. "In the period when the writings under discussion 
 were published, printers made a liberal use of digraphs, such 
 as 'ft,' 'fh,' 'ct,' 'fl,' etc. (In one page of 24 lines, from which 
 
 130
 
 Mrs. Gallup derives her cipher narrative, there are 26 
 digraphs. ) With regard to the deciphering of these, Mrs. Gallup 
 suggests no rules and obeys no laws." 
 
 Again this is erroneous in the last clause. I quote from a 
 preceding paragraph of this correspondent's own article, re- 
 garding Bacon's treatment of the digraph, as follows: "In the 
 example which he gave of the enfolding of such a cipher in a 
 portion of one of Cicero's letters, he printed an se (diphthong), 
 occuring in the Latin word 'cseteris,' not as a diphthong at all, 
 but as two separate letters — ae. Similarly, he caused the ordin- 
 ary digraph 'ct,' invariably printed in one type in those days, to 
 be printed as two separate letters — ct, showing, I think con- 
 clusively, that in his cipher, as applied to printing, digraphs 
 must be — treated separately. Our "Correspondent" says "di- 
 graphs must be kept out of the print," but it is a wrong infer- 
 ence. These diphthongs and digraphs must be compared with 
 one another, not with single letters, but the parts are to be con- 
 sidered separately. They will each be found to have distinctive 
 features, and a decipherer who has become at all expert will at 
 once determine their proper classification. 
 
 Roman Types. 
 
 7. "In certain specific instances, Mrs. Gallup's decipher- 
 ing is arithmetically incorrect, or must be helped out with the 
 help of an arbitrary employment of Roman types — on occasion 
 even this device will not avail to produce the requisite number 
 of letters for her alleged cipher message." 
 
 For the specific instances where Roman type is used, 
 Bacon's instructions are found on pp. 66-67 of the Bi-literal 
 Cypher, which "Correspondent" has evidently overlooked. I 
 have used this passage on another occasion, but will quote again, 
 as others have stumbled over the same difficulty : 
 
 "In order to conceale my Cypher more perfectly, I am pre- 
 paring for th' purpose a sette of alphabets in th' Latine tipe, 
 not for use in th' greatest or lengthy story or epistle, but as 
 another disguise, for, in ensample, a prologue, pra^fatio, the 
 epilogues, and headlines attracted too much notice. ISToe othe' 
 waie of diverting th' curious could be used where th' exterior 
 
 131
 
 epistle is but briefe, however it will not thus turne aside my 
 decipherer, for his eye is too well practised in artes that easily 
 misleade others who enquire th' waye." 
 
 I found Roman type used in such places, and the differ- 
 ences in the letters are quite distinct, but no use was made of 
 this new device, so far as I have found, until 1623, when it ap- 
 peared in the First Folio, and in Vitae et Mortis. 
 
 An incident, for the moment mortifying, occurred in Bos- 
 ton, by which I discovered an error of our printers in the first 
 edition issued. Those having copies of the first edition will 
 notice the word "Baron" is left out of the signature, which 
 reads in the later edition Francis, Baron of Verulam (p. 166), 
 deciphered from the short poem signed "I. M." in the Shake- 
 speare Folio. When I visited Boston to continue my researches, 
 friends previously interested in my work mentioned the diffi- 
 culty they had in trying to decipher, as I did, this portion. I 
 remarked the Roman letters must be used; to which they re- 
 plied the number of Italic letters corresponded with the number 
 of groups required, but the groups would not "read," Upon 
 deciphering it again, in the presence of these people, I found 
 the word Baron had been dropped out in the printing, and the 
 error was corrected in the second edition. 
 
 The answers already given meet the summarised objection 
 of the correspondent's eighth and ninth paragraphs. 
 
 The Deciphering Workroom. 
 
 10. "The nature of the Cipher is such, being in fact en- 
 tirely dependent upon the presence and position of a certain 
 number of ^'s, that, given a framework of such determining 
 factors (which might easily be supplied by the acknowledged 
 differences in a few letters), a misdirected ingenuity could with 
 patience supply all that a preconceived notion could possibly 
 demand." 
 
 The cipher alphabet Bacon illustrates in De Augmentis 
 Scientiarum contains 68 as and 52 h's. The proportion in 
 general use was found to be about 5 to 3. Perhaps I cannot do 
 better to clear myself from the aspersions here intimated than 
 to explain the methods of the workroom by which the larger 
 part of the deciphering was actually done. A type-writing 
 
 132
 
 macliine was changed in its mechanism to space automatically 
 after each group of five letters. The operator alone copied every 
 Italic letter, and the sheets came to me with the letters already 
 grouped. The different forms of letters in the book to be de- 
 ciphered were then made a study, the peculiarities of each fount 
 classified and sketched in an enlarged and accentuated form 
 upon a small chart, and the 'h fount' (being the fewer) was 
 thoroughly learned. The chart was always before me for use 
 upon doubtful letters. I marked upon the sheet on which the 
 letters had been grouped only those that I found to be of the 
 'h fount.' An assistant marked the as and transcribed the 
 result, when I knew for the first time the reading of the deci- 
 phered product. It was thus impossible for me to "preconceive" 
 it, and no amount of "ingenuity, misdirected" or otherwise, 
 could have developed the hundreds of pages of MS. of these con- 
 secutive letters into anything except what the cipher letters 
 would spell out. 
 
 The Operator and the Errors. 
 
 Excepting, of course, occasional corrections of the errors 
 of the operator in copying, or myself in determining the proper 
 fount, the work stands exactly as it left the assistant's hands. 
 The original sheets are unchanged and in my possession. Er- 
 rors occurred in the work as it progressed, but they were so 
 guarded against by the system itself that the deciphering was 
 quickly brought to a stop until they were corrected. Coming 
 from the assistant, the words were without capitals, or punctua- 
 tion, as would be the case by any method of deciphering a 
 cipher. The work of capitalization and punctuation, in the 
 book, is my own, and in this alone was choice permitted me. 
 
 The difficulty with "A Correspondent," as with many ob- 
 servers, is that he jumps at once to conclusions from very super- 
 ficial and limited examination, as well as unfamiliarity with the 
 principles wliich underlie the work; and while his keenness of 
 observation is greater than some evince, he has not, by any 
 means, given the matter sufficient study to become an expert, 
 or to warrant him in expressing a critical judgment. He would 
 not expect to learn Greek in a day, nor to deciplier hieroglyphics 
 on an obelisk upon a first attempt. There are in the Plays five 
 pairs of alphabets of twenty- four letters each (capital and 
 
 133
 
 small) in the different styles and sizes of Italic type. In other 
 words, four hundred and eighty different letters have to be 
 compared with their fellows to determine the classification. It 
 is not, then, the work of a day or a week to enable one to pass 
 an opinion upon the Folio as a whole, and yet that is what he 
 attempts to do. 
 
 The "Times" Facsimiles. 
 
 The Times reproduces a page of facsimiles and an illus- 
 tration taken from Spenser's Complamts, and has also arranged 
 in enlarged form some small letters. In fairness the captials 
 should have appeared as well. In the processes necessary for 
 reproduction, upon newspaper of coarse fibre and uneven surface 
 with the speed of a modern press, many distinctive features 
 of the letters have been lost or distorted to the skilled eye, and 
 the unskilled should not be asked to form a judgment of the 
 integrity of a difficult cipher from such utterly untrustworthy 
 reproductions. 
 
 As explained in the Introduction to the second edition of 
 my book, the facsimiles were not satisfactory. The difficulties 
 arising from age, unequal absorption of ink, poor paper, and 
 poor printing in the old books, cause some features to be ex- 
 aggerated, while others disappear; and on account of unavoid- 
 able inaccuracies, they were omitted from the third edition. 
 
 Inspiration. 
 
 It is strange how an inadvertent word or phrase, in the 
 hands of those who choose to pervert, will return to plague one. 
 In an article in Baconiana, I enumerated the requirements for 
 the work of deciphering as "eyesight of the keenest and perfect 
 accuracy of vision in distinguishing minute differences in form, 
 
 lines, angles, and curves of the printed letters unlimited 
 
 time and patience, persistency and aptitude, love for over- 
 coming puzzling difficulties, and I sometimes think inspiration." 
 Any one who .has worked long in an absorbing and difficult 
 field, will know that the word in this connection meant only 
 the light that breaks upon one's mind, in the solution of some 
 difficulty as the result of earnest effort ; and for a critic to make 
 from this a charge that I allege the cipher work to be one of 
 inspiration on my part is such a misuse of terms as to be wholly 
 
 134
 
 unjustifiable. I think I have the right to complain Avhen the 
 word so used is made the basis of sneering attack through the 
 public press. The word was used by me in no other connection, 
 and as my critics must know, in no other than this very harmless 
 and allowable sense. This is particularly in reply to a lengthy 
 editorial in the Times, which assumed that I made claims to 
 ''inspiration." 
 
 Those who have read my book carefully will recall some of 
 the difficulties recounted on page 11 of the Introduction, re- 
 lating to a subject that has puzzled many students — i.e., the 
 wrong paging of the Folio and some of the other old books. 
 It is told in few^ words in the book, but they are totally inade- 
 quate to describe the strain upon eyes and nerves in those days 
 of alternating struggle and elation as one by one the difficulties 
 were overcome. I think my readers will pardon a careless, per- 
 haps irrevelant use of the term, "I sometimes think inspiration" 
 — may have prompted me to make one more trial. 
 
 Mr. Laxg axd Mrs. Gallup. 
 
 I am also desired to refer to the writings of Mr. Lang, 
 who, on several occasions, has made the Bi-literal Cypher the 
 theme of much ironical pleasantry, more especially in the 
 Monthly Review. Mr. Lang is one of those happy individuals 
 possessed of a large vocabulary and of a vivid imagination that 
 like Tennyson's babbling brook "goes on for ever," but he pre- 
 fers the interrogation to the period — questions more than he 
 asserts. 
 
 In the Monthly Review he cites again, from his Morning 
 Post article (August 1901), some of the reasons for considering 
 Bacon a lunatic. He has, how^ever, omitted one query then made 
 regarding "the new Atlantis men sought beyond the western 
 sea:" "Was Bacon ignorant of the fact that America was dis- 
 covered ?" The question was not repeated after I called at- 
 tention to the fact that in New Atlantis Bacon said, "Wee 
 sailed from Peru." 
 
 The Alpha and Omega of his article — since it appears on 
 the first page and the last — is Mr. Sidney Lee's declaration 
 that the cipher cannot exist in the books in which I knoiv it 
 does exist. I pointed out in a recent communication to the 
 
 135
 
 Times that Mr. Lee had not even understood the elementary 
 principles of the cipher. This is betrayed in his statement: 
 "Italic and Roman types were never intermingled in the man- 
 ner which would be essential if the words embodied Bacon's 
 biliteral cipher" — for that is not the manner of its incorpora- 
 tion. Mr. Lang goes no farther than this very arbitrary decision 
 in his examination of the cipher itself. 
 
 He says: "The consistency of Mrs. Gallup next amazes 
 us. Greene, Peele, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, resemble each 
 other in style (or so she says), because 'one hand wrote them 
 air (i., p. 3). But Bacon (deciphered) avers, 'I varied my 
 style to suit different men, since no two show the same taste and 
 like imagination.' (i., p. 34).... Bacon 'let his own [style] 
 be seen.' " Mr. Lang should have quoted an additional line — 
 "yet should [let] my owne bee seene, as a third o' warpe in 
 my entire fabricke," and it would explain why there are both 
 resemblances and differences in the style of those dramatic 
 works, which have been commented upon by numberless writers 
 as giving evidence of collaboration or of plagiarism. 
 
 The Wifehood aistd Motherhood of Elizabeth. 
 
 Mr. Lang thinks the idea of the wifehood and motherhood 
 of Elizabeth originated in Mr. Lee's articles in the Dictionary 
 of National Biography cited as corroborating the cipher. The 
 facts set forth in Mr. Lee's work are very good circumstantial 
 evidence. Assuredly the statments in the word-cipher and in the 
 bi-literal should accord, for in Bacon's design the principal use 
 of the one was to teach, and assist in deciphering, the others' 
 Mr. Lang quotes: "He learned from the interview and subse- 
 quent occurrences," and exclaims, " how Elizabethan is the 
 style !" 
 
 In Love's Labour's Lost (Act II., Sc. i.) he may read: 
 
 at which interview 
 All liberall reason would I yeeld unto. 
 
 In Troilus and Cressida (Act I., Sc. iii.) we find: 
 To their subsequent volumes. 
 
 And in Henry the Fifth (V. Prol.) is the line: 
 Omit all the occurrences. 
 
 This is where Mr. Lang should exclaim again, "How Eliza- 
 bethan the style !" 
 
 136
 
 My critics would find it interesting and profitable to learn 
 how many expressions, thouglit to be modern, are to be seen 
 in the original works. They would be surprised — agreeably or 
 otherwise — at the long list. 
 
 ''TiDDEk" ok BAC02f. 
 
 The next point is this: "His name, 'Fr. Bacon,' is his 
 only 'by adoption/ " and in a footnote Mr. Lang quotes : " 'My 
 name is Tidder, yet men speak of me as Bacon.' " In Bacon's 
 Historie of the Baigne of King Henry the Seventh (p. 151), 
 we find the name of the first reigning Tudor spelled Tidder. 
 The assertion "We be Tudor" merely shows that he belonged to 
 the Royal house. It was certainly not from Robert Dudley that 
 he claimed a title to the throne. I myself asked, "Why Erancis 
 I. ?" when this passage was deciphered ; and the answer is per- 
 haps in this — as Elizabeth was "Queene of England, Eraunce, 
 and Ireland, and of Virginia," her son as king would be Erancis 
 III. of Erance and Erancis I. of England, as James VI. of 
 Scotland became James I. of England. The right to the Erench 
 title is questionable, of course; but when the play of Edward 
 the Third has been deciphered we shall know how Bacon re- 
 garded it. 
 
 In the expression, "our law giveth to the first-borne of the 
 royall house the title of the Prince of Wales," Bacon did not 
 intend to say "the statute giveth." Had he used custom no one 
 would have cavilled, but custom is defined in law as "long-es- 
 tablished practice, or usage, considered as unwritten laiu, and 
 resting for authority on long consent," and, even at that time, 
 it had long been customary to invest the eldest son of the sov- 
 reign with this title. In the Historie of Henry the Seventh (p. 
 207), speaking of the time when "Henry, Duke of Yorke, was 
 created Prince of Wales, and Earle of Chester and Flint," he 
 added, "For the Dukedom of Cornewall devolved to him by 
 statute." We see per contra that in this place he did not mean 
 by custom. 
 
 Bacon and the Small Poems. 
 
 As evidence of the superficiality of Mr. Lang's knowledge 
 of the book he attempts to criticise, I quote: "In 1596, in his 
 'Faerie Queene,' Bacon grew wilder, in saying 'Wc were in good 
 
 137
 
 hope that when our divers small poemes might bee seene in 
 printed forme, th' approval o' Lord Leicester might be gain'd !' 
 The earliest of the small Bacon-Spenser works used here, by 
 Mrs. Gallup, is of 1591. Leicester died in 1588. Only a 
 raving maniac like Mrs. Gallup's Bacon could hope to please 
 Leicester, who died in 1588, by ^small poemes' printed in 1591, 
 if he means that." 
 
 Has Mr. Lang read so carelessly that he thinks "he means 
 that" ? Does he really not preceive that Bacon was speaking of 
 the small poems appearing between 1579 and 1588 — Shep- 
 heards' Calender in several editions, Virgil's Gnat nearly ready 
 for the printer and suggestively dedicated to the Earl of Leices- 
 ter ? If a careless reading, it discredits his criticism ; if a 
 wilful perversion, it is unworthy and without justification. 
 
 This is much like his remarkable statement in Longman s 
 Magazine regarding the Argument of the Iliad: "The right 
 course with Mrs. Gallup is to ask her to explain why or how 
 Bacon stole from Pope's Homer. . . .and how he could be (as 
 
 he certainly was) ignorant of facts of his own time These 
 
 circumstances make it certain that, though the cipher may be a 
 very nice cipher, Mrs. Gallup must have interpreted it all 
 wrong. She will see that, she would have seen it long ago, if 
 she had read Pope's Homer and had known anything about 
 Elizabethan history." 
 
 We all know what this impossible charge — that "Bacon 
 stole from Pope's Homer," and also the insinuation regard- 
 ing Melville — covertly asserts. I have fully set out in another 
 article the answer to this baseless accusation of Mr. Marston; 
 but I will here repeat that any statement that I copied from 
 Pope, or from any other source whatever, in obtaining the mat- 
 ter put forth as deciphered from Bacon's works, is false in every 
 particular. 
 
 Bacon and Elizabeth's Marriage. 
 
 Mr. Lang, and others, have asserted that Bacon refers to 
 the first Lord Burghley as Robert. This is incorrect. Bacon 
 says Robert Cecil when he means Robert Cecil, and at no other 
 time. Robert is not only named, but described unmistakably. 
 Mr. Lang says, "Robert Cecil was born in 1563, or thereabout, 
 was younger than Bacon," consequently could not have incited 
 
 138
 
 the Queen against him, etc., and devotes a page to mis-statements 
 and sarcasms. Here again is he ignorant, or indulges in wilful 
 perversion. The encyclopaedias say, "Eobert Cecil was born in 
 1550." He was therefore eleven years older than Bacon, and 
 twenty-seven years of age w^hen the incident referred to oc- 
 curred. We learn also from the same source: "Of his cousin, 
 Francis Bacon, he appears to have been jealous." The "blunder" 
 is Mr. Lang's, not Bacon's, and it is not an evidence that "either 
 an ignorant American wrote all this, or Bacon was an idiot." 
 
 In speaking of Elizabeth^s marriage, Mr. Lang says, "The 
 second was 'after her ascent to royal power' (1558). Any one 
 but Bacon would have said, 'after the death of Dudley's first 
 wife,' because only after that death could the marriage be 
 legal." 
 
 What Bacon really said is this : "Af te' her ascent to royale 
 power, before my birth, a second nuptiall rite duly witness'd 
 was observed, soe that I was borne in holy wedlocke" (p. 154), 
 Mr. Lang's opinion of what any other man might have said is 
 quite immaterial. 
 
 A question of Bacon's legitimacy would, without a doubt, 
 have been raised ; and as Leicester favoured his second son, 
 Essex, this may account for the express wish to have the story 
 openly told. Such questions were debated concerning more 
 than one royal title in those days, but Bacon believed his birth 
 in holy wedlock was sufficient legitimation. The mere fact 
 that both Mary and Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, although 
 one or the other was not strictly legitimate, would confirm this 
 opinion, and the history of the founding of the line of Tudor 
 involved the same question. 
 
 I regret that lack of space prevents a reference to some of 
 Mr. Lang's other remarks, which are equally subject to criti- 
 cism and correction. Brander Matthews, in Pen and Ink, 
 formulates "Twelve Eules for Reviewers," that will, I am very 
 sure, commend themselves to those who desire to make criticism 
 of value. Had Mr. Lang followed any of these rules he would 
 have written in a different manner and more to his own credit. 
 
 Mr. ScirooLiNG and the Cipher. 
 
 I can only say that with regard to Mr. Scliooling as with 
 thousands of others, defective vision or superficial examination 
 
 139
 
 is responsible for his criticism, for it culminates in the asser- 
 tion, merely, that different founts of Italic type are not used 
 in the books referred to, and that the work "^can be regarded only 
 as a phantasy of my imagining, wholly unworthy of credence." 
 I again assert, with that degree of positiveness which comes 
 from a study of years, that the Italic types are from different 
 founts and are used in the manner I have set forth. There is 
 no room whatever for imagination in the work. 
 
 Mr. Schooling enters into particulars, and reports upon 
 o's, ns,, and p's in a few lines of small letters, and says "they 
 are from the same fount, and the cipher, therefore, non-ex- 
 istent." In this he is absolutely wrong. He makes no mention 
 of the marked differences in the capitals, and, too, he should 
 have studied the originals on many pages, as I have done, for in 
 the photographic facsimiles of the book some of the distinctive 
 features are lost. It is difficult to describe in words the par- 
 ticular lines in a drawing, and equally so those in several forms 
 of type, but I will attempt to make the differences clear. 
 
 The Italics in Spenser. 
 
 Extending these examples of Mr. Schooling, take for illus- 
 tration the Italics in the first lines of the selection from Spenser. 
 The type is large and clear, and there are several letters so 
 close together that comparisons can easily be made. 
 
 full Ladie the La Marie. 
 
 There are two captial Us. The serif of the first is curved, 
 of 'lio second straight. At the bottom, the horizontal of the 
 first gradually thickens, and the small line at the end is nearly 
 vertical, while the horizontal of the second is of even thickness 
 and the small line slanting. 
 
 There are three small a's. The oval of the first is narrow 
 and pointed at the top, those of the other two are broad at the 
 top. The small line at the bottom of the first is long and strong, 
 of the other two short and weak. 
 
 There are three small e's. The ovals of the first two are 
 broad, the letters themselves narrow; the oval of the last is 
 longer and more pointed, but the letter itself is wide. 
 
 The two small %s do not stand at the same degree of in- 
 clination, and the dot of the first is slightly to the left. 
 
 140
 
 v/ 
 
 The capital M is a striking form, and the plain M of that 
 size of type must be familiar to Mr. Schooling and others. 
 
 Taking the next Italic line, the small ns are from different 
 founts. The inclination of the second is greater than that of 
 the first. The stem of the first n (in Honourable) is straight, 
 that of the second (in and) is slightly curved. The small line 
 at the bottom of the first stands well under the downward 
 stroke, that of the second freely leaves the dowmward stroke. 
 
 In the next line, the difference in the small ^'s is very 
 marked, and one is much longer than the other. 
 
 In the line below, an e from the "b fount" and one from 
 the '^a fount" stand together in the word bee. These can easily 
 be discriminated, but the characteristics of the e in this size of 
 type are the reverse of the same in the large size above. 
 
 The in long is a wider oval than the o from the "a 
 fount" in bountifull. It has already been pointed out why the 
 ns in both words are "a-fount" letters, although the one in long 
 is not a perfect letter — the lower part of the last stroke being 
 blotted — but, as I have said on other occasions, where broken 
 or blotted letters or errors of the printer occur in the original, 
 the context will unmistakably indicate what they are. 
 
 The "Novum Organum." 
 
 In the Praefatio of Novum Organum, the first letter con- 
 sidered is the small o, and of this two examples given by Mr. 
 Schooling are in the second line — in explorata and pronuntiare. 
 The longest diameter produced until it intersects the line of 
 writing does not make so large an angle in the first as in the 
 second. The oval is much narrower in the first. The descrip- 
 tion of these two will suffice for all others not changed by a 
 mark, unless a printer's error occurs. 
 
 The two p's in propria arc most easily compared, as the 
 first is from the "a fount" and the second is from the "b fount." 
 The stem of the first is not quite so long as that of the second ; 
 and, in the first, the oval is somewhat angular on the right side 
 at the top, in the second this angularity is seen at the bottom. 
 The same rule applies to other cases. Of the half-dozen cited 
 by Mr. Schooling, I have merely chosen two that stand close 
 together. He would find as great difficulty in the differentia- 
 
 141
 
 ! 
 
 r 
 
 tion of the o's and c's of any two founts of modern Italic type, 
 as in these he points out, for the differences are often as minute. 
 
 Bacon and the Compositor. 
 
 Mr. Schooling says, "Mrs. Gallup does not tell us how 
 Lord Bacon managed to get his work set up by the compositor." 
 
 Any printer will tell him, if he will inquire, that it is not 
 more difficult to take certain letters that have been marked on 
 the MS. from one case of Italic type, and certain other letters, 
 not marked, from another case of Italic, than to take Roman 
 from one case and Italic from another in ordinary composition. 
 The system has the advantage that the printer, in following 
 copy, could not know the cipher without the key, wdiicli in 
 Bacon's case was withheld until 1623 — forty-four years after 
 the cipher was invented and first used. 
 
 The Powers of Imagination. 
 
 Perhaps I should thank Mr. Schooling for the implied 
 compliment to my abilities in the realm of creation; for if 
 not a deciphering, what is the alternative ? I must first have 
 conceived the plot of the entire fabric of 380 pages, its histor- 
 ical points, statements of facts not recorded in history — which 
 in some particulars conflict with, in others supplement, the 
 records. I must have imagined the meanings of remorse over 
 the tragedy of Essex ; the discovery of the motherhood of Eliza- 
 beth ; guessed at the broadened field of Bacon's literary powers 
 to take in all the works which are disclosed as coming from 
 his hand ; the directions for writing out the word-cipher ; the 
 argument of the Tragedy of Anne Boleyn; the epitome of the 
 Iliad and of the Odyssey ; the explanatory letters of Dr. Rawley 
 and Ben Jonson that are found in the cipher; the flights of 
 fancy which occasionally appear in the deciphered work, and 
 all the rest. This must all have been written out in the old 
 English spelling and in the language of Bacon's time; this 
 previously written plot and story in the main narration must 
 have been fitted to the exact number of Italic letters, and so 
 arranged that the forms of the capital letters and those whose 
 differences are easily perceived, must in every case fit into 
 place as an a or a h, so that those letters, at least, should con- 
 sistently follow Bacon's biliteral cipher. The simple enumer- 
 
 142
 
 ation, with all that these things imply, carries the refutation 
 of the possibility of such a manner of production, to say noth- 
 ing of the absurdity of attempting it. Had it been undertaken, 
 it would have been along lines that were better known, and 
 statments of facts would have been in accord with the records. 
 Historical romance would never so far have transcended the 
 beliefs of the world, nor subverted all previous ideas concern- 
 ing authorship of literature which will be immortal. The only 
 reason for the book's existence is that it is the transcription 
 of a cipher placed in the works for the purposes disclosed by 
 its decipherment. 
 
 143
 
 BACOX— SHAKESPEARE. 
 The Times, London^ Eng., Jan. 27, 1902. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Times: 
 
 Sir, — Your issues of December 19, 20, and 21 have been 
 forwarded to me bj Messrs. Gay and Bird, and, while regret- 
 ting that distance will cause much time to elapse between 
 the issues and the time this can reach London, I yet desire 
 space to reply to the communications of Mr. Marston and Mr. 
 Lee concerning myself, and the book recently given to the pub- 
 lic, "The Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon." I trust I 
 may not be refused because of lapse of time, or for any other 
 reason. 
 
 I hope the gentlemen do not mean to be rude or do me an 
 injustice, and I do not think they can persist in the character- 
 ization which their words imply. 
 
 The assertion that Mr. Mallock has become ''addlepated," 
 because of thinking there may be something in the cipher, must 
 be something of a shock to his friends. 
 
 Mr. Marston did me the honour of two favourable notices, 
 in succeeding issues of the Publishers' Circular. I was about 
 to thank him for numbers sent to me when I learned that he 
 had prepared and published an elaborate article attempting to 
 discredit the entire work, because of doubts arising in his mind 
 upon a single point. He does not base his disbelief upon any 
 investigation he has made of the cipher itself, but because a 
 fragment which forms a part of Bacon's "Argument" or 
 epitome (but not the full translation) of the Iliad, in that por- 
 tion which catalogues the ships and the troops they transported, 
 is similar — "nearly like" — Pope's translation of the same pas- 
 sages, ergo, it must be that I paraphrased Pope, and hence that 
 the whole cipher fabric is tumbled into dust. Because of this 
 similarity he takes Mr. Mallock to task for considering my 
 work seriously, and declares that, as I have, as he thinks, copied 
 Pope in this, the results of my four years' research in America 
 
 144
 
 and in England, set down on 385 printed pages, must be pure 
 invention, and Mr. Mallock a poor deluded mortal to have gone 
 into the cipher at all. The statement of the case exhibits the 
 value of the conclusion. 
 
 It does not appear just how much variation Mr. Marston 
 would have between the translations of the identical Greek 
 text, describing definite things, to prove which was the correct 
 one, and which the copy. It will also be noted that this is not 
 one of the portions of Homer's wondrous story where imagina- 
 tion may run riot, and imagery and poetic license add lustre to 
 the original. 
 
 The claim of identities set me to wondering whom else 
 I might have paraphrased, or if it was not possible that Pope 
 had copied from some one other than Bacon. An examination 
 of six different English translations and one Latin shows me 
 such substantial accord, that either of them could be called 
 with equal justice a paraphrase of Pope, or that Pope had 
 copied from the others. 
 
 In phrasing no two translations of the Iliad entirely agree, 
 but are we to conclude that, because the translations of the same 
 text are in substantial agreement (though not exact), that one 
 of the two most nearly alike must be a paraphrase? The 
 trifling additions showing some exterior knowledge of persons 
 and places may be found in Bacon's other works. 
 
 It will be observed by readers of the "Bi-literal Cypher" 
 that the fragment of the Eourth Book of the Iliad which is 
 injected by Bacon into the "Argument" is for illustration 
 merely, and is clearly stated to be only " a supreme effort of 
 memory" of the fuller translation which he had previously 
 embedded as a part of the mosaic in his works, to be extracted 
 and reconstructed through the methods of another cipher. 
 
 Surely there can be no more distressing condition than 
 when critics refuse to know all the facts, and are guilty of 
 drawing conclusions without them. Bacon, who knew human 
 nature, has described this class of minds most precisely in his 
 aphorisms, and it would almost seem he had this controversy 
 
 145
 
 in view, or at least a permonition of it, when he says, in 
 ]SJ'umber xxxiii : — 
 
 "This must be plainly avowed; no judgment can be rightly 
 formed either of my method or of the discoveries to which it leads 
 by means of anticipations. .. .since I cannot be called upon to abide 
 by the sentence of a tribunal which is itself on its trial." 
 
 "One method of delivery alone remains to us:.... we must lead 
 men to the particulars themselves and their series and order; while 
 men on their side must force themselves for awhile to lay their 
 notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts." (XXXVI.) 
 
 Mr. Lee, too, bases his disbelief on most inconclusive 
 grounds. The witty author of "Democritus to the Reader" 
 said that any one who sought what he did not want, or that 
 would do him harm when found, wanted wisdom. To he exact, 
 it was expressed less euphemistically, "He is a fool that seeks 
 what he does not want." 
 
 Mr. Lee insists that, because he has collated 25 copies of 
 the plays, during which time he was not looking for a cipher, 
 none exists. As well say that the stars of late discovery which 
 are as yet unknown to any but the most skilled eye of the 
 astronomer do not exist because Mr. Lee, with his unskilled 
 eye, has not discovered them while looking for something else. 
 
 Mr. Sinnett, in the same issue of The Times, states the 
 case fairly in the remark that there are two schools of thinkers 
 on the subject — those who have studied the matter, and those 
 who have not — and he illustrates the feelings of a surprisingly 
 large class by the repetition of the remark of a friend, who, 
 when asked if he had seriously considered certain points (of the 
 Baconians), replied: "I would rather hang myself than con- 
 sider anything so atrocious." I have no doubt Mr. Lee would 
 sympathize with, if not echo, this sentiment. 
 
 I wish politely, and with all due deference, to assert, with 
 a positiveness as emphatic as that of Mr. Lee, that the cipher 
 does exist in the typography of the Plays, and in the ''Anatomy 
 of Melancholy" and in the other works which I have deci- 
 phered. The difference between us is that I found what I was 
 looking for (and much besides), while Mr. Lee did not find 
 what he was not looking for. 
 
 146
 
 Another aphorism, iN'iimber xxxviii., would apply here : — 
 
 "The idols and false notions which are now in possession of the 
 human understanding, and have taken deep root therein, so beset 
 men's minds that truth can hardly find entrance." 
 
 And again, in Number xlvi: — 
 
 "The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion 
 (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) 
 draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there 
 be a greater weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet 
 these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction 
 sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious 
 predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain 
 inviolate." 
 
 If Mr. Lee has a vision sufficiently accurate to discrimi- 
 nate in form, and will spend as much time as I have spent 
 upon the typography of the old books, he will find the letters 
 can be classified, and starting from the proper points and plac- 
 ing in "groups of five" the Bi-literal Cipher Avill read as I have 
 written, and will not read anything else. 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 Detroit, January 9. 
 
 P. S. Jan. 11. — Copies of your issue of December 26 
 and 27 have just reached me. 
 
 The articles on the "Bacon Bi-literal Cypher" show that 
 The Times is not averse to whatever aids in elucidation of this 
 new phase of the Bacon-Shakespeare question. 
 
 I am glad to note that "A Correspondent" has taken 
 some of the preliminary steps to an actual examination of the 
 cipher and apparently has the perception required to reach 
 conclusions that Mr. Mallock and Mr. Sinnett have also reached 
 as to distinctive variations in the forms of letters used in the 
 old books. This denotes real progress in the investigation, and 
 I think the gentleman, with patience, would easily become a 
 decipherer. The peculiarities of the type are clear to the skilled 
 artist or engraver, but they are not so quickly apparent to those 
 less fitted for the closest observation. 
 
 Some of the difficulties encountered by the novice are 
 explained by Mr. Sinnett in the issue of the 27th. I shall be 
 greatly pleased to clear up some of this correspondent's diffi- 
 
 147
 
 culties, in anotlier communication, but will only note in this 
 
 two paragraphs. One difficulty he mentions is that in certain 
 
 passages he does not find sufficient Italic letters to make up 
 
 the extracted sentences. He had overlooked the application 
 
 of the passage in the book, on pp. 66-67 : — 
 
 "In order to conceale my Cypher more perfectly I am preparing 
 for th' purpose a sette of alphabets in th' Latine tipe not for use 
 in th' greatest or lengthy story or epistle, but as another disguise, 
 for, in ensample, a prologue, praefatio, the epilogues, and head lines 
 attracted too much notice. I, therefore, have given much trouble to 
 mine ayders by making two kinds or formes of these letters. These 
 be not designed for other use than hath but now beene explain'd, nor 
 must you looke to see them employ'd if a reason for th' change 
 appeare, but there will be warning given you for your instruction or 
 guidance. Noe othe' waie of diverting th' curious could be used where 
 th' exteriour epistle is but briefe. however it will not thus turn aside 
 my decipherer, for his eye is too well practs'd in artes that easily 
 misleade others who enquire of th' waie." 
 
 There are a very few dedications, commendatory poems, 
 headings, etc., in which Roman letters were used by Bacon. 
 These are in his later printings. 
 
 Another thing this correspondent makes note of is that 
 many of the old books of the Elizabethan period have the same 
 differences. I have examined many of these, beside those 
 belonging to Bacon in which differences occur. In some of 
 them I was led to think the cipher might be found, but on 
 examination it was seen that the different forms were used 
 promiscuously, without method, and could not be grouped in 
 fives to read in the bi-literal. 
 
 Replying to Mr. Lee's communication in the issue of the 
 
 27th, I quote this extraordinary extract: 
 
 "I should like to state unmistakably that I hold there to be 
 not the smallest jot of even prima facie justification.... in the text 
 of the First Folio for the belief that a cipher is concealed in that 
 
 volume. I write with a fine copy on my desk Italic and Roman 
 
 type appear in the preliminary pages. .. .they are never intermingled 
 in the manner which would be essential if the words embodied Bacon's 
 bi-literal cipher." 
 
 His idea of the intermingling of the Roman and Italic 
 type as an essential is entirely wrong. If he had read my 
 book understandingly, he would have known the different 
 founts used by Bacon were in the differing forms of Italic type, 
 not the Roman, except in the very few instances noted above. 
 The ciplier letters are not produced by intermingling Roman 
 
 148
 
 and Italic type in the Plays. He will find on every page of 
 the Plays more than one fount or form of these Italic letters, 
 and that not proper names only, but much besides was printed 
 in them. See especially pp. 42-43, Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 Quoting again from Mr. Lee : — "To assert that a bi-literal 
 cipher can or does appear in a text printed as the First Folio is 
 printed is a bold denial of plain facts." I wish to repeat, with 
 tequal earnestness and entire certainty, that to assert that the 
 cipher cannot and does not exist in the text is a denial of a 
 fact which I have demonstrated. 
 
 He mistakenly says, "The proper names figuring in the 
 text of the plays alone appear in a different type." To these 
 must be added the abbreviated names of the speakers, the run- 
 ning titles, etc., and all other words in Italic type, which 
 together make up when deciphered over 50 pages of my book 
 that are extracted from the folio. 
 
 What shall we say of this quotation from Mr. Lee ? 
 
 "Ignorance, vanity, inability to test evidence, lacli of scholarly 
 habits of mind are in each of these instances found to be the main 
 causes predisposing half-educated members of the public to the ac- 
 ceptance of the delusion (!). And when any of the deluded victims 
 have been narrowly examined they have invariably exhibited a tend- 
 ency to monomania. .. .May a second Hogarth deal as effectually 
 with Mrs. Gallup and Mr. Mallock, and their feeble-witted followers." 
 
 Mr. Mallock "addlepated !" and "half -educated!" Lord 
 Palmerston "feeble-witted" — "with a tendency to monomania !" 
 Is this temperate discussion of a new discovery ? Is true criti- 
 cism of this subject and its believers reduced to vituperation, 
 and this the end of the argument ? 
 
 The public will refuse to accept Mr. Lee's dictum as 
 having any weight at all over against the examination made, 
 and being made, by Mr. Mallock, Mr. Sinnett, and many others. 
 I must assume them to be the peers of !Mr. Lee in intelligence 
 and discrimination, for he is most surely wrong and refuses 
 knowledge, while they are willing to study the subject with 
 patience and candour. 
 
 149
 
 LITERAEY WORLD. 
 London. 
 
 To The Editor. 
 
 Sir: — There is a sense of relief after the worst has been 
 said, in the assurance that nothing more dreadful can be ex- 
 pected. Since the "critic" of the Literary World has consigned 
 me to that Avernus whose horrors all good people hope to es- 
 cape, I should be beyond attack, as none would willingly follow 
 me into the infernal regions. 
 
 After reading the article entitled Galluping in Avernum, 
 my eyes fell upon a clipping in which George Brandes is named 
 as the "famous Danish critic, and the greatest of living Shake- 
 spearean commentators." It says: "He dismisses the whole 
 'Baconian Craze' with the remark that it is on the one hand a 
 piece of weak and inartistic feminine criticism, and on the 
 other an Americanism and therefore lacking in spiritual del- 
 icacy." 
 
 The criticism in the Literary World of Bacon's Bi-literal 
 Cypher and of the Tragedy of Anne Boleyn is not, I think, 
 feminine nor American, but somehow the quality of spiritual 
 delicacy seems lacking, and it can hardly be called artistic. 
 
 It is only recently that I have noticed — this rule has not 
 reached America — that some writers apparently think it is 
 good form to pun, or play, upon another's surname. If the 
 name is not pleasing to the ear, the mortal who bears it has 
 perhaps a lifelong affliction, yet it is certainly a misfortune 
 rather than a fault. Xor did I suppose, until I saw the articles 
 of a large number of reviewers, that any — except writers more 
 intent on filling space than careful of the value of the matter — 
 rushed into print before the subject discussed, or book reviewed 
 was half read. And yet it is this critic's own confession, re- 
 garding the Bi-literal Cypher, that he has read but "half the 
 book, and a few scattered sentences of the rest." From this 
 admittedly superficial reading he concludes a "Phantom per- 
 
 150
 
 sonating Bacon claims to have written all the plays" etc. — the 
 literature throughout which the ciphers have with infinite pains 
 been traced, and the principles upon which they are based, 
 the keys and directions for their decipherment, ascertained 
 and set out in the work he attempts to criticise. 
 
 After quoting the statement that Elizabeth and Dudley 
 were honorably married, and that Bacon and Essex were the 
 issue of this union, our critic asks, "when were Elizabeth and 
 Leicester again married?" This is answered in the Bi-literal 
 Cypher (p. 154). 
 
 A little farther on critic says: "// there had been a mar- 
 riage, which there wasn't, sometime in the four months between 
 Lady Dudley's (Amy Robsart's) death and (the supposed) 
 Bacon's birth, it would have legitimated Bacon ; but then he 
 would not have been a Tudor but a Dudley." 
 
 Bacon evidently considered himself legitimated by "this 
 second nuptial rite," and when he wrote, probably knew quite 
 as much of the law, and of the time the marriage took place, 
 as our critic. It was not descent from Dudley that made him 
 prince. Long-established custom w^as the law that gave "to 
 the first borne of the sovereign the title of Prince of Wales." 
 
 Our critic makes a point of the use and spelling of Brittain 
 and of the expression Hn the throne,' quoting: "Ended now 
 is my great desire to sit in the British throne." 
 
 In the Advancement of Learning (1605) he may read: 
 
 "Queene Elizabeth, your immediate Predecessor in this part of 
 
 Brittaine (B. 1, p. 36) ; while in Shakespeare he will find: 
 
 "Shall see me rising /;( my throne," R. II. 3-2; 
 
 "When I do rouse me in my throne," H. V. 1-2; 
 
 "But one Imperious /;/ another's throne," 1 H. VI. 3-1; 
 
 "In that throne 
 
 "Vhich now the house of Lancaster usurps,". .. .3 H. VI. 1-1; 
 
 ' nd shall I stand, and thou sit ;;; my throne?". .3 H. VI. 1-1; 
 
 "And see him seated in the regal throne," 3 H. VI. 4-3; 
 
 "Once more we sit in England's royal throne, "..3 H. VI. 5-7; 
 "And plant your joys in living Edward's throne, "..R. III. 2-2; 
 
 "We will plant some other in the throne," R. III. 3-7; 
 
 "You are but newly planted in your throne," T. A. 1-1; 
 
 "My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne," R, & J. 5-1 
 
 Our critic has not read his Shakespeare well, if he thinks 
 the term unusual in Bacon's tiiiio. 
 
 151
 
 He also objects to the phrase, '^Every land in which the 
 English language hath a place." Bacon wrote his cipher his- 
 tory to be read, when deciphered, in all parts of the world. 
 The reference to our colonies, etc., was a prophecy more than 
 half realized even then, and he claimed for Elizabeth command 
 of the sea which he called a "universal monarchy." 
 
 Critic again quotes: "We spent our greatest labours in 
 making cyphares' (a noble occupation!)" Certainly, and a 
 natural one when seeking means of communicating important 
 matters. Some one has suggested that instead of committing 
 his secret history to ciphers, he should have written it out and 
 confided the papers to the keeping of trusted literary execu- 
 tors. But that would have been the action of mature years, 
 or of one who believed he was about to leave this life. Bacon 
 then was an eager youth, hardly yet upon the threshold of 
 manhood, and he believed his claims would ultimately be ac- 
 knowledged. As to the nobleness of the occupation, Bacon 
 says of it: "These Arts (cyphers) being here placed with the 
 principal and supreame Sciences, seeme petty thinges: yet to 
 such as have chosen them to spende their labours studies in 
 them, they seem great Matters" — Adv. of Learn. B. 2, p. 61. 
 (1605). 
 
 Our critic states: "To the real Bacon Elizabeth's move- 
 ments in January 1560-1 would have been known." 
 
 To an infant of days? That is very good. These things 
 hecame known to him in the way he states. 
 
 Again, "Robert Cecil, at the period referred to, was about 
 fourteen years of age." Critic must have copied this from 
 Mr. Andrew Lang who makes the same mistake. The encyclo- 
 ^ paedias give the date of Robert Cecil's birth as 1550. He was 
 therefore eleven years older than Bacon and about twenty-seven 
 years of age when. Bacon says, he caused the tempestuous scene 
 that resulted in the disclosure to Francis that he was the son 
 of the Queen. 
 
 Then, "Hamlet was not in 1611 a new play." 
 Could Bacon record in the types of a play then appearing 
 for the first time, that it had "breasted the wave gallantly ?" 
 Whatever the play or whenever it was "new," it could not be 
 the 1611 edition of Hamlet. 
 
 152
 
 The critic further says: "For Bacon's style we know — com- 
 pact, well-built, grammatical, lucid; no feeble tautology, dilu- 
 tions, or repetitions ; harmonious, and satisfying to the ear ; 
 pregnant with meaning, and grateful to the intellect. But what 
 about the Phantoms ? Here we find clumsy and sprawling 
 sentences of half a page, or nearly, with shambling subordinate 
 clauses 'spatch-cocked' in between brackets or dashes" etc. 
 
 Refer again to the Advancement of Learning (1605) : 
 
 ''Antonius Pius, who succeeded him, was a Prince ex- 
 cellently learned ; and had the Patient and subtile witte of a 
 Schoole man: insomuch as in common speech, (which leaves 
 no vertue untaxed) hee was called Cymini Sector, a carver, or 
 a divider of Comine seede, which is one of the least seedes : 
 such a patience hee had and setled spirite, to enter into the 
 least and most exact differences of causes; a fruit no doubt of 
 the exceeding tranquillitie, and serenitie of his minde: which 
 being no wayes charged or incombred, either with feares, re- 
 morses, or scruples, but having been noted for a man of the 
 purest goodnesse without all fiction or affectation, that raigned 
 or lived: made his minde continually present and entier: he 
 likewise approached a degree neerer unto Cliristianitie, and 
 became as Agrippa sayd unto S. Paule, Halfe a Christian; 
 holding their Religion and Law in good opinion: and not only 
 ceasing persecution, but giving way to the advancement of 
 Christians." (B. 1, p. 35). 
 
 "Compact, well-built, lucid," "satisfying to the ear," "not 
 clumsy, sprawling sentences of half a page" — and yet here is 
 nearly a page before Bacon completed his period, and what 
 about unity of subject? 
 
 And again from the same work: 
 
 "In which kind I cannot but mencion Honoris causa your 
 Maiesties exellent book touching the duty of a king: a woorke 
 ritchlye compounded of Divinity Morality and Policy, with 
 great aspersion of all other artes: & being in myne opinion 
 one of the moste sound & healthful writings that I have read: 
 not distempered in the heat of invention nor in the Couldnes 
 of negligence : not sick of Dusinesse as those are who leese them- 
 selves in their order ; nor of Convulsions as those which Crampe 
 in matters impertinent ; not savoring of perfumes & paintings 
 as those doe who seek to please the Reader more than Nature 
 
 153
 
 beareth, and chiefelye wel disposed in the spirits thereof, 
 beeing agreeable to truth, and apt for action: and farre re- 
 mooved from that Xatural infirmity, whereunto I noted those, 
 that write in their own professions to be subject, which is, that 
 they exalt it above measure." (B. 1, 2d p. 69). 
 
 I quote again: 
 
 'This kinde of degenerate learning did chiefely raigne 
 amongst the Schoole-men, who having sharpe and stronge wits, 
 and aboundance of leasure, and smal varietie of reading; but 
 their with being shut up in the Cels of a few Authors (chiefely 
 Aristotle their Dictator) as their persons were shut up in the 
 Cells of Monasteries and Colledges, and knowing little Historic, 
 either of Xature or time, did out of no great quantitie of mat- 
 ter, and infinite agitation of wit, spin out unto us those labori- 
 ous webbes of Learning which are extant in their Bookes," 
 (B. 1, 2d p. 18). 
 
 In eleven lines we are told that 'this kind of learning did 
 reign among schoolmen who did spin out to us those webs of 
 learning extant in their books.' 
 
 Many such examples could be quoted, but these will suffice 
 to show that this critic has not read Bacon well even in modern 
 editions, and not at all in the old English of the original edi- 
 tions. So slightly familiar is he with the great author, that 
 he has failed to discriminate betwen the compact, forceful 
 style of the Essays and Apothegms and the "clumsy, sprawling 
 sentences," of his scientific works — a variation in the manner 
 of writing so marked that one might think these were not 
 from the same pen. 
 
 Mr. Candler has kindly replied to the objection to the 
 sentence, "Such things doth burn," but I will add other in- 
 stances : "Which Religion and the holy faith doth conduct men 
 unto" (A. of L. B. 2, 4th p. 69) ; "which the example and 
 countenance of twoo so learned Princes. . . .hath wrought" 
 (A. of L. B. 1, p. 11) ; "like Ants which is a wise creature for 
 itself" (B. 2, St p. 93). 
 
 Our critic next quotes : " 'Whilst writing these interior 
 works these keies and joining words did deter [it means retardi 
 th' advancement' (pretty, to see keys and words writing)." 
 
 On page 26 of the Advancement of Learning Bacon says: 
 "For I am not ignorant howe much that diverteth and in- 
 
 154
 
 iterruptetli the prosecution and advancement of knowledge" ; 
 and on page 27, "which hath not onely given impediment to 
 the proficience of Learning." 
 
 Preceding examples have shown want of unity in the sub- 
 ject, but I will give an additional illustration to follow "whilst 
 writing these interior works" etc. It is this: "Hearing that 
 jou are at leisure to peruse Stories a desire took me to make an 
 Experiment, (Letter to the King). 
 
 A little farther on the critic states: "Especially careful 
 is the real Bacon in the use of the present conditional, (if, lest, 
 tho') it he, &c. ; but here we sometimes find may stuck in, — 
 ""Dread lest our secret history may be found out' ; 'ere the pleas- 
 ure jnay disappear, ' " &c. 
 
 In a letter to Essex (1598) the critic will find: "If the 
 main conditions may be good." 
 
 And again: "Sometimes a future indicative, 'If it shall 
 not be (for he not) found.' " 
 
 In a letter to the King we have : "If it sliall he deprived" ; 
 in A. of L. (p. 5) "if any man shall thinke." 
 
 Again: "Many of the Phantom's tautologies are positively 
 imbecile, e.g.: 'Frequently, aye many a time' ; 'a narrative of 
 a story' ; 'the play previously named or mentioned' ; 'very pleas- 
 ing to such a degree' ; 'a most cleare playne ensample' ; 'fidmin'd 
 lightning' ; 'a coming people in the future' ; and the like." 
 
 In the History of Henry the Seventh is the peculiar com- 
 bination, "then a young Youth" (p. 247) ; and in the Ad- 
 vancement of Learning (1605) these lines: 'True hounds and 
 limitations, whereby humane knowledge is confined, and rir- 
 -cumscrihed: and yet without any such contraction or coarcta- 
 tion" ; 'being steeped and infused in the humors of the affec- 
 tions"; "not referred to the good of Men and Mankind" (p. 
 5) ; 'let men endeavour an endlesse progresse or proficience in 
 botli . . . and again that they doe not imwisely mingle or con 
 found these learnings together" (p. 6) ; "the accuse.r of Socrates 
 layd it as an Article of charge & accusation against him" ; "and 
 to suppresse truth by force of elociuence and speech"; "there 
 hath beene a meeting, and concurrence" (p. 7) ; 'the modern 
 loosenes or negligence;" 'it is a thing personall and individ- 
 ual" ; 'have an infuence and operation" (p. 13) ; 'to pierce 
 and penetrate" (p. 15); "fit and proper for"; "can fnxe or 
 
 155
 
 condemmc" (1st p. 16) ; 'iiave sought to vaile over and con- 
 ceale" (p. 22) ; "Man's owne individuall Mature (B. 2, p. 56) ; 
 "which cannot but cease and stoppe all progression. For no 
 perfect discoverie can bee made uppon a flatte, or a levell" 
 (p. 34) ; "which hath been likewise handled. But howe ? rather 
 in a satyre & Cinicaly, then seriously & wisely for men 
 have rather sought by wit to deride and traduce (B. 2, 1st p. 
 77) ; "being set doivne and strongly planted doth judge and 
 determine most of the Controversies" (B. 2, p. 72) ; "For 
 Narrations and Relations" (B. 2, p. 14) ; also "But as for the 
 Narrations .... they are either not true, or not Naturall ; and 
 therefore impertinent for the Storie of I^ature" (B, 2, 2d p. 6). 
 
 Again "The real Bacon, as a pretty good classic, could not 
 have spelt lUiad, spirrit, Brittain, Citty, instructted Szc, with 
 doubled consonants; or comon, sufer'd, &c., with a single one; 
 and rarely, if ever, did he adopt that curious growth of the 
 old genitive suffix {-es') — is into the detached possessive his 
 (in imitation of which, her came to be similarly used) ; yet in 
 the Phantom's twaddle instances abound — 'Essex his plea' ; 'the 
 author his poems' ; 'the Queen her crown' ; &;c., &c." 
 
 In Love's Labour's Lost (5-2) Illion; in Troilus and 
 Cressida (1-2) Illium; in All's Well (3-5) Citty; in Ad- 
 vancement of Learning (B. 2, p. 32) Brittaine; Book 2, (p. 
 18) maner, comonly ; (p. 36) canot; (p. 74) amogst, comand; 
 (p. 74) comoly ; (p. 87) ivisedom; and on page 92 circurence 
 (circumference) . 
 
 In printing the deciphered work, similar elisions when 
 they occurred were marked with an apostrophe, the modern ab- 
 breviation, rather than mar the page with such seeming errors. 
 
 I have already given six examples from the History of 
 Henry the Seventh of the detached possessive his, and many 
 others could be cited. "A thing familiar in my Mistris her 
 times" occurs in a letter to !N"orthumberland ; "I. S. his day is 
 past and well past" — Letter to the King (29th of April, 1615). 
 
 "It needeth no proof of the fact that" is characterized as 
 modern padding, but in Advancement of Learning we read^ 
 "where there is assurance and cleere evidence of the fact." 
 
 Most, if not all the so-called modern expressions that have 
 been criticized — including some noted by another critic — are 
 
 156
 
 found (mildly, exciting, headings), and in 2 R. IV. (1-1) is 
 the line, "You cast the event of war." 
 
 A prominent assertion is that concerning repetitions:. 
 Most overlook the fact that the cipher narrative was placed 
 in a large number of books and at different dates. The contents 
 of the Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon were deciphered from 
 fifty-five works, some of them subdivided into many separate 
 parts, as in the Shakespeare First Folio and Ben Jonson's 
 Folio. Bacon declares his reason for reiteration was that he 
 could not know in which book the cipher would be discovered, 
 nor could he suppose that it would be followed through all 
 the works. 
 
 The article concludes with a promise of more to follow — 
 then I trust I may be granted space for further reply. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 REPLY II. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Liteeaey World: 
 
 Sir: — It is unnecessary to explain again the principles of 
 the cipher I have set forth. Mr. Fulcher, Mr. Sinnett, Mr. 
 Mallock, Mr. John Holt Schooling, the critic of the Literary 
 Wo7id, and others, have done this with sufiicient elaboration. 
 Then, too, in De Augmentis Scientiarum they are fully illus- 
 trated and clearly taught by the great inventor himself. 
 
 Few realize that Bacon's own explanation was withheld 
 until the very last of his career. Without the key, the cipher 
 could not have been discovered, and in that lay his safety. In 
 that, too, the importance of the cipher was shown, for in stat- 
 ing that he invented it in his youth, and explaining the same 
 in his age, he set his seal upon it, so to speak, as something 
 useful and worthy of preservation. 
 
 And again, there is that very marked reference to this 
 cipher in the 1605 edition of the Advancement of Learning — 
 that "quintuple proportion" required in no other" — so that a 
 summary gives us: Invented 1579, mentioned 1605, illustrated 
 1623, employed a lifetime before it was explained, as I have 
 now proved true by actual decipherment from fifty-five different 
 books. 
 
 157
 
 The critic states: "With respect to the Shakespeare Folio 
 of 1623, Mr. Sidney Lee, the final authority, declares that no 
 cipher exists in it. On this point, having examined a large 
 number of detached passages up and down the volume, we can 
 bear subsidiary testimony. Not but what there are many in- 
 dividual non-normal letters," etc. 
 
 These 'individual non-normal letters' can be separated 
 into two distinct classes. The practical application of Bacon's 
 invention was merely a selection of the different forms as far 
 as they existed, and the production of others where there was a 
 lack. In the cipher, this is clearly stated. There was no im- 
 propriety in such an adaptation — of forms already existing — 
 so long as in their use there was uniformity throughout each 
 work. 
 
 Our critic says, "IS^othing is more frequent than such mix- 
 tures in books," but there should also be added, what I have 
 learned to be true, that in Bacon's works the different founts 
 were used with a system, have a rational dependence and con- 
 nection, demonstrating the incorporation of the bi-literal cipher. 
 He admits there was a careless use of the initial and interior 
 forms, especially of the small v and w. 
 
 This very fact assured Bacon that their methodical em- 
 ployment would pass unnoticed. One form is consistently 
 used as an ""a fount' letter, and the other as b, unless there be a 
 printer's error, in which case it is easily corrected by the 
 context. 
 
 Our critic further states : "The book contains nearly 400 
 pages. . .wdiich must equal more than three million cipher let- 
 ters, distributed it is asserted, over numerous old books printed 
 in different years, by different printers," etc., and that "to 
 deal reliably with the supposed 'normal' and 'twin' fonts re- 
 quires a special training and experience." 
 
 His estimate is approximately correct. Having examined 
 with the care that was requisite — usually with a magnifying 
 glass — every letter in that 'three million,' may I not say I am 
 "fitted by experience" to differentiate the forms, and that I 
 Arwow whereof I speak ? 
 
 I make no claim to genius but the 'genius of hard work,' 
 nor to inspiration except that coming from success which gave 
 me courage to persevere. 
 
 158
 
 There has been a slight misunderstanding regarding the 
 method of deciphering. Both ways suggested by the critic were 
 tried in the beginning, as well as other methods, but the one 
 finally adopted w^as found to be most expeditious. I have many 
 times given this in detail, perhaps to some of your readers. 
 
 The Italic letters of a page or two of the text were first 
 copied in consecutive order by an operator using a typewriting 
 machine that, arranged to space after each fifth letter, auto- 
 matically formed the requisite cipher groups. When sufficient 
 study had made me familiar with the forms and classificaiion 
 of letters in the book — sometimes a matter of days and (,'von 
 weeks — I placed a mark under the copied letters indicating the 
 fount to which each Italic letter belonged. Tentative divisions 
 were required to ascertain the correct grouping, and to deter- 
 mine the starting point, but when these had been unmistakably 
 found, the copying would be resumed and the sheets containing 
 the transcribed Italics thus properly grouped — but always in 
 their consecutive order as they stand in the books — would be 
 brought to me. 
 
 Having in the meantime memorized the alphabets, I noted 
 each 'b fount' letter and placed a stroke ( / ) under the cor- 
 responding letter on the typewritten sheet. All the others, be- 
 longing to the "^a fount,' were marked witli a short dash under- 
 neath, by an assistant, and the resulting bi-literal letter was then 
 set down. This was the MS. to which I referred, and it is of 
 this that "critic" facetiously asks: "What need of MSS. if the 
 cypher was already embodied in the printed texts ?" 
 
 Had he been at all familiar with ciphers he would have 
 known they are not to be read at a glance. They are purposely 
 made obscure, and are designed to be impossible to decipher 
 by those not possessing the key, and difficult in any case. 
 
 Before reviewers cite Mr. Lee as authority upon the 
 cipher, they should know whether or not his premises are 
 correct. Mr. Lee says: "Italic and Roman types are never in- 
 termingled in the manner that would be essential if the words 
 embodied Bacon's bi-literal cypher." — this shows, as I have 
 before pointed out, in print and otherwise, that Mr. Lee misap- 
 prehends the essentials. The Koman and Italic types are 
 not intermingled to form bi-literal letters. From 1570 to 
 1623, a period of forty-four years, no Roman type was employ- 
 
 159
 
 ed for cipher purposes. On pages 66-67 of the Bi-literal Cypher 
 reference is made to their use in a few short passages, only, of 
 the later publications — the preliminary pages of the First Folio, 
 and of Vitae et Mortis, etc. Mr. Lee is, therefore, not good 
 authority, because he does not understand the principles of 
 the cipher, and, drawing his conclusion from false premises, 
 declares the cipher non-existent that I know does exist. 
 
 My critic says: "Just as in the Spenserian passage, the 
 Gallupian 5-type has been somehow introduced into the repro- 
 duced text [of the Novum Organum^ so as to give the desired 
 cipher-groups : but how, and by whom ?" 
 
 If he refers to the '6 type' of the photographic facsimiles, 
 it is a frank acknowledgment that he can see the differences in 
 the types. He could, therefore, become a cipher expert if he 
 chose. The "^S-type' was introduced when the originals were 
 printed, the one in 1620, the other in 1591. 
 
 If the reference is to the passages that were set up in 
 modern type by our printers, for the purpose of illustrating 
 the method of deciphering, the answer is in the statement it- 
 self. The two founts were purposely selected with differences 
 sufficiently marked to be apparent to the dullest vision 
 
 The facsimiles were omitted from the third edition of the 
 book, not because they proved too much but too little. In spite 
 of the care taken to secure accuracy, some distinctive differ- 
 ences were lost, and, as a consequence, deciphering from the 
 reproductions, was much more difficult than from the originals, 
 . therefore not suited to novices in the art. 
 
 Our critic makes a misstatement in saying that one section 
 of the book "purports to be a translation of Homer's Iliad made 
 by Bacon and buried in cipher in Burton's 'Anatomy of Melan- 
 choly.' " 
 
 This section is fully explained to be but an epitome — 
 argument. Bacon calls it — of the chief events, with the names 
 of the principal characters, to be used as a guide and frame- 
 work of the fuller translation. The complete poem is embodied 
 in the .works and is to be extracted by means of the word- 
 cipher, a very different method. Our critic also repeats the 
 baseless aspersion made by Mr. Marston that the Argument is 
 a prose paraphrase of Pope's translation. I have, in replying 
 
 160
 
 to Mr. Marston's criticism of my work, fully refuted this 
 charge, and I repeat that it is wholly without foundation. 
 
 That our critic understands little of the books he reviews, 
 is apparent in his reference to the method of constructing the 
 Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, and this requires that I again ex- 
 plain the difference of method in the two ciphers. The bi- 
 literal is in the Italic letters of the original volumes — in two 
 founts or forms of type — and has been extracted letter by letter, 
 separated into cipher groups of five, and the result set down. 
 The word-cipher is much more elaborate, and consists in a 
 reconstructing of the history, poem, or drama that had been 
 disseminated through the works. Words, phrases, and passages, 
 pertaining to the same subject, are brought together by the 
 keys and joining-words, and in this new sequence relate an 
 entirely different story. Yet this interior history is the origi- 
 nal. If our critic had thoroughly read the introductory 
 pages of the Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, he would have under- 
 stood that the lines were taken bodily from Henry VIII — 
 and the 107 other works — in accordance with this clear and 
 definite plan. The "argument" or synopsis, 'framework' if he 
 pleases, of this Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, is given in the Bi- 
 literal Cypher to aid in collecting the scattered passages, as the 
 Argument of the Iliad is given to aid in gathering the scattered 
 fragments of the fuller translation of the great Greek poem. 
 Some of the fragments of this work are in the text of the 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, but it is seldom that many consecu- 
 tive lines are found there. The following will however be 
 recognized : — "Pandarus, Lvcaon's son, when he shot at Mene- 
 laus the Grecian with a strong arm and deadly arrow, Pallas 
 as a good mother keeps flies from her child's face asleep, 
 turned by the shaft, and made it hit on the buckle of his girdle." 
 — Part, ii. Sect, iii, Mem. iii. Many of the proper names are 
 also found in the Anatomy of Melancholy. These fragments 
 of the Iliad are scattered throughout all the works, but the 
 largest portions are to be found in Greene's prose. I am ex- 
 plicit regarding this because so few understand that Bacon re- 
 fers to the poem in the word-cipher, when he mentions works 
 that contain portions of Homer. 
 
 Some writers, too, wlio have become acquainted with 
 Bacon's bi-literal cipher, are not equally familiar with the 
 
 161
 
 v/ 
 
 word-cipher, although it is mentioned in the Advancement of 
 Learning (1605) in the first lines of the paragraph on ciphers: 
 "For Cyphers they are commonly in Letters or Alphabets but 
 may be in Wordes." Bacon chose an epistle of Cicero for the 
 illustration of the bi-literal, and it appears that it was in that 
 philosopher's writings that he found the suggestion of the word- 
 cipher plan, for he says: "And Cicero himself e being broken 
 unto it by great experience, delivereth it plainely ; That whatso- 
 ever a man shall have occasion to speak of, (if he will take the 
 paines) he may have it in effect premediate, and handled in 
 these. So that when hee commeth to a particular, he shall have 
 nothing to doe but to put too Xames, and times, and places ; 
 and such other Circumstances of individuals." 
 
 Bacon saw how the lines of history, or drama, or trans- 
 lation could be separated and used in more than one place, 
 and his invention consisted in the use of certain key-words that 
 marked the passages belonging together. By making use of 
 these in the original works, and taking the work apart by the- 
 same keys that must be used in reassembling the portions, his 
 idea was successfully carried out. To guard against mistakes, 
 and to make the work less laborious to the decipherer, he gave 
 short "arguments" of the hidden work, as well as the keys, in 
 this auxiliary bi-literal cipher. 
 
 It is an error, then, to suppose that the sections are not 
 brought together "in any rational order." 
 
 It would of course be possible to give the entire interior 
 play or poem in a single work, but this was not Bacon's plan; 
 and he adopted a very ingenious manner of directing the deciph- 
 erer by guide-words to the different works, containing the scat- 
 tered sections. 
 
 This disseminating of the original work that was to be 
 brought together again by this cipher, caused the anachronisms 
 in the plays — the dispersing of the Armada in King John, 
 Cleopatra's billiards, artillery before it was in use, etc. — but it 
 enabled him to hide his principal and dangerous history, as 
 well as other important writings, to be collected again at a safe 
 distance of time and place, and the end justified the means. 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 162
 
 MR. DANA AND "MATTOIDS." 
 
 Ed. N. Y. Times, Saturday Review: 
 
 Under the caption, ''Shakespeare and Bacon. Writers 
 about them are not exactly lunatics — their cypher essentially a 
 mattoid product." — Mr. Charles L. Dana gives what purports 
 to be a review of a book recently published, "The Bi-literal 
 Cypher of Francis Bacon." * 
 
 This cipher I had the fortune to discover, as it exists in 
 the original editions of the works of that great author, and I 
 have deciphered and given to the public what is contained in 
 the volume referred to, hence come under the classification 
 which the gentleman seems to impose upon a very considerable 
 number of students and fellow-writers. 
 
 I hope Mr. Dana does not intend to be rude, but it seems 
 to me that he has unnecessarily gone out of his way in applying 
 epithets to people who differ from him in certain literary con- 
 clusions, and as the class, which he condemns for such differing 
 opinion, is a large and growing one, and embraces names and 
 persons even in his own city — judges, lawyers, newspaper men, 
 etc. — the peers of Mr, Dana in intelligence, whom he would not 
 dare personally to face with such aspersions as he indulges in 
 print, he shows himself inconsistent as well as reckless. As a 
 specimen of inconsistency, I quote from his opening paragraph : 
 "The question (Bacon vs. Shakespeare), however, continued to 
 be agitated or, rather, advocated, because few scholars regarded 
 it seriously. Some men of note, if not of learning, took it up, 
 and Lord Palmerston is said to have been a convert." Certainly 
 this is eminently respectable company. 
 
 Near the close of the article, speaking of those who believe 
 that Sir Francis Bacon produced a much larger part of the 
 literature of the world than is accredited to him, and dare offer 
 evidence of it, he says : "They are not exactly lunatics, for the 
 characteristic of lunacy is weakness." I suppose we should be 
 thankful, therefore, that, by the gentleman's saving grace, we 
 are not "lunatics, characterized by weakness." 
 
 163
 
 Mr. Dana goes on to say: "Such people have received the 
 scientific name of mattoids" — a word apparently borrowed from 
 the Italian alienist, Lombroso, as it is not found in many dic- 
 tionaries or encyclopedias. If euphemistic, a critic like Mr. 
 risk, uses the expression "eccentric" ; if addicted to slang, 
 another would say, "cranks." The use made, in the article, of 
 this term "mattoids," is to designate those who have "obses- 
 sions" — doing things "under the domination of an idea, which 
 is, as a rule, foolish" — in Mr. Dana's estimation. 
 
 There can hardly be an "obsession" greater than to declare 
 things do not exist, because the individual is unable to com- 
 prehend their presentation. 
 
 "Your opinion, my opinion, any man's opinion, is the 
 measure of his knowledge." If a man's knowledge is ample 
 and accurate, his opinions are entitled to consideration. Mr. 
 Dana's knowledge of the bi-literal cipher is evidently neither 
 ample nor accurate. The fact is that the presentation in the 
 book he criticises is by fac-simile pages from the original 
 Latin edition of De Augmentis Scientarium, published by 
 Bacon in 1624, and by a verbatim reproduction of the first 
 English translation of the work, published in 1640. This 
 cipher is explained for the first time in 1623 Latin edition, 
 though invented by Bacon in 1579, and used during the re- 
 mainder of his life. The explanation is Bacon's own, and this 
 cipher has been the basis of the most important cipher systems 
 that are in use in the world today. 
 
 Another thing that strikes me as inconsistent in the 
 writer, and that lays his article open to his own characteriza- 
 tion of "weak logic, stupendous misrepresentation, and erratic 
 conduct," is this: The value of a critique is in telling some- 
 thing of the subject criticised that will be of value to readers. 
 Mr. Dana fails to make a single quotation, controvert a single 
 proposition which the book contains or give a special reason 
 for disbelief in the historical facts that have come to light 
 through the Cipher. It is simply his ipse dixit that the Cipher 
 does not exist except in the imagination of the decipherer. 
 
 Is it profound criticism which exhausts itself in hurling 
 anathemas and vituperation ? The creed of space writers in 
 the newspapers, when attacking things Baconian, seems to be 
 that, as with the first man, Adam, sin came upon all mankind, 
 
 164
 
 the insanity of Delia Bacon, who was the first Baconian, was 
 transmitted to all her successors, and that is the end of the 
 argument. 
 
 I think it only fair to the readers of the Times that 
 something should be said on the subject, and of the book itself, 
 which has led to the discovery of "mattoids" among the authors 
 of things not to Mr. Dana's taste, first saying that, personally, 
 I have to confess to mature years, and no little experience in 
 educational work, preliminary and preparatory to which was 
 quite a thorough course of educational training in our own 
 country, supplemented by a considerable period of study, in 
 France and Germany. 
 
 Long before I had more than a passing and superficial 
 knowledge of Bacon's Bi-literal Cipher, I had observed what 
 all careful students of Elizabethan literature have noted and 
 remarked upon in the original editions, that the Italic letters 
 in some of the books were in two or more forms. Later, when 
 an original De Augmentis came into my hands, I saw there 
 a clear explanation and elaborate illustration of a cipher that 
 required simply a biformed alphabet. Bacon there speaks of 
 the time of its invention as in his youthful days while in Paris. 
 It is first mentioned in his Advancement of Learning, pub- 
 lished in 1605, with a hint of its importance. This was 
 twenty-five years after its invention. Eighteen years later 
 still, in 1623, we find it fully elaborated, at no small cost 
 and pains, this still further emphasizing its value after forty- 
 three years of time. These facts, in themselves, would sug- 
 gest that the originator had tested its practicability. The 
 discovery of its application to the Italic letters in differing 
 forms in the original editions of Bacon's works, has proved 
 that it was made the medium (in no "spiritualistic" way) for 
 the transmission of those secrets concerning Bacon, without 
 the revelation of which many things in his life seemed obscure 
 and paradoxical. 
 
 Seven years of time have I given to the study of Bacon 
 and his ciphers — not as a dilettante, desultorily, as a means 
 of recreation or use of spare moments — but as a student in 
 the hardest, most conscientious sense of the word. A study 
 which has been a weariness to the brain and destructive to 
 
 165
 
 eyesight. Has Mr. Dana given seven days, or even hours, 
 to real research ? 
 
 As Bacon said in his History of King Henry VII, 
 "We shall make our judgment upon the things themselves, as 
 they give light one to another, and (as we can) dig truth out 
 of the mine." 
 
 Spurred on by the fascination of an important discovery, 
 and by its development, as the concealed story was unfolded, 
 letter by letter, word by word, revealing the hidden life, the 
 secret thoughts and emotions of that great mind and person- 
 ality, concerning which but the half has been known, I have 
 examined over seven thousand pages of rare and priceless old 
 original editions, placed at my disposal by the courtesy of 
 private collectors in this country and in England, or found 
 in our public libraries, and in that greatest of all receptacles 
 of literary treasures, the British Museum. Every Italic letter 
 on those seven thousand pages has been set down in its proper 
 group, classified according to the rules of the Cipher, and the 
 peculiar characteristics of each letter studied until they became 
 as familiar as the face of a friend. The results of the 
 deciphering so far published fill three hundred and sixty-eight 
 pages of the book under discussion. It would be a vivid imag- 
 ination, indeed, that could create an historical narrative such 
 as the Cipher reveals. I have earned the right to speak with 
 confidence of what this research has brought to light. I here 
 repeat a paragraph of the personal preface to the First 
 Edition : 
 
 I appreciate what it means to ask strong minds to change 
 long-standing literary convictions, and of such I venture to 
 ask the withholding of judgment until study shall have made 
 the new matter familiar, with the assurance meanwhile, upon 
 my part, of the absolute veracity of the work which is here 
 presented. ... I would beg that the readers of this book shall 
 bring to the consideration of the work, minds free from preju- 
 dice, judging of it with the same intelligence and impartiality 
 they would themselves desire if the presentation were their 
 own. Otherwise the work will, indeed, be a thankless task. 
 
 In conclusion, and I speak from knowledge gained at 
 fearful cost, I say with the utmost positiveness, that there is 
 no more doubt as to the existence of both the Word Cypher, 
 
 166
 
 and the Bi-literal Cypher, in the works of Francis Bacon, nor 
 as to his authorship of the Shakespeare Plays, and certain 
 other works accredited to other names, than there is as to the 
 existence of stars which only students of astronomy have 
 known. 
 
 So long as the "Baconian theory" remained a matter of 
 literary opinion merely, all had a right to their own, but no 
 one has the right to place his prepossessions against facts which 
 he has not properly investigated, and then charge that the 
 result of the careful investigations of others leads to "stupen- 
 dous misrepresentations" and to "mattoidal products." 
 
 Elizabeth W. Gallup. 
 
 167
 
 CORRESPONDENCE IN THE -TIMES'^
 
 COMMUXICATIOXS TO THE -TIMES." 
 
 LoNDOisr. 
 
 BACOX— SHAKESPEAEE. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Times : 
 
 Sir : — Many of the writers who, in your own columns and 
 elsewhere, have been lately expressing their views with re- 
 gard to the bi-literal Cipher alleged to exist in the First Folio of 
 Shakespeare have spoken of me as a convert to Mrs. Gallup's 
 theory. I am not so. I am a convert only to the view that her 
 theory is sufficiently plausible to deserve to have its truth 
 tested. Regarded as a subject of inquiry, its great merit lies 
 in the fact that its truth or falsehood can be ascertained bv 
 purely mechanical means, such as photographic enlargements 
 of the text, coupled with a systematic examination of them. 
 I stated this opinion in my article in the Nineteenth Century. 
 Pending such an examination, which I intend to undertake 
 myself, other arguments appear to me a waste of time. They 
 are like arguments as to whether a piece of plate has been 
 hidden in a locked-up cupboard, when the sensible course to 
 pursue is to pick the lock and see. Mr. Sidney Lee's letters 
 seem to me to contain little but statements — no doubt true — 
 as to the extent of his own learning, and urbane intimations 
 that all persons who differ from him are half-witted mono- 
 maniacs. With regard to the general question of the author- 
 ship of the Shakespeare Plays the monomaniacs are those who 
 consider any doubt of Shakespeare's authorship unreasonable. 
 The main grounds on which, so far as I know, a doubt of his 
 authorship rests are grounds which suggest themselves to the 
 common sense of an ordinary man of the world, and arise 
 from the few details ascertainable with regard to Sbakespeare's 
 life, as put before us by writers like Mr. Lee liimself. The 
 mere genius displayed in the Plays offers no difficulty. The 
 difficulty consists in the kind of knowledge displayed in them. 
 This simple fact ^fr. Lee seems wholly unable to appreciate, 
 as the illustrations he adduces in your issue of December 27 
 
 169
 
 show. He says that to doubt that Shakespeare wrote the Plays 
 ascribed to him is like entertaining a similar doubt with regard 
 to Keats or Dickens, because both these writers, like Shake- 
 speare, the butcher's son, were also born in comparatively hum- 
 ble circumstances. The whole point of the question escapes 
 Mr. Lee altogether. The poetry of Keats displays no knowl- 
 edge whatever the possession of which would be singular in a 
 person situated as he was, and having similar tastes ; whilst 
 the knowledge displayed in the works of Dickens is not only 
 not inconsistent with what we know of his life, but is, alike 
 in its extent and its limitations, an accurate reflection of his 
 opportunities for observation, and of his experiences. It is 
 precisely because the case of Shakespeare, in this respect, 
 instead of being parallel to that of Keats and Dickens, as 
 Mr. Lee supposes, is in striking contrast to it that a doubt as 
 to the possibility of his having written the works ascribed to 
 him has arisen ; and if Mr. Lee does not understand this 
 initial fact — as it would seem he does not — he is, as yet, 
 despite all his scholarship, hardly in a position to describe the 
 doubts of those who differ from him as groundless. It is 
 perfectly true that the question has another side. Mr. Lee's 
 error lies in his assumption that it has only one side. 
 
 With regard to his boast that he has collated 25 copies 
 of the First Folio, this fact is altogether irrelevant unless he 
 has collated them with a view to examining the forms of the 
 Italic letters used, with a view to testing the truth of Mrs. 
 Gallup's theory. This, I gather, he has not done, for the simple 
 reason that he does not seem to have taken the trouble to inform 
 himself accurately what her theory is. He tells us that the 
 Roman type employed in the First Folio is all from one fount, 
 as if this fact touched the position of Mrs. Gallup ; whereas 
 what Mrs. Gallup alleges is that the Cipher is confined en- 
 tirely to the Italic portions of the text, and that the other por- 
 tions have nothing whatever to do with it. If he had said 
 that he thought the question not worth inquiring into, his 
 position would have been quite intelligible; but to express, as 
 he has done, a vehement opinion with regard to it, without 
 having given it more than a passing and prejudiced attention, 
 is not a course which reflects much credit on his critical 
 judgment. 
 
 170
 
 Eor myself, I should be prepared to accept one solution 
 of the problem or the other with the same equanimity. Either, 
 in its own way, would be equally interesting. If Mrs. Gallup's 
 theory is altogether false, the manner in which it has been 
 elaborated will form a curious incident in literary history. 
 Should it prove true, it will be more curious still. But what 
 strikes me principally in this controversy is the odd senti- 
 mental acerbity with which the upholders of Shakespeare's 
 authorship receive the arguments of those who presume to 
 entertain a doubt of it. Shakespeare is a figure of interest to 
 us only because we assume him to have written the works that 
 bear his name. What we know of him otherwise tends to 
 quench interest rather than arouse it. What reason is there, 
 other than the most foolish form of school-girl sentiment, for 
 resenting the idea of a transference of our admiration of the 
 author of the Plays from a man who is personally a complete 
 stranger to us — or at best a not very reputable acquaintance — 
 to a man who is universally admitted to be one of the greatest 
 geniuses who have ever appeared at any period of the world's 
 history ? 
 
 I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 W. H. Mallock. 
 
 171
 
 THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE CYPHER. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Times: 
 
 Sir: — Since jou have allowed a critic of Mrs. Gallup's 
 interpretation of the ^'Bi-literal Cipher" to cast discredit on the 
 whole of her work on the strength of having discovered (what 
 he thinks) one flaw in it, surely you will allow a believer in 
 "the Bacon-Shakespeare craze" to put forward a few words 
 in reference to the "Shakespeare-Stratford superstition." 
 
 There are two schools of thinkers in reference to that 
 superstition, those who have studied the matter and those who 
 have not. The former are Baconians. Talking recently with a 
 devotee of the superstition, I said : "Surely, if you say that, 
 you cannot have seriously considered . . . such and such 
 points." His answer was, "I would rather hang myself than 
 seriously consider anything so atrocious." That is a common 
 attitude of mind, and the reason why, as yet, only a minority 
 of Englishmen possessing an unusual degree of culture are 
 fully aware of the fact that Francis Bacon wrote the Plays 
 published under the name of Shakespeare. The argument 
 derived from the contents of the Promus containing 1,700 
 private memoranda in Bacon's handwriting, all of which are 
 used up by him later on in the Plays, the argument derived 
 from the manner in which the Plays, in the order of their 
 appearance, reflect the incidents of Bacon's life, the little 
 circumstance that 11 of the best known Plays were never 
 acted, published, or heard of till seven years after Shake- 
 speare's death are a few of the reasons which influence the 
 belief of those attached to "the craze." A few of the reasons 
 why the superstition appears so comically absurd to them have 
 reference to the fact that there is no shadow of reason for sup- 
 posing that the Stratford boy — apprenticed to his father as a 
 butcher at 14 — ever acquired the art, then very unusual among 
 people in his rank of life — the art of writing, l^either his 
 parents nor his children ever learned to write. He learned 
 
 172
 
 in later life to scrawl something resembling a signature, not 
 the bad writing of a literary man, but the hesitating, vague 
 scratching of one who hardly knew how to hold the pen. After 
 a few years spent as tradesman's assistant in a vortex of ignor- 
 ance, the boy ran away to London and, according to the super- 
 stition, immediately wrote Loves Labour s Lost, The Taming 
 of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which were 
 brought out the year he came to London. The ridiculous 
 sonifies of imagination presented to the world by the orthodox 
 biographers of Shakespeare are all based upon the authors' 
 theories as to what "probably took place" or what "must have 
 happened" because Shakespeare wrote the Plays. 
 
 It is impossible to deal intelligently with the cipher story 
 till one has first of all escaped from the trammels of the super- 
 stition. Let people new to the subject be assured ,to begin with, 
 that, without touching a scrap of evidence having to do with 
 ciphers, those who "seriously consider" the question approach 
 the discussion of ciphers from the point of view of knowing 
 that the Shakespeare idea is pure, idiotic nonsense, and that 
 Bacon, of course, wrote the Plays. Then, as regards Mrs. 
 Gallup's Cipher, the (picstion is simply this: Has she built 
 up the whole of this long story out of her own head as a con- 
 scious literary fraud, or, "errors and omissions excepted," is 
 it to be accepted as genuine ? There is no halting-place between 
 those two views. Xow Mrs. Gallup did not work alone. She 
 was assisted by quite a group of people of unequivocal posi- 
 tion and respectability, she was eager to invite the observa- 
 tion of witnesses while engagd for six months at the British 
 Museum deciphering the present story, and the fraud hypothe- 
 sis becomes, for those who will take the trouble to make them- 
 selves acquainted even in an elementary way witli tlic facts, 
 utterly untenable. The way to deal with it is to check Mrs. 
 Gallup's work. If the Cipher is verifiable to any appreciable 
 degTee — as Mr. Marston even seems to admit, as Mr. Mallock 
 has definitely stated — its verification by a responsible commit- 
 tee will displace the whole sul)joct from the region of contro- 
 versy and put "tlie Bacon-Shakespeare craze" on a level with 
 that wliich brouglit Galileo into so much bad odour with ortho- 
 doxy when he maintained that the earth went round the siiu. 
 
 173
 
 As for the curious flaw Mr. Marston lias detected in the 
 Iliad translation, we can afford to wait for Mrs. Gallup's expla- 
 nation. If the whole problem rested on Mrs. Gallup's good 
 faith, the flaw might seem supicious, but it rests on the shape 
 of letters in books at the British Museum. In itself it is the 
 biggest literary problem ever set before the world; the prima 
 facie case is overwhelming, as every one who has studied the 
 question knows full well. How is it possible that a dreary, 
 senseless old prejudice should be allowed to stand in the way 
 of the truth ? Who among those in a position to do this effect- 
 ively will undertake the duty of organizing a really competent 
 committee (including some persons, at all events, who have 
 studied the subject) to determine once for all to what author- 
 ship the greatest writings in the English language are to be 
 assigned? As for little difficulties about dates, they will have 
 to give way if the cipher story is verified. 
 
 A. P. SiNNETT. 
 27, Leinster-gardens, W., Dec. 20, 1901. 
 
 174
 
 BACONIAN CYPHER. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Times: 
 
 Sir: — Prompted by Mr. Marston's letter, one of your 
 leader writers makes an insinuation against Mrs. Gallup 
 "which gallantry forbids us to state." 
 
 The lady, unlike R. L. Stevenson, is alive and able to 
 deal with innuendos of this sort. 
 
 That Pope had access to the MS. of Lord Bacon's version 
 is not unlikely, or that he saw an earlier deciphering from the 
 Anatomy. Both Rawley and Ben Jonson were alive in 1628 
 and wrote the Cipher. 
 
 Apart from this, the phrases in the passage in question 
 which are common to both poets were not new at the date 
 Pope wrote. 
 
 "Silver fountain" is in the Shakespeare Play of 
 Richard II., Act 5, Sc. 3 ; "hoary-headed' in Midsummer 
 Night's Dream, Act 2, Sc. 1 ; and "Titan rays" in Titus 
 Andronicus, Act 1, Sc. 2. 
 
 May I humbly correct your "leader" ? 
 
 The Cipher not only mentions a marriage ceremony in 
 the Tower, but a ceremony in September after the death of 
 Dudley's wife, at a time when, according to Mother Dowe, of 
 Brentwood (see "Calendar of State Papers for August, 1560"), 
 marriage was very necessary. 
 
 The Cipher does not say it took Francis four decades of 
 interval to get over his affection for Margaret of Navarre, but 
 that : "Not until four decades or eight lustres o' life were out- 
 lived did I take any other to my sore heart. Then I married" 
 — that is to say, did not marry until after his 40th year. 
 
 If Mr. Marston had imitated the caution of Mr. W. H. 
 Mallock, instead of rushing into print directly he believed him- 
 self in a position to impugn Mrs. Gallup's hona fides, your 
 leader writer would have been less fluttered. 
 Yours obediently, 
 
 Parker Woodward. 
 King-street, Nottingham. 
 
 17S
 
 FRANCIS BACON AND THE CIPHER. 
 
 To THE EdITOE of THE TiMES : 
 
 Sir: — ^We may hope that the truth in this matter may 
 be established now that The Times is seriously facing the 
 j)roblem, even though at first your sympathies lean heavily 
 against what Baconians conceive to be the truth. 
 
 May I ask your contributor who has been investigating 
 the Cipher whether, apart from defects and irregularities in 
 Mrs. Gallup's interpretation, he has found any fairly consid- 
 erable number of cipher words to correspond with her inter- 
 pretation. No one could weave the cipher into a mass of print 
 without making a multitude of mistakes. In ordinary hand- 
 writing we most of us slur over scores of the letters we intend 
 to form legibly, but if our readers can read the majority and 
 see what we mean they do not reject the whole because of the 
 defective bits. Of course the double types confuse the perfec- 
 tion of the Cipher, but Bacon seems to have deliberately aimed 
 at confusion, fearing premature discovery. Thus some cipher 
 students tell me that after eettinc; on fairlv well for a time, 
 they will suddenly find that, though the two kinds of type still 
 appear, there is no sense to be made of them, until they dis- 
 cover that, from the appearance of a particular mark until its 
 reappearance, the significance of the a and h founts is reversed. 
 With this clue, that which was at first confusion becomes lumi- 
 nous with sense again. But, though no newcomer to the work 
 can hope to read the Cipher successfully throughout, if a new- 
 comer finds, for example, that he can identify four or five out 
 of every dozen words that Mrs. Gallup can identify, surely 
 that will dismiss the theory that such identities can be acci- 
 dental to the region in which chances are expressed by millions 
 to one against accident. For the rest, of course, Mrs. Gallup 
 may have arbitrarily interpreted diphthongs and double types 
 to suit the sense of the passage, as any one in dealing with writ- 
 ing would interpret a scrawl at the end of a word as sometimes 
 meaning "ing," sometimes "ly," according to sense. Or wlion 
 
 176
 
 she has found a long word like (say) "interpretation" to come 
 out — i, n, then a group of five letters you can make nothing of, 
 then r, p, and the rest of the word right, of course she puts 
 down the whole word "interpretation." Or perhaps the latter 
 half of the word will come out right only by curtailing some 
 previous group of some of its proper letters; then, of course, 
 the sensible thing to do is to curtail them accordingly. That 
 is the principle to be adopted if we want to get at truth; and 
 if we find i, n, right and p, r, e, t, a, t, i, o, n right, it would 
 surely be silly to cavil at the absence of the t, e, r, or at any 
 
 sort of confusion in the beginning j 
 
 "Apart from the Cipher," there are floods of reasons for 
 disbelieving that Shakespeare could have written the Plays. 
 Genius, alowing that hypothesis, might have given him lofty 
 and beautiful thoughts, but no genius would have given him 
 detailed familiarity with Chancery law and foreign languages, 
 nor with the contents of Bacon's commonplace book, which 
 must have been in the possession of the author of the Plays, 
 But it is miserably unjust to the arguments on the Baconian 
 side to hint at them in such few words as these. The "ignor- 
 ance" in this connection is to be found rather amongst those 
 who idly accept the old tradition than in the camp of those who 
 are endeavouring to clear from foul slanders the memory of 
 one whom they regard as the greatest Englishman who ever 
 lived and the rightful sovereign of our literary allegiance. We 
 make a formidable claim on such men as Mr. Sidney Lee when 
 we ask them to abandon a tradition around which they have 
 woven a gi'eat mass of ingenious imagination in the effort to 
 account for that which Emerson found unaccountable — the 
 contrast between the little that is actually known of Shake- 
 speare and the works assigned to him. "Other admirable men 
 have led lives in some sort of keeping with their- thought, but 
 this man in wide contrast.' But the glory of leading the homage 
 that has so long been misdirected to the right shrine will 
 surely be worth the sacrifice. 
 
 A. P. SiNNETT. 
 27, Leinster-gardens, W., Dec. 26, 1901. 
 
 ir?
 
 FRANCIS BACON'S BI-LITERAL CYPHER. 
 
 Surprise has been expressed that I have not more fully 
 replied to the many severe and unjust criticisms of my work — 
 the discovery and publication of the Bi-literal Cypher of Francis 
 Bacon. On account of great distance causing lapse of time, 
 the torrent of communications, v^^hich deluged the Times and 
 other papers and miagazines in London, had somewhat sub- 
 sided before my replies to any could be returned to England, 
 but the delay, although by no fault of ours and unavoidable, 
 has not been due to distance alone. 
 
 The Times published two short letters with fair promptness. 
 The Literary World gave space to two others, replying to 
 articles appearing in its own columns ; and the Daily Nezvs, 
 of April 30, contained a part of my answer to Sir Henry 
 Irving. An article in reply to some of the critics, prepared for 
 the Pall Mall Magazine, could not, from prearrangement of 
 space, appear until May — a rather late date. The delay was 
 the more regretted because the article on the general subject, 
 published in the March number of the same magazine, was 
 prepared and sent forward before the criticisms of the latter 
 part of December and January had reached me, and, though 
 following shortly after, was in no way a reply. 
 
 In the January number of the Nineteenth Century and 
 After, there appeared two articles of attack upon the Cypher, 
 one by Mr. Candler, and one by Mr. R. B. Marston. Mr. 
 Marston, I understand, is a member of the firm publishing the 
 magazine. His article was a continuation of the unfounded 
 and libelous charges appearing in the Publishers' Circular and 
 in the Times concerning myself and my work. T replied at 
 length and forwarded the articles to Messrs. Gay & Bird, under 
 date of February 5th, desiring that the denial of these charges 
 should be given equal prominence. Electrotype plates were 
 forwarded for illustration of the technical portions. Plates for 
 
 179
 
 fac-simile pages from the two editions of De Auguientis, 
 affording most interesting illustration of the method of the 
 cipher and of the differences between the editions of 1623 
 and 1624, were also furnished. I am now advised by Messrs. 
 Gay & Bird that the Nineteenth Century, the Contemporary 
 Review, and the Times, have declined to publish any part of 
 these articles. 
 
 This must be my apology for now issuing in pamphlet form 
 what was prepared for the public periodicals and should have 
 appeared months ago as part of the discussion of the subject 
 that is of interest to a large number of readers. The reluctance 
 of the press in general, to print anything Baconian is well illus- 
 trated in this refusal of my critics to give place to my replies. 
 I do not think it should be considered a waste of space ^o 
 discuss discoveries that correct history in important particulars. 
 The cipher is a fact, and cannot be ignored. It is neither 
 imagination nor creation of mine. It is a part of the history 
 of England, and effort should be directed to further investiga- 
 tions along the lines it indicates — to search among old MSS., 
 in the museums and libraries and in the archives of the gfov- 
 ernment, for other facts which in the light of the cipher revela- 
 tions will be better understood than they have been in the past. 
 
 Concerning my reply to Mr. Marston's charges, I am in 
 receipt of the Literary World of May 2nd, which over his 
 name has the following : 
 
 "Dear Sir : — I will not waste your space replying 
 at length to Mrs. Gallup, except to ask her where she 
 has replied to my article in The Nineteenth Century 
 for January, and to my letters in The Times? 
 
 "In your columns and in the May number of The 
 Pall Mall Magazine Mrs. Gallup says she has elsezvhere 
 replied to my request for an explanation of the fact 
 that many passages in what she says is Bacon's transla- 
 tion of Homer are identical with Pope's Homer pub- 
 lished more than 200 years afterward! .... 
 
 "In a letter in The Times Mrs. Gallup did suggest 
 that Bacon and Pope had used some edition of Homer 
 unknown to any one else." 
 
 In the above we note the strange inconsistency of Mr. 
 Marston, for my letter published in the Times did not "sug- 
 gest" or even refer to any edition of Homer whatever. His 
 
 180
 
 reference is to a paragraph in my reply (printed herewith) to 
 his baseless aspersions, and shows conclusively that he had 
 read my refutation, and knew that in the article submitted to 
 his magazine and rejected I had "elsewhere replied" to his 
 request. 
 
 In the article next preceding Mr. Marston's letter, "Re- 
 viewer" also states : "Now as to Homer, I have read Mrs. 
 Gallup's 'answer' to Mr. Marston," etc. 
 
 This indicates that both Mr. Marston and "Reviev/er" had 
 examined my article, and they comment upon specific portions 
 of it before it has been published; while ordinary courtesy 
 should have withheld criticism, at least until the article had 
 appeared in print. 
 
 It may not be inopportune to report at this time the results 
 of researches made for me at the British Museum and else- 
 where, since Mr. Marston's malicious charge of "paraphrasing 
 Pope's translation of the Iliad" was made. Fourteen transla- 
 tions in Latin, French, German, Italian and English, pub- 
 lished before 1620, were carefully examined for the reading in 
 the disputed passages. Bacon's "impatient arrow" is "eager 
 shaft" in Chapman's translation, and "long distance shots" is 
 rendered "his hitting so far off," the Greek words conveying 
 the same idea to these two minds. Mr. Marston matched 
 Bacon's "cold Dodona" against Pope's "cold Dodona," but 
 Hobbes has "Dodona cold," and a modern Greek scholar ren- 
 ders it "chilly Dodona." He also pairs "rocky Aulis" with the 
 same in Pope, but gives it as the literal translation also; and 
 he places Bacon's "he leapt to the ground" opposite Pope's 
 "leaps upon the ground," while it is more like the line of 
 Hobbes, "he leapt to land." Another renders this "he leap'd 
 to the land," and still another, "he leaped upon the earth." 
 
 The examination also developed the fact that Pope's orig- 
 inal MSS., preserved at the Museum, have closer resemblances 
 to Bacon's Argument of the Iliad than are found in Pope's 
 published work. This is very significant, and in itself refutes 
 the charge, as I have never seen the MSS., and the first edition 
 of my book containing the Argument of the Iliad was pub- 
 lished the year before I went to England to pursue the work 
 at the British Museum. 
 
 181
 
 In Bacon's Argument we find : 
 
 "Pciieleus, Leitus, Prothoenor, joyned with Arcesilaus and 
 bold Clonius, equall in arms and in command, led Boeotia's 
 hosts." 
 
 This in his fuller poem appears : 
 
 "Peneleus, Leitus, and Prothoenor, 
 Join'd with Arcesilaus and hold Glomus — 
 Two equal men in arms and in command — 
 Led forth Boeotia's hosts." 
 Pope's MS. at the British Museum reads : 
 
 "The hardy warriors whom Boeotia bred 
 Bold Clonius Leitus and Peneleus led." 
 But these were afterward emended to suit his verse, and 
 the printed lines are: 
 
 "The hardy warriors whom Boeotia bred, 
 Penelius, Leitus, Prothoenor led : 
 With these Arcesilaus and Clonius stand 
 Equal in arms and equal in command." 
 
 :,; By these comparisons we see that, in the printed poem, 
 Clonius has lost his boldness and Peneleus has changed the 
 spelling of his name. 
 
 Again in the original MS. we find : 
 
 "When first I led my troops to Phaea's wall 
 And heard fair Jordan's silver waters fall." 
 
 But in Pope's printed poem it reads : 
 
 "When fierce in war, where Jordan's waters fall, 
 I led my troops to Phea's trembling wall." 
 
 In this place Bacon omits all mention of the Jardan, but in 
 the catalogue of the ships he says, "Phaestus, by the silver Jar- 
 dan." Chapman gives the name of the river, Jardanus, an- 
 other translator speaks of the Jardan, but Mr. Marston, I 
 notice, writes the word lardus. 
 
 In his MS. Pope had "hilly Eteon" ; Bacon wrote "hillie 
 Eteon" ; but Pope's printed work has "Eteon's hills." 
 
 It is conceded that Pope followed Ogilby very closely. 
 There may be some interesting developments in the history of 
 the latter. We know that he was much employed about Gray's 
 Inn, and that he was afterward taught Greek and Latin by the 
 Oxford students to enable him to translate Homer and Virgil. 
 
 182
 
 One thing needs no demonstration, that there was nothing in 
 Bacon's Homer that made it necessary to keep it concealed 
 before or after it was put in cipher. Upon that point he says 
 that cipher writing became so much a habit, and pastime, that 
 he embodied many things in it not necessarily secret. I 
 quote : 
 
 "And yet I have also emploied my cyphers for other then 
 secret matters in many of my later bookes, because it hath 
 now becorne so much an act of habite, I am at a losse at this 
 present having less dificile labour, now, then in former times 
 in Her Ma.'s service." — Bi-literal Cypher, p. 66. ^ 
 
 In the matter of criticism and expression of individual 
 opinion, we might quote from Bacon's Essay of Custom and 
 Education : "Men's thoughts are much according to their 
 inclination ; their discourse and speeches according to their 
 learning and infused opinions, but their deeds are after as they 
 have been accustomed. 
 
 EuzABETH WEiviyS Gallup. 
 Detroit, Mich., May 15, 1902. 
 
 18?
 
 REPLIES TO CRITICISMS. 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 In presenting the results of my work in deciphering the bi- 
 literal cypher, I expected criticism, but it has taken on some 
 features that have been quite surprising to me. 
 
 To answer fittingly all the questions raised would be to 
 write a book. Some are relevant, many not ; some are prompted 
 by desire for knowledge, others by a desire to check what they 
 regard as a heresy; most show unfamiliarity with the subject, 
 and not a few are mistaken in their statements of facts. 
 
 REPLY TO MR. CANDLER. 
 
 Mr. Candler, in the January number of the Nineteenth 
 Century, republishes modified portions of an article that 
 appeared in Baconiana to which I replied some time since, send- 
 ing a copy of my article to him and to that magazine. 
 
 Mr. Candler makes his objections under the heads : His- 
 tory, Language, Arithmetical Puzzles, Geography, Proper 
 Names, and Bacon's Poetry. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 As to History, I can only say, if the decipherings had been 
 my own invention, I should have had them in substantial accord 
 with such records as exist, defective as they now appear. Had 
 I "followed" accepted history, and prevailing ideas, and 
 found in the cipher confirmation of what people wish to have 
 true, I should have received encomiums due to an important 
 discovery, and commendation for great skill and industry in 
 working it out. 
 
 It was my misfortune that the cipher would not read that 
 way, and no preconceived notions of my own could affect it. 
 As I have elsewhere said "the facts of history" is an elastic 
 term, and means to the individual that portion which the indi- 
 vidual has learned. The records are by no means in accord, 
 and discrepancies may well be left to the investigators, whose 
 
 184
 
 revisions from data they may hereafter be able to collect may 
 greatly change existing ideas. The decipherer is in no way 
 responsible for the disclosures of the cipher, nor allowed specu- 
 lation as to the probabilities in the case. One question only is 
 admissible — what does the cipher tell ? 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 Under Language, Mr. Candler makes five subdivisions. 
 
 1. "It was the English custom to use his in connection with 
 inanimate objects where we now use its. This custom died out 
 about 1670." 
 
 This first objection is answered by himself, but in this con- 
 nection he states : 
 
 "Its (or earlier, it's) began to creep into literature about the 
 end of the sixteenth century, though doubtless it was used col- 
 loquially at an earlier date." 
 
 As to his other deductions on this point, I cannot speak from 
 knowledge, but whoever put out the First Folio was certainly 
 not averse to the use of its. In my former paper in Baconiana 
 I gave from the Shakespeare folio ten examples of the use of the 
 word. As there is no punctuation in the cipher, I am unable to 
 determine which form Bacon used, it's or its, but that he used 
 the word frequently in some parts of the cipher and not at all 
 in others, any reader may easily see. Thereof, of which Mr. 
 Candler speaks, though more rarely found was occasionally 
 used. — (See Bi-literal Cypher, p. 30, 1. 4; p. 61, 1. 24.) 
 
 2. "From the date 1000 or earlier, we find many instances 
 of his used instead of s in the possessive case, and similarly, for 
 the sake of uniformity, of her and their. . . . But in 
 Bacon, after a diligent collation of a great many pages, I find 
 the general use of .? without an apostrophe for the possessive 
 case both for singular and plural, and no use of his, her, or their 
 in this sense. When a noun ends with an .f sound. Bacon joins 
 the two words without a connecting s. Thus : 'Venus 
 minion,' 'St. Ambrose learning,' and the curious form 'Achille's 
 fortune,' which may be a printer's error, as the apostrophe here 
 is in the wrong place. All these come from 1640 edition of the 
 Advancement of Learning, Books i, 2." 
 
 In a footnote Mr. Candler speaks of the seven instances sent 
 him of the disputed form, but I wish to give them here. Henry 
 
 186
 
 Seventh, (1622), "King Henry his quarrell," p. 24; the Con- 
 spiratours their intentions," p. 124; "King Edward Sixt his 
 time," p. 145 ; "King Henrie the Eight his resolution of a 
 Divorce," p. 196 ; "King James his Death," p. 208. Also in 
 Advancement of Learning (1605), Book i, "Socrates his 
 ironicall doubting," p. 26; and one may see, "Didymus his 
 Freedman." in the Tacitus. How many instances does he 
 
 "^Sfl? 
 
 Mr. Candler further says : "Anti now for the 'Bacon' of 
 Mrs. Gallup. Turning casually over the leaves of her story I 
 find 'Solomon, his temple,' p. 24; 'England, her inheritance,' 
 p. 2j; 'man, his right,' p. 23 and p. 24: 'my dear lord, his 
 misdeeds,' p. 43; 'the roial soveraigne, ais eies,' p. 59; 'Cor- 
 nelia, her example ;' 'the sturdy yeouien, their support ;' 'a 
 mother, her hopes;' 'woman, her spirit;' and, curiously enough, 
 where we might have expected an Elizabethan to have employed 
 his 'Achilles' mind,' p. 302." 
 
 Aside from the apostrophe, which could not of course be 
 placed in cipher in the one case- — suggested as a printer's error 
 in the other — the forms "Achilles fortune" and "Achilles mind" 
 are the same. We have the following examples and many 
 others of the first form also in the Bi-literal Cypher, (omitting 
 apostrophes,) "Elizabeths raigne." p. 4; "Kings daughter," 
 ibid. ; "loves first blossom," "lifes girlod," p. 5 ; "stones 
 throw," "Edwards sire," p. 6 ; "lions whelp," p. 7, etc., etc., etc., 
 and we see that both forms are used in the published works and 
 in cipher. 
 
 3. Mr. Candler says ; "It was the custom to finish the verb 
 with s after plural nouns, as if it were the third person singular," 
 but complains that I do not recognize this in the deciphered 
 work. 
 
 In two plays fifteen instances were found, seven of which are 
 with the verb is or the abbreviation 's. In the Bi-literal Cypher, 
 p. 177, 1. 9, Bacon speaks of "Illes which is laid by for the good 
 opportunitie." There are undoubtedly other examples. 
 
 4. "Mrs. Gallup's 'Bacon' is repeatedly quoting from his 
 own published works and from the plays of Shakespeare." 
 
 A reason is given for this, in the Bi-literal Cypher, p. 25. 
 There are many examples also in Bacon's open works, e. g., 
 
 186
 
 ■"Females of Seditions" is found in Henry Seventh, p. 137, 
 while in Essay, Seditions and Troubles, it appears in this form : 
 "Seditious tumults and seditious fames differ no more but as 
 brother and sister, masculine and feminine." 
 From the Shakespeare plays we have, 
 
 -"we see 
 
 The waters swell before a boyst'rous storme." — Rich. III. 
 
 This occurs again as follows : "And as there are cer- 
 tain hollow blasts of wind and secret swellings of seas before a 
 tempest." — Ess. Seditions and Troubles. Also this : "Times 
 answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of working and 
 swelling." — Avdt. of L. (1605), Book 2, p. 13. 
 
 A like recurrence is found in these : "And as in the Tides of 
 People once up there want not commonly stirring winds to 
 make them rough." — Henry Seventh, p. 164; "For as the aun- 
 ciente in politiques in popular Estates were woont to Compare 
 the people to the sea, and the Orators to the winds because as 
 the sea would of itselfe be caulm and quiet, if the windes did 
 not moove and trouble it ; so the people would be peaceable and 
 tractable if the seditious orators did not set them in working 
 and agitation." — Advt. of L. (1605), Book 2, 2nd p. yy. 
 
 Many of the culled expressions in Bacon's Promus are 
 employed in the cipher, as I have already found. When the 
 same incidents are related in the word-cipher that are given in 
 the biliteral. large passages must appear in both the Bi-literal 
 Cypher and Bacon's open works. 
 
 ■5. Mr. Candler makes a series of verbal distinctions, as 
 follows : "There are, I think, words used in the cipher story 
 in quite a wrong sense. I will give instances : 'Gems rare and 
 costive.' Murray gives no example of costive meaning costly. 
 'I am innocuous of any ill to Elizabeth.' Neither Murray 
 nor Webster gives any example of 'innocuous of,' i. e., 'inno- 
 cent of,' though innocuous may mean innocent. Shakespeare 
 does not use the word. 
 
 'Surcease' is a good enough word, but 'surcease of sorrow' 
 is used by Poe, an American author; and the use of the phrase 
 by Mrs. Gallup's 'Bacon' makes, one wonder whether he had 
 ever read The Raven. 
 
 187
 
 'Cognomen,' p. 29. No instance given in Murray earlier 
 than 1809. 'Desiderata/ p. 161. No instance of 'desideratum" 
 earlier than 1652. 
 
 'Hand and glove,' p. 359. Earliest instance in Murray, 1680. 
 
 'Cognizante' adj. Earliest example in Murray, 1820. Mur- 
 ray says, 'Apparently of modern introduction; not in diction- 
 aries of the eighteenth century ;' , . . (cognisance is quite 
 early, both as a law term and in literary use.)" 
 
 These are refinements beyond reason. Bacon added thou- 
 sands of new words and new uses of words to the language. 
 There is something applicable to the case in the Advancejnent of 
 Learning ( 1605). 
 
 "I desire it may bee conceived that I use the word in a differ- 
 ing sense from that that is receyved,"and"I sometimes alter the 
 uses and definitions." — Book 2, pp. 24-25. 
 
 Had the word costive occurred but once I should have con- 
 sidered it intended for costlye as we find it in Bacon. He may 
 have used a v where y was intended. 
 
 It is true innocuous, from the Latin innocuus, in the diction- 
 aries is used only of things, but Bacon evidently employed it 
 differently, and wrote "innocuous of ill" as he would have 
 written "not guilty of crime." In Anatomy of Melancholy 
 (1621) we find "Northerne men, innocuous, free from riot'* 
 (p. 82), and "The patient innocuous man." 
 
 Surcease is used in the Shakespeare plays — Cor., Act 3 ; 
 Rom. & Jul., Act 4; Macb., Act i. It is in Lucrece, and also 
 occurs in Bacon's acknoweldged works. He had, perhaps, as 
 good reason as Poe to desire 'surcease of sorrow.' 
 
 Certainly, Bacon had a right to use words existing in any 
 language. We know that he anglicized many from the Latin 
 and the French. Cognomen is of course from the Latin ; desi- 
 derata, Mr. Candler admits, was used in 1652; cognizante — or 
 as it is elsewhere spelled in the cipher, cognisant — might be 
 allowed him on the ground that cognisances was certainly in 
 use. — Henry Seventh, p. 211 ; i Hen. VI., Act 2; Jul. Csesar, 
 Act 2; Cym., Act 2. 
 
 ARITHMETICAL PUZZLES, 
 
 Mr. Candler is also inaccurate in his arithmetic. He has not 
 carefully read pp. 66 and 67, where it is explained that Latin 
 letters, called by us Roman, were used in a few dedications,. 
 
 188
 
 prologues, etc. I did not find these employed until the publica- 
 tions of 1623 — in the folio and Vitae et Mortis. I have also 
 shown elsewhere that, at the end of short sections that did not 
 join with other works, there were occasionally a few letters 
 more in the exterior passage than were required for the enfolded 
 portion. These are nulls and not used. Mr. Candler gives 
 the number of letters in the catalogue of the plays as 850 and 
 says the portion extracted required 860. Both numbers are 
 wrong. The cipher enfolded required 855 letters, and that is 
 the exact number of letters in the catalogue when the Roman 
 type is included and the diphthongs and digraphs are regarded 
 as separate letters. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 Just what Mr. Candler would have us understand by refer- 
 ring to the incorrect geography in the plays is not quite cleai. 
 It has no relevance to the cipher nor does it determine whether 
 Bacon or Shakespeare would suffer most from the criticism. 
 The same may be said of the next paragraph under "Proper 
 Names," for it was, and is, at least poetic license to change the 
 pronunciation in that manner; and as to the spelling of Iliad 
 on page 176 of the Bi-literal, we have in Troilus and Cressida 
 a parallel in, " as they passe toward Illium." Neither spelling 
 nor pronunciation were well defined arts in Bacon's day or in 
 Bacon's books. 
 
 bacon's poetry. 
 
 The quoted verse of this "concealed poet" speaks for itself, 
 and on this point I may well be silent, except to say the partic- 
 ular poetry Mr. Candler condemns is said to have been written 
 on a sick bed at the age of sixty-two. 
 
 It is amusing to see how many plans are made for Bacon by 
 these critics, how many things are pointed out that he might, 
 or should have done. Their long experience in surmising 
 what Shakespeare may, can, must, might, could, would, or 
 should have done in order to reconcile asserted facts has given 
 them the habit of "guessing." 
 
 Mr. Candler adds some footnotes, in one of which he quotes : 
 " 'Mrs. Gallup, when challenged, failed to point out the cipher, 
 an easy matter if it really existed ; and now avows that without 
 extraordinary faculties and a kind of "inspiration," none, save 
 
 189
 
 herself, need expect to perceive it.' " And adds, "It should 
 
 be understood that the President and Council of the Baconian 
 
 Society enter a formal caveat that nothing- in Mrs. Gallup's 
 interpretation can be said to have been satisfactorily proved." 
 
 I remember very well the evening to which the extract from 
 Baconiana refers, when, upon the invitation of a member of the 
 legal profession, my sister and myself explained to two prom- 
 inent Baconians the method and scope of our work. In theory, 
 they accepted — or seemed to accept — what is unmistakably true, 
 that for different sizes of type, — pica, small pica, English, etc. 
 Bacon arranged different alphabets. It was shown that one 
 size of ornamental capitals belonged to the 'a fount,' in another 
 size the ornamental letters belonged to the 'b fount.' This was 
 admitted as very possible, even probable,; yet when this was 
 applied to practical demonstration of what Bacon did, they 
 exclaimed : "Impossible ! !" "Bacon never would have done 
 that! etc., etc." This could not be thought a receptive frame 
 of mind, and just how they knew what Bacon would not have 
 done I cannot tell. 
 
 Afterward I showed them which letters belonged to the 'b 
 fount.' in a number of lines of the Dedicatory Epistle of Spen- 
 ser's Complaints, in no single instance varying from the marking 
 of the manuscript from which my book was printed. This was 
 candidly admitted, yet, when this interview was reported, it 
 read as above quoted. 
 
 When I first put out the cipher, I thought any one who would 
 take the time could decipher all that I have done, but when I 
 found people who could not distinguish between this % and t» 
 to say nothing of obscure o's and ^'s, I despaired of their be- 
 coming decipherers. There are, of course, many who have a 
 correct eye for form, who will be able in time to overcome the 
 difficulties this study presents, but I wish to ask Mr. Candler 
 if he does not think the small as, c's, etc., of the Latin illus- 
 tration in De Augmentis Scientiarmn, which he says a child 
 could manage, quite as bewildering as any of the Italic letters 
 elsewhere ? 
 
 At the close of Mr. Candler's article he desires that I "get 
 together a few men who know something about books, and add 
 to them a printer or two, familiar with types, new and old; 
 
 190
 
 between them if they extract a consecutive narrative 
 there is nothing more to be said." I have extended this invita- 
 tion many times, only to have it poHtely declined. The Editor 
 of the Times refused, more than a year ago, to consider this 
 request. Now, having practically lost the use of my eyes for 
 such close work as this entails, I shall be obliged to forego, for 
 a time at least, until a greater degree of strength has returned, 
 the satisfaction it would be to point out in detail to a committee 
 the various differences, though it seems to me they should be 
 readily observable without my aid. In the meantime I rest in 
 confidence that it will be correctly done by some one, somewhere 
 and sometime. 
 
 191
 
 REPLY TO MR, MARSTON. 
 
 It seems rather infantile to call attention to the spelling, but 
 as Mr. Marston deems it of sufficient importance to draw from 
 it the following inference, he must think it serious. I quote 
 from the Times of January 3 : "The whole thing is so trans- 
 parently a concoction that a school boy who was reading this 
 deciphered Tragedy asks: 'Was Bacon a Yankee? He spells 
 words like "labour" and "honour" without the "u".' " 
 
 I would reply that he was the same person that wrote the 
 Shakespeare plays. The folio shows both ways of spelling. 
 But all the word-cipher productions were printed according to 
 modern American usage, as in this Tragedy of Anne Boleyn. 
 
 Mr. Marston emphasizes the matter by a second allusion to 
 this peculiarity as discrediting my work, in the following 
 words : "And Mrs. Gallup asks the world to believe Bacon 
 wrote this 'new drama' in order to vindicate the 'honor' of his 
 grandmother." 
 
 A few minutes' examination shows, in the first four plays of 
 Shakespeare, forty- four instances of the spelling of honor, with- 
 out the u, against twenty-five occurrences of the word with the 
 u. For the spelling of labor, I will take time and space to quote 
 only a single line from the first folio : 
 
 "There be some Sports are painfull and their labor — " 
 Tern. 3-1-1. 
 
 These words occur in the cipher story, as in the plays, spelled 
 both ways.* 
 
 This suggests one thing of value to present day readers of 
 the plays who do not know, or do not stop to consider, that 
 modern editions differ greatly, and in important particulars, 
 from the original editions, both spelling and grammar having 
 been modified, while in some parts, whole paragraphs of the 
 text are omitted to meet the ideas of what the particular editor 
 
 thought the author should have said. 
 
 Mr. Marston, in theNineteenth Century, continues an argu- 
 ment first put forth in the Times, and further illustrated in the 
 Publishers' Circidar, attempting to prove that, because certain 
 fragments of the Iliad, in the Bi-literal Cypher, deciphered from 
 
 *Even present day London writers are not in accord in the use of "u," 
 for I find in the Times, "font of type." Mr. Marston and others write 
 fount." . .Are the writings of "A Correspondent" in the Times to be dis- 
 credited for following the American method? 
 
 192
 
 the Anatomy of Melancholy of 1628, are similar to Pope's ver- 
 sion of the same passages, the whole long story comprising 
 385 pages — about 300 of which relate to matters entirely 
 foreign to the Iliad — must be a conscious fraud, and that "bold 
 lie" is the key to the whole matter. It was hardly a courteous 
 expression, and I have every confidence that Mr. Marston will, 
 after more careful investigation, retract it. 
 
 Any statement that I copied from Pope, or from any source 
 whatever, the matter put forth as deciphered from Bacon's 
 works, is false in every particidar. 
 
 It will be noted that Mr. Marston makes no attempt to prove 
 the cipher, but bases his convictions regarding the book upon 
 this one point of similarity, in an insignificant portion of it, 
 to Pope's translation of the Iliad. 
 
 As it chanced, I had read Pope to some extent in the rhetori- 
 cal studies of my school days, but had never re-read his Homer 
 until Mr. Marston called attention to it. I now see a similarity 
 in some expressions, and in the arrangement of names, in that 
 portion devoted to the catalogue of the ships. Bacon's direc- 
 tions for writing out the Iliad (by the word-cipher, p. 170), sug- 
 gest that at that time he had not made as full preparation for 
 writing out the catalogue as for the remainder of the work, 
 and this seems significant. 
 
 I do not find any striking resemblances in the other parts, 
 and, as I stated in a recent communication to the Times, in 
 an examination of six English translations and one Latin, I 
 found that each might with equal justice be considered a para- 
 phrase of Pope, or that he had copied his predecessors. Why, 
 among several translations of the same Greek text, two having 
 both resemblances and dififerences should be classed together, 
 and one should necessarily be a copy of the other, is not clear to 
 me. Knowing that Pope's was considered the least correct of 
 several of the English translations, yet, perhaps, the best 
 known for its poetic grace, it is hardly reasonable to suppose 
 that I should have copied his, had I been dependent upon any 
 translation for the deciphered matter. 
 
 Bacon says his earliest work upon the Iliad was done under 
 instructors. There were Latin translations extant in his day, 
 which were equally accessible to Pope a century later. A simi- 
 
 193
 
 larity might have arisen from a study by both of the same 
 Latin text. George Chapman, in 1598, complained vigorously 
 that some one had charged him with translating his Iliad from 
 the Latin, and abusively replied. Theodore Alois Buckley, in 
 his introduction to Pope's Iliad, says he was "not a Grecian" 
 and that he doubtless formed his poem upon Ogilby's transla- 
 tion, besides consulting friends who were better classical schol- 
 ars than himself. 
 
 But all this is of small importance, for it is inconclusive. The 
 question is, did I find this argument of the Iliad in differing 
 founts of Italic type in the text of the Anatomy of Melancholy f 
 
 I have had set up by our printers from my MS. two sections 
 of the Anatomy of Melancholy^ from which were taken some 
 passages Mr. Marston quotes. Modern Italic type has to be 
 used, of course, and the two founts will be easily distinguish- 
 able. They are so marked as unmistakably to indicate how the 
 differing forms are used. A reference to an original copy of 
 the Anatomy of Melancholy (1628), which may be seen in the 
 British Museum, or in the fine library of Sir Edwin Durning- 
 Lawrence, will quickly show whether or not I have used all 
 the Italic letters in the text, whether they are of differing 
 forms as marked in this, whether they have been properly 
 grouped, and, when the bi-literal cipher is applied, whether they 
 produce the results I have printed. If the types are of differing 
 forms, are properly grouped, and produce, by the bi-literal 
 method, the results printed, the question of identities or simili- 
 tudes is eliminated from the discussion. 
 
 I am aware that in offering this evidence in this way, I am 
 at a serious disadvantage. The true classification of the 
 types was determined after days of examination and compari- 
 son of hundreds of the old letters, until every shade, and line, 
 and curve of those I marked was familiar, and as thoroughly 
 impressed upon my memory as the features of a friend, while 
 to those making this comparison the letters themselves will be 
 new, the number examined probably limited to those in a few 
 sentences, and by eyes entirely unskilled in this kind of exam- 
 ination. 
 
 Mr. Marston refers to my use of an edition of the Anatomy 
 of Melancholy, published after Bacon's death, as evidence that 
 
 194
 
 I may be wrong. The edition I used was that of 1628, pub- 
 lished by Dr. William Rawley. Concerning this and Rawley's 
 work, I had found in deciphering Sylva Sylvarum, the follow- 
 ing statement from Rawley himself: 
 
 "When, however, you find this change .... where I beganne th' 
 worke, you shall pause awhile, then use the alphabet as it is heerein 
 employ'd and as explain'd in my preceding epistle. It will thus be like a 
 new alphabet and doubtlesse will bee troublesome, yet can bee conn'd while 
 some had to be discover'd ; but in respect of a probable familiaritie with 
 th' worke, and the severall diverse methods employed oft by his lordship, 
 this may by no meanes be requir'd, since th' wit that could penetrate such 
 mysteries surely needeth no setti'g forth and enlarging of mine. 
 
 Ere the whole question be dropt, however, let me bid you go on to my 
 larger and fully arranged table where th' storie, or epistle, is finish'd as it 
 should have beene had his lordship lived to compleat it, since my part was 
 but that of th' hand, and I did write only that portion which was not us'd 
 at th' time. All this was duely composed and written out by his hand, and 
 may bee cherish'd. 
 
 From his penne, too, works which now bear th' name Burton .... 
 make useful those portions which could by noe means bee adapted to 
 dramaticall writings. If you do not use them as you decypher th' interiour 
 epistles, so conceal'd, your story shall not be compleat. 
 
 Th' workes are in three divisio's, entitled Melancholy, its Anatomy. 
 Additons to this booke have beene by direction of Lord Verullam, himselfe, 
 often by his hand, whilst th' interiour letter, carried in a number of 
 ingenious cyphers mentioned above, is from his pen, and is the same in 
 every case that he would have used in these workes, for his is, in verie truth, 
 worke cut short by th' sickel of Death." 
 
 This edition of Burton was the only old book in hand at the 
 time of its deciphering, and, having found the cipher in it, I 
 continued work upon it, though its contents were a serious dis- 
 appointment, and I have since greatly regretted the time and 
 strength spent upon what was of so little value, and of no 
 interest historically as relating to the personality of Bacon or 
 the times in which he lived. Has it been noted by Mr. Marston, ") 
 or by others who have been incredulous about this book, that 
 Burton in the appendix to his will does not include the Anatomy 
 of Melancholy in "such books as are written with mine own 
 hands" ? While this might not be conclusive, it is, in the light 
 of the cipher revelations, a very significant omission. I add here 
 that the first edition was published in the name of T. Bright, 
 under the title of A Treatise of Melancholy, in 1586, when 
 Burton was ten years old and Bacon twenty-five. As the 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, it was issued in Rawley's lifetime, 
 in several editions under dates of 1621, 1624, 1628, 1632, 1638, 
 1 65 1 -2, 1660, 1676. The edition of 1676 was a reprint of 
 an earlier edition and was issued after Rawley's death. Bur- 
 ton died in 1640. 
 
 195
 
 One of the passages which Mr. Marston quotes in proof of 
 a paraphrase of Pope's translation is the expression, "HilHe 
 Eteon, or the waterie plains of Hyrie." On referring to my 
 MS. of the deciphering from Democritus to the Reader, p. 73, 
 I. 24, Anat. of Mel., I find the phrase was extracted from the 
 words, which are here set up in two founts of modern type. 
 
 No one should pass judgment upon the Bi-literal Cypher who 
 cannot, at sight, assign these letters to their respective founts, 
 for it is much less difficult in these diagrams than in the old 
 books themselves. 
 
 FOUNTS USED 
 
 j a b a b 
 \aA aa 
 
 a b a b 
 
 
 a b ab 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b ab 
 
 BBhb 
 
 
 CCcc 
 
 DDdd 
 
 EEee 
 
 FFff 
 
 j a b a b 
 \OGgg 
 
 a b a b 
 
 
 a babab 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b ab 
 
 a b a b 
 
 HHhh 
 
 
 1 1 it j j 
 
 KKkk 
 
 LLll 
 
 MMm m 
 
 f a b a b 
 
 \N Nn n 
 
 a b a b 
 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b ab 
 
 OOoo 
 
 
 PPpP 
 
 QQqq 
 
 BRrr 
 
 SSss 
 
 1 a b ab 
 
 a b a b a 
 
 b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 a b a b 
 
 \TTtt 
 
 V Vv V uu 
 
 WWwzv 
 
 XXxx 
 
 YYyy 
 
 ZZzz 
 
 Passage to be deciphered. 
 
 vitiis Crhnine Nemo caret Netno mrte sua vivlt contentus Nemo in amove 
 sapit, Nemo bonus, Netno sapiens, Nemo, est ex omni parte beatus dr. 
 Nicholas Nemo, No body quid valeat Nemo, Nemo referre potest mr sapit 
 qui pauca loquitur 
 
 Grouping in fives as the words stand, we have: 
 vitij sCrim ineNe mo car etNetn osort esuav ivitc 
 
 a a 6 a a b b b a b a a a a b a b a a b ab a a b a aa aa b a a a a b a a b a 
 E B K K A R T 
 
 on ten tusNe 
 
 a b a a a b a a a b 
 I S 
 
 The first group forms the biliteral letter e, but the next has 
 two 'b fount' letters at the commencement. There is no letter 
 in the biliteral alphabet commencing hh, but there is a pos- 
 sibility of a printer's error, and it is necessary to examine the 
 following groups. Each forms a bi-literal letter, but they are a 
 jumble and cannot be set off, or divided into words. 
 
 Another attempt is necessary to pick up the cipher thread. 
 Omitting one letter at the beginning, the grouping is : 
 itij s Crimi neNem ocare tNemo sorte suavi vitco 
 
 a b a a b b b a b a a a a b a b a a b a b a a b a a a a a b a a a a b a a h a a 
 
 K C T T B B E . 
 
 71 tent u s N e ni 
 
 b it a (i b a ti a b b 
 S D 
 
 196
 
 Here, again, bb comes at the beginning of a group, but going 
 on with the remainder of the Hne the resulting letters are again 
 impossible to separate into any intelligible words. 
 
 Omitting another letter we have : 
 i ij s C rim in eNemo caret Nemos ortes uaviv it con 
 
 b 11. a b b b a b a a a a b a b a a b a b a a b a a a a a b a a a a b a a b a a b 
 UWFFEOCK 
 
 tentu s N e mo inamo re sap it Ne m 
 
 a a a b a aabbababba a a b b a b b a a a 
 
 C Q Y a 
 
 Another trial commences with the fourth letter, and the 
 groups are: 
 ijsCr inline Nemoc aretN emoso rtesu avivi tcont 
 
 a a b b b a 6 a a a a b a b a a b a b a a b a a a a a b a a a ab a a b a a b a 
 HI L L I E E T 
 
 entus Netnoi nam. or esapi t Neino bonus Nemos apt en 
 
 a a b a a a b b a b a b b a a a b b a b b a a a a b a a b a a a b b b a a b a a 
 EONO RT HE 
 
 sNemo est ex omnip art eh eatus &cNic hoi as NeinoN 
 
 b a b a a a aa a a b u a b a a ab a » b a a a a a b a a a a a b a a a b b b <i 
 W A T E R I E P 
 
 obody quidv aleat NemoN emore ferre potes tvirs 
 
 a b a b a a a a a a a b a a a a b b a a b a a a b a b b a b a a b a. b a ii b b b 
 LAI N S O F H 
 
 apitq uipau caloq uitur 
 
 b a b b a b a a a a ab a a a a a b a a 
 Y R I E 
 
 DECIPHERED PASSAGE 
 
 None of these groups begins with two b's, and the resulting 
 letters spell out the line quoted. 
 
 hillieeteonorthewaterieplainsofhyrie 
 
 Hillie Eteon or the waterie plains of Hyrie. 
 
 The capitalization and punctuation are suggested by the 
 rules of literary construction. There are four possible wrong 
 groupings, but this illustration required only the trial of three 
 to find the correct one. Should there be obscure, or doubtful, 
 letters in the text that make the resulting letters of a group 
 uncertain, pass the whole group by until those are marked which 
 are certain. There are always a sufficient number of &'s to indi- 
 cate what the word really is in the groups preceding and follow- 
 ing. In the resulting phrase above, a number of the letters might 
 be passed over as abbreviations and yet the sense could hardly 
 be mistaken even in this short and disconnected line, while with 
 the context it would be made perfectly clear. 
 
 197
 
 Mr. Marston quotes another passage as evidence that I have 
 "copied Pope" : 
 
 "Hee was th' first of th' Greekes who boldlie sprang to th' 
 shore when Troy was reach'd, and fell beneath a Phrygian 
 lance." 
 
 Referring to my MS., I find this comes from page 38, Anat. 
 of Mel., commencing in line 11. I have had this printed, also, 
 and grouped for the resulting bi-literal letters that form the 
 deciphered passage, and I think it well to use this because it 
 illustrates one of the points that should be clearlv understood. 
 
 Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 38, 1. 11 [ iidition 1628 ). 
 
 Claiulinus Hippocrates Paracelsus Non est reludanduni aim iJeo Her- 
 cules Olympicks, lupiter Jupiter Hercules Nil iuvat iiimiensos Cratero 
 •promittere monies we must submit ourselues vnder the mkihty hand of God 
 vna eademq manus vulnus opemq feret Achilles A Digression of the valine 
 of Spirits^ dad Angels or Divels, and how they cause Melandu ly. 
 Postellus, full of controversie and ambiguity fateor excedere vires intentioms 
 meae Austin finitum de infinito non potest slatuere Ads Sadducees Galen 
 Feripateticks Aristotle Pomponatius Scaliger Dandinus com in lib de 
 
 audin us Hi 2) pocra tesPa race I susNo nestr eluct 
 
 a a b b b a a b a a a a b a a b n b a a a a a a n. b a d a. b b a a b a u a b b b 
 
 andunt cumDe oHerc ulesO lympi ckslu piter lupit 
 
 a a b a 6 a i a a a b a a a u b a a a b b a a b a a b b a b a a h a b b a a b ii 
 
 er Her cut es N il iu vatim men so s Cr at e r o pr o m i 1 1 
 
 a a. b b b a a b b a b a a a a a a b a a a a b a a a b a a b a a b a a b a a u b 
 
 eremo nte sw eniust sub mi tours e lue s vnder them i 
 
 b a b a a a a b b b a b b a b a a a a b a b b a b a b a b a a a a b b a b a u a 
 
 g h tyh and of G odvn ae a d e mqman usvul mi sop e m qfe 
 
 a b a a a a a b a a b a a a b a b b b a b a a a a a a a a a a b b a a a a b b a 
 
 retAc hille sADig ressi onoft henat ureof Spiri 
 
 b a a b a a b b a b b a a b a a a b b b b a a a b a a b b b a b b a b b a a a a 
 
 tsbad Angel sorDi velsa ndhow theyc auseM elanc 
 
 aa b a a b a b a a aa b b b a a b a a a b b a a b a a b a b a a a a a b b a b 
 
 holyP ostel lusfit llofc ontro versi eanda mbigit 
 
 i a b b a b a baa a a a a a b aa a b b a a a a a a b a a a a a a a a a a b a 
 
 %tyfa teore xcede re fir esint entio nisme acAus 
 
 a a b b b a a a b b a a a a a a b b a a a a a b b a a b a b a a b a a a b a b a 
 
 t i nf i 7iitutn deinf in ito nonpo tests t atue reAct 
 
 a b a b a a a a a b a a b a a a b b a a a a b a a a a a a a b a a b a a a b b h 
 
 sSadd ucees Galen Perip ateti cksAr is tot lePom 
 
 a a a a a a b b b a a a b b b b a a a a b a b b a a b b a a a b a a a a a a a a 
 
 ponat iusSc a I i g e r Dan d inus c ominl 
 
 a b b a a a b a b a a a a a a. a b b a a a a a b a a a b a a 
 
 DECIPHERED PASSAGE 
 
 Hee was th' first of th' Greekes who boldlie sprang to th' shore 
 when Troy was reach'd, and fell beneath a Phrygian lance. 
 
 198
 
 In the word Phrygian, the fifth group which should make 
 the letter g, aabba, really is n, abbaa, probably Rawley's mis- 
 take, for the printer should not answer to every charge. The 
 two b's stand together, as they should, but are one point re- 
 moved to the left. 
 
 Every page of the book was worked out in the manner illus- 
 trated, every Italic letter classified and the result set down, nor 
 could any "imagination or predetermination" change the re- 
 sult. 
 
 In this connection as few of your readers have opportunity to 
 examine the old books I will reproduce the Cicero Epistle con- 
 taining the Spartan dispatch from each of the 1623 and 1624 
 editions of De Aiigmentis, showing the differences and the 
 errors in the second which like those occurring in the text of 
 the old books have to be corrected if the work goes on. 
 
 199
 
 De Augmentis Scientiarinn. London Edition, 162^. 
 
 Plate i. 
 
 Liber Sextos. 
 
 Excmplum aJl^haheti ^ilueranj.. 
 
 J <i ^ C , Q 
 
 CTr 
 
 ^ 
 
 jLiaaci aaaav laavz ac^abo a<daA aaba^ 
 
 acLPba . (KLohb ' aoaaa avdaj) dpata ■ afafl> 
 
 ^ Q 0, '3b S 
 q* V w o(i> y ^■ 
 
 fiuifii. fiKifl- icXcui ' iaSab. babbci . babbb' 
 
 Ncquc Iciic quiddam obitcn hoc modo. pcrfc(Sliirn 
 eft. Etcnlrncxhoc ipfopacct Modus, quo ad omncm 
 Loci DiClaaciam, per Obic(^a, quz vd Vifai vdAudi 
 tuifubi)ci poflinr, Scnfa Animi profcrrc, &: Hgnificarc 
 liccac, fimodoObicclaiila, duplicis tamum Diffcrcn- 
 nx capacia funt , vduti per Campaiias, per Buccinas, 
 per Flainmcos^pcr SonuusTormenrorum, t: alia qu.c- 
 cunquc Vcrumvr Incoepcum perfcquamur, cum ad 
 ScnbcnJum accingcns, EpiAolam Inreriorcm in Alpha- 
 bcuim hoc Dtlitcranum folucs. Sic Epiftola interior ; 
 
 Exemplum Solutiom, 
 
 ff V. g. ^. 
 
 Jidfd^^ Uaff. CLdhbd. (Ldbcia 
 
 Prxfto 
 
 2-9 
 
 200
 
 Plate ii. 
 
 280 
 
 !D(f Augmentit, ScientiarunL-> 
 
 Pr^llo fimul fit aliud Alphabetum Biforme, nimirum , 
 quod fingulas Alpbabeti Communu Litcras, tarn Capica- 
 Ics.quamminorcs, duplici Forma, prout cuicjuc com- 
 modum (itj cihiHcac. 
 
 Exemplum ^Iphabeti 'B'tformii, 
 a. f.a.f. a. D .€L.D.(L. i.a£ <v, p.d.b. 
 
 a. l.a.t, <t. p . A.h. A. p, a. p. (t, pci.h. 
 
 a. p. CLP. a, p. c i. a, 6. a. p. <t. p.ci.b, 
 <t. P. c^'P,a^. b-a^p.a^. f.£L.f.(t. P. <t.A^. 
 
 XM.iv.m 0. 0.o.o^^jj. Q_Q^jM. 1L 
 «. f. a-.f. a., f. <c.t. a,.h.<iS.<t.^.<t.(. 
 
 201
 
 "Plate iii. 
 
 JLl B E K S £ X T V S. 281 
 
 TumdemumEpiftolcElntcnon.iam ^cXt B/!ircratx^ 
 Epillolam Exteriorcm 5//^r»7^w, hrcradm acconuno- 
 dabis, & poftca licfcnbcs. Sit Ep.llola Exrcnor; 
 Manere te 'voh donee '^encro. 
 
 Exemplum ^ccommodatiom, 
 
 ^// ^// 4/ f 
 
 d ab dP.p • dd p D (Ld b b a dd b ad. 
 
 .Jjllcuttcrt tc viyio diXiicc tcmfo' 
 
 Appofuimus ctiam Exemplum aliud largias ciufdem 
 Q\^\vi3i^Scribendi0mniaper Omnia. 
 
 Epiftola Interior, ad quam delegi- 
 
 /nus Epiftolam Spartananr^ miflam 
 ohm in Scy rale. 
 
 I-crditac J(e/, Minaanu cecmtjPbfife/- 
 cjurtunt ulemt nine nos txtncarcmmc 
 fiLC diufius inaTurc tossumi^ . 
 
 Epiftola Exterior, fumpta ex Bfijiola 
 
 Prima Ctcgronu,in qu^EpifioIa Spar- 
 tana inuotuicur. 
 
 Go 
 
 202
 
 Plate iv. 
 
 zt^^(^ (Jinnv dmcu^, acvotiwstidtiJbiemiitc; 
 
 ctua^nt'Scutishicio • jM/nlil' ts^emtn.iricumtz 
 tudotiumim crjuimc mtT^rwn;i>i'audnU 
 
 f{^ c^o, anin non idem vn tncL ca^usa ifpcuf, 
 intdVfi mm cm (iccriimipitim . Jnccutz 
 jd kd'io Hint: JUmmomtu w(c^u y^/iiiiy 
 afctkvccitnia^Tin'OVpimat. js^^Loitur 
 ^cr cosdtvi wtdihref-.^er au^^ cam^fa^aaci 
 
 aui dclvni^ (jtiitau ci sunt entries a^dzBm^v: 
 
 viin rem dtfarivolurit. Ocnat^ z^t^z 
 
 ai^Tiu ccdumnuim^ tu>n i^iufwnt^sedTn^;^ 
 
 Icuo Untidy li iluas £\e^tac ^^rgimUf- 
 
 203
 
 De Augmentis Scientiarum. Paris Edition, 162^. 
 
 366 De^dugmemu Scientiarum. 
 
 tunimodo Litcras fojuantur ,; per Tranfpofitioncm 
 .carum. Nam Tranfpofitio duarum Literarum , per 
 Locprquinquc, Differemiis.triginca duabus, multo 
 magis viginti quatuor ( qui dk Numerus Jlpha^ 
 ^mapudnos ) lufHciet. Huius Alfhaicti Excmplanx 
 tale eft, 
 
 Excmplum x^l^habetiTiUtenrpj^ 
 
 m 
 
 ^£ o ^ (h ^ S 
 
 c.ppaa.awap ^appf(^ MPPPpSaaaciJaaap- 
 
 ^ V W 00 y ^ 
 
 SaaSar.paaPP.paSaa 'PoSapJah^a.^aSSf 
 
 Neque leucquiddam obiter hocmodo perfedum 
 cftlEtcnimexhocipfopacecModus , quoadoiTineni 
 Loci Difl:antiam,per ObiedajqusE vcl Vifui,vcl Audi- 
 tui fubijci poflint,Scnfa Animi proferre, & fignificare 
 liceat : fi modo Obicda illa,duplicis tantum DifFeren- 
 ti^capaciafunt, vclutiperCampanas , per Buccinas> 
 per Flainmeos,pet SonitusTormentorum,&: alia qu^- 
 cunque. Verumvtincceptumperfequamur, cum ad 
 Scribendum accingoris , Epiftolam intcriorem m^lr 
 ^hahemmhoc'SHuerAmm rolues. Sit cpiftolaiiitcriori 
 
 204
 
 Liber Sextu^\ 507 
 
 Exeinplunl SolmionU, 
 
 JLdl^d* hcLCLPD^ CidLupd* Hdbaa^ 
 
 Praefto fimul fit aliud Jphabetum Btforme, nimirutru 
 quodfingulas j^lpbalpeti Communis Litcr^s ^um Capi- 
 talcs.quatm minores^duplici Forma , prout cuiq; com- 
 inodam,fit cxhibear, 
 
 Exemplum jilp^ahtiBiformiSo 
 
 JfL(Ln^r% ie ^crlo ciantc ven£W 
 
 Turn demiim Epiftolac Interiorly iam fa6l« Biliterat^, 
 Epiftolam Extcviorcm BiforKtemy literatim accommo- 
 dabis,& pofteadefcribes. Sit Epiftola Exteriori 
 
 ManeYc te "volo donee 'Ve)iero* 
 Exemplum yiccommodationis, 
 
 ^ . CP^ Q- ^ S 
 
 albaa.. avUt> . Mpa.ampJaaa(l.Pcui(iP 
 
 Appofuimus ctiam Excmplurh aliud largius eiuf^ 
 dem Ciphrx , Scrlhendi Omnia per Omnia, 
 Epiftola Interior , ad quam dolegimus Epifiolam 
 Spananam , mifTam olimin Scytalc, 
 VerdiU ^JR^s. Q:PifCindarm cecidit <^:^tlites eju- 
 riurjt. !N^qHt hincnos extricare, neque 
 hie dmtim m^ncrepojjumtis. 
 
 Q^r, ii 
 
 205
 
 loS De lAugyntmls Sctemldrmi, 
 
 ^. /-^.A ^« b * i^,p^ <i. p. a^P a. Lc^D- 
 
 
 ,^ <^Z' 
 
 EpiftoIaExtcrior ^ fumpta ex Epiftola Prima Cfccrom^y 
 ^ in qui Efiftola Sfartana inuolui tur. 
 
 206
 
 LihrSext^, 3 op 
 
 ^ffc mnx efjtcio, acjotmjukU ei^a,tB; 
 
 dulwsa,iufaao- ^cinfdtstenimmajiii- 
 tudo iwrru-Wr era^ mt miniurwn,vi-jtiim\- 
 am iw, nisipstpctlre, dtmmon amjiitcs- 
 
 ferecsasnt crcdiivres perauifs, cum hi adtz 
 
 iwti rem /^m vomnt Senahs ^^ 
 
 ^tontJ" caktmniain non iKLmonc^ si(tmA=i 
 
 kuoliniuL limius l/\e'ruu\itsifioriu 
 
 207
 
 In the 1624 edition the second d in oMcio is changed by the 
 lawoftied letters ;the second ii in nunquam has positioner angle 
 of inclination, to make it an 'a fount' letter ; q in conquiesti is 
 from the wrong fount, and the u has features of both founts but 
 is clear in one distinctive difference — the width at the top ; the 
 q in quia is reversed by a mark; the as in the first causa are 
 formed like 'h fount' letters but are taller, ; the q of quos is from 
 ,^e wrong fount ; the second a in aderas is reversed being a tied 
 letter ; / in velint is from the wrong fount, also the p of parati, 
 che / of calumniani and the / of religione. 
 
 In line twelve 'pauci sunt' in 1623 ed. is 'parati sunt' in the 
 1624 ed. The correct grouping is ntqui velin tquip rails untom 
 nesad, the first a in 'parati' must be omitted to read diutius 
 according to the Spartan dispatch. Otherwise the groups 
 would be arati siinto mnesa. The m and n are both 'b fount,' 
 thus bringing two b's at the beginning of this last group, indi- 
 cating at once a mistake for no letter in the bi-literal alphabet 
 begins with two b's and wherever encountered may be known to 
 indicate either a wrong fount letter or a wrong grouping. It is 
 one of the guards against error. To continue the groups after 
 the one last given several would be found to commence with bb, 
 and the resulting letters would not "read." 
 
 Here, too, is an example of diphthongs, digraphs, and double 
 letters, which are troublesome to "A Correspondent." The 
 diphthong se of "cseteris," the digraph ct in perfectare, and the 
 double ^'s and pp's are shown as separate letters and must be 
 treated as such in deciphering Italics. 
 
 A very important feature, that most seem to forget, is that 
 ciphers are made to hide things, not to make them plain or 
 easy to decipher. They are constructed to be misleading, mys- 
 terious, and purposely made difficult except to those possessing 
 the key. Seekers after knowledge through them must not 
 abandon the hunt, upon encountering the first difficulty, im- 
 probability, inaccuracy, or stumbling block set for their confu- 
 sion. 
 
 Were the confirmation of this cipher of importance to the 
 government — a matter of life or death to an official, or likely 
 to concern the strategic movement of an army — the energies of 
 many minds would be centered upon deciphering it. But it 
 
 208
 
 would appear from the writings we have recently seen, the 
 greatest effort is to prevent its development or acceptance — 
 that the ideas of a lifetime be not overturned, and the satisfac- 
 tion remain that the individual has already compassed the limits 
 of information. It is so much pleasanter to be satisfied 
 with what we have than to delve for things we do not want to 
 know. 
 
 Personally, it is a matter of no vital importance to me 
 whether the cipher is accepted or not. I have put my best efforts 
 into its discovery and elucidation. I know that I have accomp- 
 lished what others have failed to do, and I can look on with 
 equanimity as the world wrestles with the evidences, and finally 
 comes, as it will, to the conclusion I have reached. 
 
 The impetus given the movement by this discussion will 
 result in important research, and other discoveries concerning 
 Bacon that I am unable to make, will, with the light that has 
 now been thrown upon the subject, confirm what has been set 
 forth and much more besides. As I write, an article in 
 Baconiana makes a suggestion which should be acted upon at 
 once: 
 
 "Our attention has also been called to a sealed hag of papers 
 at the Record office. It was, it is said, sealed at the death of 
 Queen Elizabeth, and to be opened only by joint consent of the 
 reigning Sovereign, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord 
 Chancellor. Is not the time come when we may fitly memorial- 
 ize His Majesty, King Edward, to command or sanction the 
 opening and revelation ?" 
 
 209
 
 > 
 
 REPLY TO SIR HENRY IRVING. 
 
 THE PRINCETON ADDRESS. 
 
 In an address at Princeton on the Shakespeare-Bacon con- 
 troversy, Sir Henry Irving did me the honor of mention, 
 although in rather a disparaging way, as "constructing a won- 
 derful cipher out of the higgledy-piggledy lettering" of the 
 First Folio and other Elizabethan books in which irregular 
 lettering is found. 
 
 As comparatively few will recognize from the terms Sir 
 Henry used, the actual meaning of this characterization of the 
 peculiar printing, I beg leave to say that he refers to the two 
 or more forms of Italic letters the printers of that day employed 
 in the same text of many books, and that I have discovered 
 that their use in a large number was for the purpose of em- 
 bodying the biliteral cipher invented by Bacon. Much of this 
 work has been deciphered and published as the Bi-literal 
 Cypher of Francis Bacon, and no doubt the recent discussion 
 of this book in England, — and the echoes, on this side, of the 
 controversy, — was the suggestion, at least, of the theme of the 
 Princeton address. 
 
 Sir Henry points out that by "this wondrous cipher Bacon 
 is alleged to have written in addition to Shakespeare and 
 Greene, the works of Ben Jonson and Marlowe, Spenser's 
 Faerie Queene and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy/' but 
 says "its chief business is to stagger us with the revelation 
 that Bacon was the 'legitimate son of Queen Elizabeth.' " 
 
 It is not my purpose at this time to discourse upon the dis- 
 coveries I have made, which, among a great deal else equally 
 important, most certainly reveal all that Sir Henry mentions — 
 except that Bacon lays no claim to the greater part of Ben 
 Jonson's works — but I wish to throw additional light upon cer- 
 tain passages in the address that are presented as facts irrec- 
 oncilable with the cipher disclosures. These "facts" are sup- 
 posed to show that it is not in the realm of possibility that 
 Bacon could have written the plays. 
 
 210
 
 In the opening sentences, Sir Henry refers to some words 
 of his own used as a fitting conclusion to a treatise on the 
 Bacon-Shakespeare Question by Judge Allen of Boston. T 
 quote : "When the Baconians can show that Ben Jonson was 
 either a fool or a knave, or that the whole world of players and 
 playwrights at that time was in a conspiracy to palm off on 
 the ages the most astounding cheat in history, they will be 
 worthy of serious attention." 
 
 If Sir Henry Irving to-day appeared in a new play, 
 and at the same time claimed that it was the work of his hand, 
 it would not, probably, require "a conspiracy of the whole 
 world of players and playwrights to palm it off" on the present 
 age to say nothing of the future. 
 
 The writers who refer so confidently to Ben Jonson's praise 
 
 of Shakespeare, do not observe that he says: 
 
 "he seemes to shake a Lance, 
 
 As brandisht at the eyes of Ignorance." 
 
 They are blind, also, to the significance of the lines : 
 
 "From thence to Honour thee, I would not seeke 
 For names; but call forth thund'ring ^Eschilus, 
 
 Euripides, and Sophocles to us, 
 Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, 
 
 To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread, 
 And shake a Stage: Or, when thy Sockes were on, 
 
 Leave thee alone for the comparison 
 Of all, that insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome 
 
 Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. 
 
 The '])uskin' signified tragedy, 'socks' comedy, and it was 
 as an actor, not as an author, that Jonson would compare 
 Shakespeare with both ancient and modern Greece and Rome. 
 His name was in the list of actors of some of Jonson's plays, 
 as well as of "Shakespeare's." Beeston says, "he did act exceed- 
 ingly well," and we are indebted to Mr. Sidney Lee's Shake- 
 speare in Oral Tradition for a revival of "the exciting discov- 
 ery some actors made" of Shakespeare's brother Gilbert whose 
 memory "only enabled him to recall his brother's performance 
 of Adam in his( ?) comedy of As yon like it." 
 
 It is true that Shakespeare was lauded for the literary work 
 supposed to be his, yet in the article just cited we observe also 
 that "Shakespeare's extraordinary rapidity of composition was 
 an especially frequent topic of contemporary debate." There 
 were men even then who realized that these things were not 
 possible to their Shakespeare. 
 
 211
 
 In the Advancement of Learning we read ; "He is the 
 greater and deeper pollitique, that can make other men the 
 Instruments of his will and endes, and yet never acquaint them 
 with his purpose : So that they shall doe it, and yet not know 
 what they doe, then hee that imparteth his meaning to those 
 he employeth." B. 2., ist p. 33. 
 
 This would suggest that Bacon did not impart his pur- 
 poses to his "masques." Ignorant of the fact that Shake- 
 speare's name was being employed as was his own, Greene 
 exclaimed, "An upstart crow beautified with our feathers!" 
 The similarity of expression was apparent to him, as to stu- 
 dents of the present day, and the charge of plagiarism was 
 very natural. 
 
 Sir Henry points out that although Bacon "was the legiti- 
 mate son of Oueen Elizabeth, his unnatural mother showed not 
 the smallest desire to advance his interests." But what shall 
 be said of Sir Nicholas Bacon's failure to make provision for 
 Francis ? The cipher history makes that point quite clear. He 
 made provision for his own sons, and in a certain sense Eliza- 
 beth provided for hers, although she did not give them public 
 recognition nor show the elder any marked favor. 
 
 Sir Henry asks : "What did Bacon know about the stage ?" 
 What did he not know about the stage? A few random quo- 
 tations will best answer these questions : 
 
 "In the plays of this philosophical theatre you may observe 
 the same thing which is found in the theatre of the poets, that 
 stories invented for the stage are more compact and elegant, 
 and more as one would wish them to be, than true stories out 
 of history." Nov. Or., p. 90. 
 
 "Representative [poetry] is as a visible history, and is an 
 image of actions as if they were present, as history is of actions 
 in nature as they are (that is) past." Adv. of L., p. 204. 
 
 "In whose time also began that great alteration in the state 
 ecclesiastical, an action which seldom comcth upon the stage." 
 Adv. of L., p. 193. 
 
 "As if he were conscient to himself that he had played his 
 part well upon the stage." Adv. of L., p. 362. 
 
 "But it is not good to stay too long in the theatre." Adv. 
 of L., p. 206. 
 
 212
 
 "But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is 
 reserved only for God and the angels to be lookers on." De 
 Aug., p. 198. 
 
 "As it is used in some Comedies of Errors, wherein the mis- 
 tress and the maid change habits. Adv. of L., p. 315, De 
 Aug., p. 199. 
 
 "What more unseemly than to be always playing a part?" 
 Adv. of L., p. 349- 
 
 "And then what is more uncomely than to bring the man- 
 ners of the stage into the business of life?" De Aug., p. 235. 
 
 "Besides it is unseemly for judicial proceedings to borrow 
 anything from the stage.'' De Aug., p. 340. 
 
 "But the best provision and material for this treatise is to 
 be gained from the wiser sort of historians, not only from the 
 commemorations which they commonly add on recording the 
 deaths of illustrious persons, but much more from the entire 
 body of history as often as such a person enters upon the stage; 
 for a character so worked into the narrative gives a better idea 
 of the man, than any formal criticism and review can." Dc 
 Aug., p. 21 J. 
 
 "This was one of the longest plays of that kind that hath 
 been in memory." History of Henry the Seventh, p. 304. 
 
 "Therefore now like the end of a play, a great number came 
 upon the stage at once." History of Henry the Seventh, p. 287. 
 
 "But from his first appearance upon the stage." H. VH., 
 p. 291. 
 
 "He had contrived with himself a vast and tragical plot." 
 H. VH., p. 302. 
 
 "As to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies and now 
 and then of tragedies." Essays, p. 95. 
 
 The stage and stage plays were constantly in Bacon's mind. 
 The point is not well taken that Bacon could not have written 
 tlic plays from lack of familiarity with the stage, from lack of 
 the old plays that were the basis of some, from the impossibility 
 of altering the plays extant, or of collaborating with other 
 writers in the historical dramas. Bacon had access to all sort.s 
 and conditions of men. to all varieties of literature, but the 
 proofs of collaboration are entirely wanting. 
 
 Again, Sir Henry states: "His [Shakespeare's] knowl- 
 edge of law was supposed to be wonderful by Lord Campbell 
 but does not commend itself to Judge Allen." 
 
 213
 
 This is the opinion of one man opposed to that of another. 
 Warner, in speaking of the chorus in Act i., Sc. ii., H. V ., says : 
 "It reads like the result of a lawyer's struggle to embalm his 
 brief in blank verse." 
 
 A little further on in Sir Henry's speech we find an allusion 
 to 'Shakespeare's careless notions about law, geography, and 
 historical accuracy.' 
 
 When the great German Schlegel wrote, "I undertake to 
 prove that Shakespeare's anachronisms are for the most part 
 committed purposely and after great consideration," the truism 
 was more far-reaching than he knew. The double purpose that 
 many lines and often whole passages serve, was the real cause 
 of the anachronisms, and want of historical accuracy. In 
 Richard the Second the pathetic scene of the queen's interview 
 with the dethroned Richard as he is being led to the Tower, 
 is "both historically inaccurate and psychologically impossible. 
 The king and queen did not meet again at all after their parting 
 when Richard set out for Ireland, and Queen Isabel was a 
 child." — Warner's Hist. Nearly the entire scene is a part of 
 the hidden cipher drama, The White Rose of Britain, and is the 
 parting of the pretended Richard, Duke of York, — Warbeck, 
 named by the Duchess of Burgundy the White Rose, — from his 
 faithful wife, Katharine, to whom the title was afterward 
 
 given. 
 
 "Qu. This way the King will come : this is the way 
 
 To Julius Cccsar's ill-erected Tower: 
 
 To whose flint bosome, my condemned Lord 
 
 Is doom'd a Prisoner, by prowd 
 
 Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth 
 
 Have any resting for her true King's Queene. 
 
 ENTER RICHARD AND GUARD. 
 
 But soft, but see, or rather do not see 
 
 My fair Rose wither: yet look up; behold, 
 
 That you in pittie may dissolve to dew, 
 
 And wash him fresh again in true-love Teares. 
 
 Ah thou, the Modell where old Troy did stand, 
 
 Thou Mappe of Honor, thou King Richard's Tombe, 
 
 And not King Richard: thou most beauteous Inne, 
 
 Why should hard-favor'd Griefe be lodged in thee, 
 
 When Triumph is become an ale-house guest? 
 
 Rich. Joyne not with griefe faire Woman, do not so, 
 To make my end too sudden : learne good Soule, 
 To thinke our former State a happie Dreame, 
 From which awak'd, the truth of what we are, 
 Shewes us but this. I am sworne Brother (Sweet) 
 To grim Necessitie ; and hee and I 
 
 Will keepe a League till Death," etc.— i?. //., Act. v., Sc. i. 
 
 214
 
 Again in Henry the Sixth, see all the conversation regard- 
 ing the marriage of Edward the Fourth : A note on the 
 play says "nothing is historically certain concerning the episode 
 except that Edward married the Lady Elizabeth Grey." It is a 
 part of another cipher drama, the Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, 
 where some were bold enough to challenge the right of the mar- 
 riage of Henry the Eighth with the beautiful Anne Boleyn : 
 
 "Lady. My lords, before it pleas'd his Majestic 
 To rayse my State to Title of a Queene, 
 Doe me but right, and you must all confesse, 
 That I was not ignoble of Descent, 
 And meaner than mysclfe have had like fortune. 
 But as this Title honors me and mine, 
 So your dislikes, to whom I would be pleasing, 
 Doth cloud my joyes with danger, and with sorrow. 
 
 King. My Love, forbeare to fawne upon their frownes : 
 What danger, or what sorrow can befall thee, 
 
 So long as is thy constant friend. 
 
 And their true Soveraigne, whom they must obey? 
 Nay, whom they shall obey, and love thee too, 
 Unlesse they seeke for hatred at my hands: 
 Which if they doe, yet will I keep thee safe, 
 And they shall feele the vengeance of my wralh.' 
 
 H. VI., Act iv., Sc. i. 
 
 Critics trace the marked anti-papal spirit of King John to 
 
 'Henry the Eighth's revolt from the Roman obedience,' and 
 
 these passages are indeed a part of Henry's speech, in the 
 
 Tragedy of Anne Boleyn: 
 
 "What earthie name to Interrogatories 
 
 Can tast the free breath of a sacred King? 
 But as we, under heaven are supreame head, 
 So under him that great supremacy 
 Where we doe reigne, we will alone uphold 
 Without th' assistance of a mortall hand : 
 For he that holds his Kingdome, holds the law." 
 
 And again : 
 
 "Yet I alone, alone doe me oppose 
 
 Against the Pope, and count his friends my foes." 
 
 K. J., Act iii., Sc. i. 
 
 The following lines arc a part of the cipher poem, the 
 
 Spanish Armada: 
 
 "So by a roaring Tempest on the flood, 
 
 A whole Armado of convicted saile 
 
 Is scattered and dis-joyn'd from fellowship." 
 
 K. /., Act iii., Sc. iii. 
 
 A part of Cranmer's prophetic speech at Elizabeth's chris- 
 tening has reference to Francis himself: 
 
 215
 
 "So shall she leave her Blessednesse to One 
 
 (When Heaven shall call her from this clowd of darknes) 
 
 Who, from the sacred Ashes of her Honour 
 
 Shall Star-like rise, as great in fame as she was. 
 
 And so stand fix'd."— H. P'lIL, Act v., Sc. iv. 
 
 The mention of quoting Marlowe sometimes with acknowl- 
 edgment — sometimes omitting the acknowledgment — shows 
 that Sir Henry does not concede that the plays of Marlowe 
 were from the same pen as the plays of Shakespeare, but he 
 admits that 'Marlowe was Shakespeare's model in several 
 ways,' and in making this admission he reveals a recognition of 
 similarity that he can in no way account for until he accepts the 
 very natural 'cause of this effect' made known in the cipher. 
 
 Next w^e find : "Shakespeare had an immeasurable recep- 
 tivity of all that concerned human character." 
 
 This is, of course, an inference drawn from the plays. It is 
 well known to all close students of that marvelous literature 
 that its author discerned ever}^ type of human character, un- 
 derstood the influence of environment upon men and women, 
 and had a wide and deep knowledge of the spirit of the times, 
 in different ages and in many countries. We do not differ in 
 opinion there, but Sir Henry speaks of the author by his 
 pseudonym, I by the name his foster father gave him. 
 
 Tennyson is quoted to show Bacon's opinion of love: "The 
 philosopher who in his essay on 'Love' described it as a 'weak 
 passion' fit only for stage comedies, and deplored and despised 
 its influence over the world's noted men, could never have writ- 
 ten 'Romeo and Juliet'." 
 
 In the Advancement of Learning, Bacon says : "Love 
 teacheth a man tO' carry himself to prize and govern him- 
 self onely Love doth exalt the mind and neverthelesse at 
 
 the same instant doth settle and compose it." The play of 
 Romeo and Jidiet was the story of the love of Bacon's youth 
 and early manhood, and the score of years between the time 
 of writing the play and publishing the essay had filled his life 
 with other things, yet those who have read the cipher story 
 know that an inner chamber of his heart enshrined a memory 
 of Marguerite. 
 
 I quote again from the address : "Still more noteworthy is 
 the absence of any plausible excuse for Bacon's fond preserva- 
 tion of hi? worthless rhymes and his neglect of the master- 
 pieces that went by Shakespeare's name. He gave the most 
 minute directions for the publication of his literary remains. 
 
 216
 
 His secretary, Dr. Rawley, was entrusted with this responsi- 
 bility and faithfully discharged it." 
 
 Bacon's MSS. were given to two literary executors, not to 
 Rawley alone, and a part was taken to Holland, Rawley con- 
 tinued the publication of Bacon's works after 1626, publishing- 
 all those that were left in his care. Without these, a large 
 number of the interior works would have been incomplete and 
 the work in the word-cipher interrupted. 
 
 Sir Henry's assertion, "nothing could be easier than to 
 make an equally impressive cipher which would show that Dar- 
 win wrote Tennyson," etc., needs no refutation. Bacon does 
 not say that it was exceedingly difficult to "make" the biliteral 
 cipher. 
 
 Again we find : "It would be more to the purpose it the 
 Baconians would tell us why on earth Bacon could not let the 
 world know in his lifetime that he had written Shakespeare." 
 
 The principal reason was because the history of his life 
 was largely given in those plays, not alone in the biliteral, but 
 in the word-cipher, and the revelation of that in the lifetime 
 of Queen Elizabeth would have cost his own life. He hoped 
 against hope to the very day of the queen's death, that she 
 would relent and proclaim him heir to the throne. But he 
 states that the witnesses were then dead, and the papers that 
 would authenticate his claims destroyed. What could he do? 
 Simply what he did. 
 
 In the peroration we find : "I fear that the desire to drag 
 down Shakespeare from his pedestal, and to treat the testimony 
 of his personal friends as that of lying rogues is due to that 
 antipathy to the actor's calling which has its eccentric mani- 
 festations even to this day." 
 
 This cannot in any way refer to my book, for the very 
 nature of this work eliminates personal thoughts and wishes or 
 preconceived ideas. It is as mechanical as the reading of hiero- 
 glyphics, as naming perfectly well-known objects, as discrimin- 
 ating the clicks of the telegraph. And as far as Bacon was 
 concerned he desired only his right. 
 
 It is by its great men in every age of the world that the 
 actor's calling is dignified, but the genius of the man of the 
 stage is not necessarily the genius of the man who wrote the 
 greatest plays that time through all the centuries has produced. 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 217
 
 ! 
 
 THE BI-LITERAL CIPHER 11^^ HEIsTRY VII. 
 Baconiana, London, July 1905. 
 
 It lias been suggested to me that I should give some of the 
 results of my examination of Mrs. Wells Gallup's work on 
 Bacon's Henry VII. I was not in England when Mrs. Gallup's 
 MSS. arrived from America, in the early part of 1904. On 
 my return to London in June of that year, I heard that two 
 or three members of our Society had been trying to work tlie 
 cipher, but on comparing notes found that the various copies 
 of the 1622 edition did not agree in some of the forms of Hic 
 Italic letters. Only one member seemed inclined to devote the 
 time and patience to investigate the matter at all thoroughly. 
 That member, I understand, with much patience devoted one 
 whole week to the study of the italic letters. His very able re- 
 port against the cipher made me wish to look into the matter 
 still more thoroughly myself. This may appear presumptuoll^ 
 as I was not one of the committee appointed to enquire into the 
 subject. But I had had the advantage of many conversations 
 with Mrs. Gallup, when she first presented her work to the 
 public five years ago, and saw her and her sister. Miss Wells, 
 at work on a book they found in my house not before decipher- 
 ed by them. I was busy with other literary work during the 
 summer of 1904, but in the autumn made up my mind to send 
 my own copy of the 1622 edition of Henry VII. to the Howard 
 Publishing Company, in America, for examination. I was anx- 
 ious to know if it was a safe copy on which I might commence 
 my work. It was returned to me by Mr. Moore in January, 
 1905, with one or two pencilled corrections written by Mrs. 
 Gallup in the margin. Mrs. Gallup, in her letter to me, said. 
 ''Your copy and ours are the same, except in, a very few places." 
 In that letter, and in others since, she answered several of my 
 questions, and they have materially helped me. I worked dili- 
 gently for three months, often eight and ten hours a day. 
 
 My studies have been confined to the first fifty pages only 
 of the medium Italic type. I find in these fifty pages 10,058, 
 
 21»
 
 Italic letters. Of these, 1,319 are capitals. For the present I 
 shall confine my remarks to the capitals only. In these fifty 
 pages only twenty-two letters of the alphabet are used. I have 
 completed my studies on thirteen of these letters. They re- 
 present 704 letters used for the two founts ; and with very few 
 exceptions I find them correctly so used in Mrs. Gallup's MSS. 
 sent to us for examination. I have not yet completed my studies 
 on the remaining nine letters of the alphabet, representing 615 
 letters. I am, however, finding the majority of these correctly 
 used also. I am a slow worker, but each day's work is bringing 
 out better results on these nine more difficult letters. I give 
 below a table of all the letters in the order in which I found 
 them easiest to read, with the columns of figures divided into 
 
 ''a's" and '^b's. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals. 
 
 "a" 
 
 u^„ 
 
 A. 
 
 61 
 
 25 
 
 36 
 
 E. 
 
 78 
 
 58 
 
 20 
 
 I. J. ... 
 
 51 
 
 49 
 
 2 
 
 ¥. 
 
 49 
 
 41 
 
 8 
 
 K 
 
 42 
 
 32 
 
 10 
 
 U.V. . . 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 Q. 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 P. 
 
 163 
 
 119 
 
 44 
 
 E. 
 
 41 
 
 8 
 
 33 
 
 S. 
 
 93 
 
 62 
 
 31 
 
 w. 
 
 19 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 T. 
 
 70 
 
 39 
 
 31 
 
 T. 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 K. 
 
 71 
 
 37 
 
 34 
 
 L. 
 
 68 
 
 46 
 
 22 
 
 F. 
 
 78 
 
 47 
 
 31 
 
 B. 
 
 99 
 
 65 
 
 34 
 
 D. 
 
 74 
 
 . 47 
 
 27 
 
 H. 
 
 24 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 0. 
 
 24 
 
 17 
 
 7 
 
 G. 
 
 25 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 C. 
 
 152 
 
 100 
 
 52 
 
 1,319 
 
 851 
 
 468 
 
 219
 
 V 
 
 It was suggested to me, by a member who disliked the facts re- 
 vealed in the cipher story, that even if I found the 1,319 capi- 
 tals correctly used, that would not be sufficient to prove the 
 existence of the cipher, unless I could also find that the small 
 letters were correctly used by Mrs, Gallup. This made me leave 
 the capitals for a time. I have since studied all the small let- 
 ters of the medium italic type in those first fifty pages. But 
 as they represent 8,739 letters, for the present I can only say 
 I have finished my studies on three of the letters, namely, "k," 
 "p," "w," and with only one or two exceptions I find them cor- 
 rectly used. 
 
 If my figures are correct, and I am prepared for the 
 severest examination on these facts, can it be chance that those 
 letters are correctly used in Mrs. Gallup's MSS. ? 
 
 I would like to say here, that were it actually the caso 
 that only two forms of letters are used, the deciphering of over 
 10,000 letters w^ould have been a comparatively easy work. But 
 in some of the letters there are many variations, and these again 
 must be paired. And yet in all these pairings there is system 
 and order, and a method in all the seeming madness. 
 
 My work would have progressed much more rapidly had 
 two or three others worked with me. For those who have the 
 leisure and much patience I can recommend this interesting 
 study. I am willing and in a position to give them many short 
 cuts, and they, in their turn, could, I have no doubt, help to 
 finish the work I have commenced, that is, simply to verify the 
 working of Mrs. Gallup's MSS. on this Henry VII. Those 
 Baconians who have never very seriously tried to work at the 
 cipher, and are more concerned in refusing to accept the rather 
 unpleasant historical facts revealed, I would ask to suspend 
 their judgment, and to allow others, who may be honestly and 
 seriously trying to arrive at the truth, still to be allow^ed to ex- 
 amine the work submitted by Mrs. Gallup at the request of 
 some of the members of our Society. The more I, as an 
 amateur, study this technical part of our work, the more 
 convinced I feel that Bacon did use his famous bi-literal cipher 
 in his own prose history of Henry VII. A ncAv discovery has 
 been placed before us, and by experts ; why should we discredit 
 their labours, and refuse to give an equal amount of time and 
 patience in examining their work ? 
 
 220
 
 I would like here to bring forward some curious facts 
 connected with the printing of the 1622 edition of Henry VII. 
 I have before me six copies — one belonging to Mrs. Pott, an- 
 other to Mrs. Payne, and four of my own. Mrs. Payne's copy 
 is similar to the copy collated for me by Mrs. Gallup. Mrs. 
 Pott's copy has many differences in it — not in the words and 
 matter, but in the use of the two founts of the Italic type. Two 
 of my own copies are similar to Mrs. Pott's copy. My fourth 
 copy, again, is quite different to all the others. Why should 
 there be these differences in the various copies of the same edi- 
 tion ? Why should type once set up have been altered ? And, 
 when altered, why should these changes be carried through with 
 system and order in other copies ? Before closing this paper, 
 I would like to remind Baconians that Bacon, in writing to 
 Tobie Mathew in 1609, uses these words: ''I have sent you some 
 copies of my book of the Advancement which you desired; and 
 a little work of my recreation which you desired not. My In- 
 stauration I reserve for our conference ; it sleeps not. Those 
 works of the alphabet are in my opinion of less use to you now 
 than at Paris. . . . But in regard that some friends of yours 
 have still insisted here, I send them to you, and for my part 
 I value your own reading more than your publishing them to 
 others" (Spedding, vol. iv., p. 134). Spedding, in criticising 
 this letter, says, "What these 'Works of the Alphabet' may have 
 been I cannot guess, unless they related to Bacon's cipher." 
 Spedding then proceeds again to explain this cipher. 
 
 Archbishop Tenison in 1679 was evidently aware that 
 Bacon had used his Bi-literal Cipher in the 1623 folio of the 
 '^De Augmentis" for he especially recommends that "accurate" 
 edition to those who wish to understand the Lord Bacon's 
 Cipher (Baconian a, 1679, p. 28). I myself have very little 
 doubt but that Tenison used the same cipher all through his 
 Baconian A. " I only wish I were an expert, and could decipher 
 what he says. 
 
 D. J. KiNDERSLEY. 
 
 221
 
 HENRY VII. 
 
 A Reply to the Repoet of Me. Bompas. 
 Baconiana, London^ Oct. 1905. 
 
 I am grateful for the opportunity to reply to the article 
 of the late Mr. Bompas in the July number of Baconiana. 
 
 I am also grateful to Mr. Cunningham for his prefatory 
 remarks and footnotes, and I wish to say that his regret is 
 my own as well, that Mr, Bompas did not discuss the paper 
 with members of the Society better advised than was he, and 
 that the MS. of the article had not been submitted to me 
 while Mr. Bompas was still with us, or at least before publi- 
 cation, for some, if not all, the erroneous conclusions drawn 
 could have been dissipated before they took form. The expla- 
 nations would have given that gentleman and his readers a 
 more comprehensive view, a different view point, and greater 
 light upon the subject. 
 
 It is rare that an article appearing in public print carries 
 upon analysis its own evidences of error, and in the next 
 preceding pages finds so complete a refutation as does this in 
 the article of Mrs. Kindersley. 
 
 In his opening statement Mr. Bompas says: "The copies 
 of Henry VII. which have been examined do not exactly cor- 
 respond. . . . The form of many of the capitals also differs 
 in the different copies. . . . Mr. Cuningham's copy differs 
 widely from the others. . . . Either each copy contains a 
 different cipher story, which is absurd, or the decipherer hap- 
 pened by chance to light on the only correct copy, which is 
 equally absurd." Then Mr. Bompas proceeds to build an 
 argument upon the fact that the copy of my MS., furnished 
 to the Society, did not correspond with some copy of 
 Henry VII. with which he compared it, concluding, there- 
 fore, that the cipher system must be a myth, and Mrs. Gallup 
 a visionary or a fraud. 
 
 •222
 
 Any comparison to establish the correctness of my work 
 must be made either with the copy I used or one identical with 
 it. That Mr. Bompas used some copy not identical, but one 
 printed differently, is substantiated by Mrs. Kindersley, 
 v/hose three months' work on an identical copy — as against 
 one week Mr. Bompas spent on a different printing — resulted 
 in her verification of nearly all the letters studied. It is still 
 more forcibly proved by the table of headings Mr. Bompas 
 13rints, the Italics in which do not at all correspond in the 
 different forms with the book I used. It therefore follows that 
 the entire argument, from pages 169 to and including part 
 of 176, so far as relates to Henry VII., is founded upon a 
 false premise and falls to the ground. 
 
 Mr. Bompas says, "Either each copy contains a different 
 cipher, which is absurd," &c. 
 
 On the contrary, that is just what occurs in unlike copies. 
 Those widely differing belong to different editions, although 
 published in the same year, as I have found to be true, and 
 stated in my article in Baconiana published in 1901. Two 
 issues of the Treatise of Melancholy appeared in 1586 with 
 differing Italic printing. I have deciphered both. One ends 
 with an incomplete cipher word, which is completed in the 
 other where the narrative is continued, and the book ends 
 with the signature of Bacon on the last page. I have also 
 found that in two editions of Bacon's acknowledged works one 
 had the cipher and one had not. The peculiar Italicizing and 
 the same forms of letters were in both. In one the arrange- 
 ment of the letters followed the cipher system, in the otlier no 
 amount of study could make them "read." Bacon refers in 
 the cipher to some false and surreptitious copies issued with- 
 out his authority. -^ 
 
 The differences in print of Henry VII. first came to 
 light, apparently, through the comparisons made with my 
 MS. in London, and the report of it was a great surprise to 
 me. Mrs. Kindersley was kind enough to send me one of her 
 copies, and, as before stated, this was found to be identical 
 witli the one I used except that three or four typographical 
 errors in her copy were corrected in mine, and one in mine did 
 not occur in hers, bnt in no case was a verbal change made and 
 only one orthographical. 
 
 223
 
 About the same time it chanced that a copy of the work 
 — a recent importation from London — was sent me from 
 Chicago for examination. This I found quite different in 
 the use of Italics. I did not decipher the work, but became 
 convinced that it either contained another cipher story, or 
 was one of the "false and surreptitious copies" before re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 In addition to the criticism of Henry VII., Mr. Bompas 
 refers to some typographical errors making slight differenceri 
 in our own editions of the Bi-literal Cipher, and to the exam- 
 ples in the editions of De Augmentis of 1623 and 1624. 
 
 I have to admit there are some printers' errors in my 
 book that escaped the closest proof reading, much to my regret. 
 The proof reading was extremely difficult because of the care 
 required to keep the unusual spelling and occasional abbrevia- 
 tions. Some errors were corrected in the third edition. Mr. 
 Bompas found two or three — probably not all. I have had 
 no opportunity to note the errata in a later publication. I 
 can, however, make the broad assertion that in no single in- 
 stance has any of these slight technical errors changed the 
 meaning of a phrase, or made it obscure, or been of sufficient 
 importance to affect in the least the overwhelming evidences 
 of the existence of the system of the cipher and the correctness 
 of its deciphering. 
 
 Manifest errors occurred in the text of the old books, 
 which were corrected in the deciphering, but they were so few 
 and so evident as to prove rather than to disprove the system. 
 They occur mostly in long groups, as in the example of the 
 cipher in De Augmentis, occasionally a short group of four 
 letters, once in a while a wrong font letter, but the meaning 
 of the context was always sufficiently clear in itself to correct 
 the error. I cannot better illustrate this than by quoting from 
 my "Replies to Criticisms," issued in pamphlet form, but 
 which has not appeared in public print. The explanation 
 covers explicitly a number of points raised by Mr. Bompas, 
 and being an analysis of Bacon's own illustration of the cipher 
 in the 1624 De Augmentis, has the weight of the author's own 
 methods of correction, and the suggestion, at least, that the 
 errors were purposely made to educate the decipherer as to 
 
 224
 
 what would be encountered in the books; also the manner of 
 overcoming the difficulties as they should arise. 
 
 "In the 1624 edition the second i in officio is changed 
 by the law of tied letters; the second u in nunquam has posi- 
 tion or angle of inclination, to make it an 'a fount' letter; 
 q in conquiesti is from the wrong fount, and the u has features 
 of both founts but is clear in one distinctive difference — the 
 width at the top; the q in quia is reversed by a mark; the a's 
 in the first causa are formed like 'b fount' letters but are 
 taller; the q of quos is from the wrong fount; the second a 
 in aderas is reversed, being a tied letter; I in velint is from 
 the wrong fount, also the p of parati, the I of calumniam and 
 the I of religione. 
 
 "In line twelve 'pauci sunt' in 1623 ed. is 'parati sunt' 
 in the 1624 ed. The correct grouping is ntqui velin tquip 
 ratis untom nesad, the first a in 'parati' must be omitted to read 
 diutius according to the Spartan dispatch. Otherwise the 
 groups would be arati sunto mnesa. The m and n are both 
 'b fount,' thus bringing two h's at the beginning of this last 
 group, indicating at once a mistake, for no letter in the bi-lit- 
 eral alphabet begins with two b's and wherever encountered 
 may be known to indicate either a wrong fount letter or a 
 wrong grouping. It is one of the guards against error. To 
 continue the groups after the one last given several would be 
 found to commence with bb, and the resulting letters would 
 not 'read.' 
 
 "Here, too, is an example of diphthongs, digraphs, and 
 double letters, which are troublesome to 'A Correspondent.' 
 The diphthong se of 'cseteris,' the digraph ct in perfectare, 
 and the double ^'s and pp's, are shown as separate letters and 
 must be treated as such in deciphering Italics. 
 
 "A very important feature, that most seem to forget, is 
 that ciphers are made to hide things, not to make them plain 
 or easy to decipher. They are constructed to be misleading, 
 mysterious, and purposely made difficult except to those pos- 
 sessing the key. Seekers after knowledge through them must 
 not abandon the hunt upon encountering the first difficulty, 
 improbability, inaccuracy, or stumbling block set for their 
 confusion." 
 
 225
 
 The article says : "The plain inference is that the Cipher 
 and Cipher story are imaginary." 
 
 Well, this is at least complimentary, but I doubt whether 
 Mr. Bompas stopped to think what that statement would mean 
 with all that it implies. I do not think he would, on reflec- 
 tion, give me credit for a genius so broad, for it would be equal 
 to the production of the plays themselves. 
 
 Were I the possessor of an imagination so boundless, I 
 would certainly not have spent it upon a production fore- 
 doomed to be unpopular, or have subjected myself to the strain 
 upon nerves and eyesight of six years' hard study of old books 
 and their typographical peculiarities for a Baconian cloak to 
 hide the brilliancy of that imagination. Yet if the material 
 for the three hundred and ninety pages of my book were not 
 found in Cipher in the old originals, then it must be the con- 
 ception of my own brain. First, the plot of each story worked 
 out; the account of Bacon's discovery of his parentage; the 
 variations from historic records ; the death of Amy Kobsart ; 
 the tragedy of Essex, and that of Mary, Queen of Scots, and 
 other scraps of added history ; the love of Bacon for Margaret, 
 and all the rest. All this thought out, in diction, much of it, 
 of the highest order, in the old English spelling and phrase- 
 ology of the 16th century and fitted with such nice exactness 
 to the Italic letters of the old books, "separated into groups 
 of five" — letters that even the sceptics admit the capitals at 
 least agree with the alleged system — the study of months in 
 the British Museum ; the explanations and demonstrations to 
 numberless people — all to hide a genius so magnificent ! In 
 the language of Mr. Bompas, "Absurd !" And yet, I repeat, 
 if not Cipher it must be my own production. 
 
 It is useless to discuss the probability of Bacon's commit- 
 ting State secrets to such a Cipher. It is not a time to ask 
 the question, "Is it likely?" The Cipher is there, and it only 
 remains to master its intricacies and search out what it has 
 to reveal. 
 
 Elizabeth Wells Gallup. 
 
 226
 
 A WORD OR TWO 0:N^ CANONBURY TOWER. 
 
 Baconiana, London. 
 
 There are several suggestive points of connection to be 
 noted between the old conventual buildings of Canonbury and 
 our Francis St. Alban. There are also obscure particulars 
 well worthy of inquiry. 
 
 Originally the property of the Knights of St. John of 
 Jerusalem, Canonbury House is generally supposed to have 
 been built in 1362, ten years after Edward III. had exempted 
 the Priory of St. Bartholomew from the payment of subsidies, 
 in consequence of their great outlay in charity. Stow says 
 that William Bolton (Prior from 1509 to 1532) rebuilt the 
 house, and probably erected the fine square tower of brick. 
 Nichol, in his "History of Canonbury," mentions that Bolton's 
 rebus of a bolt in a tun was -still to be seen, cut in stone, in two 
 places on the outside facing Wells' Row. The original house 
 covered the whole space now called Canonbury Place, and had 
 a small park, with garden and offices. Prior Bolton either 
 built or repaired the Priory and beautiful Church of St. Bar- 
 tholomew, but at his death the connection between Canonbury 
 and monasticism ceased.* 
 
 The Tower House was now given by Henry VHI. to John 
 Dudley, Earl of Northumberland, afterwards Viscount Lisle, 
 father of Rcjbert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, whose history has 
 lately risen into fresh and startling importance in consequence 
 of certain deciphered history to be submitted to- the world's 
 judgment. John Dudley was executed as a traitor when Mary 
 was prDclaimed Queen in 1553. The Tower then again became 
 Crown proi)erty, and Queen Mary gave it to "Rich Spencer." 
 the magnificent alderman of whom history speaks so fully, 
 giving us even that which it denied us with regard to Francis 
 St. Alban — details of his funeral obsequies. It is from this 
 Sir John Sjiencer (father-in-law of Lord Compton) that Sir 
 Francis "Racon." when Attorney-General (1616), leased 
 Canonburv Manor. t 
 
 *See "Old and' New London," Vol. II.. p. 269. 
 
 tSir John Spencer's daughter and heiress Elizabeth, married Lord 
 William Compton (created Earl of Northampton), eloping with him from 
 Canonbury Manor in a baker's basket. (As I am a man, there was one con- 
 veyed out of my house yesterday in this basket. — Merry Wives of W. Act 
 
 IV., sc. ii.) 
 
 227
 
 The internal arrangements and decorations of Canonbury 
 House are commented on in detail by Lewis, who describes 
 the elaborate ornamental carving, emblematic figures and 
 devices, ships, flowers, foliage, and other objects which Bacon- 
 ians have learnt to associate with the symbolic method 
 of teaching of the Renaissance, and pre-eminently of the 
 "Great Master" himself, but which in the regulation literature 
 of our day are described as "specimens of taste for ornamental 
 carving and stucco work that prevailed about the time of 
 Elizabeth." There are also medallions of three great men 
 who seem to have been in a way models to our Francis — types 
 of the nobler Pioneer, the mighty Conqueror, the Master 
 Builder, Alexander the Great, namely Julius Caesar, Titus 
 Vespasian. Then with the arms of the Dudleys may be seen 
 the arms of Queen Elizabeth in several places, and her initials, 
 "E. R." with the date — 1599, at which time the premises were 
 fitted up by Sir John Spencer. 
 
 "On the white wall of the staircase, near the top of the 
 Tower, are some Latin hexameter verses comprising the ab- 
 breviated names of the Kings of England from William the 
 Conquerer to Charles L, painted in Roman character an inch 
 in length, but almost obliterated. The lines were most prob- 
 ably the effusion of some poetical inhabitant of an upper apart- 
 ment in the building during the time of the monarch last named^ 
 such persons having frequently been residents of the place." 
 
 Thomas Tomlins, in his "History of Islington," writes 
 thus : 
 
 "The Earl and Countess, by description Lord and Lady 
 Compton, by indenture 15th February, Jac. 1616, let to the 
 Right Hon. Francis Lord Verulam, Visct. St. Albans, by the 
 name of Sir Francis Bacon Knight,* His Majs. Attorney Gen- 
 eral, all that mansion and garden belonging to what is called 
 Canonbury House, in the Parish of Islington * * >i< for 
 40 years from Lady-day, 161 7." 
 
 With regard to the Tower, the same writer states : 
 
 "The great Sir Francis Bacon resided here from February, 
 1616; as also at the time of his receiving the Great Seal, on 7th 
 Jan., 1 61 8, and for some time afterwards. f 
 
 "After the decease of Henry Prince of Wales (in 161 2) the 
 Manor of Newington Barrowe was, with other portion of land, 
 on loth January, 14 Jac, granted upon lease for 99 years to 
 
 ^Created Baron Verulam of Verulam 12th of July, 1618, and Visct. St. 
 Alban Feb. 3rd, 1619. 
 
 fThe acreage of various "closes" is here given. 
 
 228
 
 Sir Francis Bacon, Knt., at that time the King's Attorney Gen- 
 eral, and also Chancellor to Charles Prince of Wales, after- 
 wards Charles L, and others, his law officers and ministers in 
 trust for him, which lease, upon his accession, became merged 
 in the Crown." — Dated at Canonbury, 15th Sept., 1629. 
 
 In connection with recent statements concerning the par- 
 entage of Francis St. Alban, it will be observed that in Nelson's 
 "History of Islington" the writer states that Queen Elizabeth 
 was at Canonbury Tower in the year 1561, and that she had a 
 "lodge" or summer-house looking into Canonbury Fields. It 
 bore her arms and initials, with the date 1595. "The Tower 
 was encompassed by pleasant fields and gardens, and a salubri- 
 
 ous air." 
 
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