XVI CIPHERS THE use of the cipher in court and camp, to which originally it had been confined, appears to have attained its highest efficiency in the seventeenth century, when, escaping the limits of authority, it found more popular fields for expansion. Could we but read, beneath the commonplace phrasing of many documents which we study in public archives and historical collections, the secrets which they enshrine, history would have a new meaning for us. Formerly people who exercised power maintained decipherers, whose business it was to translate the secret messages which the correspondence of their employers contained. We know that Walsingham, the Queen's Minister in Paris, once ventured to leave his post, and journey hot foot to London, to communicate personally with Elizabeth, as he was unwilling that her decipherers should know what he desired to say to her. Spedding says that Francis and Anthony Bacon employed a number of writers, "receiving letters which were mostly in cipher," and that these passed through the hands of Francis "to the Earl of Essex deciphered." In one of Anthony's letters directed to Francis at Court, September 11, 1593, he says that his servant Edward Yates having lost his letters, it was impossible for him to recover his cipher that night.1 Spedding's allusion to writers employed by the Bacons in their Scriptorium, begun at Gray's Inn, and later removed to Twickenham, we have mentioned before as much like the typewriting office of to-day. It was convenient for their official and literary work, and served also to increase their income. Bacon speaks of six ciphers, in a manner which implies that 1 Thomas Birch, D.D., Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1, p.121. London, 1754. he made use of them, of which the biliteral seems to have been the principal one, and for several years students of ciphers have been attempting to discover and apply them to his works, especially, the "Shakespeare" Works. The first was Ignatius Donnelly, who endeavored to elucidate one of them. His work is a marvel of patient study, and has attracted wide attention. That he was perfectly honest in his application of his theory, and fully believed in it, no one can reasonably doubt. Unfortunately, he died without leaving sufficient data to enable any one, thus far, to continue his work, and we now hear little about it except abuse. We have given elsewhere the inscription on the stone which covered the actor's grave, as it was originally, viz.:— Good Frend for Jesus SAKE forbeare To diGG T-E Dust Enclo-Ased HE.Re. The remarkable, and, we venture to say, the unique manner in which this inscription is written is inexplicable by any known rules. The word "SAKE" in capitals, when if any word on the first line should have been so written it was the word "Jesus"; the capital GG in "diGG"; the dash and capital A in "Enclo-Ased"; the period in the middle and at the end of "HE.Re." have discouraged attempts at explanation. But one man, Ignatius Donnelly, who not only possessed a neverflagging spirit of research, but a mathematical mind of unusual clearness, attempted it, and this is his interpretation: "Francis Bacon wrote the Greene, Marlowe, and Shakespeare Plays." He did this by the biliteral cipher found in Bacon's "De Augmentis," by reading it through and reversing the process where the peculiarities we have named occur. Space will not permit a full explanation of the method, and we refer the reader to Donnelly's book, from which the above epitaph is taken.1 1 Ignatius Donnelly, The Cipher in the Plays and on the Tombstone. Minneapolis, 1899. Cf. The Great Cryptogram. Chicago, 1888. C. A. Montgomery, Shakespear's Anagrams. New York, 1910. THE WORD-CIPHER Dr. Orville W. Owen claims to have discovered Bacon's word-cipher, and by it has "translated" from his philosophical works, and others bearing the name of Shakspere, Spenser, Green, Marlowe, Peele, and Burton, several volumes of prose and poetry hitherto unheard of; indeed, they greet us like strange visitants from those far-off days, when Elizabeth and James thought themselves essential to the existence of our forefathers. Translated, however, is hardly the proper word; constructed would be better, for they are composed of detached lines taken from a large number of works according to certain guide- and key-words, which reveal where such excerpts should begin and end. begin and end. The works which Dr. Owen introduces to us are remarkable, not only for intrinsic merit, but for their bearing upon history. In them not only Bacon's early life is disclosed, but secrets of state as well. We give a single brief example of the method of the wordcipher. To apply it extracts are taken from various works, and brought together to form a continuous chain of thought; the decipherer being guided by certain guide- and key-words, which we shall explain more fully hereafter: The Prelude to a Storm The day is clear the welkin bright and gay From the South furrowed Neptune's seas The bright sun thereon his beams doth beat (Peele) (Faerie Queene) (Marlowe) (Greene) (Faerie Queene) (Anatomy of Melancholy) (Bacon) As a mirror glass the surface of the water This method of joining lines so as to make sense is not unknown, but has never been attempted on a large scale, or by following hidden guides. What makes this, however, unique in the history of literature is the revelation it makes, and the ingenious method which it displays. The first volume of Dr. Owen's work begins with this remarkable letter: Sir Francis Bacon's Letter to the decipherer MY DEAR SIR: LONDON, 1623. Thus leaning on my elbow I begin the letter scattered wider than the sky and earth: And yet the spacious breath of this division, As it spreads round in the widest circle, Admits the mingling of the four great guides we use, So that we have no need of any minute rule To make the opening of our device Appear as plainly to you as the sun. . . . And for fear that you would go astray from our design Before you had your powers well put on, We have marked out a plan in this epistle To communicate to you how our great cipher cues combine. This letter which is really a dialogue between the author and his future decipherer, covers forty-three pages, and in it we are told the works in which a cipher is used. The writer says: We will enumerate them by their whole title, The Anatomy of Melancholy of Robert Burton, — and all the Certainly this sets forth a formidable task for any one to attempt. Dr. Owen calling attention to some of the difficulties of his undertaking, remarks: Bacon's Philosophical Works were written in Latin, and we have the translations only to study; thus à second party's render ing of the original thoughts, which from the nature of the case would not be exact. Then from the Plays and other works, which have come down to us in the old English of 1623, and from these translations of the Latin text has to be extracted the connected Story through the means of the Cipher Keys. The student, on reflection, will admit it would be impossible to so fit and join the words and sentences, as to make ali smoothly read in the exact metre, rhythm and measure of the highest literary productions of the nineteenth century. Mr. George P. Goodale makes the following comments upon Dr. Owen's work: The existence of a cipher by use of which these stories are revealed is an indisputable fact. The stories are not Dr. Owen's inventions. He did not compose them, for the reason that neither he nor any man that lives is gifted with the surpassing genius to do it. Nobody has the right to pass judgment on the discovery who has not first read the book. And he makes an extract from Bacon ending thus: It is not probable that a man that is slavishly bent upon blind, stupid and absurd objections, will bestow time and work enough upon this to make trial of the chain. Such a man is not entitled to judge and decide upon these questions. Besides the account of Bacon's early life and various secret matters of history, Dr. Owen gives us several dramas, namely: "The Tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots"; "The Spanish Armada"; the story of Sir Francis Bacon's life, in blank verse, and the tragedy of Essex. Of these the Spanish Armada is the most to be admired, though it contains lines open to criticism, no more so, however, than some in the "Shakespeare" Plays. Perhaps we should quote here Owen's own words: The first book of the deciphered writings of Sir Francis Bacon has had an unusual experience. It was published and sent forth without preface or word of explanation, with the desire that the public should form its own judgment upon the matter contained. in it. |