I

CHAPTER XX.

THE QUEEN'S ORDERS TO FIND SHAKSPERE

Wheresoe'er he is,

Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living.

As You Like It, iii, 1.

TURN to another part of the Cipher story, or rather I recur to

it, because I have already referred to it in a previous chapter. I can do no more now than give a few words, here and there, to show that the Cipher story runs through all these pages, and is called forth by the same root-numbers.

505-193-312-237 (73:2)=75. 169-75—94+1= 95

505-254-251-30-221-193-28.

28

505-197 (74:2)-308-248-60.

60

}

505-254-251-15 b & h (254)-236-49 (76:2)=187.

508-187-321+1=322.

322

76:1 Shrewsbury.

This accords with the statement on page 686, ante, that the forces sent out to find Shakspere and the rest of the players were under the direction of the Earl of Shrewsbury. And there was no necessity of sending armed troops to arrest a party of poor actors. The object was secrecy; hence, no tradition has come down to us of the attempt to arrest Shakspere. If armed soldiers had gone to Stratford looking for him, it would have made such an impression on the minds of the villagers that, in all probability, it would have been remembered, and we should have heard something of it. And yet the matter was important enough to require prompt action under a prominent, reliable and discreet leader; for it was not merely the offense of playing seditious plays that was in question, but the fact that this had been done as an incentive to rebellion; and no one could tell in that troubled age how far the attempt had succeeded, or how soon civil war might break forth. The object was to quietly gain possession of the actors and probe the thing to the bottom.

And the reader will observe how the beginning of scene 1, act i, interlocks with the end of the same act, in the words several — well — horsed — unarmed-posts -under-lead, etc. With ampler leisure I could reduce this to a precise, mathe. matical, continuous system.

And Cecil proposed —

Word.

505-254-251. 498-251-197+1-198+2 col.— 200

Page and
Column.

76:1 proposed

that the Earl should divide his forces into three divisions and send them in different directions wherever the actors were likely to be.

Here it will be observed that the same words, three-divisions, which came out at the summons of 523-218 (74:2)=305—31 (79:1)=274 (see page 772, ante), and which were then used to describe the allotment of the money made by the Plays, between actors and author, are again employed at the call of 505-193-312-31 and 505-254-32; that is to say, 505, less the upper section of 75:1, produces, carried to the end of act i, three; and 505 less the lower section of 75:1, carried to the beginning of act ii, gives us divisions. And 305 (523-218-305)—31-274, carried up 78:2, plus the hyphens, produces the same word three; and the same 305 -31-274, carried up the same 78:2, not counting in the hyphens, produces the same word divisions. Surely, no one will believe that all this delicate adjustment of the text and its brackets and hyphens, to two different numbers, could come about by accident. If it stood alone it would be enough to stagger incredulity; but, as it is, it is only one of thousands of other and similar instances.

But the Queen, while taking these steps, does not fully believe that Francis Bacon could have written the treasonable play of Richard II. And she rebukes Cecil for making such a charge against him. And the Queen says to Cecil:

Here it will be observed that every word grows out of 505 minus 193, the upper section of 75:1; we will have directly a sentence that grows out of 505 minus 254, the lower section of the same column and page. The above sentence is produced by counting from the beginnings and ends of the subdivisions of the preceding column, 73:2; the next sentence will be derived by counting from the beginnings and ends of 74:1 or 74:2. Thus the reader will perceive that there is not only regularity in the results, but a method and system in the work.

But the sentence goes on:

505-254-251-15 b & h (254)=236. 284-236-48+1-49 505-248-257-2 h (248)=255. 284-255-29+1=

505-248-257-22 b-235. 284-235-49+1-50+5 b=55

Observe the perfect symmetry of this: 505—254 (75:1)=251 is regularly alternated with 505—248 (74:2)=257. And all the words are in column 1 of page 74!

And what a concatenation of words: stuffing my ears with continual lies and false reports! And we know that Cecil desired to keep Bacon out of office and power, and we can surmise that this would be the very means he would resort to. And the coarse-minded, crafty old Queen, even if she suspected Bacon, would be very apt to talk in this way to Cecil, for we have historical testimony that she would assault "this little man" (as she called him) with bitter vituperation.

And here I would ask the reader to turn to pages 719 and 720, ante, and note how the same words stuffing-ears-false-reports- lies-this-many—a— year, which here come out at the summons of 505 carried through 74:2 and the upper and lower subdivisions of 75:1, were also brought out, by an entirely different mode of counting, by the root-number 516-167—349—22 b & h (167)—327! For instance, 327-30, carried through 74:2 and down 74:1, yields stuffing, while 505-254-251 -15 b & h (254)=236, carried up 74:1, yields the same word, stuffing; and the same number 236, plus the hyphens, up the same column, yields reports; while the same number 327, again less 30, again carried through 74:2 and again carried down 74:1, yields the same word, reports. And so with the other words. The adjustments here are as delicate and as manifold as in the works of a watch; and the one is just as likely to have come together by chance as the other.

And the Queen was in a

505-193-312-30-282—15 b & h=267—29 (73:2)= 238 505-193-312-30-282-50 (74:2)-232-12 b & h

505-193-312—15b & h (193)-297-248-49-5 b col.-44

505-193-312-30-282. 284-282-2+1-3+7 h col.=10

505-193-312-50-262-50-212-79 (73:1)=133. 133

so far as it concerns Elizabeth's violent temper and abusive tongue; and it accords with the probabilities that the Queen would not, without conclusive proof, believe that Sir Nicholas Bacon's son could engage in treasonable practices. Nearly all the words grow out of 505-193-312; or, where they do not come from the 505 minus the upper section of 75:1, they come from 505 minus the lower section of 75:1, and they are nearly all found on 74:1, except where fragments left after deducting 74:1 or 74:2 are carried backward to the last page or forward to the next page. And the Queen tells Cecil that he has been unfair to Bacon; that he has505-254-251-30-221.

505-254-251-50-201-30-171. 284-171-113+1-114

221

74:1 stooped

74:1

And in her "royal rage" she tells Cecil that, if he does not find Shakspere, and prove his charge against Bacon to be true, he shall lose his office: