CHAPTER XVII.

SHAKSPERE THE ORIGINAL FALSTAFF.

Prince Hal. Wherein is he good but to taste sacke, and drink it? Wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon, and eat it? Wherein cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villainy? Wherein villainous but in all things? Wherein worthy, but in nothing?

THE

1st Henry IV., ii, 4.

HE very labor of preparing this work for the press has increased the perfection of my workmanship, and I ask my critics to consider the following, especially the first sentences. Here is complete symmetry. Every word is the 338th word [505-167 (74:2)=338]. But more than that: every word is the 338th word, minus 31 or 32 (top 79:1); and the 31 and 32 regularly alternate throughout the sentence. minus 31 or 32, but every 306 òr 307 so obtained is modified by counting in the five bracket words found in that fragment of 31 or 32 words at the top of 79:1; and the product 301 or 302 alternates regularly throughout the example. And every word is 505-167=338 -31 or 32, minus the 5 bracket words in 31 or 32, itself, or less 30 or 50, the modifiers on 74:2; and these again are modified by deducting the fragments, 146 (76:2) or 162 (78:1), the nearest fragments of scenes to 77:2 or 78:1, in which most of the words occur.

And not only is every word 505-167-338,

And observe those words, caper--it — about — halloing —and — singing. Caper is 302 minus 30 272 up the column (77:2); about is 302 minus 30=272 down the same column; while it is 301 minus 50 up the column. And 302 down the column is belly, and 301 up the column, counting from the clue-word one (78:1), is halloing, and 301 from the bottom of the column, plus the hyphenated words, is singing! And 302 gives the intervening and. And just as we saw the length of 74:1 determined by the necessity to use the words prepared and under by two different counts, from the beginning and the end of the column, so here the necessity of bringing caper and halloing, and singing, and belly, in their proper places from the two ends of 77:2, by the numbers 301 and 302, determined that that column should contain 610 words, no more and no less. A single additional word would have thrown the count out. If, for instance, the Lord Chief Justice, where he says (284th word, 77:2) fy―fy-fy, had simply said fy once, or even twice, it would have destroyed the Cipher. If the words three man beetle (587th) had not been united into one word, thus, three-man-beetle, or if it had been printed "three-man beetle," the

Cipher would have failed. Or if the Folio had contained the words which were inserted in the Quarto, in Falstaff's speech, some eight lines in length, the count would not have matched. Or if where Falstaff says (289th word, 77:2), "My Lord, I was born with a white head," etc., the Folio had contained the words which are found in the Quarto, "My Lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head," etc., it would have destroyed the Cipher. We can see therefore why these words were inserted in the Quarto by Bacon, to break up the count, in case decipherers got on the track of his secret; and why they were taken out again when he was preparing the Folio for posterity. And we can see also how false is the pretense of the actors, Heminge and Condell, that they had published the Plays from the true original copies, "perfect in their limbs," etc. And it is to be noted that the eight-line passage left out in Falstaff's speech deserves for its intrinsic merits to have been perpetuated in the Folio:

It was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. . . . It were better to be eaten to death with rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.

In fact, these additions in the Quarto, being freed from the clogs and restraints of the Cipher, are usually written with great force and freedom. We see the genius of the author at its best.

The Bishop of Worcester is speaking in the following:

338-31-307-5 ₺ (31)—302—50-252-30-222-146-76 338-32-306-5 b-301-30-271-145—126—4 b & h

338-32-306—5 b (32)=301-30-271-146-125-1 h=124

Here we have again the expression almost naked, growing out of 505-167338, but by different terminal numbers. In the former case it was:

This is the only time naked occurs in this act, and it is found but twice besides in this play. And this is the only time almost occurs in that scene. This is the only occasion when caper appears in this play; and it occurs but eight times besides in all the other Plays! And halloing or hallowing is so rare a word that it is found only thrice besides in all the Plays. And singing is a comparatively rare word; it is found but twelve other times in all the Plays. This is the only time apparel is found in two acts of this play, and it appears but three times in all the play. And this is the only time "raggedest" occurs in all the Plays!

I mention these facts to show how improbable it is that all these words, descriptive of Shakspere's youth, with all the others descriptive of his sickness, etc, should have come together here by accident, and be so placed as to cohere arithmetically.

And then we read (pursuing the same rules, the same roots and the same alternations) that Shakspere was —

And here, the formula changing as we work, we have a description given by Bacon of Shakspere as he grew older. We have the following:

Taught is found but twice in this play; both times in act ii, scene 1, with only two lines between them. We have seen it used already to refer to Susanna's education, and now we see it employed to describe Shakspere. Beastly is comparatively a rare word; it is found but twice in this play, and but twice besides in all the Historical Plays. Desires is found but twice in this play, and but twelve times in all the Histories. Gross occurs but twice in this play.

Observe also that all of these last five words are produced by precisely the same root-number and the same terminal number, 94, while 115 is the same rootnumber put through the same formula, except that 30 is the modifier instead of 50. And then we have, coming out of the same root-numbers (for the difference between 94 and 144 is just 50), the following:

338-31-307-5 b (31)=302-50-252.

252

77:2

A

338-32-306—5 b (32) ---301-30-271-50-221-145

76-3 b (145)-73. 462-73-389+1=390+1 h col.-391 78:2 38-31-307-5 b (31)—302-30-272-50-222.

glutton,

318-32-306-162-144.

462-144-318+1=319. 319

Here again the alternations, 31, 32, etc., are preserved.

78:1 than 78:2 choice.

And here observe an astonishing fact:

the word glutton occurs but twice in all

the thousand pages of the Plays, and both times it is found in this play, and in this act; and both times it is used to describe Shakspere; and both times it grows out of 505 -167338! If the reader will turn back to 76:1 and take the number 338, and count from the first word of scene third, downward and forward, he will find that the 338th word is glutton. Thus:

338-49 (76:1)=289.

Word.

289

Page and
Column.

76:2 glutton.

And here we have it again occurring in 78:2, and again it is the 338th word; and these are the only occasions when the word is found in all the Shakespeare Plays! And if we turn backward with this root-number we stumble again upon the story of Shakspere's fight with the game-keepers and the flight of his companions, for 288 (338-50-288) carried down the preceding column is turned (288, 75:2); and 289 (338-49-289) is their; and 289 up the preceding column is our, and 288 is men; and 288 up the same, plus b & h, is fled; and 289-50-239 down the same column is swifter; and 289 up the same column plus the bracket words is arrows; and 239 down the same column plus the b & his speed. Here, with a touch, as it were, we have the elements of the sentence, Our men turned their backs and fled swifter than the speed of arrows. But if we use the modifier 30, instead of 50, we have 289-30 =259, and 259 down the same column is prisoner; and plus one hyphen word it is ta’en (taken); and plus both b & h it is again fled; and 259 up the same column is Field (“fled the field"); and plus the bracket words it is again prisoner; and plus both b & it is furious! And 258 (288-30-258) down the column is ta'en, and up the column it supplies the then for "swifter than the speed," etc. In short, everywhere we turn with the magical Cipher numbers, marvelous arithmetical adjustments present themselves.

And then we have this description of Shakspere, coming, it will be observed, out of that same 338 minus 31 or 32, counting in the five bracket words in the 31 or 32:

338-31-307-5 b (31)=302--30-272-50-222. 338-32-306—5 b (32)—301-145-156-2 b col.338-31-307--5 b (31)-302-145-157-2 b col. 338-32-306—5 b (32)—301-30-271-4 h col.

222

78:2

With

154

77:2

his

155

77:2

quick

267

77:2

wit

Here we have the same regular alternatives, 31, 32; 31, 32; 31, 32; 31, 32. And it stands to reason that to have carried on the deception as to the authorship of the Plays in such wise as to escape suspicion, Shakspere must have been a man of remarkable shrewdness and some natural ability. And we will find hereafter that he was much like Sir John Falstaff in his characteristics.

But if (when we advance a step farther in the Cipher), instead of using 505— 167-338 as the root-number, we count in the 22 b & h words in that 167, we obtain still more interesting portions of the story. The formula now is 505-167-33822 b &h=316; and to save labor to printers and readers I will use in the following example only that terminal number, 316:

505-167-338-22 b & h=316. 316-32-284-162-122-4b & h col.-118.

118

77:2 Weighing