M

CHAPTER XIX.

BACON OVERWHELMED.

News fitting to the night,

Black, fearful, comfortless and horrible.

King John, v, 6.

Y publishers write me that the book now contains over 900 pages, and that the edition de luxe "looks like a Chicago Directory!" And, therefore, fascinating as the story is to me, I must condense the remainder of it into the smallest possible compass. I regret to leave the history of Shakspere unfinished. I have worked out fragments of it all the way through to the end of 2d Henry IV. It gives in detail his conversations with his father, his dread of being hanged, his flight to London, the poverty of his wife and children, his own wretchedness and distress in the metropolis, his begging on the streets in mid-winter with the tears frozen on his face; his being relieved by Henslow. I will try to give fragments from these narratives, if I have time and space after finishing the story announced in the prospectus of my publishers; if not, the particulars will have to go into some future work.

We turn back to the beginning of scene third (76:1), and we have to use now a Cipher-number different from that 505—167— 338 which has given us so much of the foregoing narrative; but even with so different a number we shall find the text responding with sentences just as significant as those already given. And the reader will note that, although we go over the same ground which gave us the Shakspere story, derived from 338, we flush always an entirely different covey of game, in the shape of Cipher words.

This is the only time o'erwhelmed appears in this play; it is found but four other times in all the Plays! Flood occurs but three times in this play; plainly appears but twice in this play, and but six times besides in all the Histories. Perils is found but twice in this play, and but once besides in all the Histories; and but four times besides in all the Plays! And this is the only time “situation" is found in all the Plays!

505-145-360-3 b (145)—357.

505-146-359—3 b (145)—356.

505-49-456.

505-145-360-305-55-2 h col.-53.

505-20-475-447 (75:1)-28.

505-30-475-161-314--247 (74:2)-67-7 b col.— 60

505-145-360—50—31). 498-310-188+1-189.

505-146-359. 498-359-139+1-140.

76:1 apprehended

Here we have another combination of Shak'st-spur, besides the fourteen given elsewhere; and here we have another mode of counting, besides the ones already given, whereby apprehended is reached. And this is the only time apprehended appears in this play, while Shak'st is found but twice: once here, and once in The Winter's Tale, iv, 3; and while the Concordance gives the word very properly in both instances, as shakest, the Folio gives it in both instances as shak'st; because shak'st

could be combined here with spur, and with the same word spur in The Winter's Tale (iv, 1) to give the sound of Shakespere's name, while shakest could not! Thus we find everywhere evidences of the Cipher.

505-146-359-304 (78:1)=55—20 b & h (304)=35. 35

What contempt for the corpulent "bard of Avon" is expressed in that phrase, "he would be as clay,—or rather tallow,— in the hands of," etc.! This is the only time fox occurs in this play; and this is the only time crafty is found in this play; and this is the only time tallow is found in this play, and it occurs but five other times in all the Plays! And this is the only time clay appears in this play. And this is the only time seas is found in this play. So that in this short sentence there are five words found nowhere else in this play; in other words, this sentence could not be constructed anywhere else in this play; nor would all these words come out at the summons of any other number. And herein we have also still another combination forming the name of Cecil.

See how precisely these words come out by the same root-number. This play of Measure for Measure, and its irreligious tendencies, are alluded to in another part of the Cipher narrative, growing out of 505-167=338. I have stated on page 762, ante, that Cecil gave this play, and the play of Richard II., to the Bishop of Worcester to "anatomize.” And here we have the name of the play again by a different root-number from the above:

338-30-308-50-258-57 (79:1)-201-14

Consider the careful adjustment that was necessary to make these words come out by these two different kinds of counting from the same starting-point! Notice that 197 down 77:2 produces Measure, and 201 down the same column, by the arrangement of brackets and hyphens, produces the same word Measure; and 151 up 75:2 produces Measure, and 145 up the same column produces the same word, Measure. If there had been a single bracket or hyphen more or less in either one of these four countings, the Cipher would have failed to produce, two different times, by two different numbers, the name of the play Measure for Measure!

And the Bishop said,― speaking of this last Measure for Measure and Richard the Second, that he believed there were utterances in both hostile to the Christian religion. I have shown, on pages 208 and 209, ante, what those utterances were. And here we have the name of Richard the Second, growing, like the last Measure for Measure, out of 505-167-338. The Bishop speaks of

338-30-308-49-259-162-97-32-65-58 (S0:1)- 7 338-30-308-49-259-162-97-32-65—58—7+

And the Bishop says, after reading these Plays, that he (I) ——

338-50-288-49-239-162-77-4b & h col. 73.

333--50-288-49-239-162-77-31-46. 163+46—209 338-50-288-50-238-162-76-31-45-2 b col.- 43

338-50-288-49-239-162-77. 32+77—109. 338-50-288-49-239-162-77.

73

109

77