found in the second column of page 74 and the first column of page 75. For instance, in the first column of page 75 we have the conversation between Percy and Umfreville, and a description of how Percy "struck the rowell of his spur against the panting sides of his horse and rode ahead to St. Albans to tell the news. And in the second column of page 74 we have the directions from Bacon to the servant "who keeps the gate" to take Umfreville into the orchard, where Bacon followed him and had a secret conversation with him, in which he tells him all the news which is related in the following chapters. To work out all this fully would take more space and time than I can afford; but if the reader will employ the root-numbers I have given above, and modify them as I have shown in the above examples, he will be able to elaborate this part of the Cipher story for himself. ་་ I am aware that Collier' claims that the Fortune play-house was built originally in 1599-1600, by Phillip Henslow and Edward Allen, while I suppose the narrative to refer to 1597; but this, in all probability, was a re-building or enlargement; for Maitland called the Fortune 'the oldest theater in London," and Sir John Chamberlain spoke of it as "the first play-house in this town." It would be very natural on such re-building or enlargement to use the old name, which already had a trade value; and we know that the Fortune play-house was burned down in 1621 and re-erected with the same name; and if this was done in 1621, it may also have been done in 1599-1600. 1 English Dramatic Poetry, vol. iii, p. 114. CHAPTER V. CECIL TELLS THE STORY OF MARLOWE. Let them tell thee tales Of woeful ages long ago betid. Richard II., v, 1. U MFREVILLE tells Bacon what Cecil told the Queen. Cecil is trying to show that Shakspere did not write the Plays, and incidentally he tells the story of Marlowe. The words more-low doubtless give the broad pronunciation which attached to the name Marlowe in that age; and for the better hiding of the Cipher it was necessary to use words having the same sound, but a different spelling. The facts stated in the Cipher narrative accord substantially with what we know of the biography of Marlowe. The dagger of Francis Archer averted one trouble which was hanging ominously over his victim's head. A very few days before the poet's death a "note" of his "damnable opinions and judgment of religion and God's work had been laid before Elizabeth's council, with a view to the institution of proceedings against him." "" 1 And, singularly enough, when we turn to the original paper now in the British Museum (MS. Harl. 6853, folio 320), in which the informer, Richard Bame, made those charges against Marlowe, after giving many of the poet's irreligious and anti-Christian utterances, the document concludes with the following: He sayeth, moreover, that he hath coated [quoted] a number of contrarieties out of the Scriptures, which he hath geeven to some great men, who in convenient tyme shal be named. When these things shall be called in question, the witnesses shall be produced.2 It would almost seem as if there was a knot of young men, among whom was Bacon, of an irreligious turn of mind; and The Works of Marlowe, Chatto & Windus, p. 20. 2 Ibid., note B, page 370. Marlowe had inconsiderately repeated in public some of the current expressions which he had heard among them; and the “contrarieties out of the Scriptures" might have been the very Characters of a Believing Christian in Paradoxes, which Bacon may have read over to his Bohemian associates. And we can here see that whoever had this "note" of the informer's statements laid before the council, knew that there were "some great men" connected, in some way, with Marlowe, whom it was probably desirous to get at. And all this strikingly confirms the Cipher story. And here I would note that heretofore the Cipher has advanced from one column to the next; but as we now reach the beginning of the second scene, it not only flows forward to the next column, but it moves backward and forward from the end of the same scene second, and also from the beginning and end of the preceding scene, called the Induction. And it will be observed that, having in this way more points of departure, the root-numbers do not alternate as in the simpler instances already given, but a great deal more of the story flows out of one number. And I would further note that heretofore the outside play bore some resemblance to the internal story, because the Cipher words were all packed in a small compass; but here we come to a part of the work where the Cipher narrative, being more widely scattered, has no resemblance to the tale told in the play; and yet out of the same root-numbers is eliminated a narrative as coherent and rhetorical as that already given. It will be observed that the following sentence alternates regularly between 523 and 505, and that in each instance the startingpoint is from the top of the third subdivision of column 2 of page 74. From and including the word my, at the beginning of the sentence, "My Lord, I over-rode him on the way," to the top of the column, there are 219 words. And the reader will perceive that each word starts from this point, so that we have, in this long sentence of twenty words, 523 alternated with 505, in each case 219 being deducted; and each word is either the 304th word or the 286th word. But in the space comprising those 219 words there are twenty-one bracket words. These constitute the "21 b" which, the reader will see, are deducted from both 304 and 286. The 15 b & h refers, as shown previously, to the 15 bracketed and hyphenated words comprised in the upper or lower subdivisions of column 1 of page 75, the count moving through these to reach the next column. 523-219-304-254-50. 248-50-198+1-199+1 b-200 505-219-286-50-236. 248-236-12+1-13+ 24b &h=37. 37 74:2 plays 523-219-304-218-86. 447-86-361+1=362+3b=365 This sentence is perfectly symmetrical. Observe the arrangement of the lines: (1) 523-505-523-505-523-505-523-505-523-505; (2) 219–219-219-219(3) 304-286-304-286-304-286—304—286— 219-219-219-219-219-219; Here the Cipher numbers change from 523 and 505 to 516 and 513. |