E

CHAPTER XV.

SHAKSPERE'S ARISTOCRATIC PRETENSIONS.

Autolycus. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born.
Clown. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.
Winter's Tale, v, 3.

VERY Cipher word in this chapter grows out of the root-number 523—218=305; and all but the first four commence from the end of scene 4, act i, or the beginning of act ii, scene 1.

I have given but part of the story in the foregoing chapter. The Bishop goes on to tell Cecil his reasons for thinking that Shakspere, if arrested, will tell who wrote the Plays. He says that Shakspere is no longer in poverty:

And that neither he nor his men will risk the loss of their heads or their goods to shield the real writer of the Plays:

73-3b (146)-70. 577-70-507+1-508+24= 510 77:1

great

he is now wealthy, and that his coffers are full. In that age there were no banks, and a man's money was contained in his coffers. We are told that when the father of Pope retired from business, as a merchant in London, he carried home

with him $100,000 in a chest, and when he needed money he went to his chest and took it out. There was no drawing of checks in that day.

And here I would ask the reader to note the evidences of the Cipher connected with that word coffers. The root-number we are working with is 305 [523-218 (74:2)=305]; now, there is at the top of column 1 of page 79 a fragment of scene 4, act i, containing 31 words; this deducted from 305 leaves 274, and if we count down the next column forward (78:2), that is, if we return into the scene which gave us the 31 words, the 274th word in the column, and the 305th from the end of the scene, is the word his ("should lead his forces hither"). But if we deduct 50-the common modifier of 74:2—from 274, we have 224, and the 224th word is poverty, just given in the preceding sentence; but if we count in the four hyphens in the column, the 224th word is then the 220th word, coffers; and if we deduct 30- the other common modifier of 74:2- from 224, and count down the same column, we have 194. And if we again count in the four hyphenated words, this makes the 194th word the 190th word, are; and if we take 274 again and deduct 30 from that we have 244; and if we again go down the same column and again count in the same four hyphenated words, the 244th word becomes the 240th word, full. Here then we have, in regular order, his coffers are full; thus:

Here every word is the 274th, and is found in the same column, and the last three are produced by counting in the same four hyphenated words.

And the Bishop goes on, by the same root-number, 274, to tell how Shakspere got so much money. And here are some striking evidences of the Cipher. We have the sentence divided in three divisions," referring to the distribution of the money made out of the Plays; ;— one part to the theater, one to the actors and one to the ostensible author, Shakspere, who, in turn, divided with the real author, Bacon. Now, the word divisions is very rare in the Plays; it occurs but twice in this play, and not once besides in all the other nine Histories! Yet here we find it co-related arithmetically with divided and three; and this is the only time divided occurs in this play! And it is found but seven other times in all the Histories.

We saw that 305-31 (79:1)=274-30 (74:2)=244, and that 244, minus the hyphenated words, was full. But if we deduct from 244 the 27 bracketed words in the same column (78:2) we have left 217, and the 217th word in the same column is divided. Now we saw that 305-31-274 carried down the column produced his ("his coffers "); but if we carry it up the same column it gives us as the 189th word that rare word divisions, the only word of the kind, with one exception, in all the ten Historical Plays; and as we saw that counting in the hyphens produced the words coffers are full, so, if we count in the hyphens in that last example, we have as the 274th word up the column, not divisions, but three; divided three divisions;" and if we deduct the common modifier, 198 (74:2), from 274, and go up the next preceding column with the remainder, 76, we have the 393d word, into;— "divided into three divisions." But to make the division of the profits a fair one the shares ought to have been equal; and here we have it: 305-31-274; and if we deduct from 274, 79, the common modifier of 73:1, we have left 195; and if we count in the 31 bracketed and hyphenated words we have the 164th word, equal. But if from 274 we deduct the common modifier of 74:2, 50, we have 224 left, and if

we deduct from 224 the same 79 (73:1) we have 145, and the 145th word down the column is and, but carried into the bracket sentence it is fair. And put together we have this sentence:

305-31-274-198 (74:2)-76. 468-76-392+1=393. 393

305-31-274-197 (74:2)—77—65 (79:1)—12—2 b (64)— 10 305-31-274-198 (74:2-76-64 (79:1)-12. 338

Architects were in that age called surveyors; this is shown in the text where the word is used.

Foundation occurs only eight times in all the Plays, only three times in the Historical Plays, and only this one time in this play. Walls occurs but this time in this play! And here we have these two rare words coming together, one on page 78:2, and the other on page 80, that is to say, in two contiguous scenes, and linked together by the same root-number and the same modification of the same root-number, to-wit: 305—31-274—197 (74:2)=77; and in each case the bracket words are counted in to place the terminal number. And the same remnant, 12, which gives us, carried down 80:1 (minus the brackets in 65), walls, gives us, carried up from the end of the scene, part (“walls part up "); and, modified by deducting the brackets, it

gives us the word now; while the 12th word in the same column is pretty, which alludes to Shakspere's daughter Susanna:

And the Bishop, who had an eye for the beautiful, proceeds to describe Susanna more particularly, and tells that she has —

Which the Bishop regards as foolish in a man in Shakspere's station in life: 305-31-274-30-244-197-47. 339-47-292+1=293

80:1 foolish.

And the Bishop proceeds to tell that Shakspere not only sought to 'bear arms as a gentleman, but that he was trying to have his father, John Shakspere, knighted! This statement will appear astounding, but I have already shown (p. 51, ante, et seq.) that he tried to obtain a coat-of-arms for his father by false representations; and he might have hoped that, through the influence of his friends in London and about the court, he could accomplish the other and greater object; or it may have been but a rumor obtaining among the aristocracy of the neighborhood, who were indignant at the rich plebeian setting up for a gentleman. It was in October, 1596, that the application was made to the College of Arms for a grant of coatarmor to John Shakspere. Halliwell-Phillipps says:

It may be safely inferred from the unprosperous circumstances of the grantee that this attempt to confer gentility on the family was made at the poet's expense. This is the first evidence we have of his rising pecuniary fortunes, and of his determination to advance in social position.'

And Grant White, it seems, shrewdly and correctly guessed that there must have been some protest against the granting of the coat-of-arms and that this caused the delay from 1596, when the first application was made, to 1599, when it was renewed with sundry alterations. And here we are told that Sir Thomas