338-144 (317 d 79:1)=194—58 (80:1)=136–3 h col.- 133 338-32-306-30-276-50-226-27 h col.-199. 199

338-144-194.

338-144-194-57-137-14 b & h col.=123. 338-57 (79:1)=281.

The story of the war is told with great detail.

We read of the French that

333-145 (317 to 462)-193-5 h (145)-188-50-138. 138

338-200 (218 to 518, 79:1)=138. 338-138-200+1=201

And then we are told of the ravages of the dreadful disorder. 338-57 (79:1)-281. 396-281-115+1-116+3 h col.=119 80:1

It

338-31-307-50-257-57 (80:1)=200—14 b & h col.=186

338-56-281. 598-281—317+1—318+10b & h col.-328

The reader will observe that the same root-number produces very significant words. For instance, 338 minus 284 (284 is the number of words in the first subdivision of 79:1 above the terminal word 317) leaves a remainder of 54; but in the 284 there are three words in brackets and two hyphenated words; these give us 54, 52, 51 and 49 (54—2 h—52; 54—3 b—51; 54—5 b & h=49). And if we turn to the text we find that the 51st word (79:1) is incurable; and the 49th is disease; while the 51st word up from the end of scene third (79:1) is—; the 54th is gout, and the 49th up is the. But if we deduct 284 from 288 (338-50=288) instead of 338, then, instead of a remainder of 54, we have a remainder of 4, and 4 down 79:1 is again

; while up from the beginning of scene fourth inclusive it is diseases, and down it is heard.

And observe, also, that 338 minus 31, the top section of 79:1, equals 307, and 307 down 78:1 is step, and plus the brackets it is feeble, and plus both brackets and hyphens it is thought. And 307 produces big — fist — upon — side-throat — French. But before we get to this it tells another story: 307, 78:2, is publish; and 307, 79:2, is book. But this I will show hereafter.

This is the only time fifteen appears in this play; and this is the only time Holland occurs in this play, and it is found but twice in all the Plays. And note how ingeniously Low-Countries, the then name of the Netherlands, is worked in! This is the only time countries appears in this play; and it is found but six other times in

all the Plays! Yet here it is cohering with Low-Holland — French-— war— foot — soldiers - entered — Gan-gate — fight — fifteen hundred and fifteen — reign — King Harry, and all the other words appearing in these sentences. Queen is concealed in Quean, which occurs but three times in all the Plays! And emptiness appears also but three times in all the Plays!! And weariness occurs but three times in all the Plays!!!

If there is not a Cipher here, what miracle was it brought all these extraordinary words together just where they were needed?

After reading these sentences in the Cipher, I turned to the history of the period and found that Henry VIII., father of Queen Elizabeth, led a large army into France in 1513, and captured Therouanne and Tournay, (the latter town is in "the Low Countries,") and beat the French at the Battle of the Spurs, at Guinegate; "made peace in 1514," and "returned home with most of his forces." What time the troops got back I have not been able to determine; but Bacon, writing eighty-three years afterwards, may or may not have correctly stated the time as 1515; it may have been 1514. The reality of the Cipher, however, is demonstrated in the fact that I did not know that Henry VIII. ever invaded France, and captured a town called Guinegate, until I found this statement brought out by the number 338 radiating from column 1 of page 79, and applied to the pages and fragments of pages of the text, as set forth above. The Cipher statement is valuable for another reason: that it helps to settle the mooted question among scientists whether that "dreaded disease" did or did not exist in Europe prior to the discovery of America. There has been considerable discussion upon this point, but the better opinion, among physicians, seems to be that it was imported into Spain from the West Indies by the sailors of Columbus; from there it spread into France and the Netherlands; and in 1515, according to the Cipher story, given above, it was brought into England by the returning foot-soldiers of King Henry. And the fact that Bacon could stop in the midst of his Cipher narrative to give these details as to a shameful but most destructive disorder, is characteristic of the man who, in his prose history of Henry VII., paused to describe the great plague which decimated London in that reign; and even gave for the benefit of posterity the accepted mode of treatment, so that, should it return, the people might have the benefit of a knowledge of the remedies found useful in the past. And even here Bacon goes on to tell the mode of treatment for the shameful disease in question, the principal of which, it seems, was the sweating it out of the system. We have Falstaff saying, near the end of 77:2: "For if I take but two shirts out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily."

338-57 (lower section 79:1)-281-162 (78:1)=119.

610-119-491+1-492.

492

77:2 sweat.

But I have not the time or the space to work out the narrative.

I will conclude this chapter by calling the attention of the reader to the wonderful manner in which the words descriptive of Shaks pere's disease are so arranged as to be used in two narratives by two different numbers, very much like the double cipher which Bacon gives in the De Augmentis, where one cipher phrase is inclosed inside of another, and both hidden in a harmless-looking sentence.

And let the reader examine the fac-simile pages, given herewith, and he will see that this task was only accomplished by the most extraordinary manipulation of the text. Turn to page 78. Observe these unnecessary bracketings and hyphenations in the first column:

And first (Lord Marshall) what say you to it?

And again:

But gladly would be better satisfied,
How (in our means) we should advance ourselves.

Then again we have:

The question then (Lord Hastings) standeth thus.

And in the same column Hastings says to Lord Bardolfe:

'Tis very true Lord Bardolfe, for indeed, etc.

Here there is a comma after Bardolfe. Why was not Lord Bardolfe embraced in brackets as well as Lord Hastings? They are only eleven lines apart.

Then note this line:

May hold-up-head without Northumberland.

Why were these three words compounded into one, like three-man-beetle in_the preceding column?

So.

Then look at these lines:

And so with great imagination

(Proper to mad men) led his Powers to death,
And (winking) leaped into destruction

But (by your leave) it never yet did hurt, etc.

No compositor would print these words in this fashion unless instructed to do Compare this column with pages 70, 71 and 72 of 1st Henry IV.

But here is the crowning wonder of all this extraordinary bracketing: it is near the top of 78:2:

Or at least desist

To build at all? Much more in this great worke,
(Which is (almost) to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up) must we survey, etc.

Here we have a totally unnecessary bracket sentence of eleven words, and in the heart of it another bracket word! A bracket in a bracket! Was anything ever seen like it in all the wonders of typography?

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 or 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) ƒy—fy—ƒy, 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