Bacon is Shakespeare.
Proved mechanically in a short chapter on the long word
Honorificabilitudinitatibus.
The long word found in "Loves Labour's lost" was not created by the
author of Shakespeare's plays. Mr. Paget Toynbee, writing in the
_Athenoeum_ (London weekly) of December 2nd 1899, tells us the history
of this long word.
It is believed to have first appeared in the Latin Dictionary by
Uguccione, called "Magnae Derivationes," which was written before the
invention of printing, in the latter half of the twelfth century and
seems never to have been printed. Excerpts from it were, however,
included in the "Catholicon" of Giovanni da Geneva, which was printed
among the earliest of printed books (that is, it falls into the class of
books known as "incunabula," so called because they belong to the
"cradle of printing," the fifteenth century).
In this "Catholicon," which, though undated, was printed before A.D.
1500, we read
"Ab _honorifico, hic_ et _hec honorificabilis,--le_ et
--hec honororificabilitas,--tis_ et _hec
honorificabilitudinitas_, et est longissima dictio,
que illo versu continetur--
Fulget Honorificabilitudinitatibus iste."
It is perhaps not without interest to call the reader's attention to the
fact that "Fulget hon|orifi |cabili|tudini|tatibus|iste" forms a neat
Latin hexameter. It will be found that the revelation derived from the
long word Honorificabilitudinitatibus is itself also in the form of a
Latin hexameter.
The long word Honorificabilitudinitatibus occurs in the Quarto edition
of "Loues Labor's Lost," which is stated to be "Newly corrected and
augmented by W. Shakespere." Imprinted in London by W.W. for Cutbert
Burby. 1598.
This is the very first play that bore the name W. Shakespere, but so
soon as he had attached the name W. Shakespere to that play, the great
author Francis Bacon caused to be issued almost immediately a book
attributed to Francis Meres which is called "Palladis Tamia, Wits
Treasury" and is stated to be Printed by P. Short for Cuthbert Burbie,
1598. This is the same publisher as the publisher of the Quarto of
"Loues Labor's lost" although both the Christian name and the surname
are differently spelled.
This little book "Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury" tells us on page 281,
"As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for comedy and tragedy
among the Latines, so Shakespeare among ye English, is the most
excellent in both kinds for the stage; for Comedy, witness his Gentlemen
of Verona, his Errors, his Love Labors lost, his Love Labours wonne, his
Midsummers night dreame, and his Merchant of Venice: for Tragedy, his
Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King John, Titus Andronicus,
and his Romeo and Juliet."
Here we are distinctly told that eleven other plays are also
Shakespeare's work although only Loues Labors lost at that time
bore his name.
We refer on page 138 to the reason why it had become absolutely
necessary for the Author to affix a false name to all these twelve
plays. For our present purpose it is sufficient to point out that on the
very first occasion when the name W. Shakespere was attached to any
play, viz., to the play called "Loues Labor's lost," the Author took
pains to insert a revelation that would enable him to claim his own when
the proper time should arrive. Accordingly he prepared the page which is
found F 4 (the little book is not paged) in the Quarto of "Loues Labor's
lost" which was published in 1598. A photo-facsimile of the page is
shewn, Page 105, Plate 22.
So far as is known there never was any other edition printed until the
play appeared in the Folio of 1623 under the name of "Loues Labour's
lost," and we put before the reader a reduced facsimile of the whole
page 136 of the 1623 Folio, on which the long word occurs, Page 86,
Plate 20, and we give also an exact full size photo reproduction of a
portion of the first column of that page. Page 87, Plate 21.
On comparing the page of the Quarto with that of the Folio, it will be
seen that the Folio page commences with the same word as does the Quarto
and that each and every word, and each and every italic in the Folio is
exactly reproduced from the Quarto excepting that Alms-basket in the
Folio is printed with a hyphen to make it into two words. A hyphen is
also inserted in the long word as it extends over one line to the next.
The only other change is that the lines are a little differently
arranged. These slight differences are by no means accidental, because
Alms-basket is hyphened to count as two words and thereby cause the long
word to be the 151st word. This is exceedingly important and it was only
by a misprint in the Quarto that it incorrectly appears there as the
150th word. By the rearrangement of the lines, the long word appears on
the 27th line, and the line, "What is A.B. speld backward with the horn
on his head" appears as it should do on the 33rd line. At the time the
Quarto was issued, when the trouble was to get Shakespere's name
attached to the plays, these slight printer's errors in the Quarto--for
they are printer's errors--were of small consequence, but when the play
was reprinted in the Folio of 1623 all these little blemishes were most
carefully corrected.
The long word Honorificabilitudinitatibus is found in "Loues Labour's
lost" not far from the commencement of the Fifth Act, which is called
Actus Quartus in the 1623 folio, and on Page 87, Plate 21, is given a
full size photo facsimile from the folio, of that portion of page 136,
in which the word occurs in the 27th line.
On lines 14, 15 occurs the phrase, "Bome boon for boon prescian, a
little scratcht, 'twil serve." I do not know that hitherto any rational
explanation has been given of the reason why this reference to the
pedantic grammarian "Priscian" is there inserted.
The mention of Priscian's name can have no possible reference to
anything apparent in the text, but it refers solely and entirely to the
phrase which is to be formed by the transposition of the twenty-seven
letters contained in the long word Honorificabilitudinitatibus; and it
was absolutely impossible that the citation of Priscian could ever have
been understood before the sentence containing the information which is
of the most important description had been "revealed." We say "revealed"
because the riddle could never have been "guessed."
The "revealed" and "all revealing" sentence forms a correct Latin
hexameter, and we will proceed to prove that it is without possibility
of doubt or question the real solution which the "Author" intended to be
known at some future time, when he placed the long word
Honorificabilitudinitatibus, which is composed of twenty-seven letters,
on the twenty-seventh line of page 136, where it appears as the 151st
word printed in ordinary type.
The all-important statement which reveals the authorship of the plays in
the most clear and direct manner (every one of the twenty-seven letters
composing the long word being employed and no others) is in the form of
a correct Latin hexameter, which reads as follows--
HI LUDI F. BACONIS NATI TUITI ORBI
These plays F. Bacon's offspring are preserved for the
world.
This verse will scan as a spondaic hexameter as under
HI LU |DI F | BACO | NIS NA | TI TUI | TI ORBI
HI One long syllable meaning "these."
LUDI Two long syllables meaning "stage plays,"
and especially "stage plays"
in contradistinction to "Circus games."
(Suetonius Hist:
Julius Caes: 10. Venationes autem Ludosque
et cum collega et separatim edidit).
F, One long syllable. Now for the first time
can the world be informed why the sneer
"Bome boon for boon prescian, a little
scratcht, 'twil serve" was inserted on lines
14, 15, page 136 of the folio of 1623. Priscian
declares that F was a mute and Bacon mocks
him for so doing. Ausonius while giving the
pronunciation of most letters of the alphabet
does not afford us any information respecting
the sound of F, but Quintilian xii. 10, s. 29,
describes the pronunciation of the Roman F.
Some scholars understand him as indicating
that the Roman F had rather a rougher sound
than the English F. Others agree with Dr.
H.J. Roby, and are of opinion that Quintilian
means that the Roman F was "blown out
between the intervals of the teeth with no
sound of voice." (See Roby's Grammar of
the Latin language, 1881, xxxvi.) But Dr. A.
Bos in his "Petit Traite de prononciation
Latine," 1897, asserts that the old Latin manner
of pronouncing F was effe. Even if Dr.
A. Bos is correct it is not at all likely that effe
was a dissyllable, but most probably it would
be sounded very nearly like the Greek "[Greek: phi],"
that is as "pfe." In any case (even if it
were a dissyllable) F would, with the DI
of LUDI, form two long syllables and scan
as a spondee. The use of single consonants
to form long or short syllables was very
common among the Romans, but such appear
mostly in lines impossible to quote.
But the Great Author was well acquainted
with such instances, and in this same page 136,
in lines 6, 7, 8, he gives an example, shewing
that the letter "B," although silent in debt,
becomes, when debt is spelled, one of the four
full words--d e b t, each of which has to be
counted to make up the number "151."[6]
This, which is an example of the great value
and importance of what, in many of the plays,
appears to be merely "silly talk" affords a
strong additional evidence of the correctness
of the "revealed" and "revealing" sentence
which we shew was intended by the author to
be constructed out of the long word. Bacon
therefore was amply justified in making use
of F as a long syllable to form the second
half of a spondee.
BACONIS Three long syllables, the final syllable
being long by position. Pedantic grammarians
might argue that natus being a
participle ought not to govern a genitive
case, but should be followed by a preposition
with the ablative case, and that we
ought to say "e Bacone nati" or "de
Bacone nati." Other pedants have declared
that natus is properly, i.e., classically, said
of the mother only, although in low Latin,
such as the Vulgate, we find 1 John v. 2,
"Natos Dei," "born of God." But the
Author of the plays, who instead of having
"small Latin and less Greek" knew "_All_
Latin and very much Greek," was well aware
that Vergil, Aeneid i. 654 (or 658 when the
four additional lines are inserted at the
beginning) gives us "Maxima natarum
Priami," "greatest of the daughters of
Priam," and in Aeneid ii. 527 "Unus natorum
Priami," "one of the sons of Priam." There
exists therefore the highest classical authority
for the use of "Nati" in the sense of "Sons"
or "offspring" governing a genitive case.
"F. Baconis nati," "Francis Bacon's offspring,"
is therefore absolutely and classically
correct.
NATI Two long syllables. A noun substantive
meaning as shewn above "sons" or "offspring."
TUITI Two short syllables and one long syllable,
which last is elided and disappears before the
"o" of orbi. Tuiti which is the same word
as tuti is a passive past participle meaning
saved or preserved. It is derived from
tueor, which is generally used as a deponent
or reflexive verb, but tueor is used by Varro
and the legal writers as a passive verb.
ORBI Two long syllables. The word orbi may
be either the plural nominative of orbus
meaning "deprived" "orphaned," or it may
be the dative singular of Orbis meaning "for
the world." Both translations make good
sense because the plays are "preserved for
the world" and are "preserved orphaned."
The present writer prefers the translation
"for the world," indeed he thinks that to
most classical scholars "tuiti orbi," "preserved
discarded," looks almost like a contradiction
in terms.
Note on Honorficabilitudinitatibus
BACONIS.--On page 131 is shewn a photogravure of the title page of
Bacon's "De Augmentis," 1645, which is in fact a pictorial
representation of an anagram "Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi." On
this title page we find "Baconis" used as the genitive of Bacon's name
in Latin. Baconis is also found in XIII th century manuscript copies of
Roger Bacon's works, where the title reads "Opus minus Fratris Rogeri
Baconis," and in 1603 there was published in 12° at Frankfurt "Rogeri
Baconis ... De Arte Chymiae."
TUITI.--Pedanticgrammarians such as Priscian whom the author mocks at
in the line "Bome boom for boon precian, a little scratcht, 'twil
serve," falsely tel us that there is a passive verb "tueor" with a past
participle "tutus." As a matter of fact it is the same verb "tueor" that
is used both as a passive and as a deponent, and "tutus" or "tuitus" may
be used indifferently at the pleasure of the writer. Sallust uses
"tutus," not "tuitus," as the past participle of the deponent verb.
Opposite to the next page is shewn a type transcript of the cover or
outside page of a collection of manuscripts in the possession of the
Duke of Northumberland, which were discovered in 1867 at Northumberland
House. Three years later, viz., in 1870, James Spedding published a thin
little volume entituled "A Conference of Pleasure," in which he gave a
full size Facsimile of the original of the outside page which is here
shewn in _reduced type_ facsimile. He also gave a few particulars of the
MSS. themselves.
In 1904 Mr. Frank J. Burgoyne brought out a Collotype Facsimile of every
page that now remains of the collection of MSS. in an edition limited to
250 copies I a fine Royal Quarto at the price of £4 4s. 0d. O f the MSS.
mentioned on the cover nine now remain, and of these, six are certainly
by Francis Bacon; the first being written by him for a masque or
"fanciful devise" which Mr. Spedding thinks was presented at the Court of
Elizabeth in 1592.
The list of contents was written upon this outside page about 1597, and
among those original contents which are now missing were Richard II. and
Richard III. Mr. Spedding was satisfied that these were the so-called
Skakespearean plays. There are also the tiles of various other works to
which it is not now necessary to allude, but the reader's attention
should be especially directed to the (so-called) scribblings. Mr.
Spedding says: "I find nothing either in these later scribblings or in
what remains of the book itself to indicate a date later than the reign
of Elizabeth." The "scribblings" are therefore written by a contemporary
hand. For the purpose of reference I have placed the letters
_a, b, c, d, e_, outside of the facsimile.
(_a_) "honorificabilitudine." This curious long word when taken in
conjunction with the words "your William Shakespeare." which are also
found upon this page, appears to have some reference to the same curious
long word which is found in the ablative plural in "Loves Labour's
lost," which appeared I 1597, and was the play to which Shakespeare's
name was for the first time attached, and, as I shew, in Chapter X., p.
84, it was placed there in order to give with absolute certainty a key
to the real authorship.
(_b_) "By Mr ffrauncis William Shakespeare Baco"--with ffrauncis
written upside down over it and your/yourself written upside down
at the commencement of the line. Baco would require Baconis as
its genitive.
(_c_) "revealing day through every crany peepes." We think that this
is an accurate statement of the revelations here afforded.
[Illustration: Modern Script Facsimile of MS Folio 1 _Reduced to about
one-third the size of the original_]
(_d_) your
"William Shakespeare." Almost directly above this
your
appears also William Shakespeare.
[Illustration: Full-Size Facsimile of Written Ornament on Outside Page
of Northumberland MSS.]
[Illustration: Full-Size Facsimile of Written Ornament in "Les Tenure de
Monsieur Littleton." Annotate by Francic Bacon.]
(_e_) The three curious scrolles at the top right-hand corner are very
similar to the scrolls which are found upon the title page of a law
book entitled, "Les Tenures de Monsieur Littleton," printed in 1591, in
the possession of the writer, which is throughout noted in what the
authorities at the British Museum say is undoubtedly the handwriting of
Francis Bacon.
As I have pointed out upon page 114 and upon various other pages in
my book "upside down" printing is a device continually employed by
the authors of certain books in order to afford revelations
concerning Bacon and Shakespeare. As a whole this curious scribbled
page affords remarkable evidence that William Shakespeare is
"yourself" Francis Bacon.
Now and now only can a reasonable explanation be given for the first
time of the purpose of the reference to Priscian, in lines 14 and 15,
Plate 21, Page 87. And it is a singular circumstance that so far as the
writer is aware not one of the critics has perceived that the mockery of
Priscian forms a neat English iambic hexameter, indeed, in almost all
modern editions of the Shakespeare plays, both the form and the meaning
of the line have been utterly destroyed. In the original the line reads
"Bome boon for boon prescian, a little scracht, 'twil serve."
Perhaps the reader will be enabled better to understand the sneer and
the mockery by reading the following couplet--
A fig for old Priscián, a little scrátcht, 'twil serve
A poet súrely need not áll his rúles observe.
And we still more perfectly understand the purpose of the hexameter form
of the reference to Priscian if we scan the line side by side with the
"revealed" interpretation of the long word honorificabilitudinitatibus.
Bome boon | for boon | prescian | a lit | tle scratcht | 'twil serve
HI LU | DI F | BACO | NIS NA | TI TUI | TI ORBI
These plays F Bacon's offspring are preserved for the world.
This explanation of the real meaning to be derived from the long word
honorificabilitudinitatibus seems to be so convincing as scarcely to
require further proof. But the Author of the plays intended when the
time had fully come for him to claim his own that there should not be
any possibility of cavil or doubt. He therefore so arranged the plays
and the acts of the plays in the folio of 1623 that the long word should
appear upon the 136th page, be the 151st word thereon, should fall on
the 27th line and that the interpretation should indicate the numbers
136 and 151, thus forming a mechanical proof so positive that it can
neither be misconstrued nor explained away, a mechanical proof that
provides an evidence which absolutely compels belief.
The writer desires especially to bring home to the reader the manifest
fact that the revealed and revealing sentence must have been constructed
before the play of "Loues Labor's lost" first appeared in 1598, and that
when the plays were printed in their present form in the 1623 folio the
scenes and the acts of the preceding plays and the printing of the
columns in all those plays as well as in the play of "Loues Labour's
lost" required to be arranged with extraordinary skill in order that the
revealing page in the 1623 folio should commence with the first word of
the revealing page in the original quarto of 1598, and that that page
should form the 136th page of the folio, so that the long word
"Honorificabilitudinitatibus" should appear on page 136, be the 151st
word, and fall upon the 27th line.
Bacon tells us that there are 24 letters in the alphabet (_i_ and _j_
being deemed to be forms of the same letter, as are also _u_ and _v_).
Bacon was himself accustomed frequently to use the letters of the
alphabet as numerals (the Greeks similarly used letters for numerals).
Thus A is 1, B is 2 ... Y is 23, Z is 24. Let us take as an example
Bacon's own name--B=2, a=1, c=3, O=14, n=i3; all these added together
make the number 33, a number about which it is possible to say a good
deal.[7] We now put the numerical value to each of the letters that
form the long word, and we shall find that their total amounts to the
number 287, thus:
H O N O R I F I C A B I L I T U
8 14 13 14 17 9 6 9 3 1 2 9 11 9 19 20
D I N I T A T I B U S
4 9 13 9 19 1 19 9 2 20 18 = 287
From a word containing so large a number of letters as twenty-seven it
is evident that we can construct very numerous words and phrases; but I
think it "surpasses the wit of man" to construct any "sentence" other
than the "revealed sentence," which by its construction shall reveal not
only the number of the page on which it appears--which is 136--but shall
also reveal the fact that the long word shall be the 151st word printed
in ordinary type counting from the first word.
On one side of the facsimile reproduction of part of page 136 of the
1623 folio, numbers are placed shewing that the long word is on the 27th
line, which was a skilfully purposed arrangement, because there are 27
letters in the word. There is also another set of numbers at the other
side of the facsimile page which shews that, counting from the first
word, the long word is the 151st word. How is it possible that the
revealing sentence, "Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi," can tell us
that the page is 136 and the position of the long word is the 151st
word? The answer is simple. The numerical value of the initial letters
and of the terminal letters of the revealed sentence, when added
together, give us 136, the number of the page, while the numerical value
of all the other letters amount to the number 151, which is the number
of words necessary to find the position of the long word
"Honorificabilitudinitatibus," which is the 151st word on page 136,
counting those printed in ordinary type, the italic words being of
course omitted.
The solution is as follows
HI
LUDI
F
BACONIS
NATI
TUITI
ORBI
the initial letters of which are
H L F B N T O
their numerical values being
8 11 6 2 13 19 14 = total 73
and the terminal letters are
I I S I I I
their numerical values being
9 9 18 9 9 9 = total 63
__
Adding this 63 to 73 we get 136
while the intermediate letters are
U D A C O N I A T U I T R B
their numerical values being
20 4 1 3 14 13 9 1 19 20 9 19 17 2 = 151
___
Total 287
The reader thus sees that it is a fact that in the "revealed" sentence
the sum of the numerical values of the initial letters, when added to
the sum of the numerical values of the terminal letters, do, with
mathematical certainty produce 136, the number of the page in the first
folio, which is 136, and that the sum of the numerical values of the
intermediate letters amounts to 151, which gives the position of the
long word on that page, which is the 151st word in ordinary type. These
two sums of 136 and 151, when added together, give 287, which is the sum
of the numerical value of all the letters of the long word
"Honorificabilitudinitatibus," which, as we saw on page 99, amounted to
the same total, 287.
As a further evidence of the marvellous manner in which the Author had
arranged the whole plan, the long word of 27 letters is placed on the
27th line. Can anyone be found who will pretend to produce from the 27
letters which form the word "Honorificabilitudinitatibus" another
sentence which shall also tell the number of the page, 136, and that the
position of the long word on the page is the 151st word?
I repeat that to do this "surpasses the wit of man," and that
therefore the true solution of the meaning of the long word
"Honorificabilitudinitatibus," about which so much nonsense has been
written, is without possibility of doubt or question to be found by
arranging the letters to form the Latin hexameter.
HI LUDI F. BACONIS NATI TUITI ORBI
These plays F. Bacon's offspring are preserved
for the world.
It is not possible to afford a clearer mechanical proof that
THE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS ARE
BACON'S OFFSPRING.
It is not possible to make a clearer and more definite statement that
BACON IS THE AUTHOR OF THE
PLAYS.
It is not possible that any doubt can any longer be entertained
respecting the manifest fact that
BACON IS SHAKESPEARE.