Concerning the bi-literal cypher of Francis Bacon discovered in his works

by Elizabeth Wells Gallup

FRANCIS BACON’S BI-LITERAL CYPHER.

Surprise has been expressed that I have not more fully replied to the many severe and unjust criticisms of my work—the discovery and publication of the Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon. On account of great distance causing lapse of time, the torrent of communications, which deluged the Times and other papers and magazines in London, had somewhat subsided before my replies to any could be returned to England, but the delay, although by no fault of ours and unavoidable, has not been due to distance alone.

The Times published two short letters with fair promptness. The Literary World gave space to two others, replying to articles appearing in its own columns; and the Daily News, of April 30, contained a part of my answer to Sir Henry Irving. An article in reply to some of the critics, prepared for the Pall Mall Magazine, could not, from prearrangement of space, appear until May—a rather late date. The delay was the more regretted because the article on the general subject, published in the March number of the same magazine, was prepared and sent forward before the criticisms of the latter part of December and January had reached me, and, though following shortly after, was in no way a reply.

In the January number of the Nineteenth Century and After, there appeared two articles of attack upon the Cypher, one by Mr. Candler, and one by Mr. R. B. Marston. Mr. Marston, I understand, is a member of the firm publishing the magazine. His article was a continuation of the unfounded and libelous charges appearing in the Publishers’ Circular and in the Times concerning myself and my work. I replied at length and forwarded the articles to Messrs. Gay & Bird, under date of February 5th, desiring that the denial of these charges should be given equal prominence. Electrotype plates were forwarded for illustration of the technical portions. Plates for fac-simile pages from the two editions of De Augmentis, affording most interesting illustration of the method of the cipher and of the differences between the editions of 1623 and 1624, were also furnished. I am now advised by Messrs. Gay & Bird that the Nineteenth Century, the Contemporary Review, and the Times, have declined to publish any part of these articles.

This must be my apology for now issuing in pamphlet form what was prepared for the public periodicals and should have appeared months ago as part of the discussion of the subject that is of interest to a large number of readers. The reluctance of the press in general, to print anything Baconian is well illustrated in this refusal of my critics to give place to my replies. I do not think it should be considered a waste of space to discuss discoveries that correct history in important particulars. The cipher is a fact, and cannot be ignored. It is neither imagination nor creation of mine. It is a part of the history of England, and effort should be directed to further investigations along the lines it indicates—to search among old MSS., in the museums and libraries and in the archives of the government, for other facts which in the light of the cipher revelations will be better understood than they have been in the past.

Concerning my reply to Mr. Marston’s charges, I am in receipt of the Literary World of May 2nd, which over his name has the following:

“Dear Sir:—I will not waste your space replying at length to Mrs. Gallup, except to ask her where she has replied to my article in The Nineteenth Century for January, and to my letters in The Times?

“In your columns and in the May number of The Pall Mall Magazine Mrs. Gallup says she has elsewhere replied to my request for an explanation of the fact that many passages in what she says is Bacon’s translation of Homer are identical with Pope’s Homer published more than 200 years afterward!...

“In a letter in The Times Mrs. Gallup did suggest that Bacon and Pope had used some edition of Homer unknown to any one else.”...

In the above we note the strange inconsistency of Mr. Marston, for my letter published in the Times did not “suggest” or even refer to any edition of Homer whatever. His reference is to a paragraph in my reply (printed herewith) to his baseless aspersions, and shows conclusively that he had read my refutation, and knew that in the article submitted to his magazine and rejected I had “elsewhere replied” to his request.

In the article next preceding Mr. Marston’s letter, “Reviewer” also states: “Now as to Homer, I have read Mrs. Gallup’s 'answer’ to Mr. Marston,” etc.

This indicates that both Mr. Marston and “Reviewer” had examined my article, and they comment upon specific portions of it before it has been published, while ordinary courtesy should have withheld criticism, at least until the article had appeared in print.

It may not be inopportune to report at this time the results of researches made for me at the British Museum and elsewhere, since Mr. Marston’s malicious charge of “paraphrasing Pope’s translation of the Iliad” was made. Fourteen translations in Latin, French, German, Italian and English, published before 1620, were carefully examined for the reading in the disputed passages. Bacon’s “impatient arrow” is “eager shaft” in Chapman’s translation, and “long distance shots” is rendered “his hitting so far off,” the Greek words conveying the same idea to these two minds. Mr. Marston matched Bacon’s “cold Dodona” against Pope’s “cold Dodona,” but Hobbes has “Dodona cold,” and a modern Greek scholar renders it “chilly Dodona.” He also pairs “rocky Aulis” with the same in Pope, but gives it as the literal translation also; and he places Bacon’s “he leapt to the ground” opposite Pope’s “leaps upon the ground,” while it is more like the line of Hobbes, “he leapt to land.” Another renders this “he leap’d to the land,” and still another, “he leaped upon the earth.”

The examination also developed the fact that Pope’s original MSS., preserved at the Museum, have closer resemblances to Bacon’s Argument of the Iliad than are found in Pope’s published work. This is very significant, and in itself refutes the charge, as I have never seen the MSS., and the first edition of my book containing the Argument of the Iliad was published the year before I went to England to pursue the work at the British Museum.

In Bacon’s Argument we find:

“Peneleus, Leïtus, Prothoënor, joyned with Arcesilaus and bold Clonius, equall in arms and in command, led Bœotia’s hosts.”

This in his fuller poem appears:

“Peneleus, Leïtus, and Prothoënor,

Join’d with Arcesilaus and bold Clonius—

Two equal men in arms and in command—

Led forth Bœotia’s hosts.”

Pope’s MS. at the British Museum reads:

“The hardy warriors whom Bœotia bred

Bold Clonius Leïtus and Peneleus led.”

But these were afterward emended to suit his verse, and the printed lines are:

“The hardy warriors whom Bœotia bred,

Penelius, Leïtus, Prothoënor led:

With these Arcesilaus and Clonius stand

Equal in arms and equal in command.”

By these comparisons we see that, in the printed poem, Clonius has lost his boldness and Peneleus has changed the spelling of his name.

Again in the original MS. we find:

“When first I led my troops to Phaea’s wall

And heard fair Jardan’s silver waters fall.”

But in Pope’s printed poem it reads:

“When fierce in war, where Jardan’s waters fall,

I led my troops to Phea’s trembling wall.”

In this place Bacon omits all mention of the Jardan, but in the catalogue of the ships he says, “Phæstus, by the silver Jardan.” Chapman gives the name of the river, Jardanus, another translator speaks of the Jardan, but Mr. Marston, I notice, writes the word Iardus.

In his MS. Pope had “hilly Eteon”; Bacon wrote “hillie Eteon”; but Pope’s printed work has “Eteon’s hills.”

It is conceded that Pope followed Ogilby very closely. There may be some interesting developments in the history of the latter. We know that he was much employed about Gray’s Inn, and that he was afterward taught Greek and Latin by the Oxford students to enable him to translate Homer and Virgil. One thing needs no demonstration, that there was nothing in Bacon’s Homer that made it necessary to keep it concealed before or after it was put in cipher. Upon that point he says that cipher writing became so much a habit, and pastime, that he embodied many things in it not necessarily secret. I quote:

“And yet I have also emploied my cyphers for other then secret matters in many of my later bookes, because it hath now become so much an act of habite, I am at a losse at this present having less dificile labour, now, then in former times in Her Ma.’s service.”—Bi-literal Cypher, p. 66.

In the matter of criticism and expression of individual opinion, we might quote from Bacon’s Essay of Custom and Education: “Men’s thoughts are much according to their inclination; their discourse and speeches according to their learning and infused opinions, but their deeds are after as they have been accustomed.”

Elizabeth Wells Gallup.

Detroit, Mich., May 15, 1902.