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

by Elizabeth Wells Gallup

By Elizabeth Wells Gallup.

[Mrs. Gallup professes to find in certain of Bacon’s works, the first folio of Shakespeare, and other books of the period, two distinctive founts of italic type employed. All the letters of one fount stand for the letter a in the cipher, those of the other for b. Hence it is possible to translate, as it were, any given line of type into a series of abbba, abaab, baaba, abaaa. and so on, according to the type employed, and thereby, to spell out words and sentences in accordance with the principles laid down by Bacon himself in his account of the so-called “Bi-literal” cypher in his “De Augmentis Scientiarium.” In a further article which she is now preparing Mrs. Gallup will deal with a number of the individual writers who have taken part in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy during the last few weeks, whose criticisms, we learn by cablegram, and only now before her. This preliminary paper will enable our readers to acquaint themselves with the nature of Mrs. Gallup’s laborious investigations.—Ed. P. M. M.].

Pall Mall Magazine, March, 1902.

It is a pleasure to respond to the cabled invitation from the Pall Mall Magazine to write an article upon the “Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy,” although I have really never been concerned with it, except incidentally. I did not find myself a Baconian until the discovery of the Bacon ciphers answered the questions in such a final way that controversy should end.

I think my best plan will be to give a clear, authoritative, and somewhat popular exposition of my book, The Bi-literal Cypher of Sir Francis Bacon, which was recently very kindly and appreciatively reviewed by Mr. Mallock in the Nineteenth Century and After. I had not the pleasure of knowing Mr. Mallock, and his article was wholly a surprise.

In giving to the world the results of my researches, I have felt, as have my publishers, that my work should be left without attempt upon our part to influence or mould opinion in any way other than by setting forth what I have found.

Some one has said, “any man’s opinion is the measure of his knowledge.” If his knowledge is ample his judgment should be true, and I am well aware there has been little opportunity for men of letters or the reading public to know about this new phase of the old subject.

The book itself is much wider in its range, and much more far-reaching in its literary and historical consequences, than the mere settlement of the Bacon-Shakespeare question. It concerns not only the authorship of much of the best literature of the Elizabethan period, but the regularity of successions to the throne of England; and it transfers the “controversy” from the realm of literary opinion and criticism to the determination of the question whether I have correctly and truthfully transcribed a cipher.

That this will at once meet with universal acceptance is not expected. On the face of things it seems improbable—almost as improbable to the world as the revolution of the earth about the sun was to Lord Bacon, who declared it could in nowise be accepted. “Galileo built his theory ... supposing the earth revolved.... But this he devised upon an assumption that cannot be allowed—viz. that the earth moves.” (Nov. Org.)

Two limited editions of the book were published, mostly for private circulation, while my researches were going on, but with little effort to obtain public audience, awaiting the time, now arrived, when I could present the first of the cipher writings from early editions of works in the British Museum.