| The Shepheards’ Calender | 1579 |
| Araygnement of Paris | 1584 |
| Mirrour of Modestie | 1584 |
| Planetomachia | 1585 |
| A Treatise of Melancholy | 1586 |
| A Treatise of Mel. (2nd. Ed.) | 1586 |
| Euphues | 1587 |
| Morando | 1587 |
| Perimedes | 1588 |
| Spanish Masquerado | 1589 |
| Pandosto | 1588 |
| Spanish Masq. (2nd Ed.) | 1589 |
In the library of Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence I was able to decipher, from the Treatise of Melancholy, some pages that were missing from the copy at the British Museum.
I wish here to express my deep obligation to the management of the British Museum, and to those numerous friends I was so fortunate as to make while in London, for their uniform kindness to me—a stranger among them—and for the facilities which they, to the extent of their power, never failed to afford me in my work.
Every Italic letter in all the books named has been examined, studied, classified, and set down “in groups of five” and the results transcribed. Each book deciphered has its own peculiarities and forms of type, and must be made a separate study.
The 1623 Folio has the largest variety of letters and irregularities; but the most difficult work was Bacon’s History of Henry the Seventh, the mysteries of which it took me the greater part of three months of almost constant study to master. The reason came to light as the work progressed, and will appear from the reading of the first page of the deciphered matter, with its explanations of “sudden shifts” to puzzle would-be decipherers.
In the deciphering of the different works mentioned, surprise followed surprise as the hidden messages were disclosed, and disappointment as well was not infrequently encountered. Some of the disclosures are of a nature repugnant, in many respects, to my very soul, as they were to all my preconceived convictions, and they would never have seen the light, except as a correct transcription of what the cipher revealed. As a decipherer I had no choice, and I am in no way responsible for the disclosures, except as to the correctness of the transcription.
Bacon, throughout the Bi-literal Cypher, makes frequent mention of his translations of Homer, which he considered one of his “great works and worthy of preservation,” and which had been scattered through the mosaic of his other writings. One of the strongest of his expressed desires was that it should be gathered and reconstructed in its original form.
Perhaps the greatest surprise that came to me in all my work relates to what was found in the Anatomy of Melancholy. Several other of the works had been finished before this book was taken up. After a few pages had been deciphered, relating to points in Bacon’s history, to my great disappointment the cipher suddenly changed the subject of its disclosures to this:
“As hath been said, much of th’ materiall of th’ Iliad may be found here, as well as Homer his second wondrous storie, telling of Odysseus his worthy adventures. Th’ first nam’d is of greater worth, beautie and interesse, alone, in my estimation, than all my other work together, for it is th’ crowning triumph of Homer’s pen; and he outstrips all th’ others in th’ race, as though his wits had beene Atalanta’s heeles. Next we see Virgill, and close behind them, striving to attaine unto th’ hights which they mounted, do I presse on to th’ lofty goale. In th’ plays lately publisht, I have approacht my modell closelie, and yet it doth ever seem beyond my attainment.
“Here are the diverse bookes, their arguments and sundry examples of th’ lines, in our bi-literal cipher.”