The second is the cry of a soul in anguish.
“O Source infinite of light, ere Time in existence was, save in Thy creative plan, all this tragedy unfolded before Thee. A night of Stygian darknesse encloseth us. My hope banish’d to realms above, taketh its flight through th’ clear aire of the Scyences unto bright daye with Thyselfe. As thou didst conceale Thy lawes in thick clouds, enfolde them in shades of mysterious gloom, Thou didst infuse from Thy spirit a desire to put the day’s glad work, th’ evening’s thought, and midnight’s meditation to finde out their secret workings.
“Only thus can I banish from my thoughts my beloved brother’s untimely cutting off and my wrongfull part in his tryale. O, had I then one thought of th’ great change his death would cause—how life’s worth would shrinke, and this world’s little golden sunshine be but as collied night’s swifte lightning—this had never come as a hound of th’ hunt to my idle thoughts.” Mrs. Gallup’s claim to have discovered the existence of Francis Bacon’s Biliteral Cipher in many of the works of his time is one which, in view of the story deciphered, will, if substantiated, oblige us to rewrite a page of history and to tear a mask from many an idol before which we have bowed for three centuries. We shall, therefore, require the most convincing proofs of the bona fides of the discovery. The discussion of this question, however, we leave to a future article.
THE BACONIAN CIPHER.—II.
By Fleming Fulcher.
Last week we reviewed the subject matter of “The Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon” by Mrs. Gallup. This week we have to redeem the promise then made to discuss the claims which the discovery embodied in it has on our credence. Let us first clearly define what that discovery claims to be. It is not that Francis Bacon invented a cipher which he calls “Biliteral.” That is a fact which has been known to the world for three centuries. What the authoress claims to have discovered is that this cipher is used in all the original editions of Bacon’s printed works, and that she has deciphered the hidden story by means of it. If this claim can be substantiated, it will decide once for all the Bacon v. Shakespeare controversy in favor of the former, for in the deciphered story Bacon claims the authorship of the Shakespeare plays and poems, as well as of other works which we have been accustomed to attribute, in some cases on little or no evidence, to others of his “masques.”
Some fifty years ago the theory was started, independently on both sides of the Atlantic, that “Shakespeare” was in reality only a pen-name of Francis Bacon, and that it is to that great genius, not to the actor of Stratford-on-Avon, that the world owes its finest dramas. A storm of derision, of course, greeted the theory, as it does every theory that attacks a generally accepted belief, however erroneous; and it was only necessary to hold the theory to be at once classed with the inmates of a lunatic asylum—though one would hardly have supposed such an institution a suitable residence (exempli gratia) for Lord Palmerston. Just such a storm of ridicule, coupled with persecution, happily for “Baconians” impossible in the nineteenth century, greeted Galileo’s discovery that the earth moves round the sun. “E puo si muove,” and during the past fifty years the Baconian theory, under the influence of careful and patient investigation of internal and external evidence, has been steadily gaining ground. A fair example of the way in which the Baconian theory is met by its adversaries is the reply which was given to a friend of the present writer by a well-known scholar and “Shakespearian” authority: “If Shakespeare were to rise from the grave and tell me that Bacon was the author of the plays, I would not believe him.” Take another typical specimen; it is a criticism (save the mark!) on the work we are now considering that appeared recently in a daily contemporary:—“A fresh campaign by the Baconian zealots is threatened. Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup claims to have discovered and deciphered the mysterious secrets which Bacon, she would have us believe, buried in his writings. In the 'Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon,’ Greene, Peele, and Marlowe, as well as Shakespeare, all go by the board; Sir Francis explains to Mrs. Gallup that their dramatic works were written by him alone. The proofs, she says, are 'overwhelming and irresistible.’ The day will come when Macaulay’s New Zealander will debate whether Bacon was a solar myth or a sort of Homer, who gathered together all Elizabethan literature in a—cipher.” But ridicule and invective are not argument, prejudice is not proof. “Some of our friends,” we used to be told in our childhood, “are for warning, others for example.” Taking those we have quoted for warning, let us give a fair and open-minded consideration to Mrs. Gallup’s claims.
To do this it will be necessary to describe Bacon’s Biliteral Cipher. His own description of it may be seen in any edition of his De Augmentis. Its principle is extremely simple, being, in fact, that of the Morse Code at present used in telegraphy—namely, various combinations of two differences. Thus, if we have two dissimilar things or sets of things, represented, let us suppose, by a and b respectively, there are thirty-two different ways in which we can arrange them in sets of five; as, for example, aaaaa, aaaab, aaaba, and so on. (It should be noted that in these groups a and b are merely used as symbols to represent two differences which might be equally well represented by dots and dashes or any other convenient symbols.) Now, by using twenty-four such groups, out of the possible thirty-two, and letting each stand for a different letter of the alphabet (in Bacon’s day I and J counted as one letter, as did also U and V), we can communicate by means of two differences with anyone who knows what letter each group stands for. Bacon’s method, the advantage of which lies in being able to insert anything in anything—omnia per omnia, as he says—is to have two complete sets, or “founts” as they are called, of type, which he designates the a and b fount respectively. All that is then necessary is to write out the secret message in its biliteral form letter for letter over or under the matter to be printed, and, as each letter is required, to take it from the a or b fount according as the one or the other letter appears against it. For example, suppose the words to be printed are “The Court Journal,” and that we want to “infold” in this the signature “Fr. B.,” and suppose our a fount to consist of Latin and our b fount of Italic letters. Now, in Bacon’s biliteral alphabet F is represented by a a b a b, R by b a a a a, and B by a a a a b. Our MS. would, therefore, appear thus:
| T | H | E | C | O | U | R | T | J | O | U | R | N | A | L, | ||
| a | a | b | a | b | b | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | a | b |
In printing we should take the T and H from the a fount, the E from the b fount, and so on. The words would then appear thus: