CORNELL UNIVl :RSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ENGUSII COLLECTION 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 JAMES MORGAN HART 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGUSH 
 
-SHAKESPEARE'S ENIGMA 
 AND CIPHER 
 
A 
 
 2on^<^(=> 
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S ENIGMA AND CIPHER. 
 
 BY NEAL HENEiy EWING, M.A. 
 
 r • . 
 
 THERE was a mediaeval pageant called the Nine Worthies, 
 consisting of three Fagan[ three Jewish, and three Chris- 
 tian heroes — Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar; Joshua,. 
 David, and Judas Machabeus; J|\.rthur, Charlemagne, and God- 
 frey of Bouillon. In the ninth place sometimes stood, as a 
 substitute, Guy of Warwick. The Worthies were selected as 
 grouped on religious lines. By an extended treatment, the 
 ninth Worthy was followed by another of the same religion,. 
 Bertrand du Guesclin. The foregoing was the standard ver- 
 sion of the Nine Worthies. 
 
 The substitute Worthy suggests Guillelmus.of Warwickshire. 
 The Worthies being nine with an attached tenth, correspond 
 to the nine digits and zero, and from them an enigma concern- 
 ing ciphers could well be formed. Now, in the play of " Love's- 
 Labour's Lost," Shakespeare makes an interlude of the Nine 
 Worthies. Did he notice it as significant of the ciphers ? If 
 so, he might, by revising the Worthies, make the significance 
 plainer. 
 
 Since for Shakespeare I and J were the same letter, the three 
 groups, arranged in a different order. Christians, Jews, Pagans,, 
 have for their acrostic, CIP. Our tenth Worthy would thus 
 be a Pagan. If some name beginning with Her is selected,, 
 there appears CIP followed by HER, which makes CIPHER. 
 The most noted Pagan name beginning with Her is Hercules. 
 Hercules is besides appropriate, because among real characters 
 (Hector was historical for Shakespeare) he stands as mytholog- 
 ical and imaginary. Now Shakespeare drags Hercules "with a 
 rope " into his pageant. Again, with Caesar as the ninth- 
 Worthy, a natural alternate would be his rival Pompey ; and 
 to let the alternate appear would be to emphasize the enigma's- 
 C-I-P order. We find that Shakespeare introduces Pompey 
 and omits Caesar, omitting, indeed, others, about whom we 
 shall see later. 
 
 Before the interlude. Costard enters and asks whether the 
 three Worthies shall come in or no. To Berowne's exclama- 
 
 (Rewritten from TAe Catholic World, November, 1906.) 
 Copyrighted, 1906, by Neal H. Ewing, Wtk- 
 
3 
 tion : " What, are there but three ? " he replies that every 
 one presents three. This is a calling of attention to the three 
 groups. It is with the grouping that our enigma starts. , The 
 dialogue continues : " Ber. And three times thrice is nine. 
 Clo. Not so sir, under correction sir, I hope it is not so. 
 You cannot beg us sir, I can assure you sir, we know what 
 we know : I hope sir three times thrice sir — Ber. Is not nine. 
 Clo. Under correction sir,, wee know where-untill it doth 
 amount." Berowne remarking that he always took three threes 
 for nine, Costard tells him it were pity he should get his liv- 
 ing by reckoning, and when asked how much it isj he answers 
 that the parties themselves, the actors, will show whereuntil it 
 doth amount. ; It is the poet's fancy, to question the fact that 
 three times three are nine. The enigma gives point to this 
 idea. The actors were going to show the Nine Worthies with 
 ten characters. In a riddle sense, Berowne knew only the nine 
 arithmethical worthies, the digits that have worth, and not the 
 zero. He would not have been a good accountant. 
 
 Berowne, in his ignorance, essays another correction. "King. 
 Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies: He presents 
 Hector of Troy, the Swaine Pompey the great, the Parish 
 Curate Alexander, Armadoes Page Hercules, the Pedant Judas 
 Machabeus. And if these foure Worthies in their first shew 
 thrive, these foure will change habites, and present the other 
 five. Ber. There is five in the first shew. Kin. You are de- 
 ceived, tis not so." ' 
 
 The King enumerates five characters and speaks of the other 
 five ; he counts five Worthies and calls thqm four ; and he 
 will not be corrected. Our enigma gives point to this mis- 
 counting; it is the secret of Moth as Zero. After naming 
 five characters, the King says: "And if these foure Worthies 
 in their first shew thrive (not counting Moth at all), these foure 
 (still not counting Moth) will change habites, and present the 
 other, five." Plainly there would be five of the nine left. 
 
 Having reason, then^ for believing that Shakespeare viewed 
 Hercules as standing in a class by himself; and that he meant 
 him to correspond to the zero in arithmetic, associated with 
 the nine dignities, but unlike them, as zero is associated, with 
 but unlike the nine digits; and that he meant him to complete the 
 word Cipher, as zero completes the ciphers — let us see if he 
 does not arrange the interlude so that Moth, playing Her- 
 cules, may serve as zero's image. .. 
 
4 ■ 
 
 As indicating Moth's irregularity, his lines, which in the 
 Quirto are in italics, like those of the other actors, appear in the 
 Folio printed in Roman type ; his lines alone are so changed. 
 Our enigma gives the Worthies as CIP before HER. In the 
 play the first mention of the interlude is : " Sir, you shall pre- 
 sent before her the Nine Worthies." Our enigma shortens 
 Hercules to Her. In the play we read : " He shall present 
 Hercules in minoritie," and " Quoniam, he seemeth in minoritie." 
 
 Hercules does not have a separate entrance^ but appears along 
 with and following some one else, just as, among the arithmetical 
 figures zero stands with a digit and after it. Hercules is the 
 only actor, except Alexander, who makes an exit. He is 
 told to vanish. This word vanish, suggestive of zero, is in the 
 recitation itself, not interpolated by the audience. It is a 
 stage direction from Moth's preceptor who has recited his lines 
 for him ; for Moth, representing Hercules in the cradle, does 
 not speak his lines. Although he is a pert boy, he makes no 
 side remarks. He says absolutely nothing in the interlude. 
 No one in the audience has a word to say to Hercules, or a 
 wo'd to say about him, which is unlike their treatment of the 
 other actors. They do not hiss, as it was anticipated they 
 might do. 
 
 Moth is small and approximates to nothing, and as insigni- 
 ficant he can stand for nonsignificant. When Holofernes as- 
 signs to Moth the part of Hercules, Armado objects : "Pardon 
 sir, error : he is not quantitie enough for that Worthies thumb, 
 he is not so big as the end of his Club." To this Holofernes 
 replies : " Shall I , have audience ? He shall present Hercules, in 
 minoritie: his enter and exit shall bee strangling a snake; 
 and I will have an apologie for that purpose." Armado makes 
 Moth less than the end of Hercules' club and less than his 
 thumb. This raises the suggestion that the end of Hercules' 
 thumb may be Moth's right measure. Now the end of his club 
 is b and the end of his thumb is b, with this difference, that 
 the first is sounded and the other is not It is Armado that 
 was severely criticized by Holofernes for dropping letters, and 
 first of all for failing to pronounce the letter b in doubt and 
 debt ; so that we may suppose that he did not sound the final 
 letter of thumb. 
 
 Holofernes once in this same scene calls Moth a Consonant. 
 It is just after Moth has asked about Ab speld backward, and 
 repeated Holofernes' Ba, so that it may well be the first con- 
 
5 
 sonant of the alphabet that Holofernes has in mind. We have 
 reason, then, for calling Moth the sonance of a soundless bee. 
 He is the silent b in thumb, and has no audience, as Holo- 
 fernes would say. Ciphers are digits and zero, which pairs zero 
 with thumb. 
 
 While Hercules is not properly a Worthy, he appears with 
 the Worthies. It is as if we called him not dignus but con- 
 dignus, condign. On the first appearance of Armado and Moth, 
 the Spaniard tells the boy that he is apt because quick. " Speak 
 you this in my praise Master ? " " In thy condigne praise." 
 This word condigne exactly expresses Moth's condition in our 
 enigma. That the use of the word in this connection was in- 
 tentional appears from the next remark. "I will praise an 
 Eele with the same praise." "What? That an Eele is ingenu- 
 ous." "That an Eeele is quicke." Now an eel is anguilla, a 
 little snake. It was arranged for Moth that his enter and exit 
 should be strangling a ( snake. This is why an. eel may be 
 praised with condign praise. 
 
 Before the show of the Nine Worthies, the King and his 
 companions visit the ladies with a masquerade show, and they 
 bring Moth to give an address. We find Moth named as 
 herald : " Their Herald is a pretty knavish Page." In the 
 first show he was Herald, in the second Hercules. This brings 
 out prominently, as being the common term, the syllable Her, 
 to which we reduce Moth in our enigma. 
 
 Pompey and Hercules, the Worthies of Shakespeare's making, 
 the enigma Worthies, so to speak, are by name closely related 
 to the buried cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum. The Vesuvian 
 feature of his interlude seems to have been noticed by Shake- 
 speare in the words, " on the top of the Mountaine," " fire- 
 worke," and "eruptions" when the entertainment for the Prin- 
 cess is first broached. 
 
 Our enigma word occurs in Shakespeare, but not more than 
 half a dozen times in all the thirty-six plays. The spelling is 
 with I or Y, cipher or cypher. For our purpose we may con- 
 sider Y as a variation of the letter I. We may call it Greek, 
 as distinguished from Latin, for its name in the Latin lan- 
 guages is Greek I. If the enigma word is written Cypher, its 
 cryptic and Greek look is strengthened. 
 
 When Shakespeare had his Worthies chosen, he might have 
 noticed that three of the names are derived from the Gjeek, 
 Hercules, Hector, Alexander, and that the name Pompey con- 
 
sists of a final " Greek " letter and the Greek word for a 
 sending. It would seem that he did notice this Greek com- 
 plexion of the Worthies and wished to call attention to it by 
 making it more complete. Costard is four times a messenger ; 
 Moth calls him an ambassador. To Machabeus is attached the 
 Greek name Achilles. Machabeus has just recited and remains 
 on the scene (his exit is a modern emendation). A dis- 
 cussion has ended as to whether he has a face. Armado en- 
 ters and Berowne calls out: "Hide thy head Achilles, heere 
 comes Hector in Armes." 
 
 If, then, Cypher is of a Grecian cast, and the Worthies are 
 of a Grecian cast, eked out by Shakespeare, he may well, if he 
 'makes mention of the enigma word, use this form in Y. We 
 find that he does make mention in the play of this rare word, 
 and under the Y form. Cypher. 
 
 Its context is suggestive. " A most fine Figure." " To prove 
 you a Cypher." This follows some riddle-making. The riddle- 
 making concerns numbers, and indeed the number three, with 
 which we start our Worthies. Armado is told that he can 
 study three years by adding one and two and putting years 
 to the result. Three parallels CIP. Years parallels the zero 
 HER, for it will be noticed that time is reduced to its name, 
 which, as time, is nothing. This reduces three years to noth- 
 ing, which parallels the complete enigma word. 
 
 The word Cypher is put in the mouth of Moth, the future 
 Hercules. "A most fine Figure," says his master. "To prove 
 you a Cypher," replies the boy. The boy's next word is " Her- 
 cules." It is in answer to a long remark of Armado's (about 
 his being in love), which brings in the martial words, soldier, 
 sword, prisoner, ransom, great men, that Moth says : " Hercu- 
 les Master." This is a tenth line, after Armado's nine. 
 
 In view of the appearance of the word Cypher in this play 
 and of its surroundings (suggestive of the enigma) ; in view of 
 the unwarranted introduction of Hercules among the Worthies 
 (where he was needed for the enigma) ; in view of his various 
 peculiarities (all proper for the enigma) ; in view of Costard's 
 strange arithmetic (which fits the enigma); and in view of the 
 King's strange miscounting (which the enigma can save from 
 being pointless) ; we have reason for saying that this enigma of 
 ours is not a present invention, but a present discovery; that 
 it is Shakespeare's own ; which is to say, that Shakespeare com- 
 posed the interlude with some secret design, and that the 
 
7 
 mould in which he cast the Nine Worthies was the word 
 Cipher. 
 
 Whether Shakespeare meant his enigma of Cipher as a 
 scholar's amusement, a mere curiosity leading to nothing be- 
 yond itself ; or whether he meant it as an intimation, and per- 
 haps an index, of some seciet writing in this play, we shall 
 now examine. It may be that the Greek form of the word, 
 Cypher, which he sets forth, was intended, in connection with 
 the notational feature of the Worthies, to furnish us a hint. 
 The Greeks (as also the Hebrews) based their arithmetical no- 
 tation on twenty-seven letters. 
 
 In this same play, and in the same act with the Worthies, 
 there appears a twenty-seven- letter word. Costard, addressing 
 Moth, says: "I marvell thy M. hath not eaten thee for a 
 word, for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitu- 
 dinitatibus." 
 
 This long word is an amplified form of honoribus (with 
 honors) which it contains and which it exceeds in length three 
 times, and it may be translated : with a great heaping up of 
 honors. It is an invented word which scholars have traced 
 back into the Middle Ages, where the Nine Worthies origi- 
 nated. They have found no record of its use for forty-nine 
 years before Shakespeare's play. One year later it appeared 
 in Nashe. Six years after that in Marston. Some years fur- 
 ther on in Beaumont and Fletcher. Taylor added to it an ad- 
 ditional syllable. After this little vogue, it lasted as a curiosity 
 in Shakespearean commentary. While, then, the idea, once 
 held, that Shakespeare invented the word, is a mistaken one, 
 we might say, that he concerned himself enough with the 
 word to resurrect it. 
 
 Honorificabilitudinitatibus is a notable word. It was known 
 as the longest Latin vocable. In spite of its length, it has a 
 regular succession of consonant and vowel. In spite of its 
 length, it is metrical; it preserves, in successive dactyls, the 
 golden cadence of poesy. An old verse read: Fulget honorifi- 
 cabilitudinitatibus iste — He shines with a heaping up of honors. 
 
 Emphasis on Shakespeare's part is seen in this, that he 
 puts the word, not in italics, like the many other Latin words 
 in this play, but in Roman letters. Since Roman letters are 
 the italics for italic matter, we might say that honorificabilitu- 
 dinitatibus is doubly italicized. At any rate, it is unique 
 among the other Latin words, and printed in a distinctive way. 
 
The Greek form of Shakespeare's artthmetical emigima of tie 
 Worthies was taken as a hint to examine our twenty-seren-let- 
 ter word, twenty- seven letters being the base of Greek arith- 
 metic. Honorificabilitudinitatibus is in other ways related to 
 the Worthies. It will bear the macaronic rendering of To the, 
 or by the, honorable great Worthies. It ends in dinitatibus, 
 which is almost dignitatibus (to the Worthies), especially if 
 we make the g silent, as in the kindred word condign. The 
 Worthies are poetical ; they recite in verse ; Alexander, for 
 instance, in Alexandrines. Honorificabilitudinitatibus is striking 
 as a poetic word ; that is, it is remarkable that a wond so long 
 skouid be adaptable to verse. The Worthies are nine, as be- 
 ing three times three. The twenty-seven-letter word is an ex- 
 tension of this triple system. 
 
 These relations are antecedent to Shakespeare, and thus in- 
 dependent of him. He made the relations closer. Twice he 
 mentions the Worthies as three times thrice, which is literally 
 three times three times. This has no sense, but another step 
 would give three times three times three, or twenty-seven, 
 &hak£speai% places the long word in the same act with the 
 Worthies, and in the scene in that act in wliich arrangements 
 ioT the Worthies are made. The word is spoken in the pres- 
 ence of aH the characters that play the Worthies; in the only 
 •fiymposium of Ihe Worthies. There is but one outsider pres- 
 ent. Dull, and he protests, as the company departs, that he has 
 not uttdersitood a word. It is spoken by Costard to Moth. 
 These are the two that appear as Pompey and Hercules. Pom- 
 pey and Hemcules are Shakespeare's irregular, enigmatical char- 
 acters, as distinguished from the standard Worthies. 
 
 It would seem, then, that Shakespeare put in this play an 
 enigma about Cipiier, and resurrecting honorificabalitudinitati- 
 bus, which iiad close relations to the enigma, supplemented 
 these with others -of his own making, and placed the word 
 near the enigma and in distinguished type. In view of this, a 
 sober mind need not to fail to think it probable that Shake- 
 speare, whoever he may have been, finding honorificabiUtudinii- 
 tatibtis suitable and artistic, made use of it as a cipher, that 
 is, as a cover for some secret statement. 
 
 Honorificabilitudinitatibus, from its cryptic appearance, has 
 long attracted the attention of Baconians, independently of the 
 foregoing points. Mr. Ignatius Donnelly showed that it con- 
 tains almost all the letters of the name Francis Bacon. Now, 
 
9 
 as was noticed by Dr. Isaac Hall Piatt, it contains, without ex- 
 ception, all the letters of that form of Francis Bacon's name 
 that he himself ordinarily used in his signature, namely, Fr. 
 Bacon. To the foregoing will now be added some further ar- 
 guments taken from Dr. Piatt which likewise tend to show that 
 in honorificabilitudinitatibus there was designed some secret 
 statement. 
 
 First. That the play opens with lines suitably suggestive 
 of our tiieme. They are, in fact, a disclaimer of fame during life, 
 and an expression of desire for it after death. Dr. Piatt parallels 
 these lines with two quotations from Bacon's admitted works. 
 
 Second. That this Latin word is led up to by suggestive 
 Latin phrases scattered within the compass of forty- two lines. 
 These, taken by themselves and translated, are: "That which 
 snfficeth is enough. I know the man as well as I know you. 
 Do you understand me, sir ? Praise God ! I understand well. 
 Do you see who comes ? I see and rejoice. Wherefore ? " 
 To these might be added : " At a certain time. He is called," 
 making nine in all. The next Latin word after the translation 
 " Wherefore ? " is honorificabilitudinitatibus, which Dr. Piatt 
 takes for an answer: " By the power of the making for honor." 
 
 Third. Dr. Piatt discusses the Northumberland manuscript, 
 which '' consists of a part of a manuscript book which was dis- 
 covered in 1S67, in Northumberland House, in London. That 
 it was in the library of Bacon is an acJcnowdfedged fact." " On 
 the cover is the table of contents. "Assuming that the vol- 
 ume originally had corresponded with the title-page, the latter 
 part was missing, including the two Shakespeare plays "— " Rich- 
 atd the Second " and " Richard the Third." In part scribbled, 
 and in part carefully written on this page, are words and sen- 
 tences, including repetitions of the names of Bacon and Shake- 
 speare and some Latin verse about a contract no longer bind- 
 ing. In particular, there appears a shortened variation of our 
 long word, namely, honorificabilitudino, not scribbled, but writ- 
 ten carefully in the margin of the page. Dr. Piatt makes of 
 this an anagram, naming Francis Bacon as the originator of 
 "these plays," and parallels the word, as to meaning, with the 
 name of the first paper on the title-page, " of tribute or giving 
 what is due." This anagram that he makes of the companion 
 word honorificabilitudino is closely like his anagram of honori- 
 ficabilitudinitatibus, to be noticed later. 
 
 Fourth. Five lines after our word in " Love's Labour's Lost " 
 
lO 
 
 occurs the sentence : " What is Ab speld backward, with the 
 horn on his head ? " and the answer : " Ba, puericia, with a 
 home added." Mr. Mallock, translating "with a horn," makes 
 this Ba cornu, something close to Bacon. Dr. Piatt has late- 
 ly given another rendering. " In the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries, a horn-shaped mark, known as C cursive or 
 C reverse, was used in both manuscript and printing to indi- 
 cate the syllable con at the beginning of a word." Of Ab- 
 with-the-horne-on-his-head, he makes Ab with this horn-shaped 
 mark in front of it, which, read backward, 's Ba followed by 
 the mark, and thus Bacon. We may reach Bacon, however, 
 with four words " Ab speld backward with," ior " with " in 
 Spanish and Italian is " con," as if a scrap from the great 
 feast of languages shortly before mentioned. 
 
 Fifth. Dr. Piatt points out that ab occurs in the long word 
 and almost in the middle of it. It stands, indeed, at the 
 beginning of the middle part of this triplicate formation : 
 honorific abilitudi nitatibus. Lastly. Dr. Piatt alludes to the 
 references in the play symbolic of secret authorship. 
 
 In view of all the foregoing as reason for believing that 
 honorificabilitudinitatibus was meant by Shakespeare for a 
 cipher word, we may examine it in this connection. Let us 
 first discuss the solution of it that Dr. Piatt offered nine years 
 ago. He takes the backward spelling of Ab as a clue. Start- 
 ing with the syllable ab in the long word, and reading from 
 this point backward, bacifironoh, he sees Fr. Bacono staring 
 him in the face. Taking the remainder of the word "we have 
 come out, each in the direct sequence of the letters : ludi, 
 tuiti, nati. The remaining letters form hi, sibi." Putting the 
 words together gives : Hi ludi tuiti sibi Fr. Bacono nati — These 
 plays originating with Francis Bacon are protected for them- 
 selves — "that is, by reason of their worth." 
 
 This is more than an ordinary anagram ; it follows some 
 rule, and indeed some rule, which is, as it were, stated. For 
 Fr. Bacono is almost reached by observing Ab-speld-backward • 
 as a direction. Taking only the necessary compass of letters, 
 we have bacifirono. To change this- to fr bacono we put out 
 two i's and transpose fr and bac As will be seen later, there 
 are indications in the play that these changes were adverted 
 to in its composing ; and Dr. Piatt looks with Shakespeare's 
 eyes in seeing Francis Bacon's name where he does in hono- 
 rificabilitudinitatibus. 
 
ir 
 
 Of the words, hi ludi tuiti sibi nati, three can be picked out 
 in regular order by going over the letters once : hi . . 1 . .- 
 udin . . ati, while from the rest of the letters, iiititbus, are 
 formed the words, tuiti sibi, somewhat promiscuously. This is 
 Dr. Piatt's anagram in its most orderly derivation. It has kept 
 its place in default of any better one. What militates against 
 it is not its irregularities, but the absence (except so far as 
 Ab applies) of any indication that the irregularities are Shake- 
 speare's. Perhaps some other anagram is possible, the anom- 
 alies of which (for some there would naturally be) will be so 
 matched in the play, by parallels and apparent references, as 
 to make it certain that the parallels were intended as such and 
 that the apparent references are real; that is to say, that the 
 irregularities were contemplated by Shakespeare, and that con- 
 sequently the cipher meaning of the anagram was Shakespeare's 
 thought as much as any open line ever penned by him. 
 
 Seven years ago, while ignorant of Dr. Piatt's solution, I 
 was ledj from Mr. Donnelly's statement, to notice how fr bacon 
 could be derived from the long word, and how Ab-speld- 
 backward seemed to be given as a rule. Then it occured to 
 me that, supposing the word contained a cipher, this might be 
 found by reading backward from the extremity of the word, 
 applying the apparent rule more completely. 
 
 This gives subitati'nidutilibac/f/ron^A. With the omission of 
 five particular letters, as here indicated in italics, including the 
 silent h, we have: subitat nidutilibac f ron. This differently 
 «plit is: subitat nid utili bacfron. With the change of bacfron 
 to fr bacon, by reversed tmesis, and the addition of o to nid, 
 for literal perfection, we have as the solution of our long word: 
 
 subitat nido utili fr bacon, which translated becomes: 
 often into useful nest steals Francis Bacon. 
 
 Let it be noticed that this result is reached by the re- 
 versal of the word, the omission of five letters (iiioh), the trans- 
 position of bac fr, and the addition of o. 
 
 Subitat is the regular third person singular present indica- 
 tive of subitare, regularly formed as the frequentative of subire, 
 to steal into. It thus means " often steals into." It happens, 
 however, that the word is not classical ; it is only a form that 
 Cicero might have used but did not. If to violate a rule of 
 grammar is, in the old phrase, to break Priscian's head, the 
 
12 
 
 use of subitat would be to inflict on that author some lesser 
 injury. 
 
 The construction requires the dative case. Nido is the dat- 
 ive of nidus. In poetry, nido followed by utili would be regu- 
 larly pronounced nid. Again we might riddlewise consider nid 
 as a French word that comes back to the Latin as a foreigner 
 and not subject to declension ; so the sentence is passable even 
 without the added o Utili the dative of utilis, agrees with 
 nido. Fr. Bacon is the form in which Francis Bacon regularly 
 signed his name. Franciscus Bacon (second and third declen- 
 sion) stands in the nominative case as the subject of the sen- 
 tence. Nidus has a special meaning appropriate here, a recep- 
 tacle for books. 
 
 The word anagram is used to mean, first, a rearrangement 
 in any order whatever, and secondly, a rearrangement in a 
 backward order, a much stricter construction. Now it is this 
 palindromic anagram that is very closely followed above. It is 
 followed for twenty letters. Of the remaining letters, five have 
 at least no other arrangement, since they disappear. 
 
 In fact if these Ave letters are segregated and kept in the 
 reversed order, they form an epitome of our riddle word and 
 its solution. By assigning to each letter a number, according 
 to its place in the alphabet, the old ehigmatographers could 
 give to every word or group of letters a numerical value. Dis- 
 carding J from our alphabet and applying this method here, 
 we have i i i o h equal to 9 9 9 14 8. That is, iii oh stands 
 for 27 22, an image of honorificabilitudinitatibus and subitat- 
 nid-utili-fr-bacon, which is found by keeping the removed let- 
 ters in their reversed order. 
 
 The stricter anagram above shown is now offered as an 
 amendment of Dr. Piatt's. All the foregoing arguments, both 
 his and mine, apply not less well to my solution. Indeed, what 
 is perhaps his closest and most illuminating argument, that 
 of Ab-speld-backward, applies much more strongly to the 
 Subitat rendering, since the rule is there so much more fully 
 observed. Subitat may be considered as a revision of Hi ludi, 
 for the chief feature in each anagram is the name of Francis 
 Bacon, and as to that, except for the grammatical ending, Su- 
 bitat follows Hi ludi exactly. 
 
 As for the Northumberland word, honorificabilitudino, if it 
 is solved like honorificabilitudinitatibus here, it gives the same 
 result, except that the word subitat is missing. 
 
13 
 
 In examining the play for evidence of design, let us first 
 consider the play within the play. The order of the Worthies 
 in our anagram is : Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey ; Joshua, 
 David, Machabeus ; Hector, Alexander, Pompey. We may con- 
 sider the appearance of Pompey for Caesar as significant of 
 the substitute name on the title-page. Only the last four ap- 
 pear, and their order is one of reversal, with a slight trans- 
 position, the least possible. Instead of Pompey, Alexander, 
 Hector, Machabeus, which would be a straight reversal, we have 
 Pompey, Alexander, Machabeus, Hector. Shakespeare, then, 
 gives the Worthies backward as to CIP, omitting five and intro- 
 ducir^ an extraneous character for the zero. He gives the 
 Worthies as if modeled on our anagram of honorificabilitu- 
 dinitatibus, which, in view of their anomalies, is evidence that 
 our anagram is Shakespeare's own. 
 
 When arranging for the interlude, Armado remarks: "We 
 win have, if this fadge not, an Antique." Now the interlude 
 does not fadge. It is only half given, and with interruption 
 and failure. At the end of the play, Armado enters and asks 
 the campany to remain for a dialogue which the two learned 
 men have compiled in praise of the cuckoo and the owl. 
 " It should have followed," he says, " in the end of our 
 shew." This, then, is the Antique, a song about the cuckoo 
 and a recitation in verse about the owl. The cuckoo was a 
 classical type, the bird that steals into a nest, as, into that of 
 the owl, a bird of seeming wisdom. This points to the solu- 
 tion of honorificabilitudinitatibus, as do also scattered remarks 
 in the play. Just as the Worthies parallel honorificabilitudini- 
 tatibus, so the Antique, the sequel of the Worthies, parallels 
 &uhitat-nid-utili-fr-bacon, which explains, by reference to a 
 secret author, some obscure precedence. 
 
 The long word is put in the mouth of Costard. It is Cos- 
 tard wha speaks of " the merry days of desolation," and who 
 says: "Welcome the sowre cup of prosperitie, affliction may 
 one day smile againe." It is Costard who in the third act ex- 
 cites Armado's laughter by taking I'envoy for salve, that is, the 
 beginniag of a writing for the end of a writing, I'envoy be- 
 ing a conclusion of a poem, and salve being a word of salute. 
 It is Costard who., having the letters of Armado and Berowne 
 to deliver, reverses them, spelling, as it were, Ab backward, 
 since Armado's letter is A and Berowne's letter is B. He was 
 going to deliver Berowne's letter "in print." 
 
14 
 
 The scene of our long word begins with the statement in 
 Latin: "That which is sufficient is enough." A single word 
 may be sufficient for a cipher statement, and it may even hap- 
 pen that all its letters are not needed. 
 
 A little further on Holofernes criticizes Armado for his 
 habit of dropping letters. The letters that he refers to are 
 b 1 i g h, five in number, like i i i o h. Here as elsewhere in 
 this article, the spelling is that of the Folio, I and J, however, 
 and U and V being distinguished. A few lines further on the 
 schoolmaster precisian speaks of " prescian a little scratcht." 
 Our solution of honorificabilitudinitatibus, which amounts to 
 some maiming of Priscian, is accompanied with the scratching^ 
 of five letters. 
 
 Costard says that Moth is not so long as honorificabilitudi- 
 nitatibus. Attention is thus directed to honorificabilitudinita- 
 tibus as a long word, and a suggestion to shorten it is given 
 by ^the measuring of Moth, who is smaller, against it. Not 
 only so, but Costard intimates a particular kind of shortening, 
 for his words are: "Thou art not so long by the head as 
 honorificabilitudinitatibus." Now h is the head letter of the 
 word, and ho is the head syllable. Decapitation in general . 
 involves loss of eyes, so that the cancelling of the iii, as welh 
 as of ho, is tolerably well provided for by the suggested re- 
 duction of honorificabilitudinitatibus, by the head. After this- 
 reduction, honorificabilitudinitatibus is the size of Moth, and 
 like him can serve as a Cipher. 
 
 We may suppose, however, that Shakespeare would give 
 some fuller indication of the loss of eyes. The nine Latin ex- 
 pressions preceding the long word contain, among other mis- 
 takes, three incorrect i's. Three of the nine expressions, " Sati^ 
 quid sufficit," " Video & gaudio," " Quart," are given in mod- 
 ern editions with the words : quod, gaudeo, quare. This strik- 
 ing out of three i's in the necessary correction is like an object' 
 lesson. 
 
 In the fifth act, the page Moth makes an address to the; 
 ladies. These lines occur : 
 
 " Pag. A holy parcell of the fairest dames that ever turn'd 
 their backes to mortall viewes. , • 
 
 The Ladies turne their backes to Jiim. 
 Ber. Their eyes villaine, their eyes. 
 Pag. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortall viewes. 
 Out .. , . . , , 
 
15 
 Boy. True, out indeed. 
 Pag. Out of your favours heavenly spirits vouchsafe," etc. 
 
 Here there is a turning out of eyes that is strongly com- 
 mented on. If objection is made to this paragram of eye and 
 i, we may answer that it is highly Shakespearean. This loss 
 of eyes is in connection with a reversal printed in distinguished 
 type. 
 
 "Love's Labour's Lost "was first published alone in the 
 Quarto of 1598, and then, with the other plays, in the Folio 
 of 1623. In the Folio (and in the Quarto also, with different 
 spelling) there stand at the head of the page on which honori- 
 ficabilitudinit:atibus occurs the lines : 
 
 Curat. A most singular and choise Epithat. 
 
 Draw out his Table-booke. 
 
 The remark is meant for a preceding word, but it can stand 
 as a cipher reference to the long word about half way down 
 the column, to understand which a setting down in writing, as 
 in a table-book, is necessary. 
 
 In the Quarto, our word appears thus as to lineation : 
 art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus : 
 The word has one free extremity, which is significantly at the end 
 of a line. In the Folio the word (which begins on the twenty- 
 seventh line of the page, is divided thus: 
 for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitu- 
 dinitatibus : Thou art easier swallowed then a flapdra- 
 gon. 
 
 A hyphen at the end of a line may indicate mere typo- 
 graphical division, or it may be an integral part of the spelling 
 The word, then, as it stands in the Folio, may be treated as being 
 hoaorificabilitu-dinitatibus, which would give subitat nid-utili fr 
 bacon, the compound word explaining the absence of the o. 
 The long word is split at the very point where the letter o 
 belongs in nido; and not only so, but a mark stands there to 
 hold the letter's place. This last letter is necessary to round 
 the sentence completely. 
 
 The play is not divided into scenes by any headings. The 
 headings of the acts are, following the custom, in Latin. Now 
 after the fourth act, headed Actus Quartus, comes the fifth act, 
 also headed Actus Quartus. This may be called the zero act. 
 
i6 
 
 for it is what remains of the fourth act after the fourth act is 
 completed. It is also a Hercules for size and a suitable setting 
 for our long word. 
 
 "What is Ab speld backward?" Ab, which in Greek is 
 Alpljabeta, is like a name for the alphabet. Ab is a Hebrew 
 word, being the name of the eleventh month. Now the Hebrew 
 alphabet, which is written from right to left, or, with respect 
 to English, backward, contains twenty-two letters and five final 
 forms, making the number twenty-seven ; while one of the letters 
 under two names and slightly different forms, expresses two 
 sounds. 
 
 The twenty-seven letters of honorificabilitudinitatibus are, 
 in our anagram, reduced to twenty-two. One of these cipher 
 numbers Bacon found connected with his life, his birthday be- 
 ing January the 22d. The other number was made to connect 
 with his life, for the 27th of January was the day on which he 
 became Viscount St. Albans. 
 
 In January, 1900, I showed in The Catholic World, an ana- 
 gram of the English of Subitat nido utili fr bacon i i i h. The 
 present article, which brings to light this cipher in the long 
 word, after pointing out that the interlude is an enigma on the 
 word Cipher, is part of a fuller and more extended treatment 
 of the subject. 
 
 Among the chief differences between the Quarto and Folia 
 texts of this play, is what Dr. Furnivall calls the only good 
 addition to the Quarto : " You that way, we this way." This 
 is prominent as the last line of the play, and it is suggestive of 
 the oppos>ite directions, eastward hoe and westward ho, in 
 which we may read honorificabilitudinitatibus. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 PR 2946.E95 
 
 Shakespeare's enigma and cipher. 
 
 3 1924 013 154 111