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 i©ttenagemote $aj>er $<*♦ 6 
 
 THE OWEN CIPHER 
 
 READ BEFORE THE WITENAGEMOTE ON 
 FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1, 1893 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 PRINTED AT THE DE VINNE PRESS 
 
 1894 
 
 Id 
 
0\ s 
 
 ^■Vy 
 
 Copyright, 1894, by The Witenagemote. 
 
 TWO HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED. 
 
6 91" 
 
 THE OWEN CIPHER. 
 
 OME years ago, when Ignatius 
 Donnelly was about to exploit his 
 so-called Shakespearian cipher, I 
 devoted some time to an examin- 
 ation of the plays, with a view 
 to understanding on what grounds it could 
 be claimed such a cipher existed. I then found 
 that my learned and distinguished friend, Dr. 
 O. W. Owen, had been similarly impelled, and 
 had in fact become convinced that a cipher- writ- 
 ing existed in the Shakespearian dramas. Dr. 
 Owen brought to his work a faith and industry 
 which led him rapidly to outstrip those who were 
 working in a slower and more skeptical vein. 
 My own feeble interest in Shakespearian ciphers 
 
4 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEE NO. 6. 
 
 expired in the blaze of his radiant enthusiasm. 
 During the eight or nine years Dr. Owen has de- 
 voted himself to deciphering the secret writings 
 said to be concealed in Shakespeare's and Bacon's 
 works, he has freely exchanged views with me 
 upon the subject of his work ; he has shown me 
 his method of extracting the cipher, and read 
 me selections from such portions as he had 
 from time to time extracted. While I could 
 never understand Dr. Owen's method, his re- 
 sults were so surprising and bewildering that I 
 always urged him not to be dismayed by the 
 ridicule and unkind criticism he was receiving, 
 and not to desist until he had completed his 
 work and put it in such form that it could re- 
 ceive reasonable criticism. This time has now 
 arrived. Dr. Owen has placed his first instal- 
 ment of the cipher story before the public, and 
 now for the first time invited such examination 
 of it as by his labor he is entitled to receive, 
 and such criticism as is demanded by the ex- 
 treme and revolutionary literary doctrines he 
 has advanced. If, as Groethe says, genius is a 
 great talent for industry, Dr. Owen can fairly 
 claim to be a genius, and if in the following re- 
 marks I should unintentionally make any de- 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. O 
 
 rogatory allusions, it is not that my estimation 
 of his genius is in any sense diminished. I 
 desire to submit his work to a feeble fire of 
 criticism, not that his pretensions may be de- 
 molished, but that if possible he may substan- 
 tiate them. I break a lance with hirn this 
 evening, not in enmity, but in friendly tilt. It 
 is not that I love Owen less, but that I love 
 Shakespeare more, that I enter the lists in honor 
 of our common mistress, Truth, whose torch 
 shines the brighter the more it is shaken. 
 
 In the first place, let us examine in what the 
 Owen cipher consists. It purports to be a se- 
 cret history of the times of Queen Elizabeth, 
 written by Lord Bacon, and hidden by him in 
 his own writings, in those attributed to Wil- 
 liam Shakespeare, in the plays hitherto sup- 
 posed to have been written by Marlowe, in the 
 plays of Robert Greene and George Peele, in 
 the poems of Edmund Spenser, and in Robert 
 Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy." In other 
 words, it is a cipher that works into nearly the 
 whole Elizabethan literature. It would be very 
 difficult to make any student of literature be- 
 lieve that he who wrote the " Novum Organum " 
 could have written Marlowe's " Tamburlaine," 
 
 1A 
 
6 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEB NO. 6. 
 
 or that he who wrote " Tamburlaine the Great" 
 could possibly have written the " Faerie Queen," 
 or that one man could possibly have created the 
 varying shades and sides of the whole Eliza- 
 bethan literature. Yet, in the interlocutory 
 remarks between Bacon and the decipherer, as 
 reported in the Owen cipher (Owen, page 22), 
 the decipherer says : 
 
 I have marvelled sometimes at the bulk of books pub- 
 lished in 1623 and before, but I did not think that any one 
 man was accomplished enough or capable of writing them. 
 
 And Bacon does not deny this insinuation 
 that he did write these books. 
 
 Mr. Oeorge Groodale, who assumes responsi- 
 bility for formulating literary and dramatic 
 convictions for others, and who should be an 
 unbiased critic, appears in the present instance 
 as a sort of literary Jonah destined to be swal- 
 lowed body, soul, and breeches by this cipher- 
 whale. He enumerates among the conclusions 
 to which he is led by this cipher story — 
 
 That Francis Bacon, for the purpose of concealing the 
 secret histories which he wrote "for posterity/' composed 
 all the plays of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Robert 
 Greene, and George Peele j the u Anatomy of Melancholy n 
 of Burton, and all the works of Edmund Spenser. 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. / 
 
 Whether Bacon wrote all these books or not, 
 he has done what is equally wonderful — de- 
 signedly combined in his own and in these 
 works a cipher story. 
 
 Bacon, it is to be inferred, wrote the Shake- 
 spearian plays and his own numerous works, and 
 probably the works of Greene, Peele, Burton, 
 and Spenser, for the purpose of concealing 
 therein this wonderful cipher. We are asked 
 to believe that such peerless creations as " Ham- 
 let," "The Tempest," and " Romeo and Juliet" 
 were not prime productions of the transcendent 
 genius who wrote them, but were subsidiary 
 devices which Bacon designed for the purpose 
 of concealing therein the cipher. 
 
 From the literary standpoint this claim is so 
 preposterous that in justice to the memory 
 of the dead, in justice to our own intelligence, 
 we must refuse to accept such a proposition un- 
 less it be proved to us in the clearest and most 
 convincing manner. We care not who wrote 
 the Shakespearian plays; it is enough that we 
 have them. In the pursuit of truth, we are will- 
 ing to follow the light whithersoever it leads, 
 but when we find our conclusions at variance 
 with the majority of enlightened and educated 
 
8 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEK NO. 6. 
 
 minds we are bound to sift carefully the evi- 
 dence upon which these conclusions are based, 
 and to consider all the facts that might have 
 led to a perversion of our judgment. 
 
 Let us examine this cipher story. Dr. Owen 
 has published " A Letter to the Decipherer," an 
 " Epistle Dedicatory," a '\Greneral Curse," and 
 an Autobiography of Bacon. The first of these 
 productions is the most interesting to us at pres- 
 ent, because in this letter Bacon instructs the 
 decipherer as to how he is to work out the 
 cipher. However, as the decipherer must have 
 already discovered the cipher in order to extract 
 this letter of instructions, the purpose of the 
 letter is not obvious. This letter, Mr. Goodale 
 says, u is a luminous exposition of the cue (or 
 key) words." It is so luminous that it reminds 
 one of the article a young lady inherited from 
 her ancestors, and which she described as " an 
 heirloom of great luminousness." The de- 
 cipherer is told to follow the guides or key- 
 words, Fortune, Nature and her radicals, 
 Honor, and Reputation. With these keys, the 
 decipherer is to traverse the Baconian writings, 
 and " match conjugates, parallels, and relatives 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 9 
 
 by placing instances which are related to one 
 another by themselves, and all the concordances 
 which have an analogy with each other, should 
 be commingled with the connatnrals." Then he 
 continues : " When you have collected a suf- 
 ficient quantity of absolutely similar matter, by 
 skilful handling the proper collocation of things 
 may be made out and disentangled." The de- 
 cipherer adds that " inferior men who assert 
 the fabric of this history has come together 
 through fortuitous concurrence or chance " are 
 actuated by revenge, and he advises them to try 
 the method themselves, and this is the way these 
 inferior men (of which I suppose I must confess 
 myself one) are to do it : 
 
 For such great wits, let them accuse you 
 Of cunningly suppressing the secret in some way, 
 Or deny the truth of the congregated story, and then 
 Challenge the comparison between the correspondences, 
 And let every man make some little trial for 
 Himself of the way which we describe and lay out. 
 Match the syllogisms duly and orderly, 
 And put together systematically and minutely 
 The chain or coupling, links of the argument. 
 That is to say, the connaturals, concurrences, 
 Correspondents, concatenations, collocations, analogies, 
 Similitudes, relatives, parallels, conjugates and sequences 
 
 IB 
 
10 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEK NO. 6. 
 
 Of everything relating to the combination, composition, 
 Renovation, arrangement, and unity revolving 
 In succession, part by part, throughout the whole ; 
 Ascending and descending, leaving no tract behind, 
 And sifting it as faithful secretaries and clerks 
 In the courts of kings set to work with diligence and 
 Judgment, and sort into different boxes connaturals 
 Concerning matter of state, and when he has 
 Attentively sorted it, from the beginning to the end, 
 And united and collected the dispersed and distributed 
 Matter, which is mingled up and down in combination, 
 It will be easy to make a translation of it. 
 
 Owen, page 25. 
 
 After reading this you probably understand 
 how this cipher is to be extracted. There are, 
 however, some difficulties. What are the syl- 
 logisms, and how are they to be " matched duly 
 and orderly'"? The syllogism is a method of 
 logic consisting of a conclusion from a major 
 and minor premise. Are we to match the con- 
 clusions or the premises ? How does the " unity 
 revolve, part by part, in succession throughout 
 the whole, ascending and descending, leaving 
 no tract behind""? Does Mr. Groodale dare to 
 tell us that Lord Bacon, the master of unadul- 
 terated English style, wrote the ungrammatical, 
 incoherent, and unintelligible sentence quoted 
 above % No gibbering baboon in the forests of 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 11 
 
 Africa ever uttered more inarticulate jargon 
 than is contained in this " luminous exposition 
 of the keys." Mr. Goodale says : " I could wish 
 that this whole revelation were a dream. He 
 shall forever be my friend who will so settle 
 this controversy." Was ever literary achieve- 
 ment to be so surpassingly rewarded*? 
 
 A word as to the cues, or keys. Dr. Owen's 
 quotations, it is to be inferred, are all extracted 
 from close contiguity with the keys, these keys 
 being the words "fortune," "honor," "nature," 
 and "reputation." It is almost impossible that 
 they can be taken from anywhere else. There 
 are 900 pages more or less in the 1623 folio edi- 
 tion of the plays. In these the words " honor," 
 "honorable," "honored," and "honesty" occur 
 1132 times; the words "fortune," "misfortune," 
 " unfortunate," occur 495 times; "nature," "na- 
 tive," "natural," and "unnatural" occur 437 
 times; "repute," "reputation," etc., occur 63 
 times. In all, these words occur 2127 times, 
 which gives an average of nearly 3 key-words to 
 a page. Then Dr. Owen includes a vast number 
 of additional words as connaturals and radicals of 
 nature, such as "birth," "born," etc. Calculat- 
 ing therefore by averages, no quotation can be 
 
12 WITENAGEMOTE PAPER NO. 6. 
 
 taken from Shakespeare that is not in close prox- 
 imity to a key- word. Nevertheless, in one in- 
 stance the key-word is 47 lines away from the 
 quotation taken, and in a large number of in- 
 stances it is not to be found anywhere on the 
 same page. But, taking my own count, which 
 has been made by a most competent authority, 
 Dr. Owen can take 2127 quotations l from Shake- 
 speare alone in concocting his stories, to say 
 nothing of what he can get by the same method 
 from the more voluminous works of Bacon, and 
 the works of Marlowe, Peele, Greene, Spenser, 
 and Burton. The marvel is rather that he could 
 select a passage 47 lines away from a key, and 
 it is almost a miracle that he could select a pas- 
 sage on a page where no key occurs. 
 
 It may be interesting and instructive to see 
 how the Owen cipher is compiled ; so, for pur- 
 poses of illustration, we append page 58 : 
 
 Peeie, Her kingdom an ancient seat of kings. 
 
 "Arraignment 
 
 of Paris." A second Troy y-compassed round 
 With a commodious sea, 
 
 1 It may be thought those words occur with suspicious frequency. This is 
 not so; taking Browning's "Paracelsus," which is about twice as lengthy as 
 one of Shakespeare's plays, it is found the words "fortune," "honor," "na- 
 ture," and "reputation" occur more frequently than in any three plays of 
 Shakespeare together. 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 13 
 
 And unto her people y-clepp 7 d Angelli 
 
 She giveth laws of justice and of peace. 
 
 She giveth arms of happy victory 
 
 And flowers to deck her lions 
 
 Crowned with gold, 
 
 And likes the labours well; 
 
 This peerless nymph, 
 
 In honour of whose name the muses sing; 
 
 In whom do meet so many gifts in one; 
 
 This paragon 
 
 over whose zenith Marlowe, 
 
 .-, ., , . . , . t , , "Tamourlaine 
 
 Clothed in windy air and eagles 7 wings the Great." 
 
 Joined to her feathered breast fame hovereth, 
 
 Sounding of her golden trump, 
 
 That to the adverse poles of that straight line 
 
 Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven, 
 
 Her name is spread — 
 
 This mighty Queen Elizabeth 
 
 Shall your eyes behold ! 
 
 This beautiful tyrant, fiend, angelical, Shakespeare, 
 
 t^ -, « ., ■, "Borneo and 
 
 Kavenous, dove-leathered raven, Juliet." 
 
 Wolfish ravening lamb, 
 
 Despised substance of divinest brow, 
 
 Just opposite to what she justly seemest, 
 
 A dim saint and honourable lady- villain, 
 
 A whitely wanton with a velvet brow, Shakespeare, 
 
 Aye, and by heaven, one that will do the deed Lahor 's 
 
 Though Argus were her Eunuch and her guard ! Lost -" 
 
 O serpent's heart hid with a flowering face ! Shakespeare, 
 
 * ° "Romeo and 
 
 God ! did dragon ever keep so fair a cave ? Juliet." 
 
 ic 
 
14 WITENAGEMOTE PAPER NO. 6. 
 
 This page is patched up from Peele, Marlowe, 
 and Shakespeare. Where the passage quoted 
 from the " Arraignment of Paris" is joined to 
 that from " Tamburlaine " will he found some 
 slight incoherency, which we will not attribute 
 to Lord Bacon. What is the zenith of a para- 
 gon, and how comes it to be so remarkably ap- 
 pareled in windy air and eagles' wings'? A little 
 lower in the passage from Marlowe is an in- 
 structive point. Marlowe's stately pentameters, 
 
 That to the adverse poles of that straight line, 
 Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven, 
 
 are suddenly broken, and are succeeded by the 
 halting lines, 
 
 Her name is spread — 
 
 This mighty Queen Elizabeth 
 
 Shall your eyes behold. 
 
 The most superficial criticism reveals that the 
 decipherer has tampered with these lines. The 
 break in the pentameter, and the intrusion of 
 Queen Elizabeth's name into a play dealing 
 with Scythians and Persians, can only indicate 
 alteration. By referring to the play we find 
 these lines in place of their lame substitutes : 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 15 
 
 The mighty name of Tambourlaine is spread ; 
 And him, fair lady, shall thy eyes behold. 
 
 This brings me to the subject of textual alter- 
 ations, and I make this charge : whenever the 
 purposes of the cipher story demand an alter- 
 ation, it is made. The extracts are not quoted 
 fairly, or as they were written by their authors. 
 Let us suppose the decipherer wishes to speak 
 about ciphers ; observe how it is done. Here is 
 a quotation from Henry V. : 
 
 As many arrows loosed several ways fly to one mark; 
 
 As many winding ways meet in one town; 
 
 As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea; 
 
 As many straight lines close in the dial's center, 
 
 Then so may a thousand actions, once afoot, 
 
 End in one purpose, be all well borne without defeat. 
 
 This is how it appears in the Owen Cipher, 
 page 9 : 
 
 As many arrows loosed several ways come to one mark; 
 As many winding ways meet in one town; 
 As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea ; 
 As many straight lines close in the dial's center, 
 Then so may a thousand ciphers, once afoot, 
 And in one purpose, be all well borne, 
 
 which is nonsense. 
 
16 WITENAGEMOTE PAPER NO. 6. 
 
 Shakespeare says : 
 
 I would out-stare the sternest eyes that look; 
 Out-brave the heart most daring on the earth, 
 Pluck the young cubs from the she bear, 
 Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey, 
 To win the lady. 
 
 "Merchant of Venice." 
 
 Dr. Owen would undertake all this 
 To win the cipfyer. 
 
 Owen, page 71. 
 
 Such alterations as these are however trifling 
 compared with those which abound on every 
 page of the book we have examined. It is 
 doubtful if a single page is made up of extracts 
 quoted fairly. Examples follow in sufficient 
 quantity to support this statement. 
 
 For we will knit up our secret tales in silken 
 Strings, with twenty odd, conceited, true love knots, 
 And will make a pastime of each weary step, 
 Till the last step has brought you to the end; 
 And there you, my lord, may rest after much turmoil, 
 As doth a blessed soul in elysium. 
 
 Owen, page 27. 
 
 I will knit it up in silken strings 
 With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots. 
 And make a pastime of each weary step, 
 Till the last step has brought me to my love; 
 And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil 
 A blessed soul doth in elysium. 
 
 Shakespeare, " Two Gentlemen of Verona." 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 17 
 
 Then how much less should you, that with our wings can fly, 
 And when the flight is made to a world so dear? 
 
 Owen, page 10. 
 
 Much less shall she that hath love's wings to fly, 
 And when the flight is made to one so dear. 
 
 Shakespeare, " Two Gentlemen of Verona." 
 
 I hold me highly honoured of your grace, 
 But the gross and palpable flattery whereby your honor 
 Has abased and abused your wits and pains, turning 
 (As Du Bartus saith) Hecuba into Helena, and 
 Faustina into Lucretia, has most diminished the price 
 Of the dedication. Owen, page 53. 
 
 I hold me highly honored of your grace, but the gross and 
 palpable flattery, whereunto many not unlearned have abased 
 and abused their wits and pens turning (as Du Bartus saith) 
 Hecuba into Helena, and Faustina into Lucretia, hath most 
 diminished the price and estimation of learning. 
 
 Bacon, " Advancement of Learning." 
 
 You must either be directed by some who know 
 What we are about, or take upon yourself 
 That which we are sure you do not know. 
 
 Owen, page 2. 
 
 You must either be directed by some who take upon them- 
 selves to know, 
 Or take upon yourself that which I am sure you do not know. 
 
 Shakespeare, " Cymheline." 
 
 Is there left no God, no friend, no fortune. 
 
 Owen, page 72. 
 
 Then is there left no Mahomet, no God, no fiend, no fortune. 
 
 Marlowe, " Tamburlaine." 
 
18 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEK NO. 6. 
 
 Of this death-darting cockatrice. 
 
 Owen, page 77. 
 
 Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice. 
 
 Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet." 
 
 But dammed up he comes me cranking in 
 And from side to side cuts from off the land 
 A huge half moon. 
 
 Owen, page 85. 
 
 See how this river comes me cranking in, 
 And from me cuts the best of all my land 
 A huge half moon. 
 
 Shakespeare, " Henry IV." 
 
 God in heaven, man, you have no cause to complain. 
 They would make me the subject of a calumny. 
 A scurrilous and bitter jest, a libel, 
 A pasquil, satire, apologue, epigram, stage play 
 Or the like, for want of change. 
 
 Owen, page 89. 
 
 Many men are as much galled with a calumny, a scurrilous 
 and bitter jest, a libel, pasquil, satire, apologue, epigram, 
 stage-play or the like. 
 
 Burton, " Anatomy of Melancholy." 
 
 I pray thee shore his thread in twain ! 
 Yea, curse his good angel from his side. 
 
 Owen, page 87. 
 
 Pure grief shall shore his thread in twain I 
 Yea, curse his better angel from his side. 
 
 Shakespeare, "Othello." 
 
 In a lecture I had the honor of hearing Dr. 
 Owen deliver before the club, I understood him 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 19 
 
 to express a belief that Lord Bacon possessed 
 or had a knowledge of what is called the odic 
 force. That he was endowed with a telepathic 
 consciousness similar to that gift reputed to 
 have been possessed by certain Hindus during 
 the Indian Mutiny, whereby they had know- 
 ledge of events which were happening or had 
 happened elsewhere. I now wish to show that 
 there are grounds for Dr. Owen's belief. Some- 
 where between 1605 and 1612 Lord Bacon 
 wrote a treatise entitled "Felicem Memoriam 
 Elizabethse " (" In Happy Memory of Elizabeth," 
 or " The Felicities of Queen Elizabeth," as the 
 treatise is now called). It is a glowing panegyric 
 of the character of Queen Elizabeth, and speaks 
 of that sovereign lady in terms absolutely the 
 reverse of those used in the Owen Cipher. 
 Bacon, we are told, " much affected this work." 
 ■" It was written by his lordship in Latin only," 
 says Dr. Rawley, Bacon's domestic chaplain. 
 Archbishop Tenison in his "Baconiana" also 
 says " this was written by his lordship in Latin 
 only," not, as most of his works, both in Latin 
 and English. Lord Bacon died on the 9th of 
 April, 1626, "in the early morning of the day 
 then celebrated for our Saviour's resurrection, 
 
20 WITENAGEMOTE PAPER NO. 6. 
 
 in the 66th year of his age, at the Earl of Arun- 
 del's house, in Highgate, near London, to which 
 place he had casually repaired about a week be- 
 fore ; Grod so ordaining that he should die there 
 of a gentle fever, accidentally accompanied with 
 a great cold, whereby the defluxion of rheum 
 fell so plentifully upon his breast that he died 
 by suffocation." By which I take it he had a 
 mild attack of pneumonia. In his last will and 
 testament (which, however, he appears after- 
 ward to have revoked) he says : "In particular 
 I wish the eulogy which I writ ' In Felicem Me- 
 moriam Elizabeths' may be published." So, 
 in 1648, twenty-two years after his death, it was 
 first translated by Dr. Rawley, his chaplain. 
 Rawley thus speaks of it in his " Resuscitatio " : 
 " I thought it fitting to intimate that the dis- 
 course within contained entitled, 'A Collection 
 of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth,' was written 
 by his Lordship in Latin only, whereof, though 
 his Lordship had his particular ends then, yet 
 in regard that I held it a duty, that her own 
 nation over which she so happily reigned for so 
 many years, should be acquainted and possessed 
 with the virtues of that excellent queen, as well 
 as foreign nations, I was induced many years 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 21 
 
 ago to put the same into the English tongue, 
 not ad verbunij for that had been but flat and 
 injudicious, but (as far as my slender ability 
 could reach) according to the expressions 
 which I conceived his Lordship would have 
 rendered it in, if he had written the same in 
 English; yet ever acknowledging that Zeuxis' 
 or Apelles' pencil could not be attained, but by 
 Zeuxis or Apelles himself." 
 
 Now, in the Owen Cipher appear quotation 
 after quotation from " In Eelicem Memoriam 
 Elizabeths " ; we must therefore conclude that 
 Lord Bacon incorporated in his cipher-story, 
 adapted to the context, and accommodated to 
 his blank-verse arrangement, words that were 
 written and published by another after his 
 death. This as an act of clairvoyance equals 
 anything attributed to the most esoteric Hin- 
 doo. Dr. Owen seems to have quoted more in 
 accordance with Heath's translation than with 
 Rawley's, in which case Bacon used words 
 written two hundred years after his death. 
 Dr. Owen's quotations, however, are so garbled 
 that it is impossible to say precisely who wrote 
 them — perhaps Rawley, or Heath ; more likely 
 Owen. How near Dr. Owen's quotations come 
 
22 WITENAGEMOTE PAPER NO. 6. 
 
 to the actual text of Lord Bacon, can be seen 
 by any one who will trouble himself to make 
 the comparison. 1 
 
 Dr. Owen was good enough, when calling 
 upon me a short time ago, to tell me I could 
 unravel the cipher myself. With characteristic 
 courtesy he even went so far as to say that I 
 could write it better than, he could. As he 
 claims to extract Lord Bacon's own words, I 
 could not see how I could write it better. If 
 Dr. Owen writes it, I might hope to imitate it, 
 although Dr. Owen, having spent eight years of 
 labor on his cipher, should have made it unap- 
 proachable. Thinking, however, I would try to 
 write this cipher, I took the words "fortune," 
 "honor," "nature," and "reputation," and I 
 extracted some connaturals, concurrences, con- 
 catenations, collocations, analogies, similitudes, 
 relatives, parallels, conjugates, and sequences. 
 These I sorted into different boxes, as directed 
 in the " letter to the decipherer," and attempted 
 to make a translation as we are also directed 
 to do in the " luminous exposition of the keys." 
 I regret that I omitted to mix any syllogisms 
 with these, but there were none available. 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 23 
 
 Judge, however, my surprise when I found 
 that the Owen Cipher was no delusion ; for by 
 this method I was actually extracting words 
 that I could attribute to no other than Lord 
 Bacon. You will remember Dr. Owen in his 
 story has tarnished the name of good Queen 
 Bess. He has made her the mother of Bacon 
 by a secret marriage with Lord Leicester; a 
 wicked, lustful, revengeful woman who is 
 finally poisoned and strangled by Cecil. In 
 my cipher letter Dr. Owen's view of Queen 
 Elizabeth is not supported, and I feel sure 
 we shall be gratified to learn from Bacon's 
 own pen what he really thought of Elizabeth. 
 The letter appended is extracted from the 
 works of Shakespeare and Bacon alone. Every 
 quotation but one is taken from close contiguity 
 with a key-word, and as this exception is a 
 quotation used by Dr. Owen, it is taken for 
 granted that the key- word is within a page or 
 two. Every quotation is taken fairly and given 
 as written by its author. The only alteration 
 being that which prevails throughout the whole 
 Owen Cipher — the change in personal and 
 possessive pronouns, u you"into "thee," "your" 
 into "thine," and so forth. 
 
24 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEE NO. 6. 
 
 Letter from Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, 
 Viscount St. Alban, Lord High Chancellor of 
 England, to Doctor Owen, touching the char- 
 acter of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Learned Doctor Owen : Rare in all ages hath been the 
 
 "Merchant of Venice." "Hen. IV." Bacon, "Felicities." 
 
 reign of a woman, more rare the felicity of a woman in her 
 reign. Queen Elizabeth (take heed how thou impawnst her 
 
 "Henry V." . . . 
 
 person) both in her natural endowments and her fortune 
 
 Bacon, " Felicities. " 
 
 was admirable amongst women, a pattern to all princes liv- 
 
 " Henry VIII. " 
 
 ing with her, and all that shall succeed. Thou art to blame 
 
 " Romeo and Juliet." 
 
 to rate this lovely lady so. Thou hast misused the King's 
 
 " Henry I V. " 
 
 press damnably. Thine only gift is in devising impossible 
 
 "Much Ado." 
 
 slanders, and by compendious extractions of other men's 
 
 Bacon, " Advancement of Learning. " 
 
 wits and labours to take upon thyself that which I am 
 
 " Cymbeline. " 
 
 sure thou dost not know. 
 
 The Queen is spotless in the eyes of heaven, a virgin, a 
 
 "Winter's Tale." "Henry VII." 
 
 most unspotted lily, ay, the most peerless piece of earth I 
 
 "Winter's Tale." 
 
 think that e'er the sun shone bright on. Saba was never 
 
 : "Henry VIII." 
 
 more covetous of wisdom and fair virtue than this pure 
 soul. O for a muse of fire that would ascend the brightest 
 
 " Henry V. " 
 
 heaven of Invention to give her virtue the true grace and 
 
 Bacon, "Felicities." 
 
 lustre ! A mate of fortune she never took — she lived a 
 
 Bacon, " Praise of Elizabeth. " 
 
 Virgin, and she had no children. Owen, thou dost belie her, 
 
 "Hen. IV." "Othello." 
 
 and thou art a devil. Thou art as rash as fire to say that 
 
 "Othello." 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 25 
 
 she was false. O, she was heavenly true ! How it will 
 
 " Othello." " Hamlet." 
 
 grieve thee, Owen, when thou shalt come to clearer know- 
 
 "Hen.IV." "Winter's Tale." 
 
 ledge that thou hast thus scandalized and foully spoken of 
 
 "Henry IV." 
 
 my sovereign Mistress. 
 
 " Winter's Tale." 
 
 There be many follies and absurdities in thy book (fan- 
 Bacon, " Interpretation of Nature. " 
 
 tastic reveries utterly bereft of solidity), which, if an emi- 
 
 Bacon, "On Libel." 
 
 nent scholar had it in hand, he would take advantage 
 thereof, and make the author not only odious but ridicu- 
 lous and contemptible to the world : but I forbear to show 
 
 " Hamlet. " " Henry V. " 
 
 the line and the predicament wherein thou rangest. Owen, 
 
 "Hen. IV." 
 
 I charge thee fling away ambition. Thou hast shown thy- 
 
 "Henry VIII." "Merry Wives." 
 
 self a wise physician, one that indeed physics his subject. 
 
 " Winter's Tale." 
 
 Avoid what is to come; for who can see worse days than 
 
 "Hamlet." Bacon, "Essay on Death." 
 
 he, that, yet living, doth follow the funerals of his own 
 reputation. Fare-thee-well, Owen. These few precepts in 
 
 "Hamlet." "Hen. IV. " "Hamlet." 
 
 tlry memory keep. "While thou livest, tell truth and 
 
 "Henry IV." 
 
 shame the devil. He doth sin that doth belie the dead. 
 
 "Henry IV." 
 
 Thus, not doubting of thine honourable interpretation 
 
 Bacon, "Letter to Cecil." 
 
 and usage of that I have written, I commend thee to the 
 
 DMne .. preSer . vati . 011 : Francis Bacon. 
 
 I hope to have ready for publication coinci- 
 dently with the next issue of the Owen-Groodale 
 Cipher, a cipher story which I have found 
 in the writings of Bacon and Shakespeare. 
 
26 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEE NO. 6. 
 
 This story will be found to be a record of the 
 doings of William Shakespeare, Dr. Owen, and 
 Mr. Groodale at the World's Fair. Among other 
 interesting matter, it will contain some songs 
 by Mr. Groodale, and a " general curse " by Dr. 
 Owen. The four key- words, about which this 
 story is extracted, are "high," "low," "jack," 
 " game," and their connaturals. 
 
 I refrain from criticizing the ridiculous his- 
 tory contained in Dr. Owen's cipher. To accept 
 it as authentic we should have to admit that 
 Bacon not only wrote the whole Elizabethan 
 literature, but that he alone was the only writer 
 of the history of his times. All other annalists 
 were deluded, and wrote of what they knew not. 
 
 I will now enumerate a few conclusions to 
 which I am forced in regard to the Owen Cipher, 
 and which I think are founded on as much evi- 
 dence as Mr. Groodale found for his conclusions. 
 
 (1) That the Owen Cipher is a compilation 
 of extracts made from the writings of Shake- 
 speare, Bacon, Marlowe, Peele, Greene, Spenser, 
 and Burton. 
 
 (2) That these extracts do not appear to be se- 
 lected by rule, and that the so-called key- words 
 are not always used in connection therewith. 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 27 
 
 (3) That these extracts are not quoted fairly, 
 as they were written by their authors, but are 
 altered to suit the context in which they are 
 placed. 
 
 (4) That the alterations often make nonsense, 
 not only in the original but in the adaptation. 
 
 (5) That the joining together of the extracts 
 is attended by grammatical errors and confusion 
 of meanings. 
 
 (6) That the rules given by the author of the 
 cipher are unintelligible and cannot be applied. 
 
 (7) That much of the alleged blank verse is 
 no verse at all. 
 
 (8) That the cipher contains extracts and 
 phrases not written by Bacon, or any of the 
 authors previously designated ; these being 
 extracts from translations made after Lord 
 Bacon's death, and being such they could not 
 adapt themselves to an unknown context, or 
 accommodate themselves to an unknown blank- 
 verse arrangement. 
 
 (9) That if Bacon were the author of the 
 writing before us, he could not in his life have 
 incorporated therein that which was created 
 after his death; and such matter being found 
 therein, he is not the author. 
 
28 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEE NO. 6. 
 
 (10) That the Owen Cipher is a fairly ingen- 
 ious compilation, but one that any can imitate. 
 
 I have deferred until the present occasion 
 from expressing my conviction regarding the 
 Owen Cipher (a conviction which forced itself 
 upon me after reading one page of Dr. Owen's 
 book), hoping that some one more competent 
 would have taken the matter in hand. It would 
 have been a slur upon our city had this book, 
 which is modestly advertised in our newspapers 
 as " the most wonderful book of the century," 
 been allowed to pass out of our midst unchal- 
 lenged. I am conscious that I have performed 
 this work imperfectly, but I hope I have shown 
 lovers of old literature that they need not rashly 
 assent to any such preposterous doctrine as that 
 which would assert the infinite variety of writ- 
 ings to be found in Shakespeare, Bacon, Mar- 
 lowe, Peele, Greene, Spenser, and Burton to be 
 the product of a single mind or pen. Those 
 who believe that Bacon wrote the works at- 
 tributed to him, and that Shakespeare wrote 
 his immortal plays, have not had their beliefs 
 imperiled by this curious literary production. 
 
 If we could imagine that the spirits of the 
 great departed still concern themselves with the 
 doings of this lower sphere, we might in our 
 
THE OWEN CIPHER. 29 
 
 mind's eye see a smile pass over the glorious 
 face of our great Shakespeare at this clumsy 
 attempt to filch from his brow that crown 
 placed there in token of reverent gratitude by 
 the millions to whom he has been an unfailing 
 source of noble inspiration. We could imagine 
 him gazing on that other one who has called 
 Shakespeare " his idol," but who is now wor- 
 shiping brazen images, that one who has had 
 such opportunities for studying his peerless 
 creations, who has been on the Bialto with 
 his noble Othello, who has followed his fair 
 and fateful Cleopatra into Egypt, who has 
 tarried with his tenderest lovers in the forest 
 of Arden, and turning his face aside as he mut- 
 tered, "et tu, Brute." Then, recalling the words 
 of his contemporary, the great Lord Chancellor : 
 " I have held up a light in the obscurity of phi- 
 losophy which will be seen centuries after I am 
 dead." Shakespeare might look toward us, for 
 whom he also " has held up a light," knowing 
 that after all his name and his fame are safe in 
 the hearts of his lovers ; knowing that 
 
 Wherever the bright son of heaven shall shine, 
 His honor and the greatness of his name shall be. 
 
 F. W. M. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THAT the quotations from Bacon's Latin works 
 are translated very freely by Dr. Owen will be 
 seen from a few quotations taken from the work 
 used by Rawley, published in 1658, of which be it 
 observed, he remarks " non ante hac in lucem edi- 
 tum." The following is the title : 
 
 Opus illus re in felicem memoriam Elizabeths, Angliae, Reginse, 
 auctore nobilissimo heroe Francisco Bacono, Barone de Verulamio, 
 Vice-comite Sancti Albani ; multis retro annis prselo designatum, 
 sed non ante hac in lucem editum. 
 
 Here follow a few selections from the original and 
 its translations, including those by Dr. Owen : 
 
 BACON. 
 
 Nam Elizabetha natalibus suis successioni destinata, deinde ex- 
 hasredata, turn post habita fuit. Eadem regno fratris fortuna 
 magis propitia et serena, regno sorosis magis turbida et ancipiti 
 usa est, Neque tamen ex vinculis subito in regnum assumpta est, 
 ut ab infortunio exacerbata intum esceret ; sed libertati restituta, 
 et expectatione aucta, turn demum regnum sine tumultu aut com- 
 petitor e placide et felicissime obtinuit. 
 
 so 
 
 
THE OWEN CIPHEE. 31 
 
 OWEN. 
 
 And as she 
 Experienced in her youth the vicissitudes of fortune, 
 Having come to the kingdom 
 Through several stages of discipline, 
 Having passed (though not suddenly) from the prison 
 To the throne, and first disinherited, 
 Afterward superseded, then imprisoned 
 And then restored to liberty, 
 And at last quietly raised to the sovereignty. 
 
 HEATH. 
 
 For Elizabeth at her birth was destined to the succession, then 
 disinherited, afterward superseded. Her fortune in her bro- 
 ther's reign was more propitious and serene j in her sister's, more 
 troubled and doubtful. And yet she did not pass suddenly from 
 the prison to the throne with a mind embittered and swelling 
 with the sense of misfortune, but was first restored to liberty and 
 comforted with expectation ; and so came to her kingdom at last 
 quietly and prosperously, without tumult or competitor. 
 
 RAWLEY. 
 
 For Queen Elizabeth, soon after she was born, was entitled 
 to the succession to the crown, upon the next turn disinherited 
 again, then laid aside and slighted; during the reign of her 
 brother her estate was most prosperous and flourishing ; during 
 the reign of her sister, very tempestuous and full of hazard. 
 Neither did she pass immediately from the prison to the crown, 
 which sudden change might have been enough to make her cast 
 off all moderation ; but she first regained her liberty, then there 
 budded forth some probable hopes of succession ; and lastly, in a 
 great still and happiness, she was advanced to the imperial crown 
 without either noise or competitor. 
 
32 WITENAGEMOTE PAPEK NO. 6. 
 
 The next series shows minor distinctions, Dr. Owen's 
 still being furthest from the original. 
 
 BACON. 
 
 De hac felicitate pauca dicere institui j neque in laudes excur- 
 rere. Nam laudem homines tribuunt, felicitatem Dens. 
 
 OWEN. 
 
 And here of this felicity 
 I propose to say something without 
 Wandering into praises of so rare a queen. 
 For praise is the tribute of men; 
 Felicity the gift of God. 
 
 HEATH. 
 
 Of this felicity I purpose to say something without wandering 
 into praise, for praise is the tribute of men, felicity the gift of 
 God. 
 
 RAWLEY. 
 
 Of this felicity I am purposed to say somewhat ; yet without 
 excursion into praise j for praises are the tribute of men, felicity 
 the gift of God. 
 
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