>!»Hi«Si5HaJ,«BI«} iiniiiiniii;!! I Book ,r S'S r Ccpight N?_ , CQBtRIGlir DIEFOSIC BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE C£-l £Sr/AL 3oD/£S. CH/70-^ou/f/0 Ph/69 A/R. Omega 7^-/iou/?/2 3eta 7^-//ou/?2 \PoSS/Bl. e& /m^05S/0/. e. Gamma/S 1/rrz.E. \ \ Delta 76 I \£TE/f/VAL A ' \M0M£-/VTA/fr 7Au67-A/oo/f7 £'AHr^. ^/'s/co/v 77- ^ou^ 5 THE COMPASS-CLOCK DIAL Drawn by Natalie Ri^-e Clark from Bai-on'a \\f)\ahti of Nature and from Compass hints in his Hiilory t^f Ihe Winds. ^LE. fAfAZS xn f^ COA/CSfiA//// COZ^C£/TA//A/a T^ATkVH/cH At A/ATC/fAL A AfTT/r/C/AL . 1 A COA/CS/fA//A/a KWAr As- A/Art/AfAi. And MOA/sr^OilS. , ^/■r/ .-re roi-' THE CLOCK DIAL Drawn by Natalie Rice Clark from Bacon's Alphabet of Nature. BACON'S Dial in Shakespeare A COMPASS-CLOCK CIPHER By NATALIE RICE CLARK CINCINNATI STEWART KIDD COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1922, by NATALIE RICE CLARK -v^tli All Rights Reserved Printed in the United Statea of America The Caxton Press "Everybody for Books. " This is one of the Interlaken Library. JAN22?3 C1A692974 To My Husband and My Son FRANK LOWRY CLARK RANSOM BUTLER CLARK FOREWORD This book tries to show that a cipher designed by Francis Bacon, and based on the union of a clock and compass in Dial form, exists in the First Folio of Shakespeare, printed in 1623. The Dial cipher is used as a literary framework for the plays, and is closely associated with the finest passages and allusions. It does not dis- place Baconian evidence already brought for- ward by others, and it does strengthen the force of many visible acrostics in the text, by showing their placements as they tally on the Dial chart. So far as I can find out, the Dial cipher has not been observed in any way before this, and there- fore I am not able to give credit to some pos- sible and unknown decipherer, who may long ago have seen it dimly. But to a few people here at Miami University, who have helped me, I may give my hearty thanks: to President and Mrs. Raymond Mollyneaux Hughes, whose point of view is always sympa- thetic and forward-looking; to Professor J. Belden Dennison for discriminating criticism during the progress of the cipher-tracking and for reading the manuscript; and to my husband, Professor Frank Lowry Clark, without whose steady cooperation and insistent scholarly method this book could not have been at all. I am grateful also to Miss 7 FOREWORD Helen J. R. Scott for aid at times in the long task of the cipher count, and to Miss Grace Adams for valuable suggestions during the final re- vision of the manuscript. For the excellent work on the mechanical drawings of the charts, I am indebted to Mr. Thomas W. Peirano of Cincinnati. It is my hope that others may join me in the further development of the cipher message, for it is a pleasant thing to study, a most sane and human and worthy cipher, both comrade and critic at once. N. R. C. CONTENTS Some Reasons for a Cipher, and the Cipher 13 The Gates and Keys 28 Cipher Clues in Bacon's Work 50 Telling the Time 62 The Points of the Compass 75 Dial Hours in the Text 94 The Cipher in Macbeth 129 Bacon Blazons or Signatures 154 Guide to the Maze Pictures 181 The Hour Count in Macbeth 190 CHARTS THE COMPASS-CLOCK DIAL. Frontispiece THE CLOCK DIAL. Frontispiece MAZE PICTURES These "Pictures" were traced on the Dial Chart by Natalie Rice Clark, and are re-tracings of the letter-designs set in the text of the Folio by Francis Bacon. THE WEST AND NORTH GATES. 182 THE SOUTH GATES. 182 THE BROKEN BOWSTRING IN MUCH ADO. 182 THE PLAIN FISH IN TEMPEST. 183 THE JEWEL IN TEMPEST. 183 THE DIPPER IN TEMPEST. 183 THE BLAZON IN TAMING. 185 THE JEWEL IN / HENRY IV. 185 THE DIPPER IN / HENRY IV. 185 THE JEWEL SEEN IN TIMON. 186 THE JEWEL MISSING IN TIMON. 186 THE DIPPER IN EPILOGUE OF TEMPEST. 186 BEN JONSON'S CONSTELLATION. 188 THE TYRING ROOM. 188 THE JEWEL FROM SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH.188 FIG. I. FIG. 2. FIG. 3- FIG. 4- FIG. 5- FIG. 6. FIG. 7- FIG. 8. FIG. 9- FIG. 10. FIG. II. FIG. 12. FIG. 13- FIG. 14. FIG. 15- BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE CHAPTER I SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER, AND THE CIPHER I "If Lord Bacon wrote the plays of Shakespeare, why did he not say so?" This is a question that Francis Bacon himself would have respected. He would have known that he must reckon with it, in all astute minds. He was observing and far- sighted. The law, with which his name is now associated, was not his choice as a profession, but he accepted it as a way toward political preferment and financial independence, after his own income became suddenly small. Bacon left Cambridge University early because he thought its routine and requirements were deadening to all originality. His opinions ex- pressed on this subject are still quoted by educa- tors. He betook himself to France, in the inter- ests of his own talents, and there he studied, among other things, the art of making ciphers. It was an asset in that day to have a difficult cipher of one's own. Later, when Bacon was in Parliament, it was said of him that his power to sway the moods of others was such that "the fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end." He incurred the disfavor of Queen Elizabeth as a 13 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE result of his avowed democratic sympathies, and learned by experience the need for keeping his real feelings to himself and "in silence", as a letter written by him at the time has served to explain. He dared not risk the further displeasure of the Crown, and plays especially, at that period, were apt to be misunderstood. Many an author in those days took not only a pen-name, but what we might call a "pen-man". This convenient person registered the plays in his own name, and was liable thus for prosecution if he incensed the reigning power by causing the people to think too seriously. Plays were then registered to protect the Crown, rather than to assist the writer himself. Thus when young William Shaxberd, as the name was sometimes spelled, came up to London to make his fortune, he might have found the rising politician, Francis Bacon, decidedly glad to make use of his initials, and even of his name and personality. Francis Bacon's childhood had been in charge of a finely educated, keenly intelligent woman, with an ardent public spirit. Yet Lady Bacon was too active a Puritan not to dread the influence of the drama. Once when Francis was thought to be taking part in the Christmas revels at Gray's Inn, where the youthful lawyers congregated, she wrote to her son Anthony, "I pray they do not mum, nor mask, nor sinfully revel." This was an added reason for keeping the honored family name away SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER from the play-houses, at least until one had proved one's mission. But who that writes a play does not wish to see it acted? Who that could so move the hearts of men in a court-room, would not desire to see his written words affect the larger audience of the stage? Here a cipher offered its aid. Bacon could write as his fancy led him, could use real personages, characters in actual history, jests of the moment, and be open to no censure but that of his own swift brain, if only he could weave within the plays some cipher that would secure his author- ship for the time to come. His fear was not that a cipher might never be discovered, but that it might be discovered too soon, and thus wreck his career. De-ciphering was a recognized study. As Bacon advanced in his calling he may have believed that every scrap of his writings would be searched, after his death, for the hint of a political secret or a hidden history. What he perhaps did not foresee was that he would again be in political disfavor, and that decipherers would not concern them- selves with the manuscripts of a discarded mem- ber of King James's court. But when this time came, the fact overtook Lord Bacon, but did not daunt him. The first complete collection of the plays known as those of "W. S."or of "William Shakespeare", was published in 1623, seven years after Shake- 15 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPE_ARE speare's death. This, the First Folio edition of Shakespeare, marked a date when Bacon had been already two years in retirement, living outside London, and busying himself with writing. Bacon's private secretary. Dr. Rawley, states that one of the first pieces of work done by Bacon after his retirement, and therefore not long before the printing of the First Folio, was the short, disconnected Fragment called the Abece- darium Naturae^ or Alphabet of Nature. This has been acknowledged to be his work by his great biographers, Montagu and Spedding, but it has puzzled them as well as other readers because of its curious character. It is classed as a piece of unfinished metaphysical writing. In reality, it gives the clearest clue to Bacon's cipher, and was, as I believe, planned for that purpose, though it does not stand alone in its ability to act as a cipher guide. Lord Bacon died in 1626. After his death. Dr. Rawley brought out a portion of his remaining manuscript in book form. After Rawley's death, an old friend of the Rawleys', Archbishop Teni- son, came into possession of much of the manu- script yet unpublished and still in its original shape. In his collection called Baconiana, pub- lished in 1679, Tenison includes the Abecedarium Naturae. Bacon set a high value upon every scrap of his own writing. In his will he left definite in- structions for the preservation of all of it, and for 16 SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER the publishing of everything that he had written. He also directed that complete copies of all his works be given to several of the most permanent and notable libraries in England. Thus he sought to safeguard the cipher itself and the secret of the cipher, as well as his openly acknowledged works. II Another question asked with zeal is this; "Why not let Shakespeare have his plays in peace r One answer in many is that William Shake- speare went up to London after a way of life that was certainly not that of a thinker and a student; and that he is given only three years in London before he is presumed to have begun his dramatic work. He had a position as hostler at the first. Three years, under any circumstances, is a rather short time in which to acquire the various high forms of intelligence, the multitude of unfamiliar facts, known to us, but novel in that day; the ap- parently instinctive knowledge of court customs and refinements of speech and manner; the French as well as the English point of view; the sym- pathy with country folk from the viewpoint of an enthusiastic onlooker, and his types of fine, spirited, highly- trained women; — a short time for the young man of too convivial habits and a poacher's tastes to transform himself into the progressive thinker, the busy dramatist, the trusted friend for all the ages of mankind. 2 i^ BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE No one can say that Shakespeare could not possibly have done this. But the chances appear strongly against his having done it. One grants much to a flash of genius. However, as between two men with flashes of genius, the man whose genius comes from a reasonable source, and who has lived up to his own perception of it most frankly and logically throughout a strenuous life, commands the larger confidence. From such a man we should prefer to take our philosophy, our English literary standard, our warm human ideals. Now it might be called a miracle if Shakespeare wrote the plays. It takes only a few grains of Elizabethan mystery and romance added to Ba- con's career in order to feel assured that not only could he have done it all, but that he could never have been kept from doing it. The Shakespeare plays were written over a period from 1590 to 161 2, according to a table given by Neilson and Thorndike. {Facts about Shakespeare^ page 76) This is an interesting es- timate. It does not disturb, so far as Bacon is concerned, and it leaves that nice margin of three years, after Shakespeare's arrival in London, for him to have used in acquiring the necessary merit for his new and totally amazing life-work. Yet — it is given to all human minds to doubt the incredible. Stress is rightly laid on Ben Jonson's friendship with "Shakespeare". But in the long dedicatory SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER poem of Ben Jonson's, set at the front of the First Folio, there is revealed an entire acquaintance with the Dial cipher of Bacon. And one other of the dedicatory verses in the Folio, a poem of only eight lines beginning "We wondred (Shake- speare) that thou wentst so soon", and signed by an unknown "I.M", tallies on the Bacon Dial- chart in such a way as to prove that the cipher was known to the writer as Bacon's own. The con- clusion is that to several, at least, of Lord Bacon's friends, the use he made of a "pen-man" was a secret they shared and kept and appreciated, as a necessity of his times. How different those times were from ours, and how much more difficult it would have been for Bacon to have spent much time at the play- house, or for Shakespeare to have spent much time at the court, may be realized by considering the social standing of an actor in those days. He was not then, as he may be in the twentieth cen- tury, a "lion" of any sort whatever. To be an actor, it was required that a man take out a li- cense as a servant, whose master vouched for him. The pay was meager, the actor of that day stood either on the verge of ruin or the threshold of failure, while if he ever saw the inside of a palace hall it was to pass through on the way to the servants' quarters, as do the players in Hamlet^ or to act a part for a few brief instants on its stage. Literally, such an actor, even had Shakespeare BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE been actor and plajrwright both, could only have seen the members of the court at a time when he did in actual fact "strut and fret his hour" on the stage. Any thought of Shakespeare as ab- ruptly stepping into the glare and the fashion of the court life is a modern one, not upheld by the Elizabethan facts. Therefore it does not ap- pear wholly irrational to doubt his acquire- ment of the thousand things he never could have learned in Stratford, England. Ill There is a third question raised, and it is one of distinction. "Can a great creative artist limit himself by a haggling cipher?" Every one who writes, whether it is more or less, feels those sudden moments when thought and feeling seem to work from without oneself, and to compel the unexpected presence of unsought words upon the paper. How in such a mood could one pause to insert a word that ought to occur in the ninety- ninth line of the forty-third page of the something- cipher? The reply to this is that Francis Bacon used his Dial cipher exactly as one might use any frame- work or skeleton of a play. He built his play about it. It was that by which he tried to give bal- ance, harmony, and the sense of living reality. A poet sometimes takes an intense pleasure in fitting words to a new rhythm, and an artist invents new obligations for himself in the realm 20 SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER of color and line. Bacon, essentially an observer, used his cipher like a note-book or a sketch-book. It served to stimulate both his memory and his imagination. He planned his plays to accord with certain harmonizing groups on his Dial- chart. He had a well-developed theory as to the needs of a mind that visualizes, and he is on record as believing that if one wished to remember such a word as "philosophy", it would be most easily done by visualizing the act of reading and men- tally picturing Aristotle as he read. Bacon's cipher is in the form of a visual guide and is easily memorized. He might have enjoyed using it even if he had been in the forest of Arden, with no chart in the forest. But there was a real "Dial" in the forest. And it is probable that he did in fact work with a real Dial board, on which he moved "pieces" or pegs. It is to be noted that the letter groups on the Dial-chart vary so that they may suggest to any- one using it a constantly changing progression of short words, as the circles are followed around the Dial. This may account in part for the ex- traordinary vocabulary of fifteen thousand words found in Shakespeare, many of them used but once in the plays. It may be proved that many words occur in the text at places tallying with the same word on the Dial-chart. This is true of unusual words and of many jests and puns. The famous "Duc-dame" in As You Like //, the "Ban-Ban-Cacalyban" in Tempest^ and the name 11 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Yorick in Hamlet are examples of this Dial frame- work. Spellings within a single Hour-group are here called "in" the group; those reaching to another group for a letter are "at" the group. Words spelled in one or two lines are here considered ex- cellent tallies between Dial and text, provided that the word itself is significant, or so used in many- instances. The Dial Hours vary sufficiently in their lettering to give accuracy of tally. Gamma is an easy Hour in which to spell words; Delta with its many consonants is a difficult one. The best test of the Dial cipher is to try it for oneself. It was designed by Bacon, and is built here upon his own plan. The great fact is that, as Prospero said in Tempest ^ "It works. '^ IV "What is this cipher?" The Dial cipher is formed by fitting a compass face over a clock face. Clues leading to it are found in Francis Bacon's Alphabet of Nature^ in the History of the Winds^ and in other scientific notes of his. The completed Dial {see Frontispiece) bears the twelve clock hours, and the thirty-two points of the mariner's compass plus the extra points needed to fill out the hour divisions. Each hour, containing three compass points, is labelled with the special qual- ity bestowed upon it by Bacon in the Alphabet of Nature. 22 SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER Clock time and compass time are both set on the Dial, as well as the points of the compass. Letters of the alphabet are placed at the inter- sections of point lines and circles on the compass, the chief circles seen on the compass being used, and the letters beginning at point i on compass and clock, and at the end of the line nearest the center of the Dial. The Dial is finished by a pointer (like a clock-hand), which is a point of connection between the Dial and the text of the plays of Shakespeare, and is a Question-mark. Bacon's Alphabet of Nature describes twelve "Inquisitions" — another word for questions — and the Dial pointer keeps a tally with the Question- marks in the First Folio of Shakespeare, printed in 1623. The Question-marks are counted from the first one in each play straight through to the last, and by their context these tally at every few questions with the qualities of the Hour divi- sions at which the count has arrived. In other words, the Inquisitions, or Questions, follow round and round the Dial, with no break in continuity and purpose, and with no failure to link themselves plainly to the Dial Hours at every few counts, and in every one of the thirty-six plays of the Folio. This is the Hour count. A second count, corresponding to the minute hand of a clock but not indicated on the Dial- chart, is tallied with the speeches, or speakers, in the text. This second count follows the com- pass points, and is called the Speech count. A 23 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE third, or Personal count, is kept of the speeches made by each character. The Hour count travels a round of twelve, and the Speech count a round of thirty-six, these rounds being repeated many times in the course of a play. The number of Question-marks varies from 195 in Tempest to 552 in Othello. Modern editing has so changed the plays from their Folio punctuation, capitalization, and spell- ing that the cipher is not easily seen in some copies. But with the counts given here, it will be possible to tally many text references with the corresponding Dial group, or compass point. The Folio edition of Porter and Clarke may be used for verifying the Dial cipher. Many libraries have fac-simile copies of the First Folio itself. Hudson's edition needs but few changes in order to follow with it the Speech and Personal counts. Notes on such changes to be made in three plays are given at the end of this book, and also the complete Question count necessary in order to verify the Dial in Macbeth. Almost any good, unexpurgated edition of "Shakespeare" will show some tallies, especially in the first part of a play, or in the speeches made as characters enter for the first time. My quotations follow often the print- ing of the First Folio, but where capitals are not important to some cipher proof I have used in many cases the modern form. The examples given here in proof of the cipher's presence are not isolated nor accidental, but are 24 SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER chosen from a straight tabulation I have made that includes every speech in the Folio and every one of the more than ten thousand questions in the plays, with a detailed study and tallying on the Dial. Not every Q (Question-mark) tallies, but every few Q's do tally, and the tallying hits at the hour of that particular Q in its order. Rules for the Cipher Count. The Q's, or Interrogation-marks, are numbered for identification straight through a play. The Hours at which they move along the Dial are numbered in rounds of 12's, and each round starts afresh at Point i after reaching Hour 12, Omega. This is the governing count, around which the literary framework is made. Hints for qualities to look for in the Shakespeare text and to tally at these Hour points will be found in the chapter on "Dial Hours in the Text." The Speeches, or parts spoken by characters in the text, and in order straight through the play, are numbered on rounds of 36, following the com- pass points straight around the Dial to point 36 and then jumping back to point i for a new start. Speech points may be identified by the number of the Q at which they occur, as Q25, H (Hour) i. Speech point 23- ^y means of the Speech count, tallies are made that confirm the Q count, amplify it, or give other exact detail as to time, compass, letter, and figure references. A speech is counted as one speech while controlled by the speaker's name. 25 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE A Song is treated like a spoken passage if the name of the singer is definitely set by the song, or if it contains Q's, otherwise not. The Personal count, like the Speech count, follows the round of the ^^ compass points, and starts anew at point i after each full round. This is the count of each speech made by each character in the play, treated as his own individual count. Each character makes his first entrance at point I, no matter how far along in the play he enters. After an exit, the character re-enters at the exact point on the Dial at which he made the exit, and his next speech thereafter advances him to the next point. Many Alpha-Omega references in the plays will be found to be made by minor characters who come in as if needed to make the reference, and who perhaps remain but for a few counts. The Personal count often shows striking coin- cidences, agreeing with or improving the other two counts, as if there were a movement of small puppets about the board, whose business was also to fetch and carry letters, form words at groups, tally with peculiar words and puns in the text, and, at great moments, line up in visible form on the Dial as if to point with a finger at the important place. Mention of "hands" in the text often hints at significant arrangements of the Dial hands that count the Hour, Speech, and Per- sonal counts on the chart. Bear in mind the fact that all these counts begin slowly, as if for reasons of caution. One may go 26 SOME REASONS FOR A CIPHER twice about the Dial and find at first but a few tallies. The tally becomes more close as the play heightens in interest, and is stressed at the finest moments. The cipher proof is here developed on the Dial in six ways; 1. "Gates" and "Keys" mentioned in the text of Shakespeare are tallied with the Gates and Keys on the Dial. 2. Time references are tallied with the compass or clock time set on the Dial. 3. Compass points in the text are tallied with the compass points on the Dial. 4. Bacon acrostics visible in the text, and the names "Francis" and "Bacon" are tallied with the letters forming the same acrostics and names on the Dial. 5. Certain capitals indicated in the text are duplicated at their correct tally place on the Dial, and lines traced between them on the Dial-chart result in "Maze Pictures" or designs that form Bacon signatures, called here Blazons. 6. Literary evidence is brought forward, tally- ing with the Hour groups on the Dial the context of the same Hour groups within the text, and often proving most effective in the specially significant passages of the plays. It is a satisfaction to add that the Dial cipher upholds the evidence of much Baconian proof al- ready presented by others. 27 CHAPTER II THE GATES AND KEYS The Gates traced on the Dial-chart tally in a large proportion of cases with the use of the word Gates itself in the text of the First Folio. They serve to verify the correct arrangement of letters about the Dial-chart. Their presence on the chart gives a sense of reality that is increasingly felt as one studies the plays. It would be logical to insert here the Alphabet of Nature; but remembering Bacon's own theory of the visualizing mind, I have shown the great Gates on the Dial first. {See Figs, i and 2.) It will be easier to interpret the clue after a slight acquaintance with the Dial itself. The many references in the text of Shakespeare to watches, clocks, "Time", with capital or with- out, telling the time, and appointments made for certain times, as well as the unusually frequent questions about the time on the clock, serve to hint at some form of time-piece connected with a cipher. Bacon gives in his Alphabet of Nature a list of twelve Greek letters, with the character- istics he ascribes to them as titles belonging to something; but no one has known to what. These titles are mentioned in this order: Tau, concerning the Earth, Upsilotiy concerning the 28 THE GATES AND KEYS Water, Phi, the Air, Chiy the Fire, Psiy Celestial Bodies, Omega^ Meteors, Alpha^ Concerning Being and Not Being, Beta^ Possible and Impossible, Gamma, Much and Little, Delta, Eternal and Momentary, Epsilon, Natural and Monstrous, Zeta, Natural and Artificial. The first six he calls "Threefold" and the last six "Fourfold". Tau he calls the 67th Tau. Alpha is the 73rd Alpha. In other words, if Bacon were giving a clue to a clock Dial he could hardly do better than to number his Hour titles thus. Alpha 73 may be the hour i of a fourth day of time, twenty-four being the number assigned to one day of hours. Tau 67 would be in the third series or third- twenty-four, and on a clock face it would stand at seven o'clock. The simple arrangement of Bacon's list of titles around a clock face, instead of in two tablets, formed the basis of the Dial cipher. {See Frontispiece.) This soon proved its power to tally at some points with the text al- lusions in the play. But an under-rhythm soon be- came apparent, and Measure for Measure was the first play that gave hints of the definite compass movement. Verifications of time were tallied; points of the wind, letters capitalized in the text and many double meanings and puns, as well as references within the often long sections controlled by the Question count, at once began to emerge by tally. The Gates, as gates of a city or a castle, were 29 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE in the time of Elizabeth heavy and substantial things, and a certain warrant for drawing them out on the Dial may perhaps be given in Measure for Measure, when the Duke speaks of "Making practise on the Times, To draw with idle spiders* strings Most ponderous and substantial things?" This is Question 241, Hour i. The compass Dial joined to the clock Dial car- ries out another of Bacon's expressed ideas. In the Advancement oj Learning, he writes; "Of these (ciphers) there are many kinds: simple ciphers; ciphers mixed with non-significant characters; wheel-ciphers; key-ciphers; word-ciphers; and the like. But the virtues required in them are three: that they be easy and not laborious to write; that they be safe, and impossible to be deciphered; and lastly that they be, if possible, such as not to raise suspicion." He adds, "Thoughts may be communicated at any distance or place by means of objects per- ceptible either to the eye or ear, provided only that those objects are capable of two differences, as by bells, trumpets, gunshots and the like." (Sped- ding's Philosophical Works of Lord Bacon, Vol. IV, page 444.) Bacon has a long treatise on the compass and the history of the winds, full of cipher hints. The union of clock and compass forms a case of "two differences" in a visible thing. But of course one cannot expect to set a com- pass face down upon a clock face and have both behave as if nothing had happened. There are 30 THE GATES AND KEYS readjustments to be made. It is the clock, not the compass, that gets pushed about, for the last Hour, 12, coincides with the first Hour, i, on the Dial, and the three compass divisions belonging rightfully to Hour 12 are thus set behind the let- ters in Hour i. Alpha is a visible hour on the Dial, but Omega is "invisible," and many refer- ences to "invisible" things in the Folio are made at the top of the Dial, in the tally of the text. A three-in-one effect is also at the top of the Dial, because of the fact that the third point in Hour 11, Psi, is overlapped by the first point of Alpha, Hour i . Psi, Alpha, and Omega have thus some common interests, being inextricably joined. This forms the basis for many references to triple or triangle arrangements found in the plays. The compass is the mariner's compass, copied as accurately as possible. The main circles of the compass are taken for the letters. There must be letters, for Bacon distinctly names the cipher an "Alphabet of Nature." It is sensible to place the letter A at the highest line, or line i, and at its end nearest the center, since at first one cannot be sure how many circles will be necessary to the Dial; they might be increased, but practically, seven times about the Dial makes up the needed tally of letters, here. Note the affirmatives ''Yea" and "y^fj" at point i and the subjoined "A^o" at Zeta, — and in Alpha, also, "Nay'\ In starting the second round of letters about 31 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE the Dial, it will be seen that the G steps up one circle and then H continues on; this stepping up of the letters at point i is another Dial fact that, like the "invisible" Omega, amounts in practice to a Dial trick, and both have probably helped to guard the secret of the cipher. For no straight count of either clock or compass points can be made to tally with text references until the count on points has gone through to the last point, 2^3 of Omega, and then returned suddenly to point i and started anew at Alpha. This means that point I, 23i 12, which is the triple truth about point I on the Dial, may be struck by a text tally more than once, as will be shown later. The move- ment back to point i, after passing it and going on to ^Sj is a safety move, and is called here "cast- ling", since it is noted in the text by frequent allusions to "castles" and "castling" that seem to suggest the movement made in chess, and known as "to castle," by which the King is safe-guarded. The compass claims the line i as its North point, or North Star. The first play printed in the Folio is Tempest. The 25th Q in the play would strike at Hour i, having just finished two rounds of 12. This Q is therefore at point i, in Alpha, and due North. It will be of help in proving these tallies if the Dial-chart shown in the front part of the book is used as one reads. Here at Q 25, H i, Prospero says that his "Zenith" depends upon a most "auspicious star.'* 32 THE GATES AND KEYS The Q's travel round the Dial again and come once more to the top of the Dial, at Q 36, H 12, the Alpha-Omega group. Here Prospero uses the phrase "To run upon the sharp wind oi the North.'' Thus in the first 36 Q's of the first play, the facts of point I on the Dial are suggested. The North Gate is also set here, as will be seen in the Compass chapter. But Bacon also gives to this Alpha-Omega group a distinct moral and religious significance. It is the height of the Dial, the place of Truth and Love. Christmas references are often tallied here. At Q 13, H I, ("Partizan?") in Hamlet, come the words, "Some says, that ever gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour s Birth is celebrated^ the Bird of Dawning singeth all night long^ ... So hallowed, and so gracious is the time" Alpha-Omega is not only the Dial's First and Last, the Beginning and Ending, but it is Day and Night, Waking and Sleeping, Midnight and Daybreak. Hour Omega carries the compass hours of earliest morning, and is thus referred to a multitude of times by mention of actual hours in the text at these points. It is to be noted that the compass itself is divided into quarters, and into halves, each half marked by an Hour 12, at the top and bottom of the Dial, while both Hour 3 and Hour 9 carry compass time six o'clock. The real compass is thus kept in its integrity on the Dial. * 33 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE If there were to be a "Narrow Gate," in the Scriptural sense of it, made on the Dial-chart, it would be placed quite naturally at this Alpha- Omega group. The letters of the word Gate, with connecting lines traced between them, do form a long, narrow, lane-like track into the Alpha country. A stretch of fancy might call it the opening of a Gate itself, or the path between the walls of a Gate. It also looks like a needle, a dagger, or a finger. {See Fig. i) Other Gates are at Hours 9 and 10 {Fig. /), where the opening is broad; at Hours 5 and 7, where the two resemble double Gates, with a square or courtyard between. {See Fig. 2) There is a side Gate at Gamma also, easily traced. Now in Richard //, at Q 216, H 12 ("he not.?") the count reaches the Gate at Alpha-Omega. Here Richard muses: "And do set the Faith itself Against the Faith; as thus. Come little ones: and then again. It is as hard to come, as for a Camel To thred the postern of a Needless eye.^' This would not be used as a "Gate" reference, since it says "postern"; but, nevertheless, in the meaning and tally it is a good allusion to the "Narrow Gate" seen on the Dial at Alpha. And, in working fact, posterns in the text are used to tally at the Gates, and even doors and windows are so placed in many striking passages in the plays. The Gates at each side of Zeta are much stressed as the scene of meetings, either before a castle or city wall or in a garden, a forest, a pub- 34 THE GATES AND KEYS lie square, a banqueting hall, whatever the par- ticular need of the special play suggested. When in Richard II the sad queen walks in the Garden, she enters the Epsilon gate, and speaks first at Zeta, Q 126, H 6 ("Care?") The ancient gardener comes in and later she exclaims to him, "Thou old Adams likeness, set to dress this gar- den". But, when she speaks of the garden of Eden thus, she has reached the top of the Dial, where Hour II is the place of "Celestial" things, and a part of the Heaven at Alpha-Omega, for the Q is 131, H II, and immediately the Queen takes herself directly upon Alpha by asking, ''What Ever In As You Like It Orlando is asked by his irate brother, "Do you know where you are sir?" He retorts: composedly enough, and with Dial veracity, "O very well sir, here in your garden" for he is at the moment exactly at Q 6, H 6, ("sir?") the Zeta garden. It is not long before the Gates begin to give the Dial-chart an aspect of reality. And the con- viction grows that it was also, to Bacon himself, a species of stage, a miniature scene, shifting with every play, yet keeping certain distinct and vivid possibilities ever the same, certain places on the stage floor for certain well understood events and actions. A frequent illustration is in the recurrence of incidents or moods at the same place on the Dial, in repeated rounds of twelves. 3S BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Thus in Twelfth Night, Viola is told by the Duke to address her "gate" unto Olivia, and the Folio spelling of "Gait" as "Gate" allows a pun, at this place, that is often used. They stand here at the hall at Zeta, Q 42, H 6 ("hoa?") At Q 51, H 3, ("Malvolio ?") Lady Olivia is told that some one waits "at the gate". At Q 54, H 6, she in- quires, "What is he at the gate, cousin?" At Q 57, H 9, ("lethargy?") she is again told that there is "one at the gate", this being at the West Gate, directly opposite that Gamma or East Gate at which Viola had first sought admittance. Perhaps the persistent young page has tried all the entrances! At any rate, when Viola actually enters the house she does so at the identical East Gate, with her own inquiry about the Lady, "which is she?" (Q 63, H 3.) Now Olivia, still at the prominent double en- trance, or hall, or center of the stage, is at Q 66, H 6 ("house?") when she reproves Viola for being "saucy" at her "gates." But when Viola declares that if she herself were the Duke who is denied a sight of the Lady she would build a "willow cabin" at the "gate", she speaks directly outside the Zeta courtyard, being by Q 77, H 5, ("you?") at the gate Epsilon, without, and not within, the gateway. This is too fine a setting to have chanced by accident. The plays abound in such miniature stage effects, achieved by the return of the Q to some chosen spot on the Dial. In Twelfth Night even the tragic groups of the 36 THE GATES AND KEYS Dial, which will be shown later to be Chi, the place of the Fire, and Epsilon, the place of the things Monstrous, are treated humorously. When Sir Toby says to Maria, as a compliment, that he will follow her "to the gates of Tartar^ thou ex- cellent devil of wit,'' he speaks at the place of many devils, H 9, Q 141, ("him?") where the Broad Gate begins to be seen, before it spreads out across Chi, Hour 10. The Dial cipher undoubtedly has a flavor of the old morality play. The Fire at Chi, H 10, is stressed as symbolic of evil and punishment, in the more serious plays, such as Macbeth. But in some cases the Fire here is a happy Fire, that of candle-light, the torch light, the Beacon (a pun on Bacon) and the hearth. Yet its significance as suggestive of Dante's hell is stressed throughout the Folio. It is the evil of the world. A double interpretation of this Hour 10 is given in those familiar words of Portia, in Mer- chant of Venice: — "How far that little candle throws his beams; so shines a good deed in a naughty world." She is at Q 178, H 10, ("go in?") and has just said, as she nears her own home, "That light you see is burning in my hall." The Gate here is the door of her home, though it is not mentioned in the text. This shining light of home is burning literally on the Dial in the midst of "a naughty world." The plainest reference to the Broad and Narrow Gates is made in All's Well, on a count running 37 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE from Q 177, H 9, ("with a plot?") to Q 180, H 12, ("Prince is that?") At Hour 9, Helena refers to the gratitude of the King, "which gratitude Through. ^infy Tartar's bosom would peep forth." The Clown enters, and presently says he "has not much skill in grace." He boasts about the prince he serves. Asked to explain about his master the prince, he says that he is the "black prince, sir, alias the prince of darkness, alias the devil." He continues at Q 180, H 12, "I am a wood- land fellow sir, that always loved a great fire^ and the master that I speak of ever keeps a good fire, but sure he is the Prince of the world . . . I am J or the house with the narrow gate^ which I take to be too little for pomp to enter; some that humble themselves may, but the many will be too chill and tender, and they'll be for the flowery way that leads to the broad gate and tho. great fire ^ It will be seen that the three letters used in spelling Pomp cover a space slightly smaller than that of the gate-opening at Chi, on the inner circle. Pomp may enter at the Chi, or Broad Gate. The Humble may be seen bending them- selves about, and somewhat painfully, beside the Narrow Gate. In each place the letters of Bacon's name are seen in a cube of nine letters, together with the letters of the "Hang-Hog," a jest that is associated with the family name. Line 34, at which the needle or finger points, is, in its strictly mechanical interpretation, both the line 38 THE GATES AND KEYS Omega 34, and Alpha 2, the only line on the Dial with both F and B upon it, and this only pos- sible because of the "invisible" Omega trick. There is perhaps a hint that F. Bacon meant, like the Clown, to aim for the Narrow Gate. The Bacon cube or group of nine letters is seen on the Dial at Alpha, at Zeta, at Upsilon and at Chi. At each place the text tallies many times by a designed arrangement of capitals, and of direct phrases, as well as by bringing the actual names Francis and Bacon to strike at these groups. One mission of the Gate is to show these signature effects, or to call attention to them. That Lord Bacon meant to bring Gates, as GateSy definitely before the minds of possible de- cipherers seems evident from many peculiar uses of the word in his acknowledged works. One such example may be quoted from the Novum Organuniy (Montagu's Life of Bacon^ Vol. Ill, p. 402) where Bacon explains that as "sight" holds the "first rank among the senses" we must "seek principally helps for that sense." In his note 52, p. 424, he says that among "twenty-seven instances'' that should be studied, a few special ones, including those of ^ow^r and of the ''gate'' must be "collected immediately." "For", he declares, "these either assist and cure the understanding and senses, or furnish our gen- eral practice. . . . For these instances, hon- ored and gifted with such prerogatives, are like 39 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE the soul amid the vulgar crowd of instances, and, as we observed, a few of them are worth a multi- tude of the others." On the Dial the two words Gate and Power form together a sort of garland that runs about the circles, the E being common to both words. Together they place the letters in the lines as correctly set, tallying with the Dial. But Power is also symbolized by the Key. The Key is seen spelled on the Dial in one line at several points, forming a close second verification allied with the Gates. In Othello^ at the moment when Othello is interrupted in his first rage at Desdemona, he turns to Emilia, as she enters, and flings at her, "You that have the office opposite to St. Peter and keep the Gate of Hell ... I pray you turn the key and keep our counsell." He speaks at Q 379, H 7, ("possible?") in Tau, that Earth he is himself turning into a "hell." Gate and Key are both in Tau. Emilia, by her Personal count, stands at point 30, in Chi the place of Fire. The Gates are so prominent on the Dial that it may seem almost impossible at first sight to attach any importance to a tally with them in the text. If it were a mere matter of saying that the word Gates was used at this and that Hour, there might be some perplexity. But the Gates tally by a distinct context, setting certain phrases and ideas and comparisons in certain definite places on the Dial, throughout the Folio. 40 THE GATES AND KEYS When Beatrice, in Much Ado, is teased about being on the road to hell, she is telling the Dial truth when she retorts, at Q 51, H 3, ("with him?") "No, but to the ^<2/d' .... and there will the Devil meet me .... and say, get you to heaven Beatrice .... and away to St. Peter." The East Gate is used consistently for the Gate of Morning, of Sunrise, and of the High Altar which may symbolize the entrance to a new life. It is Heaven viewed from the earth, the visible entrance to Life in Death, as Alpha-Omega is the more solemn aspect of Life and Death. The whole quarter of the Dial, from the High East at Alpha and the first daybreak sign to the point 9 in Gamma, is used with a sense of morning, of new life, and of earthly beauty, as will be shown in the compass references later. Geographically the East Gate is the approach to the high hill, or the High East, or the heights of the Dial, Alpha. Often in the Folio there is a cross-Dial reference, as if one stood at the East Gate and looked out toward the morning air, the Air having been set at Phi, Hour 9, and the com- bination of the two groups being natural on the Dial. No Hour on the Dial is left as wholly un- desirable. So in Hamlet, when the Ghost tells Hamlet the story of the murder, he is at Q 75, H 3, East Gate, when he says, "But soft, methinks I scent the Mornings Air." He then speaks of the poison that 41 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE flowed like quicksilver "Through the natural Gates and Allies of the body." This is the only mention of a Gate in Hamlet, In Cymbeline there are three Gate references. The first is at Q 87, H 3, "It is almost morning is't not?" The reply is, "Day, my Lord." Clock time here gives three o'clock; compass time sets it between 4:30 and 6, reason for frequent in- quiries of this nature. Then comes the song, "Hark, hark the Lark at Heaven's gate sings. And Phoebus gins arise." Later, at Q 135, H 3 ("and hour?") the old man wakens the boys for their early morning walk, their "Mountain sport", up to "yond hill." He says to them, "this gate Instructs you how t' adore the Heavens, and bows you to a mornings holy office. . . . The Gates of Monarchs are Arched so high. . . . Hail thou fair Heaven." And the boys in turn exclaim, "Hail Heaven!" The third and last Gate in Cymbeline brings in the text capitals of the Bacon letters at Q 238, H 10 ("afeard?") by the ingenious mention of "setting heads" "on the Gates of Luds-Towne". Here, as in many other cases of "heads" and "be- headings", the meaning is the simple one of a riddle, the heads being the capital letters of a name. Many curious and bloodthirsty passages in the plays are thus vastly mollified in Dial fact. Cymbeline is the last play in the Folio, and this bringing in of the Capitals at the Bacon cube of nine letters is entirely fitting. 42 THE GATES AND KEYS There are but three Gates in Lear. The first is at Lear's anguished cry, "O Lear, Lear, Lear! Beat at this Gate that let thy Folly in, and thy dear Judgment out." Where should this refer- ence fall on the Dial-chart? It does fall at O io6 ("show?"), and Hour lo, the place of the Broad Gate. The second reference is at Q 274, H 10 ("King?"), and seems meant to tally a second time, as if for proof: "Hot Questrists after him, met him at the gate." The third and last is again at the Broad Gate. At Q 285, H 9, ("Dover?") comes this: "If Wolves had at thy gates howled that stern time Thou shouldst have said, good Porter, turn the Key." Here the Broad Gate is reached three times in the play, with the Key at- tached. Bartlett's Concordance gives, in all, 126 Gates mentioned in the Folio. The word "Gait", spelled "Gate", is used 32 times, and is often arranged as a pun to lead to a genuine Gate. Of the 126 Gates, I do not know one that does not identify itself accurately as belonging, by a near context, with the Dial hour at which it strikes. This is usually a tally by the Hour count, yet the Speech count often seconds the Hour count, or some- times stresses a fuller interpretation of the passage at still another group. There are indications that the Dial Hours, with their almost uncanny habit of fastening themselves in the mind, may have inspired some of the most striking allusions and similes that the playwright uses. 43 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Only a few other Gates can here be given, and briefly. The first Gates in the Folio are in Tem- pest, at Q 21, H 9 ("hear?"), and are "the gates of Milan", opened to thrust out Prospero and his child. This is the only Gate reference in the play. The double Gate at Zeta is often used in the his- torical plays. In King John, "Welcome before the gates of Angiers, Duke," is at Q 30, H 6 ("Faulcon- bridge?"); the "city's eyes, your winking gates" are at Hour 3, perhaps suggested by a rousing from slumber at the morning placement. "Counter check before your gates" is also at Hour 3, and "rammed up our gates" is at Hour 5, while a second "Open your gates" is brought to Hour 6, Zeta, and to Hour 5 again "Ope your gates." The "Gates of Mercy" are at Psi-Alpha on the Dial, and in Henry V, at Q 49, H i ("Town?") it is said, "The Gates of Mercy shall be all shut up." In J Henry VI the cry of York, about to be murdered, at Q 69, H 9, ("Northumberland?") is tragically set at the Broad Gate; "Open thy Gate of Mercy, gracious God, My Soul flies through these wounds, to seek out thee." The Queen then exclaims, "Ofi^ with his head, and set it on York Gates." When, in j Henry VI, the demand is made of the besieged city, "Open the Gates, we . . . are friends", at Q 237, H 9, the place is at the entrance to the Gate. The Mayor comments in the form of an inquiry that takes him to the Gate 44 THE GATES AND KEYS so widely opened at Chi, "I say you so?" (Q 238, H, 10), and at once adds, "The Gates shall then be opened." He is then told, "These Gates must not be shut," and, "Yield me up the Keys." Here the Folio directions take the trouble to insert, ''Takes his Keys." The Speech point strikes ex- actly at point i,2'> ^^^ ^^7 1^"^j which is set at the high place of the Dial. The Folio directions had also taken the pains to say, of the Mayor, "He descends." Here the top of the Dial is like the top of a city wall. As a matter of interest, it may be added that when Jessica, in Merchant of Venice, looks down from her window at Lorenzo, before tossing down the Casket so casually, she is at the top of the Dial, and the Folio directions add "Jessica above" at Q 47, H 11 ("within.?"). An hour at which no Gate is seen sometimes gets special notice. When Viola says that she would "answer" with "gate and entrance" but is "prevented," she is certainly "prevented" by the Q's, for there is no "Gate" at Q 148, H 4, in Twelfth Night. By her Personal count Viola stands at the Alpha Gate, point i. The word Key is used forty-one times in the Folio, according to Bartlett's Concordance. Of these all tally clearly and exactly either by Hour, Speech, or Personal count with the Keys spelled on the Dial lines. A few cases of a double verifi- cation by two counts at once are also found. 45 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Good examples of tally by Hour count are frequent: "The Key of Officer and office," in Tempest is the first one in the Folio, and comes at Q 19, H 7 ("attend me?"). Other Keys at Hour 7, Tau, are "Key of untuned cares?", in Comedy of Errors at Q 199; "Take this Key", in Love's Labor's Lost at Q 67 ("see?"); "These Counties were the Keys of Normandy", at Q 7 ("dis- course?") in 2 Henry VI; "Tuned in self-same key", at Q 79 ("greatness?") in Troilus and Cressida; and "Ne'er turns the key", in Lear^ at Q 175 ("here?"). The lettering of the Dial, beginning at point i, with A, involves a stepping up upon the higher circle for each letter in the round as it reaches point I again. This is a Dial trick of much use in cipher puns. It is noticed in Merry JVives of Windsor, at Q 227, H 11 ("Buck?"). The word Keys is here made at points 31 and i,!^. Ford says, in his jealous anger, as if aware of a stepping up at this place, both for the word Ke-Eys and the Alphabet itself, "Here, here, here be my keys, ascend my Chambers, search, seek, find out." He cries again, "True, up Gentlemen." Page ad- vises the others to "see the issue of this search," and Mistress Page herself sets the count exactly at Hour 12 by asking her Question, "Is there not a double excellency in this?", and makes a double proof as she speaks. In Comedy of Errors, the words, "Give her this key" are said at Q 121, H i ("Madman?") and 46 THE GATES AND KEYS the Speech count strikes point 31, almost a par- allel case, since i and 12 are the same thing at the top of the Dial. A third example is in / Henry VI ^ at Q 85, H i, ("company?") where at the command "Bring the Keys to me," the Speech point again touches point 31. The same divided set of Keys is seen at Beta-Gamma, points 5 and 7. "Take these keys" is at Speech point 5 in Romeo and Juliet^ and Q 294, ("shroud?"). "Bunches of Keys at their girdles," is in Beta, Q 26, H 2, ("Security?") in 2 Henry IV. "Key of all my counsells," in Henry V is at Gamma, Q 27, H 3, ("creature?"). When the frightened youth in Richard II im- plores the King, "Give me leave that I may turn the key,'' he is at Q 207, H 3, ("fault?") and Speech count 12. The King, in answering, reaches point 13, the Key-line at Epsilon, and as if hand- ing him the Key from that place, says to him, "Have thy desire." Other good point tallies are at point 7, in Mid- summery Q 100 ("innocence?") the phrase being "both in one key;" "Wears a key in his ear", at point I, Q 253, ("child?") in Much Ado; "Keys of that hung in Chains," at Speech point 1,3^ or i> and Q 232, ("Honesty is?") in Winters Tale. In Merchant of Venice , Shylock speaks of a "bondman's key" at Q 29, H 5, Epsilon, ("du- cats?") and Speech point 22. He says to Jessica, "There are my Keys," at Epsilon, Q 41, H 5, 47 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE ("will?"). The first suitor demands, "Deliver me the key," at Q 62, H 2, ("her?"), and Speech point 21. Portia, at this demand, is by her Per- sonal count at the very Key-line 19, in Tau, often used as England itself and to which the suitor now refers. The second suitor is at Q 6^, again at Epsilon, H 5, ("honor?") when he says "Give me a key for this," and the Speech point is 5, tallying the Ke of the Key at Hour 2 already used. Bassanio, the welcome suitor, has no key men- tioned in the text. But the Dial supplies him with one. For he is at Tau, H 7, when he actually opens the casket and exclaims, "What find I here?" It is as if Portia handed the Key to him at the right instant, for they are at Zeta, almost at the Tau Keys, the perfect key-line of the Dial, when she shows her delight at the possibility of his choosing wisely. The stress on Hour 5 is again seen in All's Well, where, at Q 5, H 5, ("that?") and Speech point 22, it is written, "And keep thy friend Under thy own life's key." The other Key in Othello is placed with a double proof. "Lock and Key of Villainous Se- crets" is at Q 359, H II ("nothing?") and also at Speech point ^Ti- The word "Key-hole" is used once in the Folio, at Q 211, H 7 ("do so"?) when Rosalind says, "'Twill out at the key-hole," in As You Like It. The word "Key-cold" is also used but once. THE GATES AND KEYS It is given a sterner accent when Anne, standing by the body of her murdered husband, exclaims, "Poor key-cold Figure of a holy King," and is placed by the Speech count at ^^y ^^^ intense North and icy cold of the Dial. The Q is i6, H 4 in Richard Illy and Delta, Hour 4, is consistently the place where Justice, the substitution of eternal justice in place of momentary injustice, is plainly set on the Dial. A few of these Gates with their appropriate Keys do in actual fact appear to be worth "a multitude of other instances." But the others are not lacking. Yet before tallying clock time and compass points with the Dial, it will be wise to read the Alphabet of Nature itself and to see what basis that gives for these interpretations of Shakes- peare's text. 49 CHAPTER III CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS Clues are meant to be baffling. They must be of several types, in order to attract at least one out of many types of readers. There must be enough of them to afford security, to elude sus- picion, and yet to rouse the interest. Lord Bacon could write most clear and forceful English. When he did not, he had his special reasons for it. My first step was to study carefully his ac- knowledged works, including his correspondence as given by his biographers. I noted passages that seemed like pseudo-science, or garbled phil- osophy, or that were heavy and involved in their sentence construction. Many such passages give clues to the Dial cipher. Extracts showing his interest in the subject of cipher and his need of a cipher were also taken. Bacon had several distinct styles of writing, a formal court style, a friendly and whimsical one for his intimates, and a direct, positive manner in his legal material. Only in the plays did the whole rich human personality find its expression. A letter written by Bacon in 1593 to the Earl of Essex uses phrases that show a method of con- veying intelligence, and possibly cover a cipher message as well. 50 CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS "The late recovered man . . . worketh for the Huddler underhand . . . as he that is an excellent wherryman, who you know looketh to- ward the bridge when he pulleth toward West- minster — " "Drawn out the nail which your Lordship had driven in for the negative of the Huddler." A postscript says, "Let not my jargon privilege my letter from burning, because it is not such but the light showeth through." In 1 62 1, two years before the Folio was printed, and about the time at which Bacon was working on the Alphabet of Nature^ he wrote to his good friend and critic, Toby Mathew, who probably knew his cipher, if anyone did, thus: "If upon your repair to the court (whereof I am right glad) you have any speech with the Marquis of me, I pray place the alphabet (as you can do it right well) in a frame, to express my love faithful and ardent towards him. And, for York House, that whether in a straight line, or a compass line, I meant it his lordship in the way which I thought might please him best." In 1622, only one year before the printing of the Folio, another correspondent who may have known his cipher wrote a letter to him employing possible Dial words, the hint that Bacon might need help in reading being perhaps an excuse for bringing in the word Key. The Alpha-Omega of the Dial is closely connected in Bacon's mind with the Alpha-Omega of the Book of Revelation, and he brings the words "I AM" to join it, as the 51 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE place of being and not being, in many of the im- portant soliloquies of the Folio. This letter says, "I have already talked of the revelation, and now am to speak in apocalyptical language, which I hope you will rightly comment; whereof, if you make difficulty, the bearer will help you with the key of the cipher. If York House were gone, the town were yours; and all your straightest shackles cleared off, besides more comfort than the city air only. ... I have no more to say, but that I am and ever will be — etc." (Montagu, Vol. II, p. 145.) "No more", a common phrase, was one of the first faint clues leading toward the Hour of finality on the Dial face, the Zeta that is used as the English Zed placed at the end of the twelve hours, and called the Zeta 78 by Bacon. In many cases the words "No more" fall near the 78th Question-mark in the plays, or in a progression away from it, and sufficiently often to suggest an intention to the decipherer. Spedding, in his life of Bacon, quotes Archbishop Tenison as having stated that in one copy of Bacon's will he left directions that certain friends of his at Gray's Inn should be consulted as to whether or not the right time for publishing his manuscript had come. After Bacon's death one Isaac Gruter wrote to Dr. Rawley desiring certain information for an edition of Bacon's works at which he was then laboring: 52 CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS "But neither shall this design, of setting forth in one volume all the Lord Bacon's works, pro- ceed without consulting you, and without inviting you to cast in your symbol, worthy such an excel- lent edition: so that the appetite of the reader may be gratified by the pure novelty of so con- siderable an appendage. ... I will support the wishes of my impatient desire, with hope of seeing one day those (issues) which, being committed to faithful privacy, wait the time till they may safely see the light, and not be stifled in their birth." A clue to the Question-marks is given by Bacon immediately before the pages treating of ciphers, (Spedding, Philosophical Works ^ Vol. IV, p. 444). He hints at a study of the "accentuation of sen- tences", which has not been made; "And yet it is common to all mankind almost to drop the voice at the end of a period, to raise it in asking a ques- tion, and other things of the kind not a few." On the next page he begins to describe the Bi- literal cipher, saying, (italics mine), "But for avoiding suspicion altogether, I will add another contrivance^ which I devised myself when I was at Paris, in my early youth, and which I still think worthy of preservation. For it has the per- fection of a cipher, which is to make anything signify anything." Clearly Bacon liked ciphers. The punctuation of the First Folio is done with a thought of the spoken word, and in guiding the reader's imagination it is delicate and stimulating 53 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE almost beyond belief. It beseeches one to give its phrases voice! Bacon was justified in suppos- ing that his most sane, accurate, and vividly ex- pressive interrogation-marks within the text would never lose their meaning and authority. He must have felt that in trusting his cipher to them he was entrusting it to the most kindly and unerring minister of the human voice. Bacon's written works also show that his mind was richly stored with observations on gestures and bodily movements as the result of moral qual- ities or strong emotions; that he noted stage ef- fects, the influence of light and color, and of lively music. This is too often overlooked in estimating the value and the type of his output. Spedding quotes him as having believed that all young people should be taught to act. One of Bacon's deliberate stage efi^ects is found in the New Atlantis, where the children in their mantles of "sea water green," the shining color, and the effect of white and of light in the feast room of Tirsan, could have been described only by a visualizing person with a mind sensitive to all forms of human feeling. The moment has now come when the reading of the Alphabet of Nature cannot be put off, senseless though the Fragment may appear to be. Montagu follows the original Latin form more closely than does Spedding. The italics are mine. 54 CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS THE ABECEDARIUM NATURAE, (OR "ALPHABET OF NATURE") (Montagu, Life and Works of Lord Bacon, Vol. Ill, P- S3'=>) A Fragment of a Book written by the Lord Verulam, and entitled, The Alphabet of Nature. Seeing so many things are produced by the earth and waters; so many things pass through the air, and are received by it; so many things are changed and dissolved hy fire; other inquisi- tions would be less perspicuous, unless the nature of those masses which so often occur, were well known and explained. To these we add inquisi- tions concerning celestial bodies, and meteors^ seeing they are of greater masses, and of the num- ber of catholic bodies. Greater Masses. The sixty-seventh inquisition. The threefold Tau, or concerning the earth. The sixty-eighth inquisition. The threefold Upsilony or concerning the water. The sixty-ninth inquisition. The threefold Phi, or concerning the air. The seventieth inquisition. The threefold Chi, or concerning the^r*?. The seventy-first inquisition. The threefold Psiy or concerning celestial bodies. The seventy-second inquisition. The threefold Omega, or concerning meteors. 55 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Conditions of Entities. There yet remain, as subjects of our inquiry, in our alphabet, the conditions of beings, which seem, as it were, transcendentals, and as such touch very Httle of the body of nature. Yet, by that manner of inquisition which we use, they will considerably illustrate the other objects. First, therefore; seeing (as Democritus excel- lently observed) the nature of things is in the plenty of matter, and variety of individuals large, and (as he affirmeth) infinite; but in its coitions and species so finite, that it may seem narrow and poor; seeing so few species are found, either in actual being or impossibility, that they scarce make up a muster of a thousand; and seeing nega- tives subjoined to affirmatives, conduce much to the information of the understanding: it is fit that an inquisition be made concerning being, and not being. That is the seventy-third in order, and reckoned the fourfold Alpha. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Alpha; or, concerning being, and not being. Now, possible and impossible are nothing else but conditions potential to being or not potential to being. Of this the seventy-fourth inquisition consists, and is accounted the fourfold Beta. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Beta; or, concerning possible and impossible. Also, much, little; rare, ordinary; are condi- tions potential to being in quantity. Of them let 56 CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS the seventy-fifth inquisition consist, and be ac- counted the fourfold Gamma. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Gamma; or, concerning much and little. Durable and transitory, eternal and momen- tary, are potential to being in duration. Of these let the seventy-sixth inquisition consist, and be called the fourfold Delta. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Delta; or, concerning durable and transitory. Natural and monstrous, are potential to being, either by the course of nature, or by its deviations from it. Of these let the seventy-seventh inquisi- tion consist, which is accounted the fourfold Epsilon. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Epsilon; or, concerning what is natural or monstrous. Natural and artificial, are potential to being, either with or without the operation of man. Of these let the seventy-eighth inquisition consist, and be accounted the fourfold Zeta. Conditions of beings. The fourfold Zeta; or, of that which is natural and artificial. We have not subjoined examples in the expli- cation of the order of this our alphabet: for the inquisitions themselves contain the whole array of examples. It is by no means intended, that the titles, ac- cording to which the order of this alphabet is dis- posed, should have so much authority given to them, as to be taken for true and fixed partitions 57 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE of things. That were to profess we already knew the things after which we inquire; for no man does truly dispose of things into their several classes, who does not beforehand very well understand the nature of them. It is sufficient, if these titles be conveniently adapted to the order of inquiry; the thing which is at present designed. The Rule or Form of the Alphabet. After this manner we compose and dispose our alphabet: We begin solely with history and experiments. These, if they exhibit an enumeration and series of particular things, are disposed into tables; otherwise, they are taken separately and by themselves. But, seeing we are often at a loss for history and experiments, especially such as are luciferous, or instructive, and, as we call them, instances of the cross; by which the understanding might be helped in the knowledge of the true causes of things: we propose the task of making new ex- periments. These may serve as a history in de- sign. For what else is to be done by us who are but breaking the ice? For the mode of any more abstruse experiment, we explain it, lest any mistake arise about it; and to the intent, also, that we may excite others to excogitate better methods. Also, we interspect certain admonitions and cautions concerning such fallacies of things, and 58 CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS errors in invention, as we meet with in our way. We subjoin our observations upon history and experiments, that the interpretation of nature may be the more in readiness and at hand. Likewise, we lay down canons (but not such as are fixed and determined) and axioms which are, as it were, in embryo: such as offer themselves to us in the quality of inquirers, and not of judges. Such canons and axioms are profitable, though they appear not yet manifest, and upon all ac- counts true. Lastly: we meditate sometimes certain essays of interpretation, though such as are low and of small advance, and by no means to be honoured (in our opinion) with the very name of interpre- tation. For, what need have we of arrogance or im- posture, seeing we have so often professed that we have not such a supply of history and experi- ments as is needful; and that, without these, the interpretation of nature cannot be brought to perfection. Wherefore, it is enough for us if we are not wanting to the beginning of things. Now, for the sake of perspicuity and order, we prepare our way by avenues, which are a kind of prefaces to our inquisitions. Likewise, we inter- pose bonds of connection, that our inquisitions may not seem abrupt and disjointed. Also, we suggest for use some hints of -practice. Furthermore, we propose wishes of such things as 59 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE are hitherto only desired and not had, together with those things which border on them, for the exciting the industry of man's mind. Neither are we ignorant that those inquisitions are sometimes mutually entangled; so that some things of which we inquire, even the same things belong to several titles. But we will observe such measure, that (as far as may be) we may shun both the nauseousness of repetition, and the trou- ble of rejection, submitting, notwithstanding, to either of these, when, in an argument so obscure, there is necessity of so doing, in order to the more intelligible teaching of it. This is the form and rule of our alphabet. May God, the creator, preserver, and renewer of the universe, protect and govern this work, both in its ascent to his glory, and in its descent to the good of mankind, for the sake of his mercy and good will to men, through his only Son, Immanuel, God with us. When Hamlet says, "To be, or not to be, that is the Question," he speaks at Question-mark 192, Hour 12. The Speech count is at point i. Alpha. When Bacon set that sentence at that place, he must have felt that he ran a genuine risk of his cipher's being discovered too soon. For Alpha- Omega on the Dial is the place of being and not being, it is "the Inquisition" at that point. The death of Hamlet is at Question 456, Hour 60 CIPHER CLUES IN BACON'S WORKS 12, Omega. By the Speech count the words, "The rest is silence," come at point ^6y the last point in Omega. Here the Folio prints a 3-fold Omega; for Omega it gives a large O, followed by- three smaller, "o, o, o." Then come the Alpha words, "And flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest." 61 CHAPTER IV TELLING THE TIME "What is't oclock?" is asked in As You Like It at Q 143, H II. The reply comes pat: "You should ask me what time o' day, there's no clock i' th' Forest." No clock, but certainly a Dial. For Jaques returns to his mates at the Forest in Zeta, at Q 90, H 6, ("Adam?") and tells about the Dial he saw the Fool studying. The Fool "drew a dial from his poke, And looking on it with lack-luster eye. Says, very wisely, it is ten oclock: Thus may we see, quoth he, how the world wags: Tis but an hour ago, since it was nine, And after one hour more, twill be eleven. And so from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe. And then from hour to hour, we rot, and rot. And thereby hangs a tale." By the Speech count this is set at point 30, which is in Hour 10 on Bacon's Dial. By the Hour count it is set at 10 also, a neat bit of veri- fication. Jaques goes on to say that he was so pleased with the moralizing of the Fool that he stayed there laughing *'sans intermission an hour by his Dial." This sets the time back an hour on the Dial chart, and while Zeta stresses the hour 11:15 of Jaques return, Epsilon, with its points 10:30, 9:45, and 9:00, gives correctly the rest of the hours named by the Fool, and the time when 62 TELLING THE TIME he looked at his Dial. By both important counts of the cipher, the Fool's Dial shows that he had set it by the Dial of Bacon. The words of Jaques at point ^^y "O worthy Fool," are followed by such as the author might well have written with his own personality and purpose in mind, and are said at the Alpha signa- ture letters of Bacon. He says the Fool is "One that hath been a Courtier, . . . and in his brain ... he hath strange places crammed With observation, the which he vents In mangled forms." At the same Hour Alpha come the words, "I must have lib- erty, ... as large a Charter as the wind, . . . Invest me in my motley: Give me leave To speak my mind, and I will through and through Cleanse the foul body of the infected world. If they will patiently receive my medicine." Jaques and Falstaffe, Points and Peto are used as indicators or pointers on the Dial, stressing the round of points or hours, and picking out passages worthy of note for the decipherer also. The ancient figure of a man, set as a clock pointer on a dial face, was often called the "Jack of the Clock." In Richard II ^ at Q 216, H 12, ("not?") comes the soliloquy: "For now hath Time made me his numbering clock; My Thoughts, are minutes, and with sighs they jar Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward Watch, Whereto my finger, like a Dial's point. Is pointing still, in cleansing them 63 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE from tears; Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is. Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart, Which is the bell: . . . While I stand fooling here, his jack o' tK Clocks The name Jaques may be made to sound like the Jack of Jack Falstaffe. It may also suggest the sound, "Shack-" or "Shak- Ques," being in- terpreted to mean, "Shake- Qs," or by another accent, "Jar- Ques," and give thus a Dial hint of jarred or shaken pointers, tipped with the Q's that move about the Dial. Jack Falstaffe is certainly meant to convey a suggestion of the pointer or "staffe" as it falls around the Dial. Lest this be thought wholly grotesque, notice the use of Falstaffe as a Jack of the Clock in / Henry IV. Here Hotspur muses, at Q 318, H 6, Zeta, "If life did ride upon a Dial's point Still ending at the arrival of the hour." This is a good Zeta 12 reference, with its end and arrival. But on the second round of the Dial after this, Hotspur is dead, and Jack Falstaffe on the ground beside him at Q 331, H 7, ("Grace?") does that strange act in the play, takes the part of a dead man, and then "m noon. An excellent example of the way in which time references are sometimes placed forward, and then tallied at the time of their actual occurrence at the expected place on the Dial, is given in Taming of the Shrew. Such forward tallyings I have called "advance notices," whether they concern time, compass point or Hour allusions. In Taming, Petruchio tells his Kate that they will be married on Sunday. It is a fair question, "Are Kate and Petruchio married on Sunday?" The first day of the week on the Dial is Alpha. The day set, Sunday, has practically arrived, the bridal party is awaiting Petruchio, and the groom does not appear. "Is he come?" sets the time at 1 2-1, with the Q 132, and the answer is, "Why no sir." At Q 133, H i, ("what then?") it is said, "He is coming." At Q 134, H 2, it is asked, "When will he be here?" The enigmatical answer is, "When he stands where I am, and sees you there." At Q 139, H 7, Petruchio returns, de- 69 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE manding, "Come, where be these gallants?" At Q 141, H 9, he exclaims, "But where is Kate?" and at Q 144, H 12, at Omega the place of "Me- teors," he demands in some dudgeon why they stare at him as if they saw "Some Comet, or un- usual prodigy?" Here he is told that it is his wed- ding day and asked the Q 145, H i ("unlike your- self?") that sets the count exactly on Alpha. When he is asked why he comes in his motley garb, so unlike himself and late for the wedding, Petru- chio replies with dignity that he comes to keep his promise: "SufRceth I am come to keep my word." And the day is Sunday. But the Speech count ably seconds the Hour count in vivifying the story, for it retains the speakers at Hour Alpha for a longer period than the Hour count, which sets the wedding itself at the place of the East Altar, can do. Both Alpha and Gamma claim certain religious observances, and Gamma, as will be seen in the chapter on compass points, is the place of sunrise and the altar whose priest faces the East, as in a cathedral. In Richard II the statement, "I'll make a voyage to the Holy-land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand" is set at Q 231, H 3, the East. By the Hour count Gremio is at Delta when he is asked if he has just come from church and pro- ceeds to give his story of the lively wedding. The Speech count, with its more flexible habit and accurate shading, connects with the Hour count in setting Petruchio's speech, "I am come 70 TELLING THE TIME to keep my word," at Alpha, point 33, the height of the Dial. Here, too, he says, "But what a fool am I to chat with you, When I should bid good morrow to my Bride?" This is a fine example of the playing back and forth of the two counts, when they are being used with a literary intent. For Petruchio's question does not lead him wholly away from the Sunday placement, and he is able to ask it freely because of the stability of the Speech count, which here at Alpha-Omega allows seven speeches at the top of the clock. On the other hand, there are many times when a whole scene needs to be kept in a certain mood, and when the placement at such a group as Epsilon is controlled by one Q alone, although the Speech count should bring in a whole horde of conspirators each with his word to contribute. The plays could hardly have been plays with either count alone, but the two serve to give a running comment that is often both enlivening and illuminating. Short questions, such as ** What's the news.?" "How now?" "What's the time?" "Whence come you?" are often thrown in to carry the action forward to a desired place without affecting the nature or mood of the speech between the two stopping places, but to reserve the change for some particular Hour group farther along the Dial. These are frequent at the top of the Dial, where short speeches between new- comers swing the count rapidly along across the triple group. 71 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Here, too, by the Speech count tally, Petruchio is able to say that he must now "seal his title with a lovely kiss." For the Kiss, spelled Kysse, is to be seen at points 31, 23j ^^d is linked so closely with the word Keys that it seems to be used with almost as distinct a meaning as a cipher clue. A long list of kisses — especially the remembered kisses — are given here at Psi-Alpha. It is here again that Petruchio, at the end of the play, with his troubles over, exclaims to his wife, "Come on, and kiss me Kate." (Q 275, Hi I, "parts?"). It is here that, in Merchant^ Portia stands when Bassanio turns to greet her with a loving kiss. And, lest one forget the fun possible at this place, it is here also that Titania, in the gaiety of Mid- summer madness, bestows upon the gentle Ass her fairy kiss. Other words, not uncommon in themselves and perhaps seeming absurd for cipher use, are Ready, Lady, Mayd, May, My, Myself, Sea, Gates, Mad, Yea, Yes, and Nay, all spelled in one or two lines at the top of the Dial, and used with evident in- tent, over and over, to call attention to this group if possible. The point lies in their being spelled in the briefest possible space. An instance of another day-of-the-week tally is when Hamlet, at Q 158, H 2, ("Lord?") changes his speech swiftly to observe, "You say right, sir: for a Monday morning 'twas so indeed." Since 72 TELLING THE TIME Beta is the second group on the Dial, Hamlet is following his Bacon calendar with entire sanity. Francis Bacon has written in one of his notes on cipher the opinion that to be worth anything a cipher should be strictly accurate. He surely spoke of what he knew about by experience. Many times the Folio directions insert '^Clock strikes'' in the text, and such places will be found to tally on the Dial. In Julius Caesar, at Q loi, H 5 ("only Caesar?") are the words, "For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter." The Folio directions have ''Clock strikes.'' Brutus says, "Peace, count the Clock." He is answered, "The Clock hath stricken three." Three o'clock is at Gamma, Hour 3. At the point after Gamma comes this statement, ''Clock strikes." The com- mand to "count the clock" is at Speech point 11, just after the striking has begun, and at point 12, again, is the pun between the two 12's or striking points of the hour, for the answer comes, correct in time, "The Clock hath stricken three." Yes, and it is the clock of Francis Bacon, and of Bacon only. The Ides of March, in Julius Caesar, come at the third Hour, Gamma, the suitable group for March. At Q 27, H 3, C'calls on me?") the Soothsayer cries, "Beware the Ides of March." At Epsilon, the place of treachery, the warning is given for the third time. The scene in the Orchard, where Brutus struggles with his conscience, opens at 73 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Zeta, and at Q 84, H 12, Brutus asks his lad, "Is not tomorrow. Boy, the first of March?" and bids him look in the calendar. Here at Omega, the place of Meteors, Brutus comments on the "exhalations, whizzing through the air." Exactly at Q 87, H 3, ("strike?") the boy Lucius returns and says, "Sir, March is wasted fifteen days." The actual killing of Caesar is at the Broad Gate, Q 154, H 10, with the question, "£/ /«, Brute?'' This is the place for the dead and the conspirators. But Caesar himself is left at the Ides of March once more by the accuracy of the Speech count, at point 7, the first line in Gamma, March. Brutus dies at Q 291, H 3, in March, with these words, "Caesar, now be still." 74 CHAPTER V. THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS That sagacious remark, half statement, yet put in question form as if to rouse curiosity — "He knows the Game; how true he keeps the wind?" was not only the comment on a diplomatic twist in conversation, at point 36 in j Henry VI^ but serves as a hint to the decipherer. Does the writer of the plays of Shakespeare "know the Game?" Does he show that he does by "keeping the wind" with accuracy, tallying the text refer- ences to compass points with the same points in their order on the Dial? The answer is "Yes." In all there are about one hundred and seventy references to points of the compass in the Folio, a large number for a volume of thirty-six plays. Such compounds as "South-north" and "North, North-east and by East" might be called either one or two distinct points when counting the ac- tual number of times that points are named, but logically and sensibly they tally on the Dial as the reader might infer them to do. As if to guard against any mistake in the use of compass points and their names. Lord Bacon gave the full list of compass points in his History of the Winds ^ thus "boxing the compass" for future 75 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE decipherers. The points have not varied in these three hundred years. It was of the compass, along with gunpowder and printing, that Bacon wrote, "These three have changed the appearance and state of the whole world ... so that no empire, sect, or star, appears to have exercised greater influence on human affairs than these mechanical discov- eries." He may have felt a real satisfaction in joining his own cipher to the compass he so greatly admired, and in fitting his text references with delicate precision and play of fancy around and around the Dial form. He paid thus a certain tribute to the compass. The first mention of a compass point in the Folio is in Tempest at Q 36, H 12, ("free thee?") "To run upon the sharp wind of the North." Hour 12 sets the word "North" at the top of the Dial, and at North. The first point of Omega, 12, is also point 2 on the Dial, Omega being in- visible behind Alpha. The corresponding second point on the other half of the Dial, starting from point 19, in Tau, where the left-hand side of the Dial begins, is point 20. The connection between Tau and Alpha is often stressed. Here the Speech point touches 20, and thus notes what would be a point opposite North on the Dial, or the same point if the Dial cipher had taken its start from Tau, which was a possibility. The second mention of "North" is in Two Gen- tlemen of Verona, Q 179, H 11, ("banished?"), 76 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS where Valentine sends his boy the message to meet him "at the North-Gate." The boy is given the message, and takes the count squarely upon the point North by his Question, "For me?", 192, Hour 12. This question has advanced the Speech count to point 23, due North on the Dial, which is indeed the place where his master stays for him. "It standeth North North-east and by East from the West corner," in Love's Labor's Lost^ is written down in a curious letter that begins at Q 13, H I, ("attention?"), and Speech count 23, or West South West. Hour i itself carries North, North by East, and North North-east points. This letter is interrupted several times in the reading, and the Speech count has advanced to point 34 when the phrase "North North-east and by East" is reached. Point 34 will be seen to be on the Dial "North by East." The letter ends, counting the Speech point straight along, at what would be point 38, which strikes North East by East on the Dial, a fact that might easily serve as a hint. But, by cipher counting on the actual Dial, the Speech count invariably proceeds to the last line of Omega and then "castles" back and starts afresh at Alpha i, the saving trick- play of the cipher. When the Speech count does this as usual, the count arrives a second time at point 34, or 2, and North by East. The Speech count in the letter therefore covers the points from the West Corner to North, North by East, 77 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE and the end of the letter has touched on cipher count points North North-east and North-east by North. Again, in Lovers Labor's Lost, the reference to "By East, West, North, and South I spread my conquering might" is at Speech count point 17, due South. The peculiar comment of the text on this speech, "Your nose says no, you are not. For it stands too right," is a not infrequent Dial pun on the two No's made at Zeta, where the NO of points 17, 16, seen, like "PO" on the outer rim of the Dial, and the NO made at points 16, 15, are in fact "Two" to the "right" of due South, point 17. When the Braggart in Love's Labor's Lost de- claims "By the North-pole I do challenge thee," he speaks at Q 278, H 2, at Northern points in Beta, but not at the Pole itself. The Speech point is 29, also in Chi. The Clown retorts, "I will not fight with a pole like a Northern man," and is at the same Chi placement but at Speech point 30, North West by North. As it is expected, the Braggart later refuses to fight, and it is precisely at the North Pole itself that he answers the posi- tive statement of his friends to the effect that he "may not deny" the challenge of the other man, by declaring, "I both may.^ and will." The North Pole is thus a witness to his downfall, a proper braggart's end. Such throwings-forward of the verification, like prophecies, or as I call them, "advance notices," 78 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS are frequent, and show an especial enjoyment on the part of the cipherist. As here, they often fur- nish satirical comment on a situation. "The fairest creature Northward born" in Merchant of Venice is said at Q 31, H 7, Tau, and at Speech count "T^^i^ or point North North-east. The accuracy of the following tallies may be easily verified on the Dial. "Sailed into the North of my lady's opinion," Twelfth Nighty is at Hour 2, Q 158. "I from the North" is at Q 46, H 10, and Speech count 3, in King John. "From North to South," at Q 46, H 10, is at Speech count 5, in King John. "Nor entreat the North" in King John is at Speech count 28. "Part us ... I towards the North" is at Speech count 19 in Richard II. But the actual parting is at Speech count 29, a few inches later on the page, and going North on the Dial. The next sight of Richard in the play is exactly at the North, when he enters at Q 216, H 12, with his long soliloquoy, "I have been studying how to compare," etc. "Unwel- come news came from the North" is at Q i, Hi, / Henry IV. The "North gate" is at Speech count 5 in / Henry VI\ "The Percies of the North" are at Speech count 6; "Substitutes under the lordly Monarch of the North" is said at Speech count 36, and Q 210. H 6, Zeta, may serve to stress the substitute 12 under the Omega 12. "Berwick in the North" is Speech count 2, in 2 Henry VI. "The Horsemen of the North" are 79 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE referred to at Q i, H i, and Speech point 2, in j> Henry VI. "Towards the North" is Q 171, H 3, and Speech point 8, in Richard III. "The best breed of the North" is at Speech point i and H 8, Q SG ("Katherine"?) in Henry VIII. "Up higher toward the North" is Q 96, H 12, ("here"?) and the Speech point is 30, in Julius Caesar. "As liberal as the North" is at point 2 in Othello. "The tyrannous breathing of the North" is Q 26, H 2 ("all?") in Cymbeline. "The Northern blasts twice o'er" come at Q 205, H i ("gone?"), due North, and "twice o'er" is suggested by the second verification the Speech count gives at point 5, in Winter's Tale. "Northern castles yielded up" and "Southern Gentlemen in arms" in Richard II are marked by Speech point 26, the first Northern point up from the South, and by the Q 102 and Hour 6 ("power?"). "The Northern Lords" in 3 Henry VI are at Speech point 5, while the "Northern Earls and Lords" in the same play are at Speech point 32. The added "Earls" may be seen spelled in two lines at 32, 1^1,. "Threw many a North- ward look" in 2 Henry IV is at Q 142, H 10 ("Bull?"). The "clear-stories toward the South-north" in Twelfth Night are at Q 222, H 6 ("dark?"), and the Speech count touches the last point of the compass round at 32. "From East, West, North and South" in Winter's Tale is the companion ref- erence to "By East," etc., in Love's Labor's Losty 80 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS for here the East and West diameter of the Dial is stressed, with Q 40, H 4 ("him?") and Speech point 27, in Phi. "The North-East wind" that grew "bitterly" against their faces in Richard II is at Q 26, H 2 ("shed?"). When it is said in / Henry IV, "I am not yet of Percy's mind, that Hotspur of the North," the Q 113, H 5 and Speech point 14 unite at Epsilon, but it surely is "not yet" anywhere near the North. Much later in the play, but nevertheless the very next compass reference in it, at Q 169, H I, comes a mention of "the same mad fellow of the North, Percy." In 2 Henry IV, at Q 303, H 3, and Speech point 27, three of the points in the text, "East, West, North, South, or like a School broke out," are tallied, point 27 being West North West, and H 3 the East. The references to East, West, and South points are as carefully developed as are those to the North, but only the briefest mention can be made here of the most interesting. Point 1 2-1 is used as the instant of change between the old and the new day, and point 2, North by East, is the first sign of the breaking day. It is also the line carrying the F and B of a Bacon signature. *'The gentle day Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsy East with spots of gray" is in Much /I do at Q 264, Hour 12, BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE ("Leonato?") and this first line of Hour 12, Omega, is also point 2 of the visible Alpha, or the first East placement of dawning. "Even till the Eastern gate all fiery red", in Midsummer, is Q 134, H 2, the hour containing the sunrise time of 3:45 at point 6. "Another day break in the East" is in King John, at Q 207, H 3, again the sunrise hour. "At the first opening of the gorgeous East" is in Love's Labor's Lost, Speech point 6 (Sunrise, 3:45)- "The eye of heaven . . . fires the proud tops of the Eastern Pines . . . see us rising in our Throne . . . the East" is in Richard II at Speech point 6. "The fiery Portal of the East" is Q 108, H 12, in Richard II, and once more at Speech point 6, the sunrise point. "The silent hours steal on. And flaky darkness breaks within the East" is not less beautiful be- cause the breaking day is set on the Dial at Speech point 36, or the "invisible Omega," 4, with its early morning hour of 2:15. This is in Richard III. "He should have braved the East an hour ago," also in Richard III, is at Speech point 3. "An hour before the worshipped Sun Peered forth the golden window of the East" is in Romeo and Juliet, Q 1 5 and Hour 3, the hour of the East. This is also Speech point 19, or South South-west. The text continues, "The grove of sycamores That Westward rooteth from this city side", and this 82 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS agrees with the point 19. Again, at the same Q and Hour, H 3, it is written,"So soon as the all- cheering Sun Should in the farthest East begin to draw The shady curtains from Aurora's bed." "Here lies the East; doth not the day break here?" in Julius Caesar^ is Q 96, H 12, touching the eastern daybreak points again. At the same Q and Hour comes the statement, **the high East Stands as the Capitol directly here." ''High East" well describes the highest East point in Omega-Alpha. "The rich East to boot," in Macbeth^ comes again in Omega, at Speech point 36. This place- ment of the High East and the High Hill at the height of the Dial seems after study of the Folio to become a real locality, and is a picture in the memory. When Hamlet exclaims, "But look, the Morn in Russet mantle clad, Walkes o'er the dew of yon high Eastern hill" he speaks at Q 13, H i, and Speech point 2, a double verification of the "high East." "Oh Eastern Star!" in Antony and Cleopatra^ is set at Hour 3, Q 255 ("still?"). "We must lay his head to the East" is said at the burial of the beloved Fidele, and it is again at the sunrise hour, H 2, Q 254 in Cymbeline. Helena's anxious cry, "O long and tedious night. Abate thy hours, shine comforts from the East" is in Midsummer Night's Dream at Speech point 2^^ the early morning hour of 2:15. When, in As You Like It^ Rosalind reads her 83 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE letter: "From the East to western Inde, no jewel is like Rosalind; Her worth being mounted on the wind Through all the world bears Rosalind", she is at Q no, H 2 ("damned?") and Speech point 16, the first line in Zeta. "Ind" may be seen in Zeta, its added E being in line South South-west. It is also in Upsilon. The mate to this is given in Merry Wives of Windsor at Q 43, H 7, and Speech point 28, where, at these western points, it is said, "They shall be my east and west Indies." East is spelled within Tau. "The same Ind" is seen in Chi, the first line of which is 28. Rosalind is indeed "mounted on the wind" of the compass points, and travelling swiftly around the globe of the Dial. "Golden Progress in the East" is in / Henry IV at Speech point 9, or due East. The "East side" given in 2 Henry VI at Q 84, H 12 ("Lord?") is at Speech point 15, the east side of the Dial and of the grove at Zeta. At point 18 the matter is questioned, "Are ye ad- vised? The East side of the grove, Cardinal, I am with you." Point 18 is one of the "Cardinal winds" described by Bacon, and this is perhaps a pun on that point. At his words, "On the East side," the Cardinal is at his Personal count on point 12, and Gloster is at his own point 12 when he says, "I am with you" at Q 86, H 2. When Queen Hecuba and Helen go in the early morning "up to the Eastern Tower," in Troilus and Cressida, it is at Speech point 6, the sunrise 84 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS hour. In the same speech it is remarked that Hector had already gone to the field "before the Sun rose". The sunset points are almost as clearly defined as the sunrise ones. "The Sun of heaven was loth to set; But stayed, and made the Western Welkin blush" in King John is Speech point 29. "I see thy Glory, like a shooting Star, Fall to the base Earth, from the Firmament; Thy Sun sets weeping in the lowly West," is at Q 78, H 6 in Richard II y the Speech point being 30. Zeta has the lowest western point, and point 30 is close to the place of meteors and celestial bodies, at Psi. Compare with this the words in the Induction to 2 Henry IV: "I, from the Orient to the drooping West, Making the winds my Post-horse." The Induction, spoken by Ru- mor, thus prophesies truly, for she takes the Q count through Hour 5 and at 5 and 6 the actual play opens in the first speech, the "droop- ing West," or end of Rumor's progress, indicating the west point in Zeta. "The West yet glimmers with some streaks of day" in Macbeth is at Q 117, Hour 9 ("us.''"), due West: but the Speech reference at point 36 also sets the "streaks of day" in the favorite East place. "Star that's Westward from the Pole" is Speech point 28 in Hamlet. 85 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE "Go with her to the West end of the wood" in Two Gentlemen is at Q 270, H 6 ("her?"). "The Western side is with a Vineyard backed" is in Measure for Measure at Speech point 22. The famihar ejaculation "Westward Ho!" has a Dial significance. Olivia, in Twelfth Night, begins her speech to Viola at Q 153, H 9, or due West, ("to be proud?"). At her next question ("than the Wolf?") she reaches Q 154, H 10 and Speech point 2^. This is also the last point in Omega, and the moment when the clock should strike the new hour, between Omega and Alpha. A particularly clever cipher-trick here is the actual striking of that invisible clock, as it is set in the directions of the Folio text, "Clock strikes" Olivia notes it. "The clock upbraids me with the waste of time." That clock is the cipher Dial. Olivia now says to Viola, "There lies your way, due West." On the Dial this is strictly fact. Olivia, at her next speech, must make the move going back to Alpha point i, as is usual with the Speech count after 36 is touched. The direction of this movement on the Dial is given to Viola with accuracy as "due West." Viola makes the indicated move, exclaiming "Then Westward Ho!" and with the words is back by the Speech count at point i. The swift tossing to and fro of Alpha references between the two girls is another Dial hint — "You are not what you are," "I am not what I am," "would it 86 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS be better than I am," and the rest are excellent cases of "Being and Not Being." "I am only mad North, North-West, when the wind is Southerly I know a Hawk from a Hand- saw" is Q 158, H 2 and Speech point 12, or Southerly, in Hamlet. H 2, Beta, has the point 36 of invisible Omega as its first line. Hamlet, rather like Viola, seems to indicate the western movement between 2^ ^i^d i of the Speech count. But notice that the word MAD is not an easy word to find spelled on the Dial, the M and D being usually four lines apart. At the top of the Dial at points 32, 23i it is seen spelled in two lines. This is a Dial spelling frequently used as a veri- fication. Hamlet so uses it, giving the point North, and the point West of it, as being the place where he was "mad". He is not, in this sense of a Dial pun, "mad" at Beta, nor at Delta, with its point 12, Southerly. So far as the Dial can explain Hamlet's mental condition, it shows him to be wholly sane. Now the same trick is done in Twelfth Nighty where Malvolio, in his imprisonment, protests that he is "not mad." The compass reference is to the "clear-stories South-north" and the Q 222, H 6, South. By the Speech count Malvolio is at point 32, that point at which "mad" is partly spelled. At points 1,3 ^^^ 3S Malvolio renews his claim to be thought "not mad", and at last demands, at 3^^ "make the trial of it by any 87 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE constant question^ Questions follow quickly, at Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, and there is no "mad" to be seen. Malvolio knew that. At Psi, the Clown speaks the name, "M. Malvolio.'" At Hour lo, where the Speech count stood when Malvolio demanded the Question trial, the Clown scores by asking how Malvolio happened to lose his "five wits," and again Malvolio denies his loss of them and the argument begins once more. The Speech count now makes haste to overtake the Hour count and while the Hour is still at 12, Omega, Malvolio at point 1,3 declares that he is not mad, and is asked by the Clown if he is only "counterfeiting." At point 1,^ the Clown says "I am gone sir, and anon sir, I'll be with you again: In a trice." Sebastian enters, with a long soliloquy on madness, at Speech point i, and observes that "this may be some error, but no madness" and that he is almost ready to "dis- trust" his "eyes." His own "eyes" do indeed tell him by the Dial that he is "mad" at point i. Now if one counts the parts or speeches said by Malvolio himself, beginning at i on the Dial with his first speech, although it is far along in the play itself, and going about the Dial on the same round of 2^ as do the Hour and Speech counts already used, it will be found that Malvolio is at the top of the Dial by this Personal count of his own part, exactly as he is by the Speech count, when he says "I am not mad." The same arrangement is seen in Hamlet, where by Hamlet's own Per- 88 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS sonal count he is at point 4, the first line in Beta, at the time the Hour count also sets him at Beta. A notable "instance" is in Julius Caesar^ where Caesar by his own Personal count is exactly at point I, the place of the North Star, when he says, "But / am constant as the Northern Star.'' In Two Gentlemen of Verona some one is ordered to take Silvia to "the West end of the wood" at Speech count 22. By Silvia's Personal count she is really at point 22 when she meets Valen- tine at the "West end." When King John says ''Our Thunder from the South'' he is by his own Personal count at point 18. In "Much Ado" Beatrice is by her own Personal count exactly at point I due North, when Benedick says satirically that she "would infect to the North Star." A form of advance notice, often puzzling till one knows the device, is given in Comedy of Errors at Q i. Hour i ("home?"). Here the chance that the Merchant may, by the laws of the place, be executed "Ere the weary sun set in the West" appears to be off the count, for it is a right "Sun" reference at Alpha, but has no "VVest." Later, at Q 185, H 5, ("answer not.?"), it is said that "Anon" the Duke will come "this way" to the place of execution. The same speaker says, at the same Q, "By this I think the Dial points at five." It does — Epsilon, Hour 5. At Q 186, H 6 ("cause?") it is said, "See where they come; we will behold his death." Zeta 89 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE contains the first western point, or the earliest sunrise hour. "That utmost corner of the West" in King John is at Q 31, H 7, and Speech point 29, govern- ing the western "corners" of North West and South West. "We from the West" in King John is at Hour 10. "West of this Forest" in 2 Henry IV is at Speech point 20. "Kingdoms of the West" in 2 Henry VI are at Hour 10 and Speech point 23. "Whip you to the West" in Romeo and Juliet is at Speech point ^Z^ Hour Omega, perhaps another hint at the westward move from Omega to Alpha, since the Q is 180, H 12 ("Fray?"). A form of dating back a reference is given in Titus Andronicus. "He and his Lady both are at the Lodge, Upon the North side of this pleasant Chase. Tis not an hour since I left them there." This is Q 63, H 3 ("dead?"), and Speech point 27, or W. N. W. The first point of Gamma is E. N. E., opposite, and the North side is well cov- ered here as are the South suburbs elsewhere. But the "hour since" places the hour back one, a common time trick, and the count is thus at Beta, higher north. In Midsummer the dainty reference to the "little Western flower" is at Q 28, H 4 ("stay?"). Speech point 4. Puck is sent to fetch this flower, and replies in the now famous words, "I'll put a girdle about the earth, in forty minutes." At Q 35, H II, Puck returns with the flower, the 90 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS Speech point being in the west. A pretty trick is done on the Dial with that "forty minutes." On Oberon's personal count Puck is sent at point 8, and returns between lo and ii, Oberon having spoken once between. The interval on the Dial covers exactly forty points or minutes to the point where Oberon says, "Pray give it me," which marks the delivery of the flower. This gives at least one explanation of the "forty minutes" Puck chose as his time limit. South references are plentiful and good. "His Regiment lies half a mile at least South," is at Speech point 13, in Richard III. "A South-west blow on ye," is Q 44, H 8, ("when?") in Ternpest. "Like foggy South" in As You Like It, is Q 185, H 5, ("sale-work.?") Epsilon, and Speech point 14, in Epsilon. "The South Suburbs" in Twelfth Night are at Q 164, H 8, ("Lodging?") and Speech point 12. "The Southern clouds" are at Speech point 20, in 2 Henry VI. "The Sun looking with a Southward eye," in Winter's Tale, is at Q 267, H 3, ("Sir?") and Speech point 25, thus drawing a diameter across the Dial and separating the South half from the North half. A vivid Dial picture of the weather-vane itself is made in a reference in Romeo and 'Juliet at Q 57, H 9, ("yours?") "I talk of dreams . . . more inconstant than the wind who woos Even now the frozen bosom of the North, And now 91 BACON'S DIAL IN S HAKE SPEARE being angered, puffs away again, Turning his side toward the dew dropping South." The Speech point is at the North of the Dial, point 23- The Dial pointer thus behaves like a real vane, first pointing due North, and then turning back around the Dial toward Hour 9. When it points at hour 9 it does in Dial fact have its side turned toward the South, whose "dews" may be seen spelled not far below it. "The South to the Septentrion" is neatly illustrated by Q 65, H 5 ("insult?") in j Henry Fly and Speech point 3, which places the regions that have to do with the constellation of the Bear, Ursa Major, or in other words the Sep- tentrion, just at the North point that tallies with the Bacon Blazon of the Dipper, later shown. Another attempt to bring forward the two extremes of the Dial is in the text state- ment in J Henry Fly "Thou art deceived 'Tis not thy Southern power," (Q 15, H 3, "not.?"). Quite right; it is not; the Hour is 3, and the Speech count is i. No more perfect repudiation of the "Southern" half of the Dial could easily be made with two counts alone. "Diseases of the South" in Troilus and Cressida is at Speech point 17. "Contagion of the South" in Coriolanus is at Speech point 15, and "South the City mills" is at Speech point 23. "If it were at liberty, twould sure Southward," also in CoriolanuSy is Q 103, H 7 ("so?"), and point 23, a "sure Southward" tally. 92 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS Cymbeline has interesting and somewhat in- tricate compass references. "South the chamber" is at Q 103, H 7 ("wearing?") and Speech point 2. "Chamber" locations are often at the top of the Dial. "From the Spungy South . . . this part of the West" is Q 270, H 6, ("them.?") and Speech point 25, which is due West. The last compass point references in the Folio, on the last column of the last page, are used in connection with a "vision accomplished," and are spoken by the Soothsayer who had warned the Roman general, Lucius, as to the future: "For the Roman Eagle From South to West on wing soaring aloft . . . should unite His favor with the Radiant Cymbeline, Which shines here in the West." This is Q 361, H i ("chance?"). At the time the Soothsayer had his vision, Cym- beline was by his Personal count at point 25, due West. The "vision" does in the cipher indi- cate the British victory. The Roman Eagle is represented sufficiently well by the Roman general, Lucius. The Personal count of that Roman general strikes at point 25, due West, exactly here, when the Soothsayer says that the Vision is "at this instant" accomplished. At once, after the Q 361, itself, comes the sen- tence, "But nor the Time, nor Place Will serve our long Interragatories.'* 93 CHAPTER VI THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT Alpha is the supreme height of the Diah For all great moments in the plays, the finest stress is at Alpha-Psi, or Alpha-Omega. It is "Beginning" — the new fresh day, the eternal hope, and the eternal righteousness. Even the brute Caliban finds himself once in the play at the height of Alpha, and for one moment we feel sympathy for him. At Q 145, H I ("afeard?"), in Tempest, CaUban says that on the Island there were "sometimes voices That if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again, and then in dreaming. The clouds methought would open." It is like a glimpse in dreams of one's better self. Alpha-Omega-Psi often are one, the Q's coming swiftly to complete the sense of things celestial at Psi, the Hour of Celestial Bodies, with the noble beginning, or the noble finality, of Hour 12-1. Here at Alpha-Omega Hamlet dies, and the text gives the Alpha-Omega significance, "Good night, sweet Prince, and flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest." The death of JuHet is at Alpha-Psi, that Ce- lestial land of lovers. Sometimes a name appears prominently at 94 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT Alpha with apparent discordance. Thus it is that in Othello the wretch I ago speaks first from Alpha- Omega. He says, "Were I the Moore, I would not be lago," and "Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty. But seeming so, for my peculiar end," "For when my outward action doth demon- strate The native Act, and figure of my heart In complement externe, tis not long after But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve For Daws to peck at. / am not what I am." lago is an actual and incontrovertible Dial- made name, found at Gamma in point 9, "I O U A G", and in Alpha-Omega twice, where Omega line 2 parallels Alpha line 3, giving the G that finishes lago. It is lago who says that the thought of a supposed injury to himself gnaws at him, and "nothing can, or shall content my Soul Till I am even with him." lago is found standing on the Dial at the line of continual in- debtedness — the "I-O-U" or "/ owe you" — line in Gamma. And this may have had something to do with the choice of his name or even the idea of his character. The Daws and the Peck at Omega-Beta have letters that touch the word lago — and his "peculiar end" may be a Dial pun on that "end — " Omega — that is responsible in a peculiar fashion for making his name at the top of the Dial, where he really does not belong "for love and duty," but merely to get his double name by means of Alpha-Omega as a Dial proof. One of the finest of all Alpha placements in the 95 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Folio occurs in King Lear. In the first of the play, when Lear asks Cordelia, "But goes thy heart with this?" the Q is ii, H ii, and from the place of all that is spiritual and beautiful Cordelia answers the simple truth, "Ay my good Lord." Lear cries out "So young, and so untender?" taking the count to Omega, for him "the end" so far as his daughter is concerned. The Folio punctuation gives the very accent of the girl, as she echoes it, with the change in pause that bears the absolute change in meaning, — "So young my Lord, and true.'' Lear uses Alpha-Omega phrases now. "By the sacred radiance of the Sun^ The miseries of Hecat and the night: By all the operation of the Orbes. From whom we do exists and cease to be Here I disclaim all my Paternal care, . . . And as a stranger to my heart and me, Hold th^Qfrom this forever." It is indeed Omega. But at the last of the play, when Cordelia returns to her helpless and broken father, the great scene in which he tries to understand their meeting is once more brought around to the Alpha-Omega of the Dial. Cordelia's greeting as King Lear enters, carried in a chair, comes at Psi, II — the same place at which he, in all the pride of his kingship, had so misjudged her. She asks at this place of Celestial comforts — "How fares your Majesty?" giving him for his support the very title he cannot claim. And here, at the place of the Celestial spirits, the old King 96 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT says to Cordelia, "You do me wrong to take me out o' th' grave, Thou art a Soul in bliss — " At Q 360, (H 12) Cordelia cries, "Sir do you know me?" And Lear reaches the Alpha of Omega by his groping answer, "You are a spirit I know, where did you die?" The concord between the Dial and the text can be no truer than here, in word and in feeling. For there is a harmony on the Dial, and a dis- cord. Psi and Alpha are in accord. Delta the place of eternal justice is alike in its spirit, and Upsilon is the Hour of melody, of music over the waters, of essential harmony, and it also accords with the two others. But Epsilon, Hour 5, strikes the note of fatahty, of settled evil, of hate and treasonous malice. Chi has to do not only with the candle burning in the hall of Portia, that little candle that threw its beams so far, but in other moods and other plays concerns the very devils of Dante's Hell; — it is the place of the choice of good and evil. There is in Bacon s working out of the Hour qualities a definite attempt to create a harmony on the Dialy and^ through the Dialy within the text of the plays^ a constructive harmony of composition. Bacon's own interest in the connection between literature and music may be shown by a few extracts from his Notes on Natural History^ which reveal better perhaps than any other of his acknowledged works the wide range of his ob- servation and interest, a content of mind from 7 97 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE which the plays would naturally have sprung, and traces of a flexible and animated style beneath the dryness of the "note" form. In Dr. Rawley's preface to them — a preface written at Lord Bacon's wish before his death, though the work was not published till a year later — he says that although these '^Notes" may seem scattered, yet they will be found to have ''a secret order" by one who "looketh attentively into them." This "secret order" shows some evidence of linking the notes with both the cipher and the plays, and this gives special weight to some of the theories expressed here about musical harmony. I quote from Spedding's Philosophical Works of Lord Bacon, Vol. 2, page 386, note 103: "The diapason or eighth in music is the sweetest concord, inasmuch as it is in eflfect an unison: as we see in lutes that are strung in the base strings with two strings, one an eighth above another, which makes but as one sound. And every eighth note in ascent (as from eight to fifteen to twenty-two, and so on in infinitum) are but scales of diapason. The cause is dark, and hath not been rendered by any; and there- fore would be better contemplated." It is no small literary achievement in itself to invest certain groups on a chart with broad yet distinct characteristics, both actual and symbolic. The art with which Bacon accomplished this on the Dial does suggest a principle beneath his work, and it was only after I had come to realize the 98 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT harmony between the groups Psi-Delta-Upsilon that I began to search for the underlying principle, and to find many clues in both the text of the plays and in Bacon's other works. At first I thought it a result of the repetitions of ''twelves'' on the compass points, as a basis for jests. But the under harmony is so true and so vital that it must have had a definite intention. For on the Dial it will be seen that if Alpha- Omega is, as usual, counted like one external group, the eighth Hour is Upsilon, the fifteenth is Delta, and the twenty-second is Psi, or Psi- Alpha. The greater the play, the more marked this "unison" which is actually a literary unison. For the fact is that in the noblest moments of all the plays, the finest acts, the most sincere and unworldly speeches, the most warm and sweet and humanly kind things are made by the Q's to match identically and with unswerving faithful- ness the Hour groups Upsilon, Delta, Psi on the Dial. I believe that the deliberate, consistent use of these three groups in the rising scale of eighths was at the bottom of a system of dramatic con- struction which Francis Bacon was trying to evolve for himself, and perhaps for others, one which he did develop with increasing force and beauty as he wrote play after play, and which gives to his plays a large part of that stability, that sustained warmth and strength and sweetness, that steady harmony which we have felt in our 99 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE subconscious minds. The extraordinary vivacity of his words, the endless play of his humor and his fancy, must have been encouraged by the un- ceasing letter and word suggestions from the Dial; but the under-rhythm to which the plays are always true is intentional, persistent, and in itself indicative of the mind that planned it. In Philosophical Works ^ Vol. II, p. 388, note 113, Bacon set down that "There be in music certain figures or tropes; almost agreeing with the figures of rhetoric, and with the afiections of the mind and other senses. . , . The falling from a discord to a concord, which maketh great sweet- ness in music, hath an agreement with the af- fections, which are reintegrated to the better after some dislikes.'' At Epsilon, Hour of Discord, Othello's "This and this the greatest discords be that ere our hearts shall make" is really concord, while lago's 'T'll set down the pegs that make this Music" makes the discord. In note 108 he says of discords that "one is next above the unison, the other next under the diapason." Something akin to this is arranged on the Dial, where the restless and disturbing Chi 10 is set beside Psi, and above Upsilon; and where the utterly discordant Epsilon is just below the Hour Delta, so serene in its confidence, and in its faith in the ultimate justice. Bacon also wrote down: "The sliding from the close or cadence, hath an agreement with the 100 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT figure in rhetoric which t\ity cdiWpraeter expectatuniy for there is a pleasure even in being deceived. The reports or fuges have an agreement with the figure in rhetoric of repetition and traduction. . . . The triplas, and changing of times, have an agree- ment with the changes of motions; as when galliard time and measure time are in the medley of one dance." The Q's themselves on the Dial sometimes tread a stately measure, and again trip lightly around the Dial from one hour to the same hour once more, a swift run of Questions serving to give life and humor to the text, and familiar to us in such passages as Rosalind's excited string of questions to Celia, after Orlando has been seen in the Forest: "What makes he here? Did he ask for me?" and so on round the Dial. What seem on the printed page to be merely long speeches, or several sober groups with no enlivening Questions at all, are in reality the arrests of motion on the Dial, either for the quality of restfulness in itself, or to hold the placement at a special group so long as the character of that group sustains the mood of the text. Sometimes the text follows the Dial with measured serenity, almost every Q tallying; again it dances merrily along, touching the Dial at every few Q's only; and again it stays long at one placement. This variety of move- ment seems to be calculated with nicety, and it conforms to the Dial moods and groups. Sometimes short rushing groups of questions lOI BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE are so managed as to reach a placement quickly for the second time so that the scene may again be at the right setting at an important moment. This is a distinct form of careful Dial verification and most satisfying to follow. The trick play of the triple group at the top of the Dial hastens the speed of the Q's, since several questions may be used here covering like qualities; and it also serves to foil the would-be decipherer, since one cannot fit any series of numbers to the plays by a straight count and carry them on around the Dial with results, unless the Alpha-Omega trick is understood. In Note III, (Spedding, Vol. II, p. 388) Bacon wrote, "The pleasing of color symboliseth with the pleasing of any single tone to the ear; but the pleasing of order doth symbolise with harmony. And therefore we see in garden-knots and frets of houses, and all equal and well-answering figures, (as globes, pyramids, cones, cylinders, &c. how they please). . . . And both these pleasures, that of the eye, and that of the ear, are but the effects of quality, good proportion, or correspond- ence: so that (out of question) equality and correspondence are the causes of harmony." (Note the phrases "well-answering" and "out of question.") Equality and Correspondence may be used as the two words suitable for the Dial, and conveying something of its constructive meaning for the text. There are hints that the ancient musical in- 102 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT strument known as the "Recorder" is punned upon both in the "Notes" and the text as having some Hnk with the Dial, which itself records, or is a "Recorder", with the "face of time" lettered to the "last syllable". In Hamlet^ when Hamlet says, "O the Recorder", it is clearly a Dial pun, for it is set at Zeta, where the two P's (used in the "River Po") are seen and used for his "Pipe", a common pun. And Hamlet's speech is itself ap- propriate to the Dial, as a secret and unknown thing. He refers to "my lowest note" and "the top of my Compass y Beta, Hour 2. After Alpha on the Dial comes Hour 2, or Beta, "concerning Possible and Impossible." It sometimes stresses the text by giving a note of Impossibility, only apparent after the play is finished. It is often humorous. Beta is also used like the Greek chorus, and always admirably. In King Lear at Q 218, Hour 2, this is the question: "How in one house Should many people, under two commands Hold amity? 'Tis hard, almost impossible." Letter proofs here are frequent. In Tempest the rigmarole about "How came that Widow in.?" (meaning Dido) is Q 62, H 2, the whole string of jokes serving merely to verify Di-Do as belong- ing at places on the Dial. She is seen most clearly at the top of the Dial, because there are several D's bunched together, and WIDOW 103 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE is spelled at Omega-Beta, using letters from lago's line to make a W of two V's, if one likes. The use of the V's as W does in fact often mark either a possible W in the proof, or else the group Delta, which is punned on as "the odd angle" or "triangle" group. A use of Beta to accent a doubtful matter, a sort of "Lady or the Tiger" bit of amusement, is often found; and such a case is in Midsummer at Q 2, H 2, where in quite a modern fashion, the pronouncement that the Rose-like girl would be happier unhappily married than she would if she lived and died in "single blessedness" is set at Beta. As the sympathies of the reader are wholly with the girl rather than with her pompous parent, it is a relief to find the author sharing one's own attitude, at Beta in the cipher. Gamma, Hour j, concerns "Much and Little, Rare and Ordinary", and that expresses it ex- actly. The other hours have distinct and urgent claims, but Gamma is a Httle of everything, "all things to all men", a source of variety and interest on the Dial, and a relief, undoubtedly, to the author of the play. It has however some positive traits. It is the hour of Morning, the "East Gate," the Gate of Sunrise, the altar even, by an association with the East end of a cathedral, as is evident in Cymbe- line when Fidele's fair head must be laid toward the East in her feigned repose of death at Gamma. 104 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT At this Gate of Sunrise Jeanne d'Arc leaves the stage, the cipher being wholly kind toward her, and carrying out to the end the favorable treat- ment given to the Maid in the first portion of the play of/ Henry VI. Bacon's treatment of Jeanne in the cipher is a separate study, for which, like much else, there is no space here, but it simplifies the play. Jeanne's "Fiends" merely bring in a Bacon signature. Gamma is either six or three o'clock. It is a place often used for spelling verifications, as many short sentences may be made from the unusually good set of letters at this group, which almost parallels Alpha. For time proofs it is excellent. In Tempest^ toward the end, mention is made of the ship that "but two glasses since we gave out split", and the Dial time is correct. It was at Phi (Q 9, H 9, "cold?") in Tempest that the wreck occurred and that Prospero and Miranda stepped out to see it. Here, at Q i8i, H i ("the news?") put a pencil on Alpha on the Dial and slide it back two periods; you reach the exact Phi 9 at which the wreck occurred on the Dial two periods or "glasses" back. This and another time reference in Tempest have puzzled com- mentators. The other problem is solved by finding that Ariel is actually freed, as he was promised he should be, at "six o'clock"; for he is set free at the East Gate, Gamma 3, which carries the Compass time of six o'clock. The diameter between West 105 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE and East, with its two sixes, is a source of puns and proofs. The Gamma group less concerns qualities than the facts of time, place, locality, direction. Delta, Hour 4, Delta, the first letter of the Greek word for Justice, has the characteristics "Durable and Transitory, Eternal and Momen- tary." It is a placement easy to follow, and it has to do with what is loyal, honest, hopeful, patriotic, humanly good, and above all, just. It is in harmony or in unison with Psi, although it is perhaps a slightly more masculine group. In Much Adoy Q 244, H 4, ("was fled?") oc- curs, "If Justice can not tame you, she shall nere weigh more reasons in her balance." When, in Lear, the reinstated Edgar says to the convicted villain, "The Gods are just," the other makes reply, "Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true. The wheel is come full circle, I am here." The Q is 388 ("on me?"), and the Hour is 4, or Delta, the place of Justice. It is a matter of interesting coincidence, at least, that the Q number equals 32 revolutions of the compass points times the twelve revolutions of the clock hours — with four over that enable the count to strike directly on Delta, the place of Justice. The patriotic aspect of Delta is well illustrated by the famous passage in Henry V, Q 40, H 4 ("France?"), where King Henry, at a critical moment in the battle, calls out, "Once more unto 106 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT the Breach, Dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead: . . . Cry, God for Harry, England, and St. George." Epsiloriy Hour 5, comes as a discord after Delta. Epsilon is concerning what is "Natural and Monstrous" in the ungoverned instincts of the natural man. So, in Tempest, Q 131, H 11, surprise is expressed "that a Monster should be such a Natural.'*" This occurs at Speech point 13, the first point of Epsilon. Epsilon is also the place of fatalities, where the passions of evil work harm to the good, where the innocent victim suffers. It is the tragic Hour of the whole Dial, more cruel than Chi, where the candle-light and the torch-light are shown. At Epsilon wickedness is, as Bacon him- self used the phrase in a letter, "a sure mounter for the saddle." Evil thrives here, and is de- termined upon with ardor. The charge of treachery and conspiracy, if made here, carries a heavy weight of truth; but it is often so arranged that a man wrongfully accused of being a traitor is accused at another placement, the fact itself that he is not at Epsilon serving as a cipher comment to clear him beforehand of the guilt. The strongest single arraignment of a traitor ever made in the English language is at Epsilon. It is at Q 29, H 5 ("my finger?") in Henry V: "And other devils that suggest by treasons. Do botch and bungle up damnation With patches, colors, and with forms being fetched From glitter- 107 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE ing semblances of piety. But he that tempered thee, bad thee stand up, Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason. Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. If that same Demon that hath gulled thee thus. Should with his Lyon- gate walk the whole world. He might return to vasty Tartar back. And tell the Legions I can never win A soul so easy as that Englishmans." The unison between Chi and Epsilon is shown by the reference to the "devils" at Chi, the place of "Tartar" and the Fire, while the Epsilon Gate shows a "Lyon" spelled on the Dial beside it. "Soul," "Gull," and "Easy" are also seen within Epsilon. It is at Epsilon in Tempest^ Q i6i, H 5 ("spir- its?") that Prospero says, "I had forgot that foul conspiracy of the beast Caliban and his con- federates against my life; the minute of their plot is almost come." Passion and anger are also at Epsilon, as where Prospero says, "I am vexed; my old brain is troubled." And it was here that Miranda explained to Ferdinand that she had never seen her father so angry before in her life. The idea of plot-making is frequently given at Epsilon. In Richard 11^ at Q 29, H 5, ("lies he?") Richard, hearing of his uncle's illness, says venomously, "Now put it (heaven) in his Phy- sicians mind To help him to his grave immedi- ately. . . . Come Gentlemen, let's all go visit him: Pray heaven we make haste, and come too late." 108 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT In Romeo and Juliet^ when Romeo is recognised at the party at the Capulets' home, and the old feud revives with Tibalt's "Fetch me my Rapier" the Q is Gc^^ H 5 ("Knight?"). Fatahty in Romeo's life is found at Epsilon. Here Mercutio is slain by Tibalt while Romeo tries to stop the fight, and Romeo's good intentions are the cause of his unhappy fate; for Mercutio cries as he is dying, "Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm." (Q 173, H 5). After this there is no peace for Romeo and Juliet. Romeo dies at Epsilon, drinking his poison with, "Come bitter conduct, thou urtsavoury guide. Thou desperate Pilot." When Romeo asks the Friar, "And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?" it is an Epsilon speech (Q 209, H 5); and when Juliet exclaims, at hearing, as she supposes, of Romeo's death in the first of the play, "Can heaven be so envious?" she has, at Epsilon, again expressed the thought of fatality. When King Lear is turned out into the storm by his daughters, it is at Epsilon (Q 245, H 5) that he exclaims, "In such a night as this? . . . Your old kind Father, whose frank heart gave all?" On the second round of the Dial after this, once more at Epsilon, Gloucester exclaims, "What a night's this?" (Q 269, H 5); and then is given that haunting and mysterious Hne, "Childe Roland to the dark Tower came." The Gate of Epsilon is in very truth the Gate of the Dark Tower in all the plays of "Shakespeare"-Bacon. 109 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE For the little Princes in the Tower there could be but one placement, Epsilon. In Richard III ^ at Q 236, H 5, ("King for this?") Tyrrel enters and announces the murder of the children, "The tyrannous and bloody act is done." The King, gloating over other evil, adds presently, "The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom, and Anne my wife hath bid this world good night." In the long account of the quarrel between the Dukes of Norfolk and Herford, in Richard II y the sympathies of the reader are meant to go with the good Duke of Norfolk, Mowbray. He is made to enter and answer to his name at Alpha, for he is an innocent, falsely accused man (Q 13, H i, "in Armes?"). Herford, the man of overleaping ambitions, is set at Epsilon when he answers to his name (Q 17, H 5, "a quarrell.^"). Each man declares that he comes to prove the other "a Traitor to my God, my King" and so on. But the Dial vindicates Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, from the charge. Mowbray, sent into exile, exclaims hexe at Epsilon, the Hour of Discord, that his tongue will be to him in a foreign land of no more use "Than an unstringed Viol, or a Harp, Or like the cunning Instrument cased up. Or being open, put into his hands That knows no touch to tune the harmony." It is at Epsilon, (Q 401, H 5, "the Office?"), at this place of things monstrous and unbelievable, that King Lear enters with the dead body of his daughter Cordelia in his arms. no THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT In King John^ the plot to kill young Arthur is set at Epsilon, (Q loi, H 5, "withal?"). The actual death of Arthur is at Epsilon, (Q 161, H 5, "live?"). Before this, at Q 113, H 5 ("do it?"), at Epsilon, Arthur's almost distracted mother, Constance, tells the Cardinal of all her fear. Here she makes that piteous wail for her child, "Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me." Yet Constance reveals her grain of faith also, "And, Father Cardinal, I have heard you say That we shall see and know our friends in heaven. If that be true, I shall see my boy again." She is at point 2,3- This is at the supreme height of the Dial, Alpha, by the Speech count, and is a truthful Dial prophecy. When Arthur takes the desperate chance for freedom, and leaps to his death, he is also at the height of the Dial, at point 2)^. The boy is reunited thus in spirit with his mother. Arthur's cry as he leaps is an Alpha reference, "As good to die and go; as die and stay . . . heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones." Zeta^ Hour 5, concerns "Natural and Artificial." It is an opposite, cross-Dial group from Alpha- Omega, and is used often as a place where things begun at the top of the clock may be seen at the bottom of it as if at the identical hour. It con- cerns ghosts and apparitions, being the other midnight hour. It is also, like Gamma, a place III BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE where the emotional stress is somewhat arrested, and a locality is made plain on the Dial. Pageants, conferences, banquets, are often here; here is the entrance to city and to castle Gate; here the porter stands beside the two South doors or gates; and here is that field used as a Garden, an Orchard, a Forest, a Park. Zeta carries the meaning sym- boHcally of "Nevermore" or "No More", and is the more material form of Omega, being followed by the earth and things earthy as well as being the conclusion of Bacon's Alphabet. "Zed," "Zany," and "Zero" are used as puns here. Things artificial and foolish are frequently placed here as well as contrasts between Nature and Art. The Ghost of Hamlet's father is first men- tioned at Zeta, appears at both Zeta and Omega, and makes the pronouncement, "I am thy Father's Spirit," at the Psi-Alpha group. Ghost is spelled in both Alpha and Gamma, so that when Hamlet tells his friends to "remove" farther away from the Ghost, who is calling, "Swear," the Dial is really taking both Hamlet and the Ghost three steps along either from Alpha to Gamma by the Q's or to the third point in Alpha, the Dial trick already noticed. This is the origin of the exclamation, "O day and night, but this is wondrous strange," at which Hamlet makes his celebrated speech about there being more things in heaven and earth than are "dreamed off in our ("our", not "your") philosophy." 112 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT "Our philosophy" is used as we now say, "our modern psychology." Hamlet observes that the "times are out of joint," but he "sets them right" by the Dial, when again, at the top of the clock, he recognises his father's spirit once more, and perceives it take its final farewell from Omega-Alpha. In Richard II, at Q 30, H 6, ("youth?") good old John of Gaunt, about to die, says of himself, "He that no more must say, is listened more," at Zeta. At Q 78, H 6 in the same play the relation on the Dial between the two midnight 12's is well given with Omega- Alpha words, "So fare you well, Unless you please to enter in the Castle, And there repose you for the Night." And later, but still at the same Q, comes this, "see thy Glory, like a shooting Star, Fall to the base Earth, from the Firmament: . . . and crossly to thy good, all fortune goes." In Lear, after the King has brought in the dead Cordelia in his arms, the Zeta question comes, "Is this the promised end?" (Q 402, H 6). Lear cries, "This feather stirs, she lives"; but Kent says, with the hopeless finality of Zeta, "O my good Master." Here, a moment later, Lear entreats, "Cordelia, Cordelia, stay a little." The count goes steadily on now, and at Omega (Q 408, H 12) the King gives up his hope, "No, no, no life? Why should a Dog, a Horse, a Rat have life. And thou no breath at all?" "Thou 'It come no more, Never, never, never, never, 8 113 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE never." But the count is at that final Omega which is also the Alpha of hope. It is as if Lear hardly realizes the truth. For at the East Gate, at Hour 3, he cries out, "Look on her . . . look there," and dies. Not at Zeta is Cordelia now, but at the Gale of Sunrise, the Altar of the East. There the two, father and child, are left together. Tau, Hour 7, concerns the "Earth." This has many meanings throughout the range of the plays. It has to do with the things of home, with things of the earth, earthy, and of dust to dust; and in the most passionate use of all, it concerns the Earth that is England. In Richard II there is set that great tribute to "native land" that is an exact contrast to the traitor's charge at Epsilon. For at Q 3 1 , H 7, John of Gaunt speaks those unforgetable words, "Eng- land bound in by the triumphant sea. . . . This royal Throne of Kings, this sceptred Isle, This earth of Majesty, . . . This happy breed of men, this little world. This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall. Or as a Moat defensive to a house, . . . This blessed plot, this earthy this Realm, this England." Is this affection less noble because the Dial cipher sets it at Tau, the place of the Earth, as if it were indeed the whole Earth to Englishmen ? Is it less or more intense in meaning because of the 114 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT fact that on Francis Bacon's Dial the Sea, which serves it in the office of a Moat, is indeed directly beyond it, bounding it at the place called Upsilon, the Water? Did Bacon love his England less because he planned this so? A more pitiful tallying with the Earth of England is in King John, at the death of young Arthur. Arthur dies at Epsilon, saying as he leaps to his death, "and England keep my bones." England does keep them in the faith of the cipher. At Epsilon, when later the child is discovered dead, one asks, (Q 173, H 5) "Who killed this Prince?" But it is at Tau, the place of England's own earth, at Q 175, H 7, ("Ha?") that the body of young Arthur is lifted as treasure from the ground. And here it is said, by one who watches, "How easy dost thou take all England up From forth this morsel of dead Royalty?" In a still opposite sense, it is at Tau that Richard the Third, desperate, and ready to barter his very land for safety, does in truth offer England itself when he cries, "A Horse — a Horse, — my Kingdom for a Horse!" at the place of the Earth, and of England, (Q 343, H 7, "power?"). When in / Henry IV Hotspur asks (Q 91, H 7,) ^' What Horse? A Roan .... is it not?" he is also at England. In direct contrast to Richard, he says, "That Roan shall be my Throne" And yet again, in a warm human sense, is Tau the place of England. After Richard II is forced 115 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE to make his humiliating entry into London, a sympathizing relative asks details of his ride through London. She is told about Bulling- brooke's riding on a fiery steed that seemed to know its master, while Richard had dust flung at him from the street. At Q 175, H 7, ("Whilst?") she exclaims ^'Barbarism itself must have pitied him." This is at Tau. Richard is thrown into prison, and just before his death a former groom visits him, and at the same Hour 7, Tau, at Q 223, Richard can bear no longer hearing the man describe his pet horse, for the Groom says, "O how it yerned my heart, when I beheld in London streets . . . when Bullingbrooke rode on roan Barbary, That horse that thou so often hath bestrid. That horse that I so carefully have dressed." Here Richard breaks in, at H 7, "Rode he on Barbary?" But another setting of the incident is in 2 Henry IV ^ at Q 67, H 7, Tau, when, as if to urge .upon the decipherer the three incidents at Tau, it is asked, '''What trust is in these Times? They, that when Richard lived, would have him die. Are now become enamoured on his grave. Thou that threwst dust upon his goodly head When through proud London he came sighing on. After the admired heels of Bullingbroke, Criest now, O Earthy yield us that King again." The four Tau placements have been carefully planned to answer the demand, '''What trust is in these TimesT' or in this Dial of Time? 116 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT There is no question as to the earthiness of the creature Caliban in Tempest^ and it is at Tau, the Earth, that Prospero says to him impatiently, yet with reason on the Dial as well as in the text, "Thou Earth, thou, speak," at Q 43, H 7 ("What shall I do?"). Upsilon, Hour 8, concerning "the Water," is especially the place of harmony, and of music over the water. It is in unison with Psi and Delta, and is perhaps the first of the three in the series. Bacon had a belief that music was heard most perfectly over the water, and thus sounds of melody are first heard here and die away upon the air at Phi. Ariel's song of the Yellow Sands is sung at Upsilon. In Tempest at Q 43, H 7, ("shall I do?"), at Tau, Prospero commands Ariel, "Go make thyself a Nymph o' the Sea," and Ariel goes — to the next placement. At Q 44, H 8 ("tortoise when?"), Upsilon, the Folio directions read, "Enter Ariel like a water Nymph" — rather daintily done, is't not? But why in such a sea song as this do we suddenly hear the watch dogs bark, and why, oh, why, does "Chanticlere" begin to crow? Remember that Upsilon is hour 8, which by ship time would be a part of the dog watch and shown by four bells, and you do hear them, "Hark now I hear them, ding dong bell", twice. The bells are heard at Chi, a few Q's later, at compass 117 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE point 8:15. The good dog did bark four bow- wows in proper time. This is, I think, one of the oldest allusions to the dog watch in literature; but it is not an isolated one, and recurs so often in the Folio at Upsilon and at Delta that it cannot be overlooked. Again, at Chi, the bell that rings Duncan's knell is used in this same time-pun. The bells actually heard here at Chi mark one of the early Bacon signatures in the Folio, where, in the "Full fathom five" song, beginning, "Ariel sings" and ending "ding-dong bell", the capitals "F Baconis", one of Bacon's signatures, may be seen in the text and duplicated on the Dial at the place of the Beacon, or Bacon, watch fires. Ferdinand is listening at Chi, and puzzles as to where the music comes from, "th' air or th* earth." As for Chanticlere, Upsilon carries compass time 5:45 to 5:15, surely a most dis- creet hour for the cock to crow, even if this were not the cross-dial pun between 12, the point 12, Delta, and point 24, Upsilon, a chain of jests. In Tempest at Q 92, H 8, Upsilon, again, but so far along in the play that music might have been set anywhere else on the Dial, there comes ("Hes that.?") the often quoted sentence, "They'll take suggestion as a Cat laps milk. They'll tell the Clock, To any business that We say befits the hour." One business befitting this hour is as- suredly music; and the Folio directions again 118 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT read, "Enter Ariel with Music and Song." The song "Orpheus with his Lute made Trees" is sung at Upsilon, at Q 104, H 8, in Henry VIII . The Fool's first snatch of song in Lear, "They for sudden joy did weep, And I for sorrow sung That such a King should play Bo Peep And go the Fool among," is at Upsilon, set there by Lear's question (Q 92, H 8), "When were you wont to be so full of songs. Sirrah?" Bo Peep may be seen spelled at Upsilon. The song "It was a Lover and his Lass" is sung at Upsilon. Reference to the Swan Song in King John is at Upsilon. Many of the "washings" are at Upsilon. Lady Macbeth makes the movement recognized as washing her hands at Upsilon, the place of the water. When Richard says, in Richard II at Q 80, H 8 ("seas?"), that not all the water in the rough rude sea "could wash the balm from an annointed King," he has no thought that long afterward, at Q 152, H 8, ("resign the Crown?") he should be forced to cry that his pride was utterly gone, and that "With mine own Tears I wash away my Balm." In humorous mood is the kindly Friar's gibe at Romeo for changing sweethearts with such promptitude, "What a deal of brine hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline?" he remarks at Q 104, H 8, and continues drolly, "Lo here upon thy cheek a stain doth sit Of an old tear that is not washed off yet." Sometimes the hour Upsilon 119 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE is simply the sea itself, as in Richard II, Q 80, H 8, "How brooks your Grace the air After your late tossing on the breaking Sea?" The drowning of Ophelia in Hamlet is at Upsilon. Her brother's cry, "O where?" is at Q 2>S^, H 8, and at once comes the description of the scene and the story of the Willow. It is said that she "chanted snatches of old tunes." That praise of Helen, "Why she is a Pearl, Whose price hath launched above a thousand ships" is at Upsilon, Q 128, H 8 ("keeping?"), in Troilus and Cressida. Phiy Hour 9, is "concerning the Air." Like Gamma and Zeta, it is largely a place for time references, and for places, for exits and entrances, rather than qualities of character. It is the evening and early night; the Gate of Sunset, because it is the West Gate; the entrance to the gate of either Paradise or its opposite land; and the abode often of the fairies of the air. The sound of the letter itself is often played upon. Not all, but many, of the exclamations "Fie, fie" occurring at important passages are set at Phi for the obvious pun. In Taming, where the undercurrent of humor in the cipher accompanies the text from first to last, it is at Phi that Kate begins her admonition to the other wives less "tamed" than herself. Being at Phi, she opens her speech becomingly "Fie, fie." References to "Fans" often refer to the breezes at the airy Phi, and are set at Phi and Alpha. In Romeo and 120 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT Juliet y when the Nurse says to her man Peter, "My Fan," impressively, at Phi, the fact is stressed by the comments of the watching young men, who wonder audibly why she asks for her fan. The Dial tells why. The Fan-shape of the Hours at the top of the Dial make a real Fan for Peter to bring in at his count i . Phi, as the West Gate, is often used for the entrance to city or castle, but it is not so dis- tinctly the Broad Gate as is Chi lo, since on the Dial the Broad Gate is seen almost entirely at Chi. The full weight of a Broad Gate allusion must fall at Chi, H lo, to be most powerful; and Phi is the approach to that Gate rather than the Gate itself. It has, therefore, two parts to play, and is easily understood by the text in either part. Chty Hour lOy is "concerning the Fire," — fire as a Watch fire, a Beacon, a Torch; fire as the Little Candle burning in one's home; fire as the flame of Anger, of Folly, of Selfishness, of Passion, or of Zeal; fire, last of all, in the Dantesque sense of the word — the fire of hell and all its devils. It is the Broad Gate and also a castle or city Gate. The question, "Oh who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking on the frosty Caucasus.'*" is at Chi, Q 22, H lo, in Richard II. The exclamation "What fire is in mine ears?" is in Much Ado, Q ii8, H lo. In 2 Henry VI, the order to "^^/ London Bridge on fire'' is at Q 238, H lo. In Hamlet^ at Q 334, H 10, ("becomes it.?") 121 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Ophelia enters in her distraught mood, offering the rosemary and the rue. Here it is said of her, "Thought, and AiBiction, Passion, Hell itself, She turns to Favor, and to Prettiness." The beginning of the Gate at Chi, known as the Broad Gate, is to be seen on the Dial at the last line of Phi. References to Chi sometimes begin at Phi, for this reason, and form a double tally. Again in Hamlet^ at Q 57, H 9, ("custom?") it is written, "Angels and Ministers of Grace, defend us: Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damned. Bring with thee airs from Heaven, or blasts from Hell." Here the Air at Phi, and the Fires of Hell at Chi are rightly set on the Dial. On the other side of Chi, the "Celestial" place- ment Psi is seen, in direct contrast. This also is noted in the text tallies, as when in Hamlet^ at Q 70, H 10 ("lead me?") the Ghost says, "My hour is almost come. When I to sulphurous and tormenting Flames Must render up myself." And at the next Q, 71, H 11, ("What?") the Ghost seems to recognize his changed locality by declaring, "I am thy Father's Spirit," with a new dignity. Hamlet's soliloquy, "Now might I do it pat," is at Speech point 30, in Chi, where he exclaims with all the stress of the placement behind his words, as he thinks of killing the King; "And that his Soul may be as damned and black As Hell to which it goes." Selfishness, cruelty, and the harder vices find 122 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT their placement here, as if the fire burning were that of hate in the soul. It is here that Lear, in the agony of his desertion, cries out loud, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child." (Q io6, H lo "show?") Psi, Hour llf is often the Celestial Country itself. It is the place of Love, Joy, Mercy, Victory after grief. Passages chosen from the placement at this hour might be harmonized with the spirit of Pilgrim's Progress and with the music of Stillman Kelley's Pilgrim, in all its glory of triumph and peace. Here, as in the garden of Paradise, the eternal flowers bloom. This is where, in reply to the question in Midsummer, "Hast thou the flower there?" (Q ^S^ ^ ^^)> Oberon gives the magic line, "I know a banke where the wilde time blows." Perhaps of all the references in the Folio to Psi, the celestial land, this could least have been spared. When, in Merchant, Portia makes her speech about the quality of mercy that's not strained, she stands at Psi, the place of mercy. When, in Taming, Kate ends her great speech to the other women, she stands at Psi. And when Romeo, in the balcony scene known to all the world, ex- claims "O speak again bright angel," he stands at Psi. This is preeminently the place of fine and good women upon the Dial, and of their noblest mo- 123 BACQN^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE merits. The first woman to be set there is Mi- randa, whom her father places there with his loving words, "O a Cherubin thou wast that didst preserve me. Thou didst smile, infused with a fortitude from heaven." This gives at once the ideal quality of the group. When Miranda, at her first startled glimpse of Ferdinand, asks "What is't a Spirit?" she is at Psi (Q 47, H ii) and here she says that she never saw before a thing "so noble." Here at point 23y the last line of Psi, is set, in Love's Labor's Lost^ that hardly excelled tribute to a woman, "A Gallant Lady." Q 59, H 11, (same?). It is to be remembered that many of the Alpha references share their most gracious qualities with Psi, and that with Alpha it is the supreme height of the Dial. It unites with Delta and Upsilon in stressing the human, the strong, the harmonious things of the cipher, and is one of the three con- cords of the Dial, Psi-Alpha, Delta, Upsilon. Hour 12^ Omega, is concerning "Meteors." It does concern heavenly things, constellations, signs, portents. The use of the word Meteors is probably meant for a hint at the Blazon and the signs and symbols used at Alpha-Omega. But Omega also companions Alpha: it is the invisible comrade of Alpha. It opposes its sense of fatality, death, and the end of all to the new morning and the new start of Alpha. Like the 124 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT other 12 at Zeta, it is especially connected with references to sleep, to dreams, to visions, and to supernatural affairs. In Cymbeline, the scene where Imogen is sleep- ing tranquilly while the snake lachimo spies about her room is begun at Psi, the celestial placement. At Q 85, H I ("is it.?") at Omega-Alpha, Imogen is told the time correctly as "Almost midnight. Madam." She gives her gentle orders, beauti- fully set at this group on the Dial, "Fold down the leaf . . . Take not away the Taper," and says her little prayer. Then she sleeps. Even lachimo, as he steals forth from the trunk, is abashed by the quietness of her slumber. He sees the lone taper burning by the bed, and says to himself, "The Flame of the Taper bows toward her." This is more than an act of adora- tion on the part of a rascal: it is more than illu- sion; it is one of the scientific facts noted by Lord Bacon in his study of the action of flame. For in Montagu, Vol. 2, p. 30, note 125, Bacon is quoted thus: "If a man speak a good loudness against the flame of a candle, it will not make it tremble much. . . . But gentle breathing, or blowing without speaking, will move the candle more." This is one of the multitude of instances where it is difficult not to see that Bacon's mind was so rich in illustrative material that only he and not another could have produced the plays. But, after all the Hours have been tallied on the 125 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Dial, there remains a passage from King John that fits no one place, and yet fits the entire Dial itself. Bacon's name for the Alphabet of Nature ^ the Abecedarium Naturae^ does suggest the old Absey book, or Alphabet Book, that was the Primer of the Elizabethan child. The Dial cipher somewhat corresponds to such a Primer, for it has answers and questions waiting to be studied. The Dial itself offers an endless number of answers, or tallies. But if Lord Bacon had made no reference to any such thing as an Absey book in his plays, it would have taken no period of countable time for the non-Baconian to speak up and say, "There is no evidence that Lord Bacon ever heard of an Alphabet Book, or an Absey Book, or ever thought of one while he was writing a play, or even that he could not have called his cipher an Abecedarium, while in entire ignorance of any such thing as an Absey Book: and even if he did mention an Absey book, how should that agree with his Alphabet of Nature?" After which the non-Baconian would add whatever negatives his Shakespearean range of words would enable him to use. But here, in King John, is Bacon tallying his own Absey questions with the Dial itself. He does this in the scene at the Inn, at Q 15, Hour 3, ("name?"). Hear now this Speaker at the Inn, as he imagines himself having picked out a stranger to talk with: 126 THE DIAL HOURS IN THE TEXT "Thus leaning on my elbow I begin, I shall beseech you; that is question now, And then comes answer like an Absey book: O sir, says answer, at your best command, At your employment, at your service sir: No sir, says question^ I sweet sir at yours^ And so ere answer knows what question would. Saving in Dialogue of Complement, And talking of the Alpes and Appenines, The Perennean and the River Poe, It draws toward supper in conclusion so. But this is worshipful society And fits the mounting spirit like myself: And not alone in habit and device. Exterior form, outward accoutrement.; But/row the inward motion to deliver Sweet, sweet sweet poison for the ages tooth. Which though I will not practise to deceive, Yet to avoid deceit I mean to learnt Could one possibly pack the Alphabet and the Dial into smaller "compass" than this? Both Answer and Question waiting for the other, Answer placed forever on the Dial chart. Question forever set where it may find a fitting Answer; Answer all unknowing till the Question stops, yet ever ready to give its Dial complement, — its letter, its word, its time, its place, its distinguished and most distinguishing qualities, at the hour of demand? 127 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Notice that on the Dial at Gamma the River Poe, or Po, begins to look for the first time like a real word. As one goes "toward supper" on the Dial, the word is found again at Zeta, and Epsilon, twice, — a good word by which to locate the "drawing down" along the Dial. The word "Dial- logue" itself is possibly a hint. When the speaker says he does not wish to deceive, but learns deceit in order to avoid deceiving, he says exactly what Bacon must have thought when he built into the outward form of the plays the interior message. The "inward motion" of the Dial Q's does in fact deliver material for the "ages tooth." The "con- clusion so" is Zeta 78, the last Hour of Bacon's Alphabet. 128 CHAPTER VII THE CIPHER IN MACBETH Macbeth is built on the discords of the Dial. These are Hours Chi, Epsilon, and Zeta. Lady Macbeth seldom stands for even a moment at Psi, the celestial placement, where Portia is so often found in Merchant. The good Anthonio often takes his place at Delta, the Hour of Justice; and at the height of the Dial comes the final defeat of Macbeth with the triumph of right. Chi, the place of Fire, in all its Broad Gate meaning, is that spot at which Macbeth feels most at home. He enters and speaks first at Chi, (Q lo, H lo, "thou?"). He makes his fascinated inquiries about being Thane of Cawdor at Q 17, H 5, ("of Cawdor?"), and that is at Epsilon, the place of treachery and plots. At Epsilon he tries to ask himself why he yields to the "horrid image" in his own heart. Here at Epsilon he speaks of "Thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical." Here he says, "My dull Brain was wrought." The first use of Epsilon as the place of anger is in Tempest^ where, at Hour 5, Prospero says, "My old brain is troubled," and where Miranda remarks that this is the first time she ever saw her Father "so distempered." 9 129 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Tau, the Earth, is also stressed in Macbeth in its meaning of dust to dust. When Cawdor's death is announced it is at Tau, Q 31, H 7, ("returned?") and here at the place of the end of man's life it is written, "Noth- ing in his life became him like the leaving it." But the Delta Hour, with its appeal to final Justice, is used at Q 16, H 4 ("show?"). This is the place at which the witches greet Banquo and hail him as "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater." It is at Q 23, H II, ("here?") that Macbeth is given the title. Thane of Cawdor, and it is at Q 25, H I, that he exclaims, "Why do you dress me in borrowed robes?" as if, like lago, he were out of place at Alpha. Lady Macbeth's first entrance is at Tau, (Q 31, H 7, "returned?"). Here she reads the letter telling of her husband's promised earthly greatness. At Phi, the Air, (Q ^Z^ H 9, "him?") she summons the airy ^'spirits that tend on mortal thoughts," and here beside the Broad Gate she calls upon thick Night to come and pall her "in the dunnest smoke of Hell." The first meeting of Macbeth and his wife in the tragedy occurs here at the Broad Gate. Lady Macbeth herself takes the count directly to Chi by her incisive question about the King's de- parture: "And when goes hence?" Macbeth stammers "Tomorrow — " but the woman declares, "O never shall sun that morrow see." Her advice at Chi to Macbeth is — "Look 130 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it." The King himself takes the count to Psi ii, and here, still under the benignant influence of Duncan, Macbeth soliloquizes, his two natures at strife, "If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well, It were done quickly." "That but this blow Might be the be all, and the end all, Here, But here, upon this Bank and School of timey We'd jump the life to come." The FoHo printing of "Bank and School" suits well the Dial, which with its letters forms a School or Absey Book. Lady Macbeth has just told her husband that his "Face" was "as a Book, where men May read strange matters." Here on the Dial at these Hours the Absey letters them- selves occur four times, two rows at the top circle, two rows at the lower circle, — the only such place on the Dial where "AB C DE" so well suggests the "Absey". In another form of interpretation, the "Bank" may be the bordering slope of the Dial rounding from Hour Psi toward the height of the Dial at Alpha. It is also that same Bank of which it is said in Midsummer^ "I know a banke where the wilde time blows". "Jump" may be a Dial pun — taken from the "Jump" made by Psi over Alpha; and, in a sense, if there were no Alpha thus crowding close to Psi — if Omega, the End, came instead at 12 — Alpha the Hfe to come, the new start, would in fact be "jumped." 131 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE At Delta, Macbeth has an instant of repentance. At Q 40, H 4, ("has?") he declares that he will "proceed no further in this business." On the instant Lady Macbeth takes him to Epsilon, as before she had taken him to Chi, with her sharp question, "Was the hope drunk. Wherein you dressed yourself?" (Q 41, H 5). At Q 45, H 9, ("Esteem?"), a bit of humor enlivens the cipher. "Letting I dare not wait upon I would, Like the poor Cat i' th' addage," is at Phi, and not only is there a Cat on each side of the Lady as she speaks, upon the Dial, but the "adage" is about the cat that loved fish yet hated to put her toes into the water, and Lady Macbeth has just passed through Upsilon, the place of the water, as she has been speaking. This is also near the Blazon of the Fish in Tempest. The stress on "No More" in the play itself follows somewhat the "No's" and "No more's" to be seen six times on the Dial face. Macbeth has said "Nothing is, but what is not." He is again at the entrance to the Broad Gate, with the last "No" or "No More" staring him in the face. When he makes answer to his wife, here at Phi, "I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares no more, is none," the sense of doom, of finality, is what the Dial has beaten into his brain at last. That which Macbeth feared may well have been the great No Mores — no more of sleep, no more of peace, no mor^ of courage and 132 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH the good day's living, the blank "No More" — of what? And once more, here at Chi, does Lady Mac- beth drag her husband straight to the middle of the Broad Gate. It is at Q 46, H 10, ("to me?") that she taunts him with what she herself would have done, rather than be the coward that she feels he is; and blindly, hysterically, as if all the devils at Chi had maddened her, she snatches at the extreme of horrors. The much debated point as to whether "We fail?" is really a question or not may be settled by the Dial fact that the two words of Lady Macbeth, in this question form, serve to take the Q directly upon the top of the Dial — (Q 48, H 12,) where it is most appropriate to say, "Screw your courage to the top notch.'' Lady Macbeth echoes: "JVefaiP. But screw your courage to the sticking placCy And we'll not fail." It is the Omega- Alpha Q, as the Folio gives it. At Omega, the place of sleep, and of midnight, she plans, "When Duncan is asleep" — and speaks of drugging the guards. Duncan's death is determined upon by Macbeth at Delta, (Q 52, H 4, "Death?") in what is a form of irony on the Dial, since it was here exactly that Macbeth had once decided not to do the deed. But whatever Macbeth may plot, the soul of Duncan, even as he speaks, waits at the place of the eternal justice. The frequent time trick between Omega 12 and Delta, point 12, is done at Q 53, H 5, where ^33 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Banquo asks the time ("Night, Boy?"), and on being told the "Moon is down" replies that "she goes down at twelve^ But at his Personal point 2, H I, Fleance says, correctly, "I take 'tis later. Sir." At Epsilon, where already treacherous thoughts have assailed Macbeth, the worthy Banquo also feels the force of them, and prays, "Merciful Powers, restrain in me the cursed thoughts^ Macbeth and Banquo bring in the letters of the Blazon at Zeta, their "Torches" having hinted at the fact. Macbeth's cry — "Is this a Dagger which I see before me?—" is at Q t^d, H 8, ("hand?"); and at the place of the Air, Phi 9, he asks, "fatal Vision^ sensible to feeling, as to sight?" But it is again at the Broad Gate, at the place of Fire, that he asks (Q 58, H 10), "Or art thou but a Dagger of the Mind, A false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed Brain?" Another time trick, referring to the Dog Watch at Upsilon 8, is here made at Chi with "whose Howl's his Watch'' (even though it be a Wolf that Howls), and with the "Bell rings" in the Folio directions. Macbeth hears and says, "it is a Knell, That summons thee to Heaven, or to Hell.'* And Lady Macbeth is still at the place of Fire when she enters and says, "What hath quenched them, hath given me fire." With a thought of the Gate itself she adds, "The Doors are open." Macbeth stays but a second on the celestial 134 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH placement with his Q 59, H 11, ("Who's there?") and gets at once to Omega, ("What Hoa?" Q 60, H 12). It is at Omega that Lady Macbeth explains, "Had he not resembled My Father as he slept I had done 't." At Q 62, H 2 — at Beta the place of "Impos- sible" — Macbeth asks "Didst thou not hear a noise?" feeling it impossible that she has not. At Epsilon (Q 65, H 5) he asks, "As I descended?" and to one who has watched the swift Q's descend- ing the Dial to Epsilon, it has almost the effect of a tragic hint at the descent indeed to Epsilon, the place of the traitor. And his wife makes answer "Ay." It is at Zeta, the other twelve of midnight and slumber, that Macbeth begins — "one did laugh in's sleeps'' "say their Prayers, And addressed them again to sleep.'' "Wherefore could I not pronounce Amen?" This takes the count upon the Earth placement, Tau, (Q 67, H 7); and here, where Lady Macbeth had first read his letter, the man says now — "Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more: Macbeth does murder Sleep, the innocent Sleep. . . . The death of each day's Life, . . . great Nature's second Course, Chief Nourisher in Life' Feast." Lady Macbeth's quick "W^hat do you mean?" takes the count to Upsilon. And here, as in Merchant, the Notes of Lord Bacon give a distinct answer. In his Notes 54, 55, and 57 {Philosophical Works, Spedding, Vol. II, pages ^2S BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE ;^62-262) Bacon is writing about the best means of "conveying and converting the nourishment" throughout the body, and says, "The third means . . . is to send forth the nourishment the better by sleep. . . . Certain it is, (as is commonly believed) that sleep doth nourish much." Again Macbeth repeats his wail, "Still it cried Sleep no more to all the house". And with characteristic stolidity Lady Macbeth asks who it was that cried like that. I think Francis Bacon had often seen just her type in the law courts of that day. Now she has her mind on practical matters. She considers the "water" at Upsilon, as before she had taken note of the Cat, and at Phi 9 (Q 69, H 9— "cried?") she tells Macbeth, here where he had seen his Visions, that he must not think "so Brain-sickly of things," and orders him to "Go get some Water ^ And wash this filthy witness from your Hand." And now, with her Q 70, H 10, she takes him again to the Broad Gate, — "Why did you bring these Daggers from the place?" It was at this same Chi that Macbeth had first described the daggers in detail, that he had gone forth to murder Duncan, and that Lady Macbeth had entered saying, "He is about it." Now she tells him calmly to take the daggers back again. Daggers had not troubled her in prevision; actually before her, she knows what to do with them. But Macbeth will "go no more." And here Lady 136 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH Macbeth cries out — "Give me the Daggers: — 'tis the Eye of Childhood That fears a painted Deviir "Knocking" is first heard here at the Broad Gate. At Q 72, H 12, Macbeth demands: "How is't with me, when every noise appals me?" and the Dial answers him. The End: "Omega — Omega." When Macbeth exclaims — "Will all great Nep- tune's Ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?" the great undercurrent of the Beta cipher answers him, "Impossible — Impossible." Now comes "making the Green one. Red'' The only place on the Dial where "Red" is found within one group is at Beta, and Blood is also at Beta. Red is made at Alpha-Psi. Green finds two G's at Alpha Line i. "The Green one. Red," is a bit of Dial verification and emphasis, — the three groups do make "Red" and they are "One." At Beta also Lady Macbeth returns and voices another Impossibility, "My Hands are of your color: but I shame To wear a heart so white." She says, "I hear a knocking at the South entry." This is a fact, for the Porter at the end of his long devil-portering remains at Tau, after hearing knocks at every Gate on the Dial. Tau is S S W and S W. Still the count is at Beta — "A little Water clears us of this deed." Impossible. At the East Gate, the Gate of Sunrise, there is more knocking; and at Q 75, H 3, ("Is it then?") 137 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Macbeth, at the place of awakening, speaks to the far-off knocker — ''Wake Duncan with thy knocking — I would thou couldst." The Porter scene opens at Gamma, the time being either three or six o'clock, probably six, since the Porter had overslept. The Porter refers to his having heard knocks at Chi, by saying "If a man were Porter of Hell-Gate, he should have old turning the Key." Both East and West Gates and Keys are here connected, in the speech as on the Dial, by the crossing "spear." "Come in time" is a Dial proof, "in time" being spelt only within Gamma and Alpha. At Epsilon — a fitting place — the "Equivocator" is described, with the Epsilon words, "Who committed Treason enough for God's sake"; and there was probably no man in England who knew more about the type of person thus dealt with than Lord Bacon. At Tau the Porter begins to tire of his sport. At Q 79, H 7 ("are you.^") he observes, "but this place is too cold for Hell," recalling the good hot Fire at Chi, where the text made the knocking to be heard. He considers, "I'll Devil-Porter it no further." He speaks in place, not in time — "further", not "longer." Of the Dial he is thinking when he says, "I had thought to have let in some of all the Professions, that go the Primrose way to th' everlasting Bonfire." The Bonfire is at Chi. The Rose and the Prim or "Prime" may be 138 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH seen at Zeta-Tau — the original name, "Prime- Rose", suiting admirably at the South I2 of the clock — the line of 1-12. In Hamlet^ when Ophelia speaks of the "Steep and thorny way to Heaven" and the opposing "primrose path of daUiance," she is at the top of the Dial, the other Prime, 12-1. To follow the Primrose path on the Dial, the Porter must have gone through the garden of the Earth at Zeta-Tau, passed the place of the west wind, that is a "nourisher of flowers" as Bacon has it, and reached Chi itself, the place of the Fire. This is "further" than the Porter cares to go just now. But again Macbeth appears at the place Chi. He cannot evade or escape it. When Macduff asks "Is thy Master stirring.?" the Q is 82, H 10; and, as if he had been waiting there all the time, Macbeth appears. At the place of things Celestial, Psi II, where the good Duncan had already been seen and had talked, Macduff asks Macbeth if the King is stirring, and Macbeth says truthfully, "Not yet." Duncan is indeed forever more at the Celestial Country. Strikingly, he is by his Personal count exactly opposite at point 17, the final Zeta, "No More." The description of the unruly night parallels that in Julius Caesar^ (also at the top of the Dial,) before the murder of Caesar. The announcement of the King's death is made at Alpha-Omega; and at Q 87, H 3 ("his Majesty.?") the Gate of Sunrise once more, it is shouted out loud, ''Awake^ 139 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE amake. Ring the Alarum bell: Malcolm, wake^ Shake off this Downey sleep, Death's counterfeit — up, up and see The great Doom's Image." Lady Macbeth's question "What's the Busi- ness?" is at Delta, but on the instant she rushes away from that unfamiliar placement with the Epsilon question, "That such a hideous Trumpet calls to parley The sleepers of the House?" She could speak this at no other place but the place of traitors. Here Macduff says, "The repetition in a Woman's ear. Would murder as it fell." And then, "O Banquo, Banquo, Our Royal Master's murdered." It is Epsilon indeed. Macbeth is again at Chi (Q 94, H 10, "moment?") when he gives the almost morbidly decorative account of the King's wounds, and when he reaches Psi 11 by his question ending "Courage to make love's known?". Lady Macbeth is over- come. As if she cast herself headlong on the Celestial Mercy at Psi 11, she cries, "Help me hence, hoa." The next Q reaches Alpha-Omega, and here, at the place of the Cross, Banquo makes what is almost a solemn affirmation, "Fears and scruples shake us: In the great hand of God I standi and thence, against the undivulged pretence, I fight, Of Treasonous malice." The reference to the "Travailing Lampe" struggling with its tiny flame against the in- creasing brightness of the morning, is at Beta, and the time is close upon dawn; therefore it is 140 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH ''travailing' that is meant, not "travelling." The phrase "when living Light should kiss it?" comes close after, (Q 99, H 3,) the Sunrise or East Gate. When Ross answers "Why see you not?" to the inquiry about how the world goes, he is at Q 1 01, H 5; and the meaning of his reply is em- phasized by the Epsilon placement that tells of treachery and foreboding. Macbeth is again at Chi when he asks that sinister question of Banquo, whom he is plotting to kill, "Ride you this afternoon?" (Q 106, H 10). His next inquiry is accented by being set at that land from which no traveller returns — Psi 11, "Is't far you ride?" Yes — far, and never to return. At Omega Macbeth says that he will keep himself "till Supper time alone," and bids his friends entertain themselves till "seven at Night." When Banquo is actually surprised by the murder- ers, the point time gives 7:30, and there is mention of "the belated traveller," at Phi (Q 117, H 9 "with us?"). Here, too, at point West, Phi, it is said, "The fVest yet glimmers with some streaks of Day." To return to Macbeth's plot itself, it was at Alpha-Omega that he said, "To be thus, is nothing, but to be safely thus none but he, whose being I do fear." And it is once more at Epsilon, Q 113, H 5 ("forever?") that he makes all his plans with the two murderers, promises to 141 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE acquaint them with "the perfect Spy o' th' time," and muses on the outcome, "Banquo, thy SouFs flight, If it find Heaven, must find it out tonight." Find on the dial the word Soul. Here, at Epsilon, the Soul suddenly shines out, as if, even through all that treachery and blood, the Soul of Banquo did indeed remain unscathed. At Q 115, H 7, ("alone?") Lady Macbeth and her husband are speaking of sleep, as once before at Tau, "And sleep In the affliction of those terrible Dreams." "After Life's fitful fever, he sleeps well." The reference "eat our Meal" directly recalls the "Nourisher in Life's Feast" of the earher Q. At that first placement he spoke of sleep as "Balm of hurt Minds." Now once more, at Tau, he speaks only of "the torture of the Mind." Has it been of no literary value, and for no rhythmical accent that can touch the subconscious mind, that such "beats" as this recur and recur upon the Dial and strike ever the same Hour upon the syllables of recorded Time ? The banquet is begun at the top of the Dial. Here the Ghost of Banquo enters, at 12 of the clock (Q 121, Hi "safe.?"). At Beta (Q 122, H 2, "Company?") Macbeth feels the presence of the Ghost and refuses to sit down, "The Table's full." Impossible! At Epsilon, that Epsilon where the murder was planned to its last detail, Macbeth recognizes the Ghost as Banquo; for he cries out, "Which of you have done this?" here where he had so flip- 142 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH pantly consigned the soul of Banquo to heaven or to hell. Lady Macbeth's imperious, "Are you a man?" is asked at Tau (Q 1 27, H 7,) — the placement of Caliban, the man of the earth. It is at the place of the Air, Phi, that Macbeth says, "Avaunt, and quit my sight," "Take any shape but that," "Can such things be, And overcome us like a Summers cloud.'' And it is at Psi-Alpha, that top of the Dial where the banquet scene began, that Lady Macbeth dismisses the guests: "at once, good night. Stand not upon the order of your going. But go at once." When Macbeth asks, "What is the night.?" at Q 132, H 12, (Omega-Alpha), his wife answers correctly on the Dial — "Almost at odds with mornings which is which." And here at the top of the clock she presently says, "You lack the season of all Natures, sleep." At Q 1 40, H 8, ("done.''"), when Lenox says, "Had he Duncan's Sons under his key, (As, an't please Heaven he shall not)," there is a notable Dial accent. For there is no Key at Upsilon; and so, in like manner, shall no Key be turned upon Duncan's Sons. The witches first entered at Alpha i (Q i) and asked the familiar "when shall we three meet again?" with perhaps a reference to the triple group at the top of the Dial. Macbeth met them first at Chi, and now again at Chi the witches appear, (Q 142, H 10, "MacdufF?"). Hecat had 143 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE charged them to meet her "at the pit of Acheron"; and certainly no place on the Dial but Chi, the place of Fire, Devils, and Hell, can be so well called "pit of Hades," where they do meet in fact. There is a passing allusion to the Blazon in "The Hedge-Pigge," and to the Gate in "Open locks," while the Blazon letters are also given. Now Macbeth enters again. Macbeth's Q 144, H 12, ("you do?") sets the scene at Alpha-Omega, where the first of the "Apparitions" appears. At Delta, where Banquo had been greeted by the witches as the father of Kings, Macbeth asks (Q 148, H 4) if Banquo's children shall "ever Reign in this Kingdom?" At Epsilon, next, he asks, "Who shakes that Caldron?" At Zeta the pageant of the Eight Kings begins, "and Banquo last." Three pass at Zeta, again like the Three at the other 1 2. The fifth King arrives at Q 153, H 9, Phi, and Macbeth cries, "will the line stretch out to th' crack of Doom?" and at Chi, "Another yet?" At Q 155, H 11, Psi, Banquo appears, with his glass, "and points at them for his." "What? Is this so?" These two Q's set Banquo at the height of the Dial in all its significance of Kingship. Q's 156, 157, H's 12, i. When the review is over, Macbeth exclaims, at Delta, "Let this pernicious hour. Stand aye accursed in the Kalendar." But the cipher reveals the fact that it is Macbeth himself who is accurst, not the noble Hour of Delta. 144 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH In the scene where the family of Macduff is murdered, the wife of Macduff is at Alpha-Psi when she first speaks, and also when she says later, "Whither should I fly? I have done no harm." At Delta (Q 184, H 4) the murderers demand "Where is your husband?" and proudly and finely she speaks at the place of goodness; "I hope in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou mayst find him." Here, too, the little lad speaks out, as did his mother, fearlessly, "Thou liest thou Shag-eared Villain." The Murderer retorts, "What you Egg?" and is at Epsilon, the one place on the Dial where such a deed should be done. Somewhere between Epsilon and Zeta the child is given his death blow, and at the South doorway he cries to his mother, "Run away." At Q 191, H II, ("breed?"), Macduff describes the young Malcolm's mother as one who, "Oftener upon her knees, than on her feet. Died every day she lived." And here Malcolm affirms his own innocence; "But God above deal between thee and me:" a placement that serves to establish the rectitude of Malcolm. Macduff's inquiry for his wife is at Epsilon, where the murder was begun. Macduff goes on, "And all my Children?" Ross replies, "Well, too." This at Zeta, where the little lad fled dying. Macduff continues — "The Tyrant has not battered at their peace?" This is Q 199, H 7. It takes its figure from the many instances of the 145 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Tau Gate as a place of attack and siege — a battle- ment in itself. It is a clear case of the Dial's imposing its own illustrations upon the one familiar with it. At Phi, the West Gate, and the frequent "exit of mortality" throughout the Folio, Macduff is told of the murder of all his household. At Psi 1 1 he asks a question most piteously stressed by the fact that it comes exactly upon the place where his wife had blamed him for his absence: "And I must be from thence?" (Q 203, H 11). At Omega he repeats, "My Wife killed too?" and Ross answers only, "I have said." Omega, Omega. At Beta, (Q 206, H 2) Macduff's words are, "Did you say All?" And again the Beta accent gives "Impossible." And then at Delta, (Q 208, H 4), the place of things "eternal and momentary — durable and transitory," he gives the eternal cry of the bereaved, "/ cannot but remember such things were That were most precious to me." He then asks the question that reaches Epsilon: "Did heaven look on, and would not take their part?" Here, at Epsilon, he says, "Not for their own demerits but for mine Fell slaughter on their souls." And then straight out he speaks, here at that Epsilon where the murder had been planned and done, "But gentle Heaven, Cut short all intermission: Front to Front, Bring thou this Fiend of Scotland, and myself." The famous sleep-walking scene is begun at Zeta, (Q 210, H 6, "last walked?"). Here, at 146 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH the place of sleep, the physician considers the case, mentions "the benefits of sleep^' and "the effects of watching." One should note the special shading of the Folio punctuation, so delicate as to give the very tones of the good Doctor. Surely all of us have heard him speak with this professional composure and clearness. Rest the voice at each mark! "In this slumbery agitation, besides her walk- ing, and other actual performance, what (at any time) have you heard her say?" This in itself might be set forth as proof that the living author watched the printing of the Folio. Lady Macbeth enters with her taper at Tau (Q 211, H 7, "say.'*"), exactly at the place at which she first entered the play reading her letter. She is still of the earth, earthy. She comes now with the results of that letter seething in her brain, "and upon my life fast asleep." At Upsilon, Q 212, H 8, the Doctor asks, "How came she by that light .^" This is the twilight hour, at which lights are often mentioned. Now the two watchers observe what she seems to be doing. This is at the place of the Water. What she does puzzles the Doctor. He asks the Gentle- woman what it is, the count so going on to Phi. The woman answers, "It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour." Phi 9 is at the quarter of an hour, right here on the Dial. 147 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Now, at Phi, the lady speaks, "Yet here's a spot." Oh, poor Lady Macbeth! It was at this place, this near approach to the Broad Gate, that she had said so short a time ago, so coolly, to her husband, "Go get some water, and wash this filthy Witness from your hands." From this moment one pities her with the deep pity due the contrite in heart. And here at the Broad Gate she goes on speak- ing, "Out damned spot: One-Two- Why then 'tis time to do 't. . . . Hell is murky." At Chi she asks, "A Soldier, and afeard?" here where she had goaded Macbeth to kill. At Psi she asks, "What need we fear.'' who knows it, when none can call our power to account.^" But at the Celestial placement, though none on earth may "know" or call to account, there waits the triumph of justice and of mercy, to decide the strength of her power and summon her to account. In the same temper Shylock asks, at Psi, "On what com- pulsion" must he think of mercy. At Q 218, H 2, just where her husband had exclaimed, "Will all great Neptune's Ocean," and she had said, "My Hands are of your color," Lady Macbeth cries out now in her sleep, "What will these hands ne'er be clean?" She recalls words that she may have said to her husband at the banquet, at Beta, when Macbeth refused to sit down — and once again, at Beta, repeats what we did not hear before, "No more o' that, my Lord . . . you mar all with this starting." 148 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH And, still at Beta, where all great Neptune's Ocean could not cleanse, she gives her agonizing moan, "Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." The Doctor is touched: "What a sigh is there?" And with this gentle intonation (Q 219, H 3) he takes the count to Gamma, where Lady Macbeth had on that other dreadful night en- deavored to lead her husband to a place of safety. She repeats to us now at the East Gate what went on before that we did not hear, "Wash your hands . . . look not so pale." And, "I tell you yet again Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on's grave." And again the Doctor murmurs; "Even so.?" And thus he takes the count upon Delta, the place of the Eternal goodness. Lady Macbeth is crying out, "What's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed." And here the Folio says only, "Exit lady." At Epsilon (Q 221, H 5, "to bed?") the Doctor speaks of "Foul whisperings," of "unnatural deeds." And, almost as if he were looking after the lady through the door toward Delta, the good Doctor says quietly, "More needs she the Divine than the Physician. God, God forgive us all. Look after her. Remove from her the means of all annoyance. And still keep eyes upon her. So good night." By the force of the inner cipher at least we are 149 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE besought to feel human charity for Lady Macbeth. I wish to place beside this cipher significance an extract taken from the Charge given by Sir Francis Bacon in the case against Frances, Countess of Somerset, brought to trial in 1616 for close connection with the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1613 (Montagu, Life of Bacon ^ Vol. II> page 319): "It may please your Grace, my Lord High Steward of England, and you, my Lords, the Peers: I am very glad to hear this unfortunate lady doth take this course, to confess fully and freely, and thereby to give glory to God and to justice. It is, as I may term it, the nobleness of an offender to confess: and, therefore, those meaner persons, upon whom justice passed be- fore, confessed not; she doth. I know your lord- ships cannot behold her without compassion; many things may move you, her youth, her person, her sex, her noble family; yea, her provocations, if I should enter into the cause itself, and furies about her; but chiefly her penitence and con- fession." The same heart that could thus speak of the Countess of Somerset, could so write of Lady Macbeth. The legal training and keen ambitions of Lord Bacon had not rendered him incapable of feeling the great ranges of human emotion. Macbeth is at the eleventh hour, and the eleventh month (Q 227, H 11, "Whey-face?") when he says, "I have lived long enough: my 150 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH way of life Is fallen into the Sear, the yellow Leaf." This is November, the month when the sere and yellow leaves have fallen thick. At Q 234, H 6 ("before us.?") Malcolm tells the Soldiers to hew down boughs from the wood. This is the same wood or forest in which Jaques relates his tale of the Fool; it is the orchard, and the garden, also. At Tau (Q 235, H 7,) Macbeth asks "What is that noise?" It is the sound of the weeping of women at the death of Lady Macbeth. She dies, as she had entered, at the place of "dust to dust." And Macbeth says (again that reference to Life's Feast at Tau), "I have supped fuU with horrors." At Upsilon, where the Doctor had noticed the lady's lighted taper, Macbeth reflects, "And all our yesterdays have lighted Fools The way to dusty deaths It is as if he himself had seen his wife, groping with the candle through the dark. "Out, out, brief Candle. Life's but a walking Shadow, a poor Player, That struts and frets his hour upon the Stage, And then is heard no more." At Upsilon Macbeth is told that the trees are moving toward him "within this three mile." They were cut at Zeta — well within the three- mile limit. In the last scene, at Q 238, H 10, ("thy name?"), Macbeth takes his stand for the last time at the Broad Gate. Young Seyward says that he will not be afraid to hear Macbeth's name, "though 151 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE thou callest thyself a hotter name Than any is in hell." Then says the man so long familiar with this place of Fire, "My name's Macbeth." And the other returns, "The devil himself could not pronounce a Title More hateful to mine ear." It is here, at Chi, that Macduff, sure of his own triumph at Psi, the place of heavenly victory, would drive his enemy back into the flames of Chi with his defiant order, "Turn Hell-hound, turn," said at Psi (Q 239, H 11, "sword?"). But there is no long delay. Macbeth learns his helplessness before his enemy, and here, at Psi, cries out, "Lay on Macduff, and damned be him that first cries hold, enough." The Broad Gates open for Macbeth at last. He is beaten back, and to be beaten back is to reach the Broad Gate behind him, waiting there at Chi. But the great dramatist could not leave the theme that way. Out of discord must come at last some concord. Psi-Alpha-Omega unite to give the one clear note. At Q 239, H 1 1 ("sword ?") they speak of another and an unlike death. Sey- ton's son had only lived "but till he was a man, . . . But like a man he died." . . . "Your cause of sorrow Must not be measured by his worth, for then it hath no end." (Q 240, H 12, "dead.?") And then the father asks, "Had he his hurts before?" This is the Alpha question (Q 241, Hi). And the answer comes, "Ay, on the front." "Why then God's soldier be he," And presently 152 THE CIPHER IN MACBETH Malcolm exclaims, "He's worth more sorrow." But the father says again, "He's worth no more. They say he parted well, and paid his score. And so God be with him." Omega^ but Alpha, Then comes the "Hail King of Scotland" at the Coronation placement on the Dial of Francis, Lord Bacon. 153 CHAPTER VIII BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES The word "Blazon" as a general name for all forms of Baconian signatures in the Folio was suggested by the use of the word itself in Merry Wives, at Q 357, H 9, ("Bede?") ''Search Windsor Castle Chairs of Order . . . Each fair Instalment, Coat, and several Crest, With loyal Blazon, evermore be blest. And Nightly -meadow-Fairies, look you sing Like to a Garter s-Compass, in a ring" The "Maze," or labyrinth-like form of the Dial section in which a Blazon or device forms, is a word found used in Midsummer, (Q 26, H 1, "Atiopa?"), "The quaint Mazes in the wanton green. For lack of tread are indistinguishable." The "tread" of a pencil point may be said to make these "Mazes" plain once more. Tempest is so full of cipher revelations that it seems to have been written partly as an allegory of the cipher, and to have been set first in the Folio on purpose to furnish a clue to decipherers. For instance, the ^^Banket" brought in by the "strange shapes" is an allegorical explanation of the "Inquisitions" or Question-marks, those fanciful beings who dance silently, with beckon- ing motions, but who have no tongues to speak; 154 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES who have "gentle actions of salutation;" who look like Unicorns, with one curved horn in the center of the head; or who remind one of a tree, or of a Phoenix rising up — what else are they, after one has studied the text and the Dial, but the line of the Q's— the ??????????????? "I cannot too much muse, Such shapes, such gestures^ — . . . a kind of excellent dumb discoursed Truly so — ?????????? The reference to the Phoenix is at Delta, and the words, "at this hour reigning there" do convey accurately the mission of the ? or Q, governing every Hour group as it passes, and at this Hour at Delta. The Question itself is symbolically like the Phoenix, for it is that which eternally rises afresh and governs all progress on the face of Time. The Maze drawings are suggested in many places of the text. When in Tempest it is ordered "Hang on them this line," it is not a printer's error, but a definite attempt to call attention to the lines hung on the letters to produce the Dial signatures. One of the most widely accredited of the visible Bacon acrostics in the text is at Q 9, H 9 ("cold?") in Tempest. "B — egun to tell me what I am, but stopped A — nd left me to a bootless Inquisition, Con — eluding, stay, not yet." In- quisition is well placed at the Q-Key line, and the F and A of the Bacon signature letters begin at 9. Speech count sets this at point 35, at the 155 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Bacon signature at Alpha, and when Prospero says, "The hour's now come," he speaks at point ^6, the last moment of Omega, and that at which a striking of the clock in the Folio directions often announces the new hour at Alpha i. Sir Nicholas Bacon is said to have made the jest that "Hog is not Bacon until it be hanged." The Bacon Boar — with the Stars on its back, and the Half-Moon also — on the cover is one of the attractions of the old Montagu edition of Bacon. Hang-Hog is used to tally with the Dial at the Bacon cube of nine letters. That other well-known place, in Merry Wives, long believed by Baconians to be a genuine Bacon signature set in the Folio, in which the Welsh schoolmaster quotes his pupil's Latin and gives it a Welsh twist — "I pray you have your remembrance (child) .... hing, hang, hog," is set at Q 274, H 10, ("your Accusative case.?"). Here Dame Quickly, oddly written Qu, and suggesting a Question herself, makes the complacent remark, "Hang-hog is Latin for Bacon, I warrant you." She is at the place of the Bacon signature at Chi, where the name is spelled. It is a simple matter to find these nine letters of the Blazon and mark them with a pencil tip, to see them fall into place. But the Maze draw- ings are often far more elaborate than this. Here, the schoolmaster himself used the word "Mark" that is often a hint to look for a Blazon on the Dial. Other words used are often to be i;6 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES taken as hints to "draw," and there are probably many such undiscovered Maze pictures or Blazons waiting to be traced. "Draw," "Counterfeit," "Picture," and "Point" are sometimes used, and once at least there is a distinctly amused, "Draw you Rascal," aimed at the future unknown de- cipherer! Capitals in the text often tally on the Dial near such an indicating word, and the result of drawing lines between the letters, in the order of their use in the text, and as they are found duplicated on the Dial-chart, results in Maze designs, or pictures. These designs sometimes illustrate the text, as in the case of the ^' Plain Fish'* and the ^'Broken Bowstring', {Fig. 4 and Fig. j.) They serve to call attention to the Bacon letters, and sometimes suggest Bacon signatures. The "Plain Fish" shows the W. S., It is, and F Bac, and the Dial itself provides the other letters. The letters I and P, often brought in with effort, it seems, may stand for 'Tn Praesentia Dominorum" — a term cor- responding to "Adsum" and used before the Lords of Session. The D is often used with it. The Maze pictures sometimes form pictures of a Jewel, perhaps signifying a signet ring. Many references to Jewels, Diamonds, and Rings occur at the Alpha Blazon. Bacon had at least one diamond that he took care to mention in an inventory — and certainly the signet ring idea is not improbable in itself. 157 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Sometimes the Blazons form only radiating lines, much resembling the shaken spears of the "Surrender at Breda" and pointing to Bacon letters. By this use of a pencil, many useless letters in the text are eliminated, and the Dial shows only those needed, where they are needed. It is to be noticed that the circles of the Dial lend a slight air of perspective to the Maze draw- ings, so that the Jewel, in its setting of upright lines, becomes a curved stone, not a flat hexagon. Also, there could be no Jewel drawn at all unless the letters stepped up at Alpha i, since the S must be above the R to form it. Thus no chart but one built like the Dial is capable of duplicat- ing the Jewel in the text. One of the best of these Jewels is made from the Capitals in the Epilogue of Tempest, {Fig. 12). Passages that bristle with capitals, and short italicized portions, as well as songs, are places at which it is wise to look for some word indicative of drawings. The word or name. Bacon, is used only four times in the Folio, though hog and pig and boar and pork abound on. the pages. Each of these four times it is carefully worked into the play, and tallied with a place on the Dial at which the Bacon signature letters are to be seen, at Alpha, Zeta, and Chi. At Zeta the Fr. belonging with it is in Epsilon, and at Chi the same Fr. is in Phi, while at Alpha the initials in Hne 1 are F. B. and suffice. All this is tallied as if by elaborate consideration in the use of the word Bacon in the text. 158 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES At Alpha, in / Henry IV, at Q 49, H i, ("Tench?"), it is said, "I have a Gammon of Bacon, and two razes of Ginger, to be delivered at Charing Cross." The Cross is usually set at the top of the Dial, or at one of the points 1 2 or 24, that correspond to it on the round of twelve hours. At Phi, Q 69, H 9, ("disguises?"), in the same play, is the expression, "Bacon-fed Knaves." As if to establish completely the identity of the reference, at the next Q (Q 70, H 10, "undone?") comes the order, "On Bacons, on." This is at the Hour where the Bacon symbol, the "Beacon" or Torch, is suggested by the Fire, and the reference itself partakes of the character of a charge or sally led by a Torch-bearer — "On, Bacons!" Q 71, H II, is the Q itself, thus carrying the name to Alpha. The mention of Bacon at Hour Chi, which contains point 29, is also linked to the Alpha signa- ture, by the fact that the Speech count at the Alpha reference is at point 29, as if directing at- tention to the other signature. The Bacon signature letters at Zeta, with the beginning at Epsilon, are provided for by the fact that the Speech count at "Bacon-fed Knaves" is at point 15, and at "On Bacons, on" is at point 17, the exact placement of the Bacon cube of four letters being thus marked. These three occurrences of the name Bacon in Henry IV have the more significance because the play itself professes to unfold some message from 159 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE a "Secret Book." The reference to Bacon in Merry Wives tallies at Hour lo, already noted, and the Speech point indicates the Zeta signature, for it is at point 13, the Keyline of Epsilon-Zeta, Thus "Latin for Bacon" joins the other three references in establishing a circling of the Dial by the Bacon letters. The "Secret Book" in / Henry IV is mentioned at Q 44, H 8 ("underwent?") "And now I will unclasp a Secret Book . . . I'll read you Matter, deep and dangerous, As full of peril and adventur- ous Spirit, As to o'er walk a Current, roaring loud. On the uncertain footing of a Spear." At the same place come the words, "Send danger from the East into the West, So Honor cross it from the North to South, And let them grapple.'* The play itself opens with the words "So shaken as we are." Honor and Danger may be seen spelled at the North-South and East-West points on the Dial. The cipher word '' Honorificabilitudinitati- bus" is at Q 183, H 3 in Love's Labor's Lost^ and point 17, the extended diameters crossing on the Dial. Baconians have long thought the phrase "shake a lance at ignorance," was a hint of the origin of the pen-name "Shake-speare." The clock pointer gives the effect of a spear, tipped with the Q. In imagination this Dial pointer moves, being "jarred" (the accepted Shakespeare word for the movement of the hands around the clock face) or "shaken" as it makes the trip. On the Dial 160 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES also the compass lines meet or "grapple" in the center. On such a "spear", as it crossed the cur- rent of the years, Bacon may have hoped to walk with his fame across to future ages. Certainly by the aid of these "spears" of the Dial he did bring the name Francis safely along the years to join at last with the name Bacon, tally- ing with it at exactly the same signature Hours on the Dial. The signature at Zeta is tallied by the name Francis nine times on Hour count. These tallies are "Francis Seacole" in Much Ado^ at Q 162, H 6, ("ah?"); "Friar Francis" in the same play, and at the same Q and Hour; "Tom, Dick, and Francis" in / Henry IV, at Q 102, H 6 ("Hal?"); "Never leave calling Francis," in the same play, and at the same Q and Hour: then come three repetitions of the name "Francis" at this same Hour 6 and Q 102. The same Q 102, and Hour 6, is struck in Romeo and Juliet with the question itself, "Holy St. Francis, what a change is hers?" and in the same play, at Q 354, H 6, ("stumbled at graves?") "Saint Francis be my speed." Hour 5, Epsilon, so closely connected with the Bacon signature at Zeta, has the name brought to it once, "And Francis Quoint," in Richard II, Q 53, H 5, (of this?"). The Alpha signature is tallied by "Francis Flute" in Midsummer at Q 13, H i, ("tyrant?"). This Francis Flute has a personality. He is the actor who objects to playing the part of Thisby, " . 161 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE and is told, "That's all one, you shall play it in a Mask." And thus, being in a Mask, he goes entirely through the play, his identity so well concealed that few who read the play could give his name as Francis Flute. Yet never again does Francis speak as Francis throughout the whole play. He is consistently the man in the Mask, and that one who felt humiliated at being forced to act out of his own character. The same Alpha-Omega signature is reached by the name "Francis" in 2 Henry IV, at Q 192, H 12, ("kirtle of.?"), where the supposed Francis, the Prince in disguise, makes answer "Anon, anon, Sir," a reminiscence of the episode of Francis and his Anon in / Henry IV, where the question "Anon, Francis?" is asked at the top of the clock by the Prince himself, Q 107, H 11. However, at the top of the Dial Francis is not "Anon." This is the story told in / Henry IV, about the trick played by the Prince and Poines in order to hear the young lad Francis, the "drawer" at the inn, repeat his stereotyped answer "Anon, anon, sir!" In the scene, covering about a column and a half of Folio page, the name Francis is brought into the text itself just 22 times. This gives a page on which the name fairly starts out at the reader, and the effect is "enhanced by the fact that Francis himself speaks 14 times, thus bringing the whole number of times the name is seen on the page to 2Si with the first use of the name on the preceding page making the total 2^: 162 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES the exact round of the Dial of compass points, if one attaches any importance to the number as a cipher hint. This scene of Francis Anon opens at Zeta, already noted, / Henry IV, Q 102, H 6. Francis enters and makes his expected reply, "Anon, anon, sir." The Speech count sets him at his own line, F, at point 14, when he is called by name for the first time. Asked if he is valiant enough to run away, he returns that he will be "sworn upon all the Books in England" that he could find "in his heart." This is at Q 104, H 8, ("from it?") and at the same place where the "Secret Book" was first mentioned in the play. Asked "How old art thou Francis?" at Q 105, H 9, he replies, "Let me see, about Michaelmas next I shall be — " and stops, hesitating. Hour 9 is, by the count of the twelve months on the Dial round, at September. Michaelmas day is Sept. 29 now, and was Sept. 18 then. At point 26, the middle line with the FR on it, Francis' name is again spoken. Asked what the Prince owes for sugar, Francis is placed at Q 106, H 10, ("hark you Francis . . . a pennyworth, was't not?"). At point 28, the B point of the Bacon letters at Chi, he is called, "Francis." He answers, "Anon sir, pray you stay a little, my Lord," a speech that might easily read, "Francis B — Bacon — Anonymous^ — My Lord Bacon." This is the place at which the 163 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE "Latin for Bacon" brought the name Bacon to wait here for the Francis Anon. At Q 107, H II, the Prince raises the question directly, "Anon Francis? No Francis, but to- morrow Francis: or Francis, on Thursday; in- deed Francis when thou wilt. But Francis.'" H 12 is Thursday on the round of days of the week: and ^'' tomorrow" is in fact ^^ Thursday" The Speech point sets the call "Francis," just before this, at point it'i^ the reply of the lad at point 34, the Bacon Hne, with "Anon, anon," and this comment of the Prince's at point 2>S' That is, Francis has declared himself Anon or Anonymous at point 34, and the Prince at the line containing the I of the Bacon cube at Alpha retorts "Anon Francis? No Francis — " The last two words of his reply are ^^But Francis" thus bringing the B and F to the signature cube; and indeed at this same Q all the letters of the Bacon name are brought forward by capitals in the text. The words themselves are a strange lot, clearly a jumble and for one purpose — "Wilt thou rob this Leathern Jerkin, Crystal button, Not-pated, Agate ring," etc. "O Lord sir who do you mean?" asks the amazed Francis at the direct Q 108, H 12. Again the F and B are brought in — "brown Bastard," "look you Francis" "white Canvas doublet"— "In Barbary sir." Q^ 109, H i, is Frands' own inquiry, "What sir?" answered again by the name, thus set again at the top of 164 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES the Dial, "Francis." The R often used by Lord Bacon in the signature "Fr. Bacon" is carefully- added in the next speech, at the same hour, by the order "Away you Rogue." Lord Bacon is on record as signing his name both "Fr. Bacon" and "Fra. Bacon," among several other styles. He was knighted by King James in 1603. Here at the top of the Dial, in the place of the Bacon letters, comes the Folio direction in italics, "Here they both call him, the Drawer stands amazed not knowing which way to go." The letters of this traced through the Maze at Alpha- Omega provide a Maze picture in which the Bacon Blazon is seen displayed, {Fig. 8.) The words of significance already brought by the text-tally to this place on the Dial are set with the letters of the Jewel. It is in truth the Diamond or signet ring of Lord Bacon. Quite clearly Francis Bacon on the Dial answers his own query — "Who do you mean? "O, Lord Bacon, — Sir Francis Bacon!" (Figs. 8, 9.) At Q 1 14, H 6, once more at the Zeta signature, where the story opened, comes the inquiry, "What cunning match have you made with this jest of the Drawer?" More than one, evidently. At once follows Q 115, H 7, "Come, what's the issue?" The Prince replies by saying he is in the "best of all humors since the days of old goodman Adam" (another good place for Adam here at Tau, the Earth,) "up to this present twelve oclock at midnight. What's a clock Francis?" 165 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE This takes the count to Q 1 16, H 8, the place where the "Secret Book" was first mentioned, and at that Upsilon which is in harmony with twelve at the top of the Dial. But the Speech count stands at point 1 2 also, the point often used for a pun upon twelves. Here ends the story of Francis Anon, Anonymous for Francis Bacon. A reference to student life is made at Q 235, H 7, "he is at Oxford still, is he not?" The com- ment "He must then to the Inns of the Court" is set at Speech point i, Oxford being at both top and bottom of the Dial, at point 25 ^^Iso. At point 3, talking of nicknames, one speaker says, "I was called anything, and I would have done anything indeed too — . . . There was I, and little John Doit . . . and Francis Pick-bone etc." At point 5 he speaks of the fight he had with one "Sampson Stockfish, A Fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn." Q 236, H 8. Here that abode of young lawyers, Gray's Inn, is brought to the place of a Bacon Blazon, and young Francis ap- pears with a ludicrous nickname that really might have been the delight of a lad named Bacon. Remaining uses of the word, as given by Bartlett's Concordance, are "The door there, Francis?" in 2 Henry IV, at Q 213, H 9, and "At the Saint Francis here beside the Port," in AlFs Well, Hour 9, Q 117, ("you?"), where the place of the Gate is reached twice; here at Phi may be seen the FR, and the ST is within the first points that spell the Gate — really beside it. 166 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES But in the mention of Saint Francis beside the Port, the point count strikes also the Gate at Gamma, directly across the Dial, with point 9, and there in truth the Saint is spelled in full, being established at the Gate, as is the F of Francis. At the same place. Gamma, in 2 Henry IV ^ verification is again made, with the name "Fran- cis Feeble," (Q 267, H 3, "Sir John?") and the Speech point leads to point 23, again calling the notice to the "Secret Book." Now I submit that if any clergyman of today, his name being Cuthbert Colby, were to write a little classic on the subject of the institutional church in its relation to athletics, a classic des- tined to live, yet antagonistic to some well- wishing parishioners, and were to select the pen name William Ball Basket under which to express his strongly held views, and were to embody within that classic in about three or four pages of ordinary printing the fictitious city of Cuthberts- ville, the academy of St. Cuthbert's, and a hero known as "Uncouth Bert," with from twenty- two to thirty-six repetitions of the name Cuthbert itself, there might be reason for a few intimate friends to suspect the identity of "Billy Basket." If besides this he dragged in references through the book to "coal by the sea" and "by cold" and "coal by me", to eyes "black as coal" and to "cold slaw", to gems derived from coal in cold countries and to coaling stations in the cold sea, not to mention coals of fire in the Scriptural 167 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE sense, the thing would in our day be grotesque, but it would prove sufficiently the most amused authorship of Cuthbert Colby, since no other human being except Cuthbert Colby would ever so concern himself with making puns about his own name. Exactly so does Francis Bacon, laughing often to himself as he does it, bring in, besides these many close tallies of his name on the Dial, a number of references to "Francisco", "Franklin", "Frank Nature", "Enfranchised", "Hang-hog", etc. He might easily feel that it required some audacity to do it. He even makes comment on the trick itself. In Richard II, at Q 37, H i, at the Alpha place- ment so often assigned to personal things of his own. Bacon has the dying old man, John of Gaunt, exclaim, "Oh how that name befits my composition — Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old: . . . For sleeping England long time have I watched, Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt. . . . Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave." Richard says, "Can sick men play so nicely with their names.''" Gaunt answers, "No, misery makes sport to mock itself: Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, I mock my name — " The question asked Petruchio in Taming, "Hath any man rebused your worship?" is not using the word "rebus" in place of "abused" merely as a mistake to rouse a laugh at the 168 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES servant. It is a form of hinting at the Maze picture or Blazon to be drawn here, since a "rebus" and a Maze picture are not totally unlike, and one may suggest the other. This is Q 48, H 12. The spectators of the play within the play are brought into the tale just before this, and one says, "Tis a very excellent piece of work . . . would Twere done." Here the Folio directions insert, "They sit and mark." At this point the decipherer also must "sit and mark." A little later, at Q 54, H 6, ("fray.?") an ital- icized greeting in Italian reads thus: "Alia nostra casa bene veneto multo honorato signi — " Here it stops, at the end of the line. The next line concludes it, "Or mio Petruchio." The inter- rupted word is "signior." Read deliberately as it stands on the page the line says this, "To — or of — our house much honored sign, I." Concluded it reads, "or my Petruchio." The Q's now mount up along the Dial, and precisely at Alpha again, with Q 60, H 12, ("old Verona?") where the rebus stands, Petruchio exclaims, in telling his tale, "And I have thrust myself into this maze." Here the capitals bring in the Bacon letters, and the lines may be seen radiating outward from the "I" in a "rebus" or Maze picture or Blazon. The word used as an adjective, "Conlord hat and cloak," in Taming at Q 38, H 2 ("banquet them?") is not "colored hat" as it is so tamely rendered in modern editions — imagine any spirited 169 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE youth, about to change hats with another, re- marking, "Take my colored hat!" It is here, at least, made up from the "Con" at the Blazon and tagged to Lord at the Blazon, but it has a sound of reality, much like "Paisley shawl," or "over-seas cap" in these days, and as a dis- tinguishing part of a costume might be men- tioned. When Malvolio in Twelfth Night puzzles over the riddle in his letter, he also gives plain hints of the Bacon letters on the Dial, and suggests to the play reader an under-riddle in the text itself. At Q 131, H II, ("here?") Malvolio recognizes the C's, U's, T's and P's of his lady's hand- writing and says, "It is in contempt of question her hand." The Question is indeed disregarded, for at Hour 1 1 there are not these four letters to be tallied by the Q's. However, the next speaker asks the Q that strikes Hour 12, in which all four of these letters are seen: "Her C's, her U's, and her T's: why that?" The "Why" is answered on the Dial, as he asks it. Malvolio's question, "To whom should this be?" is at Hour i, Q 133. Now he asks "What fol- lows?'* and seems to note, here at Q 134, H 2, that he is not at 37, Hour 14, as might have been expected from his having been recently at Hour 12, but is at line 4, Beta. He comments, "The numbers altered." Then he asks Q 135, H 3, "If this should be thee, Malvolio?" and proceeds to read "M. O. A. I. doth sway my Hfe." Here 170 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES at Gamma, as at Alpha, at the top of the Dial, are the letters M O A I. At Q 137, H 5 ("checks at it?") Malvolio muses, "What should that Alphabetical position portend, if I could make that resemble something in me? Softly, M. O. A. I." He considers: "M. why that begins my name." Notice on the Dial at Epsilon, in its last point, the M of the Bacon "I AM Bacon." Then Malvolio, evidently studying the Dial, with its O coming in line 17, continues thus; "There is no consonancy in the sequel that suffers under probation: A should follow, but O, does." He is told, "O shall end, I hope". Note that O does end the line itself, the Bacon cube of letters, also. Malvolio accepts this, adding, "And then I comes behind." Verily the I does come behind the O, upon the Dial. Malvolio says "this simulation is not as the former." It is unlike the former letters at Gamma; for here it is linked with the Bacon cube, there it was not. The long speech here is filled with Dial hints — "In my stars I am above thee:" "Be opposite with a kinsman," "point device." The "cross-gartering" itself is no more than one of many hints in the Folio to use the "Bias" of the Dial, and to "cross" it, for the second veri- fication often thus brought in by the Speech count. It is also connected with more intricate meanings of a cipher alphabet. Here the hint to see things that are "cross-ed," recalls the "Garter's compass," and the "mine 171 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Host" of the "Garter", where "Garter" is a symbol of the round Dial. The result of "cross- gartering" or "cross-Dial"-ing here is evident when the Speech count is followed. By Speech count Malvolio is exactly across the Dial from Psi, and at point 14, when he reads the letters C, U, T, and P. The next speaker, who repeats the letters, takes the count to the first line of the Bacon cube, that point at which Malvolio ends the scene with the idea of "cross- gartering." At point 18, where the Alphabet of Nature changes from Zeta 78 to Tau 67, comes Malvolio's comment that the numbers are "al- tered," a perfect cross-gartering. At point 26, where the Fr. of the Bacon signature at Phi-Chi is seen, Malvolio makes the speech about what the alphabetical position should portend, and wonders if it could be made to resemble something in him, again cross-gartered from Gamma, 3, at which he said this first. At point 2^^ Malvolio repeats the letters, "M, O, A, I." These are seen at the Hour Alpha, and are the four corners of the Bacon cube, and they do "sway" or control the name of Bacon at this place. Here it is that the words come again, ''This simulation is not as th.Q former: . . "Every one of these letters are in my name: In my stars I am: . . . Some are born great. Some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them; . . . Thy fates open their hands; . . . cast thy humble slough, and 172 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES appear fresh: ... Be opposite: . . . put thyself into the trick of singularity. . . . This is open: ... I will be point device: . . . Thou canst not choose but know who I am." On what place except the Dial of Bacon's cipher could this be so ''crossed" and tallied, and if on Bacon's Dial, by whom but Francis Bacon? "Thou canst not choose but know!" There are close letter tallies running along by- Speech count under much of the exterior proof thus far assembled, but it is wise to omit these until their story is more fully developed. The crossing of the Dial is, however, meant to give some hint of the cipher use in this regard. As a summing up of the signature verifications, one may set beside the proof given in Malvolio's riddle, and the phrase at the Bacon letters, ''Thou canst not choose but know who I am" the fact that the "Gammon of Bacon" in / Henry IV is quite capable of being read as if it were a movement in the game of backgammon, where "to gammon" is to make a winning move. The combination of both words spelled at Alpha, "Gammon" and "Bacon", may be read, if one likes, as "Bacon Wins I" It is a fair guess that the much discussed mis- paging on the last page of the Folio, 993 instead of 398, is a y^i^ of the Dial point, 1-33. The Maze picture showing the Jewel in / Henry IV, made by the tracing of letters, tallied at points by the Carriers in the text, is seen in Fig. 8. 173 BACON^S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE The names Francis and Bacon, the words Gam- mon and "stands amazed" are set where the text tallies them. But by shading this Jewel in a slightly different fashion, the lines make those of the constellation "Charles's Wain," as the English call it, which is mentioned in the text just before the Carrier speaks of the "Gammon." "Charles Wain is over the new Chimney," he observes. This Wain, or, as we call it, the "Dipper," is set here on the Dial in some relation to the North Star, as it should be. It is essentially a "pointer" among the constella- tions, and perhaps is used both as a hint upon the Dial, and as a sign that Francis Bacon also had hitched his "wagon to a Star." {Fig. p.) In Timon of Athens^ a distinct cipher-carrying play, the pages are much occupied with talk of Jewels and Pictures and references to Dedica- tions and Epitaphs. An allusion to the Maze pictures may be made in the comment, "These pencilled figures are Even such as they give out," and "Thou wilt give thyself away in paper shortly." Later the Jewel Blazon is made twice, once in its complete form, the other with a lack of capitals that leaves only a shape rather like a stone, perhaps a key-stone of an arch or vault, or monument, or even a plain tablet. Timon, say his false friends, is clearly mad, since one day he gives them diamonds, "next day stones." {Figs, 10, II.) 174 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES The Jewel Blazon carries the letters of Bacon's name around and within itself, and on its corners bears the first part of the words "Star on Boar," the Boar and the Star being Bacon symbols. Mention of the Boar is often tallied at the Bacon signature letters. The Constellation of the Dipper is clearly referred to in Ben Jonson's verses in the first pages of the Folio. Hints in Timon lead one to study this and other introductory material. Ben Jonson's poem is long and unwieldy. It has a decidedly sly twist, intimating that WiUiam Shakespeare will not be helped in the long run by the poem Ben is at the moment engaged in composing. He is not. For the capitals ingeniously brought into the poem trace out on the Dial the Maze picture of a Charles's Wain, or Dipper, and the poem thus illustrates the very constellation it refers to, but on the Dial of Francis Bacon. Significant and much quoted lines in this poem are these: (Fig. ij.) To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy namey Am I thus ample to thy Book and Fame: While I confess thy writings to be such, As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much. In his wellturned, and true filed lines: In each of which, he seems to shake a Lance, As brandished at the eyes of Ignorance. BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Sweet Swan of Avon, what a sight it were To see thee in our waters yet appear — But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere Advanced, and made a constellation there: Shine forth thou Star of Poets : As a matter of literary curiosity, the lines of this poem may be tallied on points of the Dial in order, and show a striking result. The second line, carrying F and B, falls at the second point in Alpha, the place of Being, with its "Am I." This is the marked Bacon line, the only one on the Dial carrying both F and B. On a third round of the Dial points, the words "shake a Lance" are set at exactly line ^Z-) ^'^^ the "Swan of Avon" is at point ';^i^^ the last line of the Bacon cube of letters. This is the Hour to which Francis brought the Anon that may stand for Anonymous. It is worth recalling that in at least one copy of the original Folio itself (a Folio in the Boston Public Library) the letter V in Avon is not a straight V, but is so made as to be also an N, and preferably an N, under a glass. "Swan of Anon" would fit admirably right here. After moving back to point i as usual, the lines speaking about the Hemisphere and the Con- stellation come to points 3 and 4, indicating the Maze drawing at this very place. Another short but more effective poem is signed "I. M." It is this: 176 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES WEE wondred (Shakes-peare) that thou went'st so soone From the Worlds-Stage, to the Graves-Tyring-roome. Wee thought thee dead, but this thy printed worth, Tels thy Spectators, that thou went'st but forth To enter with applause. An Actors Art, Can dye, and live, to act a second part. That's but an Exit of Mortalitie; This, a Re-entrance to a Plaudite. I. M. The capitals in this verse are few, but they form a curtained room, or stage, and in the rear the pointed shadow of a grave. The letters of Exit and Re-enter, as well as those of F. Bacon, are seen enclosed within the little, but sufficient, space. The "W. S." is not lacking. Plainly, here it says for all to see, "Exit W. S. — Re-enter F. Bacon." {Fig. 14.) The Epitaph at Shakespeare's grave at Strat- ford shows some traces of a Dial linking. It reads thus, the large letters being much larger in the original form than they appear in this print- ing of them: Gooa Frend for lefus SAKE forkeare TodiGG T-E Duft EncloAIei HE. Re. Blefe leTE Man y fpares TEs Stones And curl t te He I moves my Bones. 12 177 BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE On the Dial at the Bacon line of F B, point 2, and nowhere else so far as I happen to know, that peculiar T-E becomes an established fact. For on the Dial, as the Maze pictures many of them show, and as the Graves Tyring Room clearly shows, with its capitalised WEE, there is often a choice to be made between the two E's in tracing a line from T to E. If the line North is taken, T-E on the Dial is the same thing as T-Y. If the line South is drawn, then in literal fact the line T-E "spares" the point T-Y. This is only possible because of the invisible Omega letters set on the Dial. It is in itself an odd thing, but doubly odd when duplicated in the expression on the Shake- speare Epitaph. Also, on the principle that letters themselves might follow a compass round, the first T-E in the Epitaph comes by count at points ;}6 and i, thus setting the E of the Epitaph exactly at the spot on the Dial where T does spare it. The letters of the Epitaph also construct the Bacon Jewel {Fig. 75). It is not wholly im- probable that the phrase "spares T-Es Stones" may mean also "T-Y-ES pairs the stones", meaning that the lines on the Dial are a basis for "pairing" the stones or Jewels in play and Epitaph. The letters may be so set on the Dial that the prominent G G's take their place at Gates, and the SAKE is the chief portion of a set of Keys. There has been given in this book only a small portion of the Dial Droof. But plain evidence of a 178 BACON BLAZONS OR SIGNATURES visualizing mind at work upon both plays and Dial chart has been furnished in the tallying of the Gates and Keys, the Time References, the Compass Points, and the Literary Allusions of the Hours. The Blazons complete this chain of Dial proofs. Did Francis Bacon take no trouble to prove that he wrote the Shakespeare plays? The Compass Dial answers for him, "Thou canst nor choose but know." NOTE Hudson's Twelfth Night is practically correct for the Speech and Personal counts. Of course, word changes occur, as "south" for the Folio's "sound" at Q 6, H 6, and "Arion" for the Folio's 'Orion," which is a Dial spelling at Zeta. The Song "O Mistress Mine" counts as two speeches, but the Song "Come Away" is not counted. Note the letter tallies about "No question" (No Q), and "Past question" (Past Q). The Q 224, H 8 ("opinion?") is the Upsilon reason for the clown's saying, "Nay, I am for all waters." Hudson's Julius Caesar. In Act III, sc. i ,omit the speech of Casca, "Are we all ready?", which in the Foho belongs to Caesar's speech. In Act V, sc. 3, the name "Titinius" is omitted, by a misprint, before "These tidings." Hudson's / Henry IV. In Act I, sc. 2, "Poins! Now shall we know," etc., is a part of FalstafFe's speech, but the Folio makes it a separate speech, by Poins. In Act II, sc. 2, count out "Bard. What news?", which the Folio sets with Poins's speech. "Case ye" is said by Bardolfe in the Folio. In Act III, sc. i, "I understand thy kisses" is a separate speech of Mortimer's. The next to the last speech in the play, by John, is not in the Folio. The word "Bacon" is capitalised m the Folio. Hudson's Macbeth is correct for Speech and Personal count. 179 Guide to the Maze Pictures Figs. I and 2. The Gates seen on the Dial. Lines traced between the letters of the word "Gate" as spelled on the Dial. Fig. 3. The Broken Bowstring. Text story in Much Ado about Nothings Q 117, H 9 ("madam?") to Q 120, H 12, ("so much?") "Some Cupid kills with arrows." "He (Benedick) hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bow-string." Letters of the word "Bow-string" joined in Dial by Hnes, showing a bow and string broken, with arrow. The word, in this form, here, may have occasioned the text. Fig. 4. The Plain Fish. Text story in Tempest, Q 1 86, H 6, "What things are these, my Lord Anthonio"? "Will money buy 'em?" "Very like; one of them is a plain Fish, and no doubt marketable." "Mark but the badges of these men. . . . Then say if they be true." Capitals between Q's 186 and 188 joined by lines, resulting in the Fish, with Bacon letters and W. S. "It is F. Bacon. W. S." Fig. 5. The Jewel in Tempest. Text story begins at Q 157, H i ("No?") with Ariel's entrance. Capitals joined between "Now" and "no more". At the break in text where "Juno and Iris whisper" it is evident that the Jewel is incomplete, there being no words to bring in the capitals R and A. Nymphs arrive, and the sickle 181 -'f>j' Ficf.3 182 -/ TMr '0/fw^'0^ te^nnssii BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE men are told to don their "Rye-straw" hats, "And these fresh Nymphs encounter." The capitals R and A complete the Jewel form. Prospero com- ments, just before the new words are brought in, "There's something else to do, hush and be mute, or else our spell is marred^ The "spell" is saved from being marred by the arrival of R and A. Fig. 6. The Dipper in Tempest. Text story at Q 25, H i (Sea-storm?") "My Zenith doth depend upon a most auspicious Star!" Capitals joined between "Know" and "trident shake." Compare this with the Dipper made from Ben Jonson's poem. The passage in Tempest forms the "F. Bacon, Hang-hog" signature, the F being in line 34, beside the Z of Zenith. Drawing Une T to Y, shows letter E not used, but "spared." Fig. 7. The Blazon in Taming of the Shrew. For text story, see chapter on Blazons, p. 168. Cap- itals joined between "They sit and mark" and Petruchio's words, "I have thrust myself into this maze." Fig. 8. The Jewel in / Henry IV. For text story, see chapter on Blazons, pp. 165, 173. Letters of the italicized sentence, ''Here they both call him, the Drawer stands amazed, not knowing which way to go" joined by lines, and words added at the place at which they tallied on the Dial at this Hour. Fig. 9. The Dipper in / Henry IV. See chapter on Blazons, pp. 165, 173. Fig. 10. The Jewel seen in Timon of Athens. Text story at Q 180, H 12 ("hold?"). All the letters from the peculiar "Thanks" of Timon. The words 184 rut mjkzoM Acoor TAMitts Fief. 6 '--!c-:-if'* Fi^.9 rue aippt/t'/M 1 MeM^yjy v--'~:v:-r:*' FiflO r»s Wiv£t'-3/'£f^i/^r/ii^a^. .-^''-"^="v-:5>^': Fi^.n \ FipZ i86 GUIDE TO THE MAZE PICTURES "Banket brought in," preceding this, indicate a spelling to be traced, as in other cases. Also, "Will you draw near?" gives the hint. Fig. II. The Jewel "missing" in Timon oj Athens. Q 178, H 10. "Thanks" omitted. Capitals joined between, "Will you draw near?" and "next day stones" See chapter on Blazons, p. 174. This Jewel uses the same number of letters as the Shake- speare Epitaph. It does not "pair" with the Jewel at the same place in the text, but the Jewel made from Shakespeare's Epitaph does "pair" it, with the same number of letters as here given. Fig. 12. The Dipper in the Epilogue of Tempest. Text story in Tempest, being the Epilogue itself. All capitals taken and joined by lines. Reads "I, W. S. Am F. Bacon." There are so few letters to be used that it bears every sign of being specially written for this Maze. The words "Let me not . . . dwell In this bare Island by your Spcll^ But release me from my bands By the help of your good hands" give a plain hint to use Dial hands in getting the spelling right, so that the signature shall appear. The Epilogue ends, "Let your Indulgence set me free." Bacon letters are plainly "set free" by the spelling on the Dial. Fig. 13. Ben Jonson's Dipper. See the chapter on Blazons, p. 175. Evidently the same idea is used in both Dippers, the shorter one in Tempest., set apart by the Epilogue in a marked place, giving the clue to this one. The figure is also much like a star in the regular radiation of its lines. All the capitals in Ben Jonson's poem are used in 187 PSI ,^ - _ _ - - .^, - ^^fl^-^ -■'^.f'h'A Fig.l5 GUIDE TO THE MAZE PICTURES the tracing. Note that line T-Y-E spares the E, in line 31 not used. Fig. 1 4. The Tyring Room. See chapter on Blazons, p. 177. All capitals in the short poem beginning, "WEE wondered, Shake- speare" at the front of the Folio, among the dedica- tory material. The figure illustrates the poem itself, which speaks of the Grave's Tyring Room, and of "Shakespeare's" entering again from death to life upon the stage, an "Exit to Mortality" and a "Re-entrance to a Plaudite." It may read, "Exit W. S. Re-enter F. Bacon." This could not be made on any other diagram except one having the step-up of letters from R to S and the circular form of the dial lines. Fig. 15. The Jewel from Shakespeare's Epitaph. Made from the letters in the Epitaph. See chapter on Blazons, p. 178. Note that T goes to Y-E, and T to E. "J[ spares T-E" upon Bacon's Dial. Y 189 The Hour Count in Macbeth Q I, H I, "meet again?" Q 30, Q 2, H 2, "Rain?" Q 31, Q3>H3, "place?" Q 32, Q 4, H 4, "is that?" Q33, Q5,H5,"Banquo?" Q 34, Q 6, H 6, "here?" Q 35, Q 7, H 7, "eyes?" Q 36, Q 8, H 8, "Thane?" Q 37> Q 9, H 9, "Sister?" Q 38, Q 10, H 10, "where thou ?" Q 39, Q II, H II, "to Soris?" Q40, Q 12, H 12, "are on't?" Q 41, Q 13, H I, "may ques- Q 42, tion?" Q43, Q 14, H 2, "are you?" Q 44, Q 15, H 3, "so fair?" Q 45, Q16, H4, "yeshow?" Q 46, Q 17, H 5, "Cawdor?" Q 47, Q 18, H 6, "greeting?" Q 48, Q 19, H 7, "vanished?" Q 49, Q 20, H 8, "speak about ?" Q 50, Q 21, H 9, "Prisoner?" Q 51, Q 22, H 10, "not so?" Q52, Q 23, H II, "who's here?" Q 53, Q24,H 12, "speak true?" Q 54, Q 25, Hi, "Robes?" Q 55, Q 26, H 2, "ill?" Q56, Q 27, H 3, "Truth?" Q57, Q 28, H 4, "good?" Q58, Q 29, H 5, "Nature?" Q 59, 190 H 6, "Cawdor?" H 7, "returned?" H 8, "tidings?" H 9, "with him?" H 10, "goes hence?" H II, "Cawdor?" H 12, "How now?" H I, "Newes?" H 2, "chamber?" H 3, "forme?" H 4, "he has?" H 5, "yourself?" H 6, "slept since?" H 7, "freely?" H 8, "in desire?" H 9, "Esteem?" H 10, "tome?" Hi I, "fail?" H 12, "We fail?" Hi, "Duncan?" H 2, "Officers?" H 3, "have don't?" H 4, "Death?" H 5, "Boy?" H 6, "who's there?" H 7, "at rest?" H 8, "my Hand?" H 9, "sight?" H 10, "Brain?" Hi I, "there?" THE HOUR COUNT IN MACBETH Q 60, H 12, "what hoa?" Q Q 61, H I, "Husband?" Q Q62, H 2, "noise?" Q Q 63, H 3, "speak?" Q Q 64, H 4, "When?" Q Q65,H 5, "descended?" Q Q66,H 6, "Chamber?" Q Q 67, H 7, "Amen?" Q Q68, H 8, "mean?" Q Q 69, H 9, "cried?" Q Q7o,H 10, "place?" Q Q 71, H II, "knocking?" Q Q 72, H 1 2, "appals me ?" Q Q 73, Hi, "here?" Q Q 74, H 2, "Hand?" Q Q 75, H 3, "then?" Q Q76, H4, "Belzebub?" Q Q77,H5,"Devil'sName?" Q Q 78, H 6, "there?" Q Q 79, H 7, "are you?" Q Q80, H8, "late?" Q Q8i,H 9, "provoke?" Q Q 82, H 10, "stirring?" Q Q83, H II, "Thane?" Q Q84,H 12, "today?" Q Q 85, H I, "matter?" Q Q 86, H 2, "Life?" Q Q 87, H 3, "Majesty?" Q Q 88, H 4, "Business?" Q Q 89, H 5, "House?" Q Q90, H6, "House?" Q Q 91, H 7, "amiss?" Q Q92, H 8, "whom?" Q Q 93, H 9, "you so?" Q IQI 94, H 10, "moment?" 95, H II, "known?" 96, H 12, "ours?" 97, H I, "seize us?" 98, H 2, "you do?" 99, H 3, "kiss it?" 100, H 4, "now?" loi, H 5, "you not?" 102, H 6, "deed?" 103, H 7, "pretend?" 104, H 8, "body?" 105, H 9, "Scone?" 106, H 10, "afternoon?" 107, Hi I, "ride?" 108, H 12, "with you?" 109, H I, "pleasure?" no, H 2, "there?" 1 1 1, H 3, "together?" 112, H 4, "this go?" 113, H 5, "ever?" 114, H 6, "Court?" 115, H 7, "alone?" 116, H 8, "done?" 117, H 9, "with us?" 118, H 10, "Light?" 119, Hit, "way?" 120, Hi2,"dispatched?" 121, H I, "safe?" 122, H 2, "Company?" 123, H 3, "Where?" 124, H 4, "Highness?" 125, H 5, "done this?" 126, H 6, "Lord?" 127, H 7, "man?" BACON'S DIAL IN SHAKESPEARE Q 128, H 8, "faces?" Q Q 129, H 9, "What?" ^ Q Q 130, H 10, "wonder?" Q Q 131, H II, "Lord?" Q Q 132, H 12, "night?" Q Q 133, Hi, "Sir?" Q Q 134, H 2, "angerly?" Q Q 135, H 3, "you are?" Q Q 136, H 4, "Art?" Q Q 137, H 5, "Father?" Q gi38,H 6, "Macbeth?" Q Q 139, H 7, "sleep?" Q Q 140, H 8, "done?" Q Q 141, H 9, "himself?" Q Q 142, H 10, "Macduff?" Q Q 143, H II, "Hags?" Q Q 144, H 12, "do?" Q Q 145, Hi, "thee?" Q Q]i46, H 2, "Sovereignty ?" Q Q 147, H 3, "Root?" Q Q 148, H 4, "Kingdom?" Q Qi49,H 5, "Caldron?" Q Q 150, H 6, "this?" Q Q 151, H 7, "me this?" Q Qi52,H 8, "fourth?" Q Q 153, H 9, "Doom?" Q Q 154, H 10, "yet?" Q Q 155, H II, "seventh?" Q Q 156, H 12, "What?" Q Q 157, Hi, "this so?" Q Q 158, H2, "amazedly?" Q Q 159, H 3, "they?" Q Q160, H4, "Gone?" Q Q 161, H 5, "Sisters?" Q 192 62, H 6, "you?" 63, H 7, "came by?" 64, H 8, "England?" 65, H 9, "Gentlemen?" 66, H 10, "Land?" 67, H II, "Wisdom?" 68, H 12, "fly?" 69, H I, "do now?" 70, H 2, "live?" 71, H 3, "Flies?" 72, H 4, "Mother?" 73, H 5, "Father?" 74, H 6, "Husband?" 75, H 7, "Mother?" 76, H 8, "Traitor?" 77, H 9, "lie?" 78, H 10, "them?" 79, H II, "Father?" 80, H 12, "talkst?" 81, Hi, "fly?" 82, H 2, "harm?" 83, H 3, "faces?" 84, H 4, "Husband?" 85> H 5, "Egg?" 86, H 6, "Treachery?' 87, H 7, "Child?" 88, H 8, "be?" 89, H 9, "govern?" 90, H 10, "again?" 91, H II, "breed?" 92, H 12, "silent?" 93> H I J "you?" 94, H 2, "means?" 95, H 3; "did?" THE HOUR COUNT IN MACBETH QI96 H4, "grief?" Q219, H3, 'there?" QI97 H5, "Wife?" Q 220, H 4, 'so?" QI98 H6, "Children?" Q22i,H 5, "bed?" QI99 H7, 'peace?" Q 222, H 6, "brother?" Q 200 H8, 'goes't?" Q 223, H 7, "Malcolm?" Q201 H9, 'Brest?" Q 224, H 8, "woman?" Q 202, H 10, "too?" Q 225, H 9, "Villain?" Q203, H II, "thence?" Q 226, H 10, "Patch?" Q204, H 12, "too?" Q227,Hii,' 'Whey-face?" Q205, Hi, ones? Q 228, H 12, "Seytonr" Q206, H2, 'All?" Q 229, H I, 'pleasure?" Q207, H3, 'All?" Q 230, H 2, "more?" Q208, H4, 'swoop?" Q 231, H 3, "Doctor?" Q209 H5, 'part?" Q 232, H 4, "heart?" Q210 H6, "walked?" Q ^33, H 5, "them?" Q211. H7, 'say?" Q 234, H 6, 'us?" Q212 H8, "light?" Q ^3S, H 7, "noise?" Q213 H9, "now?" Q 236, H 8, 'cry?" Q214 H 10, "afeard?" Q 237> H 9, 'Woman?" Q215 H II, "fear?" Q 238, H 10, "name?" Q216 , H12 "that?" Q239, H II, "sword?" Q217 Hi, now?" Q240, H 12, "dead?" Q218 >H2, "clean?" Q 241, H I, 'before?" 193 Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthobgies Twenty Contemporary One- Act Plays American Edited by FRANK SHAY This volume represents a careful and intelligent selection of the best One-act Plays written by Americans and produced by the Little Theatres in America during the season of 192 1. They are representative of the best work of writers in this field and show the high level to which the art theatre has risen in America. The editor has brought to his task a love of the theatre and a knowledge of what is best through long association with the leading producing groups. The volume contains the repertoires of the leading Little Theatres, together with bibliographies of published plays and books on the theatre issued since January, 1920. Aside from its individual importance, the volume, together with Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays, will make up the most important collection of short plays published. In the Book are the Jollowing Plays by the following Authors Mirage George M. P. Baird Napoleon's Barber Arthur Caesar Goat Alley Ernest Howard Culbertson Sweet and Twenty Floyd Dell Tickless Time Susan Glaspell & George Cram Cook The Hero of Santa Maria Kenneth Goodman & Ben Hecht All Gummed Up Harry Wagstaff Gribble Thompson's Luck Harry Greenwood Grover Fata Deorum Carl W. Guske Pearl of Dawn Holland Hudson Finders-Keepers George Kelly Solomon's Song Harry Kemp Matinata Lawrence Langner The Conflict Clarice Vallette McCauley Two Slatterns and a King Edna St. Vincent Millay Thursday Evening Christopher Morley The Dreamy Kid Eugene O'Neill Forbidden Fruit George Jay Smith Jezebel Dorothy Stockbridge Sir David Wears a Crown Stuart Walker i2mo. Silk Cloth, $3.7$. H Turkey Morocco, $10.00. Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies Fifty Contemporary One- Act Plays Edited by FRANK SHAY and PIERRE LOVING THIS volume contains FIFTY REPRESENTATIVE ONE-ACT PLAYS of the MODERN THEATER, chosen from the dramatic works of con- temporary writers all over the world and is the second volume in the Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies, the first being European Theories of the Drama, by Barrett H. Clark, which has been so enthusiastically received. The editors have scrupulously sifted countless plays and have selected the best available in English. One-half the plays have never before been pub- lished in book form; thirty-one are no longer available in any other edition. The work satisfies a long-felt want for a handy collection of the choicest plays produced by the art theaters all over the world. It is a complete reper- tory for a little theater, a volume for the study of the modern drama, a rep- resentative collection of the world's best short plays. CONTENTS AUSTRIA Schnitzler (Arthur) — Literature BELGIUM Maeterlinck (Maurice) — The Intruder BOLIVIA More (Federico) — Interlude DENMARK Wied (Gustave) — Autumn Firea FRANCE Ancey (George) — M. Lamblin Porto- Riche (Georges) — Francoise's Luck GERMANY Ettinger (Karl) — Altruism von Hofmannsthal (Hugo) — Madonna Dia- nora Wedekind (Frank) — The Tenor GREAT BRITAIN Bennett (Arnold) — A Good Woman Calderon (George) — The Little Stone House Cannan ((Gilbert) — Mary's Wedding Dowson (Ernest) — The Pierrot of the Min- ute Ellis (Mrs. Havelock) — The Subjection of Kezia Hankin (St. John) — The Constant Lover INDIA Mukerjl (Dhan Gopal) — The Judgment of Indra IRELAND Gregory (Lady) — The Workhouse Ward HOLLAND Speenhofif (J. H.) — Louise HUNGARY Biro (Lajos) — The Grandmother ITALY Giocosa (Giuseppe) — The Rights of the Soul RUSSIA Andreyev (Leonid) — Love of One's Neigh- bor Tchekofif (Anton) — ^The Boor SPAIN Benavente (Jacinto) — His Wldow'a Hu»> band Quintero (Serafin and Joaquin Alvaies-) — A Sunny Morning SWEDEN Strindberg (August) — The Creditor UNITED STATES Beach (Lewis) — Brothers Cowan (Sada) — In the Morgue Crocker (Bosworth) — The Baby Carriage Cronyn (George W.) — A Death in Fever Flat Davies (Mary Carolyn) — The Slave with Two Faces Day (Frederick L.) — The Slump Planner (Hildegard) — Mansions Gljispell (Susan) — Trifles Gerstenberg (Alice) — The Pot Boiler Helburn (Theresa) — Enter the Hero Hudson (Holland) — The Shepherd in the Distance Kemp (Harry) — Boccaccio's Untold Tale Langner (Lawrence) — Another Way Out MacMillan (Mary) — The Shadowed Star Millay (Edna St. Vincent) — Aria da Capo Moeller (Philip) — Helena's Husband O'NeiU (Eugene)— He Stevens (Thomas Wood) — The Nurtery Maid of Heaven Stevens (Wallace) — Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise Tompkins (Frank G.) — Sham Walker (Stuart)— The Medicine Show Wellman (Rita)— For All Time Wilde (Percival)— The Finger of God YIDDISH Asch (Sholom) — Night Pinski (David) — Forgotten Soola Large 8vo, 58 j pages. Net, $j.oo Special India Paper Edition, Limp Cloth, $6.00; Limp Leather, $7.50 Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies European Theories o/tfie Drama By BARRETT H. CLARK An Anthology of Dramatic Theory and Criticism from Aristotle to the present day in a series of selected texts, with Commentaries, Biographies and Bibliographies A book of paramount importance. This monumental anthology assembles for the first time the epoch-making theories and criticisms of the drama from the beginnings in Greece to the present, and each excerpt is chosen with refer- ence to its effect on subsequent dramatic writing. The texts alone are immensely valuable, and the comments constitute a history of dramatic criticism. It is the most important body of doctrine on the drama to be obtained, appeals to all who are interested in the theatre, and is indispensable to students. The introduction to each section of the book is followed by an exhaustive bibliography. Each writer whose work is represented is made the subject of a brief biography. The entire volumie is rendered doubly valuable by the index, which is worked out in great detail. Contributors to the Success of this Volume: Aristotle Horace Donatus Dante Datiiello Minturno Scaliger Sebillet De la Taille Cervantes Lope de Vega Tirso de Molina Sidney Jonson Ogier Chapelain Abbe d'Aubignac Corneille Large 8vo, 500 pages ^ Brown Turkey ISAorocco Moliere Goethe Racine Schlegel Boileau Hebbel Saint-Evremont "Wagner Dryden Freytag Milton Hugo Rymer Dumas fils Congreve Sarcey Farquhar Zola Addison Brunetiere Johnson Maeterlinck Goldsmith Colerjdge Goldoni Lamb Lessing Hazlitt Voltaire Pinero Diderot Jones Beaumarchais Shaw Schiller Archer . 'Net $5.00 nocco , . . . Net $12.00 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS mill nil mil Hill mil mil mil 014 157 891 1