THE BACONIAN CIPHER[6]—I.
By Fleming Fulcher.
The Court Journal, London.
Dr. Rawley, “his Lordship’s first and last chaplain,” relates in his Life of Lord Bacon that “when hisHistory of King Henry the Seventhwas to come forth, it was delivered to the old Lord Brooke to be perused by him, who, when he had dispatched it, returned it to the author with this eulogy: 'bid him take care to get good paper and inke; for the work is incomparable.’” We think “the old Lord Brooke” would have been justified in sending this message (with a change of pronoun) to the authoress ofThe Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon(for in its own way it is incomparable), and we think he would have been satisfied with the result.
The book is divided into two parts, the first containing introductory chapters, portraits, and facsimiles, while the second, rather more than three-quarters of the book, consists entirely of the story deciphered. The introductory chapters are short, pithy, and well-written, and are full of literary interest. The first chapter, from the pen of Mrs. Gallup herself, tells how she came to discover the existence of the cipher in certain books, and gives a brief account of her work, a work, to quote her own words, “arduous, exhausting and prolonged”; and shows how, though her discovery “may change the names of some of our idols,” we are gainers, not losers, by the change. If we can find a fault in this chapter, it is that there is only enough of it to whet our appetite for more details of the progress of her work. Perhaps we may hope that she will satisfy us in this respect on a future occasion when her work becomes widely known and read, as it deserves to be. After Mrs. Gallup’s “personal” chapter there follows the introduction to the first edition—printed for private circulation only. It gives a short summary of the principal facts of the cipher story, and touches on points of interest in connection with the cipher, two of which we will briefly allude to here. It shows how the cipher explains the reason for the extraordinarymispaging of the original editions, carefully adhered to in all the copies, and of which no one had previously been able to offer a satisfactory explanation; and it touches on the curious history ofThe Anatomy of Melancholy, which for nearly three centuries has been attributed to Burton, but which the British Museum catalogue shows to have been first published under another name when Burton was about ten years old, and of which in the cipher story Francis Bacon claims the authorship. The preface of the second edition, the one we are now considering and the first given to the public, shows the cogent reasons Bacon had for using the cipher. “Two distinct purposes,” says the author, “are served by the two ciphers. The Biliteral was the foundation which was intended to lead to the other, and is of prime importance in its directions concerning the construction of the Word Cipher, the keys, and the epitome of the topics which were to be written out by its aid. It seems also to have been * * * a sort of diary * * * * and, as in many another diary, we find the trend of the mind as affected by the varying moods—sometimes sad and mournful—again defiant and rebellious—and again despondent, almost in despair, that his wrongs might fail of discovery, even in the times and land afar off to which he looked for greater honor and fame, as well as vindication.
“Chafing under the cloud upon his birth, the victim of a destiny beyond his control, which ever placed him in a false position, defrauded of his birthright, which was of the highest, he committed to this cipher the plaints of an outraged soul. * * * To the decipherer, he unbends—to the rest of the world maintains the dignity which marked his outward life. * * * It is a wonderful revelation of the undercurrents of a hidden life.”
“Some Notes on the Shakespeare Plays,” and a reprint of an article on Shorthand in the days of Elizabeth from the able pen of Mrs. H. Pott, whose clear and logical mind, no less than her deep research into the literature of Bacon’s time, makes her writings always welcome; and lastly a brief sketch of the outlines of Bacon’s life, complete the original portion of Part I. While the importance of these introductory chapters lies for our immediate purpose in their application to the Biliteral Cipher of Sir Francis Bacon, it would be difficult to overestimate their intrinsic merit, literary and historical. We owe a debt of gratitude to the authoress and publishers for their liberality in the matter of facsimiles by which they enable us not only to follow the deciphering but also to familiarize ourselves with the style and appearance of the original editions of many old favorites, a privilegehitherto almost confined to those who have time and opportunity for visiting the great libraries. In this part are comprised Bacon’s description of his Biliteral Cipher, with examples and double alphabet; the frontispiece and preface to theNovum Organum, preceded by a table of the double alphabet, by means of which the cipher is unfolded; the Droeshout portrait and all the introductory pages of the famous 1623 folio of the Shakespeare plays; and the title pages of several other of the deciphered works. The preface to theNovum Organumis also given in modern type, the two founts being markedaandbrespectively, thus enabling the reader to followin extensothe method of deciphering.
The portraits of Bacon, two in number, to which we have alluded, are the well-known one in which he is seen in his Chancellor’s robes, and the exquisite miniature of Hilyard surrounded by the noblest halo that ever adorned a human portrait—“Si tabula daretur digna, animum mallem” (“If it were possible to have a canvas worthy, I had rather paint his mind”).
Of the second part, because it is the most important, we shall say least. The story it tells is startling, fascinating, strange. As fiction it would be unique; as history, though truth is proverbially stranger than fiction, it is unparalleled. Nothing that can give interest to a book is wanting. There is the excitement of discovery; the triumph of hidden truth brought to light, of error refuted; the romance of a great prince, robbed of his birthright, who finds his consolation in winning a nobler realm—the kingdom of the mind; the tragedy of a younger brother, a wild though generous spirit, seduced by misdirected ambition into the thorny path of rebellion that leads to the question and the block; the pathos of a noble soul torn by the pangs of remorse for the part he was forced to take in that brother’s death by the inexorable power of the loftiest sense of justice—that power which impelled Lucius Junius Brutus to “call his sons to punishment,” Marcus Brutus to robe his dagger in the imperial purple of liberty drawn from the veins of his “best lover”; while the one note wanting to complete the full chord of romance is struck in the tale of a fruitless passion for the fair Queen of Navarre. Besides the story of Bacon’s own life and times, or rather of that part of his life and times hitherto unknown to history, the deciphered story gives directions for working out his “Word Cipher,” and summaries of those noble poems of Homer, theIlliadandOdyssey, with some passages translated into blank verse, which we think will compare favorably with any previous translations.
A few words must suffice as to the style. As we have already quoted, the book is a diary; and the exigencies of secrecy necessitate much repetition. For, as Bacon himself notes in the cipher story, he could not tell what book might be lost, or in which of those that survived, his decipherer would first light on the discovery. Yet in parts the writing rises to a great height of eloquence. We cannot resist the temptation to quote two passages from the cipher which seem to us, each in its own way, eminently beautiful. The first, though it refers only to the difficulty of constructing the Word Cipher can, we think, hardly be surpassed for happiness of metaphors or grace of diction. “’Tis the labour of years,” says Bacon, “to provide th’ widely varied prose in which the lines of verse have a faire haven, and lye anchor’d untill a day when th’ coming pow’r may say: 'Hoist sayle, away! For the windes of heav’n kisse your fairy streamers, and th’ tide is afloode. On to thy destiny!’”
The second is the cry of a soul in anguish.
“O Source infinite of light, ere Time in existence was, save in Thy creative plan, all this tragedy unfolded before Thee. A night of Stygian darknesse encloseth us. My hope banish’d to realms above, taketh its flight through th’ clear aire of the Scyences unto bright daye with Thyselfe. As thou didst conceale Thy lawes in thick clouds, enfolde them in shades of mysterious gloom, Thou didst infuse from Thy spirit a desire to put the day’s glad work, th’ evening’s thought, and midnight’s meditation to finde out their secret workings.
“Only thus can I banish from my thoughts my beloved brother’s untimely cutting off and my wrongfull part in his tryale. O, had I then one thought of th’ great change his death would cause—how life’s worth would shrinke, and this world’s little golden sunshine be but as collied night’s swifte lightning—this had never come as a hound of th’ hunt to my idle thoughts.” Mrs. Gallup’s claim to have discovered the existence of Francis Bacon’s Biliteral Cipher in many of the works of his time is one which, in view of the story deciphered, will, if substantiated, oblige us to rewrite a page of history and to tear a mask from many an idol before which we have bowed for three centuries. We shall, therefore, require the most convincing proofs of thebona fidesof the discovery. The discussion of this question, however, we leave to a future article.