Joseph Gilpin Pyle

“ The spectacle of Bacon, holding weary vigil to complete, at infinite labor, the cipher story, and devoting hours to the construction of a play in which the movement of the plot, the fate of the personæ and the majesty of the dialogue should be unconsidered trifles, subordinated to the all-important infolded chronicle of the fact that Shakespeare had the gout in his great toe, is one for gods to weep at. ”

“ He does not tell whence he derives his root numbers—and the world loses little by that—because he is informed by his publishers that there is nothing in our law of copyright to prevent some ingenious fellow, less conscientious than himself, from studying out his whole system, applying it to the rest of the plays, and bursting upon the world with the remainder of the story, which Mr. Donnelly wants to reserve for a future volume and future profits. ”

“ There is, as every literary man knows, a great deal of evidence that will pass muster under this head. There is an inconsistency between such fragments of a life of Shakespeare as have come down to us, and the experiences and the acquirements which we should declare indispensable to the writing of that matchless drama. ”

“ Able to forget what does not accord with his preconceived theory, blessed with a memory as serviceable in dismissing as in retaining, and thoroughly possessed, for the time being, with a conviction that he is pursuing truth, he is the most dexterous of workmen. ”

“ Then, having five root numbers, ten or a dozen modifiers, the number of the page and the number of words on it, also the number of words in italics or connected by hyphens, you have studied addition and subtraction to little purpose if you can not so combine these various numbers that they shall furnish you, at last, with the number that you need to identify the particular word you have chosen. It is hard work. No wonder Mr. Donnelly covered, with figuring, a bundle of paper that a man can scarcely lift. The present writer consumed quires in a simple application of the cipher key to Hamlet. ”

“ And the passage itself contains matter which is more ridiculous than anything in Ophelia’s crazy words: “If the man go to the water and drown himself, it is will he nill he, he goes; mark you that; but [19] if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself.” What rot is this which the great Bacon utters? There is a rat behind this arras. But how to get at him! We turn for help to the cryptogram. We find, on page 555 of that volume, the account of Mr. Donnelly’s first discovery. ”

“ Here is matter senseless by itself. To introduce it, the writer was compelled to have Ophelia go mad and talk nonsense. And those stanzas beginning, “Then up he rose and donned his clothes,” are not only foolish but indelicate. Here was a suggestion. It warranted an experiment. It will be remembered that one of Mr. Donnelly’s root numbers is 523. This mad song occurs on page 273 of the folio. Subtracting 273 from 523, we get 250. Count from the top of the column on that page in which the song is found, and the 250th word is “donned,” [18] printed thus, “don’d.” ”

“ A few of the Donnelly numbers, and the numbers of pages and of words on a page were used, and no others. The cipher employed is the Donnelly cipher. The words on every page, the italicized words, the bracketed words and the hyphenated words were counted separately and numbered. The edition used is the fac-simile reproduction of the 1623 folio. Every computation has been carefully made. ”

“ It is found but three pages further on, in the absurd grave-diggers’ scene. This is preceded by the direction, “Enter two clowns.” Now clowns do not dig graves, and grave-diggers are not generally clowns. ”