CONCERNING THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF FRANCIS BACON

DISCOVERED IN HIS WORKS BY ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP

PROS AND CONS OF THE CONTROVERSY

Explanations, Reviews, Criticisms and Replies

DETROIT, MICH., U. S. A.: HOWARD PUBLISHING CO.

LONDON: GAY & BIRD.

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ANNOUNCEMENT. THE BI-LITERAL CYPHER OF FRANCIS BACON,

Deciphered by Elizabeth Wells Gallup.

THIRD EDITION

This edition embraces decipherings from the commencement of the use of Bacon’s Cipher inventions—now found to be 1579—and covering the entire period of his literary career, including some works published by Rawley subsequent to 1626. The Cypher has been traced with certainty down to 1651.

This Bi-literal Cypher reveals much secret history concerning Queen Elizabeth, who, it is now learned, was the wedded wife of Robert, Earl of Leicester—while posing as the Virgin Queen—and was the mother of Francis Bacon.

It also discloses the existence of a second so-called Key-Word Cipher, of broader scope, running through all of Bacon’s literary works, with instructions by which they may be deciphered to disclose other hidden dramatical and historical productions of larger importance and greater historical accuracy than those upon the printed pages which enfold them. These are found also to contain secret history, dangerous to Bacon, who sought by this means to transmit it to a future time in which he hoped the Ciphers would be discovered and the truth proclaimed.

The method of the Word Cipher is shown in the deciphered Tragedy of Anne Boleyn, published simultaneously with this Third Edition,—also in the Tragedy of Robert, Earl of Essex,—and the Tragedy of Mary, Queen of Scots.

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THE TRAGEDY OF ANNE BOLEYN,

Deciphered by Elizabeth Wells Gallup,

One of the Historical Dramas in Cipher named in the Bi-literal Cypher as concealed in the works of Bacon.

Part I.

Contains extracts from the Bi-literal, with Bacon’s instructions and the Keys by which this Tragedy has been extracted fully illustrating the Word Cipher method of its reconstruction.

An appendix gives the editions used and pages on which may be found the scattered sections brought together in new sequence to form the new play.

Included in Part I will also be found the decipherings made by Mrs. Gallup in the British Museum subsequent to the publication of the Second Edition of the Bi-literal Cypher, and are from Old Editions appearing between 1579 and 1590, establishing the earliest dates this Cypher appeared. They are placed here for the convenience of these having Second Editions only.

THE TRAGICAL HISTORIE

OF OUR LATE BROTHER,

ROBERT, EARL OF ESSEX.

Deciphered by Orville W. Owen, M. D. One of the Historical Dramas in Cipher.

THE HISTORICAL TRAGEDY OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.

Deciphered by Orville W. Owen, M. D. One of the Historical Dramas in Cipher.

Howard Publishing Co., Detroit, Michigan, U. S. A.

Gay & Bird, London, England.

CONTENTS (OF THIS VOLUME)

FROM MAGAZINES, ETC.

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CONTENTS.

PART I.

BI-LITERAL CYPHER.

DECIPHERED SECRET STORY. 1579 to 1590.

PART II.

DECIPHERED SECRET STORY FROM

PERSONAL.

TO THE READER:

The discovery of the existence of the Bi-literal Cipher of Francis Bacon, found embodied in his works, and the deciphering of what it tells, has been a work arduous, exhausting and prolonged. It is not ended, but the results of the work so far brought forth, are submitted for study and discussion, and open a new and large field of investigation and research, which cannot fail to interest all students of the earlier literature that has come down to us as a mirror of the past, and in many respects has been adopted as models for the present.

Seeking for things hidden, the mysterious, elusive and unexpected, has a fascination for many minds, as it has for my own, and this often prompts to greater effort than more manifest and material things would command. To this may be attributed, perhaps, the triumph over difficulties which have seemed to me, at times, insurmountable, the solution of problems, and the following of ways tortuous and obscure, which have been necessary to bring out, as they appear in the following pages, the hidden messages which Francis Bacon so securely buried in his writings, that three hundred years of reading and close study have not until now uncovered them.

This Bi-literal Cipher is found in the Italic letters that appear in such unusual and unexplained prodigality in the original editions of Bacon’s works. Students of these old editions have been impressed with the extraordinary number of words and passages, often non-important, printed in Italics, where no known rule of construction would require their use. There has been no reasonable explanation of this until now it is found that they were so used for the[Pg 16] purposes of this Cipher. These letters are seen to be in two forms—two fonts of type—with marked differences. In the Capitals these are easily discerned, but the distinguishing features in the small letters, from age of the books, blots and poor printing, have been more difficult to classify, and close examination and study have been required to separate and sketch out the variations, and educate the eye to distinguish them.

How I found the Cipher, its difficulties, methods of working, and outline of what the several books contain, will more fully appear in the explanatory introduction.

In assisting Dr. Owen in the preparation of the later books of “Sir Francis Bacon’s Cipher Story,” recently published, and in the study of the great Word-Cipher discovered by him, in which is incorporated Bacon’s more extensive, more complete and important writings, I became convinced that the very full explanation found in De Augmentis, of the bi-literal method of cipher-writing, was something more than a mere treatise on the subject. I applied the rules given to the peculiarly Italicised words and “letters in two forms,” as they appear in the photographic Fac-simile of the original 1623, Folio edition, of the Shakespeare Plays. The disclosures, as they appear in this volume, were as great a surprise to me, as they will be to my readers. Original editions of Bacon’s known works were then procured, as well as those of other authors named in these, and claimed by Bacon as his own. The story deciphered from these will appear under the several headings.

From the disclosures found in all these, it is evident that Bacon expected this Bi-literal Cipher would be the first to be discovered, and that it would lead to the discovery of his principal, or Word-Cipher, which it fully explains, and to which is intrusted the larger subjects he desired to have preserved. This order has been reversed, in fact, and the earlier discovery of the Word-Cipher, by Dr. Owen, becomes a more remarkable achievement, being entirely[Pg 17] evolved without the aids which Bacon had prepared in this, for its elucidation.

The proofs are overwhelming and irresistible that Bacon was the author of the delightful lines attributed to Spenser,—the fantastic conceits of Peele and Greene,—the historical romances of Marlowe,—the immortal plays and poems put forth in Shakespeare’s name, as well as the Anatomy of Melancholy of Burton.

The removal of these masques, behind which Bacon concealed himself, may change the names of some of our idols. It is, however, the matter and not the name that appeals to our intelligence.

The plays of Shakespeare lose nothing of their dramatic power or wondrous beauty, nor deserve the less admiration of the scholar and critic, because inconsistencies are removed in the knowledge that they came from the brain of the greatest student and writer of that age, and were not a “flash of genius” descended upon one of peasant birth, less noble history, and of no preparatory literary attainments.

The Shepherds’ Calendar is not less sweetly poetical, because Francis Bacon appropriated the name of Spenser, several years after his death, under which to put forth the musical measures, that had, up to that time, only appeared as the production of some Muse without a name; nor will Faerie Queene lose ought of its rythmic beauty or romantic interest from change of name upon the title page.

The supposed writings of Peele, Greene and Marlowe are not the less worthy, because really written by one greater than either.

The remarkable similarity in the dramatic writings attributed to Greene, Peele, Marlowe and Shakespeare has attracted much attention, and the biographers of each have claimed that both style and subject-matter have been imitated, if not appropriated, by the others. The practical explanation lies in the fact that one hand wrote them all.

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I fully appreciate what it means to bring forth new truth from unexpected and unknown fields, if not in accord with accented theories and long held beliefs. “For what a man had rather were true, he more readily believes,”—is one of Bacon’s truisms that finds many illustrations.

I appreciate what it means to ask strong minds to change long standing literary convictions, and of such I venture to ask the withholding of judgment until study shall have made the new matter familiar, with the assurance meanwhile, upon my part, of the absolute veracity of the work which is here presented. Any one possessing the original books, who has sufficient patience and a keen eye for form, can work out and verify the Cipher from the illustrations given. Nothing is left to choice, chance, or the imagination. The statements which are disclosed are such as could not be foreseen, nor imagined, nor created, nor can there be found reasonable excuse for the hidden writings, except for the purposes narrated, which could only exist concerning, and be described by, Francis Bacon.

I would beg that the readers of this book will bring to the consideration of the work minds free from prejudice, judging of it with the same intelligence and impartiality they would themselves desire, if the presentation were their own. Otherwise the work will, indeed, have been a thankless task.

To doubt the ultimate acceptance of the truths brought to light would be to distrust that destiny in which Bacon had such an abiding faith for his justification, and which, in fact, after three centuries, has lifted the veil, and brought us to estimate the character and accomplishments, trials and sorrows of that great genius, with a feeling of nearness and personal sympathy, far greater than has been possible from the partial knowledge which we have heretofore enjoyed.

ELIZABETH WELLS GALLUP.

Detroit, March 1st, 1899.

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PUBLISHERS’ NOTE.

THIRD EDITION.

The publication of the second edition of the Bi-literal Cypher of Francis Bacon, which embraced the period of his Cipher writing between 1590 and the end of his career, emphasized the importance of finding the earlier writings—preceding 1590. The old books necessary to the research could not be procured in America, and during the summer of 1900 Mrs. Gallup and her assistant, Miss Kate E. Wells, visited England to carry on the work in that treasure house of early literature, the British Museum. The investigations yielded rich returns, for in Shepheard’s Calender of 1579 was found the commencement of what proved to be an important part of Bacon’s life work.

Following Shepheard’s Calender, the works between 1579 and 1590, so far deciphered, are:

Araygnement of Paris, 1584; Mirrour of Modestie, 1584.

Planetomachia, 1585.

Treatise of Melancholy, 1586. Two editions of this were issued the same year, with differing Italics. The first ends with an incomplete cipher word which is completed in the second for the continued narration, thus making evident which was first published, unless they were published at the same time.

Euphues, 1587; Morando, 1587. These two also join together, with an incomplete word at the end of the first finding its completion in the commencement of the Cipher in the second.

Perimedes the Blacke-smith, 1588; Pandosto, 1588. These two also join together.

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Spanish Masquerado, 1589. Two editions of this work bear date the same year, but have different Italicising. In one edition the Cipher Story is complete, closing with the signature: “Fr., Prince.” In the other the story is not complete, the book ending with an incomplete cipher word, the remainder of which will be found in some work of a near date which has not yet been indicated.

Several months were spent in following, through these old books, the thread of the concealed story until it joined the work which had already been published. Overstrained eye-sight, from the close study of the different forms of Italic letters, and consequent exhaustion on the part of Mrs. Gallup, compelled a cessation of the work before all that would have been desirable to know concerning that early period was deciphered; and while these are not all the works in which Cipher will be found, between the years 1579 and 1590, they are sufficient unmistakably to connect the earlier writings with those of later date which had already been deciphered—as published in the Bi-literal Cypher—so that we now know the Cipher writings were being continuously infolded in Bacon’s works, for a period of about forty-six years, from the first to the last of his literary productions, including some matter he had prepared, which was published by Rawley subsequent to 1626.

These few pages of deciphered matter, now added to that published in the Second Edition, have a unique distinction in the costliness of their production, but they are of inestimable value, historically, as well as from a literary point of view, in demonstrating with certainty the scope and completeness of the Cipher plan which has so long hidden the secrets of a most eventful period.

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Of the Advancement of Learning.

(London, 1605.)

CYPHARS

For Cyphars; they are commonly in Letters or Alphabets, but may bee in Wordes. The kindes of Cyphars, (besides the Simple Cyphars with Changes, and intermixtures of Nvlles, and Nonsignificants) are many, according to the Nature or Rule of the infoulding: Wheele-Cyphars, Kay-Cyphars, Dovbles, &c. But the vertues of them, whereby they are to be preferred, are three; that they be not laborious to write and reade; that they bee impossible to discypher; and in some cases, that they bee without suspition. The highest Degree whereof, is to write Omnia Per Omnia; which is vndoubtedly possible, with a proportion Quintuple at most, of the writing infoulding, to the writing infoulded, and no other restrainte whatsoeuer. This Arte of Cypheringe, hath for Relatiue, an Art of Discypheringe; by supposition vnprofitable; but, as things are, of great vse. For suppose that Cyphars were well mannaged, there bee Multitudes of them which exclude the Discypherer. But in regarde of the rawnesse and vnskilfulnesse of the handes, through which they passe, the greatest Matters, are many

times carryed in the weakest Cyphars.

[Pg 23]

De Augmentis Scientiarum

(Translation, Gilbert Wats, 1640.)

Wherefore let us come to Cyphars. Their kinds are many, as Cyphars simple; Cyphars intermixt with Nulloes, or non-significant Characters; Cyphars of double Letters under one Character; Wheele-Cyphars; Kay-Cyphars; Cyphars of Words; Others. But the virtues of them whereby they are to be preferr’d are Three; That they be ready, and not laborious to write; That they be sure, and lie not open to Deciphering; And lastly, if it be possible, that they be managed without suspition.

But that jealousies may be taken away, we will annexe an other invention, which, in truth, we devised in our youth, when we were at Paris: and is a thing that yet seemeth to us not worthy to be lost. It containeth the highest degree of Cypher, which is to signifie omnia per omnia, yet so as the writing infolding, may beare a quintuple proportion to the writing infolded; no other condition or restriction whatsoever is required. It shall be performed thus: First let all the Letters of the Alphabet, by transposition, be resolved into two Letters onely; for the transposition of two Letters by five placings will be sufficient for 32. Differences, much more for 24, which is the number of the Alphabet. The example of such an Alphabet is on this wise.

[Pg 24]

An Example of a Bi-literarie Alphabet.

Neither is it a small matter these Cypher-Characters have, and may performe: For by this Art a way is opened, whereby a man may expresse and signifie the intentions of his minde, at any distance of place, by objects which may be presented to the eye, and accommodated to the eare: provided those objects be capable of a twofold difference onely; as by Bells, by Trumpets, by Lights and Torches, by the report of Muskets, and any instruments of like nature. But to pursue our enterprise, when you addresse your selfe to write, resolve your inward-infolded Letter into this Bi-literarie Alphabet. Say the interiour Letter be

Fuge.

Example of Solution.

Together with this, you must have ready at hand a Bi-formed Alphabet, which may represent all the Letters of the Common Alphabet, as well Capitall Letters as the Smaller Characters in a double forme, as may fit every mans occasion.

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An Example of a Bi-formed Alphabet.

Now to the interiour letter, which is Biliterate, you shall fit a biformed exteriour letter, which shall answer the other, letter for letter, and afterwards set it downe. Let the exteriour example be,

Manere te volo, donec venero.

An Example of Accommodation.

We have annext likewise a more ample example of the cypher of writing omnia per omnia: An interiour letter, which to expresse, we have made choice of a Spartan letter sent once in a Scytale or round cypher’d staffe.

Spartan Dispatch.

All is lost. Mindarus is killed. The soldiers want food. We can neither get hence nor stay longer here.

An exteriour letter, taken out of the first Epistle of Cicero, wherein a Spartan Letter is involved.

[Pg 26]

Cicero’s First Epistle.

(Note)—This Translation from Spedding, Ellis & Heath Ed.

(REPRODUCTION)

[Pg 27]

(REPRODUCTION.)

Epistle.

In all duty or rather piety towards you, I satisfy every body except myself. Myself I never satisfy. For so great are the services which you have rendered me, that, seeing you did not rest in your endeavours on my behalf till the thing was done, I feel as if life had lost all its sweetness, because I cannot do as much in this cause of yours. The occasions are these: Ammonius, the king’s ambassador, openly besieges us with money. The business is carried on through the same creditors who were employed in it when you were here &c.

Cipher infolded.

All is lost. Mindarus is killed. The soldiers want food. We can neither get hence nor stay longer here.

The knowledge of Cyphering, hath drawne on with it a knowledge relative unto it, which is the knowledge of Discyphering, or of Discreting Cyphers, though a man were utterly ignorant of the Alphabet of the Cypher, and the Capitulations of secrecy past between the Parties. Certainly it is an Art which requires great paines and a good witt and is [as the other was] consecrate to the Counsels of Princes: yet notwithstanding by diligent prevision it may be made unprofitable, though, as things are, it be of great use. For if good and faithfull Cyphers were invented & practised, many of them would delude and forestall all the Cunning of the Decypherer, which yet are very apt and easie to be read or written: but the rawnesse and unskilfulnesse of Secretaries, and Clarks in the Courts of Princes, is such, that many times the greatest matters are committed to futile and weake Cyphers.

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PREFACE.

The Cipher discoveries in some of the literature of the Elizabethan period, as set forth in Francis Bacon’s Biliteral Cypher—a book recently published in America and England—are most strange and important. To those not familiar with them, a few words are requisite for an understanding of the methods of the production of this Cipher play—The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn.