| Cryptographic Shakespeare |
Ben Johnson's Comments
To the memory of my beloued,
The AVTHOR
[...]
Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe,
And art aliue still, while thy Booke doth liue,
And we baue wits to read, and praise to giue.
[...]
[portion of Ionson's poem in First Folio]
The phrase "shake a Lance" calls to mind Pallas Athena. Compare these lines from Jonson's laudatory poem in the
fore-matter of Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (@) with those regarding Francis Bacon in his Discoveries . Note the
identical phrase "insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome".
"There happened in my time one noble speaker who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language where he
could spare or pass by a jest was nobly censorious. No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, more weightily,
or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speach but consisted of his own
graces.
"His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his
Judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man
who heard him was lest he should make an end."
[portion of a page from Discoveries by Ben Ionson]
[...]
"My conceit of his Person was never increased toward him, by his place or honors. But I have, and doe reverence
him for the greatness, which was only proper to himselfe, in that hee seem'd to mee ever, by his worke one of the
greatest men, and most worthy of admiration, that had beene in many ages" (@ Jonson, vol II, 101-2).
In this work, Jonson places Bacon "at the top of the literary men of all ages entirely ignoring William Shakespeare" (@
Johnson 82-3).
The phrase "fill'd up all numbers" is a reference to poetry writing (numbered lines of verse) and "perform'd that in
our tongue" may refer to play writing.
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