Chapter XI

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS
The Shakespeare Bust at Stratford-on-Avon
The letters of the inscription below this bust from " Jndicio Pylium " downwards
Total to .. .. .. .. .. ..289
Deduct for the two symbols' . . . . . . 2
287
The Grave Slab at Stratford-on-Avon
The inscription —
Good trend foe Ibsvs sake eoebeaee to digg the dvst encloased hbaee
BlESE be y MAlsT y SPAEES THES STONES
And ctjEST be he y moves my bones. — contains 106 letters and three symbols, each symbol being composed of two letters one above the other.
Deduct the symbols as 3, and there remains 103, the simple count of the letters in the name " Shakespeare."
Deduct the symbols as 6, and the total left is 100, which is the simple count of the letters in the name " Francis " (67), and " Bacon " (33)— total, 100.
The First known Engraving of the Stratford Bust
This appears on page 520 of Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1656.
WiUiam Dugdale was a Warwickshire man, born in 1605.
About 1634 he was employed as a local draughtsman to make sketches in
the county churches for a book which Sir Simon Archer, a member of the
Society of Antiquaries, was preparing upon the antiquities of Warwickshire.
As one of the sketches Dugdale drew, and dated July, 1634, the Stratford bust
of Shakespeare, and there is good reason for thinking that the drawing was a
careful rendering of the monument as it appeared to young Dugdale in 1634.
Over his sketch Dugdale wrote: " In the north wall of the Quire is this monu-
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EEVELATIONS OF ROSICEUCIAN AECANA 71
merit for William Shakespeare, the famous poet." That the Stratford actor had been a famous poet was evidently the local opinion at the date of young Dugdale's sketch — viz., eighteen years after the actor's death.
The myth, if it were' one, had become well set locally. In 1635 Archer took young Dugdale to London, where the latter obtained a position in the Heralds' College, of which he eventually became chief, with the title Sir WilKam Dugdale.
He took over the Antiquities of Warwiehshire from Archer, and published the book in 1656. Against his engraving of the Shakespeare bust he did not repeat in the book the note in his sketch-book, but it will be noticed that the letters of the note, inscriptions and epitaph above and beside the engraving (page 520) total 157.
At the end of a very long account of various (one would think) less im- portant persons at Stratford and neighbourhood, and of their tombs and other details of local history. Sir WilUam Dugdale added the following words: " One thing more in reference to this antient town is observable — -that it gave birth and sepulture to our late famous Poet Will ShaJcespere, whose monu- ment I have inserted in my discourse of the Church."
The words " our late famous Poet " are ambiguous. The roman words in the paragraph are 33, the simple count of the letters in the name " Bacon." The number 157 is the simple count of the name " Fra. Rosi- crosse." So that we may assume that Dugdale was a member of the secret Fraternity of the Eosy Cross, the 287 Impresa of which he gives in his dedica- tion. Further, that while keeping in being the authorship illusion in accord- ance with the rules of his Society, he yet provided the occult means of demon- strating that he knew that Bacon was the real Shakespeare.
The Droeshout " portrait " q/ Shakespeare in the 1623 Folio The letters above and below this " portrait " total 157 (the symbol for " and " is not counted), indicating that behind the dressed-up mask was " Fra. Eosicrosse." " This Figure that thou here seest put."
The Shakespeare Monument, 174:0— Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey This statue was erected in 1741 under the auspices of Dr. Eichard Mead (the leading physician of his day), Alexander Pope, and the third Earl of
Burlington.
Shakespeare is shown as a full-length figure resting easily on his elbow against a pedestal.' The first finger of the left hand points to an inscription
72 SECEET SHAKESPEAEEAN SEALS
on a scroll hanging on the pedestal. Over the head of the statue is a marble tablet bearing the inscription:
GuLIELMO ShAKSPEAEE
Anno Post Mortem CXXIV.° Amok Publicus posuit.
Near the foot of the monument is the grave of an obscure derelict, said to have sought the sanctuary of the Abbey and to have borne the name of Tudor. The scroll inscription reads :
" The Cloud capt Tow'rs The Gorgeous Palaces The Solemn Temples The Great Globe itself Yea all which it inherit Shall dissolve
And like the baseless Fabrick of a Vision Leave not a wreck behind."
According to the Gentleman's Magazine of 1741, there was some strong criti- cism of the Latinity of the inscription on the head tablet. The critics did not perhaps know that it was important that it should not contain more or less than 56 letters, the simple count of " Fr. Bacon." The roman letter numerals must be counted in the total. We do not know of any criticism as to why the scroll inscription did not correctly follow the words as first printed in the play of the Tempest, never put into type until the Folio of 1623. As a matter of fact, several words are spelt differently on the scroll to the words in the Folio, and one line is altogether out of place. Why ?
But the inscribers so managed that the letters of the scroll inscription totalled exactly 157, which is the simple count of " Fra. Eosicrosse."
The inscribers evidently did not fear the gaze of the general public. They had good authority for their confidence: " But in regard of the rawness and unskilfulness of the hands through which they pass the greatest matters are many times carried in the weakest Ciphers." (Bacon's Advancement of Learning).
Statue of Francis Bacon in St. Michael's Church, Gorhambury, near St. Albans
The inscription below this statue, as it appears now, shows:
Total large size letters . . . . . . . . 260
Figures in year of death (1626) . . . . . . 15
Figures in age at death (66) . . . . . . 12
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REVELATIONS OF ROSICEUCIAN ARCANA 73
Owing to interferences with the inscription upon the tomb of Sir Thomas Meautys in the same church, the means of understanding the tombs promised in the Latin sentences describing the tombs in Wat's 1640 translation of the Advancement of Learning seem to have been removed.
The inscription on the tomb of the great Verulam, as given at page 258 of Archbishop Tenison's Baconiana, 1679, shews the 287 total letters (treating the symbol for " et " as two letters).
The next page in Tenison's book is 259, which is the total Kaye value of the letters in the name " Shakespeare." The words which immediately follow are " That is, Francis Bacon." " That is " has nothing to do with the Latin on the preceding page.
If these discoveries drive still fixmer home the fact that Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, was the real Shakespeare and a volum- inous author, the value of first editions of other works from the pen of the world's greatest poet-philosopher must grow in value. As a mere matter of pounds, shillings, and pence, owners of doubtfully ascribed books should search for the sigils 287 or 157. The play of Tamhurlaine the Greate, 1605, printed as by the deceased Marlowe, has :
Roman words of dedication . . . . . . . 245
Roman letters in brackets . . . . . . . . 42
287 The Jew of Malta, printed in 1633, has in its dedication:
Words in roman type (not abbreviated) ^ . . . . 170
Deduct 13 words in roman type in brackets ' . . . . 13
157
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