Chapter I

THE GREAT SEAL
The term " seal" here used does not refer to the instrument, but to a mark seal or signature itself. The practice of identification of documents by an individual seajl or mark, whether open or private, dates back to the earliest days of civilization.
Present-day manufacturers have their marks and numbers, bankers their secret flaws and marks of identification whereby to assure their bank- notes and cheques and defeat extensive forgery.
In the early stages of printing it was natural that writers of works printed anonymously should contrive methods of type arrangement by which, if thought worth while, their authorship could be identified and proved.
Thiey would assuijie that when doubts arose their books would be searched for sigilli secreti as the first and most natural efiort of investigation.
Strange though it be, there is no evidence of any such examination having takten place.
Yet, for instance, the Shakespeare Folio and Quarto plays, and Shake- speare's Sonnets, are sealed with the Great Seal in many places, though mostly at the beginnings and ends.
Mr. Tanner was the first to call attention to the fact that the verse to the reader opposite the Droeshout portrait in the Shakespeare Folio contains, including the heading and the initials at foot, and counting correctly the four letters in v v a s and the five letters in v v r i t (8th line) a total of 287.
He first called attention to the fact that the total figure equivalent of the old long word elaborated by the writer of Love's Labour Lost, on page 136 of the Folio, was also 287; but there the matter seems to have dropped.
1
2 SECRET SHAKESPEAEEAN SEALS
except that another investigator pointed out correctly that the long word referred to is the 151st word in roman type on page 136 (counting " alms- basket " as the two words it should be). There is, possibly, a correct rule of count in the case of words improperly joined by a hyphen. The significance of the 287 count is apparent:
1. From its prominence on the first page of the Foho.
2. From the total in figure equivalent of " Honorificabihtudinitatibus."
3. From its position as the 151st roman word on page 136.
4. The special type in which this page of Love's Labour Lost is printed
in the 1684 Folio.
Guided by these torches, we made a more careful examination of the Folio, with the result of finding this strange sigil absolutely waving in important positions.
Epistle Dedicatorie contains :
First page words . . . . . . . . . . 157
Second page words . . . . . . . . . . 287
" To the Great Variety of Readers," 2nd part:
Words in roman type . . . . . . . . 279
Italic words of large size . . . . . . . . 8
287 Ben Jonson's verses, 1st part:
Italic words . . . . . . . . . . 289
Deduct the two letters in the turnover word of . . 2
287 Note. — These two letters are in larger type than in the following page.
Hugh Holland's verses contain :
Roman letters . . . . . . . . . . 422
Roman words in brackets . . . , . . . . 3
425 Deduct roman letters in heading . . . . 65
Deduct italic letters in verse . . . . 73 138
287
REVELATIONS OF ROSICRUCIAN ARCANA