[Continued]
his brings us to a number of
acrostic signatures in the works of Mr. Shakespeare. Remember that
the cipher system, after the example given in the Sonnets, now
follows the fourth letter (+4) forward:
Ciphertext alphabet: S T V Y A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R Plaintext alphabet: a b c d e f g h i k l m n o p q r s t v yOften the text includes curious language--hints to the existence of a cipher. Here is a specimen in which the capital letters are employed, from "Measure for Measure" (i, 3, 40)
The ciphertext letters are underlined, as are "hints" and complete plaintext strings.
I have on Angelo impos'd the
office,
W ho may in th'ambush of my name, strike
home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight
To do in slander: And to behold his
sway
A signature is hidden "in th'ambush of my name." Reading all capitals downward, the ciphertext is:
I A W A T A
Ciphertext reversed is:
A T A W A I
Plaintext (+4) is:
E B E C E N
"Caps" is a word long used by printers as an abbreviation for upper case type. This word, or "cap," is used six times in thirty lines in "The Taming of the Shrew" (iv, 3, 68).
Fel. Heere is the cap your Worship did bespeake.
Pet. Why this was moulded on a porrenger,
A veluet dish: Fie, fie, 'tis lewd and filthy,
Why 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell,
A Knacke, a toy, a tricke, a babies cap.
Away with it, come let me have a bigger.
Then follow these five lines:
Kate. Ile haue no
bigger, this doth fit the time,
And Gentlewomen weare such caps as
these.
Pet. When you are
gentle, you shall haue one too,
And not till then.
Hor. That will not
be in hast.
Let us examine these "caps," the initial capitalized letters of each line:
Ciphertext is:
I A W A T
Ciphertext reversed is:
T A W A I
Plaintext is:
B E C E N
Published in 1640 by John Benson was a book of "POEMS: WRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKESPEARE. Gent." Many of them
died in Aprill, Anno Dom. 1616.
To learned Chauser, and rare Beaumount lie
A little neerer Spenser to make roome,
For Shakespeare in your three-fold, foure-fold Tombe;
To lodge all foure in one bed make a shift,
Vntill Dommes-day, for hardly shall a fift
Betwixt this day and that by Fate be slaine,
For whom your Curtaines may be drawne againe.
If your precedencie in death doth barre,
A fourth place in your sacred Sepulchre
Vnder this sacred Marble of thy owne,
Sleepe rare Tragedian Shakespeare, sleepe alone;
Thy unmolested peace in an unshar'd Cave,
Possesse as Lord, not Tennant of thy Grave.
That unto us, and others it may be,
Honour hereafter to be laid by thee.
W. B.
"For whom your Curtaines may be drawne againe." Consider the initial capitalized letters of the five lines following that one:
Ciphertext is:
I A V S T
Ciphertext reversed:
T S V A I
Plaintext is:
B A C E N
Or, we may choose all of the capitals in the four lines following "Curtaines," and just preceding Shakespeare:
Ciphertext is:
I A S V M S T
Ciphertext reversed:
T S M V S A I
Plaintext (+4) is:
B A Q C A E N
The following is a comparison of two very similar versions of a Shakespeare sonnet. The lines printed in Roman type are from verse II of The Passionate Pilgrime, (1599) while the lines shown in italics are from Sonnet 144 of the 1609 Quarto:
1. TWo Loues I haue, of Comfort, and Despaire,
TWo Loues I haue of comfort and dispaire,
2. That like two Spirits, do suggest me still:
Which like two spirits do sugiest me still,
3. My better Angell is a Man (right faire)
The better angell is a man right faire:
4. My worser spirite a Woman (colour'd ill.)
The worser spirit a woman collour'd il.
5. To winne me soone to hell, my Female euill
To win me soone to hell my femall euill,
6. Tempteth my better Angell from my side,
Tempteth my better angel from my sight,
7. And would corrupt my Saint to be a Diuell,
And would corrupt my saint to be a diuel:
8. Wooing his purity with her faire pride.
Wooing his purity with her fowle pride,
9. And whether that my Angell be turnde feend,
And whether that my angel be turn'd finde,
10. Suspect I may (yet not directly tell:
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
11. For being both to me: both, to each friend,
But being both from me both to each friend,
12. I ghesse one Angell in anothers hell:
I gesse one angel in an others hel,
13. The truth I shall not know, but liue in doubt,
Yet this shal I nere know but liue in doubt,
14. Till my bad Angell fire my good one out.
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
In this later version there are minor changes in spelling, punctuation and one change in sense (faire in line 8 becomes fowle in the later version). The major change is in capitalization. Let us string all the capitals together and examine them:
Ciphertext of the 1599 verse:
T V L I C D T S M A M M V T F T A A S D V A A S I F I A T I T A
Plaintext, +4 is:
B C P N G H B A Q E Q Q C B K B E E A H C E E A N K N E B N B E
Perhaps the earlier version of Bacon's plaintext name seemed too long; therefore, in editing the 1609 version, the author reduced fifteen of the capitals to lower case with this effect:
Ciphertext of the 1609 verse:
V I V T T T T A V A S I B I Y T
Plaintext, +4 is:
B C N C B B B B E C E A N F N D B
And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live,
So goes one of the lines of Ben Jonson's "To the
memory. . ." tribute to the author of the plays collected in the 1623
Folio. He hints at another author's name, who was still living, but
veils the allusion with the last phrase. However at that time
Shakespeare had a splendid monument and tomb which had been
erected at great cost in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church,
Stratford. Toward the end of these praises Ben Jonson writes,
"Sweet Swan of Avon!" Some literary critics are still unaware that English
swans are mute. Still, they point with delight at this phrase to
entangle the Avon man with the author of the plays.
Here is the caption of the poem and the first two
lines:
The AVTHOR
Mr. William Shakespeare:
And
what he hath left vs.
TO draw no enuy (Shakespeare) on thy name,
Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and Fame:
The true AVTHOR's name was well known to Ben Jonson, and it is concealed in the initial capital letters of each word, reading from the beginning:
Ciphertext is:
T T A M W S A T S A I
Plaintext is:
B B E Q C A E B A E N
Alternate letters are:
B E C E A N
Here is another acrostic from "The two Gentlemen of Verona," (iv, 1, 50):
But to the purpose: for we cite our faults,
That they may hold excus'd our lawlesse
liues;
And partly seeing you are beautifide
With goodly shape; and by your owne report,
A Linguist, and a man of such perfection,
As we doe in our quality much want.
2. Out. Indeede because you are a banish'd man,
The capitalized first letters of each line produce the ciphertext:
B T A W A A I
Plaintext is:
F B E C E E N
Ciphertext of the last line is:
I N D E E D E B E C A V S E Y O V A R E A B A N I S H D M A N
Plaintext, +4 is:
N R H I I H I F I G E C A I D S C E Y I E F E R N A M H Q E R
Bacon's fascination with acrostics led him to rewrite his own previously published works. He hints at ciphers with suggestive words, in "The Life of Henry the Fift" (ii, 2, 53), and, compared to the 1600 Quarto, these lines were painstakingly rearranged when edited for the 1623 Folio. In the earlier Quarto he had written:
If litle faults proceeding on distemper should not
bee winked at,
How should we stretch our eye,
when capitall crimes,
Chewed, swallowed and digested, appeare before vs:
Well yet enlarge the man, tho Cambridge and the
rest
In their deare loues. . .
Now we may glimpse the cryptogapher at work, as he redrafts this excerpt, so as to encipher the intial capital letters of each line for the 1623 Folio:
If little faults proceeding on distemper,
Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we
stretch our eye
When capitall crimes, chew'd,
swallow'd, and digested,
Appeare before vs? Wee'l yet inlarge that
man,
Though Cambridge, Scroope, and Gray, in
their deere care
Ciphertext is:
I S V A T
Ciphertext reversed is:
T A V S I
Plaintext is:
B E C A N
The sense of these lines was scarcely modified, and
the remainder of this speech of King Henry V was not altered.
In the edited version the clues have been
preserved for the benefit of the most intractable academicians. The
lower case letters in the original version have been "inlarged." By
the use of "capitalls" the writer has directed our attention to these
newly minted upper case letters. For what reason were these
transformations made, unless to encipher the author's name?
A cardinal measure of cipher authenticity
--intention -- has been demonstrated. The author has
left behind an unmistakable "smoking pistol."
On at least two other occasions Bacon amended the ciphertext of an early quarto edition so as to include his name in the Folio plaintext. In the 1604 edition of "Hamlet," Hamlet is warned of the Ghost by Horatio: "It beckins you to go away with it / As if it some impartment did desire / To you alone." Hamlet replies, "It waves me forth..." Then Bacon writes:
That bettles ore his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrable forme
Which might depriue your soueraigntie of reason,
And draw you into madnes, thinke of it,
The very place puts toyes of desperation
Without more motiue, into euery braine
That lookes so many fadoms to the sea
And heares it rore beneath.
Ham. It waues me still,
Goe on, Ile followe thee.
In the 1623 Folio version of the plays (i, 4, 55) the author strikes out four lines of splendid metaphor in order to accomplish his purpose:
That beetles o're his base into the Sea
And there assumes some other horrible forme,
Which might depriue your Soueraignty of
Reason,
And draw you into madnesse thinke on it?
Ham. It wafts me still: goe on, Ile follow thee.
The initial capitalized letters of each line now disclose the author's name:
Ciphertext is:
T A V A I
Plaintext is:
B E C E N
Again, the 1604 quarto version of the same play contains these words:
Obserue my Vncle, if his occulted guilt
Doe not it selfe vnkennill in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seene,
And my imaginations are as foule
As Vulcans stithy: giue him heedfull note,
For I mine eyes will riuet to his face,
And after we will both our iudgements ioyne
In [To] censure of his seeming.
In the 1623 play (iii, 2, 87) Bacon altered a few minor spellings, but he most unnecessarily changed In in the last line to To.
Now the ciphertext (reversed) is:
T A F A A I
Plaintext is:
B E K E E N
And again: in the 1594 Quarto of Titus Andronicus are these lines:
Chiron. Thou hast vndone our mother
Aron. Villaine I haue done thy mother.
Deme. And therein helish dog thou hast vndone her,
Woe to her chaunce, and damde her loathed choice,
Accurst the offspring of so foule a fiend.
Chi. It shal not liue.
However, in the 1623 Folio (iv, 2, 75) the second line is dropped, so as to invoke the author's name:
Chi. Thou hast vndone our mother.
Deme. And therein hellish dog, thou hast vndone,
Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed
choyce,
Accur'st the off-spring of so foule a fiend.
Chi. It shall not liue.
Now the ciphertext of the initial capital letters is:
T A V A I
Plaintext is:
B E C E N
Here is a passage from "The Tragedie of Julius Caesar" (i, 2, 198):
Cas. Would he were fatter; But I feare him not:
Yet if my name were lyable to feare,
I do not know the man I should auoyd
So soone as that spare Cassius. He reades
much,
He is a great Obseruer, and he lookes
Quite through the Deeds of men. He loues no Playes,
As thou dost Antony : he heares no Musicke;
Seldome he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himselfe, and scorn'd his spirit
Now, having described a character to mistrust, these lines continue. Witness the initial letters:
That could be mou'd to smile at any thing.
Such men as he, be neuer at hearts-ease,
Whiles they behold a greater then
themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd,
Then what I feare: for alwayes I am Caesar.
Ciphertext of these five initial capitals:
T S V A I
Plaintext, +4, is:
B A C E N
But we are not finished with this illustration. We shall repeat the last two lines of the above:
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd,
Then what I feare: for alwayes I am Caesar.
Ciphertext is:
I R A T H E R T E L L T H E E V H A T I S T O B E F E A R D T H E N V H A T I F E A R E F O R A L V A Y E S I A M C A E S A R
Plaintext, +4 is:
N Y E B M I Y B I P P B M I I C M E B N A B S F I K I E Y H B M I R C M E B N K I E Y I K S Y E P C E D I A N E Q G E I A E Y
Plaintext, skip even letters:
N E M Y I P M I M B A S I I Y B I C E N I Y K Y P E I N Q E A Y
Plaintext, skip odd letters:
Y B I B P B I C E N B F K E H M R M B K E I S E C D A E G I E
Here the author has inserted his name, first within the initial capital letters of each line, and then twice within the last two lines as alternate even and odd letters with identical spelling. And notice the reference to Caesar, as in "Caesar cipher."
Shakespeare often included a clue to assist in the unveiling of his 21 letter cipher alphabet, or perhaps to confirm it. Consider a letter Malvolio is reading, from "Twelfth Night" (II, 2, 86):
Mal. By my life this is my Ladies hand: these bee her
very C 's, her U 's, and her T 's, and thus
makes shee her
great P 's. It is in contempt of question her
hand.
An. Her C 's, her
U 's, and her T 's: why that?
Mal.
To the vnknowne belou'd, this, and my good Wishes:
[Then, four lines afterward:]
Mal. Ioue knowes I love, but who, Lips do not mooue, no
man must know. No man must know. What followes?
The numbers alter'd: No man must know. . .[original italics]
Why did Malvoli choose these four letters, C,
U, T, P, to remark upon? What's all this about the
vnknowne belou'd and No man must know? What number has
been altered?
Why, the number of letters in the 21 letter
cipher alphabet, of course. "T" follows four letters after "P", but "C"
does not trail four letters after "U" in the Elizabethan 24 letter
alphabet (in which "I" is equivalent to "J" and "U" is equivalent to
"V"). Not unless "W X Z" are omitted. The abbreviated series, vital to
Bacon's Caesar cipher, is:
"V Y A B C"--not "V W X Y Z A B C."
The odds against all of the letters in the 24 letter
Elizabethan alphabet appearing in any particular order are 24 x 23 x 22
x 21, or 255,024 to one. Then, to choose these four successive letters
from the alphabet of 24, we must multiply by 24/4, or 6, again. The
result is 1,530,144 to one.
To make it more enlightening, Bacon has, in
this way, shown the vnknowne belou'd this complete uninterrupted
alphabetical succession: "P Q R S T V Y A B C."
And, of course, "P" = "T" and "V" = "C" in Bacon's cipher process.
The verse following is from The Rape of Lvcrece, lines 890-896:
Thy secret pleasure turnes to open shame,
Thy priuate feasting to a publicke fast,
Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name,
Thy sugred tongue to bitter wormwood tast,
Thy violent vanities can neuer last.
How comes it then, vile opportunity
Being so bad, such numbers seeke for thee?
The ciphertext of the second and third lines is:
T H Y P R I V A T E F E A S T I N G T O A P V B L I C K E F A S T T H Y S M O O T H I N G T I T L E S T O A R A G G E D N A M E
Ciphertext reversed is:
E M A N D E G G A R A O T S E L T I T G N I H T O O M S Y H T T S A F E K C I L B V P A O T G N I T S A E F E T A V I R P Y H T
Plaintext, +4 is:
I Q E R H I L L E Y E S B A I P B N B L R N M B S S Q A D M B B A E K I O G N P F C T E S B L R N B A E I K I B E C N Y T D M B
Plaintext, alternate odd letters:
I E H L E E B I B B R M S Q D B A K O N F T S L N A I I E N T M
"Bakon," we will recall, is how Francis spelt the name while drawing a Power of Attorney for the signature of his brother Anthony.
Bacon delighted in employing single words that contained a version of his name. In "As you like it"(iv, 3, 166), the word "counterfeit" is repeated six times in seventeen lines for no good reason except stress:
Oli. Be of good cheere youth: you a man?
You lacke a mans heart.
Ros. I doe so, I confesse it:
Ah, sirra, a body would thinke this was well
counterfeited,
I pray you tell your brother how well I
counterfeited
: heigh-ho.
Oli. This was not counterfeit, there is too great te-
stimony in your complexion that it was a passion
of ear-
nest.
Ros. Counterfeit, I assure you.
Oli. Well then, take a good heart, and counterfeit to
be a man.
Ros. So I doe: but yfaith, I should have beene a wo-
man by right.
Cel. Come, you looke paler and paler: pray you draw
homewards: good sir, goe with us.
Oli. That will I: for I must beare answere backe
How you excuse my brother, Rosalind.
Ros. I shall deuise something: but I pray you com-
mend my counterfeiting to him: will you goe?
Exeunt.
Ciphertext is:
A B O D Y V O V L D T H I N K E T H I S V A S V E L L C O V N T E R F E I T E D I P R A Y Y O V T E L L Y O V R B R O T H E R H O V V E L L I C O V N T E R F E I T E D H E I G H H O T H I S V A S N O T C O V N T E R F E I T T H E R E I S T O O G R E A T T E S T I M O N Y I N Y O V R C O M P L E I O N T H A T I T V A S A P A S S I O N O F E A R N E S T C O V N T E R F E I T I A S S V R E Y O V V E L L T H E N T A K E A G O O D H E A R T A N D C O V N T E R F E I T T O B E A M A N S O I D O E B V T Y F A I T H I S H O V L D H A V E B E E N A V O M A N B Y R I G H T
Plaintext, +4 is:
E F S H D C S C P H B M N R O I B M N A C E A C I P P G S C R B I Y K I N B I H N T Y E D D S C B I P P D S C Y F Y S B M I Y M S C C I P P N G S C R B I Y K I N B I H M I N L M M S B M N A C E A R S B G S C R B I Y K I N>B B M I Y I N A B S S L Y I E B B I A B N Q S R D N R D S C Y G S Q T P I N S R B M E B N B C E A E T E A A N S R S K I E Y R I A B G S C R B I Y K I N B N E A A C Y I D S C C I P P B M I R B E O I E L S S H M I E Y B E R H G S C R B I Y K I N B B S F I E Q E R A S N H S I F C B D K E N B M N A M S C P H M E C I F I I R E C S Q E R F D Y N L M B
Here we see the name five times, followed by the word "CIFIIR." The emphasis is awesome.
Even more accent is placed on the definitive ciphertext word "counterfeit" in "The First Part of King Henry the Fourth" (v, 4, 115), where it may be found nine times in twelve lines.
For every "counterfeit" in this passage, we may
read "BIYKIN", and nine times. Our eyes have confuted the supposed
author; now we may perceive who is truly holding the pen.
Counterfeit: 1.(a) SPURIOUS, not genuine or
authentic; esp: not composed by the author indicated.
Hereafter we may leave the counterfeit labels on
some old books to trustful schoolmasters.
Another word that contains Bacon's enciphered name is
"travail."
Fer. I that there is, our Court you know is hanted
Ciphertext, +4 is:
Plaintext, +4 is:
Having given us a plain signal, in three lines the
author has confided his name, labeled it, and identified it as being
written in cipher.
And how could the author have pointed out his name
more plainly than in "The Tragedy of Cymbeline," (iii, 3, 59):
And when a Souldier was the Theame, my name
Ciphertext is:
Ciphertext reversed is:
Plaintext, +4 is:
Not content with forcing his
name into the first word of dialogue in "The Tempest"
(Boteswaine), Bacon did it again in the first fourteen lines of
the "Comedy of Errors":
I am not partiall to infringe our Lawes;
Reading from the bottom to the top, the initial
capitals are:
The plaintext is:
Alternate letters are:
The very next line contains the word "trafficke"
which, when reversed, spells "ek CIFFAR t".
In the "History of Sir John Oldcastle" (1664 Folio,
p. 53, col. 2, l. 9), and leading up to a passage we shall penetrate,
there are a number of words and phrases to put us on our
guard. These are (col. 1) "do it secretly," and "make some
sign," and "conceale our names." Sixteen lines later we read:
2.
Iust. But how came your sharp edg'd knives unsheath'd?
Ciphertext of the initial capitals:
Plaintext, +4, is:
Here we find an unexpected dividend; the name is
doubly inserted. Reversing the plaintext, we read:
What were Ambages? The dictionary says,
"Secret or mysterious ways of action." What was a
"HECK" ? In Middle English, "The lower half of a divided
door."
Bacon sometimes used all of the initial
capitalized letters in succeeding verses, as in this pregnant quotation
from the Sonnets:
76
77
Reading all of the initial letters of the capitalized
words, beginning at the end and up to "Shewing their birth," we find:
Ciphertext is:
Plaintext is:
Alternate letters are:
Many times Bacon combined the alternate letters and
third letters of the ciphertext to register his name more than once.
Here is an example from the first page of "The Merchant of Venice"
(1,1,29) in which he triply employed all of the capital
letters:
To kisse her buriall; though I goe to
Church
The ciphertext is:
Plaintext is:
Alternate letters are:
Third letters are:
giue you leaue to powder me, and eat me too to
morrow.
'Twas time to counterfet, or that hotte
Termagant Scot,
has paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I
am no coun-
terfeit; to dye, is to be a counterfeit,
for hee is but the
counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of
a man: But
to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby
liueth, is to be
no counterfeit, but the true and perfect
image of life in-
deede. The better part of Valour, is Discretion;
in the
which better part, I have saued my life. I am
affraide of
this Gun-Powder Percy though he be dead. How if
hee
should counterfeit too, and rise? I am
afraid hee would
prove the better counterfeit: therefore
Ile make him sure:
yea, and Ile sweare I kill'd him. Why may not hee
rise as
well as I: Nothing confutes me but eyes, and
no-bodie
sees me . . . [Emphasis supplied.]
So that its significance may not be overlooked,
here is the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary definition of this
word:
"So to the Lawes at large I write my name."
Seven lines following that begins this passage from "Loves Labour's
lost" (i, 1, 161):
With a refined travailer of Spaine,
A man in all the worlds new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his braine: I T H A T T H E R E I S O V R C O V R T Y O V
K N O V I S H A N T E D V I T H A R E F I N E
D T R A V A I L E R O F S P A I N E A M A N I
N A L L T H E V O R L D S N E V F A S H I O N
P L A N T E D
N B M E B B M I Y I N A S C Y G S C Y B D S C
O R S C N A M E R B I H C N B M E Y I K N R I
H B Y E C E N P I Y S K A T E N R I E Q E R N
R E P P B M I C S Y P H A R I C K E A M N S R
T P E R B I H
Was not farre off: A N D V H E N A S O V L D I E R V A S T H E T H
E A M E M Y N A M E V A S N O T F A R R E O F F
F F O E R R A F T O N S A V E M A N Y M E M A E
H T E H T S A V R E I D L V O S A N E H V D N A
K K S I Y Y E K B S R A E C I Q E R D Q I Q E I
M B I M B A E C Y I N H P C S A E R I M C H R E
The enmity and discord which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your
Duke,
To Merchants our will-dealing Countrimen,
Who wanting gilders to redeeme their liues,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their
blouds,
Excludes all pitty from our threatning lookes:
For since the mortall and intestine iarres
Twixt thy seditious Countrimen and vs,
It hath in solemne Synodes beene decreed,
Both by the Siracusians and our selues, B I T F E H V T S T I
F N B K I M C B A B N
F B I C A N
L.
Cob. To cut such simple victual as we had.
Jud. Say we admit this answer to those Articles,
What made you in so private a dark
nook,
So far remote from any common path,
As was the thick where the dead corps was
thrown?
Cob. Journeying, my Lord, from London, from the Term,
Down into Lancashire, where we do dwell:
And what with age, and travel being faint,
We gladly sought a place where we might rest.
Free from resort of other passengers,
And so we stray'd into that secret
corner.
Jud. These are but ambages to drive off time,
B T S V S A I D A V F A T
F B A C A E N H E C K E B
B E K C E H N E A C A B F
WHy is my verse so barren of new
pride?
So far from variation or quicke change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new found methods, and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, euer the same,
And keepe inuention in a noted weed,
[weed=costume]
That euery word doth almost sel my name,
[sel=spell, or (sell)=betray]
Shewing their birth, and where they did
proceed?
O know sweet loue I alwaies write of
you,
And you and loue are still my argument:
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending againe what is already spent:
For as the Sun is daily new and old,
So is my loue still telling what is told.
THy glasse will shew thee
how thy beauties were,
Thy dyall how thy pretious mynuits waste, T T S S F S S A I O
B B A A K A A E N S
B A K A N
And see the holy edifice of stone,
And not bethinke me straight of dangerous
rocks,
Which touching but my gentle Vessels
side
Would scatter all her spices on the streame,
Enrobe the roring waters with my silkes,
And in a word, but euen now worth this,
And now worth nothing. Shall I
haue the thought
That such a thing bechaunc'd would make
me sad
But tell not me, I know
Anthonio T I C A A V V V E A A S I T B I A
B N G E E C C C I E E A N B F N E
N E C C E A B N (Baeccen reversed)
B E C E N N
N E C E B E (Becen reversed)
