Bacon's Signature Ciphers in Shakespeare -9- Bacon-Tobey-1

-9-

 Why they say “only” is strange. Certainly, just because an acrostic is ‘short’ doesn’t mean that it ‘must’ be by chance. But it would much more likely to be said to be by chance as by intention, unless other factors, like repetition were involved.

 They explain that “There is, admittedly, an element of uncertainty; but if there exists, within a sizeable portion of the text, a firm and inflexible system, this uncertainty may be offset by the impressive length of the acrostic message itself. ..it is never too late, if the message is long enough.”[p. 141]

1)   The first of our potential Baconian ciphers we’ll call the Bacon-Tobey acrostic.  It was discovered and written about by Baconian Mather Walker. He researched it quite deeply. What I’m presenting are his basic findings that most pertained to my purpose along with some additional points I found supporting it. 

 The Bacon-Tobey acrostic is found on the second and third pages of The Tempest in the First Folio. The Friedmans did not examine this possible Baconian acrostic. Here is the first part, from page 2, 1^st column:

PROSPERO      Sit down;
      For thou must now know farther.
 MIRANDA      You have often
      Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt     [stopp’d]
      And left me to a bootless Inquisition,
      Concluding, Stay: not yet.
PROSPERO      The hour's now come;
      The very minute bids thee ope thine ear;
      Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember

Here’s the full page. Be sure to click on 8x in the upper right hand corner to get a larger view:

http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=firstfolio&PagePosition=20

Here we note that it does not follow the strict rule of a fixed chosen pattern to the pertinent letters. Critics will naturally focus on this. Also, as the Friedmans pointed out, the name of Bacon, especially with the last syllable ‘Con’ will likely be found in any lengthy text. Still, his name stands out with the first initial of his first name Francis, followed immediately by his last name.  This by itself, though, would be a very weak point of evidence as a hidden signature. The next portion strengthens it. Immediately following is Tobey, again not all with initial line letters.