-51-
20)
Continued
On the next
folio page (54) where there are two other instances of the word “Bacon” one of
them occurs in the phrase “On Bacon On’ (half way down the second column) and
two of the meanings of ‘Bacon’ in this phrase are “a fat one” or a “porker”.
This suggests that the earlier line of hanging a “fat pair” correlates with the
idea of a “Hanged-hog”. See line 89 and then the definition for ‘bacon’ in the
right column here, towards the bottom of the page.
So Gadshill
can be seen saying that he and fat [porker or hog] Falstaff will be “well
hanged” and this in association with the word “Bacon” and the name of “S.
Nicholas” on page 53. The associations between Bacon’s apophthegm and the
scenes on the two page 53s are strong.
The phrase of
“S. Nicholas Clarks [Clerks]” fits well with the standard interpretation with
the scene action. This interpretation is that “Saint Nicholas was a patron
saint of clerks or scholars; and hence, as Nicholas, or old Nick, was a cant
name for the devil (perhaps because of the clerkes learning or maybe because
they helped to collect taxes?), the robbers were equivocally called Saint
Nicholas’ clerks.” Though this makes sense for the play, it doesn’t exclude the
additional fit with the word Bacon in its connection to Bacon’s Apothegm. So it
could be another “Stalking-horse”.
There’s other
research by Baconians tying the number 53 to Bacon and to Freemasonry but I’ve
decided to leave it out since it takes us unnecessarily away from the main
cipher authorship evidence.
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