Bacon's Signature Ciphers in Shakespeare -83- Sonnets

-83-

49)  The title page of the Sonnets volume sold by John Wright has 111 letters but the edition sold by William Aspley is not associated with any significant number. There are other examples with too much ambiguity to write about. Another cipher candidate needs to be mentioned. It turns out that the word “SONNETS” has a simple count of 100, the same as for “Francis Bacon”. And when placed as it has been in the title of the sonnet volume it has a similar meaningful effect as did the 111 count for “Will”-I am Shakespeare. For in this case we have:

SHAKE-SPEARES

SONNETS.

And if the last “S” in “SHAKE-SPEARES” is seen as serving a double duty of both indicating possessiveness and as a contraction we can also read it as “SHAKE-SPEARE IS FRANCIS BACON”.  Shakespeare used this contraction in Twelfth Night when he writes in Act 2, Scene 3 on page 261 that “Malvolios a Peg-a-ramsie”. If the name of “William” had been used here the effect would be lost. And this title, as sensible as it is, is not a logical necessity. Other sonneteers contemporary with Shakespeare had their works with these titles:

Barnabe Barnes  (1568? – 1609)

A Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnetts  (1595)

Parthenophil and Parthenophe, Sonnettes, Madrigals, Elegies and Odes (1593)

Michael Drayton  (1563 – 1631)

Idea's Mirror (1594)

Idea in Sixty-Three Sonnets (1619)

Thomas Lodge   (1558 – 1625)

Phillis honoured with Pastorall Sonnets, Elegies, and amorous delights

Philip Sidney

Astrophel and Stella  (1591)

Edmund Spenser  (1552 – 1599)

Amoretti and Epithalamion  

 Samuel Daniel

Delia  (1592)

Fulke Grevile

Caelica  (1633)