First Folio

[A Phoenix]

Hi Kate,

I agree with you Kate, it is not immediately clear to me what Philip F. Howerton, Jr, is saying or implying in the article entitled 'Vladimir Nabokov and William Shakespeare' (Oxford Society Newsletter, 23 February 2006). Or whether or not he is familiar with the very obvious and unmistakable allusions to FB, the paraphraising of FB's famous saying (about concealing or hiding something), or the Bacon acrostic/anagrams, not to mention the very clear allusion to the pictorial emblems on the 1624 title page of the Cryptomenytices published shortly the 1623 Shakespeare First Folio in which FB is seen handing a figure representing the actor William Shakspere a quarto text or book of his Shakespeare plays. 

Lord, such fools these mortals be!  

[Kate]

I discovered Nabokov’s father and uncle were Freemasons. It’s documented in several places. This further reinforces his interest/knowledge and reason for mentioning all the above. He’s described in one book as a Kabbalist.

[Light-of-Truth]

22 minutes ago, Kate said:

He’s described in one book as a Kabbalist.

Then we will see numbers!! 🙂

[Light-of-Truth]

Kate, curious that when you first mentioned Nabokov it was an Oxfordian who wanted to kick this round?

I think they would be digging into a can of worms they would rather not hear or know about. 😉

 

[Kate]

9 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Then we will see numbers!! 🙂

And we do see numbers, especially in his Pale Fire.

Apparently the title comes from Timon of Athens...

“The moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.”

William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

...and is written in four cantos and has 999 lines. I don’t claim to know much about it but have just read this interesting summary and analysis: 

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/pale-fire/foreword

which mentions how he talks about reading words backwards. 

Also see this and the links to Pope (you’ll need to find it on Google books open it and see the next page too)

Do you see the reference to the Earl of Oxford. Maybe the Oxfordians got their 17th Earl mixed up with this one! 😄 That’s all I can think. It’s baffling why they’d think he references de Vere but I guess they seized on the Verona line in the ‘Bend Sinister’  quote further up this topic. 

By the way...

K

[Allisnum2er]

Did I tell you that  "fast" and "bacon" were never very far from each other 😃 ?

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.546835/page/33/mode/2up?q=March

[Allisnum2er]

On 7/1/2022 at 11:01 AM, Kate said:

And we do see numbers, especially in his Pale Fire.

Apparently the title comes from Timon of Athens...

“The moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.”

William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

Just an idea ...

"Pale Fire" could also be a reference to Hamlet Act 1 scene 5

https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/book/SLNSW_F1/766/index.html%3Fzoom=850.html

This is the misnumbered page 258 (158).

The fact is that  right after the page 156 of Tragedies we have the page 257 or 100+157

with

100, the simple cipher of FRANCIS BACON

157, the simple cipher of FRA ROSI CROSSE and WILLIAM TUDOR I

Then, we have the page 258 or 100 + 158 that can be seen as :

FRANCIS BACON ( 100 - Simple cipher) + ELIZABETH  TUDOR ( 158 - Simple cipher)

 

Moreover, this passage can be  linked to Sonnet 122

And thanks to Rob ( Light-of-Truth)  and his Sonnets Pyramid we know that  Sonnet 122 is related to day 287,

287 being the Kay cipher of FRA ROSI CROSSE and WILLIAM TUDOR I !

[Kate]

Well, as so much was veiled we need to look into this and consider all options - pale and fire are both terms used in Heraldry. But as always context is important. Which fits best with the overall piece? 

[Allisnum2er]

Hi Kate,  to be honest ,when you mentioned "Bend sinister" few days ago it immediatly reminded me a video of Alexander Waugh, his analysis of an engraving depicting Henry Wriothesley and Henry De Vere on horseback .

http://museums.eu/collection/object/136795/henry-de-vere-18th-earl-of-oxford-and-henry-wriothesley-3rd-earl-of-southampton?pUnitId=428

His presentation led him to the comparative analysis of two very similar portaits of Henry Wriothesley and Henry De vere, with Henry De Vere holding a stick going from top right to bottom left (Bend sinister), a proof, according to Mr Waugh, of "bastardry in the family line", a clue left by the engraver to indicate that Henry De Vere was not the son of Edward De Vere but, in fact, the son of Henry Wriothesley.

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/35219

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw146312/Henry-de-Vere-18th-Earl-of-Oxford

And for the anecdote, this morning, my research led me to Robert Dudley engravings and I noticed two peculiar engravings :

https://academic.oup.com/sq/article-abstract/6/3/246/5136992?redirectedFrom=PDF&login=false

Notice the similarity with the engraving with the two "Henry" both in the composition and the cartouche

https://www.alamyimages.fr/photo-image-portrait-de-robert-dudley-comte-de-leicester-1532-1588-un-noble-anglais-en-date-du-16e-siecle-122928118.html?imageid=F9FCCA40-8BA9-4361-9942-DC12045A8629&p=75935&pn=1&searchId=6f3c94d4fe0d8eeec7d2dffd5408ca03&searchtype=0

Notice the stick going from top right to bottom left (recalling the Bend sinister).

But contrarly to Henry Wriothesley and Henry De Vere, Robert Dudley hold his stick in HIS LEFT HAND (the "feminine" one).

Intringuing !

 

 

[Kate]

Fascinating! 
 

I was reading somewhere, it may have been in the Guide to Heraldry that I linked to, that because seals, crests, flags and armoury predate other forms of communication, that the symbols were a way of communicating far more than we probably realise - (or words to the effect). There’s a whole section on the ‘bastardry’ symbolism.

I recently saw something, I can’t recall where now but it’ll come to me, about the motto on the crest that was made for Shakespeare (or his father) it has a suspicious comma which was later removed. 
 

[Kate]

The auction of a First Folio takes place today in New York.

You can flick through images of the copy on Sotheby’s website

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/fine-books-and-manuscripts-including-americana-part-1/shakespeare-william-the-first-folio-2

7 images in total 

 

[Light-of-Truth]

Sold!

2,470,000 USD

 

[Kate]

We know the inscription on the Shakespeare Monument at Stratford references Maro (Virgil). Born around 70BC. It caught my eye that on this cover of Virgil’s Aeneid in 1610 is the same emblem we find in the 1623 First Folio.

in case you didn’t know, Virgil is the origin of the phrase on the Great Seal of 🇺🇸 about  Novus Ordo Seclorum

Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.

 

and Virginia was called Arcadia, which is also from Virgil. 
 

 

Seeing as it was Bacon who helped colonise America along with the ‘incomparable paire’ referenced at the front of the FF, unless one can link Will Shakespeare to the founding of America (No!) this is surely yet another nugget of proof that Bacon was Shakespeare. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Kate

[Kate]

Okay so regarding the above. This is interesting as Virgil definitely came up with Arcadia 

but it seems it’s been attributed to a 1504 poem.

This could have sent 🕵🏻‍♀️🕵🏻‍♂️ down the wrong path? 

[Eric Roberts]

16 hours ago, Kate said:

We know the inscription on the Shakespeare Monument at Stratford references Maro (Virgil). Born around 70BC. It caught my eye that on this cover of Virgil’s Aeneid in 1610 is the same emblem we find in the 1623 First Folio.

in case you didn’t know, Virgil is the origin of the phrase on the Great Seal of 🇺🇸 about  Novus Ordo Seclorum

Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.

 

and Virginia was called Arcadia, which is also from Virgil. 
 

 

Seeing as it was Bacon who helped colonise America along with the ‘incomparable paire’ referenced at the front of the FF, unless one can link Will Shakespeare to the founding of America (No!) this is surely yet another nugget of proof that Bacon was Shakespeare. 

Kate said" "It caught my eye that on this cover of Virgil’s Aeneid in 1610 is the same emblem we find in the 1623 First Folio." How very strange. The 1610 "Aeneid" was presumably printed in Germany (?), yet it bears the same emblem as found in the First Folio. Are they identical, i.e. from the same wood block image? If so, how do we account for this?

Edited September 3, 2022 by Eric Roberts

[Light-of-Truth]

This wood block came up here on B'Hive some months ago. It is from a particular printer and the block shows up across a fascinating web of books. I'll try to find the thread...

EDIT: I may be incorrect. It happens! LOL

The thread I am thinking of was a different wood cut and printer.

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Light-of-Truth

[Allisnum2er]

3 hours ago, Eric Roberts said:

Kate said" "It caught my eye that on this cover of Virgil’s Aeneid in 1610 is the same emblem we find in the 1623 First Folio." How very strange. The 1610 "Aeneid" was presumably printed in Germany (?), yet it bears the same emblem as found in the First Folio. Are they identical, i.e. from the same wood block image? If so, how do we account for this?

Hi Eric,

I evoked few month ago,in another topic, the similarity between the wood block image used in Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia - Second Edition (1595)  and the one used in Shakespeare's First Folio (1623).

In fact, they are slightly different (the oval and the bottom of the wood block image).

The wood block image used for Virgil's Aeneid seems to be exactly the same as the one used for Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (2nd Edition).

 

[Eric Roberts]

1 hour ago, Allisnum2er said:

Hi Eric,

I evoked few month ago,in another topic, the similarity between the wood block image used in Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia - Second Edition (1595)  and the one used in Shakespeare's First Folio (1623).

In fact, they are slightly different (the oval and the bottom of the wood block image).

The wood block image used for Virgil's Aeneid seems to be exactly the same as the one used for Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (2nd Edition).

 

The two embellishments must be sourced from the same original pattern or, one is derived from the other. 

[A Phoenix]

Hi Kate and Eric,

Examples of the very interesting 'Pan' tail-piece are reproduced by Peter Dawkins in his important work Arcadia and the Arcadian Academy (The Life and Times of Francis Bacon, 1579-1585) (The Francis Bacon Research Trust, 1988) here reproduced below:

[Kate]

Hi all, Somehow I missed all the replies in this older thread. I’ve no idea how this happened. Sorry.
 

So, AP, is there anything to add? Did Peter arrive at any conclusion regarding the similarities of these to the one in the First Folio that would be difficult for the Stratfordians to explain away?  I’m fascinated by this but don’t have a copy of that particular book by Peter. Thanks 
 

 

[A Phoenix]

Hi Kate,

In a discussion Peter states that the Pan Tail-Piece 'is especially associated with literary works either written or supervised by Francis Bacon, or else coming from the Baconian-Rosicrucian 'School'' (p. 228).

[Kate]

Went along to a free 20 min talk on the First Folio at the Bodleian Library yesterday. They had the Malone version on display and some global translations. Took a few pics.

The lecturer addressed the authorship question by saying there were unanswered queries about why this folio was the first ever to feature the author’s picture on the cover, and she compared it to Ben Jonson’s Folio which has the normal type of architectural image cover of that era. 

She did mention the fact the engraving had to be redone as his head appeared to be floating, but she didn’t mention FB or EdV and instead trotted out the usual lines of attributing the Folio in its entirety to a vast number of printers and people trying to ensure Shakespeare’s plays were presented in the best possible way to make it a commercial success. So in that regard it wasn’t totally his. Nothing about Rosicrucians!

As far as why we should care about it. She spoke about how, for a man who was hardly eulogised after his death and for whom only one pictorial likeness of him has ever been put forth, the Folio made him the most famous playwright ever, and influenced our language etc.

I think AP should get in touch and engage her in conversation 😄 Have to say that she seemed like one of those people who would listen respectfully, rather than being ‘sniffy’ about it.

There’s a very strange pic on the one translation (see below).

 

Edited March 5 by Kate

[Allisnum2er]

Thank you for sharing Kate !

For the anecdote, I have a television but I watch it very rarely. One day, I decided to take a break in my Baconian/Shakespearian research and to watch a film instead. It was past 9:00 pm and all the films had already started.

I chose an old Star Trek film that I had never watched before, and when I began to watch it, I came precisely across this scene with a Klingon quoting Hamlet in  Shakespeare ! 😊

And indeed this is a very strange pic that the one of Shakespeare without his moustache and his chin puff !

[peethagoras]

Has anyone ever wondered why the image is shown wearing the collar of a warrior?

 

Gentle Shakespeare?

[Kate]

On 3/5/2023 at 11:37 AM, peethagoras said:

Has anyone ever wondered why the image is shown wearing the collar of a warrior?

 

Gentle Shakespeare?

Collar of a warrior? Not sure what that is. Can you enlighten. We did discuss somewhere in the last year how the ruff is the shape of a spade which has significant occult symbolism esp in combo with Apollo’s rays.

We’ve also discussed how certain words may or may not be concealed in some of the swirls on the doublet.

However, completely synchronistically, I just opened Twitter and the first post I was greeted with was the Droeshout portrait and I immediately noticed something on the forehead. 

Now I should just say this is far more likely to be something where someone has written on a piece of paper years ago using the folio as a base and therefore a slight indentation is showing up, rather than it being anything in the engraving itself - but you never know.

So I see a line of letters. Some of which appear to be rake or brake or even tarakenth or etarake??Take a look. I’ve used filters to try and define. Probably nothing. This portrait must surely must have been studied by experts using microscopes and modern technology multiple times.

Rob, I love the Klingon observation!