In this post, I
will be examining pages 300-301 of the Comedies section of Shakespeare’s First
Folio (published 1623). These pages are
in the play The Winter’s Tale.
I decided to
examine these pages because I examined page 300 of the Tragedies, a page in King
Lear, in my last post. See here:
https://hiddenmessagesinshakespeare.blogspot.com/2026/03/drawing-circle-to-find-messages-in.html
Page 300 in King
Lear (Act 3, scene 7) is the scene where the Earl of Gloucester’s eyes are
gouged out by the Duke of Cornwall.
Somewhat to my surprise, language on page 300 in The Winter’s Tale
includes metaphorical references to characters seeming “to tear the Cases of
their Eyes.” In other words, there are
references to characters symbolically having their eyes gouged out. What a coincidence, or maybe not.
In my previous
post, the clue to finding the intersection of the circumferences of two circles
on pages 283 and 300 of King Lear involved using one’s “nose” (“no’s”)
to “smell a fault.” On page 283 the intersection
of circumferences of circles drawn from the line “Do you smell a fault?” and
the word “No” fell on and near the words “eye-sight” and “more.” Eye-sight means seeing, so the words indicate
“see more,” alluding to the name Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour
of Sudeley, Lord High Admiral. On page
300 of King Lear the intersection of circumferences drawn from the words “see
more” and “smell” fell on the name “Tom.”
Combined with the “see more” clue, the name “Tom see more” (Thomas
Seymour) is revealed.
By the way, I
use a circle of a standard radius, discovered on page one of The Tempest,
to find these messages, so I am not altering the size of the circles
arbitrarily.
In examining
page 300 of The Winter’s Tale, I drew two circles near some “No’s”
(homophone of “nose”) on the page. One
circle was centered on the word “Notes,” which starts with “No,” and the other
circle was centered on the word “King,” which falls immediately above a line
consisting of the word “No.”
The point where
the circles intersect on page 300 falls on the word “Starres” (stars), and the
point where the circles intersect on page 301 falls on another appearance of
the word “No.”
When
another circle is centered on the word “No” on page 301, the new intersections
of the circumferences of the circles reveal the word “know,” a homophone of “no,”
the word “ring” (part of the hyphenated word “sta-ring”) on page 300, and
“Rings,” on page 301. Circles are a kind
of ring, so this seems to be confirmation that the circles have been placed
correctly.
In in the next
image, a fourth circle is added centered on the word “Rings” on page 301. New intersections of circles are
revealed. The significant messages are
shown and explained in the margins of the image.
The next image highlights text in the right-hand column of page 300. The numbers immediately to the left of the
text located in the right-hand column show the line numbers from the beginning
of scene 2 of Act 4 of the play.
Alexander Waugh
has posited that the numbers 17, 40, and 1740 represent Edward de Vere, 17th
Earl of Oxford. The number 17 is
Oxford’s earl number, and the number 40 is a form of code number for
Oxford. Mr. Waugh has several videos on
his YouTube channel that explain this better than I can. As it so happens, the
17th line of scene 2 on page 300 is this line:
“…no more but seeing, could not say, if th' importance were…”
This line
reveals another appearance of the words “see…more,” again indicating the name
Seymour. The line also ends with the
word “were,” possibly alluding to the name Vere.
The 40th
line of scene 2 on page 300 falls on the words “two Kings?”. This line and the two line cues below it point to line number 23 of the scene. When words and letters at lines 21-23 (spelling DOR) are combined with "two Kings," the message TUDOR Kings is revealed.
The next image
focuses on the section of Act 4, scene 2, on page 300 that was marked by one of
the circle intersections. At this point
the words “See…more” (Seymour) which fall near each other at the binding point
of the pages are marked. Significantly,
at this point in the scene, the Gentleman speaking relates these lines:
but the changes I perceiued in the King,
and Camillo, were
very Notes of admiration: they seem'd
almost, with sta-
ring on one another, to teare the Cases of
their Eyes.
(Underline added)
This reference
to tearing at “the cases of their eyes” is very similar to the action that
takes place on page 300 of the Tragedies, in Act 3, scene 7, of King Lear
– the gouging out of the Earl of Gloucester’s eyes. This page is what prompted me to examine page
300 of the Comedies, the page here in The Winter’s Tale. I believe that the correspondence in the
language and action on the two pages is not a coincidence.
Gent.1. I make a broken deliuerie of the
Businesse;
but the changes I perceiued in the King,
and Camillo, were
very Notes of admiration: they seem'd
almost, with sta-
ring on one another, to teare the Cases of their
Eyes.
There was speech in their dumbnesse,
Language in their
very gesture: they look'd as they had heard of a
World
ransom'd, or one destroyed: a notable passion of
Won-
der appeared in them: but the
wisest beholder, that knew
no more but seeing, could not say, if
th' importance were
Ioy, or Sorrow; but in the extremitie of the
one, it must
needs be. Enter another Gentleman.
The line after
the reference to tearing “the Cases of their Eyes” is –
There was speech in their dumbnesse, Language
in their
very gesture: they look'd as they had heard of a World
ransom'd, or one destroyed: a notable passion of
Won-
der
appeared in them…
(Underline added)
The
word “Language” occurs below the word “Cases,” so it seems that the cases of a
language are being hinted at. The
Bohemian royal court used Czech, Latin, and German at various times. I believe the Latin language is being hinted
at here. The fact that the word Latin is often abbreviated simply as "L.", the clue that translation into Latin is needed could be that the word "Language" begins with a capital L (L. Language, Latin Language).
More complicated solutions to find the word "Latin" are possible and can be considered confirmation of the hint. The following images show how
letters spelling the word “Latin” can be found around the word “Language” in
various ways.
The next image shows Latin words
added above their English word versions at key points in the text. This is not an attempt to translate the text
verbatim into Latin, it is just an exercise in substituting Latin words for
their English counterparts.
The Latin translations of the
English words reveal the following message:
Alias
[at] infancy—
de Vere
VOX-FOR-DE
(OXFORD)
VOX-EN-FOR-DE
(OXENFORD)
The next Latin
translation involves the words “staring” and “Notes” (in the phrase “Notes of
admiration”). This solution also relates
to other lines pointed out by the intersections of the circles:
Leo. You are marryed?
Flo. We are not (Sir) nor are we like to be:
The Starres (I see) will kisse the
Valleyes first:
The oddes for high and low's alike.
As will be
seen, the most significant part of this is the last two lines. However, before looking at these lines, the
first step is to examine the words “staring” and “Notes,” and then finish the
examination of the text on the right-hand side of the page.
In the context
of the phase “Notes of admiration,” “Notes” means “import” (meaning;
signification). The etymology of the
word “import” is --
[Middle English importen, to convey a meaning, from Medieval Latin importāre and from Old French importer, to cause, both from Latin importāre, to carry in, cause : in-, in; see in-2 + portāre, to carry]
The word “import” can also mean to bring in or
carry goods or materials from another country through a port of entry. Thus, the Latin word “portare” is an
inflection of “porto,” which is a cognate of “porta” meaning a
gate, entrance, or doorway:
porta f (genitive portae);
first declension
1. gate, especially of a city
2. entrance, passage, door
3. (figuratively) way, means
The word “carriage” can mean, in one sense,
the manner of holding and moving one’s head and body; one’s bearing. This is often the meaning of the word when
used in Shakespeare. Furthermore, the
word “manner” can be translated in Latin as “instar,” which also means
figure, likeness, image, form, standard, moral worth, equal, and
counterpart. The word “instar” is
also interesting because, as noted previously, the text being examined here is
linked to the word “Starres” (stars) in the left-hand column of the page. Although the meaning of the words is
different, they are essentially homonyms of each other.
The word “gesture,” which appears two lines
below the word “Notes,” can also refer to one’s carriage or bearing, so this
word is also related to the Latin words “instar” (manner, likeness), “portare”
(to carry), and “porta” (gate, door, entrance).
The word “note” can also be translated, in a
different sense, as the Latin word “nota,” meaning note, brand,
significant, stamp, cipher, or sign. The
meaning “cipher” is obviously interesting.
Used as verb, “note” can be translated into
Latin as “intuor,” meaning consider, look, gaze, observe, gaze on, or note. The significance of this translation is the
spelling of “intuor,” which is very close to the spelling of the name
Tudor, except there is a missing letter D.
Turning to the word “staring,” the word “stare”
can also be translated into Latin as “intuor.” “Staring” also begins with letters spelling “star,”
and “stars” can be translated into Latin as “asteres,” which sounds like
“a stares.”
The following image combines all the above with
the text and reveals several instances of the Tudor name.
In addition, the word “ring” can be translated
into Latin as “corona,” meaning crown, ring, wreath, or garland. This meaning is consistent with the TUDOR
name that has been revealed.
The next images show the text where the
circles intersected in the left-hand column at the word “Starres” (stars). The text is –
Leo. You are marryed?
Flo. We are not (Sir) nor are we like to be:
The Starres (I see) will kisse the Valleyes first:
The oddes for high and low's alike.
By deleting one of the letter r's, the word "Starres" can be changed to "stares" (to look intently). The deleting of a letter "r" might be hinted at by this line: "We are not (sir) nor are we like to be" (We [R] not (Sir) nor [R] we like [two] be." Another way to accomplish the deletion of an "r" is through a Latin translation of "Starres" into "asteres" ("a stares").
The text again conceals the name TUDOR. (See
image.)
Finally, it now seems possible to link the
text at lines 9-21 of Act
4, scene 2, on page 300, with the lines at line 40 of the scene: “two Kings.” Is this hinting at two Tudor “kings,” perhaps
a son and a father?
