Waugh, A. (2023b). ‘My beloved the AVTHOR’: the subtext of Ben Jonson’s first Folio encomium to William Shakespeare.
Journal of Scientific Exploration,
37(2), 255–269
. https://doi.org/10.31275/20233115
I was inspired by Alexander Waugh's paper and
video on the work, so I decided to examine Ben Jonson's encomium to Shakespeare.
In this post, I am going to rely extensively on the etymology of the words Jonson used in his encomium to Shakespeare. This method has been used for years by Michael and Spencer Stepniewski. I subsequently stumbled upon their method independently, sort of like Newton's and Leibnitz's independent development of calculus. I only recently learned of Michael and Spencer Stepniewski's work after listening to an episode of the podcast of
Don't Quill The Messenger entitled
The Rape of Princess Elizabeth.
Michael and Spencer Stepniewski's website can be found here:
Oxford-Seymour.com. (n.d.).
Oxford-Seymour Theory - Shakespeare’s Will: The Method in his Madness - by Michael and Spencer Stepniewski. Copyright 2020 Dragonwyck Web Design LLC.
https://oxford-seymour.com/
In this post, I am going to use some of their findings from their work:
Some of the solutions shown in this post rely, in part, on the work of the late
Alexander Waugh. Mr. Waugh discovered that the in the works of
Shakespeare the number 1740 is repeatedly encoded. Furthermore, the
numbers 17, 40, 57 (17 + 40 = 57), and 1740 are associated with Edward
de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
See Alexander Waugh. (2022, January 28).
The incalculable genius of John Dee [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-PWR7-0Hp4
After reading Mr. Waugh's paper on Ben Jonson's encomium to Shakespeare, I decided to limit my examination to the first 18 lines (the first 9 rhyming couplets) of the poem. I did this because Mr. Waugh identified the first 16 lines of the encomium as a
recusatio (a "refusual").
Alexander Waugh noted that "refusals" are based in the --
"Augustan tradition of ‘recusatio’ or ‘refusal’. Latin authors were well practised in this popular poetic form, which aped the emperors’ refusals to evoke exceptional powers (recusatio imperii), by putting into verse their own refusals to accept commissions from their wealthy patrons.
"Perhaps the most famous example of this is to be found in Horace’s verse epistle to Augustus (2.1) in which the poet refuses Augustus’s commission to compose an epic song in praise of a recent military victory at the outset of which Horace artfully confuses ‘the prince as poet’ only to return at the end to muse on the lofty idea of ‘the poet as prince’. Such themes would be irrelevant to Jonson’s encomium to Shakespeare were it not for the possibility of a poet and prince of the English nobility concealed behind the pen-name ‘Shakespeare’. [FN 11]"
Waugh, A. (2023b). ‘My beloved the AVTHOR’: the subtext of Ben Jonson’s first Folio encomium to William Shakespeare.
Journal of Scientific Exploration,
37(2), 255–269, at p.257 (footnote 10 omitted).
https://doi.org/10.31275/20233115
Mr. Waugh included this footnote at the end the excerpt above:
11 In Jonson’s day an ‘earl’ was considered a ‘prince’, e.g., Gervase Markham’s Honor in his Perfection (1624), a treatise in commendation of ‘those Illustrious and Heroyicall Princes HENRY Earle of Oxenford. HENRY Earle of Southampton. ROBERT Earle of Essex'.
Therefore, the first 16 lines of Ben Jonson's Encomium to Shakespeare is a ‘
recusatio’ or ‘refusal’, and Jonson begins his praise of Shakespeare at lines 17-18. As will be seen, line 17-18 are significant because Mr. Waugh discovered that in the works of Shakespeare the number
1740 is repeatedly encoded, and that the numbers 17, 40, 57 (17 + 40
= 57), and 1740 are associated with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of
Oxford. Lines 17-18 of the encomium include some of this numerical encoding. See Mr. Waugh's YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/@alexanderwaugh7036; and the video "The Incalculable Genius of John Dee" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-PWR7-0Hp4&t=4.
To the memory of my beloued,
The AVTHOR
Mr.William Shakespeare:
And
what he hath left vs.
O draw no enuy (Shakespeare) on thy name,Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and Fame:
While I confesse thy writings to be such,
As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.
'Tis true, and all mens suffrage. But these wayes
Were not the paths I meant vnto thy praise:
For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
Which, when it sounds at best, but eccho's right;
Or blinde Affection, which doth ne're aduance
The truth, but gropes, and vrgeth all by chance;
Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise,
And thinke to ruine, where it seem'd to raise.
These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore,
Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more?
But thou art proofe against them, and indeed
Aboue the ill fortune of them, or the need.
I, therefore will begin. Soule of the Age!
The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!
It will be shown that the first 18 lines of the encomium conceal the name of the real author behind the pen name Shakespeare. That author is Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, son of Princess Elizabeth Tutor (later Queen Elizabeth I) and Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Lord High Admiral. Thus, Edward de Vere was actually a Seymour-Tutor.
Michael and Spencer Stepniewski propose that the words "memory," "beloved," and "AUTHOR" in the title of the encomium are are wordplay on the name Seymour (as in Thomas Seymour):
memory, wp [wordplay] Saym-mor
beloved, wp [wordplay] a’More’d
"The enlarged AUTHOR, effectively Two-d’Or — (L) aut: ‘or’ + or"
I can add something to their analysis.
The Latin word for "memory" is
memor, and
memor be broken up into the letters "me," which when reversed is the Latin word
em, and "mor," a homonym of "mour," which is the last part of the name Seymour. In Latin, the word
em (a synonym of
ecce "see!, look!, behold!") is an interjection that means "
(of wonder or emphasis) here is,
see!; this is why". Therefore,
"em-mor" can be transformed into "See-mor" (Seymour).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/em;
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ecce#Latin
The Latin word for "be" is esse, and when the letters of esse are rearranged the result is "ssee." Therefore, "beloved" can be transformed into "See-a'More'd" (See-F. amour + ed, or Seymour'd).
In heraldry, the word for "of gold; golden" is d'or (from French, from de (“of”) + or (“gold”)). Wiktionary provides the following usage note for the word:
"The usual term is or, but as this is spelled the same as the conjunction or, the French form d'or is sometimes used to reduce ambiguity."
Therefore, based on the usage note for the heraldic word d'or, it is reasonable to transform the letters "or" in "author" into the word d'or, which makes the Stepniewski's solution of converting AUTHOR into "TWO-d'or" (or "A TU-d'or") stronger.
The first and second letters of line one of the encomium (TO) when combined with the
first letter of line three form the word TWO. This alignment is more
apparent in the attached image. This letter alignment factors into some of the solutions discussed later.
The first two words of line one are "to draw." Ben Jonson intended the word to mean "bring (envy) by inducement or attraction"; however, I think he intended additional meanings to allude to the truth.
"Draw" (v.) means
"'give motion to by the act of pulling,' c. 1200, drauen, spelling alteration of Old English dragan 'to drag, to draw, protract.'" https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=draw. A Latin
word meaning "drag" or "pull" is
verrō (present infinitive verrere, perfect active verrī, supine versum); third conjugation. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verro;
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=verro (definition
II. Transf. B. To sweep away, i. e. to drag away, take away, carry off, and
C. To obliterate, cover, hide, conceal). Thus, the concept of drawing, dragging, and pulling leads to a Latin pun on the name de Vere (e.g.
verrere),
and the etymology of "draw" implies that the true meaning of the
encomium, and the name of the true author of Shakespeare, is being
concealed.
Furthermore, when an object is drawn or pulled, it implies that the force applied
moves the object being pulled toward the thing pulling it. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/draw. Interestingly,
the word "toward" can be formed by reversing the order of the letters in
"draw" (ward) and combining them with the first word of the line,
"To." Did Jonson intend this? Did he also want us to find the word
"ward"?
A Latin word for "toward" is
versus (
towards, turned to or in the direction of, facing). This is another pun on the name de Vere. The Latin root of
versus is
verto, which can mean "
to change, alter, transform," "
to reverse (transitive)," or "
of literary productions, to turn into another language, to translate" (for example, translating English into Latin (or other languages), as we are doing now).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verto#Latin;
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=verto.
So, it seems the word "toward" (created by reversing the letters in
"draw" and combining them with "to") is a hint in itself to transform
"draw" into "ward" by reversing the letters in "draw."
The word "draw" has numerous other meanings. One meaning is,
"[t]o
pull out (a bolt or latch) to unlock a door, gate, etc.; also, to push
in (a bolt or latch) to lock a door, gate, etc." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/draw (see meaning at 1. [Senses relating to exerting force or pulling.] definition 6.). So, if this is meaning
is intended, this reference to a door can be combined with the acrostic letters
TWO of the first and third lines to create "TWO-DOOR" (a pun on the name
Tudor). Another interesting fact is that the French word for
"unlocked" is déverrouillé a pun on the name de Vere.
in addition, the words "todraw" and "to-draw" have their own Wiktionary entries. "Todraw" means "t
o pull apart, dismember; draw asunder," and "to drag violently." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/todraw. "To-draw" is an obsolete, dialectal term from Northern England and Scotland that means "a resort; refuge; a place of shelter; that which stands one in stead," or "a newsmonger's house; a place or person resorted to by idlers; a hangout." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/to-draw Therefore, Jonson
may have intended to indicate that the name Shakespeare should be
"pulled apart" or hyphenated (Shake-speare). As Alexander Waugh has
noted, pen names were often hyphenated in Shakespeare's time to indicate
that they were in fact pen names. The idea that the name Shakespeare
was "a place of shelter" (from the meaning of "to-draw") for the true
author (Edward de Vere) is also implied.
A related word to "draw" is "portray":
portray(v.)
mid-13c.,
portraien, "to draw, paint" (something), from Anglo-French
purtraire, Old French
portraire "to draw, to paint, portray" (12c.), literally "trace, draw forth," from
por- "forth" (from Latin
pro-; see
pro-) +
traire "trace, draw," from Latin
trahere "to drag, draw" (see tract (n.1)). Meaning "depict in words, describe" is from late 14c. Related: Portrayed; portrayer; portraying.
Latin
protrahere was "to draw forth" but in Medieval Latin also "to draw, paint."
https://www.etymonline.com/word/portray
If
the word "portray" is intended to be considered, then it would allude to
the idea of "drawing forth" the real author of Shakespeare, Edward de
Vere. As Alexander Waugh found, Edward de Vere was the "Fourth T"
(Forty (40)) in the Triple Tau.
Now, we come to the words "no envy" in the first line. In Latin, "no" means
nullus (nothing; zero). The etymology of "envy" (n.) is traceable to
"Old French envie "envy, jealousy, rivalry" (10c.), from Latin invidia 'envy, jealousy'... from invidus 'envious, having hatred or ill-will,' from invidere 'to envy, hate, earlier 'look at (with malice), cast an evil eye upon'..." The verb "envy" is traceable to "Old French envier 'envy, be envious of,' from envie." https://www.etymonline.com/word/envy. The Old French word
envier can be divided into "en-vier." In Latin "en" means "look! behold!; really!?; come on!", and in German "vier" means four (4).
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=en.
So, if the Latin, Old French, and German meanings of the words that
form the etymology the words in "no envy" are considered, the phase "no
envy" can be transformed into "0 [zero] Behold! Four [4]" or, with a
little rearranging, "Behold! 40 [forty]!" (Edward de Vere's "code"
number).
In Latin, envy is
invidia. "
[I]nvidia is the sense of envy, a 'looking upon' associated with the evil eye, from invidere, 'to look against, to look in a hostile manner.' 1
The term invidia stems from the Latin invidere, 'to look too closely'." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invidia.
Thus, it seems that the line "to drag no envy...on thy name" is
intended to indicate that Ben Jonson is choosing his words to obfuscate
his meaning and to prevent a casual reader from looking too closely (L.
invidere) at the meanings behind the words he uses.
(It's also interesting that envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins (i.e. 1 of 7). This may be intended as an allusion to the number 17, Edward de Vere's earl number. When combined with the "Behold! 40 [forty]!" solution (see above) the number 1740 can be found (Edward de Vere's earl number and "code"
number).)
"In Latin, invidia is the Greek personification of Nemesis." "The name Nemesis is derived from the Greek word νέμειν, némein, meaning 'to give what is due.'... The word nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune,
neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what
was deserved. Later, Nemesis
came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right
proportion, the sense of justice that could not allow it to pass
unpunished." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis.
Therefore,
by stating that he wants "to draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,"
Jonson seeks to avoid the retribution of Nemesis for not giving just
praise to the real author of Shakespeare, Edward de Vere. (There could
also be a bawdy joke implied by the reference to envy because the Romans
used a fascinus, or phallic effigy to ward off (i.e. divert, possibly more wordplay) the evil eye of invidia. If this joke is intended, then it would seem to play into the word "ample," which appears in line two, as part of the joke.)
In Latin, invidia is related to aemulus (Latin root of emulate), which means "striving to equal or excel, rivaling; in a bad sense, envious, jealous," and imitatus (Latin root of imitate), which means "having represented, expressed, portrayed; having imitated, acted like, counterfeited." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aemulus; https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imitatus.
If
Jonson meant to imply these words, then he would be alluding to the
fact that the pen name Shakespeare is an imitation or counterfeit of the
real author, Edward de Vere.
With regard to the word "ample" in line two, as noted above, it could be part a bawdy joke. However, "ample" also means "
mid-15c., 'great, abundant,' especially 'sufficient for any purpose.'" https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=ample. The word "sufficient" is derived "
from Latin sufficientem (nominative sufficiens) 'adequate,' present participle of sufficere 'to supply as a substitute.'" https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sufficient.
Therefore, the word "ample," meaning "sufficient for any purpose,"
implies supplying something (e.g. a pen name) as a substitute for the
real name of the author of Shakespeare, Edward de Vere.
2
In lines 2 and 3 of the encomium, the words "Fame" and "confess" appear. As I recall (but I'm not entirely certain) the researcher Petter Amundsen discovered that the word "Fame" is the 17th word of the Encomium and "confess" is the third word that follows it, and because the letter R and C are the 17th and 3rd word of the Elizabethan alphabet, he has suggested that the letters could represent "Rosy Cross" (R.C.). I believe he also observed that the
Fama Fraternitatis (1614) and
Confessio Fraternitatis (1615) are foundational 17th-century Rosicrucian manifestos that announced a secret, allegorical brotherhood dedicated to reforming arts, sciences, and humanity. If there is a link between Ben Jonson's encomium and the Rosicrucians, then that would imply that Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623 is linked to the Rosicrucians.
At this point, I will make a few observations about the word layout of the first few lines of the encomium. After that I will move on to analyzing the lines.
The first word of line three is "while," which can be translated into Latin as ut.
So, this perhaps can be combined with the letters "dor" in line one,
above the word "while," to spell TUDOR. Granted it's a bit of a stretch, but it's a possibility.
As previously noted, the acrostic "TWO" can be spelled with the first two letters (TO) of line one and
the first letter (W) of line two. This can be combined with the word
"As" at the beginning of line four to spell "TWO A's." This might be alluding to the
light and dark A's (A A) that sometimes appear in the header block of
Shakespeare's works. I think there is a lot of debate on what the AA
means, so I will just leave it at that.
Then, at the beginning of on lines 5 and 6, the words "'Tis true...were'' can be found. In Latin, "true" can be translated as
verus, so there are two (
F. deux) instances of puns on the name "Vere" (for
deux Vere) at this point in the text.
The
first (1) word of line seven (7) [perhaps a hint to find the number 17]
is "For." When this is combined with the first word of line 5 ('Tis),
the Latin word "For 'Tis (L. fortis; F. forte: strong) can be found. Fortis is
pronounced like "Four T's" or "forty," so it sounds line Edward de
Vere's "code" number forty (40). Combined with the 17 clue, there may
be a 1740 message here.
According to Google Translate the Latin phrase nam est, which sounds like "namest" (an archaic way of saying "name"), translates to--
"'for [it] is' or 'because [it] is' with nam
acting as a conjunction meaning "for" "because" or "since" to introduce
an explanation. It is often used to clarify or provide a reason for a
preceding statement, frequently appearing at the start of a clause."
However, I'm not a Latin expert and sometimes "for it is" is translated into Latin as est enim, so I'm really not sure if nam est is a correct and proper translation of "for it is." But, if nam est is correct, at least in some cases, then it would be another indication that fortis (forty) is a clue that "forty" (40) is code for a name (i.e. Edward de Vere).
(By
the way, letters that spell FOOT can be found in the first letters of
7, 9, 11, and 13, respectively. I don't have any idea at this point
what this may mean, if anything.)
Now, with that out of the way, it's time to move on to a deeper analysis.
The
words "confesse" (confess) and "writings" appear in line 3. The word
"confess" means "admit to the truth," and the word "truth" in Latin is
veritas,
so there is a pun on the name de Vere at this point in the text. The
fact that the word "writing" appears in the same line as "confess" might
hint at the words "script," and more particularly, "scripture."
Perhaps this hints at Edward de Vere having been involved with the
writing or translations found in the King James Version of the Bible.
This possible hint becomes a little stronger when considering that the
words "praise" and "suffrage" appear in the following lines.
"Praise" is a homonym of "prays," and "suffrage" in Ecclesiastical Latin (suffragium) means a prayer of intercession. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/suffragium#Latin.
Thus, it appears that these lines are hinting at a prayer of intercession.
The most well-known prayer of intercession is the
Memorare.
https://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/BVM/Memorare.html. The
Memorare is part of a older 15th century prayer,
Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria. https://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/BVM/AdSancPedes.html. And amazingly enough, this prayer appears in the "
1572 edition of the 'Precationum Piarum Enchridion' by Simon Verepaeus
(Verrept), a well known 16th century Dutch priest and educator." NOTE THE NAME-- Simon Verepaeus
(Verrept)! The last name of the author is a pun on the name de Vere (deux Vere)! I don't think this is mere coincidence. "[Simon Verepaeus'] works covered prayer, Latin grammar and composition. They were very
popular and reprinted as late as the early 19th century. The
Precationum Piarum Enchridion was first printed in about 1565." I suspect that Edward de Vere used Simon Verepaeus' Latin grammar and composition books as schoolbooks or references.
Considering this coincidence (or is it?), it may help explain the following line in Ben Jonson's encomium to Shakespeare: "But these wayes / Were not the paths I meant vnto thy praise." There is one paragraph in Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria where the word "path" (L. via, way) is used, and it is used in the phrase "path of truth" (via veritatis; the way of truth)
| Noli
Mater verbi, mea despicere verba sed audi propitia, et exaudi oris mei
verba. Noli mater omnium, ab omni benignitate me tua excludere, sed
benigne fac mecum propter nomen tuum. Noli mater gratiae, Filii tui mihi
gratiam denegare, sed gratifica me gratiae, quem tu gratia plena
peperisti. Noli Stella maris, aberrare me a via veritatis diu
permittere, sed splendoris tui directione a erue me a peccatorum
caligine. Noli porta caeli scelera mea iugiter obserari, sed reporta me
ad portam gratiae, a qua ingratus exivi, per quam tu mundo Vitam et
Salutem reportasti. |
Mother of the Word, despise not my words, but hear them graciously and
give heed to the words of my mouth. Mother of all, exclude me not from
all thy kindness, but deal kindly with me for the sake of thy name.
Mother of grace, deny me not the grace of thy Son, but fill me with
grace, thou who didst bore the One full of grace. Star of the sea,
permit me not to wander long from the path of truth, but by the guidance
of thy brightness rescue me from the darkness of sin. Gate of Heaven,
let not my sins forever shut me out, but lead me back to the gate of
grace, from which I ungratefully departed, through which thou didst
bring Life and Salvation to the world. |
In
the excerpt above, I highlighted words that I think are significant.
Some of the highlighted words are puns on the name de Vere (1 verbi, 2 verba, 1 veritatis; for a total of 4). The "path (or way) of truth" phrase is significant because it links the line in the encomium, "But these wayes / Were not the paths I meant vnto thy praise," to the word "truth" (veritatis). So, following the hints in the encomium led us to hints and puns on the name de Vere in Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria. This is just another indicator that the name Shakespeare is the pen-name of Edward de Vere.
I also highlighted the two appearances of the word "gate" (porta, portam). Porta
means "gate; door" in Latin, so the two appearances of the word seem to
allude to the name Tudor (TWO-DOOR). I also suspect that Star of the
Sea (a term for the Blessed Virgin Mary) may also be a hint because I
believe that Edward de Vere was the son of Thomas Seymour, Lord High
Admiral, and then Lady Elizabeth Tudor. Edward de Vere's coat of arms
incorporates a star, and Ben Jonson later compares the author to a star
and a constellation. Alexander Waugh believed that this was a reference
to Kepler's Supernova.3
It's also nice that Ben Jonson squeezed in an intercessory prayer for Edward de Vere into all this.
Next, let's turn to the references to "Ignorance, Affection, and Malice" in lines 7, 9, and 11, the capital letters of which happen to spell "I AM" ("I Am that I Am"), the divine name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. It should be noted that Edward de Vere and Shakespeare use the Biblical phrase “I am that I am” (Exodus 3.14) . See de Vere’s defiant letter of October 30, 1584, to his father-in-law, Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley) (Fowler 321, 332): '… I mean not to be your ward nor your child. I serve her majesty, and I am that I am ….'" De Vere Society. (2024, January 15).
Edward de Vere as Shakespeare-2 - De Vere Society. De Vere Society - Promoting the Life of Edward De Vere.
https://deveresociety.co.uk/edward-de-vere-as-shakespeare-2/
The words "Ignorance" and "Affection" (lines 7 and 9) can be reduced to their roots, "ignore" and "affect."
A Latin word that can mean "ignore" is dissimulo (to disregard, neglect, or ignore). In addition, dissimulo means "to conceal, hide, or dissimulate a state of mind; to dissemble or disguise, pretend." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dissimulo.
Thus the hidden meaning of the line "For seeliest Ignorance on these may light, / Which,
when it sounds at best, but eccho's right [i.e. truth]" is that only a
silly ignorant person would not see through the dissimulation or
disguise that is the pen-name Shakespeare.
To affect something is "to make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/affect. So, the hidden meaning of the line "
Or blinde Affection, which doth ne're aduance / The
truth, but gropes, and vrgeth all by chance", is that only blind
affection to the myth that the man from Stratford-Upon-Avon wrote
Shakespeare (like a monkey somehow typing out the works of Shakespeare by random chance) would
permit one to believe that a country bumpkin could produce the works.
Malitia, the Latin word for "malice," can mean "
ill-will, spite, malice", or "cunning, artfulness", and it can have a good connotation "Sometimes in a good sense, like our roguery." https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=malitia. With regard to the last meaning it is important to note that the word "rogue" can be traced to "
1560s, 'idle vagrant, sturdy beggar, one of the vagabond class,' a word of shadowy origin, perhaps a shortened form of roger (with a hard -g-), thieves' slang for a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge."
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=rogue. Thus, the word "malice" can be traced etymologically to meanings like
"artful, crafty, or roguish behavior." Furthermore, the word "rogue"
might be traceable to 16th century thieves slang for "a begging vagabond
who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford." What a coincidence.
Therefore, the hidden meaning of the line "Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise, / And thinke to ruine, where it seem'd to raise (F. soulever)"
is that some crafty people who know the truth that Shakespeare is
actually just a disguise for Edward de Vere are praising the man from
Stratford-Upon-Avon (out of roguish fun?) to lead people away from the
truth. Note that "raise" can be translated into French as soulever (Ruin instead of raising the soul of E. Vere. Get it?). Now we have come to lines 13-14 of the encomium.
These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore,
Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more?
These
are difficult lines to explain. Even Alexander Waugh described lines
13-14 as "rather strange" at time 27:54 of his YouTube video on the
encomium. Alexander Waugh, "My Beloved THE AUTHOR" - Ben Jonson's
Encomium to Shakespeare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v_zkUv86Hs&t=840s.
Because
interpreting these lines is so difficult, I'm going to start with
Alexander Waugh's brilliant straight-forward interpretation. After
that, I'll push the interpretation as far as I can with an examination
of the etymology of the words used in the lines. The analysis should
become stronger as I go. However, I have to lay out the etymological
pieces first before I begin to put them together, so bear with me and
things should begin to make sense in the end. I admit that my
interpretation of any particular etymology will become more and more
tenuous to the extent that I go further down the etymological rabbit
hole of a word, but I want to explore the text as much as possible and
let the reader decide what makes sense.
Alexander states that Ben Jonson was probably thinking of Horace’s epistle to Lollius when he wrote lines 13-14 of the encomium:
"There
can be little doubt that Jonson had Horace’s epistles in mind when he
composed these lines for he closes the section by comparing the praise
of Shakespeare’s name to the false flattery of a respectable matron (a
married woman) by a ‘bawd or whore’ (13-15), an idea borrowed from
Horace’s epistle to Lollius: ‘As a matron and a whore will differ in
temper and tone, so will the true friend be distinct from the faithless
flatterer’ (18. pp. 1-4). In Discoveries he complains of the effect of
false flattery specifically upon noble persons: ‘It is as great a spite
to be praised in the wrong place and by the wrong person, as can be done
to a noble nature’ (ll. 173-174)."
‘My beloved the AVTHOR’: the subtext of Ben Jonson’s first Folio encomium to William Shakespeare. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 37(2), 255–269, at p.257 (footnotes omitted). https://doi.org/10.31275/20233115 The
broader point Alexander was making is that lines 7-12 of the encomium
are about how "silliest ignorance," "blind affection," and "crafty
malice" can misdirect praise away from truth. He then notes that Ben
Jonson's use of the line borrowed from Horace’s epistle to Lollius is yet another point about truth:
"‘As a matron and a whore will
differ in temper and tone, so will the true friend be distinct from the
faithless flatterer.’ In Discoveries he complains of the
effect of false flattery specifically upon noble persons: ‘It is as
great a spite to be praised in the wrong place and by the wrong person,
as can be done to a noble nature’."
Id. (reference omitted)
Ben Jonson secretly indicated that false
flattery of the pen-name Shakespeare distorts the truth that Edward de
Vere is the real author behind the pen-name. To illustrate this point,
Alexander shows in his video summarizing his paper that the Latin word veritas was well-known wordplay on the name de Vere. See time
25:01 to 27:54 of his YouTube video on the encomium. Alexander Waugh, "My
Beloved THE AUTHOR" - Ben Jonson's Encomium to Shakespeare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v_zkUv86Hs&t=840s.
It's interesting to note, however, that the original Latin of Horace's epistle to Lollius does not include the word veritas (truth). The word "true" as in "true friend" is implied by the context:
Vt matrona meretrici dispar erit atque discolor, infido scurrae distabit amicus.
The
line is a basic analogy: As a matron will differ in temper and tone
from a prostitute, so is a faithless flatterer is unlike a friend (i.e. As A is unlike B, similarly C is unlike D). So, the word "true" in "true friend" (L. amicus)
is implied. (Some translations insert the word "true" in brackets
before the word "friend" to indicate that it is the translator's clarification of the
translation.) As "true" ([true] friend) is an implied meaning in the translation, it is
interesting to note that "imply" means to "strongly suggest the truth or existence of (something not expressly stated)"). In effect, Jonson is using a quote from Horace that includes an implied or hidden reference to veritas
(truth) to create another hidden allusion to the name de Vere in the
lines of the encomium (i.e. it is effectively a second order of
concealment). Since Alexander Waugh posited that Edward de Vere was the
"hidden Fourth T (forty)" it is appropriate that the fourth reference
to truth in Ben Jonson's encomium is likewise well-hidden.
Another
important point is that Jonson alters the line from Horace's epistle to
Lollius. The formulation is no longer an analogy "As A is unlike B, similarly C is unlike D."
Jonson alters the line to be about a matron being insulted by being
praised by a "bawd or whore," and then he adds "what could hurt her
more." This leads directly to the question-- Why does he do this? Is it
simply that the structure of the analogy doesn't fit well within the
meter of the poem, or is there also some other purpose?
Alexander Waugh posits that Jonson stated that "It
is as great a spite to be praised in the wrong place and by the wrong
person, as can be done to a noble nature." Since Jonson believed this,
did he mean to imply that he is the wrong person to praise Shakespeare
because he as lowly as a bawd? That would be an insult to himself and
is practically impossible. As explained by Alexander Waugh, the
straight forward meaning seems to be that those people of
"silliest ignorance," "blind affection," and "crafty malice" will
misinterpret whatever praise is offered, like someone hearing a bawd
praise a matron, and that will hurt Shakespeare's reputation. That
interpretation works, but it seems a little awkward, and I think that is
why Alexander called lines 13-14 of the encomium "rather strange." So,
Is there another hidden meaning we are missing? And, that question
leads us down the rabbit hole of etymology, conjecture, and speculation.
So, here we go.
If
Alexander Waugh was correct, and I believe he clearly was, lines 13-14
are based on Horace's epistle to Lollius. It's well-know that Jonson
admired and modeled himself on Horace, so that may be enough to fully
explain why he chose to model lines 13-14 on Horace's epistle to
Lollius. However, let's examine the name Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) to see if it leads anywhere.
Horace is "derived from the Latin clan name Horatius, with potential Etruscan roots." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Horace. It's Latin root of Horatius (meaning time, season, timekeeper, or ([possibly] man of time). The Latin root of Horatius is hora, meaning "hour;
time; o'clock; season (time of year)". So, if Jonson choose to quote
Horace for a reason other than Horace being his favorite Roman author,
perhaps he meant to allude to one of the meanings of hora. If that's the case, then perhaps Jonson meant to allude the meaning of hora
as "season." "Season" might then be wordplay on "sea-son" or "son of
the sea," which might, in turn, allude to Edward de Vere being the son
of Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral, and Lady Elizabeth Tudor
"Season" enters modern English "[f]rom Middle English sesoun, seson ('time of the year'), from Old French seson, saison ('time of sowing, seeding'), from Latin satiō ('act of sowing, planting') from satum, past participle of serō ('to sow, plant')". One of the meanings of the Latin satio is "to saturate, impregnate (fill to satiety)." See etymology 1 at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/satio#Latin. The another meaning of the word,
from serō + -tiō, is "sowing, planting; sowing time." See etymology 2 at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/satio#Latin. One meaning of the Latin word sero is "(of persons) to beget, bring forth, produce."
In
addition, the name Horace sounds like "WHORE-ACE." The word "whore"
appears on line 13 of the encomium. Is this merely a coincidence? The
etymology of the word "ace" should also be considered:
"c. 1300, 'one at dice,' from Old French as 'one at dice' (12c.), from Latin as 'a unit, one, a whole, unity;' also the name of a small Roman coin
(originally a rectangular bronze plaque weighing one pound, it
eventually was reduced by depreciation to half an ounce; in imperial
times it became a round coin)...
In English, it meant the side of the die with only one mark before it
meant the playing card with one pip (1530s). Because this was the
lowest roll at dice, ace was used
metaphorically in Middle English for "bad luck" or "something of no
value;" but as the ace often is the highest playing card, the extended
senses based on "excellence, good quality" arose 18c. as card-playing
became popular."
Thus,
"ace" can allude to something that is reduced in value or reputation to
the point that it is worthless (like the Roman coin the
as was depreciated
; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_(Roman_coin)), and, therefore, the name Horace might
be being used an allusion to a woman whose reputation is destroyed by
her immoral conduct in conceiving and giving birth to an illegitimate child.
We will now move on to consider the other words of lines 13-14.
Lines
13-14 begin with the idea of a matron's reputation being harmed by the
praise of an "infamous bawd, or whore." "Matron" entered modern English
"
from Middle English matrone, from Old French matrone, from Latin mātrōna (“married woman”), from māter (“mother”)." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matron.
So ultimately, "matron" has its root in the Latin word mater (mother). So, lines 13-14 allude to the reputation of Edward de Vere's mother (i.e., Queen Elizabeth I) potentially being destroyed.
The Latin word matrona means "married woman, wife or matron, especially of an honorable man," and it can also refer to the "title of Juno." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matrona#English.
In Roman mythology Juno was "[t]he queen of the gods, the equivalent of the Greek goddess Hera." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Juno#English; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(mythology). Therefore,
matrona,
one of the Latin root words of "matron," can be linked to the goddess
Juno and the concept of queenship. Thus, the word "matron" links the
concept of motherhood with the concept of queenship, and all in the
context of hidden messages about Edward de Vere. This strengthens the
circumstantial case that the hidden meaning of lines 13-14 might relate
to Queen Elizabeth I and her reputation as "The Virgin Queen."
In lines 13-14 Jonson also mentions a "bawd" and a "whore."
"Bawd" means "(archaic or historical) one who keeps a brothel, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer or madam; (obsolete, by extension) a person who facilitates an immoral act, especially one of a sexual nature; a lewd person." "Bawd" entered modern English "from Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold." As discussed previously, a Latin word for "bold" is fortis. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0060:entry=fortis.
"Fortis" is also used as an allusion to Edward de Vere because it is
pronounced like "Four T's" (Four T; fourty). (it's also possible that
fortis may allude to the Latin phrase
nam est (a homonym of "namest" [obsolete way of saying "name]), meaning "for it is"; however, this translation needs to be verified.)
With regard to the word "whore,"
in his epistle to Lollius,
which Alexander Waugh believed is the basis of line 13-14 in Jonson encomium to Shakespeare, Horace used the Latin word
meretrici (dative singular of meretrix) as the term for "prostitute." The Latin word meretrix, "from mereō, meritum ('to earn (a living)', verb) + -trīx f ('-ess', feminine agentive suffix), literally 'the earner,'" means "a female prostitute or courtesan." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/meretrix#Latin.
The word meretrix can also be broken up into parts: "mere" and "-trix" (a homonym of "tricks").
Although it is a completely different word etymology, the word "mere"
can mean "(obsolete) [p]ure, unalloyed [8th–17th c.]," "from Middle English mere, mer, from Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus (“pure, unmixed, undiluted”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to sparkle, gleam”). See etymology 1 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mere (underlining added). "Mere" can also mean "
(dialectal or literary) A body of standing water, such as a lake or a pond (formerly even a body of seawater), especially a broad, shallow one. (Also included in place names such as Windermere.)," and traces its origin "from Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”)." See etymology 3 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mere (underlining added). Therefore, the word "mere" can allude to purity and the sea.
"Trick" (a homonym of -
trix) entered Modern English
"[f]rom Middle English trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier (“to defraud, act dishonestly, conceal, deceive, cheat”); modern French tricher)." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trick (underlining added).
Therefore, the parts of the Latin word meretrix ("mere"
and "-trix"), considered independently etymologically, lead to the idea
of something that deceptively seems pure, but in fact is not. If
this implied meaning is intended, it would allude to the idea that the
myth of Queen Elizabeth I as "The Virgin Queen" is false.
Another
fact to consider is that the word "whore" is in a rhyming couplet in
which it rhymes with the word "more." Therefore, if the meaning of
"mere" as "sea" (meretrix => mere => sea) is considered,
then the hidden message "Sea-MORE, i.e. the name Seymour) is revealed.
This implies that the event that would have destroyed the reputation
Queen Elizabeth I was her sexual relationship with Thomas Seymour, Lord
High Admiral, and the resulting birth of Edward de Vere.
The interpretations just described are reinforced by the etymology of the word "hurt" in the final part of line 13: "What could hurt her more?"
In heraldry, a "hurt" is an azure (blue) roundel (a circular charge). "In their earliest uses, roundels were often strewn or sown as seeds (Latin: semen, -inis, a seed) upon the field of a coat of arms, blazoned as semée/semy, an arrangement with numerous varieties." This links the word "hurt" through the heraldic concept of "blazoned as semée/semy" to the concept of insemination and pregnancy.
Azure (blue) in heraldry
signifies loyalty and truth. Heraldry Details - HeraldryResEncy. (n.d.). https://heraldryresency.com/detail.html?id=6. Therefore, the reference to a heraldic (azure, blue) hurt alludes to a pun on Edward de Vere's last name and his motto
Vero Nihil Verius, which translates to "Nothing Truer than Truth."
In English heraldry, the "hurt" refers to the "hurtleberry," and in French it refers to heurt (a blow, leaving a blue bruise). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundel_(heraldry).
The
word "hurtleberry" is synonym of "whortleberry," but it seems that
originally the root of hurtleberry was pronounced without a "w" sound at
the beginning, from Middle English horten, hurten (“bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)”), and Old English horte (“bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)”). In any case, the original word horte and
"whortleberry" might allude to a reading like "whore-tell-berry." If
this is the case, it would link the word "hurt" to the word "whore" in
line 13 of the encomium. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hurtleberry.
Another interesting fact is that "[o]ne special example of a named roundel is the fountain, depicted as a roundel barry wavy argent and azure, that is, containing alternating horizontal wavy bands of blue and silver (or white)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundel_(heraldry).
This special case of a roundel may indirectly link the "hurt" in heraldry
to the idea of water and the sea. Thus, the implied answer to the
question "What could hurt [heurt, bruise] her [Queen Elizabeth I's reputation] more [Latin mōrēs (“ways, character, morals”)]?" is an illegitimate child by "Sea-more; i.e. [Thomas] Seymour."
This brings us to lines 15-16 of the encomium:
But thou art proofe against them, and indeed
Aboue the ill fortune of them, or the need.
These lines contain yet more punning on the name de Vere.
A "proof" is "[a]n effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth [L. veritas]." "Proof" can also refer to "(obsolete) [a]rmour of excellent or tried quality, and deemed impenetrable; properly, armour of proof." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proof. If this meaning is intended, "armour" may imply the word
amour (love). A Latin word for "against" is
adversus, meaning
"set opposite, adverse, having been set against." The word "indeed" can mean "truly; verily" (L.
vere). "Above" means "over," which is an anagram of
vero, Latin for
"verily, truly, really, doubtless, in truth, indeed." "Fortune" may be a pun on "Four-T [forty]-une" [une is one in French; L. unus, meaning "one; single; alone; a; an"], so it may allude to "[a] Forty".
I'm not certain what "indeed...need" may mean. "Deed" can mean "[t]he legal title to real estate; ownership" (from from early 14c.). https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=deed. The Latin word
dedo means "
to hand over, surrender, give up, consign, deliver, yield, abandon."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dedo#Latin. "Need" might also mean
"necessaries, mid-14c., 'that
which is indispensable; needed, required, or useful things; the
necessities of life; actions determined by right or law." https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=necessary.
This would then allude to the fact that there was no legal proceeding
that removed Edward de Vere formally from the line of succession.
In
summary, lines 13-16 of Ben Jonson's encomium appear to hide a secret
message that the reputation and reign of Queen Elizabeth I would have
been ruined by any revelation about her having given birth to a
illegitimate child (i.e. Edward de Vere) as a result of her affair with
Thomas Seymour. Therefore, to protect her Edward de Vere assumed the
false identity as a de Vere, and this also necessitated that he use the
pen-name Shakespeare to further conceal himself.
Now we have reached lines 17-18 of the encomium. These lines are the 9th rhyming
couplet of the encomium. (The symbols (IX) used in Roman numeral IX happen to be an early Christogram.)
I, therefore will begin. Soule of the Age!
The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage!
First, the line "I
therefore will begin. Soul of the age!" is the 17th line of the
encomium. The following line, 18, consists of 40 characters, counting
the four (4) exclamation points. So, there is one 1740 (Edward de
Vere's "code" number).
There are a few significant things about the exclamation mark. First,
it "[d]erives from 
, a Latin abbreviation of either interiectiō (“interjection”) or the interjection iō (“hey!”), placed at the end of an exclamation to mark it as such. It expresses awe, wonderment (Latin admīrātiō) in the clause." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/!#Translingual (footnote omitted). Second, it was originally known as "
punctus admirativus/exclamativus ... "point of admiration/exclamation". Later, people began to name it the "point/note/sign of admiration/exclamation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_mark.
As shown above, the exclamation point "
[d]erives from , a Latin abbreviation of either interiectiō (“interjection”) or the interjection iō (“hey!”)." The letters io (IO) look like the number ten (10). For example, the page number 10 in Shakespeare's First Folio is made with the letters I and O (IO). Therefore, the four exclamation points, derived from
, represent four (4) number tens (10), and four multiplied by 10 is forty (40). So, we have found another 1740 (line 17 and the coded number 40).
Io may also refer to the goddess
Io who "Zeus turned
Io into a heifer in order to hide her from his wife [Hera]... In order to exact her revenge, Hera sent a gadfly to sting
Io continuously, driving her to wander the world without rest.
Io eventually crossed the path between the
Propontis and the Black Sea, which thus acquired the name Bosporus."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_(mythology). "The name of the strait comes from the Ancient Greek
Βόσπορος (
Bósporos), which was folk-etymologised as
βοὸς πόρος, i.e. "cattle strait" (like "
Ox-ford"), from the genitive of
boûs βοῦς 'ox, cattle' +
poros πόρος 'passage', thus meaning 'cattle-passage', or 'cow passage'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus. So, the exclamation marks, derived from
, allude to the goddess
Io and her wandering across the Bosporus (the
"Ox-ford"), all of which allude to the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, the real Shakespeare.
Another curious thing about the lines is the use of the word "soul" (soule). In French, souler means "to get someone drunk." Is there a little joke here? Also, the English word "souler" historically refers to "a mummer (i.e. someone who wears a mask) or guiser." "Souling is a medieval English custom, considered a direct precursor to modern trick-or-treating,
where the poor and children went door-to-door on All Souls' Day (Nov
2nd) and All Hallows' Eve (Oct 31st). Soulers sang, performed small
plays, or promised prayers for the dead in exchange for 'soul cakes,' ale, or money." In the next line, Jonson writes "My Shakespeare, rise..." In French, the word "raise" can be translated as soulever, wordplay on the name de Vere.) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soulever.
Also, the word "delight" can be translated into French as régal (treat, feast, delight). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/r%C3%A9gal. Of course, in English "regal" means "of, resembling, or fit for a monarch, especially in being magnificent or dignified." This alludes to Edward de Vere being a Tudor prince. Interestingly, in Italian "delight" can be translated as divertirsi (to enjoy oneself, to have fun, to have a good time), and divertirsi is very similar to the name de Vere. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/divertirsi. 
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