I have experimented with drawing circles with a compass (in practice I use PhotoShop to draw the circles) to find messages in Shakespeare. I decided to do this because a symbol of the Freemasons is a compass and square. (By the way, I'm not a Freemason.) I consider the method experimental because I'm not sure it works on every page of Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623. The following is a step-by-step description of how I discovered this method.
Please note that the circles in the images below may appear distorted to varying degrees depending on your computer display settings. This is just an effect of the display. The circles seem to be displayed without distortion on a smartphone though.
I started on page 1 of The Tempest, which is the first play in the First Folio. There is a line where the character Gonzalo says "mark upon him."
The first circle is shown above. As you can see, the circumference of the circle falls on the line "Lay her a hold, a hold, set her two courses off to Sea againe, lay her off." I interpreted this to be an instruction to again draw a circle.
The second circle is shown above. This circle falls on the words "[T]he name of the King [of] the Sea is..." When I drew this circle it seemed to be confirmation that I was on the right track. Following the instruction to "set her two coursed off to Sea again" had resulted in the second circle falling on the apparent message "[T]he name of the King [of] the Sea is..."
I then drew the third circle:
The third circle falls on the line "Now I would give a thousand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground," so the circle again falls on a line that mentions the sea. This seemed to again confirm the apparent instruction "set her two coursed off to Sea again."
I assumed that the line "Now I would give a thousand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground" was another instruction, so I decided to convert "1,000 furlongs" into a page number by converting furlongs into miles. Since there are eight furlongs in a mile, 1,000 furlongs is 125 miles (1,000 divided by 8 is 125).
So, I turned to page 125 in the comedies section of the First Folio and drew the second circle shown above (the one that falls on "[T]he name of the King [of] the Sea is...") from the word "sea" on page 125:
As seen in the images above, the circle drawn from the word "sea" falls on the word "king" (i.e., the King of the Sea) and on the lines "A most fine Figure. To prove you a Cypher."
I interpreted this as confirming that messages are indeed hidden in the First Folio that can be found by drawing the circle I had found. The following images show additional results from page 125.
There is one intersection that is not highlighted in the above image that requires an explanation. The intersection is at these lines:
Ma. With what face?
Brag. I loue thee.
Mai. Faire weather after you.
Love’s Labor’s Lost (Folio 1, 1623) :: Internet Shakespeare Editions. (2019b, January 11). https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/LLL_F1/complete/index.html
As can be seen, there is an acrostic-- WIS --composed of the first letters of lines 443-445. The word "wis" is a rare and obsolete word that means "really, truly" or "To know". The Latin word for "truly" is vere (a pun on the name de Vere). See wis - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wis (In Gothic, 𐍅𐌹𐍃 [(wis) n] means "calm (of sea or wind).") In addition, "to know," meaning, "'to have sexual intercourse with,' also found in other modern languages, is attested from c. 1200, from the Old Testament (Genesis iv.1). Attested from 1540s in colloquial phrases suggesting cunning or savvy (but often in the negative)." Search “know” on etymonline. (n.d.). Etymonline. https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=know
Furthermore, when the first letter ("A") of line 446 is added to the acrostic, the Old English word wisa can be found. Wisa means "(poetic) leader, chief." The word wisa was "[f]ormally wīsan (“to show”) + -a (agent suffix), cognate with Old High German wīso, Old Norse vísi." wisa - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wisa Thus, wisan ("to show") means "[t]o display, to have somebody see (something)." wisan - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wisan#Old_English The Old High German word wīso can mean "leader" or "queen bee." wiso - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiso#Old_High_German The Old Norse word vísi means "commander, leader, chief: (nautical) coxswain; (poetic) king, ruler." (Vísi is also the indefinite accusative/dative singular of vísir ("to sprout").) vísi - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/v%C3%ADsi#Old_Norse:_leader
Therefore, the word wisa, wisen and its etymological root words are wordplay that point to the concept of a sea commander or king (a "King of the Sea") and a queen. The wordplay alludes to Thomas Seymour and his office, Lord High Admiral, and to Princess Elizabeth, later
Queen Elizabeth I.
The word "love," which is found in line 444 ("I love thee"), is amor in Latin, amour (love, adore) in French, and amar, el amor in Spanish. The word "thee" ("you") is tu in Latin and French, and tú in Spanish. When the translation of "love" (e.g. amour) is combined with the meaning of wisan ("to show; to have somebody see (something)" the result is "sea-amour" "a Seymour," and so hides the name Thomas Seymour. Similarly, when the translation of "love" ("to adore") is combined with the translation of "thee" (tu) and wiso (queen bee), the result is "a Tudor queen" (i.e., Queen Elizabeth I).
Reading upward from line 447-444, there is another acrostic-- FASI-- formed by the first letters of the lines:
Ma. With what face?
Brag. I loue thee.
Mai. Faire weather after you.
The Italian word fasi is the plural of fase ("phase"), which is derived from the Ancient Greek word φάσις (phásis, “appearance”), "[f]rom φαίνω (phaínō) + -σις (-sis)." φάσις - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%86%CE%AC%CF%83%
CE%B9%CF%82#Ancient_Greek. The word φάσις (phásis) can refer to "'appearance' (of a star), 'phase' (of the moon), from stem of phainein 'to show, to make appear'," or "to cause to appear; to bring to light; to show; to uncover; to reveal." Search “phase” on etymonline. (n.d.). Etymonline. https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=phase; φαίνω - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%86%CE%B1%CE%AF%CE%BD%CF%89
#Ancient_Greek. Edward de Vere's coat of arms includes a star ("a mullet"), so the allusion is to the birth or appearance (or revealing) of Edward de Vere.
Another etymology of the Ancient Greek word φάσις is "[f]rom φημί (phēmí) + -σις (-sis)" ("utterance, statement, expression"). The Ancient Greek word φημί (phēmí) means "to say yes, agree, affirm, assert." φημί - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%86%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%AF#Ancient_Greek. The letters in "yes" spelled backwards results in "sey," which is the first part of the name "Seymour." This, combined with the translation of "love" into [F.] amour, once again results in the name "Seymour."
The Italian word fasi is a homonym of the Italian word faci ("face"). faci - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/faci. The word "face" is found in line 443 of the excerpt from Love's Labour's Lost (above). In Latin, the word faci is the dative singular of fax, which means "torch, firebrand; fireball, comet; cause of ruin, incitement." fax - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. fax - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.-b). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fax#Latin. In particular, fax can refer to, "[a]t weddings, the torch carried before the bride on the way to her home, usually made of white-thorn (Spina alba) or pine, the nuptial torch: spina, nuptiarum facibus auspicatissima." Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, fax. (n.d.). https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=fax. This may allude to a secret wedding between Thomas Seymour and Princess Elizabeth Tudor, or perhaps to a lack of a wedding.
The line "So I heard you say" is more wordplay. The word "hear" is [L.] audire (an anagram of "a de vir (a de Vere)"). The word "herd," a homonym of "heard," is [L.] armentum "a draft animal (a large domestic animal suitable for drawing a plow: an ox, a horse)" or "synonym of armenta: such animals taken collectively." armentum - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/armentum#Latin. The word "herd" can also mean "to herd or guard," which leads to the concept of a guardian and the Latin word tutor, a pun on the name Tudor.
The word "say" can be translated into Latin as for or dico. The last three letters of dico (ico) mean "to hit, strike or smite," "tentatively compare Ancient Greek αἰχμή (aikhmḗ, 'point of a spear'), ἴξ (íx, 'kind of worm')." ico - Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (n.d.). Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ico. Therefore, the Latin words armentum ("an ox"), for ("say"), and dico ("say") are wordplay on "Oxford" and "[Shake]-spear], and are, of course, a pun on Edward de Vere's title, Earl of Oxford, and his pen name Shakespeare.
The images show the name "Sea-more" (a reference to Thomas Seymour) at the circumference of two circles, one of which is centered on the word "father." This is a hidden message that Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Lord High Admiral, was the real father of the author of Shakespeare, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Edward de Vere's real mother was Princess Elizabeth Tudor, and later Queen Elizabeth I.
Here are some more solutions:
In the image above, the letter C is the third letter of the alphabet, so "three more" can be read as "C-more" (Seymour).
The phrase "I'll lay my head to any good man's hat" is ironic because Thomas Seymour was beheaded.
Now, let's apply this method to another play, King Lear.
The play begins with the Earl of Gloucester discussing his illegitimate son, Edmund, with the Earl of Kent. At one point in the conversation Gloucester says, concerning Edmund's birth, "Do you smell a fault?". This is an indicator that there is a puzzle present and that the trick to solving it is to find the "nose" (or the word "no," "noes," or "knows") to figuratively smell out the fault of Edmund's birth. (Ed is short for Edmund, or Edward). The image above shows the solution-- circles drawn from the question "Do you smell a fault? and the word "No" (i.e., the "nose" to "smell" with) reveal the hidden message.
The circumferences of the circles fall on the words "eye-sight" (i.e., see) and "more" to spell "See-more" (i.e. [Thomas] Seymour).
These words are in the response of King Lear's daughter Goneril to King Lear's test at the beginning of the play. Goneril says that she loves her father more than eye-sight. This foreshadows the famous blinding of Gloucester later in the play, on page 300 of the Tragedies. This linkage to the blinding scene on page 300 is also hinted at in the solution shown above. The circle that falls at the very bottom of the right-hand column falls on the words "[T]hird...Nothing...Nothing" (i.e. 300), which is a clue to go to page 300.
So, let's turn to page 300:
The words "see more" appear at the critical moment that Gloucester is blinded. As you can see, by drawing circles from the words "see more" and "smell," in the line "Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell / His way to Dover," the circumferences of the circles fall on the name "Tom," and thus reveal the name Tom (Thomas) Seymour as the real father of the author of Shakespeare, Edward de Vere.
The following image shows some interesting Tudor and Seymour letter alignments on page 283:
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