Part 10-- Messages About the Murder of the Poet Christopher Marlowe; Possible Cipher Clue to Page 48 of The Merry Wives of Windsor

Well, I spoke too soon about writing my last post about the play As You Like It for awhile.  I found a little cipher that I want to share.

I went back to Act III, scene ii (p. 196-197 of the Comedies) to take another look at Orlando's line that Jaques will see a "cipher" if he looks in the brook.  (see Part 4 of my posts about the murder of the poet Christopher Marlowe.)  So, I decided to try take another look for a cipher in Act II, scene i (p. 190 of the Comedies) where Jaques is described laying by a brook.  (I am really hoping to find some sort of substitution cipher somewhere because it would be wonderful proof.)

Here is the dialogue again from Act III, scene ii: 

Iaq. By my troth, I was seeking for a Foole, when I

found you.

Orl. He is drown'd in the brooke, looke but in, and

you shall see him.

Iaq. There I shal see mine owne figure.

Orl. Which I take to be either a foole, or a Cipher.

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/AYL/F1/scene/3.2

When I examined Act II, scene i (p. 190 of the Comedies) again I noticed a reference to a "sum of more."  Here is the text: 

Du.Sen. But what said Iaques?

Did he not moralize this spectacle?

1. Lord. O yes, into a thousand similies.

First, for his weeping into the needlesse streame;

Poore Deere quoth he, thou mak'st a testament

As worldlings doe, giuing thy sum of more

To that which had too must....

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/AYL/F1/scene/2.1

(underline added)

Taking this as a clue, I decided to use a simple cipher chart to sum the values of the letters in the word "more" to find a number.  I have found that summing this type of clue can be a clue to a page number in the First Folio.  Here is a simple cipher chart for the printed alphabet that was in use at the time the First Folio was printed: 

SIMPLE CIPHER
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	V	W	X	Y	Z
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24

The value of the letters in word "more" is 48:

(M = 12) + (O = 14) + (R = 17) + (E = 5) = 48

In the Comedies part of the First Folio, page 48 is a page from The Merry Wives of Windsor. That page includes a comic scene where Dr. Casius confronts Sir Hugh Evans. Sir. Hugh is a Welsh clergyman (called a parson or priest in the script). Sir Hugh is an obvious satire of John Penry, the preacher caught up in and executed for the Martin Mar-prelate tracts. Penry was executed the day before Marlowe was killed. Penry was convicted of sedition based on a draft of a petition to Queen Elizabeth I that contained some harsh criticism.

On page 48 of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Dr. Casius says, "By gar, me vill kill de Priest, for he speake for a Jack-an-Ape to Anne Page."

The point is not that John Penry is associated with the play As You Like It. (The play does include a character named Oliver Mar-text.) The important point is that there seems to be a hidden cipher clue on page 190 of As You Like It to go to page 48 of The Merry Wives of Windsor to read more messages about Penry, and specifically Dr. Casius' statements about him.

There is also an interesting mention in The Merry Wives of Windsor of  the legend of Herne the Hunter:

   Mis.Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne the
Hunter (sometime a keeper heere in Windsor Forrest)
Doth all the winter time, at still midnight
Walke round about an Oake, with great rag'd-hornes,
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
And make milch-kine yeeld blood, and shakes a chaine
In a most hideous and dreadfull manner.
You haue heard of such a Spirit, and well you know
The superstitious idle-headed-Eld
Receiu'd, and did deliuer to our age
This tale of Herne the Hunter, for a truth.

This reminds me of the messages I wrote about in As You Like It concerning the murder of the poet Christopher Marlowe under an oak tree.  The tale of Herne the Hunter also reminds me of Act IV, scene ii, of the play (see Part 9). This is a very brief and seemingly insignificant scene where an unnamed "Lord" claims the credit for killing the deer.

Iaq. Which is he that killed the Deare?

Lord. Sir, it was I.

Iaq. Let's present him to the Duke like a Romane

Conquerour, and it would doe well to set the Deares

horns vpon his head, for a branch of victory; haue you

no song Forrester for this purpose?

In Part 9, I proposed that Edward de Vere is the Lord who killed Marlowe (the allegorical deer).  Is de Vere also Herne the Hunter? 

Part 9-- The Murder of the Poet Christopher Marlowe

This is probably going to be my last post for awhile about the play As You Like It and my hypothesis that the play contains hidden messages about the murder of the poet Christopher Marlowe.  I am going to try to tie a few things together and show that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, may have been the person who murdered Marlowe.

In my previous posts, I put forward the idea that scene in Act II, scene i, where the character Jaques is described as being sorrowful over the plight of a mortally wounded deer, is actually an allegory for the murder of the poet Christopher Marlowe.  In the allegory, Marlowe is the deer and a fool.  In the scene, the deer (or stag) is described as hiding under an oak tree on the "extremest verge" of a brook in the forest.

As I noted in part 8, the coroner's inquisition into Marlowe's death states that Marlowe died "within the verge."  The "verge" was the area within a circle of 12 miles radius measured from the queen's court as the center of the circle.  As it so happens, the word "Court" appears three times on page 190 (the page where act II, scene i appears).  I decided to draw a circle from the letter "C" in each instance of the word "Court."  Once again, I am using the "mark upon him, two courses off" compass setting.  (I explain why I used this in my other posts.)  The circumference (or verge) of each circle is shown in the first image.  One arc falls near the words "a poore sequestred Stag."  This seems appropriate as the stag is described as being "sequestered" on the verge of the brook.  The other circles seem to indicate the following lines:

To day my Lord of Amiens, and my selfe,

Did steale behinde him as he lay along

Vnder an oake

Since the "poore sequestred Stag" was on a verge, I decided to move the "melancholie Jaques" line up to the other verge.  If this is a correct placement (and I am not completely confident of this), the messages is

My Lord of Oxford and myself did steal behind him [i.e., Marlowe] as he lay along [under the oak].  

I believe the oak tree clue is important because there are other references to an oak tree in the play. In Act 3, scene ii, Orlando is described as lying under a tree "like a drop'd Acorne." Of course, an oak drops acorns. (Orlando is also described as stretch'd along like a Wounded knight.")
  Cel. It is as easie to count Atomies as to resolue the

propositions of a Louer: but take a taste of my finding

him, and rellish it with good obseruance. I found him

vnder a tree like a drop'd Acorne.

Ros. It may vvel be cal'd Ioues tree, when it droppes

forth fruite.

Cel. Giue me audience, good Madam.

Ros. Proceed.

Cel. There lay hee stretch'd along like a Wounded

knight.

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/AYL/F1/scene/3.2

(underlining added.)

In Act IV, scene iii, Oliver, Orlando's brother, describes lying under an oak tree and being saved by Orlando from a viper and a lioness. I decided to try an alignment of this page (page 203) to find out if I could find the name Marlowe in an overlay message. I moved the text so that the words "wretched man" appear under the word "Oake." The message that results is

And mark what object did present itself--MARLOWE..[is the] wretched man under an old oak. 

Here are the images:

It also seems that this section of text is written in a way that the name Marlowe can be found using numerous different overlay clues.

The last set of images is Act IV, scene ii, of the play. This is a very brief and seemingly insignificant scene where an unnamed "Lord" claims the credit for killing the deer. (Since I have hypothesized that the deer is an allegorical Christopher Marlowe, it is important to know who is supposed to have killed him.)  In the accepted meaning of the play, the only point of the scene seems to be for a little comic song to be sung. (The scene is so insignificant, I would not be surprised if the it has been omitted in many productions of the play.) The clues to an overlay message seem obvious from the lines of the scene:

Iaq. Which is he that killed the Deare?

Lord. Sir, it was I.

Iaq. Let's present him to the Duke like a Romane

Conquerour, and it would doe well to set the Deares

horns vpon his head, for a branch of victory; haue you

no song Forrester for this purpose?

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/AYL/F1/scene/4.2

(underlining added.)

The clues are to present the word "him" to the word "Duke" and to place the word "horns" on the words "his head." The result is that [Edward] de Vere is the Lord who killed the deer. Edward de Vere is the killer of Marlowe. (There may also be an alignment (or alignments) of "Romane" and "Conquerour" that results in the message "Rose Cross" and "RC" or "CR." Here are the images: