The reader cannot fail to remark how perpetually it is shewn that
everything connected with the plays is performed "left-handedly," that
is, "underhandedly" and "secretly in shadow." On the right-hand side
upon the higher level the figure with her right hand holds above Bacon's
head a salt box. This is in order to teach us that Bacon was the "wisest
of mankind," because we are plainly told in the "Continuation of Bacon's
New Atlantis" (which was published in 1660, but of which the author
who is called "R. H., Esq.," has never been identified) that in "our
Heraldry" (which refers to the symbolic drawings that appear mostly as
the frontispieces of certain books such as those before the reader) "If
for wisdom she (the virgin) holds a salt." But the reader will perceive
that in her right hand she also holds something else above Bacon's head.
[Illustration: 0017]
Only a considerable knowledge of Emblems and Emblem books enables me
to inform my readers what this very curious object represents. It is
absolutely certain that what she holds above Bacon's head is a "bridle
without a bit," which is here put for the purpose of instructing us that
the future age is not to curb and muzzle and destroy Bacon's reputation.
This emblem tells us that, as the ages roll on, Bacon will be unmuzzled
and crowned with everlasting fame. How do we know so much as this? In
February, 1531, the first edition of the most important of all Emblem
books, viz., "Alciati's Emblems," was published, and in that book there
is shewn a hideous figure of Nemesis holding a bridle in which is a
tremendous "bit" to destroy "improba verba," false reputations. A
little more than a hundred years later, viz., in 1638, Baudoin, who had
translated Bacon's essays into French, also published a book of Emblems,
a task which, he tells us in the preface, he was induced to undertake
by "Alciat" (printed in small letters) and by BACON (printed in capital
letters). In this book of Emblems Baudoin puts opposite to Bacon's name
a fine engraving of Nemesis, but which is, in fact, a figure of Fame
holding a "bridle without a bit," of exactly the same shape as that
shewn in the title page of "Henry VII.," which is now under the reader's
eyes. I may perhaps here state that I possess books that must have
belonged to a distinguished Rosicrucian who was well acquainted with
Bacon's secrets, and that in my library there is a specially printed
copy of Baudoin's book in which this figure of Fame that is put as the
Nemesis for Bacon, is purposefully printed upside down; I do not mean
bound upside down, but printed upside down, the printing on the back
being reversed and so reading correctly. Other books which I possess
have portions similarly purposefully printed upside down to afford
revelations of Bacon's authorship to those readers who are capable
of understanding symbols. This particular upside down drawing of the
Nemesis placed opposite to Bacon's name in Baudoin's book is so printed
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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