Two Left Arms and a Mask

"The portrait in the title page of the first folio edition of the plays published in 1623, which was drawn by Martin Droeshout is cunningly composed of two left arms and a mask. Martin Droeshout, its designer, was, as Mr. Sidney Lee tells us, but 15 years of age when Shakespeare died. He is not likely therefore ever to have seen the actor of Stratford, yet this is the 'Authentic,' that is the 'Authorized' portrait of Shakespeare, although there is no question--there can be no possible question--that in fact it is a cunningly drawn cryptographic picture, showing two left arms and a mask.
"Every tailor will admit that this [indicating the figure's right arm] is not and cannot be the front of the right arm, but is, without possibility of doubt, the back of the left arm.
"[The image] shows the front of the left arm, and you at once perceive that you are no longer looking at the back of the coat but at the front of the coat.
"[Examining the face], you see the mask. Especially note that the ear is a mask ear and stands out curiously; note also how distinct the line showing the edge of the mask appears. Perhaps the reader will perceive this more clearly if he turns the page upside down.
"The reader having seen the separate portions, will, I trust, be able now to perceve that this portrait is correctly characterized as cunningly composed of two left arms and a mask.

"While examining this portrait, the reader should study the lines that describe it in the Shakespeare folio of 1623, a facsimile of which is here inserted." Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Bacon is Shakespeare (New York, The John McBride Co., 1910)

Francis Bacon's Labours

One of the books that changed my life when I read it was Alfred Dodd's, The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon. Following is a quote from that book (pp. 31-32) which nicely sums up Bacon's drive of revealing Truth and educating the masses with his philosophy.

"Under the cloak of the Secret Literary Society Francis Bacon built up his "forms," the dramatic creation of personalities; speaking his own thoughts to the world through their mouths. Now can be better understood his saying: 'Motley's the only wear: it is my only suit . . .'

'Invest me in my Motley: give me leave
To speak my Mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of th' infected world
If they will patiently receive my medicine.'
--As You Like It

"So . . . in the 'despised weed' (disguise) of a dramatist, Shakespeare, he 'procured the good of all men.' Through his stories he tried to uplift common humanity educationally and ethically, giving his countrymen, in his open works as well as his concealed ones, a vocabulary of some twenty thousand words. He painted broad canvasses of life that taught the triumph of goodness and the dethronement of evil . . . great epics of moral power. He showed in the most practical manner, to succeeding generations of scholars, that he knew how to hold the mirror up to Nature, because he knew the secret of applied metaphysics, the interpretation of Nature according to the Novum Organum, i.e., part III. In short, he demonstrated that he fully understood the laws that govern human nature, and how to blend creative effort along definite lines in order to produce characters in art form, the various 'forms' that live in the Great Plays. Had he openly declared his views that he put into the mouths of his various characters, Francis Bacon would have been brought into conflict with Church and State. He wrote his views under the mask of a living man, as Sir Nicholas had done. This man was buried in the heart of the country . . . literally buried in Stratford Church--and had been for seven years--when Part IV of the 'Types and Models,' interpretive of Nature, were mysteriously produced in 1623 under the title of Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. This book contains the various 'forms' of mental and moral passion--of 'Light and Heat'--to illustrate his experimental natural philosophy."

Bacon's Cryptic Headpieces

This ornament was placed at the head of the "1609 Sonnet Quarto," and is a specimen of Rosicrosse symbolism. The light A and dark A design is one of a family of headpieces (fourteen in all) peculiar to books which the Rosicrosse Literary Society had some connection, especially in the latter part of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The same blocks were used by printers far apart and were supplied by a central organization.
The light and dark shading of the "A A's" ear-marked the book as one that contains in the shadow more than is openly revealed. They are designed in the form of ladders or a winding staircase . . . a Masonic symbol.
 The center ornament is an urn which, emblematically, contains the ashes of a dead personality. Underneath the urn is the shuttle of time supported by a partially unwound skein . . . the thread of fate. A key on the point of entering the lock completes the base . . . indicating that with this sonnet key Shakespeare unlocks his heart. The urn supports a basket vase which holds floral emblems. On the right-hand side is a palm branch. The mystical palm at once associates itself with Solomon's Temple: "Upon each post were palm trees . . . palms to the arches . . . and palms to the seven steps."
On either side of the urn is a single leaf or fleur-de-lis of purity . . . a Rosicrucian emblem.
On the bottom right appears a very clearly marked scroll "T", emblematic of the "Sacred Word" known to Royal Arch Companions.  (Dodd, Shakespeare, Creator of Freemasonry, plate IX)

Pallas Athena

The Athena Giustiniani, a Roman copy of a Greek statue of Pallas Athena (Vatican Museums)

Known in Mythology as Pallas Minerva, Athene, or Athena, which means Virgin. She was the Goddess of Wisdom, War and the Liberal Arts and Sciences; was produced from Jupiter's brain without a mother. The olive, the emblem of peace, belongs to her. She is usually represented as wearing a helmet, her right hand holding a speare to strike at a serpent near her feet, the owl and the cock being her favourite birds symbolically.
Athena was known as the spear-shaker among the ancient Greeks. They placed her statue on their temples. When the rays of the sun danced on her spear, it seemed as though Athena was shaking it . . . hence her name, the Spear-Shaker.
"AthenA" was Francis Bacon's muse. He calls her "the tenth muse ten times more in worth than those old nine the rhymers invocate". (Sonnet 38). There were supposed to be nine muses only. He used the first and last letters of her name as head pieces to mark books connected with the Rosicrosse. There were many different designs of this double "A.A.". Numerous books in their era bear the signal,  including the authorized edition of the James Bible and the Shakespeare Plays. One "A" was printed light and the other "A" was dark to indicate that while there was much open and straightforward in the book there was also much in the shadow which could only be discovered by searching. (Dodd, The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon, p. 176)

Robert Dudley and Elizabeth Tudor Married in the Tower of London

Robert Dudley and Elizabeth Tudor were imprisoned in the Tower of London together for separate offenses during the reign of Queen Mary, Elizabeth's older sister. It is said that they became very close during their predicament.  Following is a quote from Alfred Dodd's book, The Marriage of Elizabeth Tudor.
"According to Froude (England, Vol. VI, p. 220), Elizabeth had been Dudley's playfellow in childhood. Whether so or not, they both met in the Tower under the shadow of the scaffold, for neither of them had any expectation of coming out alive. Their common fate naturally drew them together. As prisoners of note they were allowed a certain amount of freedom in the grounds. Deventer von Kunow, in Francis Bacon, Last of the Tudors, says that "a chronicle in the Tower states that the couple were married there by a monk" (p. 11). Yet Dudley was then a married man.

Anne Boleyn's Speech at Her Execution

May 19, 1536, 8:00 o'clock in the morning

"Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul."

After being blindfolded and kneeling at the block, she repeated several times: "To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul."

Recorded by Edward Hall (spelling modernized)

Queen Anne Boleyn's Remains

An alternative burial site for Anne is Salle Church, Norfolk, England. An eye-witness, Crispin, Lord of Minherve, a foreign diplomat in London, noted fourteen days after Anne's death that her body had been taken to Norfolk.

A book that was published in 1877 by Doyne C. Bell describes the excavations of the graves in St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. It is titled Notices of the Historic Burials in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London With an Account of the Discovery of the Supposed Remains of Queen Anne Boleyn (1877, John Murray, Albermarle St.).

Fifteen hundred bodies were buried under the floor of the nave. Of all of them only 33 could be identified. A quote from Bell's book describes Dr. Mouat's examination of the bones thought to be those of Anne Boleyn, "The bones found in the place where Queen Anne is said to have been buried are certainly those of a female in the prime of life, all perfectly consolidated and symmetrical and belong to the same person. The bones of the head indicate a well-formed round skull, with an intellectual forehead, straight orbital ridge, large eyes, oval face, and rather square full chin. The remains of the vertebra and the bones of the lower limbs indicate a well-formed woman of middle height with a short and slender neck. The ribs shew (sic) depth and roundness of chest. The hand and feet bones indicate delicate and well-shaped hands and feet, with tapering fingers and a narrow foot."