A CIPHER OF
TWO
Harts ease and
OnE ly I,
like
parallels run on, whose equal length,
keep equal breadth,
and never meet in OnE,
The
reader will recall In Part One, I failed to give the way the text actually
appeared, and I had to break the lines differently than given in the “original.”
I will rectify that now. The original text reads:
Harts
ease and onely I like parallels run on,
whose
equall length, keep equall bredth, and never meet in one.
[I
have previously pointed out the obvious, that if the lines are broken, as in
the original, the fact that we are dealing with a cipher is virtually destroyed;
proof of a cipher shows that the lines, broken as I have done, is then correct,
i.e., the lines “like parallel run on with equal length and equal breadth! See
chart is Part One].
In
the above quotation from “Another of the same.” by an unknown poet, we see that
its author refers to “Harts ease and
onely I”—as the specific terms which define him. Also, in the first part of
this two-part work, I revealed Lord Oxford (LO) in the alias of “Anomos” declaing
in his poems In Prison Pent that his name is “Hearts-ease:, cited above.
Did Spenser Help E.O. With His “Cipher
of One”?
Does The Cipher Soup Thicken?
With
that in mind, the fact that LO or “Anomos” himself specifically identified
himself as “Hearts-ease” and “OnE” which contains his initials, as does E.V.
(Edward Vere), we come to another important passage, just found, which cries
out to be told—read or not is another matter. I discovered it just leafing
through the pages of another book on Spenser’s poetry, Edmund Spenser: The Shorter Poems (Penquin Classics, Editor, Richard
A. McCabe, 1999)—where my notes and underlines brought the issue to life again
for me.
The
matter is this. Implicit, in all that was written above, from the beginning, is
the fact of the relationship between Spenser and Lord Oxford. And, indeed, I
closed one of my chapters on these matters by quoting the fact that Spenser
specifically indicates, at the end of his famous, The Shepheardes Calender (SC, 1579) that he is saluting “Tityrus” in
his very anaphoric, “Adieu” ending of the book [I invite the reader to note the
excessive anaphora, a characteristic of Oxford, later aped by Spenser in SC]
Adieu
delightes, that lulled me asleep
Adieu
my deare, whose love I bought so deare: Adieu my little lambs . . .
Adieu ye woods . . .
Adieu good Hobbinal. . .
Tell Rosalind, he Colin bids her adieu. (pg. 153)
And,
I showed that in his phrase “whose love I bought so
deare” he was imitating a line from one of Oxford’s most famous poems,
and I even quoted from Arte of English
Posie (1589, AEP) showing its author chasted just such a usage of a
repeated use of the word “farewell” as “vulgar.”
Chronology Proves No Obstacle to Lord
Oxford and Spenser Collaborating—in creation of Lord Oxford’s coded epitaph for
Sidney “Another of the same.”
Chronology
is very important in these matters—and as I’ve already noted, relations of the
parties, and the ability to demonstrate that Lord Oxford was the anonymous poet
whose work we analyzed from Spenser’s publication Astrophel
(1595). But, Astrophel was probably mostly or all written by 1593, and the work
I will next, quote is from Colin Clout’s
Come Home Againe (Dedication, 12/1591, but revisions made up to 1594—looks
to be only a couple words). The important point is this: With this new
information below, I don’t know who influenced whom, in the creation of the
odd-word-play which was revealed in our previous remarks above, in “Shakespeare /Oxford & A Cipher
of One. It appears they may both have played a role.
In
Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (CCCHA)
the impersonal author refers to the character of Colin Clout—well known to
everyone to be the “hero” of CCCHA and SC (Shepheardes
Calender) as Edmund Spenser, himself. Again, it must be emphasized that we
already know that Lord Oxford is “Tityrus” and that Colin Clout has a love/hate
relationship with Lord Oxford or “Tityrus” (another name is Amalcus) because,
in real life, Spenser is claiming in SC that LO
destroyed his love-affair with Anne Vavasour, called a “gentle Mayde. ”
Indeed, Spenser claims “Tityrus” defiled his love, corrupted her and left him utterly heart-broken. At least that is the tale he is peddling in SC and CCCHA. He’s another taste of Spenser’s whining on the subject—the same subject he “martyrizes” himself on involving an imagined love affair of some 15 years ago and commemorated in SC. And he still claims his “love” with whom he had no contact at all, that anyone can establish, nightly “martyrizes” or tortures himself over—but no one believes him! Look what Spenser does with his “rememberance” or alleged daily suffering in CCCHA:
For
that myself I do profess to be,
Vassle
to one, whom all my dayes I serve:The beame of beautie sparkled from above,
The floure of virtue and pure chastity,
The blossome of sweet joy and perfect love,
The pearle of peerless grace and modestie:
To her my thoughts I daily dedicate,
To her my heart I nightly martyrize:
To her my love I lowly do prostrate,
To her my life I wholly sacrifice:
My thought, my heart, my love, my life is shee,
And I hers EVer OnE-ly, EVer OnE:
OnE EVer I all vowed hers to bee,
OnE EVer I, and other’s never nOnE.
[red
and capitals and –ly only added—SEE BELOW FOR ORIGINAL PRINTING APPEARANCE] pg.
358
One ever I all vowed hers to bee,
One ever I, and other’s never none.
Note: It is to be noted here that the
scholarly notes accompanying this passage in The Shorter Spenser (cited below), first-off, explicitly identify
the reference to his mayde of “peerless
grace” as “Rosalind” of SC—who, in real life is Anne Vavasour, but at the line 477 , above, two words are noted, in the scholarly notes:
477
“ onely:
playing on ‘one-ly’”
‘ever
one: For truth is one, and right is ever one’ (FQ, 5,2,48). (red added)
Of
course, as we have already demonstrated,“OnE” is E. Ver, or E. Vere. Before
today I was unaware that the scholarly note breaks the word onely (above) just
as I did to illustrate the meaning of the cipher (“playing-on”) to “one-ly.” Onely,
of course, could hardly summon a better quotation, for the author is, in
context, giving what he believe the texts suggests, exactly the element I used
in my cipher analysis.
One could hardly have a better Motto.—and it very nearly quotes Lord Oxford’s own play on his own name, often. Here’s one such motto, written by LO when he was 25, to his new bride, informing her of the pride he had for his name, which was:
“EVER a LOVER OF THE TRUTH, may these words be thy TRUE motto.” (Shakespeare Revealed in Oxford’s Letters, Fowler, p. 194-5, capitals in original)—
“E.Ver a LO [Lord Oxford]-Ver of the Truth, may these words be thy True motto.” [Truth: Latin: VERitas]
Fowler
himself notes:
“While this Latin poem will be quoted again . . .for its great significance as to the Earl’s and Shakespeare’s worship of “Truth,” and their mutual wordplay on “Truth” and the Earl’s name “Vere”—to have omitted it here would have been to have left the Earl open to totally unjustified charge of ingratitude.” [the letter by the way survived]
The
reader will see footnote no. 477 a
reference to Spenser’s Faerie Queene
(1589) for the quotation “For Truth is one, and right is ever one.” The
entire canto reads:
‘But
set the truth and set the right aside,
For
they with wrong or falsehood will not fare:And put two wrongs together to be tride,
Or else two falses, of each equal share
And then together doe them both compare:
For truth is one, and right is ever one.’
So did he, and then plaine it did appeare,
Whether of them the greater were attone.
But right sate in the middest of the beame
alone.
[a space was added, to distinguish the quote from the comment.
Oxford, on the other hand, it will be recalled set out “parallels” of “equal length” and “equal breadth” –elements which do not, cannot, ever meet in “one.” And “in the middest” of One, he hides his identity, O.E. or E.O. LO’s “beame”, too, is Alone, Al-One is None. [None, we may recall, in the mathematics of the days was “none.” [The reader is to note the number of letters in the relevant poems; it will be seen they both strictly give the same number of letters to the same relevant lines]
CRITICS AGREE:
Colin Clout Come Home AgainIs an Odd Piece of Work
It
is clearly recognized by commentators that Spenser in CCCHA intentionally is
constantly playing games, shifting from one thing to another, from one
time-frame to another, from one topic to another, etc. I must forewarn the reader, Spenser admits he
closes his famous SC with the “Adieu”
poem, as I previously indicated, as a salute to “Tityrus” a cover name for Lord
Oxford! This writer is not imposing that on the story, that Lord Oxford is
“Tityrus.” I have earlier posted a very detailed article on “Tityrus” and the
fact that Spenser was referring to Lord Oxford as Tityrus. The evidence is
ample and convincing.
And,
too, we must forget, as also previously pointed out, in detail, in a recent
article, that Spenser says he hates and loves Lord
Oxford (i.e., “Tityrus”) with a passion. Spenser, is an unbalanced
person, we may well wonder if he didn’t identify with LO as Anne Vavasour’s
lover (called “Rosalind” in SC), in LO’s
place. There is no evidence at all in the record, that I can find, which
shows Spenser actually had any real romantic
relationship (or any other kind of relationship with Anne Vavasour—who was
above his social station—or with any other female for that matter). His
romantic notions at the time, clearly seem all for Gabriel Harvey, his co-conspirator
with Spenser to destroy LO.
I
have already “embodied” Spenser’s doings in LO’s biography, as I portray it in
my Lord Oxford Trilogy. There is a
substantial body of evidence that Spenser was terribly jealous of Lord
Oxford—as I have certified in numerous of my writings.
The
fact that Lord Oxford participated in contributing two poems, epitaphs for
Sidney, to Astrophel, as discussed
above, re: the “secrete” poet, would seem to indicate that they were, in the
least case “cooperating.” We may suggest this because it is difficult to
imagine that LO would suffer anyone to publish his poetry without his
permission. And, it bears emphasizing,
in another book of letters, he makes reference to Lord Oxford’s love affair
with “his” love, “Rosalind,” by name in SC and Anne Vavasour by name, in
reality—and by whom LO actually had and illegitimate son.
It also seems to indicate, that if LO was playing-off of something Spenser wrote about him—i.e., the response just given above—it was in the right time frame. LO could have well seen the above by Spenser, before he wrote his own cipher! Spenser’s line, “One ever I,” repeated, sounds so like our “secrete” poet:
Harts ease and
OnE ly I,
like
parallels run on, whose equal length,
keep equal breadth,
and never meet in OnE,
It
appears in the original text formatted as below:
Harts
ease and onely I, like parallels run on,
whose
equal length, keep equal breadth, and never meet in one,
And
then, before or after, of which Spenser wrote in CCCHA:
OnE EVer I,
and other’s nEVer nOnE.
[original:
One ever I, and other’s never none]
I
suppose we will never know. Or was
Spenser trying to “spill the beans” on LO? Well, isn’t that what it’s all about
in the first place? Why have any cipher in the first place if it’s not there
for someone to solve?
As
to the fact that Spenser emphasizes Ever, E. VER, rather than E.O. or O.E. does
not detract from the fact that our “secrete” poet does, in fact, I submit refer
to himself as E.Ver, as previously I pointed out him identifying with his name
in his epitaph for Sidney, “More of the same.” Where he speaks of himself in
the “ever dying days,” and his “never ending grief.”
[I]
must spend my EVer dying days,
In nEVer ending grief. ELM
Below,
FQ Canto: Letter Count
P.S.
Number Letter Count of Spenser’s FQ canto 5,
‘But
set the truth and set the right aside, 32 ltrs
For
they with wrong or falsehood will not fare: 38 ltrsAnd put two wrongs together to be tride, 32 ltrs
Or else two falses, of each equall share, 32 ltrs
And then together doe them both compare: 33 ltrs
For truth is one, and right is ever one.’ 30 ltrs
So did he, and then plaine it did appeare, 32 ltrs
Whether of them the greater were attone. 33 ltrs
But right sate in the middest of the beame 33 ltrs
alone. 5 ltrs
Right is Truth and truth sits “in the midst” of the beame,
alone = alone = none
