A previously unknown Cipher in the heading to Ben Jonson’s cryptic poem “To the Memory of My Beloved”, in the Second Folio of 1632, identifies the true author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare, namely the celebrated Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe (Figures 1 & 2).   

Ben Jonson’s “No end-V” Cipher was originally intended to appear in the First Folio of 1623, but it had to be withheld for security reasons – at a late stage of the printing process – due to concerns about Royal Proclamation 247, issued by the Court of Star Chamber in September 1623. This powerful Prerogative Court was the English equivalent of the Inquisition; the Star Chamber not only removed the right to trial by jury, but was also allowed to use torture, and frequently did so. Royal Proclamation 247 renewed the Star Chamber’s authority over the printing presses and all published books, with a particular focus on Blasphemy, Heresy and Sedition.

Back in the spring of 1593, officers of the Court had arrested Christopher Marlowe at the house of his patron, Thomas Walsingham, on capital charges of Blasphemy and Heresy. However, by means of the Deptford deception (the supposed killing of the poet by Ingram Frizer), Walsingham helped him to escape into exile in Northern Italy (thus explaining the completely authentic detail and atmosphere of the Italian Plays, beginning with The Taming of the Shrew which was “sundry times acted”  in the spring of 1594 by the Earl of  Pembroke’s Men.  These were, in fact, the first performances of any of the famous Italian Plays attributed to “Shakespeare”.

Fortunately for future generations, the “No end-V” Cipher was re-instated in the Second Folio of 1632, when publication was much safer - not least because the author’s patrons (William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke; Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton; and Sir Thomas Walsingham) were all deceased.

On page 7 of The Tempest in the First and Second Folios, the veracity of the previously deciphered Sonnets Cryptogram (Figure 3) is confirmed. The mysterious dedicatee of the 1609 Sonnets, “Mr W. H.”, is identified in an elegant Rebus Cipher (Figures 4 & 5). The Sonnets Cryptogram identifies Marlowe as OUR EVER-LIVING POET and suggests that he was on board the Virginia Company’s ill-fated flagship the Sea Venture when it sailed for Jamestown, Virginia on the 15th of May 1609; the ship was later wrecked on a reef in Bermuda (July 28th) - without loss of life! These events duly inspired The Tempest, which was first performed in London in 1611.

The Bermudan castaways eventually constructed two smaller vessels out of the timbers of the Sea Venture, and they reached Jamestown in the summer of 1610.

                                                             *******

Marlowe was the great innovator of the Elizabethan stage; he completely transformed English blank verse, making it more powerful, harmonic and expressive. He was also the first English playwright to break away from the rigid Three Unities of Classical Drama (of Time, Space and Action); this courageous advance made it possible to present on stage not only the world-wide conquests of Tamburlaine the Great and his armies, but also the great sequence of plays on English and Scottish history, beginning with Edward II and Edward III, right through to Henry VIII:

“Can this cockpit hold

The vasty fields of France? And may we cram

Within this wooden O, the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt?”                                          Henry V, Prologue

In this new world of possibilities, Marlowe knew that you could; and he proved it with consummate skill and artistry.

Explanatory Notes

Sir Thomas Walsingham (1561-1630) was a prominent courtier during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. He was cousin to Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s Secretary of State and spymaster. He was knighted in 1597. (Figure 6)

The Italian Plays

For their astonishing authenticity and true reflection of Italian life and customs, see Professor Ernesto Grillo, Shakespeare and Italy (Glasgow University Press, 1949); and Richard Roe, The Shakespeare Guide to Italy (Harper Perennial, 2011)

For any reader who would like to learn more about Marlowe, I would strongly recommend the magnificent pictorial biography In Search of Christopher Marlowe by A.D. Wraight and Virginia Stern (Macdonald & Co. 1965; 2nd edition, Adam Hart, 1993).

Other articles by Christ Gamble:

'The Secret of Four Centuries'

'Striking the Second HEAT upon the Muses’ Anvil' (the sequel to the above)

Virginia in “The Tempest”:  How the New World inspired Shake-speare’s Late Masterpiece

Shakespeare’s “Mr W.H.”, the Dark Lady and the Lovely Boy

The Mystery of the Missing “M”

The Sonnets Cryptogram of 1609  

These can all be read online at www.academia.edu     

Finally, I would like to send my best wishes to all my old friends at Christ Church. I can be contacted here.