© Gunnar Tómasson

14 June 2017

Background

(Alfred Dodd)

On 22 January 1621 the Lord Chancellor made a great feast.  It was his sixtieth birthday.  To it he invited all his special friends that were of the Rosicrosse, the Rosicrucians and the Masonic Fraternities – all those privileged ones who were in the secret of Francis Bacon’s labours and over whom he reigned like Solomon King of Israel, Hyram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abif.  The gathering was held at York House.  Some of the best men in the land sat at his table that day.  We know that it was a meeting of the Brethren because Ben Jonson recited an ode – as yet unnoticed by anyone, even scholarly members of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge having hitherto failed to see its significance – which is replete with Masonic asides and esoteric information.  The poem conveys nothing to the “uninstructed world”, and is just as subtle and enigmatical as the prefatory lines Ben Jonson wrote to “Shakespeare” in the 1623 Folio.  […]

To Ben Jonson’s first four lines I call the particular attention of all Freemasons.  He gave the toast of the evening to Francis Bacon as the Head of the Brethren and the poem Ben recited was the conclusion of his speech:

On Francis Bacon’s Sixtieth Birthday

Hail!  Happy Genius of this Antient Pile!

How comes it all things so about thee smile?

The Fire?  The Wine?  The MEN? and in the MIDST

Thou STAND’ST as if some MYSTERY thou didst.

This is an intriguing verse and the attention of all Fellow-Crafts is drawn to it by the first word: “Hail” means more than a call, it is a sign.

“Pile” has a meaning other than a pile of buildings; it also means a spear; and there was but one “Happy Genius” who could wield the “Ancient Spear” of Pallas-Athena the Spear-Shaker – Francis Bacon.

“Smiles” are to be found always when there is good fellowship, especially when men “stand to”.

“The Fire” means something far more than a wood blaze and refers to the ancient Masonic habit of “Firing” with their glasses.

“The Wine” indicates something that goes with “Firing Glasses” – the toasts.

“The Men” mentioned particularly shows that the company was composed of males, as they would be indeed at such a banquet.

The “Happy Genius” (note the Masonic significance of the word “Happy”) stood in their “Midst”, as, indeed, he would do as the Father, Founder and Creator of Ethical Symbolism – in fact in the Centre.

He “Stands” in a certain manner, says Ben Jonson.  Of course!  Because it would be improper to stand in any other way under the circumstances.

“Thou Stand’st as if some MYSTERY thou didst.”  And this last word “MYSTERY” explains the riddle to those who can read what was at the back of Ben Jonson’s mind; the verse is unintelligible without it; for the word refers to the Modern Mystery of Ancient Freemasonry that is to be found in our midst today.  (Francis Bacon’s Personal Life-story, Rider and Company, London, ISBN 0-7126-1260-2, 1986, pp. 502-503)

I. On Lord Bacon’s Sixtieth Birth-day.

(Ben Jonson, 1621)

367239

16581 = Haile, happie Genius of this antient pile!

20279 = How comes it all things so about thee smile?

17198 = The fire, the wine, the men! and in the midst,

21508 = Thou stand’st as if some Mysterie thou did’st!

12154 = Pardon, I read it in thy face, the day

19469 = For whose returnes, and many, all these pray:

16418 = And so doe I. This is the sixtieth yeare

17016 = Since Bacon, and thy Lord was borne, and here;

18913 = Sonne to the grave wise Keeper of the Seale,

16059 = Fame, and foundation of the English Weale.

19651 = What then his Father was, that since is hee,

17241 = Now with a Title more to the Degree;

16620 = Englands high Chancellor: the destin’d heire

17009 = In his soft Cradle to his Fathers Chaire,

22240 = Whose even Thred the Fates spinne round, and full,

24638 = Out of their Choysest, and their whitest wooll.

17274 = ‘Tis a brave cause of joy, let it be knowne,

22882 = For ‘t were a narrow gladnesse, kept thine owne.

18137 = Give me a deep-crown’d-Bowle, that I may sing

15952 = In raysing him the wisdome of my King.

367239

II. And at that time shall Michael stand vp.

 (Daniel, 12:1-4, KJB, 1611)

311082

12:1

15544 = And at that time shall Michael stand vp,

27354 = the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people,

12973 = and there shalbe a time of trouble,

20603 = such as neuer was since there was a nation,

9709 = euen to that same time:

17012 = and at that time thy people shalbe deliuered,

21705 = euery one that shalbe found written in the booke.

12:2

20959 = And many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth

16366 = shall awake, some to euerlasting life,

18676 = and some to shame and euerlasting contempt.

12:3

8905 = And they that be wise

20026 = shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament,

20216 = and they that turne many to righteousnesse,

14239 = as the starres for euer and euer.

12:4

18611 = But thou, O Daniel, shut vp the wordes,

17360 = and seale the booke euen to the time of the ende:

11314 = many shall runne to and fro,

12792 = and knowledge shall bee increased.

304364

INSERT

A

16581 = Haile, happie Genius of this antient pile!

20279 = How comes it all things so about thee smile?

17198 = The fire, the wine, the men! and in the midst,

21508 = Thou stand’st as if some Mysterie thou did’st!

75566

B

15544 = And at that time shall Michael stand vp,

27354 = the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people,

12973 = and there shalbe a time of trouble,

20603 = such as neuer was since there was a nation,

9709 = euen to that same time: 86183

MYSTERY

7000 = Microcosmos – Man in God’s Image

93183

C

Ben Jonson‘s Prefatory Line

First Folio

 8288 = My Shakespeare rise!

75566 = Hail, happy Genius of this antient pile!

 9329 = 1 + 4386 + 1000 + 1250 + 2692

93183

9329

       1 = Monad

4386 = Atlantis

1000 = Light of the World

1250 = Eden

2692 = Ísland – Iceland

9329

7  = Hebrew Man of Seventh Day

9322 = William Shakespeare

9329

END INSERT

III. The rest is silence. O, o, o, o.  Dyes.

(Hamlet, Act V, Sc. ii. First Folio)

210865

15079 = March afarre off, and shout within.

Hamlet

14387 = What warlike noyse is this?

  6697 = Enter Osricke.

Osricke

22993 = Yong Fortinbras, with conquest come frō Poland

24474 = To th’Ambassadors of England giues this warlike volly.

Hamlet

5901 = O I dye Horatio:

24502 = The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit,

19230 = I cannot liue to heare the Newes from England,

17032 = But I do prophesie th’election lights

14414 = On Fortinbras, he ha’s my dying voyce,

22842 = So tell him with the occurrents more and lesse,

23314 = Which haue solicited.  The rest is silence.  O, o, o, o.  Dyes.

210865

I + II + III = 367239 + 304364 + 210865 = 882468

IV. Rich gifts wax poore, when giuers proue vnkinde.

(Hamlet, Act III, Sc. i – First Folio)

882468

1000 = Light of the World

2604 = Páfinn – The Pope/Icelandic

5415 = Enter Hamlet.

Hamlet

18050 = To be, or not to be, that is the Question:

19549 = Whether ’tis Nobler in the minde to suffer

23467 = The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune,

17893 = Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,

16211 = And by opposing end them: to dye, to sleepe

13853 = No more; and by a sleepe, to say we end

20133 = The Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockes

19800 = That Flesh is heyre too?  ‘Tis a consummation

17421 = Deuoutly to be wish’d. To dye to sleepe,

19236 = To sleepe, perchance to Dreame; I, there’s the rub,

19794 = For in that sleepe of death, what dreames may come,

21218 = When we haue shufflel’d off this mortall coile,

20087 = Must giue vs pawse. There’s the respect

13898 = That makes Calamity of so long life:

24656 = For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time,

24952 = The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely,

18734 = The pangs of dispriz’d Loue, the Lawes delay,

16768 = The insolence of Office, and the Spurnes

20720 = That patient merit of the vnworthy takes,

17879 = When he himselfe might his Quietus make

21696 = With a bare Bodkin? Who would these Fardles beare

17807 = To grunt and sweat vnder a weary life,

17426 = But that the dread of something after death,

21935 = The vndiscouered Countrey, from whose Borne

20927 = No Traueller returnes, Puzels the will,

19000 = And makes vs rather beare those illes we haue,

20119 = Then flye to others that we know not of.

20260 = Thus Conscience does make Cowards of vs all,

18787 = And thus the Natiue hew of Resolution

21086 = Is sicklied o’re, with the pale cast of Thought,

17836 = And enterprizes of great pith and moment,

22968 = With this regard their Currants turne away,

18723 = And loose the name of Action.  Soft you now,

16746 = The faire Ophelia? Nimph, in thy Orizons

9726 = Be all my sinnes remembred.

Ophelia

5047 = Good my Lord,

17675 = How does your Honor for this many a day?

Hamlet

17391 = I humbly thanke you: well, well, well.

Ophelia

15437 = My Lord, I haue Remembrances of yours,

14927 = That I haue longed long to re-deliuer.

12985 = I pray you now, receiue them.

Hamlet

12520 = No, no, I neuer gaue you ought.

Ophelia

19402 = My honor’d Lord, I know right well you did,

24384 = And with them words of so sweet breath compos’d,

19172 = As made the things more rich, then perfume left:

14959 = Take these againe, for to the Noble minde

24436 = Rich gifts wax poore, when giuers proue vnkinde.

   5753 = There my Lord.

882468

***

Calculator for converting letters to cipher values is at:

http://www.light-of-truth.com/ciphersaga.htm