© Gunnar Tómasson

14 September 2017

Introduction

(Wikipedia)

The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is a poem written by English writer Lewis Carroll. It is typically categorised as a nonsense poem. Written from 1874 to 1876, the poem borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from Carroll’s earlier poem „Jabberwocky“ in his children’s novel Through the Looking Glass(1871).

Henry Holiday, the illustrator of the poem, thought of it as a „tragedy“.

The plot follows a crew of ten trying to hunt the Snark, an animal which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. The only one of the crew to find the Snark quickly vanishes, leading the narrator to explain that it was a Boojum after all.

Comment

The Snark = 4335 = Kristr

As here construed, The Hunting of the Snark, is the ”heretical“  interpretation by authors in the Platonic-Augustan-Saga-Shakespeare tradition that The Devil and Christ are twin manifestations of Cosmic Creative Power at the level of Man. Other such pairs are, for example, Cain and Abel, Simon Peter and Simon bar Iona and, in Roman and Icelandic Settlement Myths, Romulus and Remus, and Ingólfr and Hjörleifr.

And, last but not least, Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare, with Ben being jealous and hostile towards the latter. The vanishing of the Snark at poem´s end and the author’s explanation ”that it that it was a Boojum after all” are here construed to reveal Lewis Carroll‘s interpretation of the Jonson-Shakespeare rivalry being acted out within Ben Jonson‘s “heart“ and coming to an end with that fact dawns of Ben (all the characters of Carroll‘s story have names that begin with B) that The Snark is his own better nature.

***

I. Thou art Peter, and vpon this rocke I will build my Church

 (Matt. 16:13-20, King James Bible, 1611)

394811

16:13

23675 = When Iesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi,

11616 = he asked his disciples, saying,

17235 = Whom doe men say, that I, the sonne of man, am?

16:14

22774 = And they said, Some say that thou art Iohn the Baptist,

23541 = some Elias, and others Ieremias, or one of  the Prophets.

16:15

19313 = He saith vnto them, But whom say ye that I am?

16:16

14266 = And Simon Peter answered, and said,

19943 = Thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God.

16:17

16129 = And Iesus answered, and said vnto him,

13647 = Blessed art thou Simon Bar Iona:

20799 = for flesh and blood hath not reueiled it vnto thee,

13923 = but my Father which is in heauen.

16:18

19578 = And I say also vnto thee, that thou art Peter,

19317 = and vpon this rocke I will build my Church:

20444 = and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it.

16:19

24422 = And I will giue vnto thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen:

27217 = and whatsoeuer thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heauen:

28617 = whatsoeuer thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heauen.

16:20

11853 = Then charged hee his disciples

26502 = that they should tel no man that he was Iesus the Christ.

394811

II. Get thee behind mee, Satan.

(Matt. 16:21-23. KJB 1611)

199022

16:21

29661 = From that time foorth began Iesus to shew vnto his disciples,

18499 = how that he must goe vnto Hierusalem,

26389 = and suffer many things of the Elders and chiefe Priests & Scribes,

14138 = and be killed, and be raised againe the third day.

16:22

19850 = Then Peter tooke him, and began to rebuke him, saying,

22014 = Be it farre from thee Lord: This shal not be vnto thee.

16:23

14777 = But he turned, and said vnto Peter,

20644 = Get thee behind mee, Satan, thou art an offence vnto me:

23056 = for thou sauourest not the things that be of God,

 9994 = but those that be of men.

199022

III. The Hunting of the Snark

(Lewis Carroll, Poem)

441008

Alpha

6510 = FIT THE FIRST

4217 = The Landing

17515 = „Just the place for a Snark!“ the Bellman cried,

13683 = As he landed his crew with care;

18539 = Supporting each man on the top of the tide

12718 = By a finger entwined in his hair.

20245 = „Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:

17164 = That alone should encourage the crew.

19544 = Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:

17720 = What I tell you three times is true.“

19896 = Yet still, ever after that sorrowful day,

14094 = Whenever the Butcher was by,

18898 = The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,

12286 = And appeared unaccountably shy.

Omega

5813 = FIT THE EIGHTH

6134 =    The Vanishing

27683 = They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

17598 = They pursued it with forks and hope;

20540 = They threatened its life with a railway-share;

16306 = They charmed it with smiles and soap.

20172 = They shuddered to think that the chase might fail,

11697 = And the Beaver, excited at last,

19488 = Went bounding along on the tip of its tail,

14631 = For the daylight was nearly past.

21544 = In the midst of the word he was trying to say,

14525 = In the midst of his laughter and glee,

16069 = He had softly and suddenly vanished away—

15779 = For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

441008

I + II + III = 394811 + 199022 + 441008 = 1034841

IV. Shakespeares Sonnets 1609

(Sonnets # 1, 2 and 153, 154)

1034841

Alpha

# 1

19985 = From fairest creatures we desire increase,

18119 = That thereby beauties Rose might neuer die,

16058 = But as the riper should by time decease,

15741 = His tender heire might beare his memory:

22210 = But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,

25851 = Feed’st thy lights flame with selfe substantiall fewell,

14093 = Making a famine where aboundance lies,

22081 = Thy selfe thy foe, to thy sweet selfe too cruell:

23669 = Thou that art now the worlds fresh ornament,

15027 = And only herauld to the gaudy spring,

21957 = Within thine own bud buriest thy content,

18648 = And, tender chorle, makst wast in niggarding:

20168 = Pitty the world, or else this glutton be,

18054 = To eate the worlds due, by the graue and thee.

# 2

22191 = When fortie Winters shall beseige thy brow,

16472 = And digge deep trenches in thy beauties field,

20500 = Thy youthes proud liuery so gaz’d on now,

19497 = Wil be a totter’d weed of smal worth held:

17451 = Then being askt, where all thy beautie lies,

19311 = Where all the treasure of thy lusty daies;

20498 = To say within thine owne deepe sunken eyes

21834 = How much more praise deseru’d thy beauties vse,

22077 = If thou couldst answere this faire child of mine

17540 = Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse

19210 = Proouing his beautie by succession thine.

21619 = This were to be new made when thou art ould,

22848 = And see thy blood warme when thou feel’st it could.

Omega

# 153

13228 = Cvpid laid by his brand and fell a sleepe,

13445 = A maide of Dyans this aduantage found,

18187 = And his loue-kindling fire did quickly steepe

18007 = In a could vallie-fountaine of that ground:

20891 = Which borrowd from this holie fire of loue,

16961 = A datelesse liuely heat still to indure,

19450 = And grew a seething bath which yet men proue,

18055 = Against strang malladies a soueraigne cure:

19283 = But at my mistres eie loues brand new fired,

21662 = The boy for triall needes would touch my brest

16374 = I sick withall the helpe of bath desired,

15780 = And thether hied a sad distemperd guest.

18172 = But found no cure, the bath for my helpe lies,

19223 = Where Cupid got new fire; my mistres eye.

# 154

15579 = The little Loue-God lying once a sleepe,

14878 = Laid by his side his heart inflaming brand,

22758 = Whilst many Nymphes that vou’d chast life to keep,

14399 = Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand,

17635 = The fayrest votary tooke vp that fire,

20156 = Which many Legions of true hearts had warm’d,

12929 = And so the Generall of hot desire,

15303 = Was sleeping by a Virgin hand disarm’d.

16961 = This brand she quenched in a coole Well by,

20944 = Which from loues fire tooke heat perpetuall,

14642 = Growing a bath and healthfull remedy,

18706 = For men diseasd, but I my Mistrisse thrall,

18170 = Came there for cure and this by that I proue,

23496 = Loues fire heates water, water cooles not loue.

Men Diseased

 3858 = The Devil

-1000 = Darkness

Healthfull Remedy

 4000 = Flaming Sword – Cosmic Creative Power – Coming of Christ

1034841

V + VI + VII = 57525 + 969686 + 7630 = 1034841

V. The Devil’s Gravestone Epitaph

(Holy Trinity Church, Stratford)

57525

14036 = GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE

12961 = TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE

16616 = BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES

13912 = AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES

57525

VI. Ben Jonson’s ‟Ripest Studies‟

(Dedication, Epigrammes, 1616)

969686

17752 = To The Great Example Of Honor And Vertve,

6625 = The Most Noble

15805 = William, Earle of Pembroke, L. Chamberlayne,

100 = &c. [c = 100 when combined with &]

3177 = My Lord.

28324 = While you cannot change your merit, I dare not change your title:

12370 = It was that made it, and not I.

17687 = Vnder which name, I here offer to your Lo:

17687 = the ripest of my studies, my Epigrammes;

19735 = which, though they carry danger in the sound,

16695 = doe not therefore seeke your shelter:

20228 = For, when I made them, I had nothing in my conscience,

17746 = to expressing of which I did need a cypher.

18345 = But, if I be falne into those times, wherein,

14205 = for the likenesse of vice, and facts,

21707 = euery one thinks anothers ill deeds obiected to him;

20514 = and that in their ignorant and guiltie mouthes,

26249 = the common voyce is (for their securitie) Beware the Poet,

23308 = confessing, therein, so much loue to their diseases,

18752 = as they would rather make a partie for them,

13719 = then be either rid, or told of them:

30864 = I must expect, at your Lo: hand, the protection of truth, and libertie,

24129 = while you are constant to your owne goodnesse.

26974 = In thankes whereof, I returne you the honor of leading forth

28945 = so many good, and great names as my verses mention on the better part)

18807 = to their remembrance with posteritie.

13576 = Amongst whom, if I haue praysed,

20608 = vnfortunately, any one, that doth not deserue;

29367 = or, if all answere not, in all numbers, the pictures I haue made of them:

23367 = I hope it will be forgiuen me, that they are no ill pieces,

15943 = though they be not like the persons.

19615 = But I foresee a neerer fate to my booke, then this:

26225 = that the vices therein will be own’d before the vertues

25729 = (though, there, I haue auoyded all particulars, as I haue done names)

19689 = and that some will be so readie to discredit me,

22557 = as they will haue the impudence to belye themselues.

25650 = For, if I meant them not, it is so. Nor, can I hope otherwise.

23198 = For, why should they remit any thing of their riot,

23216 = their pride, their selfe-loue, and other inherent graces,

31414 = to consider truth or vertue; but, with the trade of the world,

19671 = lend their long eares against men they loue not:

15713 = and hold their dear Mountebanke, or Iester,

19716 = in farre better condition, then all the studie,

12299 = or studiers of humanitie.

25583 = For such, I would rather know them by their visards,

19563 = still, then they should publish their faces,

18123 = at their perill, in my Theater, where Cato,

18224 = if he liu’d, might enter without scandall.

15499 = Your Lo: most faithfull honorer,

 4692 = Ben. Ionson.

969686

INSERT

Ben Jonson

20228 = For when I made them, I had nothing in my conscience,

17746 = to expressing of which I did need a cypher.

37974

a.k.a. Stratfordian

17252 = Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere – Baptismal name

10026 = Will Shakspere, gent. – Burial name (Church “records“)

Conscience

         0 = Blank

Saga Cipher:

Tool of Conscience

1000 = Light of the World

5596 = Andlig spekðin – Spiritual Wisdom

4000 = Flaming Sword – Cosmic Creative Power – Coming of Christ

  100 = The End

37974

END INSERT

VII. Ben Jonson‘s Jacob‘s Ladder Dream

(Construction G. T.)

7630

Sleeping Conscience

  -1000 = Darkness

Cypher not needed

-11931 = Saga Cipher

Awakened Conscience

 7000 = Microcosmos – Man in God’s Image

”Hell is murky”

(Lady Macbeth)

-13561 = Terribilis ist locus iste. – This place is terrible.

   7630

***

Calculator for converting letters to cipher values is at:

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