© Gunnar Tómasson

22 September 2017

Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare

(S. Schoenbaum)

Nowhere, one suspects, was Shakespeare’s good nature more severely tested than in his complexly ambivalent relationship with Jonson; ambivalent at least on the latter’s side.  The mythos fastens upon the rivalry between the two masters. …The rivalry finds most memorable expression in the famous passage in Thomas Fuller’s [1608-1661, churchman and historian] brief memoir of Shakespeare for his History of the Worties of England [published 1662]:

Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Johnson, which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon, and an English man-of-war; Master Johnson (like the former) was built far higher in learning; solid, but slow in his performances. Shake-spear with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention. He died Anno Domini 16… and was buried at Stratford upon Avon, the town of his nativity.

‘Which two I behold’, writes Fuller.  The picture he had formed exists only in the mind’s eye; this is a literary evocation, not a reminiscence derived from report.  The rest of Fuller’s short biography, starkly devoid of concrete data, confirms the impression.  Although he perambulated the countryside in quest of matter for his Worthies, he failed to dig up the year of Shakespeare’s death, for which he leaves a pathetic blank in his text.  Yet the date is plain to see on the monument in the Stratford Church. (William Shakespeare – A Compact Documentary Life, Oxford University Press, 1978, pp. 255-258)

Comment

The “pathetic blank“ is one of several signals that the text may contain “hidden poetry“ in Saga Cipher on the subject matter.

An initial check on this possibility would be to see if information is enciphered in the book‘s title – a quick deciphering identifies a set of such “worthies“:

A

18190 = The history of the vvorthies of England.

12457 = Endeavoured by Thomas Fuller,

  3637 = D.D.London

34284

B

9322 = William Shakespeare

7936 = Edward Oxenford

5385 = Francis Bacon

4692 = Ben Jonson

4000 = Flaming Sword – Shaking Speare – Cosmic Creative Power

2949 = Ophelia

34284

And a second set of similar “worthies“ in 13th century Ísland (Iceland) together with Alpha and Omega of Pythagorean Creation Myth would be as follows:

C

9322 = William Shakespeare

666 = Man-Beast

-1 = Reason asleep

432 = Right Measure of Man

11359 = Snorri Sturluson

9814 = Sturla Þórðarson

2692 = Ísland

34284

Ben Jonson was buried standing upright in a 2×2 ft. grave in Westminster Abbey, marked with the epitaph: O Rare Ben Johnson.

In Creation Myth, MAN denotes the Male Procreative Tool which “rises, shakes and falls/dies” in [Prince Hamlet’s] “consummation devoutly to be wish’d” (Act III, Sc. i):

2646 = Hamlet

-1000 = Darkness

8288 = My Shakespeare rise! – Ben Jonson’s First Folio Ode

4000 = Flaming Sword – Shaking Speare – Cosmic Creative Power

2949 = Ophelia

6783 = Mons Veneris

Transformation

2947 = Benjamin/2947 > Israel/2947

7671 = O Rare Ben Johnson

34284

***

I. Thomas Fuller‘s Famous Passage

(The Worthies of England)

223857

26025 = Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Johnson,

20369 = which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon,

9753 = and an English man-of-war;

28150 = Master Johnson (like the former) was built far higher in learning;

17602 = solid, but slow in his performances. 

34502 = Shake-spear with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing,

30081 = could turn with all tides, tack about and take advantage of all winds,

19771 = by the quickness of his wit and invention. 

6440 = He died Anno Domini 16…

31164 = and was buried at Stratford upon Avon, the town of his nativity.

223857

II. Will Shakespeare and Ben Johnson

(Construction G.T.)

239810

223857 = Thomas Fuller‘s Famous Passage

Alpha

   8282 = Will Shakespeare

Omega

  7671 = O Rare Ben Johnson

239810

III. Web of Life – Existential Angst Resolved

(Construction G.T.)

239810

  5415 = Vefr Darraðar – Saga Myth

Alpha

 -1000 = Darkness

Omega

  7000 = Microcosmos – Man in God’s Image

FINIS

    100 = The End

Existential Angst Resolved

(Hamlet, Act V. Sc. ii)

228295

10220 = Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet:

21839 = So much for this Sir; now let me see the other,

16054 = You doe remember all the Circumstance.                           

Horatio:

8051 = Remember it my Lord?

Hamlet:

18534 = Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting,

20604 = That would not let me sleepe; me thought I lay

21219 = Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, rashly,

19510 = (And praise be rashnesse for it) let vs know,

23382 = Our indiscretion sometimes serues us well,

24730 = When our deare plots do paule, and that should teach vs

17706 = There’s a Diuinity that shapes our ends,

16093 = Rough-hew them how we will.

Horatio:

10353 = That is most certaine.

239810

IV. Will Shakespeare “Dies” Standing Upright

(Construction G.T.)

246810

 8282 = Will Shakespeare

Metamorphosis

7000 = Microcosmos – Man in God’s Image

Dead MAN’s Epitaph

7671 = O Rare Ben Johnson

Transformation

 (Hamlet, Act V. Sc. ii)

223857 = Thomas Fuller‘s Famous Passage

246810

V. Saga Cipher Key to The Kingdome of Heauen

(Construction G.T.)

246810

11931 = Saga Cipher Key

William Shakespeare

7938 = Take him for all in all. – Inscription, Shakespeare Stratford Statue

2646 = Hamlet

-4000 = Dark Sword – Man-Beast

Existential Angst Resolved

(Hamlet, Act V. Sc. ii)

10220 = Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet:

21839 = So much for this Sir; now let me see the other,

16054 = You doe remember all the Circumstance.                           

Horatio:

8051 = Remember it my Lord?

Hamlet:

18534 = Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting,

20604 = That would not let me sleepe; me thought I lay

21219 = Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, rashly,

19510 = (And praise be rashnesse for it) let vs know,

23382 = Our indiscretion sometimes serues us well,

24730 = When our deare plots do paule, and that should teach vs

17706 = There’s a Diuinity that shapes our ends,

16093 = Rough-hew them how we will.

Horatio:

10353 = That is most certaine.

246810

INSERT

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

(Matt. 16:13-16, KJB 1611)

When Iesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi,

he asked his disciples, saying,

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

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

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

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

And Simon Peter answered, and said,

Thou art Christ the sonne of the liuing God.

END INSERT

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

(Matt. Ch. 16:17-19. King James Bible 1611)

204093

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.

204093

INSERT

Saga Cipher Key

The Saga Cipher Key is encrypted in a sentence in the oldest Icelandic skin manuscript. The manuscript (Reykholtsmáldagi or Reykholt Covenant) lists the assets of the Church at Snorri Sturluson’s estate at Reykholt in South-west Iceland. The text’s left margin is precisely vertical except that the beginning of the sentence containing the encryption protrudes markedly into the margin; it reads as follows:

Skrín þat es stendr á altara meþ helgo domo gefa þeir Magn oc Snorre at helfninge hvar þeirra oc es þetta kirkio fé umb fram of þat es áþr es talet.

(The shrine that stands on the altar with holy relics is given by Magnus and Snorri in equal parts and this church treasure is additional to what is listed/counted before.)

Forty years ago, while searching for indications in the Saga literature of use by Snorri Sturluson of gematria in what he referred to in Edda as ”hidden poetry”, the present writer was drawn to this sentence. After two or three failed attempts to extract a possible Cipher Key from the text through reverse-engineering, as it were, the Saga Cipher Key eventually came to light.

The Cipher Key consists of fixed numerical values of letters of the alphabet as follows: A = 73; B = 116; C = K; D/Ð = 225; E = 228; F = 285; G = 325; H = 376; I/J/Y = 425; K = 449; L = 504; M = 542; N = 569; O = 660; P = 683; Q = 770; R = 821; S = 896; T = 923; U/V = 949; X = 1018; Z = 1094.

The numerical value of the Saga Cipher Key is the sum of the 21 letter/numerical values. Certain specific concepts (Light of the World, 1000, Darkness, – 1000, Flaming Sword, 4000, etc.) have fixed numerical values that are independently determined.

END INSERT

VII. Jesus – Cipher Key Text – Microcosmos

(Construction G.T.)

67055

Jesus

   888 = IESOUS – Greek gematria value

Cipher Key Text

18278 = Skrín þat es stendr á altara meþ helgo domo

19936 = gefa þeir Magn oc Snorre at helfninge hvar þeirra

21953 = oc es þetta kirkio fé umb fram of þat es áþr es talet.

Microcosmos

 7000 = Microcosmos – Man in God’s Image

-1000 = Darkness

67055

VI + VII = 204093 + 67055 = 271148

VIII. A New Breed of Men Sent Down from Heauen¹

(Virgil, Fourth Eclogue)

271148

16609 = Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas;

20087 = Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.

18681 = Iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,

18584 = Iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.

20229 = Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum

18431 = Desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,

17698 = Casta fave Lucina: tuus iam regnat Apollo.

18480 = Teque adeo decus hoc aevi te consule, inibit,

18919 = Pollio, et incipient magni procedere menses;

22004 = Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,

20495 = Inrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.

18330 = Ille deum vitam accipiet divisque videbit

20448 = Permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis

22153 = Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.

271148

***

Calculator for converting letters to cipher values is at:

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

¹ Now the last age by Cumae’s Sibyl sung has come and gone, and the majestic roll of circling centuries begins anew: justice returns, returns old Saturn’s reign, with a new breed of men sent down from heaven.  Only do thou, at the boy’s birth in whom the iron shall cease, the golden race arise, befriend him, chaste Lucina; ‘tis thine own Apollo reigns.  And in thy consulate, this glorious age, O Pollio, shall begin, and the months enter on their mighty march.  Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain of our old wickedness, once done away, shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.  He shall receive the life of gods, and see heroes with gods commingling, and himself be seen of them, and with his father’s worth reign o’er a world of peace.