Where there Three Marlowe Ciphers in Hamlet?
We have just discussed, at length, how Hamlet's name ciphers or morphs into Marley. Now the question is are their other similar ciphers hidden in Hamlet?
The answer seems to be yes there were. "Shakespeare" was hardly the only Elizabethan to play word math and sometimes it required more than just Hamlet's "drossy arithmetic of the mind." Many period writers, including Bruno and Dee, believed their were magical powers hidden in words and numbers.
Let's take the most obvious one first. Horatio is Hamlet's friend and the person Hamlet directs or charges to tell his story to the world:
| Horatio, I am dead,
Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied....O good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me...tell my story... (v, ii) Note: "wounded" and "wounded" are two words, pronounced differently but spelled the same, i.e., to injure and to entwine. The "ed" could mean twice wound, or to wind forwards and backwards. It's brilliant word play. And unnoticed for four centuries. |
Part of Horatio's wounded name is a mathematical term, "ratio" that means "correspondence." The most obvious correspondence is one to one. Since it is a seven letter name like Marlowe, let's see how they match out:
|
H |
O |
R |
A |
T |
I |
O |
|
M |
A |
R |
L |
O |
W |
E |
Three letters match, so we have a remainder of four letters:
|
H |
O |
T |
I |
|
M |
L |
W |
E |
Now we have to ask ourselves do these letters Caesar shift into one another?
And the answer is yes. All four four letters Caesar shift by three to morph into their Marlovian analogs. The shift is cleverly hidden by the fact that two shift backwards and two shift forwards. So H becomes E, O becomes L, T becomes W and I becomes M. The first two move backwards by three letters and the second two move forward by three letters.
|
H |
O |
T (UVW) |
I (KLM) |
|
E (FGH) |
L (MNO) |
W |
M |
These letters then supply the letters needed to shift or morph Horatio into Marlowe:
|
H |
O |
R |
A |
T |
I |
O |
|
M |
A |
R |
L |
O |
W |
E |
Three was a magic number, so the relationship is a powerful one.
The modern reader will, no doubt, wish to call attention to the fact that the shift is 4 for one of the letters. But this is a contemporary problem. Elizabethans did not have a "j" in their alphabet. They used "i" for "j"s. So using their alphabet, the shift is a perfect three.
I noticed this after working on the Hamlet = Marley problem and it is my own insight. Given Hamlet's conversation with Horatio about their wounded names and "things standing thus unknown," I think we can confidently conclude we were
being given all the clues required to decipher this riddle.
Other important clues, however, are to be found in the initial meeting between Hamlet and Horatio. It takes place in I, ii. Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo encounter Hamlet, who seems to have a bit of trouble recognizing Horatio, and apologizes to Horatio with the phrase, "or I do forget myself."
Since Hamlet and Horatio are both morphed names for Marlowe, the phrase "I do forget myself," takes on additional meanings. Good ones. Humorous ones.
Hamlet then asks Horatio why he is absent from their university, to which Horatio replies "A truant disposition..." Marlowe, we know, was accused of being absent or truant from his university ca. 1587. So the parallel is important, since this is about the right time for the Ur Hamlet to have been written.
Hamlet, like the Queen and her Privy Councilors, stipulates otherwise, "I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore?"
The overtone here is that Horatio is traveling on affairs of state, just as young Marlowe did whist at Cambridge. The Privy Council's entail or conciliar reads, "it was not her Majesty's pleasure that any one employed as he had been in matters touching the benefit of his Country should be defamed by those that are ignorant in the affairs he went about."
Their conversation continues until Horatio says,
| Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear, till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you... |
Horatio is speaking, on the superficial level, about his sighting of the ghost of Hamlet's father. But the word "marvel" here (and elsewhere) has another, now more obvious meaning.
Speaking of ghosts, there is a ghost like character, other than Hamlet's father, that plays an enduring role in Hamlet and whose real identity has been frequently speculated about, one "poor Yoric," to be precise. I've never seen it mentioned but the name bears an obvious relationship to Osric:
| Y | O | R | I | C |
| O | S | R | I | C |
Only one of the letters is different. And they, thus, easily Caesar shift or farm by six to morph into their analog. (I am again indebted to Rafe for noticing these two names, one of which isn't in the character list, in the same context.)
I'd say in light of what we've discovered, they were intended as clues in one of the world's longest standing word games.
Most important of all, is Hamlet's earlier reply to Horatio, which reads, "Sir my good friend; I'll change that name with you."
What is Hamlet speaking about here? Surely this too is a clue from the Author about the Caesar shift between their hidden names.
For those who don't follow these matters too closely. The Marlowes were using the name in that spelling in Canterbury, i.e., as "Marlowe," according to Urry and the extant records. So we need not trouble ourselves in marveling if Marley knew the name "Marlowe" was his. He did. And certainly by the time of the present Hamlet, "Marlowe" had appeared in print many times, so the general reading public knew it as well.
Now for the more complex morph, the answer of which was sent to me by Szynowski. Laertes is the brother of Ophelia and is given a very curious introduction. One part of which is the phrase "you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see."
"Continent" is a geographical term.
It therefore calls to mind that a "wooden see" is an geographical term meaning a province overseen by an "archiepiscopal see." This see means what can be seen from the alter of an archbishop, hence "a wooden see."
Ferrara, for example, is in the see of Emilia.
So the clues are
"would see" = "wooden see" = alter se
He is telling us to take the name Laertes a part and see in it a wooden see, or an "alter se." This cuts down the large number of possible anagrams to one.
For a man with "differences" we might be encouraged to toss out one of these differences, "t", we then have the remainder of "aler se".
If these six letters are farmed we'll discover they they yield "Marley" by a Caesar shift of six (which is twice three).
| a | l | e | r | s | e |
| m | a | r | l | e | y |
Only the "s" and "e" in aler se" have to be shifted. They in fact both Caesar shift backwards by six to yield "m" and "y", respectively.
So we are left with the crop of:
arlemy which yields Marley.
So Laertes morphs into Marley. That's three ciphers in the names that yield Marlowe's name, via Caesar shifts: Hamlet, Horatio and Laertes. Way too many for coincidence. Obviously these ciphers were the intentional work of the Author. All three call to mind Christopher Marlowe.
As I mentioned above, I am on this morph, again, deeply indebted to Rafe Szynowski. I have added only my observation that Laertes' introduction sets us up for the "wood se" or the first switch. And I have laid it out in my terms. I reproduce below Rafe's e-mail of last night (30 September 2003) which preserves his thinking process on this one. It is brilliant to say the least.
| Hello again John.
It's your friend the British scientist here. By the way, I should make clear that I don't work as a scientist (I'm a civil servant) I just trained as a scientist - but it's in the blood! I'll respond to your analysis of the clues for HAMLET to MARLEY later, but will say now that when you talk on your web page about the "necessary clue to ferret ..." this out, you ought to add "or, alternatively, the confirmer" since the value of the clues depends on at which end of the puzzle we start, if you see what I mean! First, do you remember that last Friday I said I was working on another puzzle and would let you know if anything unexpected turned up? Well it has. I'd be interested, as usual, to know what you think of this one. Can I leave it to you to post it, if you think fit, on the newsgroup with any comments of your own, however critical? Laertes always struck me as an interesting name it hits you at once as something 'anagramy'. In addition there are words which sound like number and language operating clues in the part of the play where he's introduced to Hamlet (see the quote below). Here are the stages in my thinking 1) We must 'mirror' him. LAERTES = SETREAL. 2) We must 'divide' or split him 'inventorially' so as to devise something new = SET REAL. 3) We must look for something 'of great article'. REAL is an old gold or silver Spanish coin. 4) SET REAL tells us to set the words correctly but, alas, has a large number of anagrams. However, we are told to 'make true diction' or a pertinent choice of words that is, relating to the puzzle and not to the play. The obvious (i.e., it suits my purpose!) candidate is ALTER SE. 5) We are told by Osric that Laertes has 'differences', and 'differences' includes in its meaning remainders after subtractions. This suggests that one or more of the letters have to be discarded. 6) We can play around with which to discard, but an obvious candidate, since we already 'know' that the play's alternative name is MARLEY, is T. That leaves us with ALER SE. 7) SE 'alter' [back-shift 6] to M and Y respectively. (Six is not a 'mystical' number except being twice three, which is weak but I suspect this is to do with the 'dozy .. arithmetic of memory' Any thoughts?) 8) If we rearrange ALERMY we get MARLEY. I know that this too can be coincidence, but it's as noteworthy as the other one I think.
Rafe ps Lunch sounds a great idea. |