SHAKSPER 1999: Honorific...

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 12/21/99 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2257  Tuesday, 21 December 1999.

From:           Allan Blackman <momus@juno.com>
Date:           Monday, 20 Dec 1999 14:38:09 -0500
Subject:        Honorific...

I understand that "authorship" questions are taboo on this list, but
perhaps the moderator will permit the following, especially since my
purpose is not to argue for any point of view, but merely to get some
information.

The following is excerpted from the 1997 CD ROM edition of the
Encyclopedia Britannica:

In the later 19th century a search was made for ciphered messages
embedded in the dramatic texts. In Love's Labour's Lost, for example, it
was found that the Latin word "honorificabilitudinitatibus" is an
anagram of Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi ("These plays, the
offspring of F.  Bacon, are preserved for the world."). Professional
cryptographers of the 20th century, however, examining all the Baconian
ciphers, have rejected them as invalid, and interest in the
Shakespeare-Bacon controversy has diminished.

I have two questions:

1) What is meant by "invalid"?
2) Is the anagram above to be attributed to mere chance?

Allan Blackman


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