EPISODE 31 - HANS & THE PROFESSOR
Hans had spent most of the day thinking about Jeddah and the stories that were told. He was looking at his foot and mentally multiplying by six to get his height, when Seabreeze came in on her way upstairs to change. She was home early for a change and he hoped she would talk to him about some of the things he had been thinking about. She asked him if he was ready to go to the Gazette Gala, that once a year extravaganza where all of Philadelphian society gathers in one place to bore each other to death as to how well they are all doing.
He hated the thing. It was one mandatory attendance event of the year; for the founding father’s families, for Philosophical Society members, for businessmen, for charity chairpersons, for politicians of every office, and for anyone that seeks membership into “the right circles.” Now that Benjamin Franklin owned the Gazette, Rebecca was required to attend as well on her own merits as editor of the paper. She was nervous and his casualness was making it worse on her. She hurried upstairs and he fixed himself a scotch on the rocks. By the time she came down he had dressed and had another drink, holding off the real drinking until the event itself.
They took the covered carriage with a four matched Arabians and the new driver from England with his top hat. Hans had the house crew clean up the carriage the day before, knowing they would be pulling up in front of the building and getting out in front of everyone. He gritted his teeth as they close to the street the Gazette was on. One more “sip” from his secret flask and he was ready to “arrive.”
The street was solid with carriages, and the going was extremely slow as only one carriage was emptying at a time. He looked out the window to see what was taking so long. The side walk was jammed with gentlemen having their cigars and pipes before going in to join their wives inside. The street looked like a building was on fire considering the smoke billowing in great clouds of gray, white, and black. He pulled his head back in and told Rebecca that it will be another 10 minutes or so, they were still seven back. As they got closer Rebecca began to cough as the smoke filled the carriage from being downwind from the majority of the men outside. Finally it was their turn to get off and mount the stairs to the front door, one flight up. He got off first and helped her down, presented her his arm and stiffly led her up to the door. There Ben and his wife, Deborah, greeted them with warmth and affection. The women kissed each other on the cheek, not just “pecking” the air as they had grown fond of one another over the year. Hans shook Ben’s hand firmly and thanked him for inviting them, both knowing Ben couldn’t have done anything else. Hans for being one of the founding families and not inviting Rebecca would have seemed he didn’t support her choice of subject matter that was currently running on the Indians.
As they entered the lobby of the five story building, second highest in the city at the time, the smell of perfume overwhelmed his senses as he fought the urge to cough and choke to go along with his watering eyes. Rebecca saw her assistant editor, Charlotte Downing, and immediately began to discuss business. This was he chance to exit to the street to the comfort of watering eyes from the manly art of cigar smoke. He told Rebecca he was withdrawing to the smoking area outside and she dismissed him with a slight wave of her hand, and he was gone, easing himself out one of the side doors he knew about. Suddenly the air was cool and breezy, he sauntered over to where small groups of men stood talking. First he took care of the mandatory conversations with men he had known since they were all boys. He got asked how retirement was going, since they all knew he sold the family business to an outsider. None of them were a bit interested at the price he had on the business, but there was still resentment that a New Yorker was now a player in the city. After a few minutes he had talked to all the men he always talked to and he was free to return to his wife’s side since he didn’t smoke. As he was starting to head to the stairway he heard the word Rosincrucian from a deep, rumbling voice. He stopped, turned, and walked closer to where he heard the word come from.
The owner, James Thomas, of the Performing Arts Theatre was in a heated debate with an older man Hans had never seen before. James was insisting that William Shakespeare wrote everything attributed to him. The stranger that people were calling Professor countered with, “but the Stratford actor’s name was William Shakspere. He introduced himself as such, and his scrawling, uncertain signature showed no familiarity with a pen, either he memorized it from one given to him to memorize or someone held his hand while signing his will.” The Professor went on to state that it is evident that Shakspere could not have written the immortal writings bearing his name. Stratford had no school capable of teaching at those levels of literary culture. His parents were illiterate and he possessed no well stocked library essential in producing references from ages past. James said that actors usually don’t have a lot of money but they do meet wealthy people in the theatre circles and could easily gained access to “well stocked libraries”.
The Professor laughed and asked if those wealthy people also had time to teach him modern French, Italian, Spanish, and Danish, much less classical Latin and Greek. Then everyone standing there burst out laughing and James was left scowling at everybody. The Professor continued. “Why Sir would Shakspere’s daughter at 27 only be able to make a mark when signing? Wouldn’t the “Bard of Avon”, author of some of the best writings in history, see to the education of his daughter, so she could appreciate her father’s work?”
Before James could say a word, the Professor continued with the fact that in spite of William’s admitted avarice, he seemingly made no effort during his lifetime to control or secure remuneration from the plays bearing his name, many of which were first published anonymously. Even his will, while noting his second best bed and his “broad silver gilt bowl”, makes no mention that he possessed any literary productions whatsoever. He actually brought legal action against a certain Philip Rogers for two shillings. So nothing in Shakspere’s life, including buying malt for brewing at the height of his fame, indicates that he was the author of those works. At this , James went red and said there many reasons why a man could get cheated out of his rightful due in life. Men have been killed for a lot less that immortal works of art. Silence followed so James did score at least partial credit for his response.
The Professor, then, repeated the assertion that philosophic ideals throughout the Shakespearian plays demonstrate that the author was familiar with doctrines and tenets peculiar to Rosicrucianism, in fact, the creator would be one of the illuminati of the ages, the true author was Lord Bacon. Two men said this is where we came in, and left the circle of men, allowing Hans to move up into the inner row in front of the Professor. He challenged the group to name anyone but a Platonist, a Qabbalist, or a Pythagorean that could have written The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet, or The Tragedy of Cymbeline. Hans had seen Hamlet but couldn’t see the Mysteries of the Ages in the story, so he wasn’t about to argue the point for fear of being humiliated in front of the other men. The Professor seemed like the kind of man that could make a man feel like he is the dumbest man on the earth. Even James kept silent Hans thought he saw James nod his head that the story lines were so involved that ancient story lines could well be interwoven into the story.
The headpiece from King Richard The Second, Quarto of 1597 shows light and dark A’s, long considered a Rosincrucian signature, and compare exactly to Alciati Emblemata, as well as the title page of Anatomy of Melancholy, long considered the diary of Sir Francis Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon; Lord Verulam, legitimate son of Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester, Father of modern science, Remodeler of modern law, patron of modern democracy, quite possibly the Illustrious Father C.R.C. referred to in the Rosicrucian manifestoes, and one of the founders of modern Freemasonry was asked by King James to go through the translator’s manuscripts of what became known as the King James Version of the Bible for the presumable purpose of checking, editing, and revising the text before publication. The first edition of the King James Bible contains a cryptic Baconian headpiece, which could conceal that which he dared not put into text—the secret Rosicrucian key to mystic and Masonic Christianity. There was a general stirring in the crowd that had doubled when Hans turned around to see who was grumbling. The thought that maybe the version everyone uses to quote and read to others, could have shaped by a Freemason as to the nature of the Bible without anyone knowing was troubling to say the least.
Other attributes of Lord Bacon that argue that he was the author was his knowledge of the law and etiquette of the court, the fact he had traveled to many of the countries that where backgrounds for various plays, his magnificent library that included stories with no English translation available, and that Bacon’s enemies were caricatured in many of the plays.
About this time, two sometimes three men in the crowd started to argue with the Professor. One said that Lord Bacon may have been high born and well educated but why didn’t he claim authorship when it became obvious there was overwhelming acclaim for the plays. The Professor countered with either Sir Francis felt the plays would take away from his credentials of being a barrister and scientist or he felt the money wasn’t sufficient to put up with the loss of privacy that would accompany fame. Hans recognized Philip Grand say “I’ve never met a man who would put that much effort and time into a series of works over an extended period of time without wanting the world to know he did it.” The Professor looked down his nose at Philip and said, “Maybe you should upgrade the class of people you associate with.” That got everybody laughing since Philip moved in the best circles of the colonies.
The Professor picked up where he left off since no one was pursuing an argument. Sir Francis Bacon’s cipher number is 33. In First Part of King Henry the Fourth, the word “Francis” appears 33 times upon one page, by using awkward sentences. Throughout Folios and Quartos acrostic signatures are found.
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt
And left me to a bootelesse Inquisition,
Concluding, stay: not yet.
The first letters of the first and second lines together with the first three letters of the third line form the word BACon. Similar acrostics appear frequently in Bacon’s acknowledged writings. The tenor of Shakespearian dramas politically is in harmony with the recognized viewpoints of Lord Bacon, and there are certain historical and philosophical inaccuracies common to both, such as identical misquotations from Aristotle. The word honorificabilitudinitatibus appearing in the fifth act of Love’s Labour’s Lost is a Rosicrucian signature, as its numerical equivalent (287) indicates. In Sir Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis Father Time is depicted bringing a female figure out of the darkness of a cave with the Latin inscription: “In time the secret truth shall be revealed.” There is no reasonable doubt that the Masonic Order is the direct outgrowth of the secret societies of the Middle Ages, and Freemasonry is permeated by the symbolism and mysticism of the ancient and mediaeval worlds. The crowd had thinned out as the Professor went on and on about the mysticism of ancient times. Finally ending with just two men left agreeing with the Professor the group disbands and Hans hurries up to speak with the Professor. Hans introduces himself and the Professor says his name is Peter Downing. “Is your wife…?” “Yes, my wife works as your wife’s assistant at the Gazette.” “Maybe we could get together some time and discuss the Mysteries of the Ages.” Peter looked closely at Hans through squinted eye slits and cautiously said that would be agreeable to him, knowing the social disaster to say no out of hand.
They went up the steps together and joined their wives to be introduced formally by the women. Rebecca raised an eyebrow at the casualness her husband shook Peter’s hand, considering the usual formal manner Hans treated a new person. He saw her look and leaned over to tell her he had been listening to the Professor outside for the last half hour. She said that Peter worked for city government, but she didn’t know exactly what he did.
Charlotte never talked about him much, anymore than I discuss our lives with her, it’s not that kind of relationship—strictly business. Hans told her he was interested in pursuing some kind of relationship with the husband for intellectual reasons and would that complicate her relationship with the wife. She said she’d think about it, but she thought it would probably be alright if things didn’t get ugly between you men, where Charlotte felt she had to take her husband’s side and make things in the office awkward. Hans said he would avoid conflict at all costs, and it was settled.
TO BE CONTINUED