- It's really, it's a
difficult thing for anyone
who doubts the authorship
of the plays to realize
that whoever wrote the
plays, they wanted us,
no doubt about it, they
wanted us to believe
that the man from
Stratford wrote the plays.
So what are we
doing by revealing
a possible truth behind that?
Is that a good thing to do?
I don't know.
(dramatic music)
- [Petter] Almost there.
- [Robert] See, that's cold.
The Norwegian organist and
code breaker, Petter Amundsen
has been taking me on a
journey through his theories.
(dramatic music)
He has found codes in
Shakespeare's first folio,
which he believes lead to
Francis Bacon and Henry Nevil
as the true authors
of Shakespeare.
Beyond this Petter has found
evidence of Rosicrucian
involvement in the production
of the first folio.
- Look.
(dramatic music)
- Right, I mean,
that's certainly there.
That's something that, that--
- You cannot deny it.
- No.
Including the shadowy
brotherhood's symbolic numbers
53 and 37 and the significant
three, four, five triangle.
(dramatic music)
Oh what a fantastic, oh my
god, wow, it is amazing.
This is beautiful.
(dramatic music)
Could we ever get
over our disagreements
about who wrote Shakespeare?
That's fascinating.
- [Petter] Yes, it is.
- Yeah, I mean, I don't
really know what to say.
- [Petter] No.
- [Robert] And would Petter's
codes ever convince me?
(dramatic music)
- I put faith in good
or valid cryptography.
- Yeah.
- So this is something that
I just throw on the table
as a possible solution to your
demand for a better answer
than Bacon for this emotional,
gut-wrenching ability
that Shakespeare demonstrates
and we haven't seen that
from Bacon in his
scientific writings.
- Or in his essays, you know.
- Yeah, is sort of same thing.
So perhaps this person we
are missing from the equation
is indeed Henry Nevil because
I found inescapable, to me,
cipher solutions
connected with him.
- [Robert] Okay.
- And I began a quest based
on the book by Brenda James,
And The Truth Will Out.
- [Robert] Petter then
focused on the authorship
of the sonnets, Shakespeare's
sequence of poems.
On the first page
there is a dedication,
"To the only begetter"
- Now her method, I
cannot really understand
why she was doing
what she was doing.
But she managed to
find gold, I think.
Because every 15th
letter becomes Henry.
- Okay.
- But I'll show
what I think is the
correct way of this.
Do you know chronograms?
- No, no.
- Those are words where
you have roman numerals.
- Oh right, okay.
- So the modern word
is a chronogram,
but the old Greek
word is an idiostic.
- Okay.
- Now, this first line.
If you think of that as a
chronogram, we only have L-I.
- Okay.
So that's 51, is that?
- That is 51.
- Yep.
- So counting letters,
this is letter 51, that N.
Now reversing is 15 and
then if you count backwards,
(dramatic music)
Hen.
(dramatic music)
- And that for Henry.
- By Henry.
- By Henry, right.
(chuckling)
I mean, obviously, as I
believe this only begetter
was Henry Wriothesley,
the Earl of Southampton,
then that Henry
fits very well.
- Works.
- [Robert] Fits
very well for me.
- [Petter] Yep.
- So I suppose that does
in a sense demonstrate
the instability of these codes,
that it just depends
on the subjective
interpretation of them
in some ways, than on--
- But so far we haven't seen
the real beauty of this.
- Oh we don't, okay.
- I have kept that, yeah.
Because remembering
that RC is 20.
Instead of counting
15, we count 20.
(dramatic music)
20, 20, 20, 20.
Nevil and what we
should do is here,
to include those
two and those two.
- Oh okay.
(dramatic music)
- Worked like cake.
- [Petter] Then it will say
by Henry Nevil.
(dramatic music)
What do you think?
- [Robert] Who's
this Henry Nevil guy?
- He dies almost at the same
time as Shakespeare dies.
And when Shakespeare dies,
the production of plays stops.
So I was thinking if Bacon
had 10 more years to live,
why aren't there anymore plays?
- So you're suggesting that
these two, two personae,
Francis Bacon and Henry Nevil,
together potentially
wrote these works
using William Shakespeare as
the facade as it were as the--
- Yes, because what
theory is there.
But I'd like to show you now
a letter that Bacon wrote.
It was written in the 1600s.
(dramatic music)
It's a letter to
John Davies, a poet.
- [Robert] Who also wrote
many acrostic poems and such.
- Oh, and it says, be
good to concealed poets.
Continually yours,
Francis Bacon.
(dramatic music)
- But what can--
- Poets.
- Okay, yeah.
- [Petter] And concealed poets.
(dramatic music)
- Well, I mean that
certainly fits your theory,
it's certainly quite
a shocking revelation.
(dramatic music)
But what are you saying,
why is this relevant?
You're saying that
this is maybe,
I mean again, it's
worth finding out,
because obviously if this
is written to somebody
who knows about this conspiracy
or knows about this
brotherhood of,
this project as you term it.
Then that is significant.
- In this period of time,
Bacon was quite poor.
So maybe he was looking for
funding for his project.
- Oh, okay, for patronage.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Shakespeare's grave stone in
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford
is one of England's
most visited landmarks.
Admirers from all over
the world come here
to pay homage to the world's
most famous playwright.
So Petter, who do you
think wrote these lines?
- I think Francis
Bacon wrote those.
So this could be his
epitome of poetic mastery.
(snickering)
- Well, then um, he wasn't
a great poet at any point.
- But it is interesting as
a cryptographical
specimen though.
(dramatic music)
- [Robert] Everybody
recognizes that the poem
carved into the stone
is of poor quality.
The poem contains a curse
against the opening of the tomb.
But nowhere on the gravestone
is Shakespeare's name
actually mentioned.
- According to the
earlier biographies,
the text wasn't like this.
The original stone
had been moved.
- [Robert] In around 1820,
the original gravestone
was allegedly moved, but
from prints and drawings,
we know that it
looked quite different
from the one that we see today.
- Can you notice a difference?
- Well, there's some
smaller case letters
is that what you're saying?
- Yeah
And this is exactly
what it's all about.
- [Robert] The original
gravestone had the same text,
but with one key difference.
On the original gravestone,
words were formed
of seemingly random upper
and lowercase letters.
Some people have argued
that this is because
the text is written
in Francis Bacon's
famous bi-literarie cipher.
But to date no one has been
able to crack the code.
- This is Francis Bacon's
bi-literarie cipher
and the other one's
what I'm learning.
- [Robert] Bacon's
cipher makes it possible
to insert the text into a five
letter system of As and Bs.
Upper case is category B,
lowercase is category A.
The poem can now be deciphered
into a new alphabet,
revealing a different
set of letters.
Okay, so it seems
that this spells
something out if we go through.
- Well, I found that the letters
of Shakespeare is
built of these letters.
- Obviously, I'm thinking well,
there's even more proof that
Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare,
you know, we've even, even
by this bi-literaire cipher
we've got his name encrypted
within his epitaph.
So, so I--
- [Petter] We lack his
name and now it's--
- Yes, and then it's
there, absolutely.
- [Petter] But the man
who created this cipher,
his initials are also here.
F-R-B-A
- [Robert] Francis Bacon?
- [Petter] Yes, now what?
- [Robert] You tell me.
- There is a method
described by Cardanos.
- [Robert] In the 1500s,
the Italian writer,
Gerolamo Cardanos described
a code system, autoclaves,
where the key to unlock the code
is concealed within
the coded text itself.
- You need a keyword
to unlock this.
- And what do you
think that keyword is?
- Well, I noticed that we have
yeta enclosed by
the other letters.
- Okay.
And of course on a
purely simple level,
the dust is indeed enclosed
within the grave, so.
- Yes, it could be dust.
Dust, four letters.
Yeta, four letters.
And the way you use a keyword
with the autoclave system
is that you simply
add letters together.
So I completed it
and it becomes Canv.
So FR Bacan V, vah, V.
- Right, okay--
- My first through was Verulam.
And then if I could--
- Yeah, which is because
Francis Bacon was Lord Verulam.
His first title when he
was raised to the peerage.
(dramatic music)
It would suit your purposes
rather more, one imagines,
if that was an O rather than
an A at the end, wouldn't it?
You do wonder why he
would take such effort
to create this elegant,
complicated cipher
and then misspell his own name.
- I wasn't happy
with that letter.
- Right.
- But the frustration I
felt led to a new discovery.
- Okay.
Petter replaces the coded
letters with numbers
and finds out that the value
of each line is now 53.
- So again, we encounter
the mysterious 53.
(dramatic music)
- I mean again, and it's not,
I mean you lose me at times.
I just about managed to hold
onto my comprehension with it.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Petter] And you also
have the blanks because
you have the R-A-A-R.
- [Robert] And you
can think of nothing--
- [Petter] Oh, of course,
I can think of two things.
- [Robert] Right.
Ara, araba, ara is an agreement
entered with a sum of money.
(dramatic music)
- So you're suggesting
that basically Bacon
paid Shakespeare to
act as the front man
for this rather elaborate
Rosicrucian Conspiracy.
(dramatic music)
(clinking chisel)
Yeah, so--
- Another possibility is that
the W can also be a sigma.
aras, like a Planchet.
- Oh, I see.
- And the dust compounded.
- Yeah, he did.
(dramatic music)
Yeah, so Bacon's behind
the aras basically.
And maybe--
- Because the line in Hamlet.
- Absolutely.
- Compounded it with dust.
- What have you done, my
lord, with the dead body?
- Compounded it with
dust, whereto tis kin.
- So--
- Well I mean,
that's interesting, that
is an interesting idea.
(dramatic music)
- But it's just a stone.
It's not the works
of Shakespeare,
so I thought okay,
someone could have been
doing this as some
kind of practical joke,
so I had to learn more about it.
That's when I bought
the first folio.
- Right.
So what's next?
(dramatic music)
On the wall above the tomb is a
memorial plaque in
honor of Shakespeare.
It was put up only a few
years after his death.
In it, he is compared to the
great authors of antiquity.
- Stay passenger, why
goest thou by so fast?
Read if thou canst.
What does that say to you?
- If you can read,
continue to read.
No more than that.
- Well, I have another thought.
And that is that if
you study it carefully.
If you stay and you
don't go by so fast,
you can read whom envious death
hast placed within this
monument Shakespeare.
- [Robert] Yeah?
- This is what I did.
- Okay.
- Shakespeare, he was
52 years old maximum,
maybe 51 almost 52 or 52.
Which means that 53 is wrong.
(dramatic music)
So again, we encounter
the mysterious 53.
(dramatic music)
I thought this 52 had been
correct, this achieved age.
- Right.
- Read if thou canst.
53 is geometry.
So I created a three, four,
five triangle ending at the B.
And if you look
at the line above,
far more than cost, sieh
all that he hath writ.
And you know German.
- [Robert] I do know
a bit of German, yeah.
- [Petter] Sieh.
- See.
- Yes.
- Yep.
- [Petter] Isn't it
peculiar to have a
German word suddenly
inside this?
- Okay, well that's interesting.
They do suggest only the
Rosicrucians began in Germany.
It was a sort of
Germanic movement.
- But what if that Germanic
word reversed becomes
a Germanic expression,
a statement?
- Okay.
- [Petter] H, heis tso.
- So heis is to be
called, isn't it?
- It's thus called, heis tso.
And before heis
tso we have the A
and after heis tso the C.
B-A-C.
And if you complete
the pentagon,
you have the O and the N.
- [Robert] So is
thus called Bacon.
- [Petter] Yeah.
(dramatic music)
Read if thou canst.
But what I think is
as interesting is that
after the C, N-E-V-I-L.
- [Robert] Right, Nevil.
- Nevil.
- And you think
this is Henry Nevil?
- Yeah.
I think those two
guys and Shakespeare,
pulled this thing off,
the whole thing now.
- Yeah, yeah and
well I mean, yeah,
the Nevil thing's there as well.
I mean, that is
interesting, genuinely
(dramatic music)
The name Henry Nevil
kept cropping up
and I knew so little about him.
Later on we took a detour
to Audley End House
near Saffron Walden to
see a portrait of him.
Does Henry Nevil, the
man Petter believed
really wrote Shakespeare,
look a bit like me?
Who do you believe wrote this?
Somebody connected with
Bacon, connected with Nevil,
is that what
- I think,
- you're suggesting?
- because of the mastery
of Bacon and his
cryptological ability,
I would think that he
probably devised this.
He didn't necessarily
cut it himself.
But I think that the
layout and everything.
- No, I mean it's
almost certain that he didn't.
- But I think that he had
something to do with this.
But I think it's the
Rosicrucian Fraternity,
it could be many, could
be few, we don't know.
But he was one of
them, I'm sure.
- Shakespeare was one of them?
- Yeah, but exactly
what his role was,
except from fronting the
project and giving the name
and taking the blame
if something happened,
I cannot really say.
But the two masterminds
I think are these guys,
Bacon and Nevil.
- Right.
You're going some
way to make me think
interestingly
about Shakespeare's
potential membership
or connection to
the Rosicrucians,
but to be honest, you're
gonna have to come up
with some better
stuff than triangles
and reversed German words.
- Okay.
But we also have things to say
about the Latin inscription.
- [Robert] Okay.
- Because genio
socratem is bad Latin.
Because the accusative
should be Greek accusative,
which is socraten, with an N.
- Right.
- Yeah and if you change
that to the proper N
that it should have been,
instead of just one letter,
you take those two letters,
stramen omo, straw man.
- So this man was their,
this was the man of straw,
this was the dummy, the
puppet, that Francis Bacon--
- [Petter] From the Returns
of Parnassus if you read
that one, for you are
nothing but the man of straw.
Yep, I'm not happy because
I have to take two letters
from that one and that
makes it less than perfect.
- Yeah, well, I
mean, that's fine,
if you're similarly
unhappy with it,
I'm unhappy with it
for other reasons.
This man might have been petty,
litigious and problematic,
but he was also the greatest
genius our language has ever
- Or a great straw man who
did his job excellently.
- Well.
- T-E-S-T test there,
witness this, stramen omo.
Let me just show you
for your interest,
the first picture of this bust,
- [Robert] Okay, let's see it.
- Published in 1756, one second.
- Right, well that's obviously
radically different isn't it?
- Isn't it, especially
the way he holds his arms.
- Yeah, I mean you could just
about let him get away with
with the sack and
of course, with not
having the quill or the paper,
but there does seem in
the angle of the elbows,
to be a real difference there.
- [Petter] And the
mustache, very different.
(dramatic music)
- This bust of
William Shakespeare
is believed to have been erected
a few years after
his death in 1616.
Some 30 years later in 1656,
the antiquarian herald,
Sir William Dugdale made this
depiction of the monument.
It could potentially,
let's face it,
still just be a pretty
bad rendition of this.
It could.
- It could be.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- But you know me
now, you think.
- Yeah, well.
- Would I just go with that?
- There's no just could
be's, yeah right okay.
So what are you suggesting then?
- What this William
does is to mimic
the square and compasses
with his mustache
continued into his elbows
becomes the compasses
and the square with his hands.
- [Robert] So who was
this man William Dugdale?
His son-in-law, was none
other than the celebrated
politician and
antiquarian Elias Ashmole,
who was the first
person in England,
to privately admit that
he was a Freemason.
- So, I would suspect
that Dugdale was a Mason
and the reason he didn't
write about Masonry
was because he was a Mason.
Mason's were
absolutely forbidden
to write or inscribe
anything of what
the particular lodge might
regard as their secrets.
- Was Dugdale aware
of a connection
between Shakespeare
and the Masons,
which he suggested
in his drawing?
(dramatic music)
Obviously, anybody
who would have seen
that rendition and
also made a trip here
to Holy Trinity Church would
have seen the difference,
would have known that
either this guy was
a pretty bad engraver, or
that there was something
deliberate going on here.
What was happening?
Was this contagion
of codes catching?
I was starting to see
coincidences everywhere.
(dramatic music)
- [Ticket Agent] Gate 53.
- [Robert] My own
initials are R-C.
My mother's name is
Frances with an E.
I look like Henry Nevil.
Was there some kind
of existential crisis
I was going through,
or was I just falling
into the same trap
that Petter and others
had tumbled into, where
coincidence and speculation
become simply more
exciting than rationality.
Maybe I'd just been brainwashed
during the days
we spent together.
(dramatic music)
- Cipher is a difficult,
difficult area of study.
I'm very interested to
read this Norwegian book
because there was
cipher at the time,
but it's so difficult
not to project
what you want to
find onto the cipher,
yet I believe that there
was cipher being used.
- I'm no code expert,
so I had to go and
see someone who is.
(upbeat music)
One of the world's
most intelligent men.
Hello, I'm Robert.
Hello, nice to meet
you how are you
- Good, I'm good.
- [Robert] And while
I was in Switzerland.
- So where do you go?
- [Robert] Petter
was meeting with
one of the world's leading
experts on Shakespeare.
- [Robert] Amertis Professor
at the University of Birmingham,
co-editor of the
Oxfod Complete Works
and Honorary President of the
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
- [Petter] Good afternoon.
- [Stanley] Hello,
how do you do?
- [Robert] Stanley Wells.
- Okay, thank you please sit.
- [Petter] So.
(upbeat music)
- I've talked often to people
who are looking for
what we call their
10 minutes of fame.
There tends to come the light
of fanaticism into their eyes
and I find that constantly.
- We have page 379.
- They knew that journalists,
television presenters
and so on are likely to
take an interest in them
if they come up with
an unorthodox opinion.
With something that
contradicts popular belief,
so that there's something
rather unworthy about it.
- [Robert] Jola Sigmond
is a typographer
who knows how they printed
books in Shakespeare's time.
(dramatic music)
His I.Q. has been
measured at 192.
He designs his own
ciphers for fun and profit
and he's a high ranking member
of a Swedish Masonic Lodge.
He can recognize symbols,
uncover deliberate mistakes
and pronounce with authority on
the likelihood of
Petter's claims.
(dramatic music)
- So, this is an imitation
of the first folio.
- [Robert] Oh
right, they were so.
- Yes and here is it in that.
- [Robert] Oh wow.
- I did it yesterday, yes.
- Did you really?
- The first visual impression,
is that someone was
out of his mind.
When we see certain
things that there is
an unusual large space
between this letter and the
- Colon.
- Yeah, the colon, one makes
it wonder, why is it so?
And then I see these
characteristics,
and then I understand that
it is made on purpose,
there is no doubt of it.
A skilled typographist is needed
to make such mistakes.
- Let us add 17 pages, which
brings us to page three.
- Why?
- 17 for R.
- Okay, alright.
If you're testing a
code, you need to have
the sort of mind and
training that I don't have.
I am not capable
of analyzing codes.
- This one was made by a master,
who could arrange
it in such a way
that it served his purpose.
- To encode some
kind of message.
- Yes, the message is
the most important,
the names, they
present themselves,
Bacon obviously
cooperated in this one
and even the others as well.
(dramatic music)
There are Rosicrucians and
the Freemasonic symbols,
hidden in codes in
the secret language.
(dramatic music)
In, especially in
this situation,
suddenly, middle of the
sentence it's changing.
- That is true to fit
with the iambic pentameter
that you would expect here,
then you would think
that this clause here
would go on that line.
That I thought her as
chaste as unsunn'd snow.
That would fit, that would
be the iambic pentameter,
but instead there
just seemed to be
a deliberate attempt
to place this here
in order to create that
triangle and that word.
- [Jola] Yes.
- To give explicitly, to tell us
that this text was
published by the Rosy Cross.
- That was in their work.
So that instead of there I
am the best, I am the best.
- They were working
collaboratively.
- I mean obviously
there's a genius
to someone who had this,
a vocabulary this large
and a knowledge of
so many subjects.
That leads me, I
become intrigued
about a collaborative mind.
I'm not sure he wrote
all of the plays,
but I think he was
the inspiring genius.
- All right, it seems to
me that if you're saying
that somebody is saying that
Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare
but nevertheless he was actually
a front for Francis Bacon
or Christoper Marlowe,
I mean what, oh dear me,
what crap it is,
really, you know,
I mean why would Shakespeare
have allowed himself
to be used as a front
for these people
if especially if he
was capable apparently
of writing most of
the plays by himself?
It's just nonsensical.
- I think it is historians
who are ridiculous.
Just look at the proofs,
understand the
message for yourself.
(pages flapping)
- Oh bless me, well, hmm.
- It's there.
(chuckling)
- Certainly it does
make you really start
to think whether there
might have been deliberate
choices being made in
the issuing of this book.
It doesn't affect the
authorship for me,
but maybe the people
who Shakespeare,
the author was associating with.
(dramatic music)
As we journeyed onwards, I
was exhausted, but engaged.
(dramatic music)
My head was bursting
with questions.
How did the Masons fit
with the Rosicrucians?
What really linked
their supposed leader,
Francis Bacon with Shakespeare?
If they had deployed
all these codes,
not only in the first folio,
but on gravestones
and in the sonnets,
this must have been
a massive enterprise,
costing huge amounts of money.
Who had those
kinds of resources?
Not only intellectual, but
financial, political and social?
And what on Earth was
motivating them to do all this?
This must have been more
than just some clever game
with words and numbers.
What were they hiding?
What I'm interested
to know now really
is why, like you know, qui
bono, what, for what purpose?
You know why are the
Rosicrucians interested
in Shakespeare,
why is Shakespeare interested
in the Rosicrucians
and why bother
including these codes
in this big chunk of text
that it would have taken
years to formulate,
what was the point?
- It's a much more
important course
that drives these
men to do this.
- So what is it,
what's the reason.
- Well, as certain
search is encouraged.
(dramatic music)
- [Robert] In the Rosicrucian
manifesto, Fama Fraternitatis,
the reader is encouraged
to look for a grave,
where the Rosicrucian
founder father R.C.
Would be perfectly
preserved, buried alongside
his most treasured possesions,
including his most sacred book.
- They encourage the
search for that grave
and other graves of
the other brothers.
A specific spot on the Earth.
- Is it not allegorical
thou surely,
I mean these people are
dealing with allegory.
- Sure, it could
be, but then again,
the allegory that
everybody suspects
could be in the very hands on.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
And this is what I do.
I use those cryptological hints
as a hands on treasure
hunt for the grave
of R.C. with his books
and the other artifacts.
- Whoa, so you believe
that you have collated
the coordinates as
it were to lead us
to this fabled R.C.'s grave.
- I know where it is and I'm
going to teach it to you.
First we have to
identify the map.
- [Robert] On the first
page of the first folio,
there may be an
image of this map.
The poem is printed
in a perfect square.
There are four W's
located on a line,
a new line can be
reflected in another W
on the opposite side.
A right angle can be
draw centered on the top.
Okay.
A Masonic emblem appears,
the square and compasses,
containing two three,
four, five triangles,
each with a 53 degree angle.
- I say this is the
pattern of the map
and this is what all
Mason's strive for,
to climb the seven
steps to the top.
- And what exactly are
you ascending towards?
- [Petter] God's mercy.
- Right, okay.
The dimensions of the
symbol are inspired
by the Book of Genesis in
which God created the world
in six days and
rested on the seventh.
The Masonic emblem can
have the dimensions
six times seven.
- Now six by seven is?
- 40, 42, even I
can do that one yay!
- Yeah, okay.
The sonnets.
- [Robert] Shakespeare's
sonnets were published in 1609.
On the first page,
there is a dedication,
to the only begetter.
The poem contains several
possible acrostics,
including T-W-O.
- [Petter] These three letters.
- [Robert] What the
acrostic letters here
- [Petter] Yeah.
- [Robert] M-A-P, map.
- [Petter] Map.
What kind of a map?
A T-T map.
- A T-T map?
- Now what is a T-T map?
- Tell me.
- Are there any page
numbers in the sonnets?
- In the original.
- In the original, of
course, the original.
- There are aren't
they yeah in the--
- No, there are not.
- No?
- The only numbers are
the sonnets themselves.
- Right, so why don't you
use the second sonnet then?
Did you use the second sonnet?
- No, but I did now.
- Yeah, right.
- You know what
the second word is?
- 40.
- [Petter] 40, then 40 and two.
- Ah, 42.
- Right and what
are 42 words down,
if not two words beginning T-T,
that could be the, the thing
that we are looking for,
the T-T map.
- You look, yeah
let's have a look.
- [Petter] That's.
- The treasure.
(dramatic music)
- [Petter] This is the only
T-T combination in this sonnet.
- In the whole sonnet?
- [Petter] Yeah and treasure
is word 42 down from there.
- It's intersting, this
poem has got T-W, T-W, T-W,
- [Petter] That's
right, that's a bit
how I began to think that.
- It's infectious but um--
- [Petter] It is.
- Contagious, like a disease.
- Now, now I would like
to ask you a question.
- Sure.
- What would be the
wettest dream for
a Shakespeare
scholar to discover?
- It'd be a new
play, a new play.
- [Petter] A new play?
- Yeah, on a par with
finding a new novel
by Jane Austen, I think
that would be the greatest
most wonderful discovery
in all literature.
- Well, what about manuscripts?
- Yeah, to find the
original manuscripts
would be a pretty
big deal, yeah.
- A pretty big deal,
okay, because this is what
I say we can do.
- [Robert] None of Shakespeare's
manuscripts have survived.
His plays alone must
have required thousands
of handwritten pages,
but not a single one
is known to exist today.
- But look, if we follow
the seven steps to the top,
there is something to be found.
- [Robert] I mean
that's God's mercy,
that's God's mercy you said,
the summit of God's mercy.
- God's mercy and
I sincerely believe
that the long-sword manuscripts
of William Shakespeare's
works is there to be found.
(dramatic music)
- [Robert] In Bacon's
book Sylva Sylvarum,
he describes a thousand
different experiments,
including two on the
conservation of bodies
- [Petter] And this
is where he describes
how the Shakespearian
manuscripts could be preserved
and I'll show you why I
think it has relevance
to the Shakespearian
manuscripts.
- Okay.
- He describes it
twice in this book
and the first time
it is found here.
I conceive the
preservation will be
of bodies put into quicksilver,
but then they must
be thin as a leaf
or a piece of paper, parchment
and then we note, 100.
- [Robert] In
experiments number 100,
Bacon describes the
conservation of paper.
- And 100 is the value
of Francis Bacon.
- [Robert] Oh yes.
- This is on page 33.
- [Robert] 33, which is Bacon.
- Just Bacon.
(dramatic music)
And the next place he discusses
conservation of bodies
is 771 and 177 is
William Shakespeare.
This is the method and we
have tried this ourselves,
we have experimented
with quicksilver,
dipping paper into it and it
seems that it is all moist,
all wet, but when
you retract it,
the paper it is dry and perfect.
(dramatic music)
- Really, so scientifically
this actually works
as an experiment.
- Yes, yes.
- The paper can be
preserved in mercury.
- Yes, and it's so heavy,
it's 14 times water
so it will repel all air,
it will be preserved,
hermetically, perfectly well.
And is this merely a
speculation, I say no,
because there is a
preface to this book
and there it is
stated quite plainly,
he that looks attentively
into them shall find
that they have a secret order.
This I think is
the secret order.
The preservation of all this
and in particular, paper
and still in particular,
Shakespearian manuscripts,
in quicksilver somewhere.
- And do you know where?
- We're going to find it.
(chuckling)
- It's kind of, I am excited
despite myself I have to say.
I really, you know, well this
is an entirely
new twist frankly.
So where, where's that then?
- We have to confer our map.
(dramatic music)
- [Robert] Petter believes
that the Rosicrucians
could have designed and hidden
a constellation map
in the first folio.
To examine this treasure map,
we have to go back
to the beginning,
the poem To the Reader
on the first page.
- All these letters shall be
looked upon as Greek letters,
because they represent
a Greek name.
And this is my friend
one of the oldest
tricks in the code book.
- [Robert] In a letter
to King James the First,
Sir Francis Bacon
revealed a cipher
in which he replaced English
letters with Greek ones.
By using this system
in the first folio,
the anagram Bootes appears.
- Bootes, a slow working
star in North Pole
near to Charls wain.
- Pronounce it for me again.
- Bootes.
- Bootes.
- [Petter] But look, W-A-I-N.
- [Robert] Petter believes
that To the Reader
conceals acrostically
the constellations Bootes
and Wain, two constellations
in the immediate
vicinity of one another
in the night sky
and which are also
associated in mythology.
- So we are talking a star.
- Astronomy and astrology.
- Astronomy, not astrology.
- Well, they were
virtually the same thing
in the early modern period.
- But astrology is
what it may mean
to characters
living on the Earth,
I'm talking about Astronomy.
- Okay.
- How many times
are Wain written in
Shakespeare you think?
- I wouldn't like to speculate,
but probably not
that many times.
- That's right.
- [Robert] The
constellation Bootes
is not mentioned in any
of Shakespeare's plays,
but the constellation Wain is.
- So how many.
Just once.
It was in one of the Henry's?
- That's right.
- Yeah, which one Henry the
Fourth, Part Two or One?
- Part One and where
did we find Bacon?
- Also in Henry the
Fourth, Part One.
- [Petter] Yeah
we did didn't we.
Oh my god, it's page 53.
(Robert chuckling)
- [Robert] I was experiencing
some of that thrill of discovery
that had kept Petter
moving from code to code,
each one in a seemingly
perfect alignment.
What were the odds of all this?
(dramatic music)
In addition to Wain and
Bacon, the word Bootes,
spelled like the
constellation Bootes
is printed on this page.
- [Petter] What happens
if we draw this line?
- [Robert] Petter
draws a straight line
between the two constellations.
- There is an
expression up here,
called eggs and butter,
but more often think
of eggs and bacon.
If we connect this.
- [Robert] Petter draws
a new straight line
between the words
butter and Bacon.
- You see, I am in the middle.
If we insert at
compass, you see the B's
have the same relationship
with the I am in the middle
and not only that my friend,
if you connect these lines,
you get a six by seven setup.
- But are you therefore
just using the I am
as more of the evidence
for the Baconian authorship
of Shakespeare.
- Well, I'm thinking--
- Or are you thinking more
actually I am is related to..
- God.
- Right.
- You laugh?
- No, well.
- You probably know your Exodus.
- Well yeah.
- Curiously, Exodus, which
is book number two by Moses,
has a passage where
God is saying his name
and that is Exodus
3:14, pi, a circle.
- [Robert] Yeah.
- [Petter] You know what
God is calling himself?
- Well I mean, God's,
God's name which is never
supposed to be revealed
is YHWH, but which.
- [Petter] I AM.
- Right.
(dramatic music)
- Look, this has to do
with religious questions,
it has to do with God.
- But again, let's just clarify.
What's this mean?
Why suddenly is at the
center of these structures
the phrase I am, why
have they put this here?
- Well, I interpret
it to be God.
- Why God though, well why
is God in the middle of it.
- Because of something I have
seen further down the road.
- Well you're gonna
have to get there now.
If we ignore the authorship
question for a second,
it's very easy
- Okay, it's
- for me to accept.
- the Freemasons,
it's the Freemasons
are involved.
- Yeah.
- They are preoccupied with
the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
On the Temple Mount.
- The Temple itself which
was destroyed by the Romans.
- In year 70 AD.
(dramatic music)
- I wonder why are they
preoccupied with it?
- Perhaps, they have
something that rightfully
should have been there,
but at the moment there
is no temple any longer.
- There's nothing in the
the Temple there now,
obviously well apart
from the Wailing Wall
- Oh and well there is a mosque.
- Yeah, indeed.
(dramatic music)
The Knights Templar
excavated the Temple Mount
in Jerusalem in the
1120s and legend suggests
that some of Judaism and
Christianity's most important
treasures were then
brought to Europe.
It has also been said that
the treasure was taken north
to Scotland to become symbolic
artifacts of the Freemasons.
(dramatic music)
Could it be that this
is what the Rosicrucians
are referring to when
they urge us to look
for the grave of Father R.C.?
(dramatic music)
The grave is also supposed
to contain a lamp,
cryptically described
as a lamp who has learnt
to shine from the sun.
This echoes a
Kabbalic description
of the Jewish menorah
in the Temple.
Petter believes that this
is the sacred artifact
which his treasure map leads to.
(dramatic music)
- And in this light
the authorship question
becomes less important
to me at least.
What do you think,
is it interesting?
- Yeah, absolutely.
I mean you've certainly
got, you've more than
got my attention with
it, let's face it.
- [Petter] You're listening now.
- I'm, I'm really
listening yeah.
- [Petter] It's beginning
to blow your mind.
- Well, I mean, it's
all supremely elegant
and attractive, enticing almost,
but how does that work
with the astronomy?
How does that work with the
map that you've spoken about?
- This is what we
are looking for.
- [Robert] For the Chimera.
- [Petter] Yes.
- [Robert] In one of his poems,
Ben Johnson reveals
that he knews about
the Chimera of the Rosy Cross.
In Greek mythology,
the Chimera is a beast
composed of a lion's
head, a dragon's tale
and a goat's body, these
animals are also constellations.
- Here is Leo's head
and the dragon's tail
is here, what if
we had a star here,
that did represent the goat?
- And have you found one?
- Wouldn't that be quite
- What about Capricorn?
- Capella.
- Oh right?
- She's the goat.
- Okay.
- [Petter] Yeah, and she's
right there, exactly.
(dramatic music)
- [Robert] All the animals
in the Rosicrucian chimera
are in the immediate vicinity
of Bootes and Wain, but
there is one piece missing.
(dramatic music)
And it is Ben Johnson who
reveals the last constellation
in a dedicatory poem
addressed to Shakespeare.
The poem has a
very famous ending,
about a certain bird.
- Sweet swan of Avon, Ben
Johnson named Shakespeare
the swan, a swan that can
also be seen in the sky.
Stay, I see thee in
the hemisphere advanced
and made a constellation there,
shine forth thou star of poets.
- He says you are
a constellation.
- [Robert] The Cygnus?
- The Cygnus.
(dramatic music)
It's called the Northern
Cross, and by some it has been
by some thought to be a
prophecy for Christianity.
- Oh okay right, so God has
placed that constellation
in the sky as a
signal for humanity
that ultimately
Christ will come.
- Wouldn't that be a
great spot for a Temple?
- Yeah.
The swan completes the map.
Petter believes that
the Masonic symbol
is constructed in the sky.
The swan's biggest
star is located
exactly at the point
of the 37 degree angles
and in the first folio,
two stars of Cygnus
is encoded on two page 37's.
- Now I'm going to
show you something
that I myself cannot explain.
I find this really astonishing.
If there is any baring
to Bootes and Wain
being on page 53, then
it should be possible
to find Cygnus
evidence on page 37.
- [Robert] Sure.
- [Petter] This is
in the Comedies.
A-L-B-I-R-O, like
this and those C's.
Now what do you think of that?
- It becomes very
difficult to explain away
that level of
acrostic coincidence.
- [Petter] But it
doesn't stop there,
there are more pages 37
and there are more stars.
The most important star
of Cygnus is Deneb.
Here we have D-E-N-E
aligned and it's a perfect
right angle here to the
word bootes, bootes.
(dramatic music)
And this is on page
37 of the Histories.
- Oh.
- This is where we are headed.
This is where the geometry fits.
- [Robert] The page
numbers refer to angles
in the symbols in the sky.
Deneb is also the seventh step
in this map made of
constellations, God's mercy.
- And the square and
compass in Masonic telling,
that has to do with
the Old Testament,
where the building of the
first Temple by Solomon.
- Yeah.
- So that is the old
pact, the old covenant,
but here, we have Cygnus,
the northern cross,
which is a Christian
cross in the north,
so the point uniting these two
spots will be exactly here.
And what better place to
create the new Temple?
Than to go there.
- To choose a point in the sky
- As above, so below.
- and then choose, so below.
(dramatic music)
- This is what I think is
the true purpose of all this
because we are thinking
in terms of a Temple
uniting Judaism
and Christianity.
So the one represents
the Old Covenant
and the other, the New Covenant.
Just like you, you
are of Jewish origin,
but a baptized Christian.
- [Robert] So it's right
at the top, so it's.
- [Petter] Right at the top.
- At Deneb, that's the place.
- [Petter] That's the place.
- That's the place in
heaven and so on Earth
and where is that then on Earth?
- I'll show you.
(dramatic music)
Cauda Cygni, tail of the swan,
it's quite close to the coast
in fact, there is a treasure
island that is quite famous
off of the coast of Nova Scotia.
- It's like stories
about treasure islands
and so on isn't it?
You have a map,
ew, how exciting,
we'll go and find
buried treasure from
the Spanish Armada and so on.
Is it ever there?
Of course it's not.
(dramatic music)
- That's fantastic.
(dramatic music)
- What do we have here?
I know where the
proper entrance is.
(dramatic music)
(squealing beep)
(dramatic music)
(hollow metallic ringing)
- Oh god I mean listen to that.
(hollow metallic echo ringing)
There's something there.
(hollow metallic echo ringing)
(dramatic suspenseful music)
