initial posting 29/03/2009   
Take what you have gathered from Coincidence
— index

Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.

Introduction:

Brenda James in her book, Henry Neville and the Shakespeare Code, argues that the works attributed to William Shakespeare are in fact the works of Henry Neville, a contemporary of Shakespeare well known as a traveller, an English ambassador and for being associated with the Earl of Essex's uprising.  This association resulted in his internment in the Tower of London for 2 years.

Brenda produces much scholarly content to support her hypothesis.  She also presents data that she has deduced by "decoding" the strange dedication to Shakespeare's sonnets and by finding hidden clues in Shakespeare's texts.

Her decoding research is supplemented by the work of James Goding and Bruce Leyland.

The difficulty that I have, and I suspect others have also, is in making an objective evaluation of the decoded material.  I am less comfortable with the process than I am with the outcome.  What is "little doubt" or unmistakeable (BJ113) to one person may be mere conjecture or coincidence to another.  How do we determine a confidence figure (as we do when evaluating numerical data) for data which has been obtained by a sequence of processes which are admitted to be hunches and seemingly selected from a myriad of alternatives on the basis that they give the desired outcome?

Consider a well constructed drystone wall – a set of stones assembled to give a precise geometric structure.  The builder started with a tumble of miscellaneous chunks of rock and produced, by a process of selection, orientation, placement and experimentation, a very ordered structure.  Yet no one would suggest that the geometry of the wall had been originally encoded in the stones.

The site title comes from the Dylan song - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense
Take what you have gathered from coincidence

Some other aspects of the Henry Neville hypothesis are also considered on this site.  The site will be updated occasionally.

If you should have any interest in this topic (and I can understand even a Shakespeare devotee saying, with a shrug, "who cares?") perhaps start with the page, decoding from grids.


Index:
Decoding from grids A million monkeys at a million typewriters may not produce the novel, Gone with the Wind, but they may produce the piece of graffiti, "Professor Fate is a fink".
Neville and the King James Bible The King James Authorized Bible was published in 1611.  There is reason to believe Henry Neville contributed to the text.
How did it all work? Henry Neville was in The Tower or touring the continent.  William Shakespeare was acting and building theatres.  Thomas Thorpe was managing the printing and royalties.  And it was all fitting together.
Thy sweet self Ultimately we discover that the only message concealed in the dedication is a message that there is no message.

Names, websites:

My Australian culture would have me refer to Brenda James, James Goding and Bruce Leyland as Brenda, James and Bruce (respectively ;-).  However this tone could be viewed as totally unwarranted familiarity on my part, particularly considering the thrust of my arguments.  Hence I will use the academic or British style of address – James, Goding, Leyland.

Web based material by James, Goding and Leyland is available – James – Goding and Leyland.


Abbreviations and Notation:
BJnn — page nn of Brenda James, Henry Neville and the Shakespeare Code, 2008.
LGnn — page nn of Bruce Leyland, James Goding, Decryptions of Shakespeare's Prefaces, 02/01/2009.
BJWS — Brenda James' web site
COD — Concise Oxford Dictionary, 6th ed.
BDPF — Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Centenary ed.
HCS — The Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare, 1969-70.

Last update April 12, 2009     Mal Haysom