The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1595 Saturday, 24 September 2005
From: Robin Hamilton <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Thursday, 22 Sep 2005 21:04:21 +0100
Subject: An Early Instance of Code
Dr. Carol Barton kindly drew my attention to Section II of Jonathan
Swift's +A Tale of a Tub+, which seems pertinent to the debate over
codes in Shakespeare's writing.
There, Swift writes:
Now the coats their father had left them were, it is true, of very good
cloth, and besides, so neatly sewn you would swear they were all of a
piece, but, at the same time, very plain, with little or no ornament;
and it happened that before they were a month in town great
shoulder-knots came up.
...
In this unhappy case they went immediately to consult their father's
will, read it over and over, but not a word of the shoulder-knot. What
should they do? What temper should they find? Obedience was absolutely
necessary, and yet shoulder-knots appeared extremely requisite. After
much thought, one of the brothers, who happened to be more book-learned
than the other two, said he had found an expedient. "It is true," said
he, "there is nothing here in this will, +totidem verbis+, making
mention of shoulder-knots, but I dare conjecture we may find them
inclusive, or +totidem syllabis+." This distinction was immediately
approved by all; and so they fell again to examine the will.
But their evil star had so directed the matter that the first syllable
was not to be found in the whole writing; upon which disappointment, he
who found the former evasion took heart, and said, "Brothers, there is
yet hopes; for though we cannot find them +totidem verbis+ nor +totidem
syllabis+, I dare engage we shall make them out +tertio modo+ or
+totidem literis+." This discovery was also highly commended, upon
which they fell once more to the scrutiny, and soon picked out S, H, O,
U, L, D, E, R, when the same planet, enemy to their repose, had
wonderfully contrived that a K was not to be found. Here was a weighty
difficulty! But the distinguishing brother (for whom we shall hereafter
find a name), now his hand was in, proved by a very good argument that K
was a modern illegitimate letter, unknown to the learned ages, nor
anywhere to be found in ancient manuscripts. "It is true," said he,
"the word Calendae, had in Q. V. C. been sometimes writ with a K, but
erroneously, for in the best copies it is ever spelt with a C; and by
consequence it was a gross mistake in our language to spell 'knot' with
a K," but that from henceforward he would take care it should be writ
with a C. Upon this all further difficulty vanished; shoulder-knots
were made clearly out to be jure paterno, and our three gentlemen
swaggered with as large and as flaunting ones as the best.
*****
Lest it should be thought that the connection between Swift and
Shakespeare is tenuous or over-drawn, it should be remembered that Swift
was a friend of Alexander Pope, who in turn had "versified" the Second
and Fourth Satires of John Donne. As everyone I am sure recalls, Donne
in his Third Satire (as also in Holy Sonnet XVIII: "Show me deare
Christ, thy Spouse, so bright and clear ... ") had employed the image of
dress, which Swift picks up, to denominate the various sects of the
Christian church.
Donne, a great frequenter of plays, had no doubt been introduced to
William Shakespeare by their common friend Ben Jonson, and over a
tankard of ale in the Mermaid, Shakespeare expounded the secret of his
encoding to Donne, who incorporated this in Satire III and Holy Sonnet
XVIII. In the course of time, echoes of The Great Code emerge obliquely
in Swift.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Robin Hamilton
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