Shakespeare Teacher

The art of reading hidden text in Shakespeare works

Part 1

Finger counting

The image above shows the famous Shakespeare effigy.

It's part of the monument that's housed in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon.

The designer/s saw fit to show the effigy in an academic gown. Shakespeare at University?

Such gowns were often worn by preachers and schoolmasters.

Perhaps there’s something to learn here

The above photo was taken at eye level with the effigy.

The monument is set high on the north wall, behind which was originally a charnel house: a place to store bones.  The monument overlooks the five so-called "family graves". Because of the height of the monument, most observers at ground level might not see the thumbs.

                                        Only the fingers are easily visible.

2 full fingers hold a genuine feather pen.

4 full fingers are placed on a blank page

Set below the effigy is a placard inscribed with Latin and English text. Here's what it looks like:

Notice line 2 of the text ends with Latin HABET which means hold.

Notice also line 4 ends with the old English word PLAST, this means placed.

Looking again the the effigy it is plain to see that:

 

2 full fingers hold a genuine feather pen.

4 full fingers are placed on a blank page 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 full fingers 

hold a 

genuine 

feather pen.

 

4 full fingers 

are placed

on a blank page.

HABET and PLAST make

ALPHABET S T

But what does S T stand for? See later.

By the way:

in those times the alphabet

had only 24 letters.

Remember those fingers?

2 and 4

End of Part 1