E. Gematric
aspects of the 4 Y-Words;
I. Introduction
II. IESUS and his Titles in the
Annunciation account
H. Cross and Salvation: the meaning of Ypsilon and 22, 23
|
6 |
GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE |
|
6 |
TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE. |
|
8 |
BLESTE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES |
|
8 |
AND CVRST BE HE
YT MOVES MY BONES. |
1. The Roman practice of
gematria is based on the principles and meanings of the decimal system.
Shakespeare somehow was able to obtain that knowledge and to develop his own
concept. As he understood the close relationship between 22 and 23, he saw a chance in
counting the letter Y both according to the Roman alphabet (22) and the alphabet of
his own time (23). God gives every Age its own meaning.
2. Shakespeare did not
care about the position of the letter YPSILON in the Greek alphabet. The
numeric value/sum (NV, NS) of the word YPSILON is, according to the
Roman alphabet, 102, its factoral value/sum (FV, FS) 68. This enables an
internal ratio of 34*(2:1) and an external ratio
of 34*(2:3). The NS 102 connects YPSILON to the identical value
of PENSATOR, the 8 different letters of
the
If Y is counted 23, the NV of YPSILON is 103,
which is also the NS of SHAKESPEARE, the FS 78:
|
YPSILON |
sm. |
||
|
|
NS |
FS |
|
|
22 |
102 |
68 |
170 |
|
23 |
103 |
78 |
181 |
|
|
205 |
146 |
351 |
The total 351 =
27*13 is
the sum of the numbers 1-26. Its NV is 22.
1. By explicitly naming IESVS in his epitaph,
Shakespeare makes clear that he expects his eternal salvation and reward from
him. The first time the name of Jesus is made known is when the Angel
Gabriel delivers his message to the Virgin Mary. It is written down in
the gospel of St. Luke, 1:26-38. The Angel twice says who the announced child
is:
HYIOS HYPSISTOU – Son of
the Highest
HYIOS THEOU – Son of God.
2. Shakespeare, who
recognized the piety of the Romans and their poets, wanted to unite their
cultural and literary achievements with the culture that Christianity has
brought into the world. He was much impressed with the
3. In the Greek alphabet
there was no letter for the breathed sound H. Each word beginning
with a vowel was given a sign above it to indicate whether it was breathed or
not. The two signs looked like a round bracket: ( = breathed, ) = unbreathed. So Shakespeare might
have formed the idea to include words into his epitaph starting with a Y.
The TH in Greek was one letter, the THETA. Being pronounced as
one sound, the English alphabet also had a character of its own, called
"thorn". In handwriting it looked similar to a Y and finally was used
in various documents. Shakespeare, of course, knew this. He could have written "BLESTE
BE THE MAN", just as he said before THE DVST, but he wanted to make
an assimilation to the other 3 Greek Y-words, which was
possible because of the historic peculiarity of the English language to
represent TH by the letter Y.
4.
Shakespeare wanted four 2-letter words in his epitaph to
combine their values with the word PE|NS|AT|OR. But he certainly
intended to form analogous letter groups out of the four gospel terms. If he,
in a kind of exchange, kept the three first letters of THEOU, he could go on to form three
2-letter words, with Y as first letter and another one. The letter groups
of the gospel and the Y-words of the epitaph can be arranged in a table
together:
|
Luke |
YI |
YP |
YI |
THE |
|
Epitaph |
YE |
YT |
YT |
MY |
Shakespeare repeated YT analogous to twice YIOS. YE is the only word that
refers semantically to THEOU.
Written: February 2009
Laste entry: June 2014