Scrambled Initials
We now proceed to an exasperating class—initials that have
been deliberately juggled either in a spirit of fun or to achieve
concealment. Until an identity has been established on external
evidence, such initials supply no ground for solutions. Indeed the
chief burden of the scholar in this field is not to obtain
solutions to initials but to rationalize the initials to conform to
external proof.
The simple reversal of initials is comparatively innocuous. Some
instances may be typographical errors; others are deliberate. When
one
considers Nicholas Breton's flood of pamphlets, it is not strange
that he adopted masks; one example will suffice:
| 1614 |
3664 |
B. N. |
Nicholas Breton |
| 1600 |
3191 |
L. N. |
Nicholas Ling |
A. H. Bullen |
| 1631 |
1383 |
H. T. |
Thomas Heywood |
A. M. Clark |
| 1623 |
18660 |
N. S. |
Silvester Norris |
Misprint in STC
|
| 1623 |
19480 |
P. D. M. |
Mr. Dr. (or Matthew Dr.) |
Pattenson |
| 1569 |
12049 |
G. B. |
Barnaby Googe |
| 1616 |
18585 |
N. A. |
Anthony Nixon |
That the poetaster Thomas Jordan utilized the initials J. B.
(1637-14788) to deceive readers into thinking he was being
commended by Ben Jonson may be suspected if one approves Percy
Simpson's rejection of the piece from the Jonson canon.
[12] Traditionally listed among the
works of
Thomas Scott are two pamphlets signed S. R. N. I. (1624-22092).
British Museum cataloguers have now attributed them to another,
implying that these are the much-reversed initials of I[oh]N
R[eynold]S.
Among more intricate devices is the use of terminal letters to
form telonyms,[13] familiar in the
instance of Camden:
| 1605 |
4521 |
M. N. |
[Willia]M [Camde]N |
| 1597 |
6759 |
M. N. |
[Willia]M [Elderto]N |
See STC 6758 |
This Elderton instance is so incredible that it may well be a
practical joke. As John Crow reminds me, Henry Holland enjoyed
jokes; among other tricks in one "anonymous" book (1626-5885), he
signed the dedication: HalleluiaH. In the following cases
authorship appears established, so rationalization is attempted.
Sorocold's verses are fully signed in the second edition, while the
Jesuit Henry Hawkins' authorship has been proved by Rosemary
Freeman:
[14]
| 1605 |
10513 |
S. D. |
[Thomas] S[orocol]D |
| 1633 |
12958 |
H. A. |
[Henry] HA[awkins] |
The initials S. W. in various books of Robert Southwell (as
1591-22950) probably represent S[outh]W[ell]. The following
conjecture is cited without endorsement:
| 1627 |
15110 |
S. P. L. |
Sir James SemPilL |
N&Q, 5th ser., V (1876), 7-8 |
The degree of elaboration to which juggling of initials might
extend is illustrated in the famous pseudonym Smectymnuus
(1641-Wing M748), constructed of the initials of Stephen Marshal
and four
other Puritan divines (uuw). I have noticed no other instance
of such complexity. Reference may be made to an excessively rare
class, monograms like the blended HCL of
Romulus and
Tarquin
(1637-17219). Booksellers have advanced solutions that are not only
farfetched but unnecessary, for the device is fully clarified by
the second edition as H[enry Lord] C[ary of] L[eppington].
