What Counts as a Cipher? The Evolving Role of Shakespearean Paratexts in Cryptographic History

Abstract

What counts as a cipher today has been shaped by nineteenth- and twentieth-century claims that Shakespearean texts contain ciphers proving Francis Bacon’s authorship of the works. These claims formed the immediate institutional context for the founding of Riverbank Laboratories, where William and Elizebeth Friedman were engaged in evaluating the “Shakespearean Ciphers.” Their systematic critique of Baconian methods played a formative role in establishing the methodological standards of modern cryptanalysis and ultimately contributed to the formation of the SIS and the NSA. This paper argues that the professionalization of cryptography prioritized algorithmic communication systems over historically attested practices of symbolic, diagrammatic, and concealmentbased encryption. It proposes a historically grounded framework for reassessing Shakespearean paratexts under explicit methodological constraints and calls for a renewed expansion of cryptography’s historical and methodological scope.