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Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle

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My previous thread was about compaction codes, but a completely
different kind of "codes" is secret messages.  Nowadays high-tech
methods are used to conceal messages, but in older days messages
were concealed by hand.

In military and political codes, sender and receiver each knew the
decoding method.  But more interesting may be codes a sender devised,
where the only "receivers" were those with the talent to guess the method.

Such codes had a range of difficulties.  Sometimes the sender was almost
certain that nobody could decode his message.  At the other extreme, poets
might include a "hidden message" they hoped every reader would see.
What is the trivial "hidden message" in this poem by Edgar Allan Poe?

Edgar Allan Poe wrote:
> Elizabeth it is in vain you say
> "Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
> In vain those words from thee or L. E. L.
> Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
> Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
> Breathe it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
> Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
> To cure his love — was cured of all beside —
> His folly — pride — and passion — for he died.

Anagrams are one popular way to encrypt messages.  Shortish anagrams may be
deciphered with difficulty, but it is almost impossible to decipher
long anagrams.  Here's a famous example of such a too-long anagram:

Galileo Galilei wrote:
> Haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur o.y.
Which has the anagram
> Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum

These two Latin sentences translate respectively to
> I am now bringing these unripe things together in vain, Oy!
>
> The mother of love [Venus] copies the forms of Cynthia [the Moon]."

Historical background:
Copernicus published *De revolutionibus orbium coelestium* posthumously
but his model wasn't widely accepted and had important flaws.
Galileo and Kepler were effectively in a race to publish proofs of
heliocentrism.  Galileo realized the Venus had phases similar to the
phases of the Moon, and that these phases were incompatible with the
ancient Ptolemaic model.

But Galileo needed more observations to confirm his idea.
Today an inventor who wanted to prove priority might mail a sealed letter to
his lawyer with the postmark eventually proving priority.
Instead Galileo sent the anagram to Kepler!  When he was ready to publish,
he also provided the decryption of that anagram.

Anagrams and other simple encryptions may have been popular off and on
in the past (though not anymore I think).  Before presenting a few
encryptions which are the subject of this thread, let me mention one
common approach.

Some months ago I posted spoilers in this newsgroup using a Skip Cipher:
The message comprised the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th (etc.) letters of the
plain-text.  For example
> noW is The TimE foR alL goOd mEn tO coMe tO thE aiD of TheIr pArtY.
The "secret message" is WTTERLOEOMOEDTIAY -- gibberish, because there
was no secret message.  It takes time and effort to devise an encryption
where the plaintext actually looks like an "innocent letter."

I was disappointed that nobody here recognized the skip ciphers: further
proof that these fun encryption methods are no longer in use.

The 3,3,3,3,3,3,...skip cipher is easy to solve, for someone expecting
such a cipher.  More challenging is a skip cipher using intervals like
3,4,7,3,4,7,3,4,7,3,4,7,3,4,7,...  When such a cipher is used, the
plaintext may contain a cryptic clue to the "3-4-7" key.

Here's an example I constructed just now.  Anyone want to try it?
James devised:
> Isn't our beauty most plain to see?
> Ah, we can rejoice much in a nest. -- Aprl 3rd.
Hints:
(1) Delete all spaces and punctuation before solving
(2) This is a 2-period skip cipher (not 3-period like "3-4-7").

Unlike an Acrostic (poet hopes EVERYONE sees the message) or Galileo's
anagram (he assumed NOBODY would solve it until he produced the solution
himself), skip ciphers may be used playfully.  The writer HOPES that a
select few will get the secret message, but will keep it secret.
In some cases (including MY composition above!) the message is concealed
for plausible deniability!  When the storm troopers come pounding on
my door accusing me of treason, I'll say "Gee whiz, officers.  It's
just a coincidence that my paragraph unscrambles like that.  I'm sure it
could unscramble in other ways as well."

I've spent over an hour on this and haven't even attended to my
morning ablutions.  I'll introduce the "Authorship Puzzle" later this week.

Cheers,
James

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Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-02 06:20 +0000
  Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-03 07:52 +0000
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> - 2026-03-03 12:28 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-03 18:45 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-05 04:02 +0000
        Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> - 2026-03-05 06:03 +0000
  Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Charlie Roberts <croberts@gmail.com> - 2026-03-03 15:16 -0500
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-04 05:15 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Charlie Roberts <croberts@gmail.com> - 2026-03-04 17:48 -0500
        Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-05 03:54 +0000
  Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-12 19:22 +0000
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-13 05:35 +0000
    Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-03-25 11:19 +0000
      Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle Phil Carmody <pc+usenet@asdf.org> - 2026-05-19 18:23 +0300
        Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-05-19 17:56 +0000
        "Instigate to poison"  (Re: Cryptic Clues to the Authorship Puzzle) James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-08-30 08:35 +0000

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