In 2005, Brenda James and William Rubinstein published The Truth Will Out. The book was initiated by James's discovery that the Dedication to Shakespeare's Sonnets was a cryptogram which revealed the name Sir Henry Neville. James had never heard of him until she made this discovery. We found their evidence and arguments very interesting. However, the book did not reveal any details of the decryption, and we began our own efforts. Our independent decryption strongly supported the idea that the polymath and diplomat Sir Henry Neville was the true author. Moreover, as ambassador to France, Neville had used encryption extensively.
Two years later we made a discovery which seemed to reinforce the evidence for Neville profoundly. This was the consistent mapping between the dedication text and the cryptic sonnets themselves. While we were encouraged that this code relied upon distinctively Shakespearean wordplay, so-called "half-puns", nevertheless we could find no precedent to this mapping approach. For another four years we questioned whether these elusive mappings were wishful thinking, as the code seemed to be unlike any other. But last year we found a clear precedent in the ancient Polybius Square. Even more remarkable was the immediate connection between this code and Sir Henry Neville. Neville’s lifelong friend and mentor Sir Henry Savile was one of two Greek scholars consulted on the translation of Polybius’s Histories, which describes the code.
With the Polybius Square as a common ancestor, the similarity between the code we had decrypted blind and the codes Neville had used 400 years earlier became demonstrably clear.
With over 50 consistent mappings between the dedication and the sonnets, this book provides definitive proof that Sir Henry Neville is the true author of the works of Shakespeare.
