ARE OAK ISLAND AND SHAKESPEARE CONNECTED? THE GEOMETRIC FIGURE'S PART I BY DANIEL SPINO
- 2 hours ago
- 11 min read


This author has written, “THE MYSTERY OF NOLAN’S CROSS: QUAM PATENT, PLURA LATENT, MORE IS HIDDEN THAN REVEALED”, which indicates that John Dee and Francis Bacon inspired and constructed Nolan’s Cross on Oak Island and details about it were hidden on the Shakespeare Funerary Plaque. What this author did not reveal is how Shakespeare is tied to this information. This became clear when several geometric figures were found by this author that formed the names of people who appear to tie into both the authorship of Shakespeare and the early activities associated with Oak Island. Some of these geometric figures have hidden messages inside of them. Once this author understood that the people involved were Rosicrucian/Freemasons who practiced Pythagorean principles, the results came quickly. Petter Amundsen had previously discovered the “Bacon Pentagon” on the plaque which paved the way for others, including myself to follow. This included fellow researcher, Christopher Morford, who discovered the “Bacon Pythagorean Triangle/Nolan’s Cross”, which was pivotal for the discoveries that this author has uncovered. Now for the first time, this author would like to share these geometric figures with our readers.

In the center of the plaque the first message appeared to this author. After analyzing the letters, the author found the following message that was concealed using a pentagon that points directly to a name. Starting from K and moving counterclockwise and then inside of the figure the following letters are revealed:
K O T R E A M S (U/V) L W O M E N V I H Y G O E S T: After unscrambling the letters, they spell,
KIT MARLOWE (GREEN)
YE (ORANGE)
GHOST (WHITE)
O (PINK)
V (BLUE)
MEN (PURPLE)
US (RED)
(SHAKESPEARE)
The translation, “CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, THE GHOST OF FIVE MEN, US….SHAKESPEARE!”
Christopher Marlowe’s nickname was Kit. This message appears to indicate that the literary work of Marlowe and Shakespeare was written by “Five Men”. They are referred to as “US”, but who were US? Other clues point to a group of five Freemasons/Rosicrucians writing the works of both Marlowe and Shakespeare. It seems that both Marlowe and Shakespeare were real people who allowed these five men to use their names to publish their work. Why? Because at the time it was not appropriate for certain members of British society to be published authors of poetry or drama. Could this all just be a coincidence? Did this author just look for letters to make a message that he wanted to see? The fact that this message was hidden inside of a geometric figure that directly points to a name makes this possibility almost statistically impossible. It shows intent with purpose and planning. We will get to the five persons identity, but some historical background is necessary to understand the circumstances.

Christopher Marlowe was known as a British playwright, poet, and spy. This began in late 1587 when his play, “Tamburlaine” was first acted on the London Stage. This was about a year after the famous poet and author Philip Sidney was killed in the Netherlands. This lasted until Marlowe’s death on May 30, 1593. Marlowe’s death resulted in intrigue and controversy. Marlowe was believed to have been a spy for the British. He was also accused of being an atheist, which was in direct opposition to the Church of England and the British Government. Marlowe has been characterized as a very controversial figure for the Elizabethan era which had a strict code of conduct. Marlowe was also allegedly involved with the “School of Night”. This was reportedly a group that included Walter Raleigh, John Dee, Thomas Harriot, Matthew Roydon, and George Chapman, among others. The group focused on Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, Astronomy, and Hermeticism, which were taboo subjects identified by the Church of England at that time. Based on this author’s research, the number of people involved with these subjects in Britain at that time was much greater than the number reflected here but kept very secret due to a charge of Atheism/Treason. These were members of the elite class of British society, which made Marlowe a man who may have known too much.

In 1592, Marlowe was accused of counterfeiting coins in the Netherlands. Marlowe had been sharing a room with a Double Agent, named Richard Baines. Baines was working as a Catholic priest, turned British Spy, who claimed Marlowe was involved in counterfeiting. This is interesting because this author has written in the past about the possibility of a counterfeiting operation being conducted on Oak Island in the 1500’s to 1600’s. If this was the case, could these coins have originated from Mahone Bay? This gains more credence when the pages of history reveal that the minting equipment used by Dom Antonio of Portugal went missing after the Battle of Terceira in the Azores in 1583. Dom Antonio, a Knight of Malta, was the claimant to the throne of Portugal but lost to his cousin, King Philip of Spain. Dom Antonio sought support from the British and French, including some of the same individuals of the British elite who are suspects of involvement as Shakespeare. These people also aided Dom Antonio in his war against the Spaniards. Dom Antonio sold vast amounts of his possessions to fund his fight, which may have included his minting equipment. It’s also interesting that the Portuguese coin that was allegedly found on Oak Island was minted and never circulated according to numismatist Sandy Campbell.

In early May 1593, Richard Baines was asked to provide a statement on the heretical views and involvement of Christopher Marlowe. This statement was sent to Queen Elizabeth. Before anything was done to Marlowe, he was reported dead. On May 20, 1593, Marlowe presented himself to the Privy Council to answer the charges, but they were not in session that day. Ten days later, May 30, 1593, Marlowe was killed from an alleged knife wound to the head. The coroner of the Queen’s Household conducted the inquest which in itself was against procedure at the time. It stated that Marlowe had spent the day in a home in Deptford with three men. All three were linked to the Walsingham intelligence family. Marlowe and another man argued over their bill, and in the struggle, Marlowe was immediately killed from a knife wound to the head. The coroner’s report and Marlowe’s burial happened the same day, June 1, 1593, where he was buried in an unmarked grave.

Many people through history have questioned these events and believe that Marlowe was murdered due to his conduct and associations. Another hypothesis is that Marlowe’s death was faked, and he was sent into exile. This theory is usually connected to the Marlovian Theory of Shakespeare Authorship which states that Christopher Marlowe was behind the works of Shakespeare. These theorists point to the fact that the style and ability shown in Marlowe’s works mimic the style and ability shown in the works of Shakespeare. What is very interesting is that Marlowe was somewhat of a pioneer in his work. He was the first to perfect blank verse, which had been introduced, but never fully integrated into English Drama. Coincidentally, Shakespeare extensively used blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) as the primary method for his plays, writing the majority of his dramatic works in this style. Maybe not a coincidence at all according to our hidden message, as the death of Marlowe coincided with the appearance of Shakespeare, which was around the exact same time.

This brings us to a very interesting line of research involving the idea of the “Poet Ape”. The concept was first introduced by Philip Sidney in his 1582 epic sonnet series, “Astrophil and Stella”, where he uses the term, “Pindar’s Apes”. This meant a contemporary poet of Sidney’s who mimicked and copied the style of the ancient Greek Poet Pindar. Sidney uses this term as a criticism for writers who use artificial rhetoric over that of genuine emotion. This term would evolve into someone who generally mimicked and copied someone else’s work or took credit for it. This led to the term “Poet Ape”.

The famous poet Ben Jonson published this poem in 1616, the same year that William Shakespeare died.
“Poore Poet-Ape, that would be thought our chiefe,
Whose works are eene the fripperie of wit,
From brockage is become so bold a thiefe,
As we, the rob’d, leave rage, and pittie it.
At first he makes low shifts, would picke and gleane,
Buy the reversion of old playes; now growne
To a little wealth, and credit in the scene,
He takes up all, makes each man’s wit his own.
And told of this, he slights it. Tut, such crimes,
The sluggish gaping auditor devoures;
He markes not whose twas first; and after-times
May judge it to be his, as well as ours.
Foole, as if halfe eyes will not know the fleece
From locks of wool, or shreds from the whole piece.”
Many believe that Jonson was referring to William Shakespeare in this poem. The poem talks about someone taking credit for work that was not their own and profiting from it. This of course would seem to suggest the thought that William Shakespeare didn’t write the works of Shakespeare and lends credence to the message discovered by this author. The precise cause of Shakespeare’s death remains unknown, but a diary entry from 1666 AD claims he died of a fever contracted after a night of drinking with poets Michael Drayton and Ben Jonson.


The late Shakespearean Researcher, Alexander Waugh noticed something very interesting about the Shakespeare Funerary Monument. In the earliest known sketch of the monument from 1636 by William Dugdale, it appeared that the Shakespeare in the Monument looked like a Monkey or Ape. Could it have been that Dugdale was a poor artist? Waugh pointed out several features and facts that make a good case for the ape reference. The Dugdale sketch is of the original monument, before it was changed in 1649-1650. Dugdale was a draughtsman, so he knew how to draw. According to Waugh, Dugdale’s sketch depicts that the, “head is too small for a normal human being, he has no neck, his shoulders are grossly sloped, his arms elongated and his left hand resembles a bestial claw.” Waugh stated this made Shakespeare look like a “Clothed Ape”. Waugh also noticed that the Corinthian carvings on the tops of each pillar on the monument look like the face of an ape. Was this intentionally created to point out that the real Shakespeare was a “Poet Ape”? It would appear so. What about Marlowe, was he ever alluded to as being a “Poet Ape”?

From 1595 to 1598 there was a “M. Louis LeDoux” who was an intelligence agent working for Anthony Bacon, who was the Chief of Intelligence for Robert Devereaux, The Earl of Essex. Bacon’s papers suggest that LeDoux was English, and not French, although he spoke perfect French. Some researchers believe this spy borrowed the alias of LeDoux from a childhood neighbor of Christopher Marlowe. Many researchers have believed that LeDoux was Marlowe’s alias after his death. Researcher Peter Farey traced the name LeDoux (or LeDoulx) to a wax seal in the British Library from the sixteenth century. It had a picture of a man with the face of a baboon or ape and the letters “LOIS LE DOULX” around it. He interpreted the baboon/ape as a fake identity. It can be inferred that this spy was also a writer based on the contents of Le Doux’s trunk. (Farey 1999)

The trunk’s contents revealed it was full of books and was found in the Anthony Bacon papers at Lambeth (Farey 1999). It was named, ‘Catalogue des livres de Mr LeDoux le 15me de Février 1596’. The contents included eight lexicons with dictionaries in French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German, Latin and Greek. There were source books for Italian dialects including Tuscan, Florentine, and Castilian. (Wraight 1997). There was no English dictionary in the catalog. This suggests that this spy didn’t need one because he was a native English speaker. It also suggests that this spy had been abroad, especially in northern Italy. Apart from the lexicons, the collection included twelve books in Latin, twelve in French, ten in Spanish and sixteen in Italian while four were in both Latin and Italian. Only one book, a Bible was in English, and some manuscripts by Francis Bacon. There were several religious or theological texts in the collection, plus texts in medicine, history, and literature (poetry, prose and plays). There were also some letters from Lord Burghley, William Cecil and the "Clavis Steganographia" or codebook. (Wraight 1997)

The fact that the trunk contained some of the sourcebooks for the Shakespeare’s plays is very interesting. The fact that the “Clavis Steganographia” was inside, is even more so. That is because this book was bound with the first two books of “Steganographia” by Johannes Trithemius written in 1499, although they were not published until 1606. This was a decade before that time. It only existed in manuscript form and was extremely rare. In fact, it was recorded that the first copy brought to England was from John Dee, who copied the entire book in a short amount of time when he was in the Netherlands. It is known that John Dee was a pivotal figure in British intelligence at the time. The methods used in “Steganographia” appear to have been used to hide information in the works of Shakespeare. Researcher Peter Farey believed Marlowe or perhaps another man named Catharinus Dulcis was the spy “Le Doux”. The issue according to our message is that the real Marlowe wasn’t a writer and couldn’t have written the plays. The problem with Dulcis was that he was French and not British. It seems certain that this “Le Doux”, and the author of Shakespeare and Marlowe was British. This leaves us with a prime suspect. Sir Francis Bacon.

Francis Bacon was a prolific writer in his career. Bacon was multilingual, knowing all the languages that "Le Doux" knew. It was said that Bacon spoke as if these languages were his native tongue, including French. Bacon spent several years in France and had an affinity for French Culture. His brother was Anthony Bacon and Francis was also closely aligned with the Earl of Essex. Bacon was also a close associate of Philip Sidney’s and knew all about the “Pindar’s Apes” reference and later the “Poet Ape” of Ben Jonson, who was another of his close associates. Bacon’s uncle was William Cecil, Lord Burghley, whose letters were in “Le Doux’s” trunk. Bacon’s own manuscripts were in the trunk, which is suspicious because in 1596, he was not yet famous as an author. It is said that the author of Shakespeare would have had an intimate knowledge of Italian culture and been there. If Bacon was Le Doux, he must have been to Italy as the “Le Doux” alias. Bacon was a spy that specialized in ciphers and codes which would explain why the trunk had the “Clavis Steganographia”. In other words, Bacon is the perfect suspect of having had the alias of “M. Louis Le Doux” and one of the five writers behind the works of both Marlowe and Shakespeare.

If Francis Bacon had the ability to covertly act as a spy and travel around the world, then he could have certainly traveled and been involved with Oak Island. If there was one person who had the intellect and ability to carry out the laying out of Nolan’s Cross and its surrounding geometry, Bacon is the perfect choice. One last thing regarding our hidden message. The “K” in Shakespeare on the plaque is used to spell “KIT” for Marlowe. The remaining letters in SHAKESPEARE spell, “SHARE (gray) APES (black)”. Meaning Marlowe and Shakespeare were both “POET APES” and took credit for work that wasn’t their own. The plaque was created after Ben Jonson’s 1616 poem and William Shakespeare’s death.
This author understands that there could be another interpretation or message that these letters in this figure could theoretically make. If anyone can make another message, using all the letters shown here, that makes sense and is historically accurate for 1616 AD, please bring it to my attention by sending a message to our email theoakislandcompendium@gmail.com
The next geometric figure this author will reveal is coming soon in Part II. The person indicated is most certainly one of the “Five Men” who apparently were the real authors of the works of Shakespeare and Marlowe.
Please visit www.theoakislandcompendium.com for this article and all of our content regarding the Oak Island Mystery.
Good day from Daniel of the Compendium.
THE OAK ISLAND COMPENDIUM © 2026

