Remember, remember,
The fifth of November
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‘Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t’.
Macbeth (I, v)
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To commemorate the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, King James I had a medal created picturing a serpent hiding amongst flowers.
For more, see: Henry Neill Paul. The royal play of Macbeth: when, why, and how it was written by Shakespeare. New York: Octagon Books, 1971.
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‘Obverse, or reverse, of a medal struck, by order of the Dutch senate, to commemorate the double event of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot and the expulsion of the Jesuits from Holland. Drawn from a copy of the medal in pewter, by Paul Woodroffe. The design here exhibited is thus described in Hawkins and Franks Medallic Illustrations: The name of Jehovah, in Hebrew, radiate, within a crown of thorns. Legend, chronogrammatic, NON DORMlTASTl ANTlSTES lACOBl ” [which gives the date 1605]. On its other face the medal bears a snake gliding amid roses and lilies [symbolizing Jesuit intrigues in England and France], with the legend Detects qui latuit. S.C. [Senatus Consulto].’
From: John Gerard. What was the Gunpowder Plot?: The traditional story tested by original evidence. London: Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1897. Appendix A.~
Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford died in 1604. The Gunpowder Plot happened in 1605.
Guy Fawkes day, proof that the Earl of Oxford could not have authored Shakespeare’s plays.