l vhh brx irxqg pb flskhu lq wklv errn
ri zloov ldpelf ukbphv wkhb eulqj ph mrb
wkhuhv pruh zkhuh wklv fdph iurp frph wdnh d orrn
lqvlgh wkh pdjqxv rsxv ri wrovwrb

This cipher was found tucked inside one of the 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio in the Folger Shakespeare Library. It was the first cipher found. No one knows how it was slipped between the pages of this priceless book that is normally housed behind a glass case. The cipher appears to be a Caesar cipher, which we at Force4em find appropriate, if a little obvious, on the part of our cipher-maker.

Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. The First Folio, the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays, was compiled by fellow actors and published in 1623. According to the biographer Plutarch, Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times on March 15, 44 B.C. Shakespeare’s tragedy was performed in 1599.