Editing Anagram (section)

===Early modern period===
When it comes to the 17th century and anagrams in English or other languages, there is a great deal of documented evidence of learned interest. The lawyer [[Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley|Thomas Egerton]] was praised through the anagram ''gestat honorem'' ('he carries honor'); the physician [[George Ent]] took the anagrammatic motto ''genio surget'' ('he rises through spirit/genius'), which requires his first name as ''Georgius''.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Stephen|editor-first=Leslie|editor-link=Leslie Stephen|dictionary=[[Dictionary of National Biography]]|title=ENT, SIR GEORGE, M.D. (1604–1689)|url={{google books|id=_OPQAAAAMAAJ&hl|page=377|plainurl=yes}}|access-date=15 September 2019|date=1889|edition=1st|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|volume=XVII|page=377}}</ref> [[James I of England|James I's]] courtiers discovered in "James Stuart" "a just master", and converted "Charles James Stuart" into "Claims [[King Arthur|Arthur]]'s [[Arthur's Seat|seat]]" (even at that point in time, the letters I and J were more-or-less interchangeable). Walter Quin, tutor to the future Charles I, worked hard on multilingual anagrams on the name of father James.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Lee|editor-first=Sidney|editor-link=Sidney Lee|dictionary=[[Dictionary of National Biography]]|title=QUIN, WALTER (1575?–1634?)|url={{Google books|id=NMk9Mc0QnxwC&pg|page=111|plainurl=yes}}|access-date=21 September 2019|edition=1st|date=1896|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|volume=XLVII|page=111}}</ref> A notorious murder scandal, the Overbury case, threw up two imperfect anagrams that were aided by typically loose spelling and were recorded by [[Simonds D'Ewes]]: "Francis Howard" (for [[Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset]], her maiden name spelled in a variant) became "Car findes a whore", with the letters E hardly counted, and the victim [[Thomas Overbury]], as "Thomas Overburie", was written as "O! O! a busie murther" (an old form of "murder"), with a V counted as U.<ref>[http://www.earlystuartlibels.net/htdocs/overbury_murder_section/H21.html Early Stuart Libels]</ref><ref>[http://www.earlystuartlibels.net/htdocs/overbury_murder_section/H22.html Early Stuart Libels]</ref>

[[William Drummond of Hawthornden]], in an essay ''On the Character of a Perfect Anagram'', tried to lay down rules for permissible substitutions (such as S standing for Z) and letter omissions.<ref>[[Henry Benjamin Wheatley]], ''On Anagrams'' (1862), p. 58.</ref> [[William Camden]]<ref>''Remains,'' 7th ed., 1674.</ref> provided a definition of "Anagrammatisme" as "a dissolution of a name truly written into his letters, as his elements, and a new connection of it by artificial transposition, without addition, subtraction or change of any letter, into different words, making some perfect sense appliable (i.e., applicable) to the person named." [[John Dryden|Dryden]] in ''[[MacFlecknoe]]'' disdainfully called the pastime the "torturing of one poor word ten thousand ways".<ref>
<poem>
Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen iambics, but mild anagram:
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
There thou may'st wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
</poem></ref>

[[Eleanor Davies (poet)|"Eleanor Audeley"]], wife of [[Sir John Davies]], is said to have been brought before the [[High Commission]]{{clarify|reason=Which High Commission? Linked article has no relevant content|date=January 2017}} in 1634 for extravagances, stimulated by the discovery that her name could be transposed to "Reveale, O Daniel", and to have been laughed out of court by another anagram submitted by [[Sir John Lambe]], the [[Dean of Arches|dean of the Arches]], "Dame Eleanor Davies", "Never soe mad a ladie".<ref>''Oxford Book of Word Games''</ref><ref>[[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], ''Archbishop Laud'' (2000), p. 146.</ref>

An example from France was a flattering anagram for [[Cardinal Richelieu]], comparing him to [[Hercules]] or at least one of his hands (Hercules being a kingly symbol), where ''Armand de Richelieu'' became ''Ardue main d'Hercule'' ("difficult hand of Hercules").<ref>H. W. van Helsdingen, ''Notes on Two Sheets of Sketches by Nicolas Poussin for the Long Gallery of the Louvre'', Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 5, No. 3/4 (1971), pp. 172–184.</ref>