The fourth man holds a fritillary and an ear of sweetcorn – plants which Griffiths says point to Shakespeare’s poem Venus and Adonis and his play Titus Andronicus.
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Below the bearded fourth man – who wears a laurel wreath – was “an ingenious cipher of the kind loved by the Elizabethan aristocracy” which, when decoded, confirmed his identity as “William Shakespeare”.
Edward Wilson, emeritus fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, explained said that he and Griffiths had spent five years consulting Latin and Shakespeare scholars before going public.
“We do not think anyone is going to dispute this at all,” he said.
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