Act 3 Scene 1, Printed 1603

My print is a rebus, a type of puzzle typically consisting of little pictures and other shapes cryptically arranged to represent words and numbers. It’s intended to puzzle the will with the greatest of all existential questions as posed by a largely unknown puzzle of a man. What we know of him was preserved for us by the invention of movable type. The solution of this rebus print, once found, strikes home for me personally the basic question of life and art.

I fear I may have given away too much already for those of you who prefer to consider puzzles without helping hints. Yet, for those who’d rather not suffer too much for an answer, I also wrote this poem which, in both style and substance, gives all essential clues:

I offer this odd print to ponder.
To puzzle out, perhaps to wonder:
Two, one, and none to figure out.
Not see, then see what it’s about.
The answer in and out of sight,
Both up and down helps to decide,
Reveals a person whose great fame rests
Upon the English printing press.

CRAIG MASTEN