The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-06
MASONRY IN SHAKESPEARE.
Quotations Showing the Poet Il
Have Been One of the Craft.

1t is rema rl1able that despite the age,
Importance and extent of the Masonic in
stitution as it is known in English-speak
ing countries, there is no general agree
| rnent as to the date and manner of the or
| igin of Free Masonry. Your correspondent
| correctly declares that well-informed stu
dents in and out of the fraternity reject
! the claim of antiquity, but "A Catholic"
Notwithstanding his evident wide range
of reading on the subject, will not, fear,
be able to convince you that his Specu-
lations on the subject should be accepted
as fore definitive than others.
Your correspondent attributes the foun-
dalton of the Rose Croix or Rosicrucians
Masons to Elias Ashmole in 1916. There is
much evidence of an earlier origin. 1 find
in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy"
published many years before that, fire.
quent yelled illusions to the Brethren or
the Rosy Cross and there are indica-
tions in Sponsors "Faerie Queen" Q616)
that its author was familiar with the or
der
A Detroit friend of mine alleges, how
ever that the entire secret ritual of
English Free Masonry may be found
yelled in the Shakespeare plays, first pub
lished in complete form in 1923. My friend
quotes many passages which to the untn-
itiated have no significance, but which it
is said will suggest to the brethren the
conclusion that the author Of the plays
understood the Masonic ritual. Here are
a few extracts:
And that no woman has
Nor never none.
Shall mistress be of it.
Twelfth Night, Act. III, Scene 1.
spoke with some of the sailors that es-
capped
The wreck
/ thank thee good Tuhal.
Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene
Let's part the word.
No, I'll not be your half
Loves. Labor Lost, Act w, Scene 8.
And get our Jewels and our wealth to-
gether,
Devise the fittest time, and safest way
To hide us from pursuit that will be
made.
As You Like 1t. Act I, Scene 3.
But look to it,
| Seek him with candle: bring him dead.
or living,
Within this twelve month.
AsYou Like 1t. Act III, Scene l.
Here lies your brother
No better than the earth he lies upon.
Tempest, Act II, Scene l.
| What subtle hole is this,
| Whose mouth is covered with rude grow
ing briars,
| Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed
blood.
AS fresh as mornings dew distilled on
flowers,
A very fatal place it seems to me;
| Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with
the fall?
Lord Bassanius lies embrewed here,
All on a heap like to the slaughtered
lamb,
In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit.
| If it be dark, how dost thou know tbs
he?
Upon his bloody fingers he doth wear
A precious ring, that lightens all the hole:
Which like a taper in some monument.
Doth shine upon the dead mans earthly
And shows the ragged entrails of the pit.
.
Reach me thy hand, that may help
| thee out,
| Or wanting strength to do thee so much
| good.
| l may be pluckt into the swallowing
womb
OF this deep pit. poor Bassanius' grave:
I have no strength to pluck thee to the
| brink.
Nor I no strength to climb without thy
| help
Titus Andronicus, Act H.
Their faults are open.
| Arrest them to the answer of the law
Get you therefore hence,
poor miserable wretche9 to your death:
The taste whereof, God of His mercy
| give
You patience TO endure. and true re-
| pentance
OF all your dear offenses. Bear them
hence.
Henry V, Act /, Last Scene.
If these few quotations. out of many,
suggested by my friend are not conclu-
sive, they are at least. / think, sugges-
tive. The theory that the ritual is to be
found in the Shakespeare plays is. at any
rate, something new, and for that reason
1t might be worth notice in the Sun.
should add that my Detroit friend believes
that Francis Bacon wrote the Shakes
peare plays.
Charles O'Connor Hennessy
New York, June TO-
| -s-o~s