SHAKESPEARE CREATOR OF FREEMASONRY Being a Remarkable Examination of the Plays and Poems, which proves incontestably that these works ‘were saturated in Masonry, that Shakespeare was @ Freemason and the Founder of the Fraternity By ALFRED DODD, P.M. ‘SWAKESPEARD's conmtets,"”" Pye. LONDON: RIDER & Co. PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C.SHAKESPEARE CREATOR OF FREEMASONRY Was William Shakespeare a Masoe? Was he in itual fac the unbacen “eapri?? soho eas repenible for inventing Speculative Pree asnry? If 1, then ove of the warlds greatest ayiteries bes ben saloed and the sear v9 bat ees rbbed ofa great deal of its iltirias fare. The anther ofthis book, after prfoeed labour ed research, het prodaced from the evitngs of Willian Shakerpeare extnshing eoidenes of is dawaledge of Graft vert, Hit concsios are Jinple—Shekespeare sins have ben a Matar, and Freemasonry must have essed in Shakcipeare’s de. From tis point he proceed to build np a case designed te prove that Shakespeare bad at leat a hand i devising —if he wat ot the tle enter ofthe Gro myeren This tea ftcnaing thar, and one ohich mst commend tly to many rtbrt of the Brotherood. The addition ofr reat ard ilarias a fgure 8 the casks of Freemasonry toeald be of tremendous Lignifeance. The author eonfdently eters that ke s0os a Maron, and deribes the Great Shakespeare Folia of 1625 at “the greatet Masonic Buck inthe world?”Malo aed Printed in Get Betta at Phe Moxtoat Pre, Plymoth."Wilast Biewlon & Sea, Li 10 BRO. 'T. E. WALLER, BA, RuEMERE Lonce, 758, ano THe uncon Lance, 4214, as A nina aeMeMmance oP ‘OUIET aesonire ano Hamer Hours AND Ov THE sLucIOK‘ON OF ‘THE CENEsIE or THE cearrPREFACE (HIS book is a straightforward compilation of I specific statements from the pen of the \uthor of the Shakespeare Plays. They constitute definite evidence that Modern Freemasonry was known to him and that he employed Masonic imagery and symbolism in his Works. Circumstantial evidence is brought to show that he must have sat in many a Speculative Lodge and participated in its Rites. Many learned Brethren believe that Freemasonry with its Three Degrees was created by Bros, Anderson and Desaguliers out of a crude operative Rite uf One Degree from 1717-23-38. “The 1717-Theory” is no longer tenable in’ view of the evidence that the Elizabethan Brethren “moralised on Tools and spiritualised Temples” in 1589. ‘The business of the 1717-Brethren was not the creation of Symbolic Masonry, but the introduction of an Ethical Cult to the open world by a new type of Combine, the federation of all secret independent Lodges under a Central Head, the Grand Lodge, that had hitherto practised their Rites hidden from fe eyes of all men, The Brethren of that era had had bequeathed to them a precious heritage handed. to them by their Fathers—no less than an ascendin; Pyramid of Degrees, based on a Three Craft Rite the Royal Arch, through Knightly and Sovereign Orders to the "Thirty Three Degree.” Speculative Freemasonry was born in the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare took an active part in its genesis. 9PREFACE ‘The story is told in the Great Shakespeare Folio of 1624. « « the greatest’ Masonic Book in the world, he System was buried in secret and left to grow and root itself, like a bulb, in the dark for a hunched Yeats, ‘The emergence of the Masons in 1723 was a FONE? emergence . . . the Centenary of the 1625 Folic William Shakespeare was not only a Freemason, Ke yan the FATHER and rounpsn of the FRareRNITY, the Writer of the Rituals, ALFRED DODD, I. 1. vi. VIL. vu. Ix, 10 CONTENTS ‘Tue Mystery or Movenn Farswasonny, ‘Tus Mysrzny or Wiutsam Suakesreane . ‘Freemasonry in THz Foro ‘Tas Himam Leornn “Love's Lazours Lost," uz Comey tn ica 1 HuppEN tHe Genesis or ‘rie rare ea tteie eee : “Tue | ‘Tepsst,”: Suacesreans’s Lass ‘Masomte Phay’ , 7 ‘Tu Masome Reruat Lerrer Cope ‘Tie Diary or Wotan Saxaspeane ; “Suakesrcans’s Sonnets” ‘Tue Scoot or rte Rosicnosse, Tie Stcary Enzasernan Lrrexary Socrery ‘Tue Lrrenany Cuaracraustics of tip Rervat aup THe Ace wurch propvece sucn Cuaractenisries Conenvaron: “So Worry 4 Feiiow As way oun SHAKesrranz” ; Notas anp Facts or Iupontance ar 36 46 62 1% 119 150 174 193 203 239 252IL im. Iv. Vi. vit. VIL. Ix, XI. XI. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ‘Tar Pasravony Vinse or rts 1623 SHAKE~ aruanz Fouo . aces ‘Tue Forto Pokrnarr oF SHaxespzane ‘Tne Evisruz Depicarory 2. “Tas Namss of rus Principat Actors” Ban Jowson ro THe Avruon, =. ‘Tne Frsr Pace of rae Coseprss: “Tue Tew ‘Tae Lasr Pace or tae Comepres: “Tue Wire's Tax” Suaxesreane’s Porraarr m rue “Posus oF Wn, Swaxssreare, Gens,” THe 1640 Eniriox oF Sakesprans’s Sonwrs ‘Tas Heap Pravs im “SHAKESPEAR®’s Sonnets,” 1609 Quarto. Tus “Lasr Pace or “Suaxrspsane’s Sonwers,” 1609 Quarro ‘Tae Srearforn Mowomnws, yxrcrep in ya ee eee cae ‘Tue Lari Ixscuterton ann Verse UNDER tux Srrarrorn Bur, 2, 3 20 an 48 49 76 7 18 119 152 153 7LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XII Tae Suaxssrears Moxumeny ar Wasre MINSTER Aznsy ” XIV. Tue Lowsr Par oF rue Sracespeanr Moxomenr XV. Tie Suaxzsreanz Scxozt XVI. Tue Jews: oF raz Hor Roya Aci of 1805 WHICH carnms ‘THE Rosicnosse Szcasr Nosaen or 287 IN THE Text Masoxre Warzamarks 1m Oxp Booxs ‘Tite Prtars of Masonry A Roscxosse Estey, Tux Invistour Mixp 4 nom een 202 203 238 239 19 200 276 THE WORKING TOOLS OF 4N OPERATIVE CRAFT “And the Meanest of Things are they are pepicarep to renriss,”” The Shakespeare Folio, 1623, made more reciows when THE FIRST FREEMASON “So WoRTHY &... . Exzzow a5 was our sHaKasPeaRE.”” The Folio THE ETHICAL system BEQUEATHED T0 POSTERITY “To My Beloved rare avruox Mr William Shakespeare : And Wav me mare user us.” Ben Jonson, The Falo. THE MASONIC MEETINGS 4T “THE MERMAID" ‘What ‘Things have we seen, Done at the menseatp! Heard ‘wonps that have been, So Nimble and so full of surrut Fase, (One had resolved to live a F. . . the rest of hie dull A Letter to Ben Jonson from F. THE INFUNCTION a Reape him. . . . To your Divers Capacities, you will Tipe enough, both to Daaiv, and Hold you: for Wiswer eae fo more Lis utp, then itcould be Lost. Reape him therefore and cars, and aoatse: And if then you doe not like hie, futcly you are in come Manifest Danger, not to unpasereae him.” “Anil s0 oe leave you to other of his Friends, when iy Zen heed can bee Youx outpes: iF you neede them not you ‘an tap Yourselves axn oruuns,” And such Readers oc eas The Editors ofthe Fate, 1sand Capacious Aspiration phic benevolence to EMBALAL even af idlest LEVITIES a5 amber enshrines stews and toes Bro, De Quincey, Rosirucins and Freemason, LORE Mighty Post! ‘Thy Works are not as those of other Phononbly and merely great works of Arty but oe hea, phetorena of Nature, lke the sux and the erat + to be studied with entize cubmission of our own faculties, and ie in them there can be no too much oe Sarther wwe press Profs of DESIGN CHE EE SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENE oe the CARELESS BYE had seo nothing bat ACCIDENTS Bro. De Quincsy, The Three Knocks in Macteth THE HIDDEN MASTER pe be HIDDEN amidst cRowDs is auszs8¢55 EIDDEN AMONGST ‘THE cRowDs from distant Sree Bro, De Quincey (1823), FOREWORD Sreatest problem in English literature. Cee Binly an equally fascinating’ problen a English sociology is Se fons ct origo of the Fraternity of Foe Hobos, gia Efeemasonry originate with old Aico) Facbiden, the, medieval builder's meny it derive from Noah who made the Ark or frem'xe* Solomon Yho planned the Temple and somehee foisted all ¢ tiresome measurements, fatiguing as a surveyor's eae ee dts the Bibles did it come trom the wee the Tends of mystery and wisdom, and ce reach us by er aidely on these matters. Writing on Foot masonry in the Encrlpadia Britanica (egth edition), at. William James Hughsn, author of oe Origin of tke English Riis of Freemasonry states that eho precise origin of the Society has yet to be ascereine believe itis because’ am not a Freecom even of the Kirst Degree but have tried to adie an inde- endent and open habit of mind that Me An Dodd bas asked mee Write this Foreword. But though ma § Mason I have read The Perfect Ceremony of Craft Mésonry many times, that delightfal fee book so like a Prayer Book in appearance and yet oc het oy political erclesiastical dogma, I find ie full of grave com- fott and sober solace though disquicting at times by Teason of its cold and lofty ideslign The ideal of Freemasonry is certainly a very high one. T can think of none higher or move practical, 2 7FOREWORD miten anyone is said to be a member of it the world may know that he is one to whom the Burdened Tout may Pour forth its Sorrow, to whom the Distrescet may Prefer their Suit, whose hand is guided by Just Manto, Heart is expanded by Benesclencs Mediocria Firma—the Golden Mean is to be the gui ing Light of the Mason. hence then came this searching and creative ritual? Not, I think, from any guild of mason ne 2Sarpeaters, I cannot quite picture Bottom the wean and Snug the joiner rising to these ethical heights, Pondering on the nobility of mind and exaltadior ot foul revealed everywhere in the Masonic Ritual { acs Raunted by a passage of magnificent intuition fn Gen of Virginia Woolf's books in which she sune up her feclings about Shakespeare: “The reason perhayt why Doneto® 0 little of Shakespeare compared wih Donne or Ben Jonson or Milton is that fy grudges and spites and’antipathies are hidden from fe tes are uot held up by some ‘revelation’ which somite ui of the writer. All desire to protest, to procian at injury, to pay off score, to make the world the wince of some hardship or grievance was fired out Si nins and consumed. ‘Therefore ne Poetry flows from him free and unimpeded. If ever a hunvan being, got his Trak jwpressed completely it was Shakespeare: if Sec Mind was incandescent, unimpedetl, it wes Shakespeare's mind,” The Teason why we know so little of the origin of the Society of Freemasons is probably similar’ The ‘mind that conceived that wonderful Society was large, construetive and entirely selé-