By
ALFRED DODD, P.M.
EDITOR OF:
THE ALFRED DODD EDITION OF
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS, ETC,
LONDON: RIDER & CO.
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C.
By
ALFRED DODD, P.M.
EDITOR OF:
THE ALFRED DODD EDITION OF
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS, ETC,
LONDON: RIDER & CO.
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
page |
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I. THE MYSTERY OF MODERN FREEMASONRY. |
21 |
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II. THE MYSTERY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE |
36 |
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III. FREEMASONRY IN THE FOLIO . . . |
46 |
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IV. THE HIRAM LEGEND . . . . |
62 |
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V. "LOVE S LABOURS LOST", THE COMEDY IN WHICH IS HIDDEN THE GENESIS OF THE CRAFT . . . |
74 |
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VI. THE TEMPEST,SHAKESPEARE S LAST MASONIC PLAY |
119 |
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VI I. THE MASONIC RITUAL LETTER CODE |
150 |
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VIII. THE DIARY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: SHAKESPEARE S SONNETS |
174 |
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IX. THE SCHOOL OF THE ROSICROSSE, THE SECRET ELIZABETHAN LITERARY SOCIETY |
193 |
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X. THE LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RITUAL AND THE AGE WHICH PRODUCED SUCH CHARACTERISTICS |
203 |
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XI. CONCLUSION: "SO WORTHY A FELLOW AS WAS OUR SHAKESPEARE" |
239 |
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NOTES AND FACTS OF IMPORTANCE |
252 |
THIS book is a straightforward compilation of specific statements from the pen of the Author 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 of 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 practiced their Rites hidden from the eyes of all men. The Brethren of that era had had bequeathed to them a precious heritage handed to them by their FathersÐno less than an ascending 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.
The story is told in the Great Shakespeare Folio of 1623 . . . the greatest Masonic Book in the world. The System was buried in secret and left to grow and root itself, like a bulb, in the dark for a hundred years. The emergence of the Masons in 1723 was a PLANNED emergence . . . .......the Centenary of the 1623 Folio. William Shakespeare was not only a Freemason, he was the FATHER and FOUNDER of the FRATERNITY, the Writer of the Rituals.
ALFRED DODD
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