Chapter viiL

' This good WiU seems a sly hint for Will Shakespeare.
134 HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS
We find this same comparison of jSthiope again in context
with the Rosalind of Lafo£% Labour'a Lost ^ —
'* Dumain, To look like her are chimney-sweepers black. Long, And since her time are colliers counted bright. King, And Etkiopes of their sweet complexion crack. Dumain, Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light"
In tlus Ethiopian Rosalind we have Mr Rider Haggard's
''She," although his prototype comes from another source in
Moore's Epicurean. Diana is also Ilythia, Latona (primsBval
night) — ^Nature, — ^for they all represent similar concepts.
CXXVII.
" In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name ; But now is black beauty's successive heir. And beauty slauder'd with a bastard shame : For since each hand hath put on nature's power, Fairing the foul with art's false borrow'd face, Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy hour. But IB profan'd, if not lives in disgrace. Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black, Her eyes so suited ; and they mourners seem For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night."
The Comedy of Ephesvs, again, is partly laid at Ephesus. As
for the name of Diana, it is the Deus ex machind with which
the poet conjures. Take AlVs Well that Ends Welly where we
have the character of Diana, not because, as some shallow critic
would observe, the part played fits the name, but because Helena
and Diana are two names for the same thing, and the exchange of
rdle is the profound symbolism of the paradox of identity and
difference belonging to the principles of this art exemplified in
this play, as opposites and unity. Diana is the reconciler and
the enlightener.
Widow Dido,
In a passage quoted from The Tempest, we have the strange
bringing in of Dido as " Widow Dido."
" Hiram, the widov^s son, Sent to King Solomon, The Great Keystone ;
IN THE PLAYS. 13S
On it appears the name, Which raises high the fame Of all, to whom the same Is truly known."
Now, in certaia ceremonies pertaining to certain Masonic degrees, there is a substitution of the Candidate for Hiram, and from this, no doubt, is the origin of the expression used sometimes for Masons, " iht Widow's Sons. " Is there no key hidden in this, or hint that may throw light upon " Widow Dido " in the pas- sage quoted from The Tempest f Are there not extraordinary cere- monies in Masonry — such as ihe " lost word," '^ Hiram's murder" — ^that seems to have been invented with a purpose and end 9 De Quincey maintains that Masons called themselves Sons of the Widow because the Masonic expression, Sons of the Widow, has the closest possible connection with the building of Solomon's Temple. In the 1st Book of Kings, vii 13, are these words : ''And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram of Tyre, a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali." Hiram, therefore, the eldest Mason of whom anything is known, was a widow's son. Hence, therefore, the Masons of the seventeenth century, who were familiar with the Bible, styled themselves in memory of the founder. Sans of the Widow ; and the Freemasons borrowed this designation from them as they did the rest of their external constitution. Moreover, the Masonic expression — Sons of the Widow, has the closest connection with the building of Solomon's Temple." (De Quincey's " Eosicrucians and Freemasons," 423,
voL xvi. Works.)
Line and Level.
In The Tempest we find Prospero directing Ariel to spread some of his trumpery upon lines ouieide his cell : —
" Ste. Be you quiet^ monster. Mistress line, is not this my jerkin ? Now is the jerkin under the line : now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair and prove a bald jerkin.
Trin. Do, do : we steal by line and level, an't like your grace.
Ste, 1 thauk thee for that jest ; here's a garment fbr*t : wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this country. ' Steal by line and level ' is an excellent pass of pate ; there's another garment for't."
136 HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS
The '' level " is the symbol of equality in Masonry. It seems to us that the "stale and trumpery" Prospero hangs upon the lines outside his cell to catch Trinculo and Stephano, are profoundly suggestive of the pursuit of mere ornament or externak in Nature or Art, by a certain class of people.
" The world is still deceived hy ornament.** — Merchant of Venice.
Hiese words come from a play, and are in exquisite harmony with a plot, whose teaching is, that the right life (or the next life) can only be won, by utter disregard for mere ornament or external Upon the selection of Portia's picture, or the choice of the caskets, hinges and depends Bassanio's happiness. It is not gold, nor silver, but dull lead, which contains the reward. Heavens, what a moral 1 What depth, thus to place the reward of all that is above, by all that is below, under our feet — Death I For there can be no mistaking the poet's intention in the " meagre lead," which rather threatens than dost promise aught to present us with death ;^ so true it is in life (as in Masonry), that to gain heaven, man must risk death — " give and hazard all he hath," — so shall we win or perish. The poet who wrote this was as profound as the universe, and those who are caught like Stephano and Trinculo, by the ornament of his art, superficially hung out- side the lines of the plays, may think themselves lords of the island, but are very far from it indeed. The Shakespeare com- mentators and text emendators have stolen by line and level — that is, brought down a Grod to their own level
Nothing could be more Masonic than the play of The Merchant of Venice^ with its tale of the three caskets, with Portia's light or candle burning in her hall, with its faith and brotherly love of Antonio for Bassanio, whom he helps in difficulty with his purse, and with that profound hint of the leaden casket, which is as it were at the very bottom of the poet's art itself. For in this one
^ *' Bat thoa, thou meagre lead. Which rather threat'nest than dost promise aught, Thy paleness moves mo more than eloqaenoe, And here choose I, joy be the consequence ! "
IN THE PLAYS, 137
point we have the symbol of all the Mysteries, comprised in an allegorical death, in order that the candidate may be reborn to a better life, with its greater light and judgment.
The Eagle as Type of St John,
Bacon writes of the eagle and St John : —
"St John, an Apostle of our Saviour, and the Beloved Disciple, lived ninety-three years. He was rightly denoted under the emblem of the eagle, for his piercing sight into the Divinity; and was a Seraph among the Apostles in respect of his burning Love." (** History of Life and Death," 17, 18.)
Compare : —
*' From this session interdict, Every fowl of tyrant wing Save the eagle feather'd king, ^ Keepe the obsequy so strict.
" Let the Priest in Surplice whitCy That defnnctive music can, Be the death divining Swan, Lest the requiem lack his right."
— Phoenix and Turtle.
Those who know that the Templars (who are so closely con- nected with Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry), were followers or Knights of St John 2 (as also in the case of the Knights of Malta, and of St Cross, near Winchester), and remember the ^* surplice white^* of Masoiiry, will appreciate the significance of the two parallels, and what it signifies. Here is a hint from the poems : —
^ " A thousand times the unworthy may clamour, a thousand times may present themselves, yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of them, and hath so compassed us about with His clouds that unto us, His servants, no violence can be done ; wherefore now no longer are we beheld by human eyes, unless they have received strength borrowed from the eagle." — " Hosicrucian Confession."
^ The Order of St John is recognised as the most ancient system of Freemasonry ever known, and for that reason ought to be esteemed as the only true and primitive rite.
138 HERMETIC AND MASONIC ORIGINS.
CVI.
" When in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights, And beauty making beautiful old rhyme, In praise of ladies dead^ and lovely knights^
Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best, Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, I see their antique pen would have express'd Even such a beauty as you master now.''
What is this if it is not a hint to take us to King Arthur's Knights of the Bound Table, or to the Templars who succeeded them) In Chester's "Love's Martyr" we have a curious history of King Arthnr, and Bosicrucianism revolves round all these. Oliver writes : " * It is believed in Germany,' the Skipper inter- posed, 'that Freemasonry originated from this sect (the Rosi- crucians). The Baron de Gleichen says, that the Masons were united with the Bose Croix in England under King Arthur. I suppose he considers the Knights of the Bound Table to have been Masons.' " (265, '* Discrepancies of Masons.")
" The Templars are the successors of the Knights of the Bound Table." (Hargrave Jenning's " Bosicrucians," vol. ii. p. 227). — " La Table ronde du roi Arthus, d^gag^e de la c6l6brit6 fabuleuse qui I'entoure, 6tait un chapitre de chevaliers Bose-Croiz." (La Ma9onnerie, 317, 1820.)