We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
The Age of Reason brought with it a new faith in the future of humanity which evolved from abstract ideas into a tremendous social power. Nowhere is this more evident than in the increasing influence of Freemasonry in England throughout the eighteenth century. Almost fifty years ago Bernard Fäy gave an eloquent tribute to this phenomenon: “… It [the new faith] became a social force and a concrete fact through the agency of Freemasonry which at once accepted it and advocated it; the great historical importance of modern Freemasonry results from this attitude that it took then and to which it has since consistently adhered.…”
1 Revolution and Freemasonry (Boston, 1935), p. viii.Google Scholar
2 “The Two Degrees Theory,” Quatuor Coronati Antigraphia, No. 11 (London, 1898), p. 48.Google Scholar
3 Ibid., p. 52.
4 Some writers state that Sir Thomas Gresham, a merchant and founder of the Royal Exchange, became Grand Master of England in 1567, that Inigo Jones was installed in 1635, Wren in 1698, and that the Fraternity was in a moribund state in later years when Wren's health failed. (See ‘England’ in Albert G. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences [Kingsport, Tenn., 1923], p. 29.Google Scholar) This is sheer phantasy.
5 Haywood, H. L., Symbolical Masonry (Kingsport, Tenn., 1923), p. 29.Google Scholar
6 Ibid. Many members of Irish and Scottish lodges moved eventually to London and transferred memberships accordingly.
7 Pedicord, Harry William, “White Gloves at Five: Fraternal Patronage of London Theatres in the Eighteenth Century,” PQ, 45, No. 1 (01, 1966), 270–288.Google Scholar
8 See Morley, Henry, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair (London, 1859), pp. 382, 408–9, 422Google Scholar; and Rosenfeld, Sybil, Theatre of the London Fairs (London, 1960), pp. 78, 88, 91, 92, 93, 99, 101Google Scholar. No one has established exactly how many performances were given each day. Fair booths were opened sometimes as early as 9:00-10:00 A.M., some as late as 1:00-2:00 P.M. — and some remained open until 10:00 P.M. Ms. Rosenfeld describes the drolls with which audiences were entertained until time for the main performance. But how many performances? Judging from the elaborate staging and music required by the text of The Generous Freemason, I have settled for an average of two performances a day.
9 The London Stage, Part 3, 1729–1747, ed. Scouten, Arthur H. (Carbondale, Ill., 1961), 1, 75.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., I, 73–74.
11 Ibid., I, 104.
12 Ibid., I, 135.
13 Rylands, Harry W., “A Forgotten Rival of Masonry, The Noble Order of the Bucks,” Quatuor Coronati Antigraphia, No. 3 (London, 1890), pp. 140–41.Google Scholar
14 The London Stage, Part 3, I, 135.Google Scholar
15 Op. cit., p. 89.
16 The London Stage, Part 3, I, 152.Google Scholar
17 Ibid., I, 591.
18 A History of English Drama 1660–1900. Vol. II, Early Eighteenth Century Drama, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1952), p. 242.Google Scholar
19 The London Stage, Part 3, I, 152–53.Google Scholar
20 The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1753), V, 339.Google Scholar
21 The London Stage, Part 3, I, 148.Google Scholar
22 Pedicord, Harry William, “George Lillo and ‘Speculative Masonry’,” PQ 53, No. 3 (Summer, 1974), 401–402.Google Scholar
23 Quatuor Coronati Antigraphia, Vol. 10 (London, 1897), 178.Google Scholar
24 Pp. 212–218.
25 Supplement for 1780, pp. 698–702.Google Scholar
26 Journals and Letters of Samuel Curwen, 1775–1784, ed. Ward, G. A. (New York, 1842), p. 299.Google Scholar
27 Ibid., pp. 299–301.
