Was Shakespeare A Freemason?*

— -that others should aid this inquiry with their own researches , should lend brotherly assistance to strengthen the evidence and proofs , so as to make them not only merely acceptable , but also conclusive . It is , however , not because we would attribute the fewness of the illustrations in the volume to which we refer to the

Modesty that has not craft to colour , or that we have any lurking feeling " in our heart of hearts " that the quotations therein given bear somewhat the same comparison with the other subjectmatter therein contained , as did Sir John Falstaff's " halfpenny-worth of bread" to the "intolerable deal of sack" therewith associated ; but because we have ventured humbly to think " our ancient skill may beguile us " into

contributing , some small measure of information to the researches of those who have gone before us in the inquiry , and thus it may be " thoughts speculative their unseen hopes relate in passages of proof . " It is in such a spirit that we have collated ancl now offer a few illustrations and comments as simply evidences " within the scope of our opinion , " in trustful confidence that no dire consequences may ensue between ns and our illustrious brother , because it may be said of us in the present

instance—In one line two crafts directly meet . There can be very little doubt , we think , that the Great Master was intimately acquainted with , and moreover learned in , " the traditions , forms , and ceremonies" which we are accustomed to associate with "Brotherhoods in Cities ; " but we desire to avow at starting that we are not amongst those who insist and declare that he must have been a Freemason simply because of the oft-quoted line in Love ' s Labour

Lost—I will visit thee at the lodge . To assume this would be to urge our claim unfairly , to build upon insecure foundations , for it should be remembered that the words thus used were spoken by Armado to Jaquenetta ; and , while we have not the sli ghtest objection to admit it to be quite within the limits of possibility that a Freemasons' lodge might have been intended or thought of , it must also be borne in mind there

is not a particle of evidence to show that women were frequenters of , or even admitted at all into , Masonic lodges in those days any more than in our own . One feels more justified in calmly settling down in the conviction that Armado had other intentions in visiting the lodge than the study of the liberal arts , but this interpretation he might resent as an attempt on our part " to enquire too curiously , " so we will say no more about it . In precisely the same category is the passage in Titus Andronicus , where Satumiims , alluding t ° bis brother Bassiauus ,

says—He and his lady both are at the lodge . But there are other references to lodges which are not open to an objection of this nature , for example— The lodge in a warren , alluded to by Benedick in Much Ado about Nothing ; again , in The Merry Wives of Windsor , where Justice Shallow accuses Sir John Falstaff

thus—Knight , you have beaten my men , Killed my deer , and broken open mj lodge . And yet once again in the same play ; when Mistress Quickly issues her directions— The several chairs of order look yon scorn-, it is by no means an unfair interpretation that she meant the chairs of the