A Finding List: Part 3.

Elizabethan Facts and Historical References

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W-X-Y-Z

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Old Purpulii Britain’s Ornament Spedding’s comment on the Gesta Grayorum: “It is a pity that the publisher, whoever he was, did not tell us a little more about the manuscript, though it is probable enough that he had not much more to tell. Nothing is more natural than that such a narrative should have been written at the time for the amusement and satisfaction of the parties concerned; should have been laid by and forgotten: and found again lying by itself, without anybody to tell its story for it.” 1 The Gesta Grayorum must excite the interest of every true lover of Shakespeare, for in its pages the student will view to the life many of the men and women for whom he wrote the immortal poems and plays. Among the illustrious men, the following are named: “On January 3, at night, there was a most honourable presence of great and noble personages, that came as invited to our Prince; as namely the High Honourable the Lord Keeper, the Earls of Shrewsbury, Cumberland, Northumberland, Southampton, and Essex; the Lords Buckhurst, Windsor, Mountjoy, Sheffield, Compton, Rich, Burleygh, Mounteagle, and the Lord Thomas Howard; Sir Thomas Henneage, Sir Robert Cecil; with a great number of Knights, Ladies, and very worshipful personages; all of which had convenient places, and very good entertainment, to their good liking and contentment.” 2 Basil Brown’s comment is interesting as he tells us: “My opinion is that the Gesta Grayorum was originally a part of the Northumberland Manuscript, which was written circa 1594–1597. The original was first printed by W. Canning in 1688 and dedicated To the most Honorable Mathew Smyth, Esq., Comptroller of The Honorable Society of The Inner Temple. Where or when Canning found it is not known.” 3 Mr. John Nichols published the first reprint of same in his Progresses of Elizabeth, 1788–1823. Spedding said that “the printed copy in Gesta Grayorum is full of errors.” Nichols says that “this tract was printed in 1688 for W. Canning, at his shop in the Temple Cloysters. The publisher was Mr. Henry Keepe, who published the monuments of Westminster.” Henry Keepe was an antiquary, and published several works. [Also see Part V: Bacon’s Works.] It is worthy of remark that the name of Henry the Second, Prince of Graya and Purpulia, appears in the list of Subscribers to Minshew’s Dictionary, which was printed in 1617.

To Grays
By Francis Davison
Ye Gray’s, or if you better like the name of old
Purpulii Britains ornament,
So may Astraea be pleased to bless your flock,
So Pallas may; to favour trifles
As comrades divided, may it please yourselves
If these (the trifles) be neither vile, nor witless,
But such as deservedly you are wont to produce with praise
Yourselves when you are wont to dally.

Oracle Francis Bacon conceived the idea of resurrecting the Operative Craft of Temple Builders on an Ethical Basis which did not centre round actual work and wages and was therefore outside the law which forbade meetings respecting such things. It was he who created the Rituals. They did not “evolve.” With a band of Law Students at Gray’s Inn, Bacon organised the first Ethical Craft Lodges and the Arch and Higher Degrees at Twickenham Park.

Tempest Act V, s.I, L.242.
The Oracle
And there is in this business more than Nature
Was ever conduct of: Some Oracle
Must rectify our knowledge.

In a Freemason’s Lodge, the Oracle is that speaks with authority on things Masonic in a Worshipful Master. Since the Author wishes the discerning reader to know the kind of Oracle he has in his mind, he writes the words so that the first letters of the three lines spell “A.W.M.” All Masons know that “A.W.M.” is the abbreviated Ritual Code for “A Worshipful Master.” Abbreviations of technical terms or of official titles are of very extensive use in Masonry. They were however, but rarely employed in the earlier Masonic publications. For instance, not one is to be found in the first edition of Anderson’s Constitutions. Within a comparatively recent period they have greatly increased, especially among French writers, and a familiarity with them is therefore essentially necessary to the Masonic student. Frequently, among English and always among French authors, a Masonic abbreviation is distinguished by three points, in a triangular form following the letter, which peculiar mark was first used, according to Kagon, on August 12, 1774 by the Grand Orient of France, in an address to its subordinates. No authoritative explanation of the meaning of these points has been given, but they may be supposed to refer to the three lights around the altar, or perhaps more generally to the number three, and to the triangle, both important symbols in the Masonic system where an officer in a Lodge whose duty it is to explain to a candidate after his initiation the mysteries of the degree into which he has just been admitted. The office is therefore, in many respects, similar to that of a lecturer. The office was created in the French Lodges early in the eighteenth century, soon after the introduction of Masonry into France. A writer in the London Freemason’s Magazine for 1859 attributes its origin to the constitutional deficiency of the French in readiness of public speaking. From the French it passed to the other continental Lodges, and was adopted by the Scottish Rite. The office is not recognized in the English and American system, where its duties are performed by the Worshipful Master.

Overbury case of 1616 Four years before the Overbury Case in 1612, Sir Walter Raleigh, at the age of sixty, was prisoner in two rooms on the second floor of the Bloody Tower. Prince Henry would be a frequent visitor taking good advice about shipbuilding. The young Prince’s words would echo against stonewalls: “Who but my father would keep such a bird in a cage?” Raleigh, with no thought of venturing what to say, plans his History of the World for this teachable young man who obtains his father’s promise to release Raleigh for Christmas, 1612; Prince Henry dies before the promise is made good. A constant coincidence that will also befall Francis Bacon and the unsigned pardon; there is some sort of fear that Death often lingered too close to the Majestic hand and convenience of King James. [See Appendices Overbury case of 1616 to read about this case.]

Owl, Sacred bird of Pallas; engraved frontispiece of a Baconian work where two owls are depicted in the bottom corners holding torches.