The Masons and the Mysteries in 18th Century Drama

The Masons and the Mysteries in 18th Century Drama
Author: Matthew Leigh
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-12-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110676354

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The fathers of modern freemasonry sought a classical pedigree for their rituals and forms of association. This volume offers the first academic study of how freemasons writing in the first half of the 18th century deployed their knowledge of antiquity to bolster this claim and how the creative literature of the period reflected their ideas. The scholarly investigation of freemasonry is a relatively new phenomenon. The writings of active freemasons tend either to generate new masonic myths or to focus on the minutiae of insignia, rank, and ritual. Only in the last 50 years have non-masons given serious thought to freemasonry as a social practice and to its place within the intellectual and political life of Enlightenment Europe and beyond. Study of masonic elements in literary texts lags much further behind. This volume offers the first English translations of three mid-18th century comedies on female curiosity about this exclusively male order and shows how they reflect contemporary attempts to forge a link with ancient mystery cult. The theatrical aspect of masonic ritual and the ancient mysteries is examined in depth. This volume opens up important new ground in classical reception and 18th century theatre history.

The Masons and the Mysteries in 18th Century Drama

The Masons and the Mysteries in 18th Century Drama
Author: Matthew Leigh
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2019-12-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 311067629X

Download The Masons and the Mysteries in 18th Century Drama Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The fathers of modern freemasonry sought a classical pedigree for their rituals and forms of association. This volume offers the first academic study of how freemasons writing in the first half of the 18th century deployed their knowledge of antiquity to bolster this claim and how the creative literature of the period reflected their ideas. The scholarly investigation of freemasonry is a relatively new phenomenon. The writings of active freemasons tend either to generate new masonic myths or to focus on the minutiae of insignia, rank, and ritual. Only in the last 50 years have non-masons given serious thought to freemasonry as a social practice and to its place within the intellectual and political life of Enlightenment Europe and beyond. Study of masonic elements in literary texts lags much further behind. This volume offers the first English translations of three mid-18th century comedies on female curiosity about this exclusively male order and shows how they reflect contemporary attempts to forge a link with ancient mystery cult. The theatrical aspect of masonic ritual and the ancient mysteries is examined in depth. This volume opens up important new ground in classical reception and 18th century theatre history.

Quest for Mysteries

Quest for Mysteries
Author: Heinrich Schneider
Publisher:
Total Pages: 202
Release: 1947
Genre: Freemasonry
ISBN:

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Eleusis and Enlightenment

Eleusis and Enlightenment
Author: Ferdinand Saumarez Smith
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2024-03-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004692304

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The age of Enlightenment – the so-called age of reason – was also, paradoxically, the age of the Eleusinian mysteries. By attempting to reveal Demeter's secret cult, British, French, and German thinkers and freemasons of the eighteenth century revealed more than they bargained for: the pagan origins of Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and the afterlife, and through the mythical gift of law and agriculture to Eleusis an alternative narrative of the origins of civilisation to that found in the Bible.

Odds and Ends about the Ancient Drama,mysteries,moralities,the Early English Divinity and Controversial Plays,hymns and Hymnologists, Popular Amusements of the 17th and 18th Centuries,musical Biographies,glees,songs,&c

Odds and Ends about the Ancient Drama,mysteries,moralities,the Early English Divinity and Controversial Plays,hymns and Hymnologists, Popular Amusements of the 17th and 18th Centuries,musical Biographies,glees,songs,&c
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 52
Release: 186?
Genre:
ISBN:

Download Odds and Ends about the Ancient Drama,mysteries,moralities,the Early English Divinity and Controversial Plays,hymns and Hymnologists, Popular Amusements of the 17th and 18th Centuries,musical Biographies,glees,songs,&c Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

The York Mystery Plays

The York Mystery Plays
Author: Margaret Rogerson
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2011
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1903153352

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Essays on the York Mystery Plays, uniting voices from the scholarly world with the York community that has assumed responsibility for their production today. The York Play of Corpus Christi, also known as the York Cycle, has been central to the study of early English theatre for over a century and a touchstone for the revival of medieval dramatic practice for over fifty years. But these two endeavours... have often found little common ground. This volume therefore accomplishes something very important. It brings together scholars of medieval English drama and places them in dialogue with experienced practtitioners from the community. Together, they share a common commitment to understanding how performances matter to the communities that produce them, and how plays intersect with other public activities. CAROL SYMES, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana. This volume provides a wealth of new insights into the performance of mystery plays in medieval York and their modern revival. It utilises both academic study, and the practical experience of those who now produce the cycle within York itself on wagons in the street, in an approximation of their original performance. A number of topics are covered. The manuscript is linked to Richard III; the Masons are introduced as non-guildsmen in an enterprise assumed to be guild-specific; families, not just male heads of households, are shown to be important to the dramatic narrative; and cognitive theory elucidates performance past and present.Recent productions are discussed in lively detail by those directly responsible for them, leading to analyses of performances in Israel, Spain, and Australia, not all of them of a predictable kind, which offer further angles on the medieval dramatic tradition. Professor Margaret Rogerson teaches in the Department of English at the University of Sydney. Contributors: Margaret Rogerson, Keith Jones, Richard Beadle, Sheila K. Christie,Mike Tyler, Jill Stevenson, Elenid Davies, Ben Pugh, Peter Brown, Tony Wright, Steve Bielby, Emma Cunningham, Alan Heaven, Linda Ali, Paul Toy, Gweno Williams, John Merrylees, David Richmond, Alexandra F. Johnston, Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, Pamela M. King

The Builder

The Builder
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 334
Release: 1915
Genre: Freemasonry
ISBN:

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The Mysteries of Free Masonry

The Mysteries of Free Masonry
Author: William Morgan
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2017-11-23
Genre:
ISBN: 9781979888028

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This is the straight account of the rituals of Freemasonry, with no spin. Highly recommended. This book represents a great historical artifact of the anti-masonic movement of the 19th Century.