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Some of these references are positive, some are negative, some are amusing; most are merely fictional and therefore marginalize Freemasonry and detract from the good work it does. The following list of references is not definitive, nor are all entries confirmed. Please forward additional references, with details, to our editor.
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Masonic references in 19th century prose
The appearances of Freemasonry in fiction range from the unremarked use of Freemasonry as a metaphor, to the actual inclusion of masonic ritual. The following list of references is not definitive, nor are all entries confirmed. Please forward additional references, with details, to our editor.
1701-1800 | 1801-1900 | 1901-2000 | 2001 - | POETRY | DRAMA | ALLUSIONS

N O V E L S
Anon., On the Square. A Novel.
"I will strive to live with ease and care, upon the Level by the Square." [AQC xxxii 89]
Dublin: Hodges, Figgis and Co., Grafton Street; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; Edinburgh: Andrew Elliott. 1885.
A. C. L. Arnold, The Signet of King Solomon, or the Freemason’s Daughter.
Masonic references claimed but no specifics supplied. [AQC xxxii 94]
New York: Masonic Publishing and Manufacturing Company, New Edition revised and enlarged, 1868. Also see: The signet of King Solomon; or, The templar’s daughter. To which is added a memoir of Elizabeth Aldworth, the female freemason, and a Masonic prologue ..., Arnold, Augustus C. L., Aldworth Elizabeth. New York : Macoy & Sickels, 1860. 307p,[1] leaf of plates: ill; 19cm. Fiction. [COPAC: British Library].
Henry Arnold, The Knight and the Mason.
Although announced for publication, this three-volume novel does not appear to have ever been published. [AQC xciii 15]
1800.
Cuthbert Bede [Rev. Edward Bradley] (1827-89), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green.
In a chapter entitled "Mr. Verdant Green is Made a Mason", Green, an Oxford student, is told by a fellow student, "I meant a mason with a petticut, a freemason... there’s a great deal of mystery and very little use in it." He is initiated into the Order of Cemented Bricks. A series of woodcuts illustrate the initiation. [AQC xxxii 94; also xciii 6]
London : Blackwood, 1857.
G. K. Chesterton [Gilbert Keith] (1874-1936), The Wisdom Of Father Brown.
"I believe it’s some plot!" snapped Valognes—"some plot of the Jews and Freemasons. It’s meant to work up glory for Hirsch..." Found at thefreelibrary.com.
G. K. Chesterton [Gilbert Keith] (1874-1936), The Innocence Of Father Brown.
"Saradine was a French freemason and a fierce atheist, and a priest moved him by the law of contraries." Found at thefreelibrary.com.
G. K. Chesterton [Gilbert Keith] (1874-1936), The Napoleon of Notting Hill.
"...there seemed to be something unresponsive about the shopman. Whether it was dark resentment against the uninitiate for peeping into their masonic magnificence, he could not quite conjecture." [AQC xciii 10]
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1904. New York : Dover ; London : Constable, 1991. xxv, 163p : ill., map ; 22cm. ISBN: 048626551X
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), The Woman in White.
Count Fosco describes himself as "Perpetual Arch-Master of the Rosicrucian Masons of Mesopotamia." [AQC xxxii 85]
London : T. Nelson & Sons, ltd., [n.d.] "First published in 1859-60." 572p ; 18 cm.
Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren (1825-1898), The secret directory : a romance of hidden history.
Masonic references claimed but no specifics supplied. [AQC xxxii 94]
Philadelphia : H. L. Kilner and Co., c1896. 330p : ill : facsims, ports ; 19cm.
Conzae Dick and James Cresswell, David and Bathsheba. A royal romance based on rabbinical tradition, etc.
Materially different from the scriptural story, David and Bathsheba marry. Jesse remarks to Eliam: "It is a glorious building, for my son, David the King, is a Royal Arch." "What is that?" "Oh, thou art not one of the initiated brethren." [AQC xxxii 92]
London : George Routledge & Sons, 1887. 221p ; 8o.
Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English opium-eater,
Sharp William. The Camelot Classics. London ; [pr. Newcastle-on-Tyne] : [s.n.], 1886. v. Autobiography. With "Levana," "The rosicrucians and freemasons," etc.. Opium habit. [COPAC: Trinity College Dublin]. Also see: Confessions of an English opium-eater (with Levana, The Rosicrucians and Freemasons, Notes from the pocket-book of a late opium-eater, etc.), De Quincey Thomas. Camelot classics. London : Scott, 1886. xxviii, 275 p ; 18 cm. [COPAC: Oxford].
Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge : a tale of the riots of 'eighty.
Introduces the Society of Prentice Knights (later the United Bull-Dogs) with an amusing description of its ceremonial. [AQC xciii 10]
London : Chapman and Hall, 1841. vi, [229]-306, 420 p : ill ; 25 cm.
Charles Dickens, Bleak House.
"Volumnia is charmed to hear that her delight is come. He is so original, such a stolid creature, such an immense being for knowing all sorts of things and never telling them! Volumnia is persuaded that he must be a Freemason. Is sure he is at the head of a lodge, and wears short aprons, and is made a perfect idol of with candlesticks and trowels. These lively remarks the fair Dedlock delivers in her youthful manner, while making a purse." Found at thefreelibrary.com.
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield.
"The Surrogate knows me, when I go down to be sworn; and disposes of me easily, as if there were a Masonic understanding between us."
London : Bradbury & Evans, 1850, Chapter 43.
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend.
"Mr Boffin, as if he were about to have his portrait painted, or to be electrified, or to be made a Freemason, or to be placed at any other solitary disadvantage, ascended the rostrum prepared for him." Found at thefreelibrary.com. [AQC xciii 10]
London : Chapman & Hall, 1865. 2v., 40 plates ; 21.1cm
Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz "Public Dinners".
Reproduced in The Royal Masonic Institution for Girls Year Book 1954, this humorous description of a banquet of the "Indigent Orphans' Friends Benevolent Institution" taking place at "the Freemasons" in Great Queen Street. An accompanying engraving by George Cruikshank is reminiscent of an earlier illustration depicting a procession of the Royal Masonic Institute for Girls through Freemasons' Hall in 1802. [AQC xciii 10]
London : E. Lloyd, [1836?]. 92p ; 8o.
Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes.
Creator of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories, Doyle makes five distinct and several other oblique references to Freemasonry in his fiction.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
1879. translated by Constance Garnett.
Alexandre Dumas père (1803-70), The Count of Monte Cristo.
"Edmond had become as skilled in navigating the coastal waters as he had once been on the open sea. He got to know all the smugglers around the Mediterranean and learned the Masonic signs that these semi-pirates used to recognize one another." Chap. xxii, p. 189.
"But Andrea, turning around towards them, winked, put his tongue in his cheek and gave a clicking of the lips that meant a host of things to these bandits, who fell silent. These were masonic signs that Caderousse had shown him, and the hooligans recognized one of their own." Chap. cvii, p. 994.
"'More or less. We sailors are like freemasons, we recognize one another by certain signs.'" Chap. xxxi, p. 266. Penguin Classics Edition, 1103 pages, translated by Robin Buss (c) 1996, ISBN 0-14-044615-X
Alexandre Dumas père (1803-70), The Countess de Charny.
A chapter describes the advancement of three freemasons into the Illuminati of Cagliostro. [AQC xciii 4]
Philadelphia : T. B. Peterson, [1858.]. 8o.
Alexandre Dumas père, Joseph Balsamo, or the Memoirs of a Physician.
Also deals with Cagliostro. [AQC xciii 4; xxxii 94]
London : Ward, Locke & Co., London, [1846-48]. 340p : ill ; 28cm
Don Esteban [pseud.], Sandoval, or the Freemason.
Described in the Masonic Secretaries' Journal, No. 3, 1918, pp. 24,25. [AQC xxxii 88]
In Three Volumes. London. Henry Colburn. 1826.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873), The House by the Churchyard.
"...the sourest dog I ever broke bread with,—and Mason, if you please, by Jove—a prince pelican! He supped at the Grand Lodge after labour, one night. You're not a Mason, I see; tipt you the sign!" [AQC xxxii 86]
New edition. London : Richard Bentley ..., 1866. [4], 476p., 2 plates ; 17.9cm First issued: London, 1863 in 3 vols.
Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
"There surely is no general sympathy among knaves; nor have they, like freemasons, any common sign of communication. " Found at thefreelibrary.com.
Anon.[Valentin Llanos Guttierz], Sandoval; or The Freemason.
A Spanish Tale by the author of "Don Esteban." London: [Henry] Colburn, 1826. 3 vol. viii, [346]; ii, 422; and [ii], 450 p. Original binding not seen. Noted in Robert Lee Wolff’s "19th Century Fiction" 4164. [Llanos knew John Keats and visited him three days before his death in 1821. In 1826 he married Fanny Keats, the poet’s sister, and in 1833 took her to Spain where they remained for the rest of their lives.]
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), The Trumpet-Major : a novel.
Masonic references claimed but no specific references supplied. [AQC xciii 15]
New York : Henry Holt, 1880. 366p ; 18cm. Leisure hour series ; no.118.
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure.
The Wessex novels ; 8. Jude Fawley is an operative stone-mason who is "learning the rudiments of freestone working." [AQC xciii 15]
London : Osgood, McIlvaine, 1896. vii, 515p, [2] leaves of plates : ill., map ; 21cm
Emra Holmes, Tales, Poems and Masonic Papers.
Short stories appearing in "The Freemason" (London) and "The Masonic Magazine" in the early 1870s; collected and published by Stokesly in 1877. Also Amabel Vaughan and other Tales Truro, 1878. [AQC xxxii 94]
Douglas Jerrold [freemason], Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures.
Two lectures: "viii Caudle has been made a Mason: Mrs. Caudle indignant and curious" and "xx 'Brother' Caudle has been to a Masonic Charitable Dinner: Mrs. Caudle has hidden the 'Brother’s' Cheque Book." [AQC xxxii 94]
London : Punch, 1845. Commencing anonymously.
Charles Coborn, Secret signs : Charles Coborn’s mock-descriptive song,
Josey John W., Banks H. G., Coborn Charles, Morton Richard. London : Charles Sheard & Co., 1892. 1 score, 3 p : col. port ; 36 cm. Music. First line: Freemasons are people who cause you to swear Freemasons are people who cause you to swear. Pictorial t.p. (col.): H. G. Banks, lith Portrait on t.p.: Charles Coborn Song for voice and piano Words printed separately inside back cover. Popular music - To 1901. [COPAC: Oxford].
Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King.
Kipling made numerous references to Freemasonry in his prose and poetry. Also see Freemasonry in twentieth century fiction. "A God and a Grand Master of the Craft am I, and a Lodge in the Third Degree I will open, and we'll raise the head priests and the Chiefs of the villages."
Maugham’s Choice of Kiplings Best. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York: 1953. [p. 180.]
Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous.
"How was it my French didn't go, and your sign-talk did?" Harvey demanded when the barter had been distributed among the "We're Heres".
"Sign-talk!" Platt guffawed. "Well, yes, 'twas sign-talk, but a heap older'n your French, Harve. Them French boats are chock-full o' Freemasons, an' that’s why."
"Are you a Freemason, then?"
"Looks that way, don't it?" said the man-o'war’s man, stuffing his pipe; and Harvey had another mystery of the deep sea to brood upon. Found at thefreelibrary.com.
Rudyard Kipling, Stalky & Co.
In the chapter entitled "The flag of their country", two school staff members are complaining about the secretiveness of the boys. "I never come across such nonsense in my life. They've tiled the lodge, inner and outer guard, all complete, and then they get to work, keen as mustard."
Rudyard Kipling, Stalky & Co. Dell Laurel-Leaf Library #8237 pb p. 186. [first published 1899.]
Anon. [Miss M. R. Lahee], Tim Bobbin’s Adventure with the Irishman; or, Rising the Dead by the Art of Freemasonry. A Lancashire Tale. (by M.R.L., author of "The Sporting Party," and "Owd Neddy Fitton’s Visit") Manchester: [John] Heywood, Simpkin. Marshall, 1860. Green paper wrappers, lettered in black on front, and imprinted with black on back, and inside front and back, cut flush. Size 4 " by 7 ". [56] p. Preface indicating that this is the second book in The Sporting Party Series. [Tim Bobbin = John Collier of Urmston (ESTC)] Noted in Robert Lee Wolff, Nineteenth-Century Fiction. New York : Garland Pub., 1981-1986. 3934.
Elizabeth Lynn Linton, The One too Many.
"...the old practitioner who would have cried out against the presence of a lady in an operating room, as would ever the members of a well-tiled Lodge had a women been found concealed beneath the table during the initiation of the neophytes." [AQC xxxii 86]
London, 1894. 3v. ; 8vo ; 19cm.
Edward [George Earle] Bulwer Lytton, Baron (1803-1873), Zanoni.
Masonic references claimed but no specifics supplied. [AQC xxxii 94]
London : Saunders & Otley, ... ; [London] : T.C. Savill, printer ..., 1842. 3v ; 19 cm.
Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton), Pelham or adventures of a gentleman.
"Thornton ... was somewhat more than half drunk, and his light prying eyes twinkled dizzily in his head. Dartmore, who was and is, the best-natured fellow alive, hailed the signs of his intoxication as a sort of freemasonry, and made way for him beside himself." [p. 193.]
"I placed myself beside her ; there was a sort of freemasonry between her and myself ; each knew something more of the other than the world did, and read his or her heart by other signs than words," [p. 306.]
n.d. : The Mershon Company, Rahway, N.J. [first published 1828]
Frederick Marryat, The King’s Own.
Masonic allusions such as "initiated into the mysteries" and "the Almighty Architect", and also refers to the freemason Entick’s Dictionary [AQC xciii 3]
London : Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. 3v. ; 8vo
Frederick Marryat (1792-1848; i. Lodge of Antiquity, 1826), Newton Forster.
A British seaman, captured by a Napoleonic French privateer, gives certain signs and is assisted in his escape after identifying himself as Master of a lodge. [AQC xciii 2]
London : 1832. 3v. ; 20cm
Rev. Charles Robert Maturin (d. 1824), Melmoth the wanderer.
A rosicrucian theme is developed.
Edinburgh : printed for Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., ... London, 1820. 4v. ; 16.3cm. Printed: Edinburgh: John Pillans (v. 4)
Herman Melville, Typee.
"For my own part, although hardly a day passed while I remained upon the island that I did not witness some religious ceremony or other, it was very much like seeing a panel of 'Freemasons' making secret signs to each other; I saw everything, but could comprehend nothing." Found at thefreelibrary.com.
anon., Cecil Merryville; or The Female Freemasons.
London : Edward Bull, 1840. 3 vol. ; 12o.
Young ladies decide to make a club or society to be called "The Female Freemasons." [AQC xxxii 88]
In Three Volumes. London: Edward Bull, Publisher; A.K. Newman and Company. 1844.
Anon. [Erskine Neale] (1804-1883), Stray Leaves from a Freemason’s Notebook. [by a Suffolk Rector]. London: Richard Spencer, 1846. viii, [344] p. hb. with dark grey-purple, vertical ribbed cloth. Author is giving all profits to Masonic charity; refers to earlier publication of some of the sketches, including one in Blackwood’s. Noted in Robert Lee Wolff’s "19th Century Fiction" 5067.
Hume Nisbet (1849-1921?), Bail Up! A Romance of Bushrangers and Blacks.
Raike Morris, falsely accused and imprisoned, is aided by a fellow freemason, Wung Ti, later assisted in his escape by members of a lodge, and ends his adventures in missionary work with his wife and Wung Ti.[AQC xciii 8]
London : Chatto & Windus, 1890. 319p ; 20cm.
J. F. Pennie [John Fitzgerald] (1782-1848), Britain’s Historical Drama.
A second series of national tragedies, intended to illustrate the manners, customs, and religious institutions of different early eras in Britain. Included is one story: "The Varangian: or Masonic Honor, A Tragedy." [AQC xciii 15]
London : S. Maunder, 1832. xvi, [8], 547, [4] p. ; 23 cm
Compton Reade, Basilissa; the Free of a Secret Craft. A poem.
"Masonry silent, yet real, is free though in brotherly bondage;
Masonry places a man on a pedestal higher than others.
Craft may be crafty, but craft is a knowledge unknown to the many;
Combination is strength, and unity deifies units" [AQC xxxii 87]
Oxford [printed], London, [1868.]
Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein (1826-1885), Die Geheimnisse von New-Orleans.
Written by German immigrant, Ludwig Freiherr von Reizenstein and serialized in the New Orleans German-language newspaper Louisiana Staats-Zeitung between 1854 and 1855.
"His plot imagines the coming of a bloody, retributive justice at the hands of Hiram the Freemason–a nightmarish, 200-year-old, proto-Nietzschean superman–for the sin of slavery. Heralded by the birth of a black messiah, the son of a mulatto prostitute and a decadent German aristocrat, this coming revolution is depicted in frankly apocalyptic terms."
The mysteries of New Orleans, translated and edited by Steven Rowan. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. xxxiii, 559 p. ; 24 cm. ISBN : 0801868823
George Augustus Sala, Dutch pictures.
"There she is at her post, with a wonderful freemasonic understanding with the doctor." [Oxford English Dictionary]
London, 1861. vi. p. 85. 339p ; 20cm
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Anne of Geierstein or, The maiden of the mist.
Mention of the Vehmgericht, a public court of justice that Scott identified with the Templars and noted similarities with masonic ritual. [AQC xciii 3]
in two volumes. New York : Sold by White, Gallaher & White..., 1829. 2v. ; 21cm
George Bernard Shaw, An Unsocial Socialist.
"Here is a portrait of my father in his masonic insignia. He believed that freemasons generally get on in the world, and as the main object of his life was to get on, he joined them, and wanted me to do the same. But I object to pretended secret societies and hocus pocus, and would not. You see what he was—a portly, pushing, egotistical tradesman." Found at thefreelibrary.com.
[William Henry] Oliphant Smeaton (1856-1914), The Treasure Cave of the Blue Mountains.
While struggling up the "dreary and gloomy Valley of Dry Bones," one team member exclaims "Thank goodness, there they are!" and answers her companions' questions by "Boaz and Jachin yonder", pointing to two peculiar columnar rocks standing one on either side of the path ahead. "That is Jachin on the right and Boaz on the left." "How did they get their names?" "Ferrars named them so I believe." "Was he a member of the Masonic order?" "My father told me he was very high up in the order before his transportation." [AQC xciii 9]
Edinburgh & London : Oliphant & Co., [1898]. viii. 312p. 8o.
John Frederick Smith (1803-1890), Amy Lawrence, the Freemason’s Daughter.
Henry Beecham, nephew and heir to the senior partner of a Manchester firm and Gridley, an old clerk of the firm, discover that they are both freemasons while visiting the home of a young consumptive, Richard Lawrence, whose mother is the widow of a freemason and whose sister, Amy, has attracted the attention of Beecham. Other freemasons enter the story and one episode involves the police raiding a lodge in Moscow while Beecham is visiting. [AQC xxxii 79-80, 88]
London: H. Lea. Contemp. half black roan. 2 book labels. v.g. In 35 parts, with two column text, each with a woodcut. serialized in the London Journal in 1851; p. 232 lists a Lea edition dated 1870, and Allibone lists a 3-volume edition in 1879. (c. 1855). Noted in Montague Summers, Gothic Bibliography, 1940 p. 190; Robert Lee Wolff, Nineteenth-Century Fiction. New York : Garland Pub., 1981-1986. 398. Also see: The freemason’s daughter : a novel, Smith J. F.. London : Tinsley Brothers, 1879. 3v. ; 20cm (8vo). 1870 ed. published under title: Amy Lawrence, the freemason’s daughter. [COPAC: Cambridge].
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. Written by Himself.
"Le Blondin had organized a great and extraordinary conspiracy. We don't know how far it went, how many hundreds or thousands it embraced; but strange were the stories told about the plot amongst us privates: for the news was spread from garrison to garrison, and talked of by the army, in spite of all the Government efforts to hush it up—hush it up, indeed! I have been of the people myself; I have seen the Irish rebellion, and I know what is the freemasonry of the poor."
Boston and New York : Colonial Press Company pp. 124-25. [spelt "organised" and "free-masonry" in London : Dent, 1903 edition] [serialised in Fraser's Magazine, 1844]
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), The Second Funeral of Napoleon.
"As for defying the world, that was neither here nor there; nor did English politicians ever dream of doing any such thing, except perhaps at the tenth glass of port at "Freemason’s Tavern." [Oxford English Dictionary]
William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians : a tale of the last century.
"that mysterious undefinable freemasonic signal which passes between women by which each knows that the other hates her." [AQC xxxii 88]
Leipzig : Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1858-1859. II. xxxviii. p. 317. 4v. ; 17cm
William Makepeace Thackeray, Burlesques, The Fitzboodle Papers and The Fatal Boots.
In a description of the Jewish peoples : "Over the entire world spreads a vast brotherhood, suffering, silent, scattered, sympathizing, waiting—an immense Freemasonry."
"Codlingsby," by Dr. Shrewsberrt, Esq. London, Edinburgh, and New York : Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1900. II. p. 13-14.
John Tobin (1770-1804), The honey moon : a comedy in five acts.
The Duke remarks, "Oh that I were in a Freemasons' Lodge, because they have no women there!"
Philadelphia : Printed for E. Bronson at the office of the United States Gazette, 1805. 85p.
Leo Tolstoi, graf, War and Peace. [Voyna i mir,1865-72]
Freemasonry is a minor thread running throughout War and Peace, the words Freemason, Mason, Masonry, Freemasonry, and the like, appearing 89 times.
Pierre rubbed his forehead.
"But he must be a Freemason," said he, referring to the abbé whom he had met that evening.
"That is all nonsense." Prince Andrew again interrupted him....
A description of Count Pierre Bezukhoi’s initiation into a Russian Lodge is made, as well as numerous references to his thoughts on Freemasonry. Tolstoi was not a freemason but, according to Aylmer Maude, took the ceremonies of the freemasons from his studies in the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow in the autumn of 1866. Also see AQC 87, pp. 229-35.
Mark Twain,
Reference to Freemasonry in the fiction of freemason Samuel Clemens are few, and generally oblique, such as in Innocents Abroad (1869) and Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy (written 1897, published 1969). In Pudd'n'head Wilson a passing reference is made to a Freemasons' Hall. Also see non-fiction references.
Allan Upward (1863-1926), The Royal Freemason.
Sixth of twelve short stories printed by Sir Arthur Pearson (1866-1921), fancifully refers to a masonic plot to assassinate freemason King Oscar II of Sweden (1829-1907) [AQC xciii 5]
London : Pearson’s Magazine, C.A. Pearson, 1896. v : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm.
John Strange Winter [pseud: Henrietta Stannard] (1856-1911), A Regimental Lodge, or How Jack Hartog was made a Freemason.
[AQC xxxii 94; xciii 7]
Published in "Cavalry Life", London: Chatto and Windus, 1885. Reprinted in Cavalry Life and Regimental; Legends. (1897)

S H O R T......S T O R I E S
Dostoevsky, The Possessed.
Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes.
'What do you think my father is—does for his living, that is to say?'
'He practises some profession or calling, I suppose.'
'No; he is a mason.'
'A Freemason?'
'No; a cottager and journeyman mason.'
Rudyard Kipling, Kipling’s Science Fiction.
Kipling made numerous references to Freemasonry in his prose and poetry. Also see Freemasonry in twentieth century fiction.
.007, from "The Day’s Work" (1898)
'Lodge is used here in the Masonic sense; RK was inducted as a Freemason in India, and very proud of the fact that "I was entered as a member of the Brahmo Somaj (Hindu), passed by a Mohammedan, and raised by an Englishman. Our tyler was an Indian Jew" (1885)' [from introduction to story by John Brunner: p. 31.]
"Split my tubes if that’s actin' polite to a new member o' the Brotherhood," said Poney. [other engines being rude to .007: p. 35.]
"He’s the master of our Lodge." [Poney referring to a superb six-wheeled racing locomotive which pulls the Purple Emperor passenger run: p. 40.]
Kipling’s Science Fiction, Kipling, Rudyard. Presented by John Brunner. Tor, imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc : New York, NY, USA. Copyright 1992, Brunner Fact and Fiction Ltd. 1st edition, October 1992. ISBN: 0-312-85355-6
Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.
One of the characters asks another if he is a mason. The short story involves a pun developed from this question.

Further notes can be found in: Frederick H. Smyth, "Freemasonry in Fiction". Ars Quatuor Coronatorum xciii (1980), pp. 1-16. Also see Henry Lovegrove, "Three Masonic Novels." AQC xxxii (1919); W. B. Hextall, "A Masonic Pantomime and some other Plays", AQC xxi (1908) pp. 138-160. "The Man Who Would be King." Illustration reproduced from the frontispiece to Rudyard Kipling’s Complete Works of Prose and Verse 1907. No artist credited.

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