GERALD MASSEYHome Biography Poetry Prose Reviews News Reports Miscellanea Main Index Site Search"I have looked over Gerald Massey's Poems They seem to me zealous, candid, warlike, intended, as they surely are, to get up a strong feeling against the Britisharistocracy both in their social and governmental political capacity."Walt Whitman, 1855._____________"His revolutionary lyrics have done their work. The least that can be said forthem is, that they are among the very best inspired by those wild times when Feargus O'Connor, Thomas Cooper, James [Bronterre] O'Brien and Ernest Jones were intheir glory. Of their effect in awakening and, making all allowance for theirintemperance and extravagance, in educating our infant democracy and those who were to mould it there can be no question."From... The Poetry of Mr. Gerald Massey by John Churton Collins, 1905._____________"No one ever understood the mythology and Ritual of Ancient Egypt so well as Gerald Massey since the time of the Ancient Philosophers of Egypt."Albert ChurchwardPreface to Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man._____________Pleasantly the Chime that calls toBridal-hall or Kirk;But Hell might gloatingly pull for the peal thatwakes the babes to work!"Come, little Children," the Mill-bell rings,and drowsily they run,Little old Men and Women, and humanworms who have spunThe life of Infancy into silk; and fed, Child,Mother, and Wife,The factory's smoke of torment, with thefuel of human life.O weird white face, and weary bones, andwhether they hurry or crawl,You know them by the factory-stamp, theywear it one and all.The Factory-Fiend in a grim hush waits tillall are in, and he grinsAs he shuts the door on the fair, fair worldwithout, and hell begins!. . . . life in Tring's Silk Mill, from Lady LauraGERALD MASSEY(1828 - 1907)Poet, author, lecturer and Egyptologist.19th Century view of Tring High Street.Photograph: Wendy Austin collection.Not by appointment do we meet delightOr joy; they heed not our expectancy;But round some corner of the streets of lifeThey of a sudden greet us with a smile.Massey from....The Bridegroom of BeautyKnown in his home town (in Hertfordshire, England) as "Tring's Poet", this extraordinary man's enduring reputation rests more on his unparalleled ability to piece together historical connections between cultures than on his poetry, which dates mainly from the early part of his life. It is impossible to categorise GERALD MASSEY comfortably under one heading, for at different times he succeeded asa . . . .Chartist and journalist, writing in radical publications such as The Uxbridge Spirit of Freedom, The Red Republican and The Friend of the People (see also W. J.Linton, W. E. Adams and Karl Marx on 'Chartism'; 'What Chartism Is' and 'JamesWatson, a Memoire'). In 1886, Massey returned briefly to the hustings, publishing a set of satirical "Election Lyrics," which offered support to Gladstone and his ill-fated Bill to give home-rule to Ireland;Poet, his poetry also being published widely in North America. In much of his poetryparticularly his early verseMassey protests about the lack of sorely-needed political and social reform (see the Poetry section);Essayist and poetry critic for various Victorian periodicalsparticularly on poetry for the Athenum (see the Prose and Critical Reviews sections);Shakespearean researcher into the background to the Sonnets (Shakspeare and hisSonnets; The Secret Drama of Shakspeare's Sonnets);Lecturer on a wide range of subjects. During his early years, Massey concentrated mainly on poets and literary personages, but later he lectured increasinglyon mythology and the origin of religious beliefs, and on spiritualism, subjectsthat became absorbing interests and wereand continueto damn him in the eyes of many;Researcher into the influence of ancient Egyptian beliefs on the development ofwestern myth, symbol, language and religion (Judaism and Christianitysee 'Nile Genesis'). Throughout his works, when examining racial mythology, Massey places particular emphasis on ancient Egyptian myths, maintaining that these developed as a necessary and fundamental central core of belief from the earliest times, and are the roots of modern cultural origins. He maintains that myths were foundedon natural phenomena and remain the register of the earliest scientific observation and 'the mirror of prehistoric sociology.'". . . . much of the Christian History was pre-extant as Egyptian Mythology. Ihave to ask you to bear in mind that the facts, like other foundations, have been buried out of sight for thousands of years in a hieroglyphical language, thatwas never really read by Greek or Roman, and could not be read until the lost clue was discovered by Champollion, almost the other day! In this way the originalsources of our Mytholatry and Christology remained as hidden as those of the Nile, until the century in which we live."From Massey's lecture....'The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ'Few Christians realise that the Gospels contain many points of similarity with ancient Egyptian teachings; indeed, that they might even have been derived from much earlier ancient Egyptian religious ritual. During the later years of his life from about 1870 onwards Massey became increasingly interested in the similarities that exist between ancient Egyptian mythology and the Gospel stories. He studied the extensive Egyptian records housed in the British Museum, eventually teaching himself to decipher the hieroglyphics. Following years of diligent research into the history of Egyptian civilisation and the origins of religion, Massey concluded that Christianity was neither original nor unique, but that the roots of much of the Judeo/Christian tradition lay in the prevailing Kamite (ancient Egyptian) culture of the region. By demonstrating such links are plausible,Massey inevitably places a question mark against the strict historical veracityof the Gospels. In the view of Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn (1880-1963), a scholar of comparative religion who was much influenced by Massey's research:"We are faced with the inescapable realisation that if Jesus had been able to read the documents of old Egypt, he would have been amazed to find his own biography already substantially written some four or five thousand years previously."Massey published the results of his extensive research in his 6-volume "trilogy" on the origin of man, of civilization and of western religions"I began my study in 1870, with the idea, which has grown stronger every year, that the humanrace originated in equatorial Africa." (Massey derived an etymology from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace").But despite today's growing interestthe books are again available in facsimile reprint editionsat the time of their publication the trilogy failed in popularity due mainly to the contentious subject matter; however, it must also be said that some of Massey's theories are poorly defined and so supported with detail that readers found them difficult to understand. Lacking any formal education particularly with regard to the need to evaluate and record his sources and the services of an editor, it is unsurprising that Massey's research attracted criticism, not just with regard to the controversial nature of his conclusions but due to a lack of clarity in how he reaches them. To remedy these defects, Jon Langehas performed a substantial and valuable task in editing Massey's texts to produce scholarly editions of his trilogy, which are now available online: see Introduction and . . . .The Book of the Beginnings, published 1881; here Massey challenges conventionalopinions of race supremacy;The Natural Genesis, published in 1883; here Massey delves deeper into ancientEgypt's influence on modern myths, symbols, religions and languages. By proclaiming Egypt to be the birthplace of modern civilisation, Massey challenges conventional theology as well as fundamental notions of race supremacy;Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World, published shortly before his death in 1907, is by far Massey's most important work. In it, he concludes that Kamite thought was the direct progenitor of the philosophy, meta physics, religion and science that eventually shaped Western civilisation. "It is a work which has occupied me over thirty years, and I shall be well content if in another century my ideas are acknowledged as correct". Although now largely overlooked, during the mid-Victorian era Massey was considered a significant poet, both in Britain, where he achieved the distinction of being awarded a civil list pension, and in North America, where he was published widely in both books and periodicals.A happy island in a sea of green,Smiling it lies beneath the changing sky,Well pleased, and conscious that eachwave and windIs tempered kindly or with blessing rich:And all the quaint cloud-messengers thatcomeVoyaging the blue Heaven's summer sea,Soft, shining, sumptuous, blown bylanguid breath,Touch tenderly, or drop with ripenessdown.Spring builds her leafy nest for birds andflowers,And folds it round luxuriant as the VineWhen grapes are filled with wine of merrycheer:The Summer burns her richest incensethere,Swinging the censers of her thousandflowers:Brown Autumn comes o'er seas of gloriousgold:And there old Winter keeps some greenthof heart,When on his head the snows of age arewhite.from.... 'Craigcrook Castle'It fell upon a merry May morn,I' the perfect prime of that sweet timeWhen daisies whiten, woodbinesclimb,The dear Babe Christabel was born . . .The birds wereOr bosomedOn beds ofHad kissed itsdarkling in the nest,in voluptuous trees:flowers the happy breezefill and sank to rest . . .We sat and watched by life's dark stream,Our love-lamp blown about the night,With hearts that lived, as lived itslight,And died, as did its precious gleam . . .She thought our good-night kiss wasgiven,And like a flower her life did close.Angels uncurtained that repose,And the next wakening dawned inHeaven . . .from....Babe ChristabelNo jewelled beauty is my love,Yet in her earnest face,There's such a world of tenderness,She needs no other grace.Her smiles, her voice, around my lifeIn light and music twine;And dear, O very dear to meIs this sweet Love of mine.from....No Jewelled Beauty Is My LoveCome hither my brave Soldier boy, and sityou by my side,To hear a tale, a fearful tale, a glorioustale of pride;How Havelock with his handful, all sofaithful, and so few,Held on in that far Indian land, to bearour England throughHer pass of bloodiest peril, and her reddestsea of wrath;And strode like Paladins of old on theiravenging path.from....Havelock's MarchMassey's best poetry leans toward the tender side of natureoften painting a succession of beautiful, even extravagant vignettesand to romantic scenes close tohome. Examples in this category are the ballad Babe Christabel, Massey's best-known long poem, in which he gently relates the birth, life and death of a young child; in The Singer, he pictures a skylark, singing softly and sweetly as itsoars up into the heavens, but the ripe, drooping ears of corn below are deaf toits song; in My Love, Massey muses lovingly on his wife's perfections and imperfections, a poem that I suspect makes a candid statement of devotion for his first wife Rosina, whose imperfections gradually became legion but who he never abandoned. There's No Dearth of Kindness, which takes as its theme brotherly love,is probably Massey's best-known short poem, its first four lines often appearing in dictionaries of quotations.In stark contrast is Massey's political poetry, among his earliest and arguably his best. These exhortatory, fiery protests, written mostly for publication in unstamped Chartist and working-class newspapers of the period (1847-52), reflect the wrongs suffered by the masses (A Red Republican Lyric), their bitterness (Yet we are Brothers Still) and utter hopelessness of a better life (Hope On,Hope Ever!) and they display much force and vitality in the process. Conveyingas they do the feelings and sentiments of the oppressed poor, Massey's political poems are of interest to social historians of the period, while examples oftenappear in compilations of Victorian working-class verse. For further examplessee Early Poems and Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love.Occasionally, Massey takes as his subject a patriotic or, perversely for achampion of the downtrodden, an imperialist episode, such as Sir Richard Grenvilles Last Fight, The Death Ride and Havelocks March. The latter is a long narrative of the Indian Mutiny, which Massey described as "more properly historic photographs, rather than Poems in the Esthetic sense" that "may have their place as illustrations in historic records"; a perceptive comment. It s interesting to compare the first two of these examples with Tennysons popular treatment of the samethemes in The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet and in The Charge of the LightBrigade . Whereas Tennyson paints his pictures with rich but delicate strokes,Massey s are more confused and indistinct, his poems a maze of figures. In theopinion of a critic writing in the Bucks Advertiser (May, 1847), when Massey left nature and took to the battlefield, "his sentiment is coarse, and the phraseology vulgar." He would have done well to have taken note, for Havelock s Marchand similar poems, while providing interesting views on the headline events andsentiments of the time, are not among his best.Craigcrook Castle, which was composed during 1855 when Massey held an editorial post on the Edinburgh News, and A Tale of Eternity, a ghost story publishedin 1870 and his last significant poemare among Massey s most accomplished poems in blank verse.A number of Massey s poems were set to music and proved popular, both as hymns and songs; judging from the number of composers that set the piece and thenumber of copies that remain in circulation, No Jewelled Beauty is my Love seems to have been a particular favourite (it s certainly one of mine). But havingsold the copyright of his poetry to the publishers, I doubt whether Massey everreceived any royalties from the sheet music sales.Despite its failings, strength and sincerity always shines through in Masseys poetry placing it above mere poetic merit. Of course much of it is dated, for the concerns and conflicts that he and his Chartist and Radical contemporariesfaced, often addressing in their verse, have long since receded below our horizon. Their battles against child labour, appalling factory and social conditions, the right to protest without the fear of brutal reprisal, gender inequality and the lack of universal suffrage, to name but some, were fought long and hard and eventually won to our benefit (although our civil liberties are again at riskfrom the all-seeing eye of modern technology and from those who operate it!). Sadly, these battles and those who fought them are now historic footnotes, or areforgotten.Tennyson, who Massey greatly admired they met once, towards the end of the Laureate s life described him as "a poet of fine lyrical impulse and of a rich, half-Oriental, imagination". . . . possibly Gerald Masseys finest eulogy as a poet.FOR TRUTH.(Gerald Massey s last known poem).He set his battle in array, and thoughtTo carry all before him, since he foughtFor Truth, whose likeness was to him revealed;Whose claim he blazoned on his battle-shield;But found in front, impassively opposed,The World against him, with its ranks all closed:He fought, he fell, he failed to win the dayBut led to Victory another way.For Truth, it seemed, in very person cameAnd took his hand, and they two in one flameOf dawn, directly through the darkness passed;Her breath far mightier than the battle-blast.And here and there men caught a glimpse of grace,A moment s flash of her immortal face,And turned to follow, till the battle-groundTransformed with foemen slowly facing roundTo fight for Truth, so lately held accursed,As if they had been Her champion from the first.Only a change of front, and he who had ledWas left behind with Her forgotten dead. "Poverty is a cold place to write Poetry in.. A poor man, fighting his battle oflife, has little time for the rapture of repose which Poetry demands.. Considering all things, it may appear madness for a poor man to attempt Poetry in the faceof the barriers that surround him."Born in a hovel at Gamnel Wharf, Tring, on 29th May 1828, (THOMAS) GERALD MASSEYwas the eldest son of an impoverished and illiterate canal-boatman. Massey said of himself that 'he had no childhood,' for on reaching the age of eight he wasput to work in the Towns silk mill where his twelve-hour days spent labouring ingrim conditions added between nine pence and one shilling and three pence to his father s meagre earnings. He later worked in Trings then-thriving straw plaiting industry producing braid for the straw hat trade in nearby Luton and Dunstable. Thanks to his mother, Mary, Massey received a scant education at a penny school. Despite these tough beginnings, he learned to read and write using the Bible, Bunyan, Robinson Crusoe and Wesleyan tracts left at the family home.Torn from mother s arms to labour,Fragile limbs in childhood s daySoon the cherub lines of beautyFrom their pallid cheeks decay;And the cankerworm of deathMakes young hearts its early prey.......from At Eventide There Shall Be LightGod shield poor little ones, where allMust help to be bread-bringers!For once afoot, there s none too smallTo ply their tiny fingers.Poor Pearl, she had no time to playThe merry game of childhood;From dawn to dark she went all day,A-wooding in the wild-wood.......from The Legend of Little PearlGamnel Wharf, Tring. The steam flour mill dates from 1875.Photo: Wendy Austin collection.Massey s father, William, worked for the proprietor of the flour mill" I know a poor old man in England who, for 40 years, worked for one firm and itsthree generations of proprietors. He began at a wage of 16s. per week, and worked his way, as he grew older and older, and many necessaries of life grew dearer and dearer, down to six shillings a week, and still he kept on working, and would not give up. At six shillings a week he broke a limb, and left work at last, being pensioned off by the firm with a four-penny piece! I know whereof I speak, for that man was my father."GERALD MASSEY."The child comes into the world like a new coin with the stamp of God upon itthepoor mans child [is] hustled and sweated down in this bag of society to get wealth out of itso is the image of God worn from heart and brow, and day by day the child recedes devil-ward. I look back now with wonder, not that so few escape, butthat any escape at all, to win a nobler growth for their humanity. So blightingare the influences which surround thousands in early life, to which I can bearsuch bitter testimony."I would not plod on, like these slaves of gold,Who shut up their souls, in a dusky cave,I would see the world better, and nobler-souled,Ere I dream of Heaven in my green, turf-grave.I may toil till my life is filled with dreariness,Toil, till my heart is a wreck in its weariness,Toil for ever, for tear-steept bread,Till I go down to the silent dead.But, by this yearning, this hoping, this aching,I was not made merely for money-making.from..... I Was Not Made Merely for Money-MakingOn Heaven, blood shall call,Earth, quake with pent thunder,And shackle and thrall,Shall be riven asunder,It will come, it shall come,Impede it what may,Up People! and welcome!Your glorious day.from.....The Famine-SmittenAt the age of 15, Massey moved to London, where he found work as an errand boy, believed to have been at the once famous Regent Street store of Swan & Edgar.With access to more reading material, he flourished, absorbing the classicsand other influences, including the political writings of Thomas Paine, Volneyand Howitt. He also studied French. In later life Massey recalled that his first published poem on Hope its author then being without any appeared in 1843 in the Aylesbury News, but this has not been traced. His first identified poem,At Eventide there shall be light, was published in The Bucks Advertiser when he was eighteen, being attributed to "A Tring Peasant Boy". A Tring bookseller published Masseys first volume of poems, Original Poems and Chansons, in 1847, 250copies being printed and offered for sale at a shilling each. No copy is knownto have survived (but see Early Poems).Throughout his life, Massey was committed to the labourers cause. The revolutionary spirit of the 1840s caught his enthusiasm and he joined the Chartists,applying his pen in support of their cause. In 1849 he began editing The Uxbridge Spirit of Freedom, a paper written by working men, and was dismissed from several jobs for publishing it.Massey s Calvinist upbringing had taught him that the Bible and church doctrines were true, but following his move to London he realised that the social injustice that surrounded him was plainly incompatible with strict church teachings. This dichotomy was exacerbated when, having joined the Chartist movement, hecame into contact with political and religious radicals. At that time the late1840's and early 1850's there were discussions about and publications refutingthe strict historical veracity of biblical teachings (which continue to this day). At that time, Masseys sympathies veered to the religious side of the reforming movement, where he supported the Christian Socialists ideals, acted as secretary to the Christian Socialist Board and contributed to The Christian Socialistjournal. In general, "Christian Socialism" was taken to mean a restructuring of labour based on co-operation, joint ownership and with increased power to theworking class. F. D. Maurice, who coined the term, intended that by these meansto Christianise socialism by opposing the unsocial Christians and the unchristian socialists. Despite this association, however, Massey also contributed moreradical material to George Julian Harney s Red Republican, sometimes under thepen names Bandiera or Armand Carrel , a venture with which the promoters of the Christian Socialist disapproved.Massey, by John and Charles Watkins (ca. 1856)Following the virtual collapse of the Chartist Movement by the mid 1850s, Massey continued to write poetrymuch of his poetry remaining religious in tonetogether with literary articles and reviews. His earliest surviving published poetrycollection, Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love, appeared in 1851, but it was not until his third collection, The Ballad of Babe Christabel with other LyricalPoems, published in 1854, that he achieved a wide reputation as a poet. This volume went through five editions in a year and was reprinted in New York (as Poems and Ballads). The critic John Ruskin acknowledged Massey s talent, writing tohim; "Your education was a terrible one, but mine was far worse", the one having suffered the bitterness of poverty, the other having been the pampered child of wealth. War-Waits poems based on the Crimean War followed in 1855, Craigcrook Castle in 1856, Robert Burns: a Centenary Song (1859); Havelocks March in 1861and, in 1870, A Tale of Eternity, itself a poem (and his last significant effortin the genre) dealing with the supernatural, on which one critic commented that".... Weird, grisly, eerie, eldritch horror runs through the whole current of the narrative". In 1886, in support of W. E. Gladstone s election campaign, Massey penned a short collection of political poems, which he published as "ElectionLyrics." Following the success of earlier compilations, Massey collected the best of his poems into a two-volume edition, which with other material was published in 1889 as My Lyrical Life (Part 1, Part 2); a second, slightly extended edition, appeared in 1896 (Part 3).Massey s other published writing includes a detailed study of Shakespeares sonnets. Following his essay on the Sonnets published in the Quarterly Review inApril, 1864, Massey delved deeper in the mystery surrounding the characters that they address. Shakespeare s Sonnets Never Before Interpreted appeared in 1866followed in 1872 by a revision, which Massey published in a limited edition of100 copies by subscription as The Secret Drama of Shakespeare s Sonnets Unfolded: With the Characters Identified. A further revision, The Secret Drama of Shakspeare s Sonnets, which followed in 1888, exhibited an improved literary style (Massey s spelling of Shakspeare appears to have been taken from Ben Johnson, among others, and is a recognised, though less used variant)."That Spanish Emperor who fancied he could have improved the plan of creation ifhe had been consulted, would hardly have managed to better the time, the place,and circumstances of Shakespeare s birth. The world would not have been more ripe, or England more ready - the stage of the national life more nobly peopled the scenes more fittingly draped - than they were for his reception. It was a time when souls were made in earnest, and life grew quick within and large without. The full-statured sprit of the nation had just found its sea-legs and was clothing itself with wings.""It must be borne in mind that we are endeavouring to decipher a secret historyof an unexampled kind. We can get little help, except from the words themselves.We must not be too confident of walking by our own light; we must rely more implicitly on that inner light of the sonnets, left like a lamp in a tomb of old, which will lead us with the greater certainty to the precise spot where we shalltouch the secret spring and make clear the mystery. We must ponder any the leastminutiae of thought, feeling, or expression, and not pass over one mote of meaning because we do not easily see its significance. Some little thing that we cannot make fit with the old reading may be the key to the right interpretation."Gerald Massey.... extracts from The Secret Drama of Shakespeare s Sonnets Unfolded.Among Massey s radical friends and associates during his Chartist years were W. J. Linton, Thomas Cooper, G. J. Holyoake, Ernest Jones, J. J. Bezer, John Arnott, F. D. Maurice and Charles Kingsley. Later, when he had established his literary reputation, came Hepworth Dixon, Walter Savage Landor and George Eliot,who is widely reported to have taken Massey as her model for the character of Felix Holt in "The Radical," although there is no hard evidence to support this.Somewhat later came Robert Browning (who Massey met at the establishment of LadyMarion Alford, his patron, at Ashridge in Hertfordshire see Massey's letter indefence of Browning) and the poetess, novelist and author of charming children'sstories, Jean Ingelow, to whom, following the death of his first wife, Rosina,in 1866, it was rumoured that Massey proposed marriage (another rumour of thisperiod linked Jean Ingelow with Robert Browning).This period, 1869-70, saw the publication of A Tale of Eternity and other poems, the last of Massey's significant poetry; it also marked the end of Massey's long association (and for him, a comparatively regular stipend) as a poetry reviewer for the influential periodical, the Athenum. The cause of the break is unknown, but in a letter to another of the journal's reviewers, Thomas Purnell, Massey hints at a 'falling out' . . .Curiously enough I had corresponded with the Athm. people about resuming my old seat on their Critical bench. But, after one meeting and your communication, I shall drop the subject and not ask for any Books. The whole affair is infinitelyfunny.Thereafter Massey all but abandoned poetry and commenced his long researchinto religious origins. His trilogy ("The Book of the Beginnings", "The Natural Genesis" and "Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World"), published between 1881 and 1907, demonstrates clearly his complete change of thought regarding the organised religions of the day and his firm alignment to the concept of evolution;whilst he did not become an atheist, he might be classed as a deist (i.e. "Onewho believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason").A misconception about Massey s religious beliefs stems from his connectionwith the Most Ancient Order of Druids to which he was elected Chosen Chief, an honorary position that he held from 1880 until 1906. The position might have involved some minor administrative duties, but it required no formal membership. To Massey, at least, it was not a religion and did not involve forms of initiation, ceremonial dress or attendance at active meetings at megalithic sites; indeed, Massey did not believe in such pagan ceremony and made his interest in the Druids plain . . . ."I cannot join in the new masquerade and simulation of ancient mysteries manufactured in our time by Theosophists, Hermeneutists, pseudo-Esoterics, and Occultists of various orders, howsoever profound their pretensions. The very essence ofall such mysteries as are got up from the refuse leavings of the past is pretence, imposition, and imposture. The only interest I take in the ancient mysteriesis in ascertaining how they originated, in verifying their alleged phenomena, inknowing what they meant, on purpose to publish the knowledge as soon and as widely as possible." (vide Massey s response to the Blavatsky letter, Agnostic Journal, 1891).Original editions of most of Massey s books are available on the antiquarian book market (but, in good condition, can command high prices) and most of hiswork is also now available in modern reprints. Copies of all Massey s major published work are held by the British Library, at British & Irish university libraries, and in the US Library of Congress.Day after day her dainty handsMake Life s soiled temples clean,And there s a wake of glory whereHer spirit pure hath been.At midnight, through that shadow-land,Her living face doth gleam;The dying kiss her shadow, andThe Dead smile in their dream......onFlorence Nightingale, from War WaitsIn silence sat our Crimean Hero, heWho told us how they fought at Inkerman:His heart swam up in tears at thoughts of Home.The roar and rack of Battle over and gone;No more surprises in the bloody trench,Where midnight swarmed with visions horrible,And earth was like a fiery coast of hell!All that long aching wintriness of soul,Warm-melted in the arms of Wedded Love,That drew him from the bloody battle-press,And claspt him safe in their serene heaven,Where Past and Future crown him as they kiss.And with dumb eloquence his poor armstump moved,As it were dreaming of a dear embrace.from...Craigcrook CastleUp-rouse ye now, brave brother-band;With honest heart, and working hand:We are but few, toil-tried and true,Yet hearts beat high to dare and do.And who would not a champion be,In Labour s social Chivalry?from....The Chivalry of LabourIn addition to his books and journalism, Massey sought a living from contributions to periodical magazines, among others being Chambers Magazine, Cassell sMagazine, All the Year Round, and Good Wordsthe first issue of this once-popularperiodical (in 1860) includes a poem on the great Italian unifier Garibaldi, for which Massey received ten guineas. He also contributed to literary journals,including Hogg s Instructor, Fraser s Magazine, the North British Review, the Quarterly Review and the Athenum.Massey also lectured widely in the U.K., mainly, in his earlier years, on literature, poetry and pre-Raphaelite art, his fiery style proving popular and often attracting large audiencesProfessor Marvin Vincent, an American theologian, described him thus: "He is a splendid lecturer. He went off like the eighty-oneton pounder. I didn t agree with his opening remarks, but it was like a shellbursting among us, and we had enough to do to look out during the rest of the lecture". In later years Massey undertook lecturing tours to North America; the first, in 1873-74, included California and Canada, the second in 1883-85 extendedto Australia and New Zealand, but his third tour of the U.S.A. came to a premature close when he was called home to be with his dying daughter, Hesper, for whom he had a particular affection. By this time he was lecturing chiefly on the subjects that absorbed his later life, spiritualism, mythology and the mystical interpretation of the Scriptures; in 1887 Massey published a selection of his lectures on these topics. Massey was twice married. He had 7 daughters and 2 sons (neither of whom reached maturity), including two surviving daughters from his first marriage.My Love in Heaven! love was not hidBy closing of a Coffin-lid!Dear Love in Heaven! true love survivesAll separation in our lives!O Love in Heaven, from you I winSure help without, and hope within!My Love in Heaven, for me she waitsLike Morning golden at her Gatefrom....Open SightMassey's first wife, Rosina Jane Knowles, was a noted clairvoyant. She was born in Bolton in Lancashire and was nineteen when they married in 1850. Rosina was to influence Massey's life significantly, particularly his interest in and commitment to spiritualism. Sadly, she was to develop severe depression, possibly stemming from the loss of two of her children, a condition that was aggravated by growing dependence on alcohol. She died in 1866 at the age of thirty-fourher badly weathered white tombstone, her name barely discernable, lies near thegate of the beautiful secluded parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul atLittle Gaddesden near Tring.Massey's second wife, Eva Byrn, who he married in 1868, was the daughter ofan artist and 'Professor of Dancing'. A contemporary magazine article described Eva as accomplished and beautiful while referring to Massey as having . . ."a young, fresh look; a finely-formed head, too large for the small, spare body; a pleasant, winning face, and long, dark brown hair, whiskers, and moustache".Gerald Masseyprobably early 1860s.Photograph is possibly by John & Charles Watkins.Some years earlier (1854) the poet and critic Sydney Dobell (1824-74) described Massey thus:"The upper part of his face reminds me of Raphael's angels, and I catch myself dwelling upon him with a kind of optical fondness, as one looks upon a beautifulpicture or a rare colour. And this in spite of a blue satin waistcoat! and a gold-coloured tie! The second morning I came upon him early, sans neckerchief orcollar, nursing his sickly baby, the grey wrapper in which he sat, being like the mist to the morning as regards his wonderful complexion, and it would be difficult to imagine more marvellous (masculine) beauty . . ."Massey ca. 1854.. . . . while after the passage of 30 years (1884), during his second lecturingtour of the U.S.A. an American journalist found Massey to be:" at the grand climacteric of life; and is below the medium stature. Grey whiskers, of English trim, half mask a face which wears a look of intensity as he plows through the mystical domains of Egyptology and the shadowlands of the ancientOrient. Brown hair, with occasional streaks of grey, rolls forward in a billowon his crown, and ripples off from the ears. He wears spectacles when he readsfrom manuscript."A careworn Massey: a sketch from a photograph takenduring his first American lecture tour, 1873.While Eva does not appear to have had any discernable impact on Massey's work, she undoubtedly brought stability to his domestic life. Sadly, few of Massey's children by either marriage survived into adulthood and with the death ofhis grand daughter, Helena Viola, in 1988, his direct line came to an end. Of his three brothers, Frederick left numerous descendants and his line survives tothis day.Ashridge: the residence of Lord Brownlow and his mother, Lady Marion Alford.Throughout his life Massey was beset with money problems, sometimes having to borrow from friends. Although he eventually received a civil list pension of 100 per annumwhich must be judged by the standards of the timehaving to care for Rosina and a large family exacerbated his already precarious existence as a writerand travelling lecturer. Massey was fortunate, however, in securing the patronage of Lady Marion Alford, mother of the wealthy owner of the Ashridge Estate near Tring.Of such as he was, there be few on earth;Of such as he is, there are few in Heaven:And life is all the sweeter that he lived,And all he loved more sacred for his sake:And Death is all the brighter that he died,And Heaven is all the happier that he's there.From....In Memoriam (to Earl Brownlow)In 1865, Lord Brownlow settled Masseys debts and provided him and his familywith an estate cottage in the village of Little Gaddesden. However, Rosina s unbalanced state of mindmade worse by alcoholismand her abilities as a clairvoyantaroused deep superstitions in the villagers, who came to believe her to be a witch. The Brownlows again came to the rescue, providing Massey with a large isolated farmhouse, Ward s Hurst, where he lived rent-free until 1877 when he moved to London. It was mainly during the period at Wards Hurst that Massey developedan interest in psychic phenomena that was to absorb his later years, years in which he dropped from public view and in which there is little record of his life.Impecunious to the end, Massey died at his home in South Norwood Hill, London, on the 29th of October 1907, and was laid to rest in the family tomb in Londons old Southgate Cemetery. Like many men of action and enterprise he was his own educator, attending the best school that has ever existed since men began their search for knowledge, the School of Experience, wherein he became in his particular fieldunravelling the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mythology and elucidating its parallels with western religionsone of its most distinguished graduates. .. ."It is a work which has occupied me over thirty years, and I shall be well content if in another century my ideas are acknowledged as correct".Gone are the last faint flashes,Set is the sun of my years;And over a few poor ashes,I sit in my darkness and tears.Massey, from....Desolate Mine, though a sorry Autograph,May serve to make the looker laugh,And say when I have given the hint,We like his writing bestin print. GERALD MASSEY:CHARTIST, POET, RADICALANDFREETHINKERbyDAVID SHAW.A new revised and extended 2nd Edition (2009)is now on sale at LuLu.com The Gerald Massey Collectionat theUpper Norwood Joint Library.The Upper Norwood Joint Library, which opened in 1900 and, despite great publicprotest, is now under threat of closure serves an area of South London near thesite of the old Crystal Palace, which burnt down in 1936. It's a public library, but an unusual one, being owned jointly by Croydon and Lambeth councils whilstnot belonging to either borough's library service. The Library has its own management committee comprising councillors from the two boroughs together with representatives of the local users group, the Upper Norwood Library Campaign, altogether a unique arrangement for a public library in the U.K. today.The library houses The Gerald Massey Collection, which was donated to us some years ago by David Shaw, author of "Gerald Massey: Chartist, Poet, Radical and Freethinker". The collection consists of a wide range of materials about Massey andthe various fields he was involved with. It is divided into sections on Masseythe radical, the poet, the Shakespearean critic, the spiritualist and the Egyptologist, with a final category of miscellaneous materials. There are books (the Chartist movement has particularly strong coverage), magazine articles, census entries, a few manuscripts, photographs, two Chartist medals etc.It is advisable to make an appointment to see material from the collection. Thelibrary is situated at Westow Hill, Upper Norwood, London SE19 1TJ telephone 020 8670 2551; email to:jsavage@uppernorwood.akhter.comJerry SavageReference & Local History Librarian[Home] [Biography] [Poetry] [Prose] [Reviews] [News Reports] [Miscellanea] [Main Index] [Site Search]Correspondence should be sent to Webmaster@Gerald-Massey.org.ukA BOOK OFTHE BEGINNINGSContaining an attempt to recover and reconstitutethe lost origins of the myths and mysteries,types and symbols, religion and language,with Egypt for the mouthpiece andAfrica as the birthplacebyGerald Massey________________ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN TWO VOLUMESLONDON, 1881NOW REPUBLISHED IN THIS EDITIONWITH ADDITIONAL MATERIALBY THE EDITOR2007________________CONTENTSPART 1EGYPTIAN ORIGINS IN THE BRITISH ISLES1 Egypt 1-472 Comparative Vocabulary of English and Egyptian 49-813 Hieroglyphics in Britain 83-1344 Egyptian Origins in Words 135-1795 Egyptian Water-Names 180-2076 Egyptian Names of Personages 208-2487 British Symbolical Customs and Egyptian Naming 249-3108 Egyptian Deities in the British Isles 311-3699 Egyptian Place-Names and the Record of the Stones 370-44310 Type-Names of the People 444-503PART 2EGYPTIAN ORIGINS IN THE HEBREW,AKKADO-ASSYRIAN AND MAORI11 Comparative Vocabulary of Hebrew and Egyptian Words 1-2112 Hebrew Cruxes with Egyptian Illustrations 23-7913 Egyptian Origins in the Hebrew Scriptures, Religion, Languages and Letters 80-12414 The Phenomenal Origins of Jehovah-ElohimThe Exodus 125-173174-17515 Egyptian Origin of the Exodus 176-22716 Moses and Joshua, of the Two Lion-Gods of Egypt 228-28017 An Egyptian Dynasty of Hebrew Deities Identified from the Monuments 281-36218 The Egyptian Origin of the Jews traced from the Monuments 363-44119 Comparative Vocabulary of Akkado-Assyrian and Egyptian Words 443-45620 Egyptian Origins in the Akkado-Assyrian Language and Mythology 457-52121 Comparative Vocabulary of Maori and Egyptian WordsA Quote by Max Muller 523-53353422 African Origins of the Maori 535-59823 Roots in Africa Beyond Egypt 599-67412 Notes to Part 1Notes to Part 2 675-682683-684General IndexILLUSTRATIONSZodiac from the centre of the ceiling of DenderahLarger ViewEgyptian zodiac assigned to the second Hermes, according to KircherLarger ViewEGYPTEgypt! how have I dwelt with you in dreams,So long, so intimately, that it seemsAs if you had borne me; though I could not knowIt was so many thousand years ago!And in my gropings darkly undergroundThe long-lost memory at last is foundOf motherhoodyou Mother of us all!And to my fellowmen I must recallThe memory too; that common motherhoodMay help to make the common brotherhood.Egypt! it lies there in the far-off past,Opening with depths profound and growths as vastAs the great valley of Yosemit;The birthplace out of darkness into day;The shaping matrix of the human mind;The cradle and nursery of our kind.This was the land created from the flood,The land of Atum, made of the red mud,Where Num sat in his Teba throned on high,And saw the deluge once a year go by,Each brimming with the blessing that is brought,And by that waterway, in Egypt's thought,The gods descended; but they never hurledThe Deluge that should desolate the world.There the vast hewers of the the early timeBuilt, as if that way they would surely climbThe Heavens, and left their labours without nameColossal as their carelessness of fameSole likeness of themselvesthat heavenwardFor ever look with statuesque regard,As if some vision of the Eternal grownPetrific, was forever fixed in stone!They watched the Moon re-orb, the Stars go round,And drew the Circle; Thought's primordial bound.The Heavens looked into them with living eyesTo kindle starry thoughts in other skies,For us reflected in the image-scroll,That might by night the stars for aye unroll.The Royal Heads of Language bow them downTo lay in Egypt's lap each borrowed crown.The glory of Greece was but the AfterglowOf her forgotten greatness lying low;Her Hieroglyphics buried dark as night,Or coal-deposits filled with future light,Are mines of meaning; by their light we seeThro' many an overshadowing mystery.The nursing Nile is living Egypt still,And as her lowlands with its freshness fill,And heave with double-breasted bounteousness,So doth the old Hidden Source of mind blessThe nations; secretly she brought to birth,And Egypt still enriches all the earth.MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECY OFTHE 'END OF THE WORLD'IN THE YEAR 1881Some relics of the ancient Circle-Craft are still extant in Britain, and we haveour misinterpreted prophecies in common with the Hebrew (see Pt. 2, pp.388-98).According to one of these the World is to end in the year 1881.The 'end of the world' is the end of an aeon, age or cycle of Time, and we haveseen the prophecy fulfilled in the rare lunar and planetary conjunction which occurred on the 3rd of March. It now remains for scientific astronomy to determinethe length of this particular cycle of Time and define its relationship to theperiod of precession.The ending of an Old World (or Aeon) and commencement of a New is an appropriatedate for the birth of A Book of the Beginnings.March 4th, 1881BACKHOME CONTACTNEXTThis page last updated: 14/09/2011