Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 08:32 PM

Lyr. Add: The Free Masons Song

Come all you free-masons that dwell around the globe,
That wear a badge of innocence, I mean the royal robe,
Which Noah he did wear, in the Ark wherein he stood,
When the world was destroyed, by the deluging flood.

Noah he was virtuous in the fight of the Lord,
He loved a free-mason who kept a sacred word
He built up the ark & planted the first vine
And his soul like an angel in heaven doth shine

The 15th day rose the ark, let us join hand in hand,
The Lord spoke to Moses by water and by land
Nigh the pleasant river which through Eden did run,
Where Eve tempted Adam by the serpent to sin.

O when I think of Moses it makes me for to blush
On the mount of Horab where he saw the burning bush,
My staff I threw down & my shoes I cast away
And I'll wander like a pilgrim untill my dying day.

It's once I was blind and could not see the light
When unto Jerusalem oh there I took my flight
They led me like a pilgrim through the wilderness of care
You may see by the sign & the badge that I wear.

O never will I hear a poor Orphan to cry
Nor yet a fair virgin until the day I die
Nor like the restless Jew that wanders the world all round
But I'll knock at the door where truth is to be found.

So now against the Turks and infidels we fight
To let the world know we are in the right
For in Heaven there's a lodge and St. Peter keeps the door
And none may enter but such as are pure.

Versification not clear. Printed by J. Crome(?), Sheffield, no date but about 1800 (old 'f'-shaped 's' used in type font).
Bodleian Library, Harding B 28(240).
Bodley

Masonic song in the DT- "The Building of Solomon's Temple."

Occasioned by Abby Sale's Almanac, Happy? Freemasons, July 30, 2005, thread 83352: Happy? Freemasons

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 08:33 PM

Subject: LYR. ADD: A NEW FREE MASON'S SONG
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 09:05 PM

Lyr. Add: A New Free Mason's Song

When Adam first in the garden wept,
Along with his companion Eve,
He to her did say in the cool of the day,
How could you break my command?
She was not asham'd, who could her blame,
For kissing her love with his apron on.

It being the twenty-fourth of June,
When all things were both fresh and fair,
Drums and fifes before us play'd,
Unto the church we march'd along,
Where the scriptures are made known,
To brethern love we did agree,
God bless the lad with his apron on.

For to see the sun in his bright beams,
That shines all o'er the virgin plain,
The moon by night she gives her light,
To each freeborn son of man;
And when all things are fresh and bloom,
The pretty maids are not ashamed,
To kiss the lad with his apron on.

Did you hear the masons word?
Was whisper'd round the other night,
There is no maids dare us anoint,
Nor can, to put us in a fright,
So brethern dear be of good cheer,
Our brandy is both stout and strong,
Twelve times a year we must appear,
God bless the lad with his apron on.

When winter's frost and snow comes on,
The fairest flowers will decay,
And mortal man, when his glass has run,
His lips are like to the cold clay,
And pretty maids as well as they,
In a short time will forget,
They kiss'd their love with his apron on.

So brethren dear I beg your leave,
All for to end my innocent song,
Eight hundred and two, both just and true,
Unto this loyal lodge belong;
There is four steps you must come up,
Before your jewels does go on,
Our master dear sits in his chair,
God bless him with his apron on.

Bodleian Library, Harding B 25(688), ca. 1774-1825, Angus, printer, Newcastle.
Bodley

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: michaelr
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 10:07 PM

Pray enlighten us as to the cryptical meaning of all this.

What is "the Mason's apron" all about?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 11:32 PM

This website explains the symbols on a Mason's apron, using George Washington's Masonic apron, presented to him by Lafayette, also a Mason.
The meaning of the apron is explained at no. 43 of the explanation. The apron is worn during Masonic ceremonies. The 'jewels' of the 'New' song are explained at nos. 25-26.

Aprons of several founders of the Republic, including Franklin and Hancock, have been preserved.
Masonic apron

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 12:15 AM

John Crome is listed as a bookseller and printer at 42, Bridge Street, Sheffield in Baines's Directory and Gazetteer (1822) and in the "Printers-Letter-Press" category for 1829. He appears in other records as a printer at least as early as 1801.

The Bodleian gives a tentative date of 1817 to some of their Crome broadsides. The use of the old-style "s" isn't a good indicator of date with broadside printers generally, and Crome wasn't the sort to drop something that still worked just because it was out of fashion. According to Joseph Woolhouse's Description of the Town of Sheffield (written c.1832), "[Brocksop] ... and Mr. John Crome, printer, was the only 2 persons in Sheffield who wore Cock'd Hats as these hats was going out of Fashion when I was a boy. These 2 persons wore them some years after I was a man, say till I was upwards of Forty."

Woolhouse was born in 1778.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ENTERED APPRENTICE SONG
From: C-flat
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 02:10 AM

THE ENTERED APPRENTICE SONG
Matthew Birkhead, circa 1722

Come let us prepare,
We Brothers that are
Assembled on merry occasion;
Let's drink, laugh and sing:
Our wine has a Spring:
Here's health to an Accepted Mason.

The world is in pain
Our secrets to gain,
And still let them wonder and gaze on;
They ne'er can divine
The Word or the Sign
Of a Free and an Accepted Mason.

'Tis this, and 'tis that.
They cannot tell what,
Why so many Great Men of the Nation
Should aprons put on,
To make themselves one
With a Free and an Accepted Mason.

Great Kings, Dukes and Lords,
Have laid by their swords,
Our myst'ry to put a good Grace on:
And ne'er been ashamed
To hear themselves named
With a Free and an Accepted Mason.

Antiquity's pride
We have on our side,
And it maketh men just in their station
There's nought but what's good
To be understood
By a Free and an Accepted Mason.

We're true and sincere,
And just to the Fair:
They'll trust us on any occasion:
No mortal can more
The Ladies adore
Than a Free and an Accepted Mason.

Then join Hand in Hand,
To each other firm stand;
Lets be merry, and put a bright face on:
What mortal can boast
So Noble a Toast
As a Free and an Accepted Mason.

CHORUS: No Mortal can boast
So Noble a Toast
As a Free and an Accepted Mason.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 01:43 PM

Thanks, C-flat, it reminded me of this website which contains several Masonic songs including The Entered Apprentice Song.
www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/songs.html
Masonic songs

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Alan Day
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 01:46 PM

As far as I am aware I am the only Concertina playing organist in the UK.This came about when our organist moved from the area.
"Come on Alan you play the concertina so therefore you can play the organ".I put them straight but offered to play my Anglo and was duly elected organist.
I have since been asked by other lodges to play for them which I take as a great honour.
Many local Hospice are strongly supported by the Freemasons and they do a considerable amount for charity.
Al

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 06:06 PM

Good for you, Alan! My Uncle was a Mason and, as noted in the Scouting thread in the BS section, my three sisters and I were all members of Job's Daughters, invited in based on his Masonic ties. We did many, many service-based activities.

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE FREE MASONS SONG
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 06:56 PM

Do you believe in Freemasonry?

Oh good, I've got a wall needs building!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 12:11 AM

If you search Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads using "Freemasonry" as a subject, you find all the following songs:

Adam in the Garden
Answer to the Freemason's Hymn
Answer to the Mason's Hymn
Brilliant Light
Burns' Farewell
Celebrated Masonic Hymn
Freemason Boy
Freemason King
Freemasons
Freemason's Anthem
Freemason's Hymn
Freemason's Song
Give Me a Grip of Your Hand. (New Masonic Song)
He Kissed Me with His Apron On
Knight Templars
Knight Templar's Dream
Knights Templars of Malta
Level and the Square
Masonic Hymn
Mason's Song
Moses Number'd Men
Moses Numbered All His Men
New Freemason's Song
New Song, On Masonry
Royal Robe
Song
Song of a Sot (Parody on Tom Hood's Song of a Shirt)
Sons of Levi
Tower of Babel
William Trotter's Dream

(I have cleaned up the list by standardizing spelling, sorting, and then eliminating duplicates. If you want to find all the copies by title you will have to try variations in spelling, e.g. Freemason, Free Mason, Free-Mason; Burns, Burn's, Burns', Burns's; etc.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 12:40 AM

Hundreds of "Masonic Songs" were published in the mid-19th century. The three volumes of The Universal Songster, for example, contain a great many, mostly of the pompous, self-congratulatory sort. Thrill, for example (chosen genuinely at random), to the strains of Confess the Mason's Art Divine:

Divine Urania, virgin pure,
Enthron'd in the Olympian bower,
I here invoke thy lays:
Celestial muse, awake thy lyre,
With heaven-born sweet seraphic fire,
Freemasonry to praise.

... and so on.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Aug 05 - 01:44 PM

"Awake thy lyre"- The gods face unceasing requests to praise or aid some endeavor. No wonder they have to cause a plague, fire or flood to alleviate the headaches caused by all the demands.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song
From: GUEST,theballadeer
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 08:35 AM

What about
St. Columba and the Masons(by Matt McGinn, Billy Connolly, Tam Harvey)?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 09:55 AM

"The Mother-Lodge", by Kipling, was clearly meant to be sung. The antimissionary propaganda is edifying (cf. "Jobson's Amen"), and some of the details are surprising -- it appears that in British India a working-class Catholic might stray into a Masonic lodge.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: An exact answer to the wrong question may be a rough answer to the right one. :||

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Freemason's Song
From: Tam the man
Date: 04 Aug 05 - 10:25 AM

Did you know that any man of any faith can join the freemasons, My Borther in law a Catholic is a freemason, Al Jolson a Jew was a freemason.

Tom