MASQUES OF SOLOMON: THE ORIGIN OF THE THIRD DEGREE. C. Bruce Hunter, Richmond, Va., Macoy Publishing, 2003. Hardback, xxiii and 219 pages, £14.95. ISBN 0-88053-095-2 Available from Lewis Masonic.

Bruce Hunter has provided a theory to explain when, why, and how the Hiramic legend appeared in English Freemasonry. In the course of this we are provided with a pleasantly-written background to much of the century and a half before the formation of the Grand Lodge in London in 1717. The book starts with a Chronology. It ends with eight appendices, covering 56 pages, containing some interesting texts, such as the two Schaw Statutes, various Stuart building proclamations, and the Master’s Part of Masonry Dissected.
    But Bruce Hunter’s case is very flimsy. It rests on King James VI and I of Scotland and England whom Anderson described as a ‘Royal Brother Mason’.
    Hunter sees the artists Schaw, Jones, and Jonson as having key roles. Schaw was, ‘free to infuse the lodges under his jurisdiction with a healthy dose of new ideas…and he could use his contacts in court to recruit enough “new blood” to keep the lodges going…’ ‘When Schaw and his masons began admitting honorary members and created a new ceremony to cater to them, they planted a seed that would grow into the modern Masonic ritual. And when Jonson created a new version of the ceremonies with which he was entrusted, he nurtured the seed by creating a model for the dramatic story of the Third Degree. When the Masons reorganized their craft during the early 1700s…they quickly added a third degree to pay tribute to a king named Solomon.’
    Gallant imagination indeed. There is no evidence, even from the six pages of bibliography, that the author is familiar with the modern relevant academic literature, nor that he has actually read the masques themselves.
    What a pity! For there is indeed much primary evidence bearing upon Freemasonry to be found in such writings.
    Ben Jonson is a quarry, or rather brickyard, in himself. Hungry, serious students must read Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts, Routledge (1994) by Vaughan Hart for real insight concerning the astonishing auras conjured up during the four decades following the instauration of Great Britain in 1603. Solomon certainly provided some flattering inspiration. But Hiram, that genie, continues to remain elusive.
    John Acaster