Gerald Massey
EDITER's NOTE: Background
music by G. Massey 'A Night Song' (ca 1855);
score (.zip, 600Kb)
Biography
Massey's parents were poor. When little more than a child, he was made to
work hard in a silk factory, which he afterward deserted for the equally
laborious occupation of straw plaiting. These early years were rendered
gloomy by much distress and deprivation, against which the young man strove
with increasing spirit and virility, educating himself in his spare time,
and gradually cultivating his innate taste for literary work.
"Later, Gerald Massey influenced
Alvin Boyd Kuhn a
comparative religion scholar. During the later years of his life,
(from about 1870 onwards) Massey became interested increasingly in
Egyptology and 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."
[1]
It has been stated that Massey, although he might have been considered a
Christian Socialist, was in actuality a practicing
druid,
presumably a
neo-druid. Not only that, Massey was elected Chosen Chief of the Most
Ancient Order of Druids from 1880 through 1906.
[2]
This assessment contrasts strongly with the description of him quoted just
below by a friend and colleague, who praised him for having thrown off the
constraints of religion in favor of
science
and
philosophy for the advancement of knowledge.
A New York publisher,
D. M. Bernett, wrote of his friend in the second edition of The
World's Sages, Thinkers and Reformers on page 967:
Gerald Massey is a warm-hearted, genial man, and as a companion and
friend he has few superiors. His interests and incentives are decidedly in
the direction of Science and Rationalism. He has many years been freed
from the binding and blinding theological creeds and obligations. He
regards priestcraft as one of the great evils which mankind for thousands
of years have been compelled to endure and support; and regards it as one
of the most important works that men of the present time can engage in to
demolish the idols of the past dark ages; to liberate the mind from the
dwarfing and blighting effect of pagan and Christian mythology and to
dispense with the officious and expensive services of a designing,
useless, aristocratic and wily priesthood. He most desires to see the
human race advance in knowledge and truth and mental freedom, which
science and philosophy imparts to the diligent investigator. He believes
ignorance to be the Devil, Science the Savior of the world.[3]
Writing career
Massey's first public appearance as a writer was in connection with a
journal called the Spirit of Freedom, of which he became editor, and
he was only twenty-two when he published his first volume of poems,
Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love (1850). These he followed in rapid
succession with The Ballad of Babe Christabel (1854), War Waits
(1855), Havelock's March (1860), and A Tale of Eternity
(1869).
Many years afterward in 1889, Massey collected the best of the contents
of these volumes, with additions, into a two-volume edition of his poems
called My Lyrical Life. He also published works dealing with
Spiritualism, the study of
Shakespeare's
sonnets
(1872 and 1890), and theological speculation.
Massey's poetry has a certain rough and vigorous element of sincerity and
strength which easily accounts for its popularity at the time of its
production. He treated the theme of
Sir Richard Grenville before
Tennyson thought of using it, with much force and vitality. Indeed,
Tennyson's own praise of Massey's work is still its best eulogy, for the
Laureate found in him a poet of fine lyrical impulse, and of a rich
half-Oriental imagination. The inspiration of his poetry is essentially
British; he was a patriot to the core.
In regards to
Egyptology, Massey first published The Book of the Beginnings,
followed by The Natural Genesis. His most prolific work is Ancient
Egypt: The Light of the World, published shortly before his death.[4]
His work, which draws comparisons between the Judeo-Christian religion and
the Egyptian religion, is largely unrecognised in the field of modern
Egyptology and is not mentioned in the
Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt or any other work of modern
Egyptology.[5]
Some Works by Gerald Massey
|
The Secret Drama of Shakspeare's Sonnets
Index to
Massey's Poetry
Index to
Massey's Prose
Gerald
Massey: Chartist, Poet, Radical and Freethinker - a biography by David Shaw
A Book of the
Beginnings (edition Jon Lange)
The Natural
Genesis (edition Jon Lange)
Ancient Egypt,
The Light of the World (edition Jon Lange)
Sheet music
EDITOR'S NOTE: We are
interested in obtaining any books or papers by
Gerald Massey.
Please
Email
us.
Gerald
Massey
Launched to coincide with the centenary of Gerald Massey's death in October
1907, this site is dedicated to all three of his major expository works, as well
as his classic minor masterpiece, The Lectures, fully revised and
complete.
http://www.gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/index.htm
http://www.africawithin.com/massey/gerald_massey.htm
