Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

220 DOUBLE-HEADED
DROPS
increasing the altitude of the altar to its prescribed
dimensions like the pedestal in a
Masons' Lodge, and the pestilence ceased ."
Double -Headed Eagle. See Eagle,
Double-Headed .
Dove. In ancient symbolism, the dove
represented purity and innocence ; in ecclesiology,
it is a symbol of the Holy Spirit . In
Masonry, the dove is only viewed in reference
to its use by Noah as a messenger . Hence,
in the Grand Lodge of England, doves are
the jewels of the Deacons, because these
officers are the messengers of the Masters and
Wardens. They are not so used in America .
In an honorary or side degree formerly conferred
in America, and called the "Ark and
Dove," that bird is a prominent symbol .
Dove, Knights and Ladies of the . An
extinct secret society, of a Masonic model, but
androgynous, instituted at Versail les, in 1784 .
Dowland Manuscript . First published
by James Dowland, in the Gentleman's Magazine,
May, 1815,Vol . LXXXV ., p . 489 . "Written
on a long roll of parchment, in a very clear
hand, apparently early in the seventeenth
century, and very probably is copied from a
manuscript of earlier date ." Bro . William
J. Hughan says : "Brother Woodford, Mr .
Sims, and other eminent authorities, consider
the original of the copy, from which the manuscript
for the Gentleman's Magazine was
written, to be a scroll of at least a century
earlier than the date ascribed to Mr . Dowland's
MS., that is t about 1550 ." The
original MS. from which Dowland made his
copy has not yet been traced . Hughan's
Old Charges (ed . 1872) contains a reprint
of the Dowland MS .
Draeseke, Johan Heinrich Dernhardt .
A celebrated pulpit orator of great eloquence,
who presided over the Lodge "Oelzweig," in
Bremen, for three years, and whose contributions
to Masonic literature were collected
and published in 1865, by A. W. Muller,
under the title of Bishop Drdseke as a Mason .
Of this work Findel says that it "contains a
string of costly pearls full of Masonic eloquence
."
Drake, Francis, M.D . Francis Drake
M .D ., F.R.S ., a celebrated antiquary and
historian, was initiated in the city of York in
1725, and, as Hughan says, "soon made his
name felt in Masonry ." His promotion was
rapid ; for in the same year he was chosen
Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of
York, and in 1726 delivered an address, which
was published with the following title : A
Speech delivered to the Worshipful and Ancient
Society of Free and Accepted Masons, at a Grand
Lodge held at Merchants' Hall, in the city of
York, on St . John's Day, December the 27th,
1726 . The Right Worshipful Charles Bathurst,
Esq ., Grand Master . By the Junior Grand
Warden . Olim meminisse Juvabit . York.
The address was published in York without
any date, but probably in 1727, and reprinted
in London in 1729 and 1734 . It has often
been reproduced since and can be found in
Hughan's Masonic Sketches and Reprints. In
this work Drake makes the important statement
that the first Grand Loqgee in England
was held at York ; and that while it recognizes
the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge in
London as Grand Master of England, it claims
that its own Grand Master is Grand Master
of all England . The speech is also important
for containing a very early reference to
the three degrees of Entered Apprentice,
Fellow-Craft and Master Mason .
Dramatic Literature of Masonry .
Freemasonry has frequently supplied playwriters
with a topic for the exercise of their
genius. Kloss (Bibliog ., p. 300) gives the
titles of no less than forty-one plays of which
Freemasonry has been the subject. The
earliest Masonic play is noticed by Thory
(Fond. G. 0., p .360), as having been performed
at Paris, in 1739, under the title of Les Frimagons
. Editions of it were subsequently
published at London, Brunswick, and Strasburg.
In 1741 we have Des Geheimniss der
Freimaurer at )Frankfort and Leipsic. France
and Germany made many other contributions
to the Masonic drama . Even Denmark supplied
one in 1745, and Italy in 1785 . The
English dramatists give us only a pantomime,
Harlequin Freemason, which was brought out
at Covent Garden in 1781, and on's
Temple, an oratorio . Templarism has not
been neglected by the dramatists. Kalchberg,
in 1788, wrote Die Tempelherren, a dramatic
poem in five acts . Odon do Saint-
Amand, Grand Maitre des Templiers, a melodrama
in three acts, was performed at Paris
in 1806. Jacques Molai, a melodrama, was
published at Paris in 1807, and La Mort de
Jacques Molai a tragedy, in 1812 . Some of
the plays on Freemasonry were intended to
do honor to the Order, and many to throw
ridicule upon it .
Dresden, Congress of. A General Congress
of the Lodges of Saxony was held in
Dresden, where the representatives of twelve
Lodges were present . In this Congress it was
determined to recognize only the Masonry of
St . John, and to construct a National Grand
Lodge . Accordingly, on September 28, 1811,
the National Grand Lodge of Saxony was
established in the city of Dresden, which was
soon joined by all the Saxon Lodges, with
the exception of one in Leipsic. Although it
recognizes only the Symbolic degrees, it permits
great freedom in the selection of a ritual ;
and, accordingly, some of its Lodges work in
the Rite of Fessler, and others in the Rite of
Berlin .
Dress of a Mason. See Clothed.
Drop Cloth . A part of the furniture used
in America in the ceremony of initiation into
the Third Degree . It should be made of very
strong material, with a looped rope at each
corner and one in the middle of each side,
by which it may be securely held.
Drops, Three. The mystic number of
drops of blood from the White Giant, that in
the Persian mysteries restored sight to the
captives in the cell of horrors when applied
by the conqueror Rustam . In India, a girdle