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Gerald Massey
in his study at Redcot in the last year of his life.
 From Book Monthly, 4, 1907.

Gerald Massey
Miscellanea.

_______

There's no dearth of kindness
    In this world of ours;
Only in our blindness
    We gather thorns for flowers;
Outward we are spurning,
    Trampling one another;
While we are inly yearning
    With the name of "brother!"

There's No Dearth of Kindness

 
SHEET MUSIC


Gerald Massey's poems set to music:

  •     'No Jeweled Beauty Is My Love' (comp. J. Hilton Jones); score (.pdf 350Kb); midi.

  •     'No Jeweled Beauty Is My Love' (comp. John Adams); score (.pdf 1.2MB)

  •     'No Jeweled Beauty Is My Love' (comp. C. E. Robinson); score (.pdf 336KB)
                    
     - courtesy of The National Library of Australia.

  •     'A Night Song' (ca 1855); score (.zip, 600Kb); midi.

  •     'The People's Advent' (ca. 1864); score (.pdf 300Kb); midi.

  •     'Sing Bonny Robin' (ca. 1876); score (.zip 250Kb); midi.

  •     'The Golden Wedding Ring' (ca. 1876?); score (.zip 285Kb); midi.

  •     'Together' (ca. 1909): score (.pdf, 2.3MB) - courtesy of the Director, Kilgore Memorial Library.

  •     'Who Would Not Fight For England' (ca. 1915): score (.pdf 500Kb); midi.

  •     'Merry May' (ca. 1915): score (.pdf, 750Kb); midi; historical note on the composer (Christabel Baxendale)

  •     'Today and Tomorrow' (undated) : score (.jpg1 781KB; .jpg2 848KB); midi - courtesy of Ken Bawden.

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OTHER ITEMS
 

Commemorative booklet (.pdf, 275KB): to mark the centenary of Massey's death, on October 29th, 1907.


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Obituary: Thomas Hood.  The Scotsman, 14 May, 1845.


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Sedition: the prosecution of Massey's one-time associate, John James Bezer, a Chartist, for Sedition, August 1848.


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The National Land Scheme: an action for libel brought by Feargus O'Connor against the Nottingham Journal. The London Illustrated News, 23 Feb., 1850.


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The State of Newgate: a description of Newgate Prison and the conditions of its inmates. The London Illustrated News, 23 Feb., 1850.


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Report of a Chartist meeting; from The Northern Star and National Trades Journal, April 27, 1850.


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Report of a Chartist meeting; overflowing meeting at the John Street Institution convened by the National Charter Association on behalf of incarcerated political victims - Ernest Jones, John Shaw and others.  The speakers included Bronterre O'Brien, Julian Harney, J. J. Bezer, Walter Cooper and Gerald Massey.  From The Northern Star and National Trades Journal, April 27, 1850.


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Letter of Dedication to Walter Cooper, published in 'Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love' (1851).


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The Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News, May 1851. An announcement of the publication of Massey's (now earliest surviving) collection, 'VOICES OF FREEDOM AND LYRICS OF LOVE' - reprints extracts from an article on Massey's early life taken from Eliza Cook's Journal.


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Castle Street Working Tailors: an (unfriendly) open letter from Ernest Jones to Massey, taken from Jones' Notes To The People, probably January 1852.  See also 'THE WORKING TAILORS' ASSOCIATION, LONDON. A Chapter Towards The Associative History', by Gerald Massey, the co-operative to which Jones' remarks relate.


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Karl Marx: The Chartist Movement (1852).  Marx on Chartism —this article is probably more interesting for his coverage of Ernest Jones contesting the parliamentary seat at Halifax and the despicable British electoral system of that age.


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Massey advertising a lecture and demonstration of 'Mesmerism and Clairvoyance', 1852.


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Massey advertising for lecture engagements, 1852.


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Preface to the third edition of 'Poems and Ballads' (1854).


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Letter, Tennyson to Massey, 1 April 1854.


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Letter, Tennyson to Massey, 11 July 1855.


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Letter, Tennyson to Massey, 11 August 1855.


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Letter, Tennyson to Massey, 3 January 1870.


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Letter of Dedication to William Sterling M.P. published in 'Craigcrook Castle' (1856).


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The 'Burns Centenary Poem' competition - sponsored by the directors of the Crystal Palace Company in 1859.  This 'background' to the Competition is taken from the book subsequently published by the Company, which contained fifty of the six hundred and twenty-one entries that were submitted. The winning entry was by Miss Isa Craig - Massey's entry was placed fourth.


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Massey: a letter to The Scotsman about late-running trains, December, 1859.


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HUGH MILLER'S GRAVE - a poem by Gerald Massey.  But who was Hugh Miller?  See Samuel Smiles'  "Brief Biography" (ca 1861) below and the Hugh Miller website.


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'Brief Biographies' by Dr Samuel Smiles:—

J. B. Leno: a somewhat quirky article on Massey's one-time fellow newspaper hack ― The Commonwealth, October 6, 1866.


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Shakspeare's Sonnets: Having read Massey's recently published book on the subject, Professor Philarète Chasles (1798-1873), eminent French critic and man of letters, writes to the Athenæum (Feb. 1867) about aspects of 'The Sonnets', referring to "some very hard words against the small fry of sceptical critics who fail to chime in with the author's [Massey's] settled opinions" - the inevitable Massian broadside in response is not long in coming!  Both articles are re-published here.


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At Jean Ingelow's for morning tea - Massey fails to impress another visitor (Louisa M. Alcott?) - The Living Age, Volume IV, 1867.


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Lyon v. Home: Massey's affidavit in 'The Great Spiritual Case' - The Illustrated Police News, 1868.


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John Arnott (1799 – 1868): a biographic sketch of the shadowy General Secretary of the  National Charter Association during its final years. By David Shaw.


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Cartoons published in Vanity Fair (1871-72) of some of the notables David Shaw refers to in his biography of Gerald Massey:

Sow It Broadcast!  A tract by Gerald Massey promoting Spiritualism - The Medium And Daybreak, February 16, 1877.


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The Proposed Gerald Massey Fund: 'No doubt the writer meant well, so did Romeo when he stepped in and caused the death-wound of his dear friend Mercutio, by an action both futile and fatal.'  The Medium And Daybreak, September 21, 1883.


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Gems from "THE NATURAL GENESIS": the Drama of the Midnight Mysteries.  The Medium And Daybreak, October 12, 1883.


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Shakespeare's Sonnets in a New Light: "so many literary folk have taken turns at the sonnets, especially in the last fifty or sixty years, illuminating them with darkness rather than light, explaining them opaquely by far fetched theories, that Massey's generally direct, lucid method appears exceptional."

Junius Henri Browne in the Brooklyn Eagle, 10 February, 1884.


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Letter to Professor John Stuart Blackie: inviting him to chair a lecture. 4th Oct., 1886.  An interesting example of Massey's hand-writing "scrawl".


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Madame Blavatsky on Gerald Massey's "lectures" and "Natural Genesis."  Alas, Madame B's "respected Guru in Egyptology" does not hold her in similar high esteem... 'It is a delusion to suppose there is anything in the experience or wisdom of the past, the ascertained results of which can only be communicated from beneath the cloak and mask of mystery, by a teacher who personates the unknown, accompanied by rites and ceremonies belonging to the pantomime and paraphernalia of the ancient medicine men.'  The Agnostic Journal, Oct. 3rd, 1891.

[W. J. Linton's opinion of Madame, recounted in his "Memories", was not dissimilar to Massey's.... "One sight of Madame was enough, a fat, vulgar-looking woman, not, one could not help thinking, at all likely to be mistaken for a prophetess, no sibyl but a veritable old witch, with nothing venerable about her." Ed.]


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"Gerald Massey: Poet, Prophet and Mystic": by B. O. Flower (1895).  In his essay, Flower analyses Massey's philosophy by reference to his poetry and published lectures, later drawing some interesting comparisons with Whittier ("The titles poet, prophet and seer are as applicable to the one as to the other").  Originally published as a series of three articles in The Arena, (Boston) vols 8, 9, Dec. 1893 - Jan. 1894.


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The Golden City: Massey's poem 'Jerusalem the Golden', with illustrations by Frank Feller (The Art Lith. Publ. Co., ca. 1906):


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Professor Max Müller and Gerald Massey; T. May and W. H. Simpson conduct a none too friendly debate regarding their contrary views on Müller, Massey, and evolution through the columns of The Two Worlds (April - June, 1909).


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Illustration (270KB) by Archibald Webb: SIR RICHARD GRENVILLE'S LAST FIGHT (ca 1912).


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Spiritualism: Massey on Spiritualism - an extract from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'NEW REVELATION' (ca 1918).


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Dr. Albert Churchward: brief descriptive information and diagram adapted from Churchward's Origin and Evolution of the Human Race (Allen, 1921) supporting Massey's evolutionistic theories on early population migrations out of Africa.


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A Poet of Yester-Year: from 'Pages in Waiting', by James Milne, The Bodley Head, 1926.  The author's reminiscences of Gerald Massey.


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Gerald Massey's Published lectures (1887) : An Introduction: by David Shaw.


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The Egyptian Origins of Christianity: by Richard A. Sattleberg.


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Massey's evolutionistic concepts (from Chapter 9, Gerald Massey: Chartist, Poet, Radical and Freethinker): by David Shaw.


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Myth and Totemism as Primitive Modes of Representation: by Rey Bowen.


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Nile Genesis: an introduction to the opus of Gerald Massey by Charles S. Finch M. D. (January 2006).


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Judeo-Christian Genesis: the Messeyan View, by Charles S. Finch M. D. (June 2007).


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Commemorative booklet (.pdf, 275KB): to mark the centenary of Massey's death, on October 29th, 1907.


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A Short Critique of Gerald Massey’s work on Shakesapeare’s Sonnets by Ernie Wingeatt (December, 2008).


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