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MASORA MASS. 



History of Freemasonry (Edinburgh, 1804) ; Thory's 

 Histoire du (,'rami-Orient de France (Paris, 1812) ; 

 niul his sli'tti Lutomorum (2 vols., Paris, 1815); 

 Sartena, oder der vollkommene Baumeister (4th ed- 

 ition) ; Uacbenac, by Lindeiif r (3d edition, 1819) ; 

 Freimauer-Encyklopadie. by Lenning (Leipsic, 1822, 

 Ii vols.) ; Die drei iiltestcn Kunsturktinden der 

 Freimaurerbruderschaft (2 vols., Dresden, 2d edi- 

 linn. 1819). 



MASORA ; a collection of remarks, critical, 

 grammatical, and exegetical, on the books of the Old 

 Testament, by the Jewish doctors of the third and 

 succeeding centuries. After they had long been 

 transmitted orally (hence the name, signifying tra- 

 dition), they were formed into this collection, at the 

 beginning of the sixth century, in Tiberias, where 

 there was a celebrated Jewish school, and, from time 

 to time, additions were made. It is divided into the 

 great and little : the former contains the whole col- 

 lection, in separate books ; the latter is an extract 

 from the observations, which were written in the 

 margins of the biblical manuscripts. It is important 

 for the criticism of the Old Testament, on account of 

 its indications of the various readings ; and it con- 

 tains many valuable explanations of difficult passages. 

 It is to be regretted that the authors and collectors 

 (the Masorites) spent their time in the most laborious 

 and useless trifling, counted the verbs and words, 

 and even the consonants, in the Old Testament ; 

 found the middle word and letter of each book, and 

 marked the verses which contain all the consonants 

 of the Hebrew alphabet, &c. The Masora was 

 gradually brought into a state of the greatest con- 

 tusion by successive additions, and the errors of 

 transcribers : but, in the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century it was once more reduced to order by Rabbi 

 Jacob Ben Chajim, for Daniel Bomberg, a printer 

 in Venice (Biblia rabbinica Hebr., Venice, 1518, 

 1521, 152528, folio); and, a century after, John 

 Buxtorf the elder completed the work of his prede- 

 cessor (Bale, 1618, folio). 



MASQUE, or MASK ; a theatrical drama, much 

 in favour in the courts of princes, during the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries, in the latter par- 

 ticularly in England. They are the most brilliant 

 and imaginative among the entertainments of our 

 English ancestors, and are traced, with much proba- 

 bility, to the religious processions of the church of 

 Rome, in which various scriptural characters were 

 represented with some occasional tinge of burlesque 

 solemnity. The masque, or, as we should rather 

 call it, in its infancy, the masquerade, in order to 

 distinguish it from the species of drama into which it 

 ultimately ripened, early became a prevalent fashion 

 among the princes and nobles of Europe. The court 

 of Henry VIII., before the tyrant's sanguinary licen- 

 tiousness had deluged it with blood, presented many 

 of these gorgeous spectacles. According to Holin- 

 shed's chronicle, the first masque performed in 

 England was in 1510, in the first year of Henry's 

 reign. In 1530, a masque was performed at White- 

 hall, "consisting of music, dancing, and a banquet, 

 with a display of grotesque personages and fantastic 

 dresses." Shakspeare, Beaumont, and Fletcher have 

 frequently introduced masques into their plays. The 

 English masques bear some resemblance to operas, 

 as they are in dialogue, performed on a stage, orna- 

 mented with machinery, dances and decorations, and 

 have always music, vocal and instrumental. The 

 parts in the masques of the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries were usually represented by the first per- 

 sonages of the kingdom : if at court, the king, queen, 

 and princes of the blood often performed in them. 

 James I. carried to its height the glory of the 

 masque. It had hitherto consisted of music, dancing, 



gamine, a banquet, and a display of grotesque per- 

 sonages and fantastic dresses ; but it now assumed 

 a higher character, and became " married to immor- 

 tal verse." Previously, " their chief aim," says 

 Wnrton, "seems to have been to surprise by the 

 ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the visors, and 

 by the singularity and splendour of the dresses. 

 Everything was out of nature and propriety. Fre- 

 quently the mask was attended with an exhibition 

 of some gorgeous machinery, resembling the wonder 

 of a modern pantomime ; for instance, in the great 

 hall of the palace, the usual place of performance, a 

 vast mountain, covered with tall trees, arose suddenly, 

 from whose opening caverns issued hermits, pilgrims, 

 shepherds, knights, damsels, and gipsies, who, being 

 regaled with spices and wine, danced a morisco or 

 morris dance. They were again received into the 

 mountain, which, with a symphony of rebecs and 

 recorders, closed its caverns, and, tumbling to pieces, 

 was replaced by a ship in full sail, or a castle be- 

 sieged.'' (History of English Poetry, sec. 44.) This 

 glittering chaos was reduced to order by the genius 

 of Ben Jonson : not that he was the first who united 

 poetry with music, dancing and scenery, but he was 

 more largely employed than any other poet of his 

 time in this branch of the drama. In his masques, 

 along with much that is frigid, wearisome, and pe- 

 dantic, may also be found much fine poetry. The 

 masques; though they make a great show on paper, 

 were probably not a little detective in exhibition. 

 Sir Dudley Carleton, an eye-witness, writes to Win- 

 wood as follows: "At night, we had the queen's 

 maske in the banqueting-house, or rather the pagent. 

 There was a great engine at the lower end of the 

 room, which had motion, and in it were the images 

 of sea-horses, and other terrible fishes, which were 

 ridden by Moors. The indecorum was, that there 

 was all fish and no water. At the further end was 

 a great shell, in form of a skallop, wherein were four 

 seats, on which sat the queen and her ladies. Their 

 apparel was rich, but too light and courtezan-like 

 for such great ones. Instead of vizards, their faces 

 and arms, up to the elbows, were painted black, 

 which was disguise sufficient, for they were hard to 

 be known ; but it became them nothing so well as 

 their red and white ; and you cannot imagine a 

 more ugly sight than a troop of lean-faced Moors." 

 (Winwood's Memorials, II. 44.) Milton's Comus is 

 the most beautiful of the productions which bear the 

 name of masque. This exquisite specimen of lofty 

 thought, beautiful imagery, and splendid versifica- 

 tion, is said, by Gifford, to be defective as a masque, 

 and, by D' Israeli, not to be a masque at all, refer- 

 ring, probably, to the deficiency of music and ma- 

 chinery ; but Warton says, with truth, " TheJntrinsic 

 graces of its exquisite poetry disdained assistance ; 

 and, whether Comus be or be not deficient as a 

 drama, I am of opinion that our author here is infer- 

 ior only to his own Paradise Lost.'' Puritanism 

 banished the Muses, and the masques in their 

 train. 



MASS ; properly speaking, the prayers and cer- 

 emonies which accompany the consecration of the 

 eucharist. The word is used generally for all that 

 part of the Catholic service in which the eucharist 

 is offered. The Latin word is missa, which name, 

 in early times, designated the public service of 

 the Christians, celebrated under the direction of a 

 leitourgos (see Liturgia), generally the bishop 

 himself, with the assistance of several servants of 

 the altar (the elders, deacons, and others,) in pre- 

 sence of the whole community. According to the 

 example given in the Acts of the Apostles (ii. 

 4142), and other passages, this service con- 

 sisted of prayers, singing (chiefly psalms), read 



