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Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales
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John Dee
by
John Dee By
?TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND EDUCATION
Tercentenary of
Birth Parentage At
M.A. of
Correspondents abroad Return
to
CHAPTER II
IMPRISONMENT AND AUTHORSHIP
Books dedicated to Edward VI.
Upton Rectory Long Leadenham
Books dedicated to Duchess of
Northumberland Ferrys informs against his
magic In prison Handed
over to Bonner At Philpots trial Efforts to
found a State Library
Astrology Horoscopes Choice of a day for Queen
Bachelor of Divinity In
Billingsleys
CHAPTER III
MORTLAKE
Proposed benefices
Propζdeumata Aphoristica Alchemical secrets
Settled at Mortlake Journey
to
Mines and hidden treasure
Literary correspondence John
Stow Diary commenced The Hexameron
Brytannicum The British
Complement Slander and falsehood A petty navy
The sea-power of
CHAPTER IV
JANE DEE
A comet or blazing star
Second marriage Jane Fromond Hurried
journey abroad
Dyer Duc dAlencon Michael
Lock His sons The Queens visit Sir
Humphrey Gilbert at Mortlake
Adrian Gilbert John Davis The Queens
Title Royall Lord Treasurer
Burleigh Death of
visit of condolence Map of
and Hawkins Birth of a
daughter Accident to Arthur.?
CHAPTER V
THE SEARCH FOR A MEDIUM
Assistants Roger cook
Magic and alchemy Psychic powers
gazing Dreams and mysteries
Vincent Murphy and a lawsuit Jean Bodin
visits
George Peckham The stage at
Queen at
stone The table of practice
The waxen seals.
CHAPTER VI
EDWARD KELLEY
Edward Kelley An alias His
previous history His mysterious powder
Marriage to Joan Cooper
Jane Dees dislike of Kelley The diary of the actions
How Ashmole obtained the
MSS. Book of Mysteries The four angels
CHAPTER VII
THE CRYSTAL GAZERS
Kelley, the skryer A third
person Adrian Gilbert Kelley and an
illuder
Hidden treasure Burleighs
library
Threatens to depart Pacified
by Adrian Gilbert His wifes letters He goes to
CHAPTER VIII
MADIMI
Straits for lack of money
Count Albert Laski Aspirations toward the
Polish Crown King Stephan
Bathory
Laski at
angel Madimi a linguist
Kelley threatens to leave His salary of 50 pounds
Thomas Kelley Dees
suspicions Kelleys tempers His love of money.
CHAPTER IX
A FOREIGN JOURNEY
Gifts from the Queen Departure
from Mortlake Laski and the whole
party sail from Gravesend
Queenborough The Brill Haarlem ?Amsterdam Harlingen Dokkum
Instructions from Gabriel Embden
Oldenberg Bremen Ils
levity Visions of England Hamburg Lubeck.
CHAPTER X
PROMISES AND VISIONS
Promises of wealth Dees
doubts His books and library destroyed by the
mob Rostock Stettin
Posen Cathedral Severe winter weather The table
set up Nalvage Sir Harry
Sidney Madimi The Queens affection At
Lask
CHAPTER XI
Kelleys discontent
Geographical lessons Laski and King Stephan
Kesmark Gabriels pleading
Kelley repentant A vision of four castles
Ave
CHAPTER XII
FROM
Rowlands illness
Hagecks house Rudoplh II.
Simons study Interview with the Emperor
Kelleys outbursts Dr. Jacob
Curtius
Ambassador Jane Dee ill A
passport granted Back to
doubts.
CHAPTER XIII
A DREAM OF GOLD
To Limburg Michael baptised
in Prague Cathedral Easter Poverty and
distress Kelley again
restive Parabola de Nobus Duobus Return to Cracow
Mr. Tebaldo Interviews
with King Stephan His death Dr. Annibaldus
Back at Prague Francisco
Pucci The Book of Enoch Claves Angelicae
Banished by Papal edict
William Count Rosenberg Dee at Leipsic Letter to
Walsingham A new Nuncio
Invitation to Trebona.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CASTLE OF TREBONA?Trebona
Castle Rosenberg Viceroy of Bohemia Invitation to Russia
Projection with Kelleys
powder A gift to Jane Dee Letter from Kelley Jane
to her husband Joan Kelley
Dees friends desert him for Kelley Arthur to be
the skryer Kelleys
pretended vision A hard and impure doctrine Dees
scruples overridden A solemn
pact Kelley disowns blame End of his
clairvoyance The spirits diary
closed.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XV
THE END OF THE PARTNERSHIP
Letters to Walsingham A
tutor for the children Coldness and jealousy
Furnaces constructed
Rumours and reports Book of Dunstan Kelleys
haughtiness Accident to
Michael The great secret Kelley steals the best
workman Break-up of the
Trebona family
Armada Gifts to Kelley His
departure Coaches and horses provided
quits
CHAPTER XVI
THE END OF KELLEY
Kelley in favour with Rudolph
Given a title Corresponds with
Fabulous stories of gold
Burleigh begs his return to
A prescription for his gout
Letter to Kelley Kelleys fall from favour
Flight from arrest Capture
at Sobislaus Imprisonment Writings on alchemy
Letters to
CHAPTER XVII
RETURN TO
Walsingham Timon Coccius
Heinrich Khunrath Departure for
Dr. Pezel Events in
Madinia born School for
the children Death of Walsingham Richard
Cavendish Ann Frank The Queen
at
CHAPTER XVIII
A ROYAL COMMISSION
Loss of income Hopes of a
benefice The Court at Nonsuch Mary
Herbert Arthur sent to
Dr. William Aubrey
Deferred hopes The commissioners visit
Compendious Rehearsall
CHAPTER XIX
The library at Mortlake
Books and instruments Richard Chancellors
quadrant A radius
Astronomicus Mercators globes A watch-clock by
Dibbley Boxes of MSS.
Seals and coats of arms Records for the Tower
Autograph works Recordes
Ground of Artes Catalogue of the books Classic
authors English authors.
-------
CHAPTER XX
ADIEU TO COURTS AND COURTING
The Queens gift Anne
Countess of
Francis Nicholls Visitors to
Mortlake the Lord Keeper Elizabeth Kyrton
Messengers from Laski Mr.
Webbe Bartholomew Hickman The Queen at
to see the Queen Adieu to
Courts and Courting Michaels death
Chancellor of
College Birth of Margaret
Lord
CHAPTER XXI
Collegiate Church of
servant Titles of the
college lands Mr. Harry Savile Survey of the town
Christopher Saxton A
surprise visit Governess for the girls Witchcraft in
Perambulation of the bounds
Richard Hooker Marking boundaries Earl and
Countess of
Edward Dyer Humphrey
Davenport Sir Julius Caesar Welcome gifts
Journey to
-------
CHAPTER XXII
COLLEGE AFFAIRS
Absence from
Grammar School inspection
Dreams and sleepless nights Trouble with the
Fellows Unsatisfactory
curates Borrowing money on plate Crystal gazing
again Untrue visions
Return of Roger Cook College property in
Arthur the chapter clerk End
of the Diary.
CHAPTER XXIII?LAST DAYS
Death of Theodore Arthurs
marriage His horoscope Death of the
Queen James I. and his
Demonologie Act against witchcraft
Parliament and the King at
Pleads for an Act against
slander Neglected and alone Death of Jane The
children ill
journey to go Failing memory
John Pontoys The vision fades Death A
grave at Mortlake Garrulous
reminiscences.
APPENDICES I AND II
I.
II. BIBLIOGRAPHY
-------
CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND EDUCATION
O Incredulities, the wit of
fooles
That slovenly will spit on all
thinges faire,
The cowards castle and the
sluggards cradle,
How easy tis to be an
infidel!
George Chapman
It seems remarkable that three
hundred years should have been allowed to
elapse since the death of John
Dee in December, 1608, without producing any Life of
an individual so conspicuous,
so debatable, and so remarkably picturesque.
There is perhaps no learned
author in history who has been so persistently
misjudged, nay, even
slandered, by his posterity, and not a voice in all the three
centuries uplifted even to
claim for him a fair hearing. Surely it is time that the
cause of all this universal
condemnation should be examined in the light of reason
and science; and perhaps it
will be found to exist mainly in the fact that he was too
far advanced in speculative
thought for his own age to understand. For more than
fifty years out of the
eighty-one of his life,
looked askance at as clever
beyond human interpretation. Then his Queen died.
With the narrow-minded
Scotsman who succeeded her came a change in the
fashion of mens minds. The
reign of the devil and his handmaidens the witches
and possessed persons- -was
set up in order to be piously overthrown, and the very
bigotry of the times gave
birth to independent and rational thought to
Bacon, Locke.
But
has touched upon his career,
has followed the leaders blindly, and has only cast
another, and yet another,
stone to the heap of obloquy piled upon his name. The
fascination of his psychic
projections has always led the critic to ignore his more
solid achievements in the
realms of history and science, while at the same time,
these are the only cited to be
loudly condemned. The learned Dr. Meric Casaubon,
who, fifty years after
recital of four out of the six
or seven years of his crystal gazing was perhaps the
fairest critic he yet has had.
Although he calls
record, and a work of
darkness, he confesses that he himself, and other learned
and holy men (including an
archbishop), read it with avidity to the end, and were
eager to see it printed. He
felt certain, as he remarks in his preface, that mens
curiosity would lead them to
devour what seems to him not parallelled in that
kind, by any book that hath
been set out in any age to read. And yet on no account
was he publishing it to
satisfy curiosity, but only to do good and promote Religion.
For
most absolute good faith,
although undoubtedly he was imposed upon and deluded
by the evil spirits whom he
sometimes mistook for good ones.
It may be well here to remark
that this voluminous Book of Mysteries or
True and Faithful Relation
(fol. 1659), from which in the following pages there will
be found many extracts,
abounds in tedious and unintelligible pages of what
Casaubon calls sermon-like
stuff, interspersed with passages of extraordinary
beauty. Some of the figures
and parables, as well as the language used, are full of a
rare poetic imagery,
singularly free from any coarse or sensual symbolism. Like
jewels embedded in dull
settings, here and there a gem of loftiest religious thought
shines and sparkles. There are
descriptive touches of costume and appearance that
possess considerable dramatic
value. As the story is unfolded in a kind of spiritual
drama, the sense of a gradual
moving development, and the choice of a fitting
vehicle in which to clothe it,
is striking. The dramatis personae, too, the spiritual
creatures who, as
real, as of course they were
to the seer. In many respects these actions were an
exact counterpart of the
dealings inaugurated by psychical scientists 275 years later, if
we omit the close
investigation for fraud.
Casaubons successor in
dealing with the shunned and avoided subject of
John Dee was Thomas Smith,
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, who, in 1707,
wrote the first connected Life
of him, in a book of the Lives of Learned Men. It was
based upon some of
pages, gave fifty to letters
already printed by Casaubon.
After this no sustained
account of
the pages of biographical
dictionaries and magazine articles, or among writers upon
necromancy, hermetic
philosophy, and alchemy. Many of these decorate their
collections with apocryphal
marvels culled from the well-worn traditional stories of
Dee and his companion, Edward
Kelley. Thus, throughout his lifetime and since,
he has continued to run the
gauntlet of criticism. Old imposturing juggler,
fanatic, quack, are mild
terms: in the Biographia Britannica he is called
extremely credulous,
extravagantly vain, and a most deluded enthusiast. Even
the writer on
the angels are such a tissue
of blasphemy and absurdity that they might suggest
insanity. Many more such
summary verdicts might be quoted, but these will
suffice for the present.
It has been said that no Life
of
are so abundant that only a
selection can be here used. His private diary, for
instance, if properly edited,
would supply much supplementary, useful, and
interesting historical
information.
It is the object of this work
to present the facts of John Dees life as calmly and
impartially as possible, and to
let them speak for themselves. In the course of
writing it, many false
assertions have disentangled themselves from truth, many
doubts have been resolved, and
a mass of information sees the light for the first
time. The subject is of course
hedged about with innumerable difficulties; but in
spite of the temptations to
stray into a hundred bypaths, an endeavour has been
strictly made to do no more
than throw a little dim light on the point where the
paths break off from the main
road. If, at the end of the way, any who have
persevered so far, feel they
have followed a magnetic and interesting personality,
the labour expended will not
have been in vain. With a word of apology to serious
historical readers for the
incorrigibly romantic tendency of much of the narrative,
which, in spite of the stern
sentinel of a literary conscience, would continually
reassert itself, the story of
our astrologers strange life may now begin.
John Dee was the son of
Rowland Dee; he was born in London, according to
the horoscope of his own
drawing, on July 13, 1527.?His mother was Jane,
daughter of William Wild.
Various Welsh writershave assigned to
genealogical descent of the
highest antiquity, and the
pedigree which he drew up for
himself in later life traces back his family history
from his grandfather, Bedo
Dee, to Roderick the Great, Prince of Wales. All
authorities agree that Radnor
was the county from whence the
Rowland Dee, the father, held
an appointment at Court, as gentleman server
to Henry VIII., but was very
indifferently treated by the King. This may partly
account for the persistence
with which
claims to preferment at her
hands. To be in habitual attendance at Court in those
days, however, bred in men a
great desire for place, and a courtier was but a
mendicant on a grand scale.
The boy, John Dee, was early
bred in grammar learning, and was inured to
Latin from his tender years.
Perhaps he was not more than nine or ten when he
was sent to
great school at
Dees school hours in Essex
was Peter Wilegh, whom the chantry commissioners in
1548 reported as a man of
good conversation who had kept the school there for
sixteen years.
as one of their most famous
alumni, whose extraordinary career with its halo of
mystery and marvel they
perhaps feel little qualified to explore.
that at
tongue is an unconscious
tribute to Peter Wileghs teaching.
In November, 1542, Dee, being
then fifteen years and four months old, left
Chelmsford to enter at St.
Johns College, Cambridge, where, as he tells us in his
autobiography, he soon became
a most assiduous student. In the years 1543, 1544,
1545, I was so vehemently bent
to studie, that for those years I did inviolably keep
this order: only to sleep four
houres every night; to allow to meate and drink (and
some refreshing after) two
houres every day; and of the other eighteen houres all
(except the tyme of going to
and being at divine service) was spent in my studies and
learning. Early in 1546 he graduated
B.A. from St. Johns College. At the close of
the same year, Trinity College
was founded by Henry VIII., and Dee was selected one
of the original Fellows. He
was also appointed under-reader in Greek to Trinity
College, the principal Greek
reader being then Robert Pember. The young Fellow
created the first sensation of
his sensational career soon after this by arranging some
of the (Eirene Peace) of
Aristophanes, in which he apparently acted as stage
manager and carpenter.
For this play he devised a
clever mechanical and very spectacular effect.
Trygaeus, the Attic
vine-dresser, carrying a large basket of food for himself, and
mounted on his gigantic beetle
or scarab (which ate only dung), was seen ascending
from his dwelling on the stage
to enter the
has only to think of the
scenic effects presented by Faust and Mephistopheles at Mr.
Trees theatre, for instance,
to realise how crude and ineffective these attempts must
have been; but thirty or forty
years before Shakespeares plays were written, so
unusual an exhibition was
enough to excite wild rumours of supernatural powers.
We hear no more of theatrical
performances, although several references in his
after-life serve to show that
his interest in the English drama, about to be born,
lagged not far behind that of
his greater contemporaries. He does mention,
however, a Christmas pastime
in
inspired by this same dramatic
spirit. Of details we are totally ignorant; he only
relates that the custom of
electing a Christmas Magistrate was varied at his
suggestion by crowning the
chosen victim as Emperor. The first imperial president
of the Christmas revels in
goodly man of person, stature
and complexion, and well learned also, evidently a
presence fit for a throne.
beholders, they can testifie
more than is meete here to be written of these my boyish
attempts and exploites
scholasticall.
He turned to sterner studies,
and became a skilful astronomer, taking
thousands of observations
(very many to the hour and minute) of the heavenly
influences and operations
actual in this elementall portion of the world. These he
afterwards published in
various Ephemerides.
In May, 1547,
of the Dutch Universities upon
the science of mathematics, to which he had already
begun to devote his serious
attention. He spent several months in the Low
Countries, formed close
friendships with Gerard Mercator, Gemma Frisius, Joannes
Caspar Myricaeus, the
Orientalist Antonius Gogava, and other philosophers of
world-wide fame. Upon his
return to
globes of Mercators making,
and an astronomers armillary ring and staff of brass,
such as Frisius had newly
devised and was in the habit of using. These he
afterwards gave to the Fellows
and students of
acknowledgment from John
Christopherson (afterwards Bishop of
upon search being made for the
objects recently, through the kindness of the Master,
it appears they are not now to
be found.
to take his degree of M.A.,
and soon after went abroad. And never after that was I
any more student in
Vice-Chancellor and
Convocation,
good conduct, which he proposed
to take with him abroad. Many times did he
prove it to be of some value.
In Midsummer Term, 1548, he
entered as a student at the University of
old Brabantian town of mediaeval
ramparts and textile industries. At
continued his studies for two
years, and here he soon acquired a reputation for
learning quite beyond his
years. It has been presumed that he here graduated doctor,
to account for the title that
has always been given him. Doctor Dee certainly
possesses an alliterative
value not to be neglected. At
Long after, when he had passed
middle life, and when his remarkable genius
in every branch of science had
carried him so far beyond the dull wit of the people
who surrounded him that they
could only explain his manifestations by the old cry
of sorcery and magic,
patron and employer, to send
two emissaries of her own choosing to his house at
Mortlake, and bid them examine
everything they could find, that his character
might be cleared from the
damaging charges laid against him. He prepared for these
two commissioners, to whose
visit we shall revert in its proper place, an
autobiographical document of
the greatest value, which he calls The Compendious
Rehearsal of John Dee: his
dutiful declaration and proofe of the course and race of
his studious life, for the
space of half an hundred years, now (by Gods favour and
help) fully spent. It is from
this narrative that the facts of his early life ar ascertainable
. Perhaps we discern them
through a faint mist of retrospective
glorification for which the
strange streak of vanity almost inseparable from
attainments like
accuracy of the
mathematicians story.
Beyond the seas, far and
nere, was a good opinion conceived of my studies
philosophicall and
mathematicall. People of all ranks began to flock to see this
wonderful young man. He gives
the names of those who came to Louvain, a few
hours journey from Brussels,
where the brilliant court of Charles V. was assembled,
with evident pride. Italian
and Spanish nobles; the dukes of Mantua and Medina
Celi; the Danish kings
mathematician, Mathias Hacus; and his physician, Joannes
Capito; Bohemian students, all
arrived to put his reputation to the test. A
distinguished Englishman, Sir
William Pickering, afterwards ambassador to France,
came as his pupil to study
astronomy by the light of Mercators globes, the astrolabe,
and the astronomers ring of
brass that Frisius had invented. For his recreation,
the teacher looked into the
method of civil law, and mastered easily the points of
jurisprudence, even those
accounted very intricate and dark. It was at Louvain,
no doubt, that his interest in
the subject of alchemy became strengthened and fixed.
Stories were rife of course of
the famous alchemist, Henricus Cornelius Agrippa,
who had died there, in the
service of Margaret of
before. Agrippa had been
secretary to the Emperor Maximilian, had lived in France,
London, and Italy, and
Louvain, no doubt, was bursting with his extraordinary feats
of magic.
The two years soon came to an
end, and a couple of days after his twenty-third
birthday, young Dee left the
Low Countries for Paris, where he arrived on July 20,
1550. His fame had preceded
him, and within a few days, at the request of some
English gentlemen and for the
honour of his country, he began a course of free
public lectures or readings in
Euclid, Mathematice, Physice et Pythagorice, at the
College of Rheims, in Paris, a
thing, he says, which had never been done before in
any university in Christendom.
His audience (most of them older than himself)
was so large that the
mathematical schools would not hold them, and many of the
students were forced in their
eagerness to climb up outside the windows, where, if
they could not hear the
lecturer, they could at least see him. He demonstrated upon
every proposition, and gave
dictation and exposition. A greater astonishment was
created, he says, than even at
his scarabaeus mounting up to the top of Trinity Hall
in
4,000 students, who came from
every part of the known world. He made many
friends among the professors
and graduates, friends of all estates and professions,
several of whose names he
gives; among them, the learned writers and theologians
of the day, Orontius, Mizaldus,
Petrus Montaureus, Ranconetus (Ranconnet),
Fernelius, and Francis
Silvius.
The fruit of these years spent
in
maintained throughout his life
a lively correspondence with professors and doctors
in almost every university of
note upon the Continent. He names especially his
correspondents in the
universities of
Verona, Padua, Ferrara,
Bologna, Urbino, Rome, and many others, whose letters lay
open for the inspection of the
commissioners on that later visit already alluded to.
An offer was made him to
become a Kings Reader in mathematics in
University, with a stipend of
two hundred French crowns yearly, but he had made
up his mind to return to
received other proposals,
promising enough, to enter the service of M. Babeu, M. de
Rohan, and M. de Monluc, who
was starting as special ambassador to the Great
Turk, but his thoughts turned
back to England, and thither, in 1551, he bent his
steps.
-------
CHAPTER II
IMPRISONMENT AND AUTHORSHIP
A man is but what he
knoweth. Bacon
In December, 1551,
John Cheke, an introduction to
Secretary Cecil and to King Edward VI. He had
already written for and
dedicated to the King two books (in manuscript): De usi
Globi Coelestis, 1550, and De
nubium, solis, lunae, ac reliquorum planetarum, etc.,
1551. These perhaps had been
sent to Cheke, the Kings tutor, in the hope that they
might prove useful lesson
books. The pleasing result of the dedication was the gift
of an annual royal pension of
a hundred crowns. This allowance was afterwards
exchanged for the rectory of
found an extremely bad
bargain.
From the
inspection of the ancient
British camp of Caractacus to admire the magnificent view;
and across the level fields
where the
be seen rising in the middle
distance. Further west, if the day be clear, the more
imposing towers of
eastward will show
beautiful place, although he
was presented to the living on
when the rectory of Long
Leadenham, in
together were worth only about
eighty pounds a year. Next year he declined an
invitation to become Lecturer
on Mathematical Science at
through Mr. Doctor Smith
(Richard, D.C.L., 1528, the reformer), of
and Mr. du Bruarne, of
in 1553 produced, among other
things, a couple of works on The Cause of Floods
and Ebbs, and The
Philosophical and Political Occasions and Names of the Heavenly
Asterismes, both written at
the request of Jane, Duchess of Northumberland.
When Mary Tudor succeeded her
young brother as queen in 1553,
invited to calculate her
nativity. He began soon after to open up a correspondence
with the Princess Elizabeth,
who was then living at
horoscope also. Before long he
was arrested on the plea of an informant named
George Ferrys, who alleged
that oneof his children had been struck blind and
another killed by
enchantments against the
Queens life.
sealed up, and he himself was
sent to prison. He was examined before the Secretary
of State, afterwards upon
eighteen articles by the Privy Council, and at last brought
into the Star Chamber for
trial. There he was cleared of all suspicion of treason, and
liberated by an Order in
Council. August 29, 1555, but handed over to Bishop
Bonner for examination in
matters of religion. Bonner was apparently equally
satisfied. Dee was certainly
enjoined by him, at John Philpots examination on
November 19, 1555, to put
questions as a test of his orthodoxy. He quoted St.
Cyprian to Philpot, who
replied: Master Dee, you are too young in divinity to teach
me in the matters of my faith,
though you be more learned in other things.
his most praiseworthy efforts
to found a State National Library of books and
manuscripts, with copies of
foreign treasures, wherever they might be. On January
15, 1556, he presented to
Queen Mary a Supplication for the recovery and
preservation of ancient
writers and monuments. Within a few years he had seen
the monasteries dissolved and
the priceless collections of these houses lamentably
dispersed, some burned and
others buried. He drew up a very remarkable address to
the Queen dwelling on the
calamity of thus distributing the treasure of all antiquity
and the everlasting seeds of
continual excellency within this your Graces realm.
Many precious jewels, he
knows, have already perished, but in time there may be
saved and recovered the
remnants of a store of theological and scientific writings
which are now being scattered
up and down the kingdom, some in unlearned mens
hands, some walled up or
buried in the ground.
enforce his plea, choosing
such as would make the most direct appeal to both Queen
and people. She will build for
herself a lasting name and monument; they will be
able all in common to enjoy
what is now only the privilege of a few scholars, and
even these have to depend on
the goodwill of private owners. He proposes first that
a commission shall be
appointed to inquire what valuable manuscripts exist; that
those reported on shall be
borrowed (on demand), a fair copy made, and if the owner
will not relinquish it, the
original be returned. Secondly, he points out that the
commission should get to work
at once, lest some owners, hearing of it, should hide
away or convey away their
treasures, and so, he pithily adds, prove by a certain
token that they are not
sincere lovers of good learning because they will not share
them with others. The
expenses of the commission and of the copying, etc., he
proposed should be borne by
the Lord Cardinal and the Synod of the province of
collected until a library apt
in all points is made redy for their reception.
Finally, Dee suggests that to
him be committed the procuring of copies of
many famous manuscript volumes
to be found in the great libraries abroad: the
Vatican Library at Rome, St.
Marks at Venice, and in Bologna, Florence, Vienna, etc.
He offers to set to work to
obtain these, the expenses only of transcription and
carriage to England to be
charged to the State. As to printed books, they are to be
gotten in wonderfull
abundance. In this generous offer of his life to be spent in
transcribing crabbed
manuscripts, we cannot see the restless genius of John Dee long
satisfied, but at any rate he
proved himself not seeking for private gain.
Thus was the germ of a great
National Library first started by the
mathematician, nearly fifty
years before Thomas Bodley opened his unique
collection at
the vast and indispensable
book-mine known to all scholars at home and abroad as
the
cataloguing private
collections of archives are also foreshadowed in
supplication, only came into
being with the appointment of Keepers of the Public
Records, by an Act signalising
the first and second years of Queen
It is needless to say that
nothing came of
So he bacame the more
industrious in collecting a library of his own, which soon
consisted of more than 4,000
volumes, which were always at the disposal of the
friends who came often to see
him.
They came also for another
reason.
Astrology was a very essential
part of astronomy in the sixteenth century, and
the belief in the controlling
power of the stars over human destinies is almost as old
as man himself. The relative
positions of the planets in the firmament, their
situations amongst the
constellations, at the hour of a mans birth, were considered
by the ancients to be dominant
factors and influences throughout his whole life. It
is not too much to say that a
belief in the truth of horoscopes cast by a skilled
calculator still survives in
our Western civilisation as well as in the East. Medical
science today pays its due
respect to astrology in the sign, little altered from the
astrological figure for
Jupiter, with which all prescriptions are still headed.
Dee, as one of the foremost
mathematicians and astronomers of the time, and
one employed by the Queen,
became continually in request to calculate the nativity
and cast a horoscope for men
and women in all ranks of life. He has left many notes
of peoples births; his own
childrens are entered with the greatest precision, for
which a biographer has to
thank him.
When
had found so precarious and
uneasy a heritage,
Court. His first commission
was entirely sui generis. He was commanded by Robert
Dudley to name an auspicious
day for the coronation, and hs astrological
calculations thereupon seem to
have impressed the Queen and all her courtiers.
Whether or no we believe in
the future auguries of such a combination of
influences as presided over
the selection of
crowning
of a date was succeeded by
benign and happy destinies.
He was then living in
several of the books belonging
to his library have come down to us with his
autograph, Joannes Dee,
Londini, and the dates of the years 1555, 1557, and 1558.
service at
long afterwards her first
favourite; so he was likely to stand well. Where my
brother hath given him a
crown, she said to
Earl of Pembroke, I will give
him a noble. This was the first of innumerable
vague promises made, but it
was long indeed before any real and tangible gift was
conferred on the astrologer,
although he was continually busied about one thing
and another at the fancy of
the Queen. The reversion of the Mastership of St.
Catherines Hospital was
promised him, but Dr. Willson politickly prevented me.
One morning the whole Court
and the Privy Council were put into a terrible
flutter by a simple piece of
what was common enough in ancient times and in
sympathetic magic. A wax
image of the Queen had been found lying in
Inn Fields, with a great pin
stuck through its breast, and it was supposed
undoubtedly to portend the
wasting away and death of her Majesty, or some other
dreadful omen. Messenger after
messenger was despatched to summon
bid him make haste. He hurried
off, satisfied himself apparently of the harmless
nature of the practical joke,
and repaired, with Mr. Secretary Wilson as a witness of
the whole proceedings and a proof
of all good faith, to
was. The Queen sat in that
part of her private garden that sloped down to the river
near the steps of the royal
landing-place at
Dudley had now become) was in
attendance, gorgeous and insolent as ever; the
Lords of the Privy Council had
also been summoned, when Dee and Mr. Secretary
expounded the inner meaning of
this untoward circumstance, and satisfied and
allayed all their fears.
Something about the calm attributes of this seasoned and
travelled scholar seemed
always to give moral support to the Queen and her
household; this is only the
first of many occasions when he had to allay their
superstitous fright. That she
felt it essential to keep him within reach of herself may
have been one reason for not
giving him the appointments for which he, and
others for him, constantly
sued.
required one with no cure of
souls attached; for this, he says, a cura animarum
annexa, did terrfie me to deal
with them. He is called a bachelor of divinity by Foxe
in 1555, and as a matter of
fact he does, both in 1558 and in 1564, add the letters S. D.
T. to his name in his printed
works. This degree also was not from
last he grew tired of waiting,
and a certain restlessness in his character, not
incompatible with the long
patience of the true follower of science, drove him again
abroad. His intention was to
arrange for printing works already prepared in
manuscript. To search among
out-of-the-way bookmongers and book-lovers in
hgh- walled German towns, for
rare treasures wherewith to enrich ihs native
country, was another magnet
that drew his feet. In February, 1563, after he had been
thus employed for more than a
year, he wrote from the sign of the Golden Angel, in
remain to oversee the printing
of his books, and continue his researches among
Dutch books and scholars. He
had intended, he says, to return before Easter, but this
was now impossible, owing to
printers delays. When we remember that a hundred
years had barely elapsed since
the first metal types had been cast and used in a hand
press, it is not wonderful
that
signs, took long to print. He
announces in the letter to Cecil a great bargain he has
picked up, a work, for which
many a learned man hath long sought and dayley yet
doth seek, upon cipher
writing, viz. Steganographia, by the famous Abbot
Trithemius of
cipher, a subject in which
Cecil was particularly interested. It was then in
manuscript (first printed,
correspondent will be well
acquainted with the name of the book, for the author
mentions it in his Epistles,
and in both the editions of his Polygraphia. He urges its
claims upon the future Lord
Treasurer, already a statesman of ripe experience, in the
following words: A boke for
your honor or a Prince, so meet, so nedefull and
commodious, as in human
knowledge none can be meeter or more behovefull. Of
this boke, either as I now
have yt, or hereafter shall have yt, fully wholl and perfect,
(yf it peas you to accept my
present) I give unto your Honor as the most precious
juell that I have yet of other
mens travailes recovered.
He then goes on to beg the
minister and Secretary of State to procure for him
that learned leisure (dulcia
illa ocia) the fruit whereof my country and all the
republic of letters shall
justly ascribe to your wisdom and honorable zeal toward the
advancement of good letters
and wonderful, divine, and secret sciences. Dee had
copied in ten days, by
continual labour, about half of the book: a Hungarian
nobleman there has offered to
finish the rest, if Dee will remain in Antwerp and
direct his studies for a
time.?Of this boke the one half (with contynual labour and
watch, the most part of10
days) have I copyed oute. and now I stand at the curtesye
of a nobleman ofHungary for
writing furth the rest; who hath promised me leave
thereto, after heshall perceyve that I may
remayne by him longer (with the leave of my Prince
topleasure him also with such pointes of
science as at my handes he requireth.
I assure you the meanes that
I used to cumpas the knowledge where this
man and other such are, and
likewise of such book as this, as for this present I have
advertisement of, have cost me
all that ever I could here with honesty borrow,
besydes that which (for so
short a time intended) I thowght needefull to bring with
me, to the value of xxlib. God
knoweth my zeale to honest and true knowledg; for
which my flesh, blud, and
bones should make the marchandize, if the case so
required.
Dee did remain in the Low
Countries; he completed his Monas
Hieroglyphica, dated its
prefatory dedication to the Emperor Maximilian II., at
Antwerp, January 29, 1564, and
added an address to the typographer, his singular
good friend, Gulielmo Silvio,
dated the following day. the book appeared in April,
and he at once journeyed to
Presburg, to present a copy to Maximilian. Its twenty-four
theorems deal with the
variations of the figure represented on our title-page,
which may be roughly explained
as the moon, the sun, the elements (the cross), and
fire as represented by the
waving line below. Dee says that many universitie
graduates of high degree, and
other gentlemen, dispraised it because they
understood it not, but Her
Majestie graciously defended my credit in my absence
beyond the seas. On his
return in June she sent for him to Court and desired him
to read the book with her.
Dees account of his regal pupil is given with much
quaintness. She vouchsafed to
account herself my schollar in my book...and said
whereas I had prefixed in the
forefront of the book: Qui non intelligit aut taceat, aut
discat: if I would disclose to
her the secrets of that book she would et discere et
facere. Whereupon her Majestie
had a little perusion of the same with me, and
then in most heroicall and
princely wise did comfort and encourage me in my
studies philosophicall and
mathematicall.[ His escort had been required for the
Marchioness of Northampton,
who was returning from Antwerp to Greenwich. In
return for this assistance the
lady begged the Queens favour for her cavalier.
elizabeth was always Dees
very good friend, and she made a grant to him on
December 8, 1564, of the
Deanery of Gloucester, then void, but other counsels
prevailed, and it was soon
bestowed on some other man. No doubt the
appointment would have given
great offence, for the popular eye was already
beginning to see in Dee no
highly equipped mathematician, geographer and
astronomer, but a conjuror and
magisian of doubtful reputation, in fact, in the
current jargon, one who had
dealings with the devil. What there had been at this
time to excite these
suspicions beyond the fact that Dee was always ready to expound
a comet or an eclipse, to cast
a horoscope, or explain that the Queen would not
immediately expire because a wax
doll with a stiletto in its heart was found under a
tree, it is hard to say. But
that these rumours were extremely persistent is seen by
the astrologers defence of
himself in the very fruitfull preface which he, as the
first mathematician of the day,
was asked to write to Henry Billingsleys first English
translation of
one of
pinched with straightness of
time that he could not pen down the matter as he
would. He points out that
Dutch, French, Spanish and
Portuguese dress, and now at last comes to
In spite of its ex parte
nature, a study of this preface alone must convince any
reader that thte author was no
charlatan or pretender, but a true devotee of learning,
gifted with a far insight into
human progress. He covers in review every art and
science then known, and some
until these our daies greatly missed (his comments
on music and harmony are truly
remarkable), and comes back to his own
predilection arithmetic,
which next to theologie is most divine, most pure, most
ample and generall, most
profound, most subtele, most commodious and most
necessary. He quotes Plato to
show how it lifts the heart above the heavens by
invisible lines, and by its
immortal beams melteth the reflection of light
incomprehensible, and so
procureth joy and perfection unspeakable. Speaking of
the refraction of light, he
foreshadows the telescope as he describes how the captain
of either foot or horsemen
should emply an astronomical staffe commodiously
framed for carriage and use,
and may wonderfully help himself by perspective
glasses; in which I trust our
posterity will prove more skilfull and expert and to
greater purpose than in these
days can almost be credited to be possible. Then he
alludes to a wonderful glass
belonging to Sir William P., famous for his skill in
mathematics, who will let the
glass be seen. The passage seems to show that
looking-glasses were not
common, or that this particular one was a convex mirror.
A man, he says, may be
curstly afraid of his own shadow, yea, so much to
feare, that you being alone
nere a certain glasse, and proffer with dagger or sword to
foyne at the glasse, you shall
suddenly be moved to give back (in maner) by reason
of an image appearing in the
ayre betweeene you and the glasse, with like hand,
sword or dagger, and with like
quickness foyning at your very eye, like as you do at
the glasse. Strange this is to
heare of, but more mervailous to behold than these my
wordes can signifie,
nevertheless by demonstration opticall the order and cause
thereof is certified, even so
the effect is consequent.
This mirror was given to Dee
not long afterwards.
From optics he passes on to
mechanics, and mentions having seen at Prague
mills worked by water, sawing
great and long deale bordes, no man being by. He
describes accurately a diving
chamber supplied with air, and sums up some of the
mechanical marvels of the
world: the brazen head made by Albertus Magnus,
which seemed to speak; a
strange self-moving which he saw at St. Denis in 1551;
images seen in the air by
means of a perspective glass; Archimedes sphere; the
dove of Archytas; and the
wheel of Vulcan, spoken of by Aristotle; and comes down
to recent workmanship in
that buzzed about the guests
at table, and then returned to his masters hand agayne
as though it were weary. All
these things are easily achieved he says, by skill, will
industry and ability duly
applied to proof. But is any honest student, or a modest
Christian philosopher, to be,
for such like feats, mathematically and mechanically
wrought, counted and called a
conjuror? Shall the folly of idiots and the mallice of
the scornfull so much prevaile
that he who seeketh no worldly gaine or glory at
their hands, but onely of God
the Threasor of heavenly wisdom and knowledge of
pure veritie, shall he, I say,
in the mean space, be robbed and spoiled of his honest
name and fame? He that
seeketh, by S. Pauls advertisement in the creatures
properties and wonderfull
vertues, to find juste cause to glorifie the eternall and
Almightie Creator by, shall
that man be condemned as a companion of Hell-hounds
and a caller and conjuror of
wicked damned spirits? Then he recounts his years of
study, and asks, Should I
have fished with so large and costly a nett, and been so
long time drawing, even with
the helpe of Lady Philosophie and Queen Theologie,
and at length have catched but
a frog, nay a Devill?...How great is the blindness and
boldness of the multitude in
things above their capacitie![ Then he refers to
some who have appeared against
him in print.
O my unkind countrymen. O
unnatural Countrymen, O unthankfull
countrymen, O brainsicke,
Rashe, spitefull and disdainfull countrymen. Why
oppresse you me thus violently
with your slaundering of me, contrary to veritie,
and contrary to your own
conscience? And I, to this hower, neither by worde, deede
or thought, have bene anyway
hurtfull, damageable, or injurious to you or yours!
Have I so long, so dearly, so
farre, so carefully, so painfully, so dangerously fought
and travailed for the learning
of wisedome and atteyning of vertue, and in the end
am I become worse than when I
began? Worse than a madman, a dangerous
member in teh Commonwelath and
no Member of the Church of Christ? Call you
this to be learned? Call you
this to be a philosopher and a lover of wisdome?
He goes on to speak of
examples before his time to whom in godliness and
learning he is not worthy to
be compared: patient Socrates, Apuleius, Joannes
Picus and Trithemius, Roger
Bacon, the flower of whose worthy fame can never
dye nor wither, and ends by
summing up the people who can conceive nothing
outside the compass of their
capacity as of four sorts: vain prattling busybodies,
fond friends, imperfectly
zealous, and malicious ignorant. Of these he is inclined
to think the fond friends the
most damaging, for they overshoot the mark and relate
marvels and wonderful feats
which were never done, or had any spark of likelihood
to be done, in order that
other men may marvel at their hap to have such a learned
friend.[ The eloquent irony of
this passage seems equalled only by its
extraordinary universality,
its knowledge of human character and its high
philosophic spirit. At what a
cost did a seeker after scientific truths follow his
calling in the sixteenth
century!
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER III
MORTLAKE
In her princely countenance I
never perceived frown toward me, or
discontented regard or view on
me, but at all times favourable and gracious, to the
joy and comfort of my true,
faithful and loyal heart. DEE, of Queen Elizabeth.
The promised benefice did not
yet come, although Dees friends at Court were
all busy on his behalf. Either
now or later, he was actually mentioned as Provost of
Eton, and the Queen answered
favourably. Mistress Blanche Parry and Mistress
Scudamore, lady-in-waiting to
Anne, Countess of Warwick, urged his claims for the?Mastership of St. Cross at
Winchester, which it was thought Dr. Watson would soon
vacate. But all he seems to
have obtained was a fresh dispensation from Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of
Canterbury, to enjoy the two Midland rectories for ten years.[
He continued his literary
work, and beside writing new manuscript treatises,
bethought himself of an old
one, which although printed had not received great
attention. This was the Propoedeumata
Aphoristica (London, 1558), dedicated to his
old and dear friend and
fellow-student at Louvain, Mercator, my Gerard, as he
affectionately calls him. In
January, 1568, Dee presented a copy of a new edition,
with an address to the
studious and sincere philosophical reader, dated December 24,
1567, from our museum at
Mortlake, to Mr. Secretary Cecil, now Lord
Treasurer. Two copies were
given at the same time to the Earl of Pembroke, one
for him to use or give away at
his pleasure, the other, by Cecils advice, to be
presented by him to the Queen.
Within three days, Dee heard from Pembroke that
she had graciously accepted
and well liked his book. This gratifying information
was rendered acceptable by a
gift: He gave me very bountifully in his owne
behalf xxlib. to requite such
my reverent regard of his honour.[ An interview with
the Queen followed on February
16, at 2 oclock, when there was talk between them
in the gallery at Westminster
of the great secret for my sake to be disclosed unto her
Majesty by Nicholas Grudius,
sometime one of the secretaries to the Emperor
Charles V. Of this alchemical
secret, no doubt concerning transmutation, Dee
writes after, What was the
hinderance of the perfecting of that purpose, God best
knoweth.[ He was now over
forty, and had a natural desire to range himself and
house his library. Before 1570
he took up his abode with his mother, in a house
belonging to her at Mortlake,
on the river Thames. It was an old rambling place,
standing west of the church
between it and the river. Dee added to it by degrees,
purchasing small tenements
adjoining, so that at length it comprised laboratories
for his experiments, libraries
and rooms for a busy hive of workers and servants.
Mrs. Dee occupied a set of
rooms of her own. Nothing of the old premises now
remains, unless it be an
ancient gateway leading from the garden towards the river.
After Dees death the house
passed through an interesting phase of existence, being
adapted by Sir Francis Crane
for the Royal tapestry works, where, encouraged by a
handsome grant of money and
orders from the parsimonious James, suits of
hangings of beautiful
workmanship were executed under the eye of Francis Cleyne,
a limner, who was brought
over from Flanders to undertake the designs. At the
end of the eighteenth century,
a large panelled room with red and white roses,
carved and coloured, was still
in existence. Early in the nineteenth century the
house was used for a girls
school, kept by a Mrs. Dubois.[ Here Dee took up his
abode. Its nearness to London
and to the favourite places of Elizabeths residence
Greenwich, Hampton Court, Sion
House, Isleworth, and Nonsuch was at first
considered a great advantage,
and the journey to and from London was almost
invariably made by water. The
Queen desired her astrologer to be near at hand.
When he fell dangerously ill
at Mortlake in 1571, after a tedious journey abroad into
the duchy of Lorraine on some
mysterious errand, Elizabeth sent down two of her
own physicians, Doctors
Atslowe and Balthorp, to attend him. Lady Sidney was also
despatched with kind, and
gracious, and pithy messages from the sovereign, and
delicacies, divers
raretiess, were supplied from the royal table to supplement his
mothers provision for the
invalid. The Queen seems to have felt a special
obligation to look after him,
as she had sent him on some mission of her own,?which probably we shall not be
far wrong in thinking connected with Dees
alchemistic experiments. Every
Court in Europe at this time had astrologers and
alchemists in its employ, and
the Queen and Burleigh were as anxious as Dee that
he should really attain the
ever-elusive secret of transmutation. Dee had of course
carried the Queens passport
for himself and a couple of servants, with horses, and
had obtained permits through
foreign ambassadors in London to travel freely
through various countries.[
Dee was now bent on rather a strange form of
public service. On October 3,
1574, he wrote a very remarkable letter to Lord
Burleigh of four and a half folio
pages in that best printed hand of his which offers
no excuse for skipping. His
own paramount deserts are very naturally one of the
main subjects. He has spent
all his money and all his life in attaining knowledge.
Certes, by due conference
with all that ever I yet met with in Europe, the poor
English Bryttaine (Il favorita
di vostra Excellentia) hath carried the Bell away. God
Almighty have the glory. If
he had only a sufficiency of two or three hundred
pounds a year, he could pursue
science with ease. Failing that, there is another way.
Treasure trouve is a very
casual thing, and the Queen is little enriched thereby, in
spite of her royal
prerogative. No one knows this better than the Lord Treasurer.
Now, if her Majesty will grant
him, but Letters Patent under her hand and seal, the
right for life to all treasure
he can find, he promises to give Burleigh one half, and of
course to render to the Queen
and Commonwealth the proportion that is theirs. It
is not the gold, as wealth,
that appeals to this man of books and stars:
The value of a mine is matter
for Kings Treasure, but a pott of two or three
hundred pounds hid in the
ground, wall, or tree, is but the price of a good book, or
instrument for perspective
astronomy, or some feat of importance.
He has spent twenty years in
considering the subject; people from all parts
have consulted him about
dreams, visions, attractions and demonstrations of
sympathia et antipathia
rerum; but it is not likley he would counsel them to
proceed without permission from
the State. Yet what a loss is here!
Obscure persons, as hosiers
or tanners, can, under color of seeking assays of
metalls for the Saymaster,
enojoy libertie to dig after dreamish demonstrations of
places. May not I then, in
respect of my payns, cost, and credit in matters
philosophical and
mathematicall, if no better or easier turn will fall to my Lot from
her Majesties hands, may I
not then be thought to mean and intend good service
toward the Queen and this
realm, yf I will do the best I can at my own cost and
charge to discover and deliver
true proofe of a myne, vayn, or ore of gold or silver,
in some place of her Graces
kingdom, for her Graces only use?
The Society of Royal Mines had
been incorporated May 28, 1565, and the
Queen had granted patents to
Germans and others to dig for mines and ores. It was
well known that the country
abounded in hidden treasure. The valuables of the
monasteries had been, in many
cases, hastily buried before the last abbot was ejected
at the dissolution. The
subject had a special fascination for Dee, who was conscious
of a divining rod power to
discover the hiding places. He made a curious diagram
of ten localities, in various
counties, marked by crosses, near which he believed
treasure to lie concealed. He
ends his letter to Burleigh with a more practical and?much more congenial
request. He has been lately at Wigmore Castle, and has seen a
quantity of parchments and
papers from which he has copied accounts, obligations,
acquittances. Will the
Treasurer give him a letter to Mr. Harley, keeper of the
records there, asking
permission to examine them and report as to the contents?
My fantasy is I can get from
them, at my leisure, matter for chronicle or pedigree, by
way of recreation. So he ends
with an apology for his long letter and is you
Lordships most bownden John
Dee.
Nothing seems to have resulted
from this letter at the time; later he did
receive a grant of royalties
from a mine.
in 1575 Dee married. He seems
to have had no time for such an event before.
He was now in his forty-eighth
year, and did not execute the fatal folly (which, in his
Court life, he had seen many
times exemplified) of commiting the indiscretion first
and informing the Queen after.
He duly laid before her his intention, and received
in return a very gracious
letter of credit for my marriage. He also had
congratulatory epistles from
Leicester and from Christopher Hatton.
The Queen, when out riding in
Richmond Park with her lords and ladies,
would sometimes pass through
the East Sheen Gate, down the hill towards the
river, and would stop at the
house between Mortlake Church and the Thames,
desiring to be shown the
latest invention of her astrologer, or the newest acquisition
of his library. On the
afternoon of one such windy day in march, 1576, she arrived at
a slightly unlucky moment, for
Dees young wife, after a year of marriage, had just
died, and not four hours
earlier had been carried out of the house for burial in the
churchyard opposite. Hearing
this, Elizabeth refused to enter, but bade Dee fetch his
famous glass and explain its
properties to her outside in the field. Summoning
Leicester to her assistance,
she alighted from her horse by the church wall, was
shown the wonderful convex
mirror, admired the distorted image of herself, and
finally rode away amused and
merry, leaving the philosophers distress at his recent
bereavement assuaged for the
moment by such gracious marks of royal interest and
favour. And so this wraith of
Dees first wife fades away in the courtly picture, and
we do not even know her name.
He turned more than ever to
literary work and followed up the scholastic
books dedicated to the young
King Edward VI. and the studies of astrological
hieroglyphs with books of
another kind. To this year of historical labours, perhaps,
belongs a letter from Dee to
his loving friend, Stow, the historian. Contrary to
Dees careful practice, it is
undated, save for day and month, this 5th of December.
He has evidently been the
means of introducing a fellow-author in influential
quarters, for he says, My
friend, Mr. Dyer, did deliver your books to the two Earls,
who took them thankfully, but,
as he noted, there was no reward commanded of
them. What shall be hereafter,
God knoweth. So could not I have done. Then he
adjures Stow to hope as well
as I, and turns from considering fruits to the sources
of their toil. He sends a list
of the varius ports, including the Cinque Ports, that
have a mayor or bailey, all
except Gravesend, which has a portreeve. Stow may get
fuller information, the very
true plat, from Lord Cobhams secretary. He returns a
manuscript of Assers Saxon
Chronicle; it is not of the best and perfectest copy. I
had done iwth it in an hour.
If you have Floriacensis Wigornensis [the Chronicle of
Florence of Worcester] I would
gladly see him a little.?Stow, like Dee, was a Londoner and, within a year or
two, of the same age. He
had already published his
Annals of England, which had then gone through four
editions.
Dee now began to keep a diary
of his doings, written in the pages and margins
of three fat quarto almanacs,
bound in sheepskin and clasped. Quotations have
perhaps already shown that his
style, his spelling, his use of words, is that we expect
from a man of his wide culture
and reading. He was of the new learning, though
before Shakespeare and Bacon.
He had also two or more distinct handwritings, a
roman hand with neat printed
letters, and a scribbling hand. In the former all his
manuscript works and his
letters are written; his diary is in the last. This diary was
quite unnoticed until about
1835, when the almanacs were discovered at Oxford in
the Ashmolean Library, having
been acquired by Elias Ashmole, a devout believer
in hermetic philosophy and
collector of all alchemical writings. They were
transcribed (very
inaccurately) by J.O. Halliwell and printed by the Camden Society
in 1842.
The books contain a strange
medley of borrowings and lendings, births and
deaths, illnesses, lawsuits,
dreams and bickerings; observations of stars, eclipses and
comets, above all of the
weather (for Dee was a great meteorologist), of horoscopes,
experiments in alchemy and
topographical notes. Here are some of the earliest
entries:
1577. Jan. 16. The Earl of
Leicester, Mr. Philip Sidney, and Mr. Dyer, etc.,
came to my house. This was
Edward Dyer, Sidneys friend, afterwards to be
dramatically associated with
Dee and kelley in their reputed discovery of the secret
of makig gold. Feb. 19th.
great wynde S.W., close, clowdy. March 11. My fall upon
my right knucklebone about 9 oclock.
Wyth oyle of Hypericon in 24 hours eased
above all hope. God be thanked
for such his goodness to his creatures! March 12.
Abrahamus Ortelius me invisit
Mortlakii. This interesting visit from the great
Dutch map-maker is entirely
omitted in the printed diary. May 20. I hyred the
barber of Chyswick, Walter
Hooper, to kepe my hedges and knots in as good order as
he seed them then, and that to
be done with twise cutting in the year, at the least,
and he to have yearlly five
shillings and meat and drink.
Then he speaks of a visitor,
Alexander Simon, who comes from persia, and
has promised his service on
his return, probably to assist with information on
Eastern lore and wisdom. His
friend and neighbour, William Herbert, sends him
notes upon his already
published Monas. Another work is ready for press, and he is
constrained to raise money,
whether for the printing or other expenses. In June he
borrowed 40 pounds from one,
20 pounds from another, and 27 pounds upon the
chayn of gold. On August 19,
his new book is put to printing (one hundred copies)
at John Days press in
Aldersgate.
This was another of those
works, so pithy and so alive in their remarkable
application to the future,
which have fallen with their author into undeserved
neglect. Dee had made
suggestions about supplying officers of the army with
perspective glasses as part of
their equipment. Now his friendship with the Gilberts,
Davis, Hawkins, Frobisher, and
others off the great sea-captains, drew his attention
to the sister service and the
sea power of this blessed isle of Albion. He had spent
most of the previous year
(1576) in writing a series of volumes to be entitled
General and Rare Memorials
pertayning to the perfect art of Navigation. The first?volume, The British
Monarchy, or Hexameron Brytannicum, was finished in
August. It was dedicated to
Christopher Hatton in some verses beginning:
If privat wealth be leef and
deere
To any wight on British soyl,
Ought public weale have any
peere?
To that is due all wealth and
toyle.
Whereof such lore as I of late
Have lernd, and for security,
By godly means to Garde this
state,
To you I now send carefully.
The intention is better than
the lines. Dee was no poet, and even a bad
versifier, but he would not
have been a true Elizabethan had he not on special
occasions dropped into rhyme,
like the rest of his peers.
The second volume, The British
Complement, larger in bulk than the
English Bible, was written in
the next four months and finished in December. It
was never published; its author
tells us it would cost many hundreds of pounds to
print, because of the tables
and figures requisite, and he must first have a
comfortable and sufficient
opportunity or supply thereto. The necessary funds
were never forthcoming, and
the book remained in manuscript. A considerable
part of it is devoted to an
exposition of the paradoxall compass which its author
had invented in 1557.
The third volume was
mysterious; it wsa to be utterly suppressed or
delivered to Vulcan his
custody. The fourth was Famous and Rich Discoveries, a
book, he thinks, for British
Honour and Wealth, of as great godly pleasure as
worldly profit and delight.
It was a work of great historical research which never
saw the light.
The prejudice against Dee was
so strong, and he was so much misunderstood,
some persons openly
attributing his works to other writers, others accusing him of
selfishly keeping all his
knowledge to himself, many perverting his meaning
through ignorance, and again
one, a Dutch philosopher, publishing a treatise which
was in substance a repetition
of his, that he determined to withhold his name from
the publication. The anonymity
is not, however, very well maintained, for Dee
used the flimsy device of a
preface to the reader by an unknown friend, in which
all the griefs and ill usages
of that harmless and courteous gentleman, that
extraordinary studious
gentleman, the author, are freely aired. Under the thin
disguise, Dees high opinion
of his own merits peeps, nay stares, out. Slanders have
been spread against him, a
damaging letter counterfeited by Vincent Murphy, his
name and fame injured; he has
been called the arch-conjurer of the whole
kingdom. Oh, a damnable
sklander, he bursts out, utterly untrue in the whole
and in every worde and part
thereof, as before the King of Kings will appear at the
dreadful day. It is no
conceit on Dees part, with his European reputation, to say
that he had at God his most
mercifull handes received a great Talent of knowledge
and sciences, after long and
painful and costly travails. And he goes on to say that
he is both warned by God and
of of his own disposition to enlarge the same and to
communicate it to others, but
now he finds himself discouraged; he cannot sayl
against the winds eye, or pen
any more treatises for his disdainful and unthankful
countrymen to use or abuse, or
put his name to any writing. The unknown friend
has no desire to flatter the
studious gentleman, but considering all his contributions
to learning, he may honestly
say, without arrogancy and with great modesty, that if
in the foresaid whole course
of his tyme he had found a constant and assistant
Christian Alexander, Brytain
should now now have been destitute of a Christian
Aristotle!
But he soon gets engrossed in
his subject, whichis to urge the importance of
establishing a Petty Navy
Royall, of three score tall ships or more, but in no case
fewer, of 80 to 200 tons
burden, to be thoroughly equipped and manned as a cinfirt
abd safeguard to the Realme.
He shows the security it would give to or merchants,
the usefulness in deciphering
our coasts, sounding channels and harbours,
observing of tides. Thousands
of soldiers, he says, will thus be hardened and well
broke to the rage and
disturbance of the sea, so that in time of need we shall not be
forced to use all fresh-water
Soldyers, but we shall have a crew of hardy sea-soldyers
ready to hand. This is
interesting as showing that the word sailor was
not yet in use. Then he
touches on the question of unemployment: hundreds of
lusty handsome men will this
way be well occupied and have needful maintenance,
which now are idle or want
sustenance, or both. These skilful sea-soldyers will be
more traynable to martiall
exploits, more quick-eyed and nimble [he quotes Pericles
for this], than the landsmen.
The Petty Navy Royall, as apart from the Grand Navy
Royall, will look after
pirates, will protest our valuable fisheries, and generally serve
us in better stead than four
such forts as Callys or Bulleyn. Coming to the
financial side, he asserts
that every natural born subject of this British Empire will
willingly contribute towards
this perpetual benevolence for sea security the
hundredth penny of his rents
and revenues, the five hundredth penny of his goods
valuation, for the first seven
years, and for the second seven the hundred and
fiftieth penny and the seven
hundred and fiftieth penny of goods valuation, the
same, after fourteen years, to
be commuted for ever to half the original contribution.
He calculated this tax would
amount to 100,000 pounds or over. If that is not
sufficient, he would exact a
second tax (exempting all such counties, towns, and the
five ports, as have Letters
Patent for such immunity) of the six hundredth penny of
every ones goods and
revenues. He would have twenty victualling ports, in every
part of the kingdom, the
incredible abuses of purveyors duly reformed. He would
have a stop put to carrying
our gunpowder and saltpetre out of the realm. Good
God, he cries, who knoweth
not what proviso is made and kept in other Common
Weales against armour carrying
out of their Limits? He speaks of many hundred
pieces of ordnance lately
carried out of the kingdom, so that we must make new;
and deplores the wholesale
destruction of our forests and timber (which is needed
for ships) to keep the iron
works going. Then he foreshadows the Trinity House by
asking for a Grand Pilot
generall of England. He outlines a scheme of navy
pensions, and in relation to
the fisheries quotes sanitary statutes of Richard II. He
devotes a chapter to the
history of that peaceable and provident Saxon, King
Edgar, his yearly pastime of
sailing round this island in summer, guarded by his
fleet of 4,000 sail, and
speaks of the efficiency of Edgars navy and the maintenance
of his forts upon the coast.
Then he passes to his final argument. We must attain
this incredible political
mystery the supermacy of our sea power. We must be
Lords of the Seas in order
that out wits and travayles may be employed at home
for the enriching of the
kingdom, that our commodities (with due store reserve)
may be carried abroad, and
that peace and justice may reign. For we must keep
our own hands and hearts from
doing or intending injury to any foreigner on sea or
land.
Enough has been said of this
book, perhaps, to show that it is a remarkable
contribution towards the
history of the navy and the fishing industries of Britain. It
may be contended that if
within twelve years England could offer a crushing defeat
to the greatest sea power of
the world, and establish herself mistress of the seas, she
was not in need of theoretical
advice from a landsman on the subject, but at any rate
Dees treatise voices the
ideals of the times, the hopes that inspired all true lovers of
their country and of their
Queen in the sixteenth century. In the thunders of the
Armada they were to be
realised.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER IV
JANE DEE
Content I live, this is my
stay,
I seek no more than may
suffice;
I press to bear no haughty
sway,
Look, what I lack my mind
supplies:
Lo! thus I triumph like a
king,
Content with that my mind doth
bring.
Sir Edward Dyer.
That October the Queen and the
whole Court were thrown into a perturbed
state of mind by a strange
appearance in the heavens. This was the comet which the
Swedish astronomer, Kepler,
declared to predict the appearance in the north of
Europe of a prince who should
lay waste all Germany, and should vanish in 1632. It
was lucky for his
prognostications that Gustavus Adolphus was really bornin
Finland, did embroil Central
Europe in the Thirty Years War, and did die in 1632.
What the blazing star, as
they called it, foreboded, no one at Court could
tell; Dee was summoned
forthwith to expound the phenomenon. Her Majestie
took great pleasure to hear my
opinion, for the judgment of some had unduly bred
great fear and doubt in many
of the Court, being men of no small account. For three
diverse dayes she did use me.
Dee did not forget to urge his suit to the Queen, not
so much this time for
preferment but for protection.
Her Majestie promised unto me
great security against any of her kingdom
that would by reason of any my
rare studies and philosophical exercises unduly seek
my overthrow. Whereupon I
again to her Majestie made a very faithful and
inviolable promise of great
importance. The first part whereof, God is my witness I
have truely and sincerely
performed; tho it be not yet evident, how truely, or of
what incredible value. The
second part, by God his great mercies and helps, may in
due time be performed, if my
plat for the meanes be not misused or defaced.
Nearly two years passed before
Dee married his second wife,
Jane Fromond, of East Cheam,
Surrey. She was a lady-in-waiting
at the Court to Lady Howard of
Effingham, wife of the Lord
Admiral (Charles Howard) who
was afterwards in command of the
fleet victorious against the
invincible Spanish Armada. Lady
Howard proved a true friend
both to Jane and her elderly but
learned husband throughout the
rest of her life.
He paid a long visit to the
Court at Windsor a couple of months before the
marriage, staying there from
November 22 to December 1, 1577, and records
interviews with the Queen on
various days, and with Mr. Secretary Walsingham.
It may be presumed that the
marriage was then arranged, for without the Queens
consent it could never have
taken place. Just before leaving, he had a conversation
with Sir Christopher Hatton,
the newly-made knight of that day (December 1).
The marriage took place on
February 5, 1578, at one oclock, as the bridegroom
tells in his diary, but at
what church he omits to say. Perhaps it took place in a Royal
Chapel at Court. The young
bride was twenty-two. She was a clever, well-born
woman, hasty and
quick-tempered, but of a steadfast and thorough faithfulness. It
was no easy task to be the
wife of a brilliant and erudite mathematician nearly thirty
years her senior, but to the
end of her days Jane proved herself a true and fitting
helpmate, a most careful and
devoted mother to her eight children. Little could she
have foreseen at this bridal
hour into what strange paths the coming years would
lead her. Dees devotion to
his Jane, his growing respect for her force of character, is
faithfully reflected in his
diary, where every detail of her doings and her health is
studiously entered.
Before the end of the year, he
had to leave home and undertake a sudden
journey abroad at the command
of the Queens ministers. Elizabeth, in spite of an
iron constitution, was ill and
distracted with toothache and rheumatic pains. She
had come to Richmond from
Greenwich on September 25, and the next day the fine
weather broke up. The first
rayn that came for many a day, says Dee, all pasture
about us was withered. Rayn in
afternone like Aprile showres. A week or two
after this he was summoned to
Hampton Court, and had a conference of two hours
with the Queen, from nine to
eleven in the morning. Dr. Bayly, the Queens
physician, came to Mortlake on
October 16 to consult with him, for his profound
hermetic studies gave him all
the prestige of a super-doctor. On the 22nd Jane (Dee
still writes of her as Jane
Fromonds, probably to distinguish her from his mother,
Jane Dee) went to Hampton
Court. She found the Queen no better, in fact a worse
fit of paint than ever occurred
on the 25th, lasting from nine in the evening till after
midnight. On the 28th,
Leicester and Walsingham decided to send Dee abroad to
consult with some foreign
physician about the malady. He was given his
instructions at nine oclock
on November 4th; on the 7th he reached Gravesend,
and sailed from Lee onthe 9th.
By three oclock on the 14th, he was in Hamburg; in
Berlin on December 6; and on
the 11th at Frankfurt-upon-Oder. The entry on the
15th, newes of Turnifers
comming, 8 oclock, by a speciall messenger, looks as if
the object of his journey was
attained. There are no more details of the business.
The diary is resumed in March,
1579, with some trivial entries about his
showing Mr. John Lewis and his
son, the physician, how to draw aromatical oils,
and a note of his cat getting
a young fledgling sparrow that `had never had but one
the right wing,
naturally.
Dees mother surrendered to
him on June 15, 1579, the house and lands at
Mortlake, with reversion to
his wife Jane, and to his heirs and assigns after him, for
ever. The document was
delivered to him by a surveyor from Wimbledon (in
which parish Mortlake was
included) under the tree by the church. The fine for the
surrender twenty shillings
was paid to the Queen, as Lady of the Manor, on
October 31.
A month later, on his
fifty-second birthday, July 13, 1579, Dees eldest son,
Arthur, was born. The event
was coincident with another, for that same night, at
ten oclock, Janes father,
Mr. Fromond (Dee always adds an s to the name), was
seized with a fit and rendered
speechless; he died on Tuesday, the 14th, at four in the
morning. Arthur was christened
at three oclock on the 16th; Edward Dyer and Mr.
Doctor Lewis, judge of the
Admiralty, were his godfathers; his godmother was one
of Dees Welsh relations, my
cosen, Mistress Blanche Parry, of the Queens Privy
Chamber. She was represented
by another cousin, Mistress Aubrey, from Kew.
August 9. Jane Dee churched,
is almost the next thing recorded.
Dyer was already a person in
considerable favour with the Queen. He was
Sidneys great friend, and
after the poets death on the field of Zutphen, was legatee
of half his books. Dyer was no
mean poet himself, even among his greater
compeers. He is the author of
those immortal verses on Contentment, beginning
My mind to me a kingdom is,
which were set to music in 1588 by William Byrd.
We shall meet him again in
these pages.
Dee of course knew all about
Elizabeths long flirtation with the King of
Frances brother, Duc
dAlencon, and her diplomatic holding off from the match.
He notes Mr. Staffords
arrival as an emissary from Monsieur. The Queen kept a
very tender spot in her heart
for this ugly little deformed suitor, and Dee has a
remarkable note of a call from
her at Mortlake as she returned from Walsinghams
on February 11, 1583: Her
Majesty axed me obscurely of Monsieurs state. I said he
was
(dead-alive).
Pupils now began to resort to
Dee. John Elmeston, student of Oxford, cam to
me for dialling. Mr. Lock
brought Benjamin his sonne to me: his eldest sonne
also, called Zacharie, cam
then with him. This was Michael Lock, the traveller.
Zachary was the eldest of
Locks fifteen children; Benjamin afterwards wrote on
alchemy A Picklock for
Ripleys Castle.
It was a stormy October, of
continuous rains and floods for three or four days
and nights, and a raging
wynde at west and southerly. Six persons were drowned
in the Kew ferry boat, by
reason of the vehement and high waters overwhelming
the boat aupon the roap, but
the negligens of the ferryman set there to help. Mrs.
Dee had a strange dream that
one cam to her and touched her, saying, `Mistress
Dee, you are conceived of
child, whose name must be Zacharias; be of good chere, he
sal do well, as this doth.
This, meaning Arthur, had a sharp illness soon after,
however, and when the next
child arrived, in two years time, it chanced to be a girl,
who was named Katherine. So
the dream went by contraries after all. Arthur was
weaned in August, and his
nurse discharged, with her wages, ten shillings, for the
quarter ending at Michaelmas,
paid in full. Dee is an exact accountant as well as
diarist, and enters every
payment with precise care.
The Queen came riding down
from Richmond in her coach, to see what her
astrologer was doing, on
Septermber 17, 1580, and put the household in a flutter.
She took?The higher way of
Mortlake field, and when she came right against the
church, she turned down toward
my house. And when she was against my garden
in the field, her Majestie
stayed there a good while, and then came into the field at
the great gate of the field,
where her Majestie espied me at the door, making
reverent and dutiful obeysance
unto her; and with her hand, her Majestie beckoned
for me to come to her, and I
came to her coach side; her Majesty then very speedily
pulled off her glove and gave
me her hand to kiss; and to be short, her Majestie
willed me to resort oftener to
her Court, and by some of her Privy Chamber to give
her to weete when I am there.
One can picture the gorgeously
dressed and pearl-bedecked Queen, her
auburn hair glistening in the
sun, beckoning majestically to her astrologer, bidding
him attend and swell the
troops of courtiers and admirers, demanding imperiously
to be let know when he came,
and to be kept informed of all he did. Dee was a
handsome man, tall and
slender; he wore a beard, pointed and rather long. Among
the crowd of personable
courtiers in their rich and most becoming suits, he would
be no inconspicuous figure.
It was perhaps the publication
of the first volume of the General and Rare
Memorials pertayning to the
art of perfect Navigation that brought Dee into
intimate relations with the
navigators of the time. Or it may have been his
intimacy with them that
suggested the work. the Hexameron appeared in
September, 1577, and in
November the diarist first records a visit from one of them:
Sir Umfrey Gilbert cam to me
at Mortlake. Gilbert was then living at Limehouse,
engaged in writing discourses
on naval strategy and discovery. A few months later,
Dee mentions a suggestion he
gave to Richard Hakluyt, the author of the fascinating
histories of the voyages: I
told Mr. Daniel Rogers, Mr. Hakluyt of the Middle
Temple being by, that Kyng
Arthur and King Mary, both of them, did conquer
Gelindia, lately called
Friseland, which he so noted presently in his written copy of
Monumenthensis, for he had no
printed book thereof. On August 5, one of
Gilberts company, Mr.
Reynolds of Bridewell, tok his leave of me as he passed
toward Dartmouth to go with
Sir Umfrey Gilbert toward Hochelaga. The
expedition sailed from
Dartmouth on September 23, Sir Humphrey having obtained
his long-coveted charter to
plant a colony in the New World in June. All his money
was sunk in this unfortunate
expedition, which only met diasaster at the hands of a
Spanish fleet. Undaunted,
however, Sir Humphrey set to work to collect more
funds and information to
pursue his end. With the first Dee could not help him
much; with the last he
believed he could, and in return he exacted a stake in the
results: 1580, Aug. 28th. my
dealing with Sir Humfrey Gilbert graunted me my
request to him made by letter,
for the royalties of discovery all to the north above
the parallell of the 50 degree
of latitude, in the presence of Stoner, Sir John Gilbert
his servant or reteiner; and
thereupon took me by the hand with faithful promises,
in his lodging of Cookes
house in Wichcross Streete, where we dyned, onely us
three together, being
Satterday.
It was more than two years
before Gilbert succeeded in getting enough other
persons to embark their
capital in his project, and then he set out on his final
voyage, the second to
Newfoundland (the first having been assisted by Raleigh, his
half-brother, in 1578). We all
know the end, how, after he had planted his raw?colony
of lazy landsmen, prison birds
and sailors, he set out in his little vessel, The
Squirrel, to explore the coast
and sandbanks between Cape Breton Island and
Newfoundland, and then headed
for England. In a storm off the Azores, the little
ship foundered and ws lost,
its captains last words being, We are as near Heaven by
sea as by land.
With another brother, Adrian
Gilbert, Dee had much closer relations, as we
shall shortly see. This
younger half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh was reputed a
great chemist in those days,
which of course meant something of an alchemist. He
is associated in ones mind
with Sidneys sister, Pembrokes mother, that
accomplished and beautiful
inspirer of the most exquisite epitaph ever penned, for
he was one of the ingenious
and learned men who filled her house at Wilton so
that it ws like a college.
The Countess of Pembroke spent a great deal yearly in the
study of alchemy, and kept
Adrian as a laborant for a time. He is described as a
buffoon who cared not what he
said to man or woman of any quality. Bringing
John Davis, another of the
breezy Devon sea captains, Adrian came to Mortlake to
effect a reconciliation after
some uncomfortable passages caused, as they found, by
dishonest dealings on the part
of William Emery, whom they now exposed. John
Davis sayd that he might
curse the tyme that ever he knew Emery, and so much
followed his wicked counsayle
and advyse. So just is God! Here again we suspect
Dees reputation for magic
had been the trouble.
With the discovery of so many
new coasts and islands across in the Western
seas, the Queen was anxious to
know what right she had to call them hers, and what
earlier navigators had sailed
to them before. After Frobishers three voyages in
search of the North-West
Passage, she sent for the author of the Hexameron and
bade him set forth her title
to Greenland, Estoteland (Newfoundland) and Friseland.
This document he calls Her
Majesties commandment Anno 1578. Either he
prepared another, or did not
present this to the Queen for two years.
1580. On Monday Oct. 3, at
11 of the clock before none, I delivered my two
Rolls of the Queenes
Majesties title unto herself in the garden at Richmond, who
appointed after dynner to
heare fuder of the matter. Therfore betweene one and two
afternone, I was sent for into
her highness Pryvy Chamber, where the Lord
Threasurer allso was, who
having the matter slightly then in consultation, did seme
to doubt much that I had or
could make the argument probable for her highnes title
so as I pretended. Wheruppon I
was to declare to his honor more playnely, and at
his leyser, what I had sayd
and could say therein, which I did on Tuesday and
Wensday following, at his
chamber, where he used me very honorably on his
behalf.
The next day Dee fancied that
Burleigh slighted him. He called to see him,
and was not admitted; he stood
in the ante- chamber when the great man came out,
but the Lord Treasurer swept
by and did not or would not speak to me. Probably
he was pondering deeply on important
matters of state. Dees hopes of preferment
fell to the ground, and he was
persuaded that some new grief was conceyved. Dee
was ambitious; he was not yet
surfeited with fame; of wealth he had none, hardly
even a competency; he was
vain, and he knew that he had gifts which few of his
countrymen could rival or even
understand; and he was no longer young. Such
advantages as he could attain
must be secured quickly, if they were to be enjoyed at
all.
On the 10th, at four oclock
in the morning my mother Jane Dee dyed at
Mortlake; she made a godlye
ende: God be praysed therfore! She was 77 yere old.
News of this event quickly
travelled to the Court at Richmond, and the
Queen determined to signalise
her favour to Dee and her gratification at Burleighs
report of his geographical
labours, which reached her on the same day as the news of
his loss, by a personal visit
of condolence.
Oct. 10th. The Quenes
Majestie, to my great cumfort (hora quinta), cam
with her trayn from the court,
and at my dore graciously calling me to her, on
horsbak, exhorted me briefly
to take my mothers death patiently, and withall told
me that the Lord Threasurer
had greatly commended my doings for her title, which
he had to examyn, which title
in two rolls he had brought home two hours before;
and delivered to Mr. Hudson
for me to receive at my coming from my mothers
burial at church. Her Majestie
remembered allso how at my wives death, it was her
fortune likewise to call uppon
me.
So the fancied slight was
nothing. The Queens second remarkably-timed
visit was followed up by an
haunch of venison from my Lord Treasurer, and an
atmosphere of satisfaction
reigned. One of the rolls of which Dee writes is still in
existence. It has on one side
of the parchment a large map of Atlantis, or America,
drawn with the skill of a
practised cartographer. At the top is his name, Joannes
Dee, and the date, Anno
1580. Among his papers is a smaller map, upon which
large tracts in the Polar
regions are marked Infinite yse. Thge other side of the roll
is devoted to proving the
Queens title to lands she would never see or hear of,
under the four following
heads: 1. The Clayme in Particular. 2. The Reason of the
Clayme. 3. The Credit of the
Reason. 4. The value of that Credit by Force of Law.
Dee was also busied this
summer attending at the Muscovy House and
writing instructions and
drawing a chart for the two captains, Charles Jackson and
Arthur Pett, for their
North-East voyage to Cathay, or China.
He had perhaps joined the
Company of the Merchant Venturers, for in
March, 1579, he had signed a
letter with Sir Thomas Gresham, Martin Frobisher (as
every one knows, he was
knighted in the thick of the Armada fight), and others, to
the Council of State, desiring
that those Adventurers who have not paid shall be
admonished to send in
contributions without delay. Another very interesting
remark tells how Young Mr.
Hawkins, who had byn with Sir Francis Drake, came
to me to Mortlake, in June,
1581; also Hugh Smith, who had just returned from the
Straits of Magellan. In
November, Dee is observing the blasing star, or comet, of
which, with its long tail, he
makes a drawing on the margin of his diary. By the
22nd it had disappeared:
Although it were a cler night, I could see it no more.
On June 7, 1581, at half-past
seven in the morning, Dees second child and
eldest daughter, Katherine,
was born. She was christened on the 10th, her sponsors
being Lady Katherine Crofts,
wife of Sir James Crofts, Controller of the Queens
Household; Mistress Mary
Scudamore, of the Privy Chamber, the Queens cousin;
and Mr. Packington, also a
court gentleman. The infant was put out to nurse, first at
Barnes with Nurse Maspely,
then transferred to Goodwife Bennett. On August 11
Katherine Dee was shifted to
nurse Garrett at Petersham, on Fryday, the next
day after St. Lawrence day,
being the 11th day of the month. My wife went on foot
with her, and Ellen Cole, my
mayd, George and Benjamin, in very great showers of
rain.
Nevertheless the little
Katherine seemed to flourish, and there are entries of
monthly payments of six
shillings to her nurse, with allowance for candles and
soap, up to August 8 of the
following year, when Kate is sickly, and on the 20th is
reported as still diseased.
Four or five days after, she ws taken from nurse Garret,
of Petersham, and weaned at
home. The mother had several times been over to see
the child, sometimes on foot,
attended by George or Benjamin, the servants, and
once by water with Mistress
Lee in Robyn Jackes bote. The children seemed in
trouble at this time, for
about seven weeks before Arthur fell from the top of the
Watergate Stayres, down to the
fote from the top, and cut his forhed on the right
eyebrow. This was at the old
landing-place at Mortlake. Their childish ailments
are always most carefully
recorded in the diary, even when the cause is a box on the
ears probably well earned
from their quick-tempered mother. Janes friends
Mr. and Mrs. Scudamore, and
their daughter, and the Queens dwarf, Mrs. Tomasin,
all came for a night to
Mortlake. Jane went back with Mistress Scudamore to the
Court at Oatlands. A number of
other visitors are named, including Mr. Fosker of
the wardrobe.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER V
THE SEARCH FOR A MEDIUM
Truth is within ourselves; it
takes no rise
From outward things, whateer
you may believe
There is an inmost centre in
us all
Where truth abides in fulness;
and around
Wall upon wall, the gross
flesh hems it in,
This perfect clear perception,
which is truth.
A baffling and perverting
carnal mesh
Binds it and makes all error;
and to KNOW
Rather consists in opening out
a way
Whence the imprisoned
splendour may escape
Than in effecting entry for a
light
Supposed to be without.
Browning, Paracelsus.
Dee had always, working with
and under him, a number of young students
and assistants, who were
admitted more or less to his inner counsels. If they proved
apt and diligent, he would
reward them with promises of alchemical secrets,
whereby they might honestly live;
once he promised 100 pounds, to be paid as
soon of my own clere hability,
I myght spare so much. This was a very safe?provison.
Generous as he was, lavish to
a fault, money never stuck near him, nor
was it of the least value in
his eyes, except as a means of advancing science and
enriching others.
Naturally, jealousies arose
among the assistants. They would suddenly
depart from his service, and
spread ignorant and perverted reports of his
experiments. Roger Cook, who
had been with his master fourteen years, took
umbrage on finding himself
barred from vew of my philosophical dealing with
Mr. Henrick. He had imagined
himself the chosen confidant, for to him Dee had
revealed, December 28, 1579,
what he considered a great alchemical secret of the
action of the elixir of salt,
one upon a hundred. Roger was now twenty-eight, of a
melancholik nature, and had
been pycking and devising occasions of just cause to
depart on the sudden, for he
was jealous of a newer apprentice. On September
7th, 1581, Roger went for
alltogether from me. But it was not alltogether, for
Roger returned when Dee was
old and inform and poor, and remained serving him
almost to the end. There was
always something patriarchal in Dees care for the
members of his large household,
evidenced abundantly in his diary. No doubt their
loyalty to him was often
severely tried by harsh and cruel outside rumours, but as
they knew and loved his real
nature they only drew closer towards him.
A new phase of his character
is now forced upon us. He has appeared
hitherto as the man of
learning, astronomer and mathematician, a brilliant lecturer
and demonstrator, diligent in
probing the chemical and alchemical secrets of which
his vast reading, his foreign
correspondence, and his unique library gave him
cognisance. Interested in
geographical discovery and history, a bibliographical and
mathematical writer, his
genuine contributions to science had been considerable.
He had written upon navigation
and history, logic, travel, geometry, astrology,
heraldry, genealogy, and many
other subjects. He had essayed to found a National
Library, and was contemplating
a great work upon the reformation of the Calendar.
But these purely legitimate
efforts of his genius were discounted in the eyes of his
contemporaries by the absurd
suspicions with which his name had been associated
ever since his college days.
After his arrest and trial by Bonner, he never really
succeeded in shaking off this
savour of something magical. The popular idea of Dee
in league with evil powers
was, of course, the natural result of ignorance and dull
understanding. To a public
reared in superstition, untrained in reasoning,
unacquainted with the simple
laws of gravitation, the power to raise heavy bodies
in the air at will, to see
pictures in a simple crystal globe, or converse with
projections of the air, to
forecast a mans life by geometric or planetary calculations,
and to discern the influence
of one chemical or mineral substance upon another,
seemed diabolically clever and
quite beyond human agency. Even to study Nature
and her secrets was to lay
oneself open to the suspicion of being a magician. We
must remember that in the
early years of Queen Elizabeths reign it was thought
necessary to pass an Act of
Parliament decreeing that all who practised sorcery
causing death should suffer
death; if only injury was caused, imprisonment and the
pillory whould be the
punishment. Any conjuration of an evil spirit was to be
punished by death as a felon,
without benefit of clergy or sanctuary. Any discovery
of hidden treasure by magical
means was punishable by death for a second offence.
But if magic was tottering
on its throne, the reign of alchemy was still
uncontested. Belief in it was
universal, its great votaries in the past were of all
nations. St. Dunstan of
Glastonbury, Roger Bacon, Raymond Lully, Canon George
Ripley of Bridlington,
Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Arnold de Villa Nova
and Paracelsus, all their
writings, and hundreds of others, Dee had in his library and
constantly upon his tongue.
Alchemy was not only a science, it was a religion and a
romance. It was even then
enduring the birth-throes and sickly infancy of modern
chemistry, and the alchemists
long search for the secret of making gold has been
called one of its crises. Long
after this it was still an article of faith, that such a man
as Robert Boyle did not deny.
We cannot forget that even that great chemist, Sir
Humphry Davy, reverenced the
possibility, and refused to say that the alchemists
belief in the power to make
gold was erroneous. How unlike Dantes keen irony of
the dark and groping men who
seek for peltro, or tin whitened with mercury. But
alchemy was bursting with many
other secrets beyond the manufacture of gold. The
spiritual element abounding in
all minerals, and the symbolism underlying every
actual substance, were deeply
imbedded in it. It was a scienceof ideals. It ever led its
followers on to scale
illimitable heights of knowledge, for in order to surpass all
material and rational nature,
and attain the crowning end, did not God delegate His
own powers to the sage? So the
art of healing was thought the noblest, the most
Godlike task, and no means of
attaining hermetic wisdom were untried. The
psychical world became every
bit as real to these religious mystics as the physical and
rational, which they
understood so vaguely. Even the strange shapes which escaped
from the retorts of the old
alchemists were known to them as souls. Their
successors called them
spirits. Paracelsus named them as mercury, and it was left to
his pupil, Van Helmont, the
true founder of all modern chemistry, to give the
name of gas.
It is easy to see how Dee, the
astrologer, grew into close touch with those
psychic phenomena which,
though they have become extremely familiar to us, as
yet continue to baffle our
most scientific researches. When he first became
conscious of his psychic
powers, and how far he himself was mediumistic, is harder
to discern. It is on May 25,
1581, that he makes in his diary the momentous entry:
I had sightin Chrystallo
offered me, and I saw. We may take it that he saw
through a medium, for he never
afterwards seems to have been able to skry without
one. Perhaps his first crystal
had then been given him, although, as we have seen,
he already owned several
curious mirrors, one said to be of Mexican obsidian such
as was used for toilet
purposes by that ancient race. He had made a study of optics,
and in his catalogue of the
manuscripts of his library are many famous writings on
the spectrum, perspective and
burning glasses, etc. Then came the trouble with
Roger, his incredible
doggedness and ungratefulness against me to my face, almost
ready to lay violent hands on
me. Dee hears strange rappings and knockings in his
chamber. A gentleman came from
Lewisham to consult him about a dream many
times repeated. Dee prays with
him, and his dream is confirmed and better
instruction given. A
mysterious fire breaks out for the second time in the
maydens chamber at night. The
knocking is heard again, this time accompanied
with a voice repeated ten
times. No words apparently, but a sound like the schrich
of an owl, but more longly
drawn and more softly, as it were in my chamber. He
has a strange dream of being
naked and my skyn all over wrought with work like
some kinde of tuft mockado,
with crosses blew and red; and on my left arm, abowt
the arm in a wreath, these
words I read: `Sine me nihil potestis facere. And
another the same night of Mr.
Secretary Walsingham, Mr. Candish and myself.
Then he was ten days from
home, at Snedgreene, with John Browne, to hear and
see the manner of the doings.
Evidently some remarkable manifestation. he was
becoming more interested in
psychic problems, but he was not able to proceed
without a medium, and the
right one had not yet appeared.
Meanwhile, he fills his diary
with all manner of interesting news. Vincent
Murphy, the cosener who had
defamed him, and against whom in September,
1580, he had instituted a
troublesome law-suit, was condemned by a jury at the
Guildhall to pay 100 pounds
damages. With much adoe, I had judgment against
him. Five or six months
later, he agreed with Mr. Godolphin to release the
cosener. Jean Bodin, the
famous French writer on witches, and publicist, had come
to England with Monsieur,
and Dee was introduced to him by Castelnau, the
French ambassador, in the
Chamber of Presence at Westminster. Letters came
from Doctor Andreas Hess, the
occult philosopher, sent through Dees friend,
Richard Hesketh, agent at
Antwerp. There are also letters from Rome. John
Leonard Haller, of Hallerstein
by Worms, came to him to say he had received
instructions for his journey
into Quinsay [or Northern china], which jorney I
moved him unto, and instructed
him plentifully for observing the variation of the
compassin all places as he
passed. He notes, as if it were a common occurrence, a
fowl falling out between two
earls at Court, Leicester and Sussex [the Lord
Chamberlain], tells how they
called each other traytor, wheruppon both were
commanded to keepe to theyre
chambers at Greenwich, wher the Court was. It
sounds like a schoolboys
quarrel, but the royal schoolmistress would have them
both know that they were in
disgrace for a time. In July, there was an eclipse of the
moon, but it was clowdy, so
as I could not perceyve it. In August, about half-past
eight on the night of the
26th, a strange Meteore in forme of a white clowde
crossing galaxium, lay north
and sowth over our zenith. This clowde was at length
from the S.E. to the S.W.,
sharp at both ends, and in the West it was forked for a
while. It was about sixty
degrees high, it lasted an howr, all the skye clere abowt and
fayr star-shyne.
Dee made a journey into
Huntingdonshire, by St. Neots, to Mr. Hickmans at
Shugborough, in the county of
Warwick. Young Bartholomew Hickman was
afterwards to become the
companion and servant of his old age, and manifested
some slight mediumistic
powers. On the way home, a month or two later, Dee rode
into Sussex to Chailey,
probably to the glass workds there. The Queen and
Monsieur were at Whitehall.
A pretty little scene was
enacted at Mortlake at the New Year, when Arthur
Dee and Mary Herbert, they
being but 3 yere old, the eldest of them, did mak as it
were a shew of childish
marriage, of calling each other husband and wife. Then
Dee essays a harmless little
play upon words. The first day Mary Herbert cam to her
fathers house at Mortlake,
the second day she came to her fathers hosue at East
Shene. Mrs. Dee went the same
day to see the baby Katherine at Nurse Garrets,
and Mistress Herbert went with
her. So the two families were in great unity.
Sir George Peckham, who sailed
with Sir Humphrey Gilbert, came to consult
Dee about exploration in North
America, and promised a share in his patent of the
new lands. He also sent down
his sea-master, Mr. Clement, and another gentleman,
Mr. Ingram, to see the
mathematician. For Sir John Killigrew, Dee devised a way
of protestation to save him
harmless for compounding for the Spaniard who was
robbed: he promised me fish
against Lent. Haller came again to get instructions
how to transfer his money to
Nuremburg, and to get letters of introduction to
Constantinople. By him, Dee
sent letters to correspondents in Venice, where the
German explorer was to winter.
Mr. Newbury, who had been in
India, came early in the New Year. Dee
recounts how the stage in that
well-known old London place of amusement, the
Paris Garden, on Bankside,
Southwark, fell down suddenly while it was crammed
with people beholding the
bear-baiting. Many people were killed thereby, more
hurt, and all amazed. The
godly expound it as a due plague of God for the
wickedness there used, and teh
Sabbath day so profanely spent. Sunday was the
great day for the bear-fights.
1583. Jan. 23. Mr.
Secretarie Walsingham cam to my howse, where by
good luk he found Mr. Awdrian
Gilbert, and so talk was begonne of Northwest
Straights discovery.
Jan. 24. Mr. Awdrian Gilbert
and John Davis went by appointment to Mr.
Secretary, to Mr. Beale his
house, where only we four were secret, and we made Mr.
Secretarie privie of the N.W.
passage, and all charts and rutters were agreed uppon
in generall.
Feb. 3. Mr. Savile, Mor.
Powil the younger, travaylors, Mr. Ottomeen his
sonne cam to be acquaynted
with me.
Feb. 4. Mr. Edmunds of the
Privie Chamber, Mr. Lee, Sir Harry Lee, his
brother, who had byn in
Moschovia, cam to be acquaynted with me.
Feb. 11. The Queene lying at
Richmond went to Mr. Secretarie Walsingham
to dynner; she coming by my
dore gratiously called me to her, and so I went by her
horse side as far as where Mr.
Hudson dwelt.
Feb. 18. Lady Walsingham cam
suddenly to my house very freely, and
shortly after that she was
gone, cam Syr Francis himself, and Mr. Dyer.
March 6. I and Mr. Adrian
Gilbert and John Davis did mete with Mr.
Alderman Barnes, Mr. Townson
and Mr. Yong and Mr. Hudson, about the N.W.
passage.
March 17. Mr. John Davys went
to Chelsey with Mr. Adrian Gilbert to Mr.
Radforths, and so, the 18th
day from thence, to Devonshyre.
April 18. The Queene went from
Richmond toward Greenwich, and at her
going on horsbak, being new
up, she called for me by Mr. Rawly his putting her in
mynde, and she sayd `quod
defertur non aufertur, and gave me her right hand to
kisse.
While these every-day events
were going on and being chronicled, Dee was
also occupying himself with
the search for a medium. He first tried one named
Barnabas Saul (he seems to
have been a licensed preacher), who professed himself
an occultist. Saul gives news
of buried treasure great chests of precious books
hidden somewhere near Oundle
in Northamptonshire, but the disappointed book-lover
finds the hoard an illusion.
Then Saul, who slept in a chamber over the hall
at Mortlake, is visited at
midnight by a spiritual creature. The first real seance that
Dee records, Actio Saulina,
took place on December 21, 1581. The skryer was
bidden to look into the great
crystalline globe, and a message was transmitted by
the angel Annael through the
percipient to the effect that many things should be
declared to Dee, not by the
present worker, but by him that is assigned to the stone.
After New Years tide, on any
day but the Sabbath, the stone was to be set in the sun
the brighter the day the
better, and sight should be given. The sitters might deal
both kneeling and sitting.
When we consider how very real to a devout person in
the Middle Ages apparitions of
the devil and of evil spirits were, there seems
nothing at all extraordinary
in Dees belief that good spirits also might be permitted
to come to his call, for
purposes of good. A month or two after this, Saul was
indicted on some charge and
tried in Westminster Hall, but, thanks to Mr. Serjeant
Walmesley and a couple of
clever lawyers, he was acquitted. There was an end of
his clairvoyance, however: he
confessed he neyther herd or saw any spirituall
crature any more. If the
accusation against him had been that of sorcery, he was
wise to risk no further
appearances in Westminster Hall. He seems to have spread
abroad many false reports
about Dee, who reproached him bitterly when he called at
Mortlake a few months later.
Dee had, however, gained psychical experience by
these early and tentative
experiments. The field was now open for a maturer
applicant. When he arrived, he
was to change the whole current of Dees life and
outlook, to become at once a
helper and a stumbling-block, a servant and a master,
loving as a son, treacherous
as only a jealous foe. It was a strange fate that sent
Edward Kelley to Dee at this
moment, when everything was ripe for his appearance.
And it was characteristic of
the man that he was ushered into Dees life under a
feigned name. On March 8, two
days after Saul had confessed he saw and heard no
more of the spirits, Dee
writes in his diary, Mr. Clerkson and his frende cam to my
howse. He makes the visit
very emphatic by repeating the information: Barnabas
went home abowt 2 or 3
oclock, he lay not at my howse now; he went, I say, on
Thursday, and Mr. Clerkson
came. At nine oclock the same night, there was a
wonderful exhibition of the
aurora in the northern and eastern heavens, which Dee
describes minutely in Latin in
the diary. The next day, March 9, he mentions
Clerksons friend by name as
Mr. Talbot, and shows how that individual appears
to have begun ingratiating
himself with his new patron by telling him what a bad
man his predecessor was.
Barnabas had said that Dee would mock at the new
medium; Barnabas had cosened
both Clerkson and Dee. This, Talbot professed to
have been told by a spiritual
creature. The pair proceeded at once to business. On
the 10th, they sat downto gaze
into my stone in a frame given me of a friend, with
very remarkable results.
Information was vouchsafed that they should jointly
together have knowledge of the
angels, if the will of God, viz., conjunction of mind
and prayer between them, be
performed. They were bidden to abuse not this
excellency nor overshadow it
with vanity, but stick firmly, absolutely and perfectly
in the love of God for his
honour, together. There were forty-nine good angels, all
their names beginning with B,
who were to be answerable to their call. The first
entry that Dee makes in his
Book of Mysteries concerning Talbot is as follows:
One Mr. Edward Talbot cam to
my howse, and he being willing and desyrous
to see or shew something in
spirituall practise, wold have had me to have done
something therein. And I
truely excused myself therein: as not, in the vulgarly
accownted magik, neyther
studied or exercised. But confessed myself long tyme to
have byn desyrous to have help
in my philosophicall studies through the cumpany
and information of the blessed
Angels of God. And thereuppon, I brought furth to
him my stonein the frame
(which was given me of a frende), and I sayd unto him
that I was credibly informed
that to it (after a sort) were answerable Aliqui Angeli
boni. And also that I was once
willed by a skryer to call for the good Angel Annael
to appere in that stone in my
owne sight. And therefore I desyred him to call him,
and (if he would) Anachor and
Anilos likewise, accounted good angels, for I was not
prepared thereto.
He [Talbot] settled himself
to the Action, and on his knees at my desk, setting
the stone before him, fell to
prayer and entreaty, etc. In the mean space, I in my
Oratory did pray and make
motion to God and his good creatures for the furdering
of this Action. And within one
quarter of an hour (or less) he had sight of one in
the stone.
The one to appear was Uriel,
the Spirit of Light. On the 14th, the angel
Michael appeared, and gave Dee
a ring with a seal. Only on two other occasions
does a tangible object pass
between them. Dee was overjoyed at the success of his
new speculator or skryer;
the sittings were daily conducted until March 21,
when the medium was overcome
with faintness and giddiness, and Michael, who
was conversing with him, bade
them rest and wait for a quarter of an hour. The
next day, Talbot departed from
Mortlake, being bidden by Michael to go fetch some
books of Lord Monteagles
which were at Lancaster, or thereby, and which would
else perish.
He returned before long, and
all through April, instructions were being given
at the sittings for the future
revelations. elaborate preparations were needed, and
they were describedin minute
detail.
By April 29, a square table,
the table of practice, was complete. It was made
of sweet wood, and was about
two cubits high (by two cubits I mean our usual
yard), with four legs. On its
sides certain characters, as revealed, were to be written
with sacred yellow oil, such
as is used in chruches. Each leg was to be set upon a seal
of wax made in the same
pattern as the larger seal, Sigilla AEmeth, which was to
be placed upon the centre of
the table, this seal to be made of perfect, that is, clean
purified wax, 9 inches in
diameter, 27 inches or more in circumference. It was to be
an inch and half a quarter of
an inch thick, and upon the under-side was to be a
figure as below.
It was a mystical sign,
similar to those in use in the East, and also used by contemporary astrologers
[INSERT ILLUSTRATION]
The four letters in the centre
are the initials of the Hebrew words, Thou art great for ever, O Lord,
which were considered a charm
in the Middle Ages.
The upper side of the seal was
engraved with an elaborate figure obtained in
the following manner. First, a
table of forty-nine squares was drawn and filled up
with the seven names of God
names not known to the angels, neither can they
be spoken or read of man.
These names bring forth seven angels, the governors of
the heavens next unto us.
Every letter of the angels names bringeth forth seven
daughters. Every daughter
bringeth forth seven daughters. Every daughter her
daughter bringeth forth a son.
Every son hath his son.
The seal was not to be looked
upon without great reverence and devotion.
It is extremely curious and
interesting to relate that two of these tablets of
wax, Sigillum Dei, and one
of the smaller seals for the feet of the table, with a
crystal globe, all formerly
belonging to Dee, are still preserved in the British?Museum,
having come there from Sir
Thomas Cottons library, where the table of
practice was also long
preserved.
The spirits were kind enough
to say: We have no respect of cullours, but
the table was to be set upon a
square of red silk as changeable (i.e., shot) as may be,
two yards square, and a red
silk cover, with knops or tassels at the four corners,
was to be laid over the seal,
and to hang below the edge of the table. The crystal
glove in its frame was then to
be set upon the centre of the cover, resting on the seal
with the silk between.
The skryer seated himself in
the green chair at the table, Dee at his desk to
write down the conversations.
These were noted by him then and there at the time,
and he is careful to
particularise any remark or addition told him by the Ckryer
afterwards. Once a spirit
tells him: There is time enough, and we may take
leisure. Whereupon Dee
conversed directly with the visitant; sometimes
apparently only Talbot hears
and repeats to him what is said. A golden curtain was
usually first seen in the
stone, and occasionally there was a long pause before it was
withdrawn. Once Dee writes:
He taketh the darkness and wrappeth it up, and
casteth it into the middle of
the earthen globe. The spirits generally appeared in
the stone, but sometimes they
stept down into a dazzling beam of light from it, and
moved about the room. On some
occasions a voice only is heard. At the close of
the action, the black cloth
of silence is drawn, and they leave off for the present.
There are very few comments or
general impressions of the actions left by
Dee, but on one occasion he
does use expressions that show his analytical powers to
have been actively at work to
account for the phenomena. He brought his reason to
bear upon the means of
communication with the unseen world in a remarkable
manner. In speaking to the
angels one day he said: I do think you have no organs
or Instruments apt for voyce,
but are meere spirituall and nothing corporall, but
have the power and property
from God to insinuate your message or meaning to ear
or eye [so that] mans
imagination shall be that they hear and see you sensibly.
As Plotinus says, Not
everything whichis in the soul is now sensible, but it
arrives to us when it proceeds
as far as sense.
The minute descriptions of the
figures seen are of course characteristic of
clairvoyant or mediumistic
visions. In the case of Bobogel, the account of his sage
and grave attire the common
dress of a serious gentleman of the time may be
quoted.
They that now come in are
jolly fellows, all trymmed after the manner of
Nobilities now-a-dayes, with
gylt rapiers and curled haire, and they bragged up and
downe. Bobogel standeth in a
black velvet coat, and his hose, close round hose of
velvet upperstocks, over layd
with gold lace. He hath a velvet hat cap with a black
feather in it, with a cape on
one of his shoulders; his purse hanging at his neck, and
so put under his girdell. His
beard long. He had pantoffolls and pynsons. Seven
others are apparelled like
Bobogel, sagely and gravely.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER VI
EDWARD KELLEY
Kelley did all his feats
upon?The Devils looking-glass, a stone
Where, playing with him at
bo-peep,
He solvd all problems neer
so deep.
Butler, Hudibras
It is now time to inquire who
this Talbot, this seer and medium, was. Where
did he come from, and what was
his previous history?
That he came to the Mortlake
philosopher under a feigned name is perhaps
not so damning an accusation
as might at first sight appear. There was in his case,
certainly, every reason why he
should change his identity, if possible, but an alias in
those days was so common a
thing that perhaps more stress has been laid upon
Kelleys than is strictly
fair.
The whole of Kelleys story is
so wildly and romantically coloured, it is so
incredible, and so full of
marvels, that it is extremely difficult to know what to
believe. There is no
disentangling the sober facts of his life from the romance
attributed to him; indeed,
there are no sober facts, as the reader will see when the
accepted traditions of this
extraordinary mans career are laid down.
From March 8 to November,
1582, Edward Talbot, the skryer, came and went
in the Mortlake establishment,
gazed in the crystal, and ingratiated himself into his
employers liking. Then he
disappeared, and Edward Kelley took his place. There
had been a quarrel of some
kind, precursor of many others, and Dee opens his
fourth Book of Mysteries, on
November 15, after the reconciliation with Kelley.
Henceforth E.K. is his name.
Kelley was born at Worcester,
on August 1, 1555, as appears by the horoscope
drawn for him by the
astrologer. He began life as an apothecarys apprentice, and
showed some aptitude for his
calling. It has been stated that, under the name of
Talbot, he studied for a short
time at Oxford, but left abruptly under a cloud. A few
years later, he was exposed in
the pillory in Lancaster for having either forged
ancient title deeds or coined
base money. Both feats are accounted to him. The next
incident in his career is a
charge of having dug up a newly buried caitiffs corpse in
Walton-le-Dale churchyard,
Lancashire, for the purpose of questioning the dead, or
an evil spirit speaking
through his organs, respecting the future of a noble young
gentleman, then a minor.
After this savoury episode, Kelley is reported to have
been wandering in Wales (it is
suggested that he was hiding from justice), when he
stumbled accidentally upon an
old alchemical manuscript and two caskets or phials
containing a mysterious red
and white powder. Another version of this discovery is
that Dee and Kelley together
found the powder at Glastonbury. This we may
dismiss. Wherever he procured
it, Kelley undoubtedly owned a small quantity of
some substance which he regarded
as of priceless value, inasmuch as, if properly
understood and manipulated, it
could be used for transmuting baser metals into
gold.
The reputation of the learned
doctor of Mortlake, who was known all over
the Continent, was a favourite
at Court, and in touch with every adventure by sea or
land, had of course reached
Kelley. Dees parsonage of Upton-on-Severn, near
Worcester, did not trouble him
much with responsibility, but it must have been on
one occasional visit to it
that he received from the Dean of Worcester Catherdral a
Latin volume, in which he
inscribed the gift thus: Joannes Dee, 1565, Februarii 21.
Wigorniae, ex dono decani
ecclesiae magistri Beddar.?With the powder that he
did not know how to use, and
the alchemical
manuscript which he could not
decipher, and which yet might contain the
invaluable secret (if indeed
there is any truth in the story of his find), Kelley, the
adventurer, sought out some
means of introduction to the man so likely to help
him. He had dabbled in
alchemy, and came to Mortlake with something of a
reputation, for Dee speaks of
him as that lerned man. It is utterly unlikely that
Dee had heard anything of
Kelleys exploits in the north. Such doings would
scarcely penetrate the solmen
recesses of the laboratory on the Thames side. So
Kelley arrived, and was
recieved in all good faith. He told Dee that the last seer,
Barnabas, had cosened him,
and seems to have at once impressed himself
favourably upon the
astrologer, who at the moment was without a reliable assistant.
The sittings began, as we have
seen, in March, and were successful immediately. In
May the message comes that
none shall enter into the knowledge of these
mysteries but this worker,
and Kelleys position is secured.
Kelley was now about
twenty-seven years old, and unmarried. He was bidden
by the spirits on April 20 to
take a wife, which thing to do, he told Dee, I have no
natural inclination, neither
with a safe conscience may I do it. but Michael had
made him swear on his sword to
follow his counsel, so he married reluctantly, not
long after, Joan, or Johanna,
Cooper, of Chipping Norton, who was eight years his
junior, and about nineteen.
There was little love on his
side apparently, but the girl seems at any rate to
have essayed to do her duty as
a wife. She was apparently a complete stranger to the
Dees, although soon to become
part of their household. What were Janes feelings
at the thought of this
invasion of her domestic peace we can only guess from an
entry in Dees diary made two
days after one of these first sittings. Dee does not
write much about his wife in
his diary, save only entries relating to her health, and
this one he has carefully
erased, as if he thought some disloyalty to her was
involved in it. It is,
however, possible to make it out almost entirely. 1582, 6 May.
Jane in a merveylous rage at 8
of the cloke at night, and all that night, and next
morning till 8 of the cloke,
melancholike and ch[?ided me] terribly for....
Something illegible follows,
and then this: that come to me only honest and
lerned men. Finally, by Mr.
Clerkson his help was [?pacified]. What canthis
mean save that she had takena
violent dislike to, and disapproval of, Kelley; that
she mistrusted his honesty and
wished they might have no more to do with him;
that it was only by his friend
Clerksons help that she was at last quieted? Her
womans intuition was scarcely
at fault; however kindly she came to treat her
husbands medium afterwards,
however charitable she showed herself, she was
right in suspecting no good to
come to Dee through association with Kelley.
The accounts of the actions
with the spirits which took place under Kelleys
control were minutely written
down by Dee, as we have seen, mostly during the
timeof the sittings. The
papers had a romantic history. The last thirteen books,
which were in Sir Thomas
Cottons library, were printed by Dr. Meric Casaubon
about fifty years after Dees
death, under the title of A True and Faithful Relation of
what passed for many Yeers
between Dr. John Dee, a Mathematician of Great Fame
in Q. Elizabeth and K. James
their Reigns, and some Spirits: Tending (had it
succeeded) To a General
Alteration of most States and Kingdomes in the
World...With a Preface
confirming the reality (as to the Point of Spirits) of this
Relation; and shewing the
several good Uses that a sober Christian may make of all
(folio 1659). Casaubon in his
learned preface maintains stoutly that the visions were
no distempered fancy, that Dee
acted throughout with all sincerity, but that he was
deluded. His book sold with
great rapidity; it excited so much controversy, and
incurred such disapproval from
Owen, Pye, and the other Puritan divines, that it
came near being suppressed;
only the excellent demand for it prevented its
confiscation, for not a copy
could be found. The True Relation contains the record
of all actions after the
beginning of June, 1583. The earlier conversations, from the
first with Barnabas, and
Talbots appearance on the scene, are still to be found in
manuscript, they having in
some way parted company from those of which Cotton
had possession.
These earlier papers were
acquired by the antiquary, Elias Ashmole, in a
rather romantic way. Ashmole
had been visiting William Lilly, the astrologer, at
Horsham, in August, 1672, when
on his return his servant brought him a large
bundle of Dees autograph MSS.
which a few days before he had received from one
of the warders of the Tower.
The warder called on Ashmole at the Excise Office, and
offered to give them in
exchange for one of Ashmoles own printed works. The
Windsor Herald cheerfully
agreed, and sent him a volume fairly bound and gilt on
the back, of which of his
works we know not.
Now for the history of the
papers. Mrs. Wale, the warders wife, had brought
them with her dower from her
lamented first husband, Mr. Jones, confectioner, of
the Plow, Lombard Street.
While courting, these young people had picked up
among the joyners in Adle
STreet a large chest whose very good lock and hinges
of extraordinary neat work
took their fancy. It had belonged, said the shopman, to
Mr. John Woodall, surgeon,
father of Thomas Woodall, surgeon to King Charles II.
and Ashmoles friend. He had
bought it probably at the sale of Dees effects in 1609,
after his death. The Joneses
owned the chest for twenty years without a suspicion of
its contents. Then, on moving
it one day, they heard a rattle inside. Jones prized
open the space below the till,
and discovered a large secret drawer stuffed full of
papers, and a rosary of
olive-wood beads with a cross, which had caused the rattle.
The papers proved to be the
conferences with angels from December 22, 1581, down
to the time of the printed
volume; the original manuscripts of the (unprinted)
books entitled, 48 Claves
Angelicae, De Heptarchia Mystica, and Liber Scientiae
Auxiliis et Victoriae
Terrestris. We may imagine Ashmoles excitement when he
found he had in his hand the
earlier chapters of the very remarkable book that was
stil in every ones mouth,
published only thirteen years before.
We may now briefly examine
this remarkable and voluminous Book of
Mysteries. In view of the fact
that it is perhaps the earliest record of mediumistic
transactions, the first
attempt to relate consecutive psychic transmissions, in fact a
sort of sixteenth century
Proceedings of a Society for Psychical Research, it seems to
warrant investigation at some
length.
The first book (still in
manuscript) opens with a Latin invocation to the
Almighty, and an attribution
of all wisdom and philosophy to their divine original
source. It ends O beata et
super benedicta omnipotens Trinitas, concedas mihi
(Joanni Dee) petitionem hane
modo tali, qui tibi maxime placebit, Amen. Then
comes a table of the four
angels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, their
particular attributes, and
their descent from Annael. A long prayer in English
follows, which gives a
remarkable insight into Dees attitude of mind. Unfeigned
humility towards God, a
certain unconsciousness of self and of his own particular
acquirements, are mingled with
a calm assumption of authority and power to enter
into the heart of knowledge.
This was perhaps the chief characterisitic of the exalted
mysticism so prevalent at the
time in a small section of alchemists, especially on the
Continent. Dee was its representative
in England, having, of course, imbibed much
of it during his residence
abroad. Paracelsus had been dead but forty years. His
disciples everywhere were
seeking three secrets which were to fulfil his teaching
the secret of transmutation,
the elixir of life, and the philosophic stone, key to all
wisdom. Bruno was still alive,
developing hs theories of God as the great unity
behind the world and humanity.
Copernicus was not long dead, and his new
theories of the solar system
were gradually becoming accepted. Galileo was still a
student at Pisa, his
inventions as yet slumbering in his brain. Montaigne was
writing his getle satires on
humanity. Everywhere and in every sphere new
thought was beginning to stir.
Dee did not scruple to claim
in his prayer gifts like those bestowed upon the
prophets. He deprecates any
kind of traffic with unauthorised or unreliable spirits,
and acknowledges again the
only Source of wisdom. But since he has so long and
faithfully followed learning,
he does think it of importanc ethat he should know
more. The blessed angels, for
instance, could impart to him things of at least as
much consequence as when the
prophet told Saul, the son of Kish, where to find a
lost ass or two! A spirit
afterwards told him that ignorance was the nakedness
wherewith he was first
tormented, and the first plague that fell unto man was the
want of science.
He had reached that state of
mind when he seemed unable to discern any
boundary line between finite
and infinite. His hope and his confidence were alike
fixed on nothing less than
wresting all the secrets of the universe from the abyss of
knowledge, or, at any rate, as
many of them as God willed. he explains how from his
youth up he has prayed for
pure and sound wisdom and understanding,
such as might be brought,
under the talent of my capacitie, to Gods honour and
glory and the benefit of his
servaents, my brethren and sisters. And forasmuch as
for many yeres, in many
places, far and nere, in many bokes and sundry languages, I
have wrought and studyed, and
with sundry men conferred, and with my owne
reasonable discourse Laboured,
whereby to fynde or get some yinkling, glimpse, or
beame, of such the aforesaid
radicall truthes:...And seeing I have read in they bokes
and records how Enoch enjoyed
thy favor and conversation, with Moses thou wast
familiar, And also that to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Josua, Gedeon, Esdras, Daniel,
Tobias, and sundry other, the
good angels were sent, by they disposition, to instruct
them, informe them, help them,
yea in worldly and domesticall affairs; yea and
sometimes to satisfy theyr
desyres, doubts and questions of thy secrets; and
furdermore, considering the
Shewstone which the high priests did use by thy owne
orderinge, wherein they had
lighte and judgments in their great doutes, and
considering allso that thou (O
God) didst not refuse to instruct the prophets (then
called seers), to give answers
to common people of things oeconomicall, as Samuel
for Saul, seeking for his
fathers asses, being gon astray: and as other things, vulgar
true predictions, whereby to
wyn credit unto ther waightier affayres. And thinking
within myself the lack of thy
wisdom to me to be of more importance than the
value of an Asse or two could
be to Cis (Saul his father): And remembering what
good counsayle they apostle
James giveth, saying Si quies autem vestrumetc. And?
that Solomon the wise, did so,
even immediately by thyselfe, atteyne to his
wonderfull sidome: Therefore,
Seeing I was sufficiently taught and confirmed that
this wisdome could not be come
by at mans hand, or by human powre, but onely
from thee (O God) mediately or
immediately. And having allwayes a great regarde
and care to beware of the
filthy abuse of such as willingly and wittingly did invocate
and consult (in divers sorte)
Spirituall Creatures of the damned sort: Angels of
darknes, forgers and patrons
of lies and untruths; I did fly unto thee by harty prayer,
full oft, and in sundry
manners: sometymes cryinge unto thee Mittas Lucem tuam
et veritatem, tuam quoe me
ducant, etc.
Then he goes on to say that
his slight experience with two different persons
has convinced him of Gods
wish to enlighten him through His angels. He has
heard of a man accounted a
good seer and skryer, a master of arts and preachger of
the Word, and through his
means he has seen spiritual apparitions either in the
christalline receptab\cle, or
in open ayre. He hopes to have help from this person
until some after man or
meanes are sent him from on high. But Saul for it is
Saul he means is not devout,
sincere and honest. Evil spirits have come to him,
much to Dees terror but that
thou didst pitch thy holy tent to my defence and
comfort. He has quoted to
Saul Roger Bacons warning to wicked devil-callers; but
the man cannot brook rebuke,
and is angry at being further debarred from the
mysteries which were the only
things I desired, through thy grace. He begs, most
humbly and deprecatingly for
leave to note down the actions, and asks that Annael
may come to his help.
Barnabas having proved so unreliable,
he rejoiced at having found another
skryer. The one accessory
wanting, when all the table and seals were comlete, was a
shewstone. Dee seems already
to have owned several. He had used a crystal
before this time, but a new
one was desirable. One evening, towards sunset, a little
child angel appears standing
in the sunbeams from the western window of the
study, holding in its hand a
thing most bright, most clere and clorius, of the bigness
of an egg. Michael with his
fiery sword appeared and bade Dee Go forward, take it
up, and let no mortall hand
touch it but thine own.
Michael tells them, too, that
he and Kelley are to be joined in the holy work,
united as if one man. But one
is to be master, the other minister; one the hand, the
other the finger. They are to
be contented with their calling, for vessels are not all of
one bigness, yet all can be
full. Dee is reminded that all his knowledge is more
wonderful than profitable,
unless thou art led to a true use of the same.
Another spirit, Medicus Dei,
or Medicina, says, Great are the purposes of
him whose medecine I carry,
and on one of the early march days utters some
remarkable words on the
precious doctrine of the universality of the Light:
Your voices are but shadows
of the voices that understand all things. The
things you look on because you
see them not indeed, you also do name amiss...
We are fully understanding.
We open the eyes from the sun in the morning
to the sun at night. Distance
is nothing withus, unless it be the distance which
separateth the wicked from His
mercy. Secrets there arenone, but that are buried in
the shaddow of mans
sould....Iniquitie shall not range where the fire of his piercing
judgment and election doth
light.?Calvin had been dead but twenty years,
but with his scheme of
election and
eternal reprobation Dee had no
affinity. His mind was far more in harmony with
the ancient hermetic teaching
that medicine, healing, was the true road to all
philosophy.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER VII
THE CRYSTAL GAZERS
To follow knowledge like a
sinking star
Beyond the utmost bound of
human thought.
Tennyson, Ulysses
It is a curious picture to
call up, that of the strangely assorted pair seated in the
inner room at Mortlake, acting
out this spiritual drama. Dee had asked for
instructions about the room
for the sittings: May my little fartherest chamber
serve, if the bed be taken
down? The table, covered with its cloth stood in the
centre upon the seals. Kelley,
perhaps with the black cap he is credited with having
always worn, pulled close over
his cropped ears, was seated at it. Dee at his desk sat
writing in the great folio
book. He was now fifty-six years old; his beard was long,
but perhaps not yet as white
as milk, as Aubrey describes it. He did not apparently
ever see the visions himself.
Once he reproachfully said, You know I cannot see or
skry. He conversed with the
spirits and sometimes heard what they said; but to the
eye and ear of his body they
were invisible; hence his dependence upon a skryer.
The sole object of his
ambition was the attainment of legitimate wisdom.
When conversing with the
angels, how near within his grasp it seemed! Michaels
exposition seemed almost to
promise it to him:
`Wilt thou have witt and wisdom?
Here it is.
Michael points each time to a
figure of seven squares shown within a circle
of light.
`The exaltation and
government of princes is in my hand.
`In counsayle and Nobilitie,
I prevayle.
`The Gayne and Trade of
Merchandise is in my hand. Lo! here it is.
The Qualitie of the Earth and
Waters is my knowledge, and I know them.
And here it is.
`The motion of the Ayre and
those that move in it, are all known to me. Lo!
here they are.
`I signifie wisdom. In fire
is my government. I was in the beginning and
shall be to the end.
`Mark these mysteries. For
this knowne, the state of the whole earth is
knowne, and all that is
thereon. Mighty is God, yea, mighty is he who hath
composed for ever. Give
diligent eye. Be wise, merry and pleasant in the Lord.
Quite early in the actions, it
was told them that a third person was necessary
to the complete work. Adrian
Gilbert was the first selected, and permission was
given for him to be made
privie of the mysteries, but not to be a practiser.
Gilbert was making ready for a
voyage to the North-West. Dee and the spirits
seem to think it may be a kind
of missionary enterprise, and Dee asks for (but does
?not actually obtain) a
geographical description of the country he is going to. The
answer is that Dee knows about
it, as indeed he did, sufficiently well, as we have
seen, to draw very good charts
of North America and the Frozen Seas. An angel
named Me tells him he must
counsel A.G. and be his father. Who made the sun of
nothing? Who set Nature to
thrust up her shoulder amongst trees and herbs like a
gentle fire? How great is his
power in those in whom he kindleth a soul of
understanding.
In Dees absence in London, at
the Muscovy House, on Maundy Thursday
(March 28), Kelley tried to
summon Medicina again, but was only visited by an
illuder. Next day Dee asks
for the veritie of his doings, and is told that darkness
has presumed to put itself in
place of light. Kelley will not be overthrown, but he is
to brag not. When I yoked
your feathers together, I joined them not for a while.
The illuder is made to confess
deception and is consumed by fire, and Dee turns to
his skryer with Master
Kelley, is your doubt of the spirit taken away?
Dee had been requested to
prepare a calculation for the reformation of the
Calendar, or at any rate to
give his opinion on the scheme propounded by Pope
Gregory. His calculations were
approved by all the English mathematicians of the
time, but the Queen, advised
by the bishops, did not see her way to adopt them in
effect. Dee tells his angel
friends how grieved he is that Her Majestie will not
reform the Kalendar in the
best terms of veritie. He desires counsel what to do.
Easter Day passed, and the
crystal gazing still went on. The sittings were often
long. On April 3, Dee ventured
to tell his visitor that it will be dark soon, and our
company will expect our coming
down to supper. If without offence we might now
leave off, it might seem good
to do so. Three days after, he again offered a slight
remonstrance, asking why they
had not been warned of Mistress Frances Howards
coming, a gentlewoman of Her
Majesties Privy Chamber. She had caused
interruption of their exercise
for a full hour, or two. Was this to be forgiven her
because of her great charity,
and goodness in procuring the Queens alms for many
needy people?
The Queen was then at
Richmond, and Dee was several times at Court. He
seems to have been there to
bid her adieu when she left for Greenwich on the 18th:
At her going on horseback,
being new up, she called for me, by Mr. Rawly his
putting her in mynde, and she
sayd, `quod defertur non aufertur, and gave me her
right hande to kisse.
Dee was now puzzling over some
mysterious papers brought him by Kelley,
whether those he is reported
to have found in Wales of Glastonbury we can scarcely
decide, but they seem to
concern ten places in England where treasure was supposed
to be hid. There is a curious
drawing of them in the MS. diary: After coming from
the Court, I thought I would
try to discover the cipher of the paper E.K. brought me
as willed to do, found at
Huets Cross, with a book of magic and alchemy, to which a
spiritual creature led them.
Dee was by no means the easy dupe of Kelley that he
has been called. Two or three
months after he first knoew him he writes in his
diary of his abominable
lyes; and he here makes a very telling remark, an aside, so
to speak: Of this K., I doubt
yet.
Kelleys hot, uncontrollable
nature and his overbearing ways had already
begun to appear. There was an
outbreak at supper one night because Charles Sled
had done him an injurie in
speeche at my table. Probably some story of his early
career had been raked up. A
voice next morning says to him appropriately: Serve
God and take hold of nettles.
The manuscript in crabbed signs
puzzled the astrologer desperately, and he
was unhappy at the delay. An
angel tells him they are to be rocks in faith. While
sorrow be meansured thou shalt
bind up thy fardell. He is not to seek to know the
mysteries till the very hour
he is called. Can you bow to Nature and not honour
the workman?
A new spirit visits them, Il,
a merie creature, apparelled like a Vyce in a
[morality] play. He skipped
here and there. Dee asks where is his Arabic book of
tables that he has lent and
lost. Il says it is in Scotland and is nothing worth. Then
Dee asks about the Lord
Treasurers books, for he had not seen Burleighs library,
and had all the rival
collectors jealousy over his own treasures. He was never quite
sure that Burleigh was his
friend; there semed always a suspicion in his mind where
the Lord Treasurer was
concerned. The feeling was reflected in a curious dream that
he had soon after the
beginning of his partner ship with Kelley: I dreamed on
Saturday night that I was
deade, and afterwards my bowels wer taken out. I walked
and talked with divers, and
among other with the Lord Thresorer, who was cum to
my howse to burn my bookes
when I was dead. I thought he looked sourely on
me. Now, Il tells him that
Burleigh has no books belonging to Soyga, and
explains that name as in the
language of Paradise, before Babels aery tower. Dee
takes up a lexicon to look for
the word, but Il points to another book on the
mysteries of Greek, Latin and
Hebrew. Then Il becomes very practical, and says:
Your chimney will speak
against you anon, and Dee remembers that he had
hidden there in a cap-case
the records of his doings with Saul and the others. Il
advises Kelley to communicate
to his employer the book and the powder, and all
the rest of the roll. True
friends arenot to hide anything each from the other.
This was perhaps the cause of
the great and eager pangs that now took place
between Dee and Kelley. The
medium pretends to fear they are dealing with evil
spirits. He bursts into a
passion, declares he is a cumber to the house, and dwells
there as in a prison. He had
better be far away in the open country, where he can
walk abroad, and not be
troubled with slanderous tongues. He is wasting his time
there, and must follow some
study whereby he may live. As for these spirit
mysteries, Adam and Enoch knew
them before the Flood. Dee responds gfravely to
this tirade: He will wait
Gods time, and he will not believe a stone will be given
them and no bread. As to
Kelleys necessities, are not his own far greater? At the
present moment, he owes 300
pounds, and does not know how to pay it. He has
spent forty years, and
travelled thousands of miles, in incredible forcing of his wit in
study, to learn, or bowel out,
some good thing, yet he would willingly go up and
down England in a blanket,
begging his bread, for a year or more, if at the end he
might be sure of attaining to
godly wisdom, whereby to do God service for His glory.
He was resolved either
willingly to leave this worlk, to enjoy the fountain of all
wisdom, or to pass his days on
earth in the enjoyment of its blessings and mysteries.
Another violent scene occurred
before long; this time the mistress of the
house was the one offended.
Dee says: By A[drian] G[ilbert] and Providence, E.K.s
vehement passions were
pacified. He came back again to my house, and my wife
was willing and quiet in mind
and friendly to E.K. in word and countenance. A
new pacification in all parts
confirmed and all upon the confidence of God his
service faithfully performed.
Kelleys wife had not yet joined him at Mortlake, but
he had occasional letters from
her. One found him in a tender religious mood,
about to pray in his
bedchamber, on a little prayer book which Mr. Adrian Gilbert
had left here, ad it lay on
the table during the action. It was Seven Sobbes of a
Sorrowful Soul for Sinne, in
English metre, made by Mr. William Harris. When
he opened it, he found some
automatic script in the end, or, as he calls it, a
counterfeit ofhis own hand. He
took it to Dee, who saw in it the work of a wicked
spirit trying to shake their
confidence. The next evening, both prayed against their
enemy, Kelley on his knees
before the green chair standing at the chimney. Uriel
appeared and said temptation
was requisite. If it were not, how should men know
God to be merciful? He speaks
to Kelley: Thou, O yongling, but old sinner, why
dost thou suffer thy blindness
to increase? Why not yield thy Limbs to the service
and fulfilling of an eternal
veritie? Pluck up thy heart, and follow the way that
leadeth to the knowledge of
the end. He explains how the trouble is caused by
Belmagel, the firebrand who
hath followed thy soul from the beginning.
The whole of this spring, the
pair of partners had been busily engaged in
preparing the various things
the table, the wax seals, the ring and lamin
required for use. Most
complicated diagrams of letters and figures had also been
dictated to them, and Kelley,
whose mathematical training had been slight, was
sometimes very exhausted. Once
fire shoots out of the crystal into his eyes, and
when it is taken back, he can
read no more. As Dee remarks one day to a spirit,
apologising for his many
questions: For my parte I could finde it in my heart to
contynue whole days and nights
in this manner of doing, even tyll my body should
be ready to synk down for
weariness before I could give over, but I feare I have
caused weariness to my friends
here. A journey is foretold, but first of all Kelley is
to go to the places of hidden
treasure, and bring earth, that it may be tested. He may
be away ten days. He bought a
pretty dun mare for the journey, of good man
Penticost, for which he paid
three pounds ready money in angels. A day or two
after, he took boat to London
to buy a saddle, bridle, and boote-hose.
At supper the night before he
started, in a clairvoyant state, he had an
extraordinary prophetic sight
of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, a beautiful
woman having her head cut off
by a tall black man. He also speaks of seeing the sea,
covered with many ships. Uriel
warns them that foreign Powers are providing
ships against the welfare of
England, which shall shortly be put in practice. It is
hardly necessary to remind the
reader that the Queen of Scots execution and the
defeat of the Spanish Armada
took place in two following years, 1587, 1588, four
years after this vision.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER VIII
MADIMI
Therefore for spirits I am so
far from denying their existence that I could
easily believe that not only
whole countries but particular persons have their
tutelary and guardian angels.
It is not a new opinion, but an old one of Pythagoras
and Plato. There is no heresy
in it, and if not manifestly defined in Scripture, yet it
is an opinion of good and
wholesome use in the cours and actions of a mans life,
and would serve as an
hypothesis to solve many doubts whereof common
philosophy affordeth no
solution.? Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici.
Dees costly apparatus and
experiments, his large establishment and generous
treatment of his servants and
assistants, his entertainment of great folk, were all
heavy drains upon his
resources. He spent lavish amounts upon books and
manuscripts for his library;
he contributed as able to some of the Adventurers
funds. He borrowed freely, and
he had sometimes to run long bills. Beside the rent
of the two livings (about
eighty pounds a year) he had no fixed income. The Queen
was ever promising him
benefices which either never fell vacant, or when they did,
had to be bestowed elsewhere.
At the time he first fell in with Kelley, he knew not
where to turn for money.
Almost at this very moment, however, a rich patron
appeared unexpectedly on the
horizon and changed Dees outlook for several
years.
On March 18, 1583, Mr. North came
to Mortlake bringing a salutation from
Albert or Adelbert Laski,
Count Palatine of Siradia, a Polish Prince then about to
arrive on a visit to the
Queen. He wished to make Dees acquaintance, to see his
library, and discuss magic, of
which he had made a study. Laski was one of the most
powerful of the Polish nobles
reconverted to Catholicism. He had taken a very
prominent part in the
patriotic movement of a few years before in Poland, when
almost every European
sovereign had made a bid for the Polish crown. Elizabeths
old suitor, the Duc dAlencon,
had actually worn it a month or two before escaping
in the night to his brother of
France. Laski was a dashing adventurer of heroic
courage, quite unscrupulous as
to cost; and although he had favoured the claims of
the Emperor of Austria, he
had, openly at least, agreed in the peoples victorious
choice of Stephan Bathory.
When that Transylvanian Prince had been elected King
in 1576, Laski had taken a
prominent part in affairs. He was popular and ambitious,
not without aspiration towards
the Polish crown himself. Burleigh, in writing of
him to Hatton, called him a
personage of great estimation, few in the Empire of the
greatest exceed him in
sovereignty and power. He is described by contemporary
writers as a most learned man,
handsome in stature and lineaments, richly clothed,
of very comely and decent
apparel, and of graceful behaviour. He wore his beard
very long, not clipped close
like the English courtiers. He arrived in London by
Harwich on May Day, and
proceeded to Winchester House, Southwark, where he
made his headquarters during
his stay. There seemed some doubt about how he
was to be received, whether he
was actually in favour or in disgrace with King
Stephan. Burleigh desired
Hatton to get some Essex nobleman Lord Rich or Lord
Darcy to meet him at Harwich
with proper state, if he is the very Count Palatine
of the House of Laski. Hatton
replied that he must wait to hear more from
Leicester, for in his letter
to the Queen the visitor has called her the refuge of the
disconsolate and afflicted,
so perhaps he is out of favour after all.
Dee first saw Laski on May 13,
at half-past seven in the evening, in the Earl of
Leicesters apartments at the
Court at Greenwich, when he was introduced by
Leicester himself.
Five days after the first
meeting, Laski came to me at Mortlake withonly two
men. He cam at afternone and
tarryed supper, and [till] after sone set. Near a
month elapsed before his next
visit, when he made a sort of royal progress down the
Thames from Oxford to
Mortlake.?June 15 about 5 of the clok, cam the Polonian Prince,
Lord Albert Lasky,down from
Bissham, where he had lodged the night before, being returned
formOxford, whither he had gon
of purpose to see the universitye, wher he was very
honorably used and
enterteyned. He had in his company Lord Russell, Sir Philip
Sydney and other gentlemen: he
was rowed by the Queenes men, he had the barge
covered with the Queenes
cloth, the Queenes trumpeters, etc. He cam of purpose
to do me honor, for which God
be praysed!
The visit was repeated on the
19th, when the distinguished foreigner was
hospitably entertained for the
night. The Queen was then at Greenwich, but on July
30 she and her court proceeded
in great splendour up the river to Sion House. She
passed by Dees door, and
probably paused as usual for a greeting. Next morning
Leicester rode over to
Mortlake, and put the household in commotion by
announcing that Laski and
others would come to dine at Mortlake on the next day
but one. These festivities
were a great tax on the astrologers means, and he
confessed sincerely that he
was not able to prepare them a convenient dinner,
unless I should sell some of
my plate or some of my pewter for it. Whereupon her
Majestie sent unto me very
royally, within one hour after, forty angells of gold [20
pounds] from Sion, whither her
Majestie was now come from Greenwich.
Leicesters secretary, Mr.
Lloyd, was despatched post-haste with the gift, prompted, as
Dee adds, through the Erle
his speech to the Queene. One imagine Leicesters
somewhat peremptory suggestion
and the Queens impulsive acquiescence. In
minor matters she was woman
enough to relish being sometimes dictated to. The
secretary also brought what
was hardly less acceptable to Dee, viz., Mr. Rawligh his
letter unto me of her
Majesties good disposition unto me. Raleigh was then in
great favour with the Queen.
In the intervals between these
visits of the Prince, the spirits had been
consulted about Laskis
prospects. They had at once interested themselves in him,
and Madimi, one of the most
fascinating of these psychical projections, had
vouchsafed some kind of
genealogical information, connecting him with the Lacys
and Richard, Duke of York. She
was the first of the female angels who appeared to
Dee, as it seemed in answer to
his arguments reproving Trithemius, who had
asserted that no good spirits
ever took the shape of women. Madimi, who suddenly
appeared on May 28, was like
a pretty girle of 7 or 9 years, attired ina gown of Sey,
changeable green and red, with
a train; her hair was rowled up before and hanging
down very long behind. She
came into the study and played by herself; she
seemed to go in and out behind
my books;...the books semed to give place
sufficiently, one heap with
the other, while she passed between them. She
announced that her elder
sister would come presently, and corrected Dees
pronunciation fo her name. My
sister is not so short as you make her: Esemeli not
Esemeli. Madimi was a very
clever and accomplished little fairy. She learned
Greek, Arabic, and Syrian on
purpose to be useful to Dee. On June 14 Dee asked the
spirit Galvah, or Finis, what
she had to say about the Polandish Lord Albertus
Laski. The reply came, Ask
me these things to-morrow. But when the next day
came, Kelley, the seer, spent
all that afternoon (almost) in angling, when I was very
desirous to have had his
company and helping hand in this action. So at the next
sitting Galvah administers to
Kelley a sharply pointed reproof: You, sir, were best
to hunt and fish after
Verity. Dee adds that she spake so to E.K. because he spent
too much time in Fishing and
Angling. Then he asked if Laski should return to
Poland in August, if his
relation with the Prince should bring him credit, and how
should he use himself therin
to Gods liking, his countrys honour, and his own
credit. Galvah replied
oracularly: He shall want no direction in anything he
desireth. Whom God hath
armed, no man can prevaile against. Again, on June
19, Dee asked if it would be
best for the Prince to take the first opportunity of going
homeward.
It shall be answered soon,
replied Galvah.
May he be present at the
action?
Those that are of this house
are not to be denied the Banquets therein.
May I request you to cause
some sensible apparition to appear to him, to
comfort him and establish his
minde more abundantly in the godly intent of God
his service?
If he follow us, let him be
governed by us. But whatsoever is of flesh is not
of us.
You perceive how he
understandeth of the Lord Treasurer his grudge
against him. And perhaps some
others also are of like malicious nature. What
danger may follow hereof, or
encombrance?
The sum of his life is
already appointed; one jot cannot be
diminished. But he that is
Almighty can augment at his pleasure.
Let him rejoice in poverty, be
sorry for his enemies, and do the
works of justice.
Then the cloud of
invisibility a drop scene between the acts came over
Galvah, and she disappeared.
Next day Laski was present at
the action. An angel named Jubanladec
appeared, and said he was
appointed the Princes good governour or Angel, the
keeper and defender of this
man present. He bade him look to the steps of his
youth, measure the length of
his body, live better and see himself inwardly.
Excellent advice, which might
have been continued had not a man named Tanfield,
attached to the Prince,
arrived suddenly at Mortlake, with a message from the Court,
and, contrary to all good
manners, burst into the study. Laski had gone out another
way through the oratory to
meet him. The angel was annoyed, and prophesied
rather unkindly that in five
months the rash interrupter should be devoured by
fishes of the sea. Was he
drowned then or ever? Then the thread was resumed.
What do ye seek after? Do ye
hunt after the swiftness of the winds? Or are
you imagining a form unto the
coulds? Or go ye forth to hear the braying of an
Asse, which passeth away with
the swiftness of the air? Seek for true wisdom, for it
beholdeth the highest and
appeareth unto the lowest.
Then Laskis guardian angel
becomes extremely practical and interesting:
Cecil hateth him [Laski] to
the heart, and desireth he were gone hence. Many
others do privily sting at
him.
Dee endeavours to keep him to
the point.?For his return, what is your advice
Perhaps he wanteth necessary
provision, and money.
He shall be helpen, perhaps
miraculously. Let him go so soon as he can
conveniently.
I say again, perhaps he
wanteth money; but the Treasures of the Lord are not
sent to them whom he
favoureth.
His help shall be strange.
The Queen loveth him faithfully and hath fallen
out with Cecil about him.
Leicester flattereth him. His doings are looked into
narrowly. But I alwayes
inwardly direct him. I will minister such comfort to him as
shall be necessary in the
midst of all his doings.
Mingled with these sayings
were some prophetical utterances about Laski
overcoming the Saracens and
Paynims with a bloody cross shown in his hand, and
about Dees passing to his
country and aiding him to establish his kingdom. Then
the familiar spirit sank
through the table like a spark of fire, seeming to make haste
to his charge, I mean the Lord
Laski.
On Wednesday, the 26th, Laski
again being present, the good angel Il appeared
with a besom in his hand. The
Princes pedigree was then barely begun, but on June
29 the clever little Madimi
promised to finish the book exactly as Dee would have
written it. It was no matter
where the book was left, she told him, locked up or lying
about. Your locks are no
hindrance to us.
You have eased my heart of a
thousand pound weight, ejaculated Dee,
fervently. Now I shall have
leisure to follow my sute, and to do all Mr. Gilberts
businesse.
Madimi was much too learned a
scholar for Kelley, who on this same day
grew very angry with her for
speaking to him in Greek, of which he knew nothing,
not even the alphabet. As an
alternative she gave him Arabic. Unless you speak
some language which I
understand, I will expresse no more of this Gibberish, he
said, rudely.
Poor Dee! His skryer was a
constant anxiety to him. Like every medium
since known, he would
sometimes apply himself and sometimes not, was often
honest and yet frequently a
cheat.
Dee writes:
My heart did throb oftentimes
this day, and I thought E.K. did intend to
absent himself from me, and
now upon this warning, I was confirmed, and more
assured that it was so.
Whereupon seeing him make such haste to ride to Islington,
I asked him why he so hasted
to ride thither. And I said if it were to ride to Mr.
harry Lee, I would go thither
also, to be acquainted with him; seeing now I had so
good leisure, being eased of
the book writing [through Madimis good offices]. Then
he said that one told him the
other day that the Duke did but flatter him, and told
him other things, both against
the Duke and me. I answered for the Duke and
myself, and also said that if
the forty pound annuity which Mr. Lee did offer him
was the chief cause of his
mind feeling that way (contrary to some of his former
promises to me), that then I
would assure him of fifty pounds yearly, and would do
my best by following of my
sute [with the Queen] to bring it to passe as soon as
possibly I could, and
thereupon did make him promise upon the Bible. Then E.K.
again, upon the same Bible,
did swear unto me constant friendship and never to
forsake me: And moreover said
that unless this had so faln out, he would have
gone beyond the Seas, taking
ship at Newcastle, within eight days next. And so we
did plight our faith to one
another, taking each other by the hands upon these
points of brotherly and
friendly fidelity during life, which Covenant I beseech God
to turn to his honour, glorie
and service, and the comfort of our brethren (his
children) here on earth.
This reconciliation was not for
long, in spite of the promised salary, and soon
another scene occurred. On
June 5 Dee write that from nine in the morning Kelley
was in a marvellous great
disquietness of mind, fury and rage, because his brother
Thomas Kelley brought him
word, first, that a commission was out to attach and
apprehend him as a felon for
coining money; second, that his wife, whom he had
left at Mistress Freemans
house at Blockley, having heard from Mr. Hussey that he
was a cosener, had gone home
to her mother, Mrs. Cooper, at Chipping Norton.
Dee is touched with a great
pang of compassion, grieved that any Christian should
use such speeches and be of so
revenging a mind, even more than he is distressed
that his own credit shall be
endangered for embracing the company of such a
disorderly person, especially
if he be arreseted at Mortlake, which will be no small
grief and disgrace. But he so
generously resolves to stand by his friend. Kelley, it
seems, had been met coming
from Islington with his scroll, book and powder, and
had been threatened to be
pulled in pieces if he brought them to Dee. A drawing
in the margin of the MS. shows
the book to have had a cross on the cover, one clasp,
and deep metal bands across
its two sides. Presumably these were some of the
treasures reported to have
been found at Glastonbury.
A day or two after, June 18,
Kelley again simulated great fear and distress at
seeing evil spirits. He
protested he would skry no more, and was so excited that he
brought on himself the wise
rebuke from Galvah: He that is angry cannot see
well. He seems to have wished
to show Laski some reprobate spirits in Dees study,
but the older man wisely kept
the crystal and teh table of communion under his
own control. It was, perhaps,
partly cunning that made Kelley, although he really
possessed extraordinary
mediumistic powers, so sceptical. I am Thomas Didymus,
he says to the spirits. How
can ye persuade me ye are no deluders?
Three days after this, Dee was
writing letters to Adrian Gilbert, in Devonshire,
when Madimi suddenly appeared
to Kelley, who was seated in the green chair.
Dee said, How is the mind of
Mr. Secretary toward me? Methinketh it is
alienated marvellously.
Dee had long been on
neighbourly terms with Sir Francis and Lady
Walsingham. If any cause
existed for supposing both Burleighs and Walsinghams
attitude toward him was
changed, it may have been that the Lord Treasurer, the
great finanacier of the time,
resented his constant applications for a salary from the
exchequer, while Walsingham,
with his intimate knowledge of foreign affairs,
perhaps misdoubted this
intimacy between Dee and the scheming Polish Prince.
Curiously enough, it was
through this very intimacy with Laski that both Burleigh
and Walsingham came later to
regard the alchemists in the light of a valuable
national asset.
Madimi replied ?The Lord
Treasurer and he are joyned together, and they hate thee. I heard
them when they both said, thou
wouldst go mad shortly. Whatever they can do
against thee, assure thyself
of. They will shortly lay a bait for thee, but eschew
them.
D. Lord have mercy upon me,
what bait, I beseech you, and by whom?
M. They have determined to
search thy house, but they stay untill the
Duke be gone.
D. What would they search
it for?
M. They hate the Duke,
both, unto death.
Then with a sharp caution to
Kelley to deal uprightly with Dee, and a
protestation from him of his
faithful mind to his master, she goes on to reveal the
suspicions attached to Laski:
M. Look unto the kind of
people about the Duke in the manner of their
diligence.
D. What mean you by that?
His own people? Or who?
M. The espies.
D. Which be those?
M. All. There is not one
true.
D. You mean the
Englishmen.
M. You are very grosse if
you understand not my sayings.
D. Lord! what is thy
counsel to prevent all?
M. The speech is general.
The wicked shall not prevail.
D. But will they enter to
search my house or no?
M. Immediately after the
Duke his going, they will.
D. To what intent? What do
they hope to find?
M. They suspect the Duke is
inwardly a traitor.
Dee replies with sincerity,
They can by no means charge me, no not so much
as with a traitorous thought.
M. Though thy thoughts be
good, they cannot comprehend the doings of
the wicked. In summe, they
hate thee. Trust them not. They shall go about shortly
to offer thee friendship. But
be thou a worm in a heap of straw.
D. I pray you expound that
parable.
M. A heap of straw being
never so great, is no weight upon a worm.
Notwithstanding every straw
hindereth the worms passage. See them and be not
seen of them; dost thou
understand it?
It now seemed certain that Dee
and his skryer were to embark their fortunes
with Laski. Dee begs for
particular instructions when they had better take ship, what
shall be done with all the
furniture prepared and standing in the chamber of
practice? Is it best for the
Pole to resort hither oft, or to stay quiet at his house in
London?
Madimi retorts
Thou hast no faith. He is
your friend greatly and intendeth to do much for
you. He is prepared to do thee
good, and thou art prepared to do him service. Those
who are not faithful shall die
a most miserable death, and shall drink of sleep
everlasting.
A couple of days after, on
July 4, Dee returning from Court, found Kelley
making preparation to go away
for five days, having fixed to met some companions
in Mortlake, others in
Brentford. Doubtless he found all this mystical and angelic
society somewhat of a bore,
and was yearning for an outburst a little more to his
taste. Dee, who had seen Laski
in London, knew that he intended to come down to
Mortlake within a day or two,
who also, he says, delighted in E.K. his company.
So he wrote a short note in
very polite Latin to the Nobilissimi Princeps, bidding
him put off his visit, as our
Edward was about to take a journey, and would not be
home for five days, or so he
says: Quid sit ipsa veritas.
He showed Kelley the letter.
Kelley took great offence at these words,
suspecting some secret
understanding between the two against him. Dee gently
referred to Kelleys own words
that his return might be within, or at the end of, five
days. Kelley, angry and
suspicious, seized the letter and tore it up.
Soon after, Kelley beholds a
spiritual creature by his right shoulder, telling
him to go clean away, for if
he stays there he will be hanged. If he goes with the
Prince, he will cut off his
head, and (to Dee)
You mean not to keep promise
with me. And therefore if I might have a
thousand pound to tarry, yea,
a kingdom, I cannot. Therefore I release you of your
promise of 50 pounds yearly
stipend to me, and you need not doubt but God will
defend you and prosper you,
and can of the very stones raise up children unto
Abraham. And again, I cannot
abide my wife, I love her not, nay, I abhor her, and
here in the house I am
misliked because I favour her no better.
Dee endeavoured to calm this
turbulent young man, spoke of his confidence
in him in his dealings with
their spiritual friends, but such doings and sayings as
these, he points out, are not
meet and fitting.
Kelley flung out of the room
in a passion, mounted his mare, and rode off
furiously towards Brentford,
clattering out of the house with such commotion that
Jane came running up to her
husbands study to know what was the matter. It was
about seven oclock in the
evening.
`Jane, I said, `this man is
marvellously out of quiet against his wife, for her
friends their bitter reports
against him behind his back, and her silence thereat, etc.
He is gone, said I, `but I
beseech the Almighty God to guide him and defend him
from danger and shame. I doubt
not but God will be merciful to him, and bring him
at length to such order as he
shall be a faithful servant unto God.
Then a remarkable thing happened.
By ten oclock that night (the long
midsummer twilight barely
over), the prodigal returned, and mounted softly up the
study stairs, unbooted, for
he was come in a boat from Brentford. When I saw him,
I was very glad inwardly. But
I remained writing of those records as I had yet to
write, of last Tuesdays
action.
`I have lent my mare, he
said, `and so am returned.
`It is well done, said
I.?Thereupon he sate down in the chair by my table where
he was wont to sit.
He took up in his hand the books
which I had brought from London, of the Lord
Laskie, written to him in his
commendations. Evidently books sent to Kelley by
way of compliment.
Almost immediately, Madimi,
who seemed to have a special wardship over
books, appeared. She patted
the parchment cover of one and would have taken it
out of Kelleys hand. Dee
heard the strokes, he says. He took a paper and, greeting
his visitor, noted the
conversation.
D. Mistresse Madimi, you
are welcome in God for good, as I hope. What
is the cause of your coming
now?
M. To see how you do.
D. I know you see me often,
but I see you onely by faith and imagination.
M. (who is always more
personal than the other spirits)
That sight is perfecter than
his, pointing to Kelley.
D. (with emotion) O Madimi,
shall I have any more of these grievous
pangs?
M. (oracularly) Curst wives
and great Devils are sore companions.
D. In respect of the Lord
Treasurer, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Rawly, I pray
you, what worldly comfort is
there to be looked for? Besides that I do principally put
my trust in God.
M. Madder will staine,
wicked men will offend, and are easie to be
offended.
D. And being offended, will
do wickedly, to the persecution of them that
mean simply.
M. Or else they were not to
be called wicked.
D. As concerning Alb.
Laski, his pedigree, you said your sister would tell
all.
M. I told you more than all
your Dog painters and Cat painters can do.
Kelley interrupts Dees
questions about Laskis pedigree and parentage,
impatiently, with
K. Will you, Madimi, lend
me a hundred pounds for a fortnight?
M. I have swept all my
money out of doors.
D. As for money, we shall
have that which is necessary when God seeth
time.
Then Madimi, becoming serious,
addresses to Kelley a beautiful exposition of
the unity of all things: Love
is the spirit of God uniting and knitting things
together in a laudable
proportion. She turns sharply to him, with
What dost thou hunt after?
Speak, man, what doest though hunt
after?...Thou lovest not God.
Lo, behold, thou breakest his commandments: thy
bragging words are
confounded...If thou hast none of these [faith, hope, love] thou
hast hate. Dost thou love
Silver and Gold? The one is a Thief; the other is a
Murderer. Wilt thou seek
honour? So did Cain. But thou hast a just God that
loveth thee, just and virtuous
men that delight in thee. Therefore be thou
virtuous.
Next follows a remarkable
scene. Madimi summons Barma and his fourteen
evil companions, who have
assumed possession of Kelley, with the words Venite
Tenebrae fugite spirito meo,
and orders them to return to the Prince of Darkness:
Depart unto the last cry. Go
you thither....The hand of the Lord is like a strong oak.
When it falleth it cutteth in
sunder many bushes. The light of His eyes shall expel
darkness.
Kelley sees the whole crew
sink down through the floor of the chamber: A
thing like a wind came and
pluckt them by the feet away. He professes his
deliverance: Methinketh I am
lighter than I was, and I seem to be empty and to be
returned from a great amazing.
For this fortnight, I do not well remember what I
have done or said.
Thou art eased of a great
burden. Love God. Love thy friends. Love thy
wife.
And with this parting
injunction, and a psalm of thanksgiving from Dee, the
story of Kelleys wild attack
of temper, or as it was regarded in teh sixteenth century,
his possession, for the
present ends. Nor is there any record of further dealings with
spirits for more than two
months.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER IX
A FOREIGN JOURNEY
Friends are everywhere to him
that behave himself well, and a prophet is
not esteemed in his country.
Robert Burton
There is a hiatus in the Liber
Mysteriorum after this tempestuous scene with
Kelley. We can, however,
slightly fill it up from Dees other diary. It seems as if the
skryer went away, leaving
behind at Mortlake the poor slighted wife, who must
have joined him there, for Dee
notes on July 7 payment of wages to a servant he
dismissed, in the presens of
Goodman Hilton and Mistress Kelley in my study.
On the 30th, as we have seen,
the Queen came in grand procession, heralded
with music and song, down the
river to Sion. The next day, Leicesters secretary
brought letters and gifts. On
August I, John Halton, a London minister, called; also a
Worcestershire man, a wicked
spy came to my howse, whom I used as an honest
man, and found nothing wrong,
as I thought. He was sent to E.K.
This entry is characteristic
of the philosopher who, in spite of all his learning,
was, as regards men, of so
confiding and innocent a nature that he ended by being
infinitely more deceived by
another Worcestershire man Kelley, for whom he
entertained to the last a most
faithful friendship.
Then we come on a very
entertaining remark in the diary: Aug. 18. A great
tempest of wynde at midnight.
Maxima era E. K. cum uxore ejus. Kelley had?returned,
and his wife was treated to
another of his outbreaks, by comparison with
which the gale outside was
slight.
This is the last entry in the
diary before Dees departure for Poland with Laski.
The Prince proposed to take
the whole party from Mortlake back with him to
the Continent. He was reputed
to be deeply in debt, and seems to have entertained
wild hopes that they, aided by
the spirits, would provide him with gold, and secure
to him the crown of Poland.
Kelley foresaw an easy and luxurious life, plenty of
change and variety suited to
his restless, impetuous nature. He hadn ot as yet been
out of England. There were
very obvious reasons that he should quit the country
now if he would escape a
prison. Dee had been a great traveller, as we know, and
these were not the attractions
to a man of his years. He went in obedience to a
supposed call, in the hope of
furthering his own knowledge and the Princes good.
The notion of providing for
himself and his family lay doubtless at the back of his
mind also, but he had all a
geniuss disregard for thrift and economy, and though
very precise and practical
about small details, as his diary proves, his mind refused
to contemplate these larger
considerations of ways and means.
He disposed of the house at
Mortlake to his brother-in-law, Nicholas
Fromond, but in such a loose
and casual way that before his return he found
himself compelled to make a
new agreement with him. He took no steps about
appointing a receiver of the
rents of his two livings, and when he came back the
whole six years were owing,
nor did he ever obtain the money. He says he intended
at the most to be absent one
year and eight months. It was more than six years
before he again set foot in
England.
So, unprepared, he left
Mortlake about three in the afternoon of Saturday,
September 21, 1583. He met the
Prince by appointment on the river, and travelled
up after dark to London. A
certain secrecy was observed about the journey. laski, as
we have seen, was under some
suspicion of Walsingham and Burleigh, whose
business it had become to
learn news from every Court in Europe. He was suspected
of plots against the King of
Poland.
In the dead of night, Dee and
Laski went by wherries to Greenwich, to my
friend Goodman Fern, the
Potter, his house, where we refreshed ourselves.
Probably a man whom Dee had
employed to make retorts and other vessels for his
chemical work. Perhaps they
met there the rest of the party, but on the whole it
seems more probable that all
started together from Mortlake. The exit of such a
company from the riverside
house must have been quite an event. At Gravesend, a
great Tylte-boat rowed up to
Ferns house, on the quay, and took them out to the
two vessels arranged to convey
them abroad. These ships, which Dee had hired,
were lying seven or eight
miles down stream a Danish double fly-boat, in which
Laski, Dee, Kelley, Mrs. Dee
and Mrs. Kelley and the three children, Arthur,
Katherine and Rowland Dee,
embarked at sunrise on Sunday morning; and a boyer,
a pretty ship, which
conveyed the Princes men, some servants of Dee, and a
couple of horses. They sailed
at once, but the wind coming from N.W., they
anchored on the Spits. The
fly-boat dragged her anchor, and the wind suddenly
changing to N.E., they were in
danger of grounding. However, next morning they
made Queenborough Haven, and
landed in small fishing boats. On the landing, the
boat in which the party were
seated was nearly upset. Water came in up to their
knees, an oar was lost, and
they were in considerable peril, but Kelley seems to have
risen to the occasion by
baling water out of the bottom with a great gauntlet. Dee
thinks he saved their lives.
Dee, poor man, was dropped from the captains back on
landing into ooze and mud, so
that he was foule arrayed on reaching
Queenborough town, up the
crooked creek. God be praised for ever that all that
danger was ended with so small
grief or hurt, is his cheerful comment.
After three nights ashore,
they again embarked, and at daybreak on the 27th
sailed out into the Channel.
On the 29th they landed at Brill. Here Laskis guardian
angel, Jubanladec, seems to
have granted them an interview. They only paused for
two or three days, and hurried
on, travelling forward each day by the sluggish Dutch
canals, having exchanged their
vessel for a hoy of Amsterdam at Rotterdam. They
passed through Tergowd and
Haarlem to Amsterdam; here they stayed three days,
and Dee despatched Edmond
Hilton with his heavy goods by sea to Dantzic. By
Enkhuisen they sailed up the
Zuyder Zee to Harlingen, then took the canals again in
little scuts, or small
boats, to Leewarden, thence to Dokkum, in West Friesland, in
somestill smaller craft. On
the Sunday spent at Dokkum, Gabriel appeared in the
crystal, and delivered to them
the most searching and exalted code of ideals for the
conduct of their lives.
Everything was laid bare before his relentless and unerring
eyes. They were bidden to live
in brotherly charity, the imperfections of each to be
by the other perfectly
shadowed in charity.
Bear your own infirmities,
and so the infirmities of others, with quiet and
hidden minde...The Cross of
Christ is the comparison in mildness over thy
brethren...He that forsaketh
the world for the love of God in Christ shall have his
reward, but he that forsaketh
himself shall be crowned with a diadem of glory.
Bridle the flesh. Riotousness
is the sleep of death and the slumber to destruction.
Feed the soul, but bridle the
flesh, for it is insolent. Look to your servants. Make
them clean. Let your
friendship be for the service of God. All frienship else is vain
and of no account. Persevere
to the end. Many men begin, but few end. He that
leaveth off is a damned soul.
From Dokkum the travellers put
out to sea again, beyond the islands, and
sailed up the Western Ems to
Embden. They arrived after dusk, and found the city
gates shut, so they lay all
night on shipboard. Next morning, the 18th October, Laski
took up his quarters at The
White Swan, on the quay, for he was to remain there
to see the Landgrave, and
obtain money. The others lay at `The Three Golden
Keys, by the English House,
and left early next morning by a small boat to sail up
the river Ems to Leer, and thence
by a little tributary to Stickhuysen and Apen a
very simple village, and so
on to Oldenburg. A night there, and then on by
Delmenhorst to Bremen, where
they lodged at an old widow, her house, at the
signe of the Crown.
Here Il, the jaunty spirit who
was like a Vice in a morality play, again
appeared to them, clad in a
white satin jerkin, ragged below the girdle. The curtain
lifted, and his first words
were theatrically light.
Room for a player! Jesus! who
would have thought I should have met you
here?
D. (solemnly). By the
mercies of God we are here. And by your will and
propriety and the power of
God, you are here.
Il. Tush, doubt not of me,
for I am Il.?Kelley (with rebuke). My thinketh
that the gravity of this
action requiretha more grave gesture, and more grave speeches.
Il. If I must bear with
thee for speaking foolishly, which art but flesh and
speakest of thy own wisdom,
how much more oughtest thou to be contented with
my gesture, which is appointed
of Him which regardeth not the outward form, but
the fulfilling of His will and
the keeping of His commandments, etc., etc.
Kelley. I do not understand
your words. I do only repeat your sayings.
Il. It is the part of a
servant to do his duty, of him that watcheth to look
that he seeth...Do that which
is appointed, for he that doeth more is not a true
servant.
Il turns from Kelley to Dee.
Sir, here is money, but I have it very hardly.
Bear with me, for I can help
thee with no more. Come on, Andras; where are you,
Andras? he calls.
Andras, in a bare and shabby
gown, like a London prentice, appears, but
empty-handed.
Il. This is one of those
that forgetteth his businesse so soon as it is told
him.
Andras. Sir, I went
half-way.
Il. And how then? Speak on.
Speak on.
Andras. Then, being
somewhat weary, I stayed, the rather because I met
my friends. The third day, I
came thither, but I found them not at home. His family
told me he had gone forth.
Il. And you returned a
coxcomb. Well, thus it is. I placed thee above my
servants, and did what I could
to promote thee. But I am rewarded with loytring
and have brought up an idle
person. Go thy way, the officer shall deliver thee to
prison, and there thou shalt
be rewarded. For such as do that they are commanded
deserve freedom; but unto
those that loytre and are idle, vengeance and hunger
belongeth.
Then Dee questions Il about
Laski, and whether he is having any success in
his efforts to obtain money,
about Laskis brother-in-law, Vincent Seve, whose
errand in England is not yet
completed, and whether they shall all arrive safe at
Cracow, or the place
appointed.
Kelley has a sight of Master
Vincent in a black satin doublet, cut with cross
cuts, a ruff and a long
cloak, edged with black or blue. Then Il goes off into a
mystical rhapsody, at the end
of which he suddenly falls all in pieces as small as
ashes.
Next day, Kelley sees Master
Vincent again, walking down by Charing Cross,
accompanied by a tall man
with a cutberd, a sword and skie-coloured cloack. He
passes on towards Westminster
and overtakes a gentleman on horseback with five
followers in short cape-cloaks
and long moustaches. The rider is a lean-visaged
man in a short cloak and with
a gold rapier. His horse wears a velvet foot cloth. (It
sounds like a vision of
Raleigh.)
They are merry. Vincent laughs
heartily and shows two broad front teeth. He
has a little stick in his
crooked fingers. The scar on his left hand is plainly seen. He
has very high straight close
boots. They arrive at Westminster Church (the Abbey).
Many people are coming out. A
number of boats lie in the river, and in the gardens
at Whitehall a man is grafting
fruit trees. The lean-visaged man on horseback?alights,
and goes down towards, and up,
the steps of Westminster Hall, Vincent
with him. His companion walks
outside and accosts a waterman. The waterman
asks if that is the Polish
bishop? The servant wants to know what business it is of
his. A messenger comes down
the steps of the Hall and says to Vincents man that
his master shall be despatched
to-morrow. The servant saith he is glad of it. Then
all that shew is vanished
away.
There are one or two allusions
here to an emissary from Denmark who has
brought a bag of amber. Il
also says he has much business in Denmark. Frederick,
the King of Denmakr, was in
frequent correspondence with Queen Elizabeth at this
time.
At Bremen, where they stayed a
week, Dee says that Kelley, when skrying by
himself, was given a kind of
rambling prophetical verse of thirty-two lines, which
he prints, foretelling the
downfall of England, Spain, France and Poland. In fact, a
general debacle of nations. It
is very bad prophecy and still worse poetry, but
evidently inspired by the
highly diplomatic foreign relations of Elizabeth and her
two ministers.
On leaving Bremen, the party
travelled by Osterholz to Harburg, on the left
bank of the Elbe. They crossed
the river and went on by coach to Hamburg. Laski
had then rejoined them, but
stayed behind in Hamburg, at the English house,
probably the consuls. Dee and
the rest reached Lubeck on November 7.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER X
PROMISES AND VISIONS
Search while thou wilt; and
let thy reason go
To ransom truth, een to
thabyss below;
Rally the scattered causes;
and that line
Which nature twists be able to
untwine.
It is thy Makers will; for
unto none
But unto reason can He eer be
known.
Sir Thomas Browne
The dealings which Kelley had
in Lubeck with the spirits seem to throw a
light on all his relations
with Dee. Kelley is gaining confidence; he sees that he is
already able to dupe his
employer considerably. He has only to manipulate the
conversations a little to show
up often his so-called sincerity. He can pretend he is
aghast at Ils levity, and he
seems to have been cunning enough when the spirits
very often blamed him.
Buthis dreams of advancement
in wealth and fame were no nearer
accomplishment. He had seen
through Dees ambition. It was very different from
his own, but he thought he
could use it to his own advantage. Dee was now
flattered without stint.
So at the sitting in November
15 he sees eleven noblemen in rich sables.
One, wearing a regal cap
trimmed with sable, is seated on a chair beset with precious
stones. He is a goodlier man
than the Lord A.L. He addresses Dee with glittering
promises. He is the King or
the Emperor, and is represented in the margin of the
diary by a crown. He says to
Dee: ?Pluck up thy heart and be merry, pine not thy
Soul away with
inwardgroanings, for I will open unto thee the secrets of Nature
and the riches of theworld,
and withal give thee such direction that shall deliver
thee from manyinfirmities both
of body and mind, ease thee of they tedious
labours and settle theewhere
thou shalt have comfort.
Thanks be given unto the Highest
now and ever.
Why doest thou [hesitate]
within thy thought? Hast thou not need of
comfort?
Yes, God knows, for I am half
confounded.
Then first determine within
thyself to rest thee for this winter. Secondly,
open thy mind to desire such
things as may advance thy credit and enrich thy
family, reap unto thee many
friends and lift thee up to honour. For I will stir up the
mindes of learned men, the
profoundest in the world, that they shall visit thee.
And I will disclose unto you
such things as shall be wonderful and of exceeding
profit. Moreover I will put to
my hands and help your proceedings, that the world
may talk of your wisdom
hereafter. Therefore wander not farther into unknown
places: contagious, the very
seats of death for thee and thy children and such as are
thy friends. If thou enquire
of me where and how, I answer, everywhere, or how
thou wilt. Thou shalt
forthwith become rich, and thou shalt be able to enrich kings
and help such as are needy.
Wast thou not born to use the commodity of this
world? were not all things
made for mans use?
Here are the old dreams of the
philosophers stone, the elixir of life, the
transmutation of metals and
all the works of alchemy, for which both these
travellers were adventuring
their lives in a foreign land. Dee does not seem exactly
dazzled by these allurements.
He only begs leave to ask questions, and seeks to keep
the speaker to the point. Are
they to stay there and not to go on with Laski?
Where are they to spend the
winter?
Where you will, comes the
answer. Are you so unwise as to go with him
now? Let him go before, and
provide for himself and the better for you. In the
Summer, when it is more fair,
you can follow. The weather now will be hard and
the travel unfit for children.
Heap not up thy wifes sorrow.
I desire to live in quiet
that my spirit may the better attend to the service of
God.
Well, you are contented?
Dee asks again, are they to
part from Laski? Will it not be prejudicial to their
arrangement, they having
entered into a kind of covenant with him? Are you not
content? the visitor repeats.
Then he did impart some
remarkable information to Dee, in which there was
certainly a grain of
telepathically conveyed truth.
Your brother is clapped up in
prison. How like you that? Your house-keeper
I mean.
This evidently refers to
Nicholas Fromond.?They examine him. They say that thou
hast hid divers secret things.
As forthy books, thou mayst go
look at them at leasure. It may be that thy house may be
burnt for a remembrance of
thee, too. Well, if they do, so it is. I have given thee my
counsel, and desired to do
thee good. The choice is thine.
There is no evidence that
Fromond was imprisoned, but he was a poor
protector of his
brother-in-laws valuable effects. He was powerless against a mob
who broke into Dees house not
long after his departure from Mortlake, made havoc
of his priceless books and
instruments, and wrought irreparable damage. It was not
nearly two months since Dee
had left Mortlake, and, moving from place to place, it
was unlikely that he had heard
any news from thence. No date has ever been
assigned to this action of the
mob. It is quite conceivable that it actually took place
on this day, November 15, and
that by Kelleys clairvoyant or telepathic power the
news was communicated across
the sea and continent to Dee.
The poor astrologer was torn
with doubts and misgivings. He fell upon his
knees, uttering a piercing
supplication to the Author of all truth and direction of
such as put their trust in
him.
I most humbly beseech thee
consider these promises thus to me
propounded. If they be true
and from thee, confirm them. If they be illusions and
not from thee, disprove them.
For hardly in my judgment they do or can agree with
our former precepts and order
taken by thee.
And again, in an agony:
O Lord, I doubt of these
promises of ease, wealth, and honour: I suspect the
whole apparition of the eleven
to be an illusion. O confirm my judgment or
disprove it.
So he seeks for a revelation
of guidance, writes letters to Laski, and waits.
Soon he perceives these
temptations to have come from a very foolish devil. He
decides that they will
continue to throw in their lot with Laski, who rejoined them
in Lubeck. He left again to
visit the Duke of Mecklenburg, they meanwhile going by
Wismar to Rostock and Stettin,
which place they reached at ten oclock on
Christmas morning. Laski
joined them in a fortnight. They passed on by Stayard to
Posen, where Dee adds an
antiquarian note that the cathedral church was founded
in 1025, and that the tomb of
Wenceslaus, the Christian king, is of one huge stone.
It was here that Dee began to
enter curous notes about Kelley in the Liber
Peregrinationis, written in
Greek characters, but the words are Latin words, or more
frequently English. The supposition
is that Kelley was unacquainted even with the
Greek alphabet. Dee kept his
other foreign diary, written in an Ephemerides
Coelestium (printed in Venice,
1582), secret from his partner, for Kelley had
obtained possession of an
earlier one kept in England and had written in it
unfavourable comments, as well
as erased things, about himself. Dee had the last
word, and has added above
Kelleys shameful lye, This is Mr. Talbots, his own
writing in my boke, very
unduely as he came by it. The various diaries sound,
perhaps, confusing to the
reader, but are really quite simple. By the private diary is
meant the scraps in the
Bodleian Almanacs, edited by Halliwell for the Camden
Society, in which he seldom
alludes to psychic affairs. The Book of Mysteries is the
diary in which he relates all
the history of the crystal gazing. The printed version
(True Relation) begins with
Laskis visit to Mortlake on May 28, 1583.
Winter had now set in with
unwonted rigour, and one is amazed at the
celerity with which this great
caravanserai of people and goods pushed on from
place to place. From Stettin
to Posen, for instance, is more than 200 miles, and it ws
accomplished within four days
and apparently with only one stop. Then
southwards into the watery
district between the Oder and the Warthe, where the
country was so icebound that
they had to employ five-and-twenty men to cut the ice
for their coaches for a
distance as long as two English miles. On February 3 they
reached Lask, on the Princes
own property, and at last were comfortably housed in
the Provosts fair house by
the Church. Here Dee was ill with ague, but the table
was set up, and a new spirit
called Nalvage appeared in teh globe. Nalvages
pysiognomy was like the
picture of King Edward the Sixth. His hair hangeth
downa quarter of the length of
the cap, somewhat curling, yellow. Dee, of course,
had seen the young King when
he presented his books, so this is a first-hand
reminiscence. Nalvage stood
upon a round table of mother-of-pearl, and revealed
to them many cabalistic
mysteries, tables of letters and names. There was a terrible
vision of Mrs. Dee lying dead,
with her face all battered in, and of the maid Mary
being pulled our of a pool of
water half drowned. But it seems to portent no more
than did another piece of ill
news conveyed at the same time: Sir Harry Sidney
died upon Wednesday last. A
privy enemy of yours. Dee says, I ever took him for
one of my chief friends, and
adds, with unconscious humour:
Note. At Prague, Aug. 24, I
understood that Sir H. Sidney was not dead in
February nor March, no, not in
May last. Therefore this must be considered. Doctor
Hagek, his son, told me.
This note makes us realise for
a moment how slowly news travelled from
England to the Continent in
this year of grace 1584.
The informant, Madimi, a
little wench in white, told Dee that she had been
in England at his house, and
all there were well. The Queen said she was sorry she
had lost her philosopher. But
the Lord Treasurer answered, He will come home
shortly a begging to you.
Truly, adds Madimi, none can turn the Queens heart
from you. Then, recurring to
Mortlake, she says: I could not come into your
study. The Queen hath caused
it to be sealed. This no doubt after the breaking in
of the rioters. Dee was
counselled to go and live at Cracow. He would like to be led
step by step, and begs to know
what house is in Gods determination for me and
mine. Madimi answers, As
wise as I am, I cannot yet tell what to say. Dee
demurs to the expense, and
reproaches her for not telling them sooner. Needless
cost would have been saved,
and he does not know if Laski will have enough
money for yet another move. He
had rather Kesmark had been redeemed before
Laski went to Cracow. Perhaps
then his credit with the people would be greater.
Laski had heavily mortgaged
his estates in Poland; he was in debt, and he had
apparently raised a loan on
his Kesmark property for a large sum of money. The
bond was to expire on St.
Georges Day, April 23 next, and without the Emperors
help Dee did not see how it
could be met. Kelley recurs to the Danish treasure he
had found in England, hidden
in ten places, which they would fain have
transported to Poland now,
very speedily, for Laskis use. Dee is anxious to kow
from Madimi whether his rents
are being duly received in England by his deputy or
not, whether Her Majesty or
the Council do intend to send for me again or no.
They ask instructions from
Gabriel about Kelleys red powder, and how they shall
use it. Dee seeks for
information about the Princes wife, whom they have not yet
seen, but they doubt she is
not their sound friend. He begs for medicine for his ague.
And again, shall he take the
pedestal, being made in Lask for the holy table, on to
Cracow when they go, rather
than make a new one there, both to save time and to
have our doings the more
secret? This pedestal was for the crystal to rest in upon
the table. Three iron hasps
and padlocks were also made at Lask for the table. If any
answer to these questions was
vouchsafed by the spirits, it was in the usual enigmas.
Part of Dees baggage, a chest
left at Toon on their way out, not having
arrived, they did not
immediately obey the injunction to move on to Cracow, but
after about five weeks in
Lask, they again journeyed forward.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XI
CRACOW
Sir, to a wise man all the
worlds his soil:
It is not Italy, nor France,
nor Europe
That must bound me if my fates
call me forth.
Yet, I protest it is no salt
desire
Of seeing countries, shifting
a religion;
Nor any disaffection to the
State
Where I was bred, and unto
which I owe
My dearest plots, hath brought
me out: much less
That idle, antique, stale,
grey-headed project
Of knowing mens minds and
manners.
Jonson, Volpone, or The Fox
At the close of the sixteenth
century, Cracow was at the height of its fame and
prosperity. It was still the
capital of POland, and the residence of her kings, as well
as the seat of the university
founded two hundred years before by Casimir the Great.
The Gothic cathedral erected
under the same king, the burial place of Polish
monarchs, was already adorned
with sculptures and bronzes, the work of
Renaissance artists from
Florence and Siena. The visitor of today will find himself
surrounded by churches and
other buildings dating from the twelfth, fourteenth,
and sixteenth centuries. Amid
the ramparts of the Austrian fortress can still be
traced here and there the
older fortifications.
The city lies in the centre of
a vast plain, almost at the confluence of two
rivers, the Vistula and
Rudowa. Across this plain from the north-west the
travellers came, and reached
Cracow in the afternoon of March 13, 1584.
We were lodged in the suburbs
by the church, where we reamained a seven
night, and then we (I and my
wife) removed to the house in St. Stephen Street,
which I had hired for a year
for 80 gylders of 30 groschen. And Master Edward
Kelley came to us on Fryday in
the Easter week by the new Gregorian Kalendar,
being the 27 day of March by
the old Kalendar, but the sixth day of April by the new
Kalendar, Easter Day being the
first day of April in Poland, by the new Gregorian
institution.
From the time of arriving in
Poland Dee is careful to enter the dates in both
old and new styles. The New
Style was then extremely new, it having been
introduced by Pope Gregory
XIII. only a couple of years before, and universally
adopted by all Roman Catholic
countries. England, in all the fervour of her recently
established Protestantism,
would have none of it, but still desired not to lag behind
in needful reforms. Dee, as
already stated, had been commissioned before he left
England to make calculations
by which the calendar could be suitably adopted in this
country. The Roman Church had
assumed the chronology adopted by the Council
of Nice to be strictly
correct. But Dee desired to ascertain the actual position of the
earth in relation to the sun
at the birth of Christ, as a bsais on which to rectify the
calendar. The result of his
calculations would have omitted eleven instead of ten
days.
Dees book (which was never
printed, but remains in manuscript among the
Ashmolean MSS.) was entitled
A Playne discourse and humble advise for our
gratious Queene Elizabeth, her
most Excellent Majestie, to peruse and consider as
concerning the needful
Reformation of the Vulgar Kalendar for the civile yeres and
daies accompting or verifying,
according to the tyme truely spent. It was finished
and delivered to Burleigh on
February 26, 1583. To him it was inscribed with these
rather playful verses:
and
I shew the thing and reason
why,
At large, in briefe, in middle
wise
I humbly give a playne advise;
For want of tyme, the tyme
untrew
If I have must, command anew
Your honour may, so shall you
see
That love of truth doth govern
me.
Burleigh proposed that skilful
men in science, as Mr. Digges, be called from
the universities to peruse the
work and confer. But the Council of State consulted
Archbishop Grindal and three
of the bishops who recommended the rejection of
Dees scheme, chiefly on the
ground that it emanated from Rome, and so their
opposition delayed this
desirable public reform in England for 170 years. Dee agreed
to grant the ten days for the
sake of conformity with the rest of the world, if his
calculation that eleven were
strictly accurate was publicly announced. It will be
remembered that in 1742, when
the change was made, eleven days were omitted
from the calendar.
The household at Cracow now
consisted of Mrs. Dee, Arthur, Katherine,
Rowland and his nurse, and the
mand Mary, Mrs. Kelley and her husband, a
servant named John Crocker and
a boy. It was augmented before long.
The actions with the spirits
soon recommenced. Kelley began very unfairly
by trying sittings alone, for
he was importunate to know how the Prince was going
to treat them as regards
money. But he seems only to have drawn reproof and
much excellent counsel on
himself from Nalvage.
The next few weeks were taken
up with instructions from Gabriel and
Nalvage, consisting of
letters, numbers and words ina strange Eastern or angelic
language, to which Dee
probably had some key, though they appear unintelligible.
The partners were bidden to
keep the Sabbath, and Dee resolves to go always to
church. Kelley seems to have
turned restive once again. On April 17 he declared he
would sit no more to receive
these A.B.C. messages unless they were better
explained. There is your boy,
John, he said; he can well enough give you these
simple signs. You need me no
longer. I will be gone. As Casaubon remarks, he
was ever and anon upon
projects to break with Dee.
Two days after, Dee heard him
come upstairs to his own study, and called
him in. Dees study was an
inner room through one that opened on to the stairs, at
the foot of which was a door.
He explained that he had now a distinct clue to the
meaning of the tables of
letters on which he had long been puzzling; dwelt on how
essential it was to miss not a
single letter, or else the words would err. He asked
him, in fact, to resume his
skrying, and encouraged him by saying that he knew he
would come to like better
this due and methodical manner of our friends
proceeding, if only he would
continue. Kelley scornfully replied that their teachers
were mere deluders, and no
good or sufficient teachers. In two years they had not
made them able to understand,
or do anything. In two years, he said boastingly, I
could have learned all the
seven liberal arts and sciences, if I had first learned
Logick. He protested he would
have no more to do with the spirits in any manner
or way, wished himself in
England, and vowed if the books were his he would burn
them all. These spiritual
creatures are not bound to me. Take John for your
skryer.
Dee pathetically recapitulated
his long desire for wisdom, his faith that more
knowledge will be granted him.
Kelley went out leaving Dee buried in prayer.
In two days, Kelley was again
submissive to the spirits, who bade him not
mistrust. Let him that is a
servant and is commanded to go, go. And let not the
earth rise up and strive
against the plowman. So they go on again with their
cabalistic letters and signs.
In the beginning of May, Dee notes: E.K. is very well
persuaded of these actions
now, thanked be the Highest.
Later in the month he says:
There happened a great storm or temptation to
E.K. of doubting and mistaking
our instructors and their doings, and of contemning
and condemning anything that I
knew or could do. I bare all things patiently for
God his sake. Kelley at the
same time says: I am contented to see and to make
true report of what they will
show, but my heart standeth against them.
That night after the sitting,
he again swore he would not go on skrying. The
morning after, Dee knocked at
his study door, and bade him come, for Nalvage had
left off the previous day in
the middle of an interesting geographical lesson about
unknown parts of the earth,
and had told them to be ready to continue it next
morning. Kelley was obdurate,
and Dee retired to prayer. In half an hour, the skryer
burst in with a volume of
Cornelius Agrippas in his hand, where he said all the
countries they were told about
yesterday were described and written down. What is
the use, he said, in going
on with this farce, if they tell us nothing new? Dee
replied that he was glad to
see Kelley had such a book of his own; that Nalvage in
giving those ninety-one new
names of countries, all of seven letters, was answering
?his particular request; that
he had verified the lands in the charts of Gerardus
Mercator and Pomponius Mela,
which he had at hand and produced, and now, he
said triumphantly, we know
exactly what angels govern which countries, in case
we are ever called to practise
there. Nalvage had described the natives of the
countries and the products,
suggesting that in Greenland a vein of gold might be
found. Your wilful
phantasie, Dee ended to Kelley, perverts your reason; and
whereas you find fault with
our instructors, I, who much more narrowly peruse
their words, know that they
give direct answers to my questions, except indeed
when you misreport them, or I
make a mistake in hearing or writing. So three
days were lost, as Dee bemoans
in the margin, and then Kelley was again induced to
resume his skrying.
On the 25th, Laski arrived and
left again for Kesmark. He now intended to
redeem his property there. But
King Stephan and his Chancellor were both set
against him, and he wished Dee
to go with him to the Emperor of Austria, Rudolph
II.
Instructions were now given
that they must be ready to go with Laski to the
Emperor, must make themselves
apt and meet, for until no remembrance of
wickedness is left among them
they cannot forward the Lords expeditions. Gabriel
tells Kelley at some length of
his many faults. Dee did not hear this, but
considerately does not ask for
a repetition of the catalogue. He only bids Kelley
listen well. Gabriel says if
any will be Gods minister, he must sweep his house
clean, without spot. He must
not let his life be a scandal to the will of the Lord.
God finds thee, as he passes
by in his Angel, fit in matter, but, my brother,
God knows, far unfit in life.
O consider the Dignity of thy creation. See how God
beareth with thy infirmity
fromtime to time. Consider how thou art now at a
Turning where there lieth two
wayes. One shall be to thy comfort, the other to
perpetual woe.
Gabriels dart, like a flame
of fire, is upright in his hand. He pleads with
Kelley in such adorable
gentleness and with such tender and ecstatic weeping, that
both his hearers cannot
withhold their tears. Gabriels words so moved Kelley that
he professed absolute
repentance for all his dealings with wicked spirits, vowed he
would burn whatsoever he has
of their trash and experiments, and write a book
setting forth their horrible
untruth, and blasphemous doctrine against Christ and
the Holy Ghost. It is curious
that among the other errors he renounced was the
Eastern doctrine that a fixed
number of souls and bodies have always been in the
world, and that a mans soul
goes from one body to another, viz., into the new-born
child. In the light of
after-events, it is significant that another belief abjured is that
to the chosen there is no sin.
Dee was overjoyed, and full of
thanksgiving. He believed utterly in Kelleys
conversion, all the more
because of his former lapses. If anything were wanting to
prove it, it was to be found
in the humble and patient spirit in which this
impracticable, volcanic skryer
of his now sat on patiently for two hours and a half
before the stone without
either cloud, veil, or voice appearing. This to Kelley was
no light pang. Nay, he argues
that servants must wait as long as their Master
pleases, and the time is
better spent thanin any human doings. He opens his
wayward heart to Dee, the man
without guile, and avows that he had fully intended
at his last outburst, ten days
before, to have gone away secretly with those with
whom he had so long dealt had
they not threatened him with beggary a thing,
adds Dee, that he most hated and feared.
Therefore, till this timehe had been a
hypocrite. Now, in his
new-found elation, he cares not for poverty; life eternal is
more than riches and wealth.
He that can be hired with money to forsake the devil
is no Christian. He will doubt
no more, but believe. Dee adds that he omits many
others of his godly sayings,
thinking these sufficient to write down. He had no
suspicion of any ill faith.
His love for Kelley was truly unbounded in its long-suffering.
He offered a fervent
thanksgiving for the conversion, and for Satans
defeat, and prayed for them
both for continual zeal, love of truth, purity of life,
charitable humility and
constant patience tothe end.
The same atmosphere continued
next day, June 11. Kelley protests he could
sit for seven years awaiting a
vision. They do wait nearly four hours. Evidently
Kelley converted is not going
to be so good a medium as Kelley unregenerate. Dee
explains the non-appearance as
retribution for the three days wasted before. But
they are all reather
depressed, especially the Prince.
Then a vision appears of the
castle of Grono, in Littau, where the King of
Poland then was. Stephans
arms are seen over the gate. A man like an Italian is
beheld, carrying an iron chest
within which are an image in black wax, a dead hand,
and so on. The promise is that
Laski shall be King of Poland.
Early next morning Kelley,
lying awake in bed, had a vision which he or Dee
afterwards embodied in the
curious diagram facing [ ? ].
It may be taken as a sample of
the kind of intricate complications of theurgy
which often absorbed the pair
for days together.
The vision was expounded by
Ave, something in the following manner:
A VISION.
East and West, North and
South, stand fouur sumptuous and belligerent
Castles, out of which sound
Trumpets thrice. From every Castle, a Cloth, the sign of
Majesty, is cast. In the East
it is red, like new-smitten blood. In the South, lily-white.
In the West, green,
garlick-bladed like the skins of many dragons. In the
North, hair-coloured, black
like bilberry juice. Four trumpeters issue from the
Castles, with trumpets
pyramidal, of six cones, wreathed. Three Ensign bearers, with
the names of God on their
banners, follow them. Seniors, Kings, Princes as train
bearers, Angels in four
phalanxes like crosses, all in their order, march to the central
Court, and range themselves
about the ensigns.
IT VANISHETH.
The dazzling, shifting
formation seems to proceed in a glorious pagenat of
colour, and then to rest,
frozen into a minutely exact phantasticon of harmony.
Now for the meaning of the
allegory. The Castles are Watch towers provided
against the Devil, the
Watchman in each is a mighty angel. The ensigns publish the
redemption of mankind. The
Angels of the Aires, which come out of the Crosses,
are to subvert whole
countries, without armies, in this war waged against the
Powers of Darkness.
Many weeks were taken up with
tables of letters for the
games, angels, seniors,
etc.?Kelley is again sometimes very much tempted to doubt
the good faith of theangelic
visitants, more especially as he sadly fears that good
angels will not providethem
with the needful money that the Prince requires for the
success of his cause.
One day, Dee wrote in his
diary: E.K. had the Megrom sore. Kelley read this, and
A great temptation fell on
E.K., upon E.K. taking these words to be a scoff, which
were words of compassion and
friendship. After this Dee resorts more frequently
to the use of his Greek
characters.
The Dees were still living
near the church of St. Stephen, where Kelley was a
frequent visitor. Laski lodged
with the Franciscans in their convent. The
revelations were now of tables
of letters again, intended, Dee things, that they may
learn the names of angels and
distinguish the bad from the good. (The bad angels
names are said to be all of
three letters.) He hopes Ave is about to reveal the healing
medicines; the property of
fire; the knowledge, finding, and use of metals; the
virtues of stones, and the
understanding of arts mechanical. But Ave says it is the
wicked spirits who give money
coined, although there are good angels who can find
metals, gather them and use
them. Then Madimi appears, after a long absence, and
addressing Dee as my gentle
brother, tells him that Ave is a good creature and
they might have made more of
him. She wants to know why they have not gone to
the Emperor Rudolph. The old
excuse of poverty is pleaded.
That evening, June 26, at
seven oclock, Dee sat in his study considering the
days action, when Kelley
entered and asked if he understood it. He, it seems, had
burst out again, had raged and
abused Michael and Gabriel, called Ave a devil, made
horrible speeches. There had
been a most terrible storm of thunder and rain, and
Kelley always appeared
sensitive to these electric disturbances. Now he is penitent
once more, acknowledges his
words were not decent, and begs forgiveness of God
and Dee. The talk lasted long,
and several calls to supper were unheeded; then, just
as they were leaving the room,
Kelley felt something warm and heavy on his
shoulder, and behold! it was
Ave come to acknowledge his repentance. Dee hands
him his Psalter book, and with
three prayers devoutly said, all is smooth again, and
they go down to supper.
Dees patience and humility
seemed unending. In conversing with the spirits
he is always, as it were, face
to face with God. His replies are made direct to the
Majesty of the Divine. When
Kelley is blamed he assumes equal blame.
Ave. Which of you have
sought the Lord for the Lord his sake?
D. That God can judge. We
vaunt nothing of our doings, nor challenge
anything by the perfection of
our doings. We challenge nothing, Lord, upon any
merits, but fly unto thy
mercy, and that we crave and call for. Curiosity is far from
our intents.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XII
FROM CRACOW TO PRAGUE
Since all men from their
birth employ sense prior to intellect, and are
necessarily first conversant
with sensible things: some, proceeding no farther, pass
through life considering these
as first and last; and apprehending what is painful to
be evil, what is pleasant
good, they deem it sufficient to shun the one and pursue?the other.
Some pretending to greater
reason than the rest, esteem this wisdom; like
earth-bound birds, though they
have wings they are unable to fly. The secret souls
of others would recall them
from pleasure to worthier pursuits, but they cannot
soar: they choose the lower
way, and strive in vain. Thirdly, there are those
divine men whose eyes pierce
through clouds and darkness to the supernal
vision, where they abide as in
their own lawful country.
Plotinus
All this time, Dee is so absolutely
absorbed with his spiritual visions that we
know very little about his
outer existence. For three years after he left England, he
neglected to enter anything in
his ordinary diary, and the Liber Mysticus contains
nothing of everyday affairs.
In this July, 1584, however,
at Cracow, he does enter an important piece of
information about his boy
Rowland, the baby then about a year and a half old.
1584. Remember that on
Saturday the fourteenth day of July by the
Gregorian Calendar, and the
fourth day of July by the old Calendar, Rowlande my
childe (who was born Anno
1583, January 28 by the old calendar) was extreamely
sick about noon or mid-day,
and by one of the clock was ready to give up the ghost,
or rather lay for dead, and
his eyes set and sunck in his head.
I made a vow if the Lord did
foresee him to be his true servant, and so
would grant him life, and
confirm him his health at this danger, and from this
danger, I would during my life
on Saturdays eat but one meal.
Although we never find this vow
referred to again, there is no doubt that Dee
devoutly kept his bargain.
Rowland did grow up and had other remarkable
escapades.
Still the journey to Prague to
the Emperor Rudolph was postponed, and it
was not until the first day of
August that the trio set off. Dee and Kelley were ready
to go sooner, but Laski had
not sufficiently recovered his finances. The party had
been augmented by the arrival
of Kelleys brother, Thomas, and Edmond Hilton,
son of Dees old friend,
Goodman Hilton, who had sometimes lent him money, and
who in 1579 had requested
leave for his two sons to resort to Dees house. Thomas
Kelley accompanied the Prince
and his pair of crystal gazers. The women were left
behind under Edmond Hiltons
charge.
Five or six days after
arriving in Prague, on the day of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, August
15, Dee was settled in the house of Dr. Hageck, by
Bethlem in Old Prague
(Altstadt), kindly lent him for his use. The house was not
far from the old Rathhaus, the
great clock tower of which, dated 1474, and the
Council Chamber, still exist.
It was also near the Carolinum or University, founded
by Charles IV. in 1383, in
whose hall John Huss a hundred and fifty years before had
held his disputations. When
Dee and his party arrived in the city Tycho Brahe was
still alive, though not yet a
resident in Prague. Prague was the city of alchemists.
The sombre, melancholy Emporer
himself relieved his more seriuos studies by
experiments in alchemics and
physics. A mania for collecting rare and valuable
objects provided him with a
still lighter pastime. He painted, read much, and
worked in iron, was a good
linguist, and a regular dilettante. Unmarried, and with
all the weaknesses of the
Habsburghs, for nearly thirty years our of his long life and
far too protracted reign he
was quite mad. Not many years after his reception of Dee
he ceased to make any pretence
of public appearance.
The excellent little study or
stove (from stube, German for study) in Dr.
Hagecks house had been since
1518 the abode of some student of alchemy, skilful of
the holy stone. The name of
the alchemist, Simon, was written up in letters of
gold and silver in several
places in the room. Dees eyes also fell daily on many
cabalistic hieroglyphs, as
well as on drawings or carvings of birds, fishes, flowers,
fruits, leaves and six
vessels, all the work, he presumed, of Simon baccalaureus
Pragensis. Over the door were
the lines:
Immortale Decus par gloriaque
illi debentur
Cujus ab ingenio est discolor
hic paries,
and on the south wall of the
study was a long quotations from some philosophical
work ending with
Ars nostra est Ludus puero
cum labor mulierum. Scitote omnes filii artis
hujus, quod nemo potest
colligere fructus nostri Elixiris, nisi per introitum nostri
lapidis Elementati, et si
aliam viam quaerit, viam nunquam intrabit nec attinget.
Rubigo est opus, quod sit ex
solo auro, dum intraverit in suam humiditatem.
In these congenial
surroundings skrying was at once resumed. Madimi (now
grown into a woman) was the
first visitor, and Dee hastened to inquire for his wife
and child at Cracow. He notes
that his first letter from her arrived on the 21st. She
joined him before long. He was
told to write to the Emperor Rudolph. He did so on
August 17, and he relates in
the epistle the favourable attention he has received
from Charles V. and his
brother Ferdinand, Rudolphs father, the Emperor
Maximilian II., who accepted
the dedication of his book Monas Hieroglyphica, and
others of the imperial house.
He signs the letter, Humillimus et fidelissimus
clientulus Joannes Dee.
After waiting a week he sent
the letter by Laskis secretary to the Spanish
ambassador, Don Guglielmo de
Sancto Clemente, who was to present it to Rudolph.
With it he also sent a copy of
his Monas. The same night he heard by Emerich
Sontag, the secretary, that
the Emperor had graciously accepted the book, and within
three or four days would
appoint a time for giving him an audience.
He received letters from
England on August 27, which were dated April 15
and 16. His brother-in-law,
Nicholas Fromond, told him that Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Sled,
and his bookseller had used
him very ill. Doubtless he was expecting some money
from the sale of his books.
Mrs. Dee was much upset at her brothers defections, and
poor Dee was worried all
round, for, as he writes in the margin of his diary, Satan
is very busy with E.K. about
this time. Kelley seems to have been making friends
with young Simon Hageck, son
of our host, as Dee calls him. To furnish his own
study he has bought a clock of
Mrs. Hageck for five ducats, which was so good a
bargain that she requested a
quart of wine (probably a quarter hogshead) thrown
in. She herself does not seem
to have benefited much by the largess, for Kelley and
Laskis man Alexander
proceeded to get drunk on it, and fell to fighting and
quarrelling. Dee, who had
stayed writing in his study instead of going to supper,
was warned by the city
watchman to keep better peace in his house. Looking from
his window to account for the
caution, he saw Laskis man sitting on a great stone,
and called him to come in.
When he had heard the tale he went off to Hagecks to
understand the very truth,
and there found Kelley lying in a drunken sleep on a
form. This was a relief. He
was better pleased to think that angry words had been
spoken when wine, not wit,
had rule, and persuaded Laskis man to stay in his
lodgings that night instead of
raging forth into the street. Already a scandal had
been made which he foresaw
would do him much harm. Next morning Kelley had
a madder fit than ever.
Much ado. Emerich and his
brother (Thomas Kelley) and I had to stop or
hold him from going on
Alexander with his weapon. At length we let him go, in
his doublet and hose without a
cap or haton his head, and into the street he hasted
with his brothers rapier
drawn, and challenged Alexander to fight. But Alexander
said `Nolo, Domine Kelleie,
Nolo. Hereupon E.K. took up a stone and threw after
him as after a dog, and so
came into the house again in a most furious rage for that
he might not fight with
Alexander. The rage and fury was so great in words and
gestures as might plainly
prove that the wicked enemy sought either E.K. his own
destroying of himself, or of
me, or of his brother. This may suffice to notifie the
mighty temptation and vehement
workingo f the subtle spiritual enemy, Satan,
wherewith God suffered E.K. to
be tempted and almost overcome: to my great grief,
discomfort, and most great
discredit, if it should come to the Emperors
understanding. I was in great
doubt how God would take this offence, and devised
with myself how I might with
honesty be cleared from the shame and danger that
might arise if these two
should fight. At the least, it would cross all good hope here
with the Emperor for a time,
till God redressed it.
By this time Dee had become
skilled and tactful in dealing with his turbulent
skryer, and he soon brought
him to quietness by yielding to his humour and saying
little. At mid-day came Dees
messenger from Cracow, bringing letters from and
tidings by word of mouth of
his dear wife Jane, to my great comfort. Much he was
in need of comfort, and when a
letter from the Emperor arrived the same day,
desiring to see him, Kelleys
enormities began to assume less desperate proportions.
Dee started at once to the
Castle, the Palace of Prague, and waited in the guard-chamber,
sending Emericus to the Lord
Chamberlain, Octavius Spinola, to
announce his coming.
Spinola came to me very
courteously and led me by the skirt of the gown,
through the dining chamber to the
Privie chamber, where the Emperor sat at a table,
with a great chest and
standish of silver before him, and my Monad and Letters by
him.
Rudolph thanked Dee politely
for the book (which was dedicated to his
father), adding that it was
too hard for his capacity to understand; but he
encouraged the English
philosopher to say on all that was in his mind. Dee
recounted his life history at
some length, and told how for forty years he had sought,
without finding, true wisdom
in books and men; how God had sent him His Light,
Uriel, who for two years and a
half, with other spirits, had taught him, had finished?his books for him, and
had brought hima stone of more value than any earthly
kingdom. This angelic friend
had given him a message to deliver to Rudolph. He
was to bid him forsake his
sins and turn to the Lord. Dee was to show him the Holy
Vision.
This my commission is from
God. I feign nothing, neither am I a hypocrite,
an ambitious man, or doting or
dreaming in this cause. If I speak otherwise than I
have just cause, I forsake my
salvation, said he.
Rudolph was probably very much
bored by this mystical rhapsody. He
excused himself from seeing
the vision at this time, and said he would hear more
later. He promised friendship
and patronage, and Dee, who says he had told him
almost more thanhe intended of
his purposes, to the intent they might get some
root or better stick in his
minde, was fain to take his leave. In a few days he was
informed, through the Spanish
ambassador, that one Doctor Curtius, of the Privy
Council, a wise, learned, and
faithful councillor, was to be sent to listen to him on
the Emperors behalf. Uriel,
whose head had been bound of late in a black silk
mourning scarf because of
Kelleys misdoings, now reappeared in a wheel of fire,
and announced favour to
Rudolph.
If he live righteously and
follow me truly, I will hold up his house with
pillars of hiacinth, and his
chambers shall be full of modesty and comfort. I will
bring the East wind over him
as a Lady of Comfort, and she shall sit upon his castles
with Triumph, and she shall
sleep with joy.
To Dee, he says, has been
given the spirit of choice. Dee petitions that his
understanding of that dark
saying may be opened: Dwell thou in me, O Lord, for I
am frail and without thee very
blind.
The conference between Dee and
Curtius on September 15 lasted for six
hours. It took place at the
Austrians house, whither Dee was permitted, it seems, to
take the magic stone and teh
books of the dealings. Dee in all good faith promised
that many excellent things
should happen to Rudolph, if only he would listen to the
voice of Uriel. Dees
sincerity, credulous though it appears, was as yet unshaken.
He lived in a transcendental
atmosphere, and trembled, as he believed, on the brink
of a great revelation. The
very heavens seemed opening to him, and soon, he
thought, he would probe
knowledge to its heart.
Kelley, on the other hand, was
under no delusion. He had worked the spirit
mystery for long enough
without profit; already he was beginning to more than
suspect that the game was
played out; that their dreams of Laski as King of Poland,
dispensing wealth and favour
to his two helpers, were never to be realised; that the
Emperors favour would be
equally chimerical and vain; and that some more
profitable occupation had
better be sought. At the back of his mind lay always the
hope of the golden secret.
Somehow and somewhere this last aspiration of the
alchemist must be realised.
At the very time when the two
learned doctors were holding their
confabulation, Kelley, says
Dee, was visited at their lodgings with a wicked spirit
who told him that Dees
companion would use him like a serpent, compassing his?destruction with both
head and tayle; and that our practices would never come to
any fruitful end.
This was a true prophecy
indeed, but many things were yet to come to pass.
Uriel now instructs Dee to
write to the Emperor and tell him that he can
make the philosophers stone:
in other words, that he can transmute base metal
into gold. In the next breath
Uriel foretells that Rudolph shall be succeeded by his
brother Ernest, for when he
sees and possesses gold (which is the thing he desireth,
and those that cousel him do
also most desire), he shall perish, and his end shall be
terrible. Dee shall be brought
safely home to England. Uriel used a curious simile,
that Dee shall ascend the
hills as the spiders do. Dee, with his knowledge of many
sciences, has never shown
himself a naturalist, but he here gives us an interesting
scrap of natural history. He writes
in the margin: Perhaps spiders flying inthe aire,
are carried by strings of
their own spinning or making, or else I know not how.
Dees suit with the Emperor
did not much progress. His ministers were
naturally envious of this
foreigner, and many whispers, as well as louder allegations
against the two Englishment,
were abroad, although, as San Clemente told him, the
Emperor himself was
favourable. The Spanish ambassodor was friendly enough,
and Dee dined several times at
his table. He professed to be descended from
Raymond Lully, and, of course,
like every educated person of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, was a
believer in the virtues of the philosophers stone. He bade
them not regard the Dutchmens
ill tongues, who can hardly brook any stranger.
Dee wrote again to the Emperor
a letter of elaborate compliment and praise of
vestroe sacrae Coesaraoe
Majestatis, in which he offered to come and show him the
philosophers stone and the
magic crystal.
Still nothing came of it, and
these needy adventurers in a foreign land began
to get into deadly straits.
Now were we all brought to great penury: not able
without the Lord Laskis, or
some heavenly help, to sustain our state any longer.
Dee returned from a dinner at
the Spanish ambassadors to find Kelley resolved to
throw up the whole business
and start for England the next day, going first to
Cracow to pick up his wife. If
she will not go he must set off without her, but go he
will. He will sell his clothes
and go to Hamburg, and so to England. It is all very
well for the spirits to
promise spiritual covenants and blessings; but as Kelley said to
Uriel, When will you give us
meat, drink and cloathing?
At this time the women and
children did join the party from Cracow,
although Dee does not record
it in his diary. But on September 27 Dr. Curtius called
to see him at his lodging in
Dr. Hagecks house by Bethlem, and he says saluted my
wife and little Katherine, my
daughter. Dee laid before him some of the slanders
that he knew were going about.
He had been called at Clementes table a bankrupt
alchemist, a conjuror and
necromantist, who had sold his own goods and given the
proceeds to Laski, whom he had
beguiled, and now he was going to fawn upon the
Emperor. Curtius was at last
induced to spread before the Emperor his report of the
conference he had held (by
command) with Dee. Rudolph, said Curtius, thinks
the things you have told him
almost either incredible or impossible. He wants you
to show him the books. Then
the talk became the learned gossip of a couple of
bookish and erudite scholars.
Dee produced some rare editions which the others
had never seen. Curtius
offered the loan of one of his own works, De
Superficierum Divisionibus,
printed at Pesaro. After this, with mutual courtesies?offered on both parts,
after the manner of the world, Curtius took his horse, and
returned homeward.
Jane Dee was ailing at this
time, and Dee was much distressed. Gabriel, when
consulted, told him that the
true medicine is trust in the God of Hosts and in His
Son Christ. The Lamb of Life
is the true medecine of comfort and consolation. He
did, however, condescend to
give a remarkable precription for her use, concocted of
a pint of wheat, a live
pheasant cock, eleven ounces of white amber, and an ounce of
red wine, all distilled
together. Dee, though no Christian Scientist, was willing
enough to administer the
strange decoction, but says he knows not where or how to
get a cock pheasant. In the
spring of the next year, Janes fourth child, Michael, was
born. He was always rather
sickly, and died when nine years old. Theodore, her
fifth child, was only thirteen
when he too died, but all the six other children grew
up.
Curtius and Dee became good
friends. The Austrian showed his English
acquaintance several of his
inventions connected withthe quadrant and with
astronomical tables, and Dee
confided to him the secret of a battering glass he had
contrived for taking
observations on a dark night. The glass was left at Cracow with
his books and other goods, but
he would gladly go and fetch it to show the Emperor.
This led to
and children, where he would
in the Emperors dominions at any time within a
year. He drew it up himself on
demur. Dee soon started for
Cracow to bring the rest of his goods to Prague, but the
diary for the month of
November is missing, and the following book opens on
December 10, when he had set
out from
Kelley was with him, John
Crocker, and Rowland and his nurse, who had been left
behind when Mrs. Dee and the
two elder children joined her husband in
before, more than a week was
occupied with the journey, which was made in a
coach, with horses bought of
Master Frizer. In Prague a new lodging was found in
a house belonging to two
sisters, of whom one was married to Mr. Christopher
Christian, the registrar of
Old Prague. Dee hired the whole house from him at a rent
of 70 dollars or thalers a
year, to be paid quarterly.
On Saturday afternoon,
January 12, 1585, I removed clean from Doctor
Hageck, his house by Bedlem,
and came with all my household to the House which
I had hired of the two sisters
(married) not far from the Market Place in old Prage.
He announced his return to the
Spanish ambassador and to Dr. Curtius, and
continued his interviews with
the schoolmaster daily.
Some of the sittings recorded
at this time are really of the nature of school
lessons, which to a man of
elementary, yet he humbled
himself as a child to learn. One day geographical and
ethnographical information is
imparted about
Atlantis; Cathay; the
Bactrian desert; and Phalagon, a country of which
never heard. Another day,
minerals and their properties form the subject of the
lesson.
Much was said about the
doubting, incredulous spirit of Kelley, which
always feels is the hindrance
to further knowledge. At length he is given
permission to choose another
skryer if he will: Take whomsoever thou wilt in
whose face the Lord shall seem
to dwell, and place him withthis Seer, and let him
stand seven times by him. I
will take the spirit from him and will give it unto the
same that standeth by, and he
shall fulfill my word that I have begun.
But
he yearned over his soul, and
he entertained more lively hopes than ever of his real
conversion, for Kelley had at
last consented to partake of the sacrament with his
older friend.
O God, thouh has coupled us
two together in they election, and what the
Lord hath joyned, no fleshly
fancy of mine shall willingly separate. But if it be thy
will, seeing he is so hard to
give credit to thy holy messengers, without some proof
in work first past, as for
example this doctrine of the philosophers stone, that so he
may come to be allowed, though
he imitate Thomas Didymus in his hard and slow
belief. And because he is to
receive the pledge of thy mercies, and mystery of the
heavenly food, we would gladly
hear of that holy sacrament some discourse for our
better instruction, and his
better encouragement to the mystery receiving.
Then was delivered a
remarkable homily expounding Protestant Christian
belief upon several points:
the Creation, the fall of Adam (because he wanted the
beauty and excellency of Gods
spirit for which he was created); of the sacrament of
Christs body, the holy sign
of peace between God and man; and the mystery and
wonder of the rite as shown to
the disciples, not, as the wicked do, tying the power
and majesty of God and His
omnipotence to the tail or end of reason, to be haled as
she will....It is a holy miracle,
and thou must believe, as the Disciples did, that thou
partakest of the true Body of
Christ sub forma panis. But receiving ceasing, the
Sacrament ceaseth also. This
in answer to Dees interposed question. The Hussite
doctrine of the permanence of
the sacred element in the common food when
blessed was of course much in
mens minds in Prague. So with an injunction to
share this doctrine with your
wives, this exposition ends.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XIII
A DREAM OF GOLD
Now, Epicure,
Heighten thyself, talk to her
all in gold,
Rain her as many showers as
Jove did drips
Unto his Danaid, shew the gold
a miser
Compared with Mammon. What!
the stone will dot.
She shall feel gold, taste
gold, hear gold, sleep gold.
Jonson, The Alchemist
On February 27, 1585, Dee and
Kelley, with Thomas Kelley, rode with great
secrecy to Limburg, six miles
from Prague, in obedience to Madimi, who however
told them on arriving that
Rudolph know of their departure. Dee suspected Laskis
man, Sontag, of treachery.
Michael appeared to them there, and instructed Dee to
name his new-born child
Michael. The infant was baptised by the Court chaplain in
Prague Cathedral (which is
dedicated to the very unpopular Saint Vitus) on March?18, the Spanish
ambassador being godfather and the Lady Dietrichstein, wife of the
Emperors major-domo,
godmother.
Kelley was still murmuring
under the mystical dealings of the angels. Let
them give me somewhat
profitable to my body, or some wisdom to my minds
behoof, and then I will
believe in them, he says. Then he protests he will confess
all to the priest, and if the
holy father does not allow their doings or counsel to be
genuine, neither will he.
The remarkable answer that Dee
gives again shows us how in advance he was
of his times in matters
spiritual as well as scientific. The authority of good angels
or messengers from God is
greater, says he, than the authority of the Pope, or
priests.
So the weeks went on. Kelley
postponed the day of taking the sacrament. At
Easter will be a fit time. He
will wait till then. He is tired of skrying: I pray you to
deal with another. Here is
John, a boy in the house. You may use him. Thus, for
the third time, a boy is
suggested.
It is a curious piece of
psychology, or crystallomancy, that Kelley, who
possessed the mediumistic
powers, was always so reluctant to use them, while Dee,
who as Madimi told him, had
clearer sight than his skryer, was entirely unable to
open up communication with the
unseen.
Money was scarcer than ever.
My wife being in great perplexity, requested
E.K. and me that the annexed
petition might be propounded to God and his good
angels, to give answer or
counsel in the cause. Janes petition set out simply that
they had no provision for meat
and drink for their family, that it would discredit
the actions wherewith they are
vowed and linked unto the heavenly majesty to lay
the ornaments of their house
or coverings of their bodies in pawn to the Jews, and
that the city was full of
malicious slanders. Aid and direction are implored how or
by whom they are to be aided
and relieved. The spirits, while reminding her
grandiloquently that she is
only a woman, full of infirmities, frail in soul, and not
fit to enter the synagogue,
yet favourably listen, and bid her be faithful and obedient
as she is yoked, promising
that she and her children shall be cared for. Meanwhile
her husband is to gird himself
together and hasten to see Laski and King Stephan.
This injunction seems not to
have been obeyed for some time, for Dee was
now very busy inditing letters
to Queen Elizabeth and to other of his friends in
England. He was reminded of it
later when something went wrong, and another
crisis arrived with Kelley. On
March 27, a Wednesday, Dee was busy in his study,
when the skryer burst in,
demanding unceremoniously a copy of a certain magic
circle of letters which he
professed to have had revealed to him by spirits at Oxford.
He wished to show it to a
Jesuit priest with whom he had made friends. He
protested he would quit the
company of the spirits with whom they had recently
dealt and return to his former
associates the evil set. Dee said he had no leisure
to look for the paper now, he
was writing letters of importance, and in a weeks time
or when able, he would see it
was found. This of course was irritating. Kelley
stormed and raged, said the
old man should not stir his foot from the room till it
had been produced, and was
about to lock up the door when Dee caught him by the
shoulders, calling aloud to
my folks. They came in all, and my wife, and so
afterwards by degrees his fury
assuaged, and my folks, my wife and his, went away,
and after he had sitten two or
three hours with me, he saw on my head, as I sat?writing, Michael stand with a
sword, who willed him to speak, which he did forbear
to do above a quarter of an
hour.
Kelley, like a spoilt child,
demanded of Michael if he should have his circle of
letters. The angel addressed
him then in a passage of exceeding beauty, seeming to
scorch and wither the promptings
of the skryers evil nature, while wrestling at the
same time with all the powers
of darkness for his soul:
O Jehovah, whose look is more
terrible to thy angels than all the fires thou
hast created,...wilt thou
suffer one man to be carried away, to the dishonouring and
treading under foot of thee
and thy light, of thee and thy truth? Can one man be
dearer unto thee thanthe whole
world was? Shall the heavens be thrown headlong
down, and he go uncorrected?
He intimates to the partners
that their work and calling is greater than
honour, money, pride and
jewels. As it is great, so must their temptation be great.
Therefore God has framed one
of you as a stiffe-made Ashe, to bind up the
continuance of his work, and
to be free from yielding unto Satan.
As for the other, Michael
promises Kelley that no evil spirit shall visibly
show himself unto him any more
as long as he is in the flesh.
Whosoever therefore appeareth
hereafter is of good.
Thus begins to yawn before the
pair the most dangerous pitfall of all. Pride
and confidence in the perfect
intuition of Gods will has led many a good and holy
man astray. Soon even the
stiff-made ash is to arrive at the pitch of believing that
their teachers cannot err, and
then comes a terrible downfall. Michael in an
exquisite little parable bids
them cleave fast together. And again it is clear why the
elder man, the seeker after
hidden knowledge, the pure-minded and gentle-hearted
old mathematician and
astrologer, though torn in pieces with his partners wild
outbursts, his notorious
cupidity, impatience, and evil living, yearned over him and
his rebellious youth as a
mother over her child. Like Michael, he seems involved
in a prolonged struggle for
the rescue of his soul from the demons in whose power
he devoutly believed.
PARABOLA DE NOBIS DUOBUS.
A wood grew up, and the trees
were young, and lo! there arose a great
Tempest from the North, and
the Seas threw out the air that had subtilly stolen
himself into them. And the
winds were great. And behold there was one Tree
which was older than the rest,
and had grown longer than that which shot up by
him. This Tree could not be
moved with the wind, but the Tree that was young was
moved to and from with the
wind, and strook himself oftentimes upon the stiff-set
tree. The Forrester came and
beheld, and said within himself, `The force of this
wind is great. See this young
Tree beateth himself in pieces against the greater. I
will go home, and will bring
my ground instruments, and will eradicate him, and I
will place him farther off.
Then if the winds come, he shall have room to move.?But when he came home, the
Lord of the Wood seeing him in a readiness with his
Mattock and his spade, asked
him of his goings, which told the thing in order unto
his Master. But lo! his Master
rebuked him, and he said thus: `When the winds are
not, they increase, they are
not hurtful one to the other. Suffer them therefore.
When the young Tree taketh
roots, and shall look up unto some years, his roots
shall link themselves with and
under the roots of the greater. Then, though the
winds come, they shall not be
hurtful one to another, but shall stand so much the
more fast, by how much the
more they are wrapped together; yea, when the old tree
withereth, he shall be a
strength unto him, and shall add unto his age as much as he
hath added unto his youth.
And he ceased to dig.
Be not you therefore haled in
sunder, neither be you offended one at
another. Peradventure Reason
would set you aside. But God will not. Behold, if
you break the yoke that you are
in and runne astray, he that erreth shall perish,
even so shall he that standeth
also be desolate. Love therefore one another, and
comfort one another, for he
that comforteth his brother comforteth himself....Let
youth yield to ripe
years...You have vowed that oneof you do nothing without the
others counsel, but you shall
not be two counsellors. Let the Doer occupie the
superiority. The Seer, let him
see and look after the doings of that he seeth, for you
are but one body in this
work.
In April, Dee and Kelley
returned to Cracow. As they were nearing the city
they saw a great whirlwind
wreathing up the dust and shooting forward in a
southerly direction. They
found their house let under them to a forced-in tenant,
but as Dee had brought his
keys, he effected an entrance, and secured at least a
bedstead. By the aid of his
lawyer, Mr. Tebaldo, an ancient practitioner in Polish
causes, he obtained a decree
against his landlord that without six months notice he
could not be ejected. They
took up their abode in the College of Nyepolonize. Laski
now joined them in Cracow, and
took Dee on May 23 to an audience of King
Stephan. Stephan was seated by
the south window of his principal audience and
banqueting chamber, looking
out upon the beautiful new gardens that he was then
making. Polite speeches of
greeting in Latin passed between the two, but there was
scant time for more before the
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Secretary, with others,
came in, bringing Bills for
the King to read and sign. Stephan had small time to
spare for visionary
alchemists. His very glorious reign was crowded with great
achievements. Though a strong
Catholic himself, he respected the liberties of his
Protestant subjects, won back
the Russian provinces for Poland, reformed the
universities and established
the Jesuits in educational seminaries, and protected the
Jews. He died very suddenly
about a year after Dees third interview with him. Dee
has the following very
valuable note of his death, entered in the diary a few weeks
after his arrival at Trebona
Castle in 1586: December 11, Stephan Poloniensis obiit:
natus anno 1530, die 13
Januarii, hora quarta mane min 25, in Transylvania. Obiit
hora secunda post medium
noctem, ut intellexi ex literis Dni Lasky, receptis die 29
per Alexandrum.
Dee also visited Dr. Hannibal
(Annibaldus), the famous divine, and discussed
with him his commentaries on
Latin authors- -Hermes Trismegistus and
Mandellus. He partook of the
Communion at the Bernardine convent where the
Doctor was a professor. Three
times within Easter week did he communicate, that?in all manner of wayes I
might have a clean and quiet conscience. On Easter
Monday, very devoutly, in St.
Stephans Church, E.K. received the Communion, to
my unspeakable gladness and
content, being a thing so long and earnestly required
and urged of him by our
spiritual good friends. As Dee wrote to Walsingham,
Saul had become a Paul.
It was a very short interlude.
For Laski had not yet paid him the money long
since due, and Kelley once
more vows he will leave, for the actions are
unsuccessful and are to be cut
off. Laski was again admitted to the sittings, and
King Stephan granted them
another interview. Laski urged the King to take the two
alchemists into his service
and give them a yearly maintenance. In obedience to
his instructors, Dee promises
to make the philosophers stone, if the King will bear
the charge. He does not
profess that he can, but he believes the angels will teach
him the secret. Stephan was
not so sanguine. In the Kings private chamber, a
sitting was held, with the
crystal set before him, but he remained unconvinced. He
gave no encouragement, and in
August the pair, hopeless of patronage from Poland,
returned to Prague, where Jane
and Joan Kelley, the children and the servants, had
been left under Edmond
Hiltons care.
An anglicised Italian pervert,
Francisco Pucci, now appeared upon the scenes
and was admitted to the
sittings at the shew- stone. Pucci had been a Lyons
merchant, but had laid aside
his trade to study sacred letters, and become a
theological disputant of the
current type. Professing himself a Protestant, he came to
Oxford to study, graduated
M.A. in 1574, and in London, Basle, Antwerp, and other
places, became an open and
notorious writer and champion against the Church
which he had abjured. He had
followed Socinus to Cracow, and had noisily opposed
the Jesuits there. Soon after
he recanted, became a Romish priest and secretary to a
cardinal in Rome, where he
died in 1606, and was buried in the Church of San
Onofrio on the Janiculum.
On his information it appears
that three copies of Dees manuscripts were
burned in Prague, April 10,
1586. These were the Book of Enoch, the Forty-eight
Keys of the Angels (Claves
Angelicae) and the Liber Scientioe Auxilii et Victoria
Terrestris, works which had
been written down from the spirit revelations since the
partnership with Kelley had
commenced. The books burned were not of course the
originals, the two first of
which still exist. Of the Book of Enoch there are three
copies, one made by Kelley, a
remarkable tribute to the mechanical skill in
draughtsmanship, the
extraordinary application and ability, of this very versatile
personage. It contains
hundreds of diagrams of figures, round or rectangular in
shape, composed of an infinite
number of minute squares each containing a letter or
figure. These letters occur in
every possible combination and order, some reading
straight across the page,
others diagonally, and so on. Dee gives an extraordinary
story of the restoration on
April 30 of the books said to have been burned, by a man
like a gardener, invisible to
himself, to Joan Kelley, and to all in the garden at the
time, save Kelley. The
gardener placed them under an almond tree in Carpios
vineyard, on a sloping bank
between the banqueting house and the cliff side.
Trickery of Kelleys, no
doubt.
The feeling against these
foreign adventurers grew strong in the city. Sixtus
V., who had succeeded as Pope,
issued a Papal edict, dated May 29, 1586, banishing
Dee and Kelley from Prague within
six days. It seemed to trouble them very little,
for Dee was already away on a
visit to a new patron, William Ursinus, Count?Rosenberg, at his country seat on
the Moldau. From thence he went to see some
glass works at Volkanau, about
twelve miles north of the city; then he proceeded to
Leipsic in time for the fair
on May 11. There he met Lawrence Overton, an English
merchant to whom Jane Dee had
given kind attention and hospitality when he had
fallen ill in her house a year
before. Overton had returned from England, where he
had seen Edmond Hilton, sent
in November with letters to the Queen, Sir Francis
Walsingham, and others. Hilton
was expected back shortly. Overton was on the
point of returning to England,
and by him another letter to the Secretary was
despatched.
Dees letters to Walsingham,
with their veiled allusions to secret affairs, form
one of the grounds upon which
the supposition has been based that he was
employed by the Queens
minister as a secret spy and diplomatic agent abroad, and
that his cabalistic diagrams
contained a cipher. An elaborate theory was constructed
to support this contention.
From this letter it is evident
that Dee wishes his friends in England to believe
that he and his partner have
already found the hidden secret, but he wraps his
words in due mystery, and it
is impossible to say exactly when Kelley first professed
to have made, and when he
induced his partner to believe that he actually had
made, the gold on which his
heart was set. That Dees heart was equally fixed on the
discovery is indisputable, but
from what a different cause!
To ye Rt. Hon ble. S r. Fr.
Walsingham Knt, her most excellent Ma ties.
Principal Secretary my
singular good Fr d. and Patron with speed.
Right Honorable Sir,
Albeit I have almost in vain come
a hundred miles (from Prague to this
Leipsic Mart) hoping either to
meet my servant there with answer to my former
letters, sent in November last
to her Majesty (when also I wrote unto your honour
and others). And so with speed
from this Leipsick to have sent again most speedily,
as occasion should have
served. and now I find neither servant neither letter from
him, neither word of mouth,
yet all this notwithstanding; and whatsoever the
hindrance or delay hereof may
be (whether the keeping back of my letters from her
her Majesty, or the manifold
and important most weighty affairs public hindring or
delaying her Majestys most
gracious discreet and wise resolution herein. Or what
other occasion else hath and
doth cause this long and wonderful delay of answer
receiving); all this
notwithstanding, I thought good before I set up my coach to write,
and most humbly to salute your
honour very faithfully, dutifully and sincerely,
with great and the same good
will that my Letter some years since written to your
Honour (but then a stumbling
block unto your Honour and others for the
strangeness of the phrases
therein) doth pretend. So it is, right Honorable, that the
merciful providence of the
Highest, declared in his great and abundant graces upon
me, and mine, is so wonderful
and mighty, that very few, unless they be present
witnesses, can believe the
same. Therefore how hard they are to be believed there,
where all my life and doings
were construed to a contrary sense, and processe of
death contrived and decreed against
the Innocent, who cannot easily judge?
I am forced to be brief. That
which England suspected, was also here, for
these two years almost,
secretly in doubt, in question, in consultation, Imperial and
Royal, by Honourable Espies;
fawning about me and by others discoursed upon,?pryed and peered into. And at
length both the chief Romish power and Imperial
dignity are brought to that
point resolutely that partly they are sorry of their so late
reclaiming their erroneous
judgment against us and of us, and seek means to deal
with us so as we might favour
both the one and the other; and partly to Rome is
sent, for as great authority
and power as can be devised; and likewise here all other
means and wayes contrived, how
by force or for feare they may make us glad to
follow their humours. But all
in vain, for force human we fear not, as plainly and
often I have to the Princes
declared. And otherwise than in pure verity and
godlinesse we will not favour
any (my words may seem very marvellous in your
Honours ears, but mark the
end, we have had, and shall have, to deal with no
babes). I have full oft, and
upon many of their requests and questions, referred
myself to her Majesties answer
thus in vain expected. Nuncius Apostolicus
Germanicus Malaspina, after
his years suit to be acquainted with me, at length had
such his answer that he is
gone to Rome with a flea in his eare, that disquieteth him
and terrifieth the whole state
Romish and Jesuitical. Secretly they threaten us
violent death, and openly they
fawn upon us. We know the Sting of Envy and the
fury of fear in tyrannical
minds, what desperate attempts they have and do often
undertake. But the God of
Heaven and Earth is our Light, Leader and Defender. To
the Worlds end, his mercies
upon us will breed his praises Honour and glory. Thus
much, very rhapsodically yet
faithfully, tanquam dictum sapienti, I thought good to
commit to the safe and speedy
conveyance of a young merchant here called
Lawrence Overton, which if it
come to your Honours hand before my Servant have
left his despatch, I may by
your honor be advertised. Your Honour is sufficient from
her Majesty to deal and
proceed with me, if it be thought food. But if you make a
Council Table Case of it, Quot
homines, tot sententioe. And my Commission from
above is not so large: Qui
potest capere, capiat.
The almost apostolical flavour
which Dee permits himself to impart to some
of this letter, owing to the
greatness of his believed mission, shows to what a height
of rhapsodical fervours his
spirit had now attained. It is still more emphasised in
the concluding passage, which
begins, however, very practically, with an anxious
thought cast back to his
English possessions. His desire that Thomas Digges, the
eminent mathematician to whom
his calculations for the reformed calendar had
been submitted, should be sent
over to inspect their doings, was curious, but it
shows that he, at any rate,
wished to deal openly and conceal nothing. He ends thus:
Sir, I trust I shall have
Justice, for my house library, goods and Revenues, etc.
Do not you disdain, neither
fear to bear favour unto your poor innocent neighbour.
If you send unto me Master
Thomas Digges, in her Majesties behalf, his faithfulness
to her Majesty and my well
liking of the man, shall bring forth some piece of good
service. But her Majesty had
been better to have spent or given away in alms, a
Million of gold, than to have
lost some opportunities past. No human reason can
limit or determine God his
marvellous means of proceeding with us. He hath
made of Saul (E.K.) a Paul,
but yet now and then visited with a pang of human
frailty. The Almighty bless
her Majestie both in this World and eternally; and
inspire your heart iwth some
conceiving of his merciful purposes, yet not utterly cut
off from her Majesty to
enjoy.?From Leipsic this 14 of May, 1586,
at Peter Hans Swarts house.
Your Honours faithful
welwisher to use and command for the
honour of God and her
Majesties best service,
John Dee.
On being ejected from Prague,
Dee removed his family and goods to Erfurt,
but in spite of the influence
of Dr. Curtius, and of a friend of Rosenberg, he was not
allowed to hire a house there,
for the Italian was before him. Pucci called on Dee
after supper, and held out
hopes that he might obtain permission for their return to
Prague, for the new Nuncio,
the Bishop of Piacenza, was inclined to a more
favourable view than
Malaspina. Pucci protested that they were only to be
examined and if found
heretical to be sent to Rome. He brought an invitation for
their return, if they would
promise not to exercise magical arts. Dee, who was
starting early next morning to
look at a house at Saalfield, wherein to settle his
exiled family, bade Kelley
copy it and rode off. On the ride he thought it over. Pucci
he had never liked, neither
had jane. His household behaviour was not acceptable
to our wives and family. He
had blabbed our secrets without our leave. He was
unquiet in disputation. Dee
summed up the man as a spy, the letter as a bait, and
set to work to devise a way of
being rid of him by quiet and honest meanes. He
was absent two or three days,
but the Italian was still there when he returned, urging
them to go to Rome. Dee
rebuked him for curiosity and interference, and accused
him of conspiring against
them; he, a mere probationer and not yet owned of the
spirits (who in fact had said
he was leprous and should be cut off), to presume
an equal authority with them
in their revelations!
Dee wrote a dignified letter
to the Nuncio, and despatched it by the Italian,
who was to receive from John
Carpio, a wealthy neighbour and friend of theirs in
Prague, a sum of fifty dollars
for his expenses. The travellers went on to Cassel and
to Gotha, but it was not long
before a permanent asylum offered for the exiles. Their
new patron, Count Rosenberg,
was a friend worth having, for he was all-powerful
with Rudolph; he was Viceroy
of Bohemia and a Knight of the Golden Fleece. His
influence and protection were
now to be at the Englishmens disposal. On August 8,
Rosenberg obtained from the Emperor
a partial revocation of the decree against
them, since they were
permitted by it to reside freely in any of his lordships towns,
cities or castles. They
settled on September 14, 1586, at Tribau or Trebona, in
Southern Bohemia, and here for
about two years their wanderings came to an end.
Dee resumed the writing of his
private diary, in which he had made no entry
for three years, the last
event recorded there being the departure of the family from
Mortlake just three years
before, on September 21, 1583. He opened a new volume,
an Ephemerides Coelestium,
calculated for the years 1581-1620, by Joh. Antonius
Maginus, printed in Venice,
1582. The first entry made in it was Michaels birth at
Prague on February 12, 1586;
the next was their arrival at Trebona (for it will be more
convenient to follow Dees
latinised version of the name).
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XIV?THE CASTLE OF TREBONA
Welcome the sour cup of
prosperity!
Affliction may one day smile
again: and until then,
Sit down, sorrow.
Shakespeare, Loves Labour
Lost
Tribau, or Wittingau, the
Trebona or our story, is a small village lying in the
beautiful undulating scenery
of the Ludnitz, a small tributary of the river Moldau.
It is a few miles from Neuhaus
and Weseli, not many from the town of Budweis, on
the Upper Moldau, in Southern
Bohemia.
In 1586 it consisted of little
beside the castle, a Rathhaus, quarters for a small
garrison, and a cluster of
dwellings where Dee tells a fire broke out on Whit Sunday,
1585, and destroyed several
houses. The castle was oneof Rosenbergs many
residences in Bohemia, and
apparently a favourite one. the Viceroy was now just
over fifty (he was born on
March 10, 1535); he married about this time, and his wife
constantly accompanied him on
his visits to Trebona. They had also another castle
at Neuhaus, beside a residence
with beautiful gardens bordering the Moldau
opposite Prague. They were
frequently on the wing, flitting from Krumau to
Vienna and from Vienna back to
Prague. He welcomed the English travellers
himself at Trebona, assigned
them their rooms, and promised them all that heart
could desire.
The actions, which had long
been interrupted, were now resumed in a
goodly chapel next my
chamber, where all the appurtenances were set up, with
the angelicall stone in its
frame of gold upon the table. Rosenberg had been
already admitted to the
sittings, in obedience to directions received on October 14.
When the communications were
made in English, Dee translated them into Latin
for his benefit. But
experiments with Kelleys powder were now all-engrossing, and
even the spirits pass for a
time into the background. Kelley went off to Prague for
three weeks and was followed
by Rosenberg. Dee remained with his wife and
children; after their
hardships, poverty, dangerous and wandering life, poor Jane
must have been thankful for so
luxurious a shelter. Visitors for Dee constantly
arrived. Among them was Dr.
Victor Reinhold, the astronomer. Pucci also came
for a fortnight.
In December Dee received a
very flattering invitation from the Emperor of
Russia (Feodor Ivanowich) to
go and take up his residence at Moscow in the Court.
Dees fame as a learned
astrologer and mathematician had spread to Russia; still
more was his reputation as an
alchemist bruited abroad: perhaps he was already
credited with having actually
made gold by projection or transmutation.
The first intimation of the
Emperors wish was conveyed by Thomas
Simkinson, an Englishman, of
Hull, commissioned by Edward Garland to go to
Brunswick or Cassel, or
wherever Dee might be found, and beg him to remain there
until Garland could come from
Russia. He might tell Dee that the Emperor, having
certain knowledge of his
learning and wisdom, is marvellous desirous for him to
come to his country, and had
given Garland a sealed letter of invitation, promising
a sum of 2,000 pounds yearly
and free diet from the royal kitchen if he will come.
His charges of removing shall
be paid, and he shall travel royally with 500 hourses?to convey him through the
land. If he thinks the salary offered too little, Garland,
when he arrives, will assure
him that if he asks as much more, he shall have it.
The Lord Protector, too,
Prince Boris, took Garland in his arms on his departure
and promised 1,000 roubles
from his own purse beside the Emperors allowance.
Simkinson reached Trebona on
September 18, and at once declared his
flattering errand. On
December 8 at noon, Garland came to me from the Emperor
of Moschovia, according to the
articles before sent unto me by Thomas Simkinson.
On December 17, at Trebona,
Edward Garland drew up a paper repeating all the
former promises in the
Emperors name, and signed it, with Kelley, his brother
Francis Garland, and others,
as witnesses.
There is no doubt that the
Emperor thought he was inviting to his Court the
man who could fill his coffers
and bring glory and prestige to his name. Hakluyt
hints at it when he says the
offer was made partly for his counsel about discoveries
to the North-East, partly for
some other weighty occasions. Dee was no self-seeker,
or Court flatterer, although
this was the fifth sovereign he says he might have
served. The offer seems never
to have tempted him from his loyalty to his own
Queen. He bade Garland at once
dismiss six out of the eight Russian servants he
had brought to attend them on
their journey, and turned to matters more
important.
On 19th December, to the
great gratification of Master Edward Garland and
Francis, his brother, which
Edward had been sent to me with a message from the
Emperor of Muschovia, that I
should come to him, E.K. made projection with his
powder in the proportion of
one minim (upon an ounce and a quarter of mercury)
and produced nearly an ounce
of best gold; which gold we afterwards distributed
from the crucible, and gave
one to Edward.
It is quite significant that
Kelley made the gold, Kelley showed it, and Dee is
content to give him all the
credit. The pangs and heartburnings and jealousies have
yet to come. Now he only felt
that at last he was victorious in his long quest. He
was on the crest of the wave.
His hour had come.
How the wonderful trick was
done, Kelley could best describe.
Kelley was now constantly
riding to Prague, or making longer expeditions to
Poland, for he still had hopes
of getting more money from Laski. By March his hope
seems to have been realised,
for Dee notes that Kelley paid him about 500 ducats in
two or more sums (about 233
pounds). This plenitude of money of course
encouraged the idea abroad
that they were actually making it. When he returned
from Prague on January 18,
Kelley brought a handsome present from Rosenberg to
Jane Dee, in the shape of a
beautiful jewelled chain, the value of which was
esteemed at 300 duckettes,
says Dee, 200 the juell stones and 100 the gold. In
three days Kelley had posted
off again to Prague, to join Rosenberg at his house in
the scity. This time he took
with him his brother Thomas, Francis Garland, and a
Bohemian servant, Ferdinand
Hernyck. No doubt he was pursuing his experiments
for the multiplying of gold
in the city, away from Dee.
Kelleys letter to Dee
announcing this arrival of his in Prague is the only
communication between this
strange pair of partners that seems to have survived.
It shows that erratic and
wayward creature in a gentle and even affectionate light,
and although its pious
protestations are obviously overdone, it pictures for us quite?vividly the
relations between the two, and partly accounts for the strength of the tie
that bound Dee to his
intractable pupil, soon to become his master. For whle Dee
laboured laboriously and
scientifically with his alchemical compounds, Kelley at
one bound overleaped the chasm
and by some process best known to himself
professed to have arrived at
the goal.
To Dees single-hearted nature
such success was magnificent, wonderful. He
began forthwith to treat his
quondam skryer with added respect; the expression
Dominus Kelley creeps once
into the diary; and Kelley grew arrogant and
overbearing. For the moment,
however, he is all for friendship and respect.
Prage. 1587. 25 Januarii.
[This in Dees hand.] (addressed) To the Right
Worshipful and his assured
friend Mr. John Dee Esquire, give these. Magnifico
Domino, Domino Dee.
Sir. My hearty commendations
unto you, desiring your health as my own;
my Lord was exceeding glad of
your Letters, and said, `Now I see he loveth me, and
truly as far as I perceive he
loveth us heartily. This Sunday in the Name of the
Blessed Trinity I begin my
journey [to Poland], wherein I commend me unto your
prayers, desiring the Almighty
to send his fortitude with me. I commend me unto
Mrs. Dee a thousand times, and
unto your little babes: wishing myself rather
amongst you than elsewhere. I
will by Gods grace about twenty days hence return
in the mean season all comfort
and joy be amongst you.
Your assured and immoveable
friend
E. KELLEY.
When this letter reached
Trebona, Dee had gone riding with two horsemen of
the city of Neuhaus, hoping to
meet Rosenberg, who he thought would return that
way from Vienna to Prague.
Mrs. Dee at once despatched the servant Ludovic to
meet his master. So Dee
received Kelleys affectionate letter in the highway,
without Platz, a village
about half-way to Neuhaus. Ludovic carried also a little
note from Jane to her husband.
It is the only letter of hers we have, but it confirms
all that we suspect. We know
her to have been a well-educated, well-read woman;
the writing is strong and
clear; and did not Francis Pucci describe her as a learned
woman, lectissima femina?
She must also have been an extraordinarily capable
one to have controlled and
managed her large household of children, assistants,
apprentices, servants and
miscellaneous visitors, often in the absence of her
husband, and in a foreign
land, constantly moving on from place to place in this
nomadic life they led. Dee has
a charming name for her. Somewhere in a letter he
speaks of my payneful Jane.
Full of pains she must indeed have been, the model
wife for an elderly,
incomprehensible husband, using her intellectual powers to
accommodate her family, while
the learned man purused his angelic visions and
his alchemical experiments
unhampered. Above all things she must have been a
peacemaker, hot and hasty
although she sometimes was. Here is the letter to the
husband who had only left her
that morning:
Swethart. I commend me unto
you, hoping in God that you ar in good
health as I, and my children,
with all my household, am here, I prayse God for it. I
have non other matter to write
unto you at this time.?There is a capable and managing sound about my
children and my
household, which leads one to
wonder what this practical housewife thought of all
the angelic promises which
were never kept or performed. At the outset of the
mysterious Kelley doings she
was, we know, in her impetuous way, annoyed, angry,
probably contemptuous, but by
this time she perhaps had grown either to believe in
them or tolerantly to
acquiesce. She was only thirty- two, yet she had lived through
many strange experiences and
was soon to be put to the strongest test possible to a
woman.
By April Kelley was once more
settled as part of the household, and onthe 4th
the crystal gazing was
resumed. He professed to hear instructions to Rosenberg,
who was present, to build a
commonwealth, render tribute to Rudolph, and he shall
be Duke of Brandenburg. To
himself things are said he is not reluctant to hear. We
have seen how almost
immediately after his marriage he took a violent dislike to
his wife. In the four years,
it seems, he had reproached her for giving him no child.
To him generation was the root
principle of alchemy, and the phase of it in which
he centred his attention. It
is always the marriage of the red man, copper, and the
white woman, mercury, that is
to tinge the whole world with gold. Now a voice
tells him why he is barren.
Not because of his reckless, disordered life, but because
she was of his own choosing
the wrong woman! Therefore he is to be seedless
and fruitless for ever. Had it
not been for the Dees kindness to her, and especially
Janes, poor neglected Joan
Kelley would have had but a sorry time. She was only
twenty-four; lively and
docile, she seemed to please everyone but her husband.
Pucci, with perhaps a little
flattery, calls her rarum exemplum juvenilis sanctitatis,
castitatis, atque omnium
virtutem. If she had not all the virtues, she at least had
several. Her brother, Edmund
Cooper, and another friend so loved her that they
came over from England a year
later on purpose to see if she and her husband could
not be more reconciled.
Kelley had been more unsettled
than ever, discontented with his wife, with
his calling, its results, and
above all with his position and his poverty. What was a
pittance of fity pounds a year
to a man in constant intercourse with princes and
nobles, with credulous fools
possessed with dreams of gold? The same qualities that
attracted Dee were equally
magnetic with others. Laski loved him; Edward Dyer
deserted his old friend Dee
for this newcomer, a nobody. He had made himself
invaluable to Rosenberg, who seems
to have had implicit faith in his powers.
Rosenberg induces the Emperor
to employ him. Had he not already found the
secret of projection? Was he
not the possessor of the magic powder which waited
only for the opportunity to be
transformed into countless heaps of ducats? Only
money was wanting, and that he
could certainly get. But he must first be released
from this galling position of
medium. He told Dee that all through this Lent he had
prayed once a day at least
that he might no more have dealing to skry. At Easter-time
he did receive a promise to be
set free from the crystal gazing, as he desired, but
his wish for freedom was not
exactly approved by the angelic ministers.
Is it a burthen unto thee to
be comforted from above? O foolish man! By
how much the heavens excel the
earth, by so much doth the gift that is given thee
excel all earthly treasure.
Notwithstanding, thou shalt not at any time hereafter be
constrained to see the
judgment of the Highest, or to hear the voices of heaven, for
thou art a stumbling block to
many....And the power which is given thee of seeing?shall be diminished in
thee, and shall dwell upon the first begotten son of him that
sitteth by thee.
The selection of a child as
Kelleys successor seems not to have been
altogether unexpected. It had
been hinted in Prague a year before that a boy would
serve for the office; but that
the choice would fall upon Dees own son must have
come as a dreadful surprise,
at any rate to his mother. No doubt the old man
regarded it as a mark of
special heavenly honour.
It is more likely that Jane,
with her practical mind, regarded the change of
medium with anything but
satisfaction. Arthur was now seven and three quarters
of a year old, a clever child,
already well grounded in Latin, but far too tender in
years and disposition to be
made the subject of any psychological experiments.
Fortunately for him, his
skrying was a dismal failure, although it seems to have
bent his childish mind towards
the occultism he followed in after-life.
Distinguished physician as he
afterwards become, both at home and in the service of
the Emperor of Russia, he was
a true son of his father, and maintained to the end of
his life a belief in alchemy
and transmutation which nothing could shake.
Kelley was desired to initiate
the child.
I thereupon thinking that
E.K. would, should or best could, instruct and
direct the childe in that
exercise, did alwayes await that E.K. would of himself call
the boy to that exercise with
him; and so much the rather because he said that he
was very glad now that he
should have a Witness of the things shewed and declared
by spiritual creatures: And
that he would be more willing to do what should be so
enjoyned to him to do, than if
only he himself did see. But when E.K. said to me
that I should exercise the
child and not he, and that he would not, I thereupon
appointed with myself to bring
the childe to the place, and to offer him, and present
him to the service of Seeing
and Skrying from God and by Gods assignment.
Then Dee drew up a petition to
put in the childs mouth that he might be a
true and perfect seer, Hearer,
Declarer and Witness of such things as might be
revealed to him either
immediately or mediately by the angels. Three times a day
for three days he was to offer
this prayer thrice over, while seated at the stone. The
poor child happily beheld in
the magic crystal nothing more than dots and pricks,
letters and lines, and a
young man in a white leathern doublet and a grey cloke,
like hans of Gloats, his
cloak, of all which even his father could make little. On the
fourth day came Kelley, to see
how Arthur and his skrying progressed. But still the
child saw nothing. Then Kelley
applied himself to skry as usual. Looking from the
gallery window, he had already
without any crystal seen Il and Madimi, also Uriel,
who justifies their words.
What they command he hesitates to say. Next day he is
again the percipient; the
result is the same. At length, with feigned reluctance, he
tells Dee of a vision of
strange and subversive portent. It is so repugnant to him
that he can hardly impart it.
Madimi, throwing aside all her garments, mysteriously
bids them participate in all
things one with another. Kelley affects not to
understand, but after more
hesitation expounds to Dee that the sharing is to be in
everything, even of their
wives. All things are to be in common between them.
Dee, to whom Madimi is
invisible, though he hears her voice, fiercely
rebukes her: Such words are
unmeet for any godly creature to use. Are the?commandments of God to be
broken? This participation, he insists to Kelley, can
be meant only in a Christian
and godly sense. Kelley construes the injunction very
differently, but he affects a
chaste horror and swears for the hundredth time that he
will deal no more with the
spirits.
Then Madimi, with scathing
irony, addresses them both as fools, and of little
understanding. Not content to
be hearers, would they be Lords, Gods, judgers of
the heavens? She turns away.
Your own reason riseth up against my wisdom.
Behold, you are free. Do that
which most pleaseth you.
It is a comfort to learn that
the child Arthur had all this time fallen down in
a swound. He was indeed very
ill for some time afterwards, and small wonder.
Dee protested and argued with
Kelley and with Madimi. He was consumed
with grief and amazement that
good angels could propound so hard and unpure a
doctrine. Had he not offered
his very soul as a pawn to discharge E.K. his
crediting of them to the good
and faithful ministers of Almighty God? Was it not
his lifes work to withdraw
Kelley from any kind of association with the bad spirits
who had frequented him before
he came to Mortlake?
Until two in the morning of
this April 18, 1587, the pair sat up arguing,
talking, praying. Kelley held
forth about a little spirit, Ben, who had that day
appeared to him in his
laboratory alone, and had shown him how to distil oil from
spirit of wine over a retort
in two silver dishes whelmed one upon another, with a
hole through the middle and a
sponge between them, in which the oil would
remain. Ben had foretold
Elizabeths death in July (she lived for sixteen years), the
death of the King of Spain and
the Pope; in fact, a general moribundity of
sovereigns. Francis Garland
was a spy sent by Burleigh to see what they were doing;
Rosenberg would be shortly
poisoned; famine and bloodshed would cover the land.
Many other dire calamities
would happen if they were not conformable to the voice;
chief of all, the virtue
should be taken from Kelleys precious powder; it would be
rendered unprofitable, and he
would become a beggar. It was Ben, he says, who had
brought him his powder.
Dee replied that he had found
so much halting and untruth in Kelleys
reports of actions when he was
not present, that he would believe nothing save
what by better trial he found
to be true. But at last his resistance seemed to be
overridden, and in the chill
of the early morning he went to bed, heavy at heart in
spite of his delusion. His
poor wife was lying awake, wondering what turn their ill-starred
fortunes were next to take.
`Jane, I said, `I can see
that there is no other remedy, but as hath been said of
our cross-matching, so it must
needs be done.
Poor Mrs. Dee, shocked and
horrified, fell a-weeping and trembling for a full
quarter of an hour, then burst
into a fury of anger. At last she implored her
husband never to leave her. I
trust, said she, that though I give myselfe thus to
be used, that God will turn me
into a stone before he would suffer me in my
obedience to receive any shame
or inconvenience. She would eat neither fish nor
flesh, she vowed, until this
action, so contrary to the wholesome law of God, and so
different from former actions,
which had often comforted her; was confirmed. Both
the indignant women demanded a
repetition of the action.?In obedience to Raphaels counsel, a solemn pact or
covenant was humbly
drawn up by Dee on the 21st,
and signed by these four strange partners in delusion.
It promised blind obedience,
with secrecy upon pain of death to any of the four. It
deprecated all intention of
impurity and guilt. Its subscribers promise to captivate
and tread under foot all human
timorous doubting that the true original power and
authority of sins releasing or
discharging is from the Creator. True Christian charity
spiritual, perfect friendship
and matrimonial liberty between the four is vowed, and
they beseech that this last
mystical admonishment be not imputed to them for
rashness, presumption, or
wanton lust.
Dees hand is unmistakable in
the document. He regarded the new
development apparently only as
a symbol of further spiritual union, and a means of
obtaining a closer entrance
into the secrets of all knowledge. It was no matter to
him, he says, if the women
were imperfectly obedient. If it offend not God, it
offended not mee, and I pray
God it did not offend him.
Kelley drew up a paper the day
after Dees, washing his hands of the whole
matter, protesting that he did
not believe so damnable a doctrine would be
commanded, recounting his
warnings to his worshipful Master Dee, and so on. On
May 6 Dee spread his covenant,
a document of the most truly devout character,
before the holy south table in
the chapel of the castle, with many prayers for divine
guidance. The next day Kelley
obtained the paper, cut it in pieces and destroyed it,
made away with one of the
crystals (which was found again under Mrs. Dees
pillow), and threatened to
depart elsewhere with John Carpio. Coldness and
jealousy fell between the
pair.
So ended the whole
extraordinary episode of the Talbot- Kelley spiritualistic
revelations. Madimi appeared
for the last time on May 23. Then the Liber
Mysteriorum is closed. For
twenty years there are no more records of angels visits.
And the few pages that remain
are written in a halting hand in Dees stricken old
age, when he was seldom
visited by his unseen friends, badly though he needed
their comfort. No other medium
like Kelley was ever found. One can only wonder
whether, after so rude an
awakening, even Dee would have implicitly trusted
anyone again. These five years
with the skryer had filled him to the brim with a
consciousness of some power
beyond his wit to control, a power amazing in its
ingenuity to torture him. He
had asked Madimi piteously if he should suffer any
more of these pangs. He knew
now that he would. Yet, in spite of all, these
marvellous doings had brought
him hours of exquisite happiness, moments when
he had seemed lost in the
unity of the combined wisdom of the ages, which to him
meant God.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XV
THE END OF THE PARTNERSHIP
If all you boast of your
great art be true,
Sure willing poverty lives
most in you.
Ben Jonson, Epigram to
Alchymists.
Dee now resumed diligently his
writing in the other diary, which becomes a
strange medly of daily afairs
small and great. He sent Francis Garland to England?with another letter to
Walsingham, dated June 17, begging him to continue his
opinion of Dees fidelity
towards Her Majesty and the realm. It would be useless as
yet to render any account of
commodity to them or their country reaped by this
peregrination, but I trust
more will be glad of our coming home than were sorry of
our going abroad. He has not
heard from Mr. Justice Young since May
twelvemonth, but hopes his
pitiful case of the books and other injuries endured
have, by Walsinghams favour,
had some redress. There is no news of importance
but the Polish Kings
election, the mysteries whereof, by the time this bearer
reaches England, will be known
to you. Remember me to your good lady and to
your daughter Lady Sidney.
Money was now plentiful enough, and on September
1 Dee covenanted with John
Basset (who had arrived at Trebona on August 20) to
teach the children the Latin
tong, and I do give him seven ducats by the quarter, and
the term to begyne this day;
and so I gave him presently seven ducketts of Hungary
in gold, before my wife. God
spede his work. Arthur, who was just over eight, was
gettingon with his grammar;
Katherine was six. Thus was another element
introduced into the oddly
assorted household, and on September 4 Dee writes:
Basset his hurly burly with
T. Kelley. Payments to Basset were entered regularly
each quarter until August
following, when the tutor, whose real name seems to
have been Edward Whitlock,
went off to Budweis on pretence of buying cullors
perhaps for painting, and
never returned.
Various visitors came to
Trebona, among them Pucci, bringing Christian
Francke, the author of some
books written against the Jesuits. Roseberg returned to
Trebona, and finding a
constraint existing n the relations of the household, set
himself to reconcile them.
July 19th. a certayn kind of recommendation between
our wives. Next day som
relenting of E.K., also by my Lords entrety. Rosenberg
came and went frequently, so
did his wife. Lord Biberstein, a friend of theirs, came
to make Dees acquaintance.
Alchemical experiments were
being prosecuted with vigour. It was Dees
turn to make something prized,
even if it were not gold. Sept. 28th. I delivered to
Mr. Ed. Kelley (ernestly
requiring it as his part) the half of all the animall which was
made. It is to weigh 20
ounces; he wayed it himself in my chamber. He bought his
weights purposely for it. My
Lord had spoken to me before for some, but Mr. Kelley
had not spoken. Secrecy being
necessary, he is evidently using a word of hidden
meaning.
Kelley was constantly riding
to Prague, and in October, while he was away,
John Carpio [who had joined
them at Trebona] did begyn to make furnaces over
the gate. He used of my rownd
bricks, and for the yern pot was contented now to
use the lesser bricks, 60 to
make a furnace. Experiments on a large scale were about
to be begun, and when Kelley
returned a week later, terribilis expostulatio, etc., is the
entry under his name. Edmond
Hilton returned from England, and a month later
Francis Garland, bringing
letters from Edward Dyer. He brought also letters from
Court advising their return
home. People in the neighbourhood were beginning to
talk about the strange doings
of the foreigners in the Castle, and the Captain Critzin
of the Guard disdained to come
to a wedding supper inthe Rathhaus because Dee
and Kelley were to be present.
The household grew larger and larger. Thomas
Kelley was married in June. In
December, Mr. John Carpio went towards Prague to
marry the maiden he had
trubbled; for the Emperors Majestie, by my Lord
Rosenbergs means, had so
ordered the matter. He was absent till February 16, and?in April brought his
wife. Dee turned back to his books of tables, figures and
symbols. The 30 and 31 day I
began to frame myself toward the practice of the
Heptagonos of my 4th boke. God
prosper my purpose. Kelley, on the other hand,
was absorbed in alchemical
studies. Perhaps the secret he had once professed to
have captured had again eluded
him.
Dec. 12 afternone somewhat.
Mr. Ed. Keley his lamp overthrow, the spirit of
wyne being spent to[o] nere,
and the glas being not stayed with buks abowt it, as it
was wont to be; and the same
glas so flitting on one side, the spirit ws spilled out,
and burnt all that was on the
table where it stood, lynnen and written books as
the bok of Zacharius withthe
Alkanor that I translated out of French for some by
spirituall could not [?];
Rowlaschy his third boke of waters philosophicall; the boke
called Angelicum opus, all in
pictures of the work from the beginning to the end;
the copy of the man of Budwise
Conclusions for the Transmutation of metalls, and
40 leaves in 40, intitled,
Extractiones Dunstani, which he himself extracted and
noted out of Dunstan his boke,
and the very bok of Dunstan was but cast on the bed
hard by from the table.
The very bok of Dunstan was
no doubt a copy of the manuscript
Tractatus...de lapide
philosophorum, which was formerly ascribed to the Saint of
Glastonbury. It was the
constant companion of these two alchemists, held in awe
and great esteem, as we see by
Dees words above.
In his new liberation from
crystal gazing, Kelley became a changed and
haughty being. He was
established in his own apartments, and when he felt weary
his former master was now
summoned imperiously to come and amuse him! He
sends the old man a message by
his brother Tomas, saying, You study too much, it
is too late in the day to go
to Cromlaw, as you intended, he wishes you to come to
pass the tyme with him at
play. Dee mildly consents: I went after dynner and
payd, he and I against Mr. F.
Garland and Mr. Rob., tyll supper tyme in his dyning
rome, and after supper he came
and the others, and we played there two or three
houres and frendely departed.
This was then after the great and wonderful
unkindness used toward me in
taking my man. A week or two later Kelley sent for
Dee late in the evening to
come to his laboratory over the gate, to see how he
distilled sericon, according as
in time past and of late he heard of me out of Riplay.
God lend his heart to all
charity and vertue.
It is evident that Kelley was
jealously and secretly working at his experiments
apart from Dee. He had learned
much alchemy from his master and his masters
wonderful library inthe four
years, but there was still knowledge stored in chambers
of Dees brain of which he
could not pick the lock. To enter those inner recesses had
been doubtless Kelleys aim
when he represented the spirits as bidding them share
everything with each other.
But he, on his part, had no intention of sharing
anything that he discovered.
The year 1588 began badly, for
the child Michael, on New Years Day,
going childyshly with a sharp
stick of eight inches long and a little wax cadell light
on the top of it [evidently
the child was keeping Christmastide in good old German
fashion], did fall uppon the
playn bords in Maries chamber, and the sharp point of
the stik entred through the
lid of his left ey toward the corner next the nose, and so?persed through,
insomuch that great abundance of blud came out under the lid, in
the very corner of the sayd
ey. The hole on the outside is not bygger than a pins
hed; it was anoynted with St.
Johns oyle. The boy slept well. God spede the rest of
the cure. The next day after,
it apperid that the first towch of the stikes point was at
the very myddle of the apple
of the ey, and so (by Gods mercy and favor) glanced
tothe place where it entred;
with the strength of his hed and the fire of his fulness. I
may make some shew of it to
the prayse of God for his mercies and protection.
Dee of course was as skilled
in medicine as any doctor of the time. He
rendered medical assistance
when Thomas Kelleys wife, Lydia, miscarried with
twin boys. He notes his own
symptoms carefully: June 19, I had a grudging of the
ague. June 22, I did evidently
receive the ague and layd down. Jan. 17. The
humming in my ears began.
Another time I was very sik uppon two or three sage
leaves eten in the morning;
better suddenly at night. When I cast them up, I was
well.
The coldness between the two
became unbearable to Dee, the peacemaker, of
whom Aubrey relates that if
ever any of his neighbours fell out, he would not let
them alone until he had made
them friends. In April, he wrote to Kelley and his
wife 2 charitable letters,
requiring at theyre hands mutual charity. The same day
he made friends with Captain
Critzin, and on Sunday, when Jane ws churched after
Theodores birth, received the
Communion with her. He hears of some fresh
treachery of Pucci, and of
Rosenbergs displeasure, but all is forgotten on May 10,
when Kelley did open the
great secret to me, God be thanked! A few days after,
Mistris Kelley received the
sacrament, and to me and my wife gave her hand in
charity, and we rushed not
fromher. The reconciliation does not seem to have
been altogether comlete. Every
visitor throughout that summer, Edmund Cooper,
Joan Kelleys brother; Mr.
Thomas Southwell, his friend; Edward Dyer, Francis
Garland, and Count Rosenberg,
all seem to have tried to patch up the quarrel, but
things only grew worse.
The great secret opened by
Kelley was no doubt the professed secret of the
gold. Dee must very soon have
found out the true value of this secret, but
apparently he continued to
believe that Kelley had honestly transmuted base metal,
and was keeping the method to
himself. Nothing was less likely than that he would
share his knowledge, even with
the master who had taught him all he knew. The
first essential in alchemy was
secrecy. It is characteristic of Dee that he seems to
have been more pained at
Kelleys want of confidence in him, than chagrined at not
knowing the secret. Of
jealousy that Kelley was, or seemed to be, the successful
alchemist, there is no trace.
But Kelley was gradually undermining all Dees
influence and friendship with
Rosenberg, who was their one powerful friend. The
Viceroy of Bohemia had much
influence with the Emperor. He was costantly at the
Castle or with Kelley in
Prague. Kelley had stolen the old mans best workman, and
was now turning all his
friends against him. Rosenberg and Kelley were always
working in secret, while he
was left outside in the cold. September 15th, the Lord
Chancellor cam to Trebona and
went away on the 17th. The rancor and
dissiumlation now evident to
me, God deliver me! I was not sent for. The pathos
of the situation is
irresistible. The man of a Continental reputation, whom five
emperors had honoured, must
stand aside and see his upstart pupil made much of
and set onthe high-road to
fortune. But Fate was more just than she seemed, and?Dee, who clung to the
honest and true way, had in the end the better lot. Not in
ease or success, truly; but
who would not rather leave behind him the reputation of
a sincere man deluded than
that of a deceiver, even though not unmasked? Till
then Dee says he had been
chief governor of our philosophical proceedings, but
little by little I became
hindered and crossed by fine and subtle devices, laid first by
the Bohemians, somewhat by
Italians, and lastly by my own countrymen.
The strange partnership had
now run its tempestuous course to the end, and
the heterogeneous colony of
English men and women at Trebona was about to break
up, never all to meet again.
The first to depart was Mistress Kelley, thankful, no
doubt, to disentangle herself
from the web of pretences, deception and bickerings.
On October 17, Mistress
Kelley and the rest rode towards Punchartz in the
morning. She was on her way
to England, and only once thereafter does this
young womans name enter into
our story.[ On November 23, Francis Garland and
Mr. Dyers servant,
Edward Rowley, who had come
back a week or two earlier, left for England. Dee
sent by tham a most important
letter to the Queen, also letters to Dyer, Mr. Young,
and to Edmond Hilton. News
from England travelled slowly, and Dee had not long
since heard of the glorious
defeat of the Spanish Armada of the previous May. The
victorious captains,
Frobisher, Drake, Hawkins, were all well known to him, and
with the Admiral in chief
command, Lord Howard of Effingham, he was very
familiar at Court, for his
wife had been Janes early patron and friend. Patriot that
Dee was, yearning to get back
to England, he now wrote to the Queen a letter of
congratulation (dated November
1-, 1588) upon the splendid victory of her navy. It
was couched in the graceful
and fantastic terms of homage of the day, and is a
literary production well
befitting a man of his reputation. The letter is reproduced
from the original. It is
printed by Ellis in Letters of Eminent Men.
[REPRODUCTION OF LETTER GOES
HERE]
He speaks in it of his
proposed return, and begs for a safe conduct through all
the domains of princes and
potentates which lay between him and home. Happy
are they that can perceive and
so obey the pleasant call of the mightie Lady
Opportunitie. The answer, of
course, took long to come, but he began to make his
preparations slowly. He gave
to Kelley the wonderful convex glass which the
Queen had so often admired. A
fortnight after, Kelley gave it to Rosenberg, and the
Count presented it to the
Emperor. Dee says the Emperor had long esteemed it, but
he has not toldus when he
showed it to Rudolph. He had described the mirror in
his Preface to Billingsleys
Euclid (see ante, p. 25).
On February 4 he also made
over to Kelley the powder, the books, the glass,
and the bone, for Rosenberg,
and he tereuppon gave me discharge in writing of his
own hand subscribed and
sealed. Rosenberg was away, and did not trouble to
return to bid him good-bye.
Instead he wrote to Kelley to take his leave of Dee for
him, and said that he would
send instructions to his man Menschik to dispatch
him, perhaps with some
settlement of a financial character.
On the afternoon of February
16, 1588, Kelley rode away to Prague, taking
most of the assistants with
him: John Carpio, F. Garland, Simkinson. Dee never
saw him again.?Three new
coaches had been ordered in Budweis, and when they were ready,
Dee dispatched Edmond Hilton
(who had returned from England in December) to
Prague to buy a dozen coach
and saddle horses. Money was plentiful at this time,
the practice of economy was
impossible to Dee, so he set off to travel homewards in
state, as became a man to whom
an emperor had offered a princely salary. It was
very unnecessary, even absurd,
but it was characteristic of Dee and his exalted ideas,
not so much of himself, as of
his peculiar mission. The journey cost, as he reckoned
up afterwards, more than 600
pounds. The horses twelve young Hungarian
coach horses and three Wallachees
for the saddle- -cost 120 pounds, and cheap they
were at that. The three new
coaches, with harness, saddles and bridles, cost 60
pounds; and the hiring of two
or three waggons for his goods, books, furniture,
vessels, etc., ran into 110
pounds. Then he had an escort of twenty-four soldiers
from Diepholt to Oldenburg, as
permitted by the Emperors passport; and from
Oldenburg to Bremen, the Duke
of that province sent six musqueteers to protect
him. It was a dangerous time
to ride abroad, as he says, not long before the outbreak
of the Thirty Years War. A
party of eighteen horsemen had lain in wait for his
caravan for five days, but a
warning came through a Scot in the garrison of
Oldenburg, and Robert, the
Landgrave of Hesse, extended his powerful protection.
The train of coaches and
waggons, with the travellers and their baggage, left
Trebona on March 11. The
Castle had been their home for a year and a half, and we
can fancy Jane, at any rate,
dreading to take up once more the old wandering life.
For it was to be a year and
three-quarters more before they set foot in England. On
the 18th they were in
Nuremburg, where they stayed two nights; on March 26 they
reached Frankfurt-am-Main, and
on April 19, five weeks after leaving Trebona, they
were in Bremen, their present
destination.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XVI
THE END OF KELLEY
All you that faine
philosophers would be,
And day and night in Gebers
kitchen broyle,
Wasting the chips of ancient
Hermes tree,
Weening to turn them to a
precious oyle,
The more you worke the more
you loose and spoile.
To you, I say, how learned
soeer you be,
Go burn your Bookes and come
and learne of me.
Sir Edward Kelley, Metrical
Treatise on Alchemy.
Before continuing the story of
Dees life in Bremen and his return to England,
the end of Kelleys
extraordinary meteoric career, which six more years
extinguished, must be briefly
traced.
Dee expected Kelley to join
him at Stade. He confidently thought they would
return to England together,
obedient to the Queens summons. But Kelley was now
a great man with Rudolph, who
had given him an estate and a title, and established
him at his Court in Prague as
a citizen and councillor of state. Apparently he
succeeded in keeping up the
deception of making gold. The news of his promotion
was conveyed by Dee to
Walsingham, at Barn Elms, in a letter dated August 22, 1589,?to which we shall
again return. He speaks of Kelley as my great friend, yet in
Boemia, and surmises that
Walsingham may have heard direct from him, who is
now in most favourable manner
created a Baron of the Kingdom of Boemia.
The actual title conferred was
eques auratus, a synonym for miles which
took its origin in the fact
that a knights armour was gilded. In English it was of
course Sir. The title must
have been conferred on Kelley very soon after Dee left
Trebona in March; for by the
end of June he is called Sir Edward by a couple of
Englishmen, Robert Tatton and
George Leycester, who with Edmond Hilton were at
Trebona then, and came on to
Dee at Bremen. Kelley commissioned them to take
down particulars of the
treachery of one Parkins, a Jesuit in Prague, who was
plotting with the King of
Spain and the Pope against England. He wished of course
to score his faithful discoverie
of this treason. He also desired Burleigh and others
in England to know what great
honour had been done him, and he obtained in
February, 1590, a confirmation
of the grant of his title to send him over, lest there
should be any doubt in English
minds. The document, curiously enough, is
countersigned by Dr. Jacob
Curtius, the acquaintance of three years before.
Constant letters passed
between the two former fellow- workers through the
year 1590, the messenger being
either Thomas Kelley or Francis Garland. All
manner of wild stories were
current in England, and have been gathered up and
repeated by every writer upon
Dee and Kelley. The sober Anthony Wood relates
that gold was so plentiful in
Trebona before Dee left that the young Arthur played
with gold quoits made by
projection, while a youthful Count Rosenberg (he seems a
quite fictitious person) was
throwing about silver playthings procured by the like
means. Burleigh had written
for a specimen of their wonderful art, and it said that
the Queen was actually the
recipient of a warming- pan, from the copper or brass lid
of which a piece had been cut,
transmuted into gold, and replaced. Elias Ashmole
goes further in the story to
say that without Sir Edwards touching or handling it,
or melting the metal, onely
warming it in the Fire, the Elixir being put thereon, it
was transmuted into pure
gold. He adds that he has heard froma credible person
(who has seen them) that
Kelley made rings of gold wire twisted twice round the
finger, which he gave away, to
the value of 4,000 pounds: at the marrigae of
Rosenbergs servant before
alluded to. Ashmole adds: This was highly generous,
but to say the truth, openly
Profuse beyond the modest limits of a sober
philosopher. Sir Thomas
Browne says he heard from Arthur Dee, his friend,
conclusive evidence of the
manufacture of gold. The reader may smile at these fairy
tales, but what is to be said
of a staid and sober minister like Burleigh being ready to
credit the truth of Kelleys
exploits, whether convinced by the warming- pan, or by
other means? In a long letter
to Edward Dyer, in 1591, who was then acting as the
Queens agent in Germany, he
urges him to use every means in his power to induce
Sir Edward Kelley to come
over to his native country and honour her Majesty with
the fruits of such knowledge
as God has given him. Dyer had been Dees friend for
a great many years, as we
know, and was Arthurs godfather, but he transferred all
his attentions to Kelley as
soon as that clever trickster began making gold. Dee only
says he did injure me
unkindlie. Kelley and Dyer became inseparable, and Dyer
wrote home to Burleigh
wonderful reports of Kelleys miracles. Ignoring all that
had passed, Burleigh is ready
to welcome the quondam coiner, forger, or what not,
with open arms back to the
service of his Queen. If his knowledge is as certain as
you make it, what would you
have me think could stay him from flying to the?service of his own sovereign?
If he is afraid of old reports, actions, disgrace, being
brought up against him (and we
know Kelleys record was none of the cleanest), let
him be assured that he shall
have his Queens protection against all impediments
that shall arise. Burleigh
becomes almost poetical as he speaks of the patronage of
such a Princess, who never
yet was stained with any breach of Promise to them that
deserved her favour. If I did
not know to whom I write, who has had long
experience of her rare
vertues,...I could use many arguments to move any man
never to mistrust her. He
implores Dyer to induce Kelley to come. If he does not
come, it can only be because
by cunning or legerdemain he has deceived them and
cannot do what he promises, or
else he is an unnatural disloyal man and subject. In
case Kelley will not come, he
asks if Dyer cannot send a very small portion of his
powder to make a demonstration
to the Queens own sight. What the Treasurer
would like most of all is that
Kelley should send her Majesty as a token a good
round sum of money, say enough
to defray the charges of the navy for this
summer, for the ships of
Spain were gathering courage after their defeat. But
wishers and woulders were
never good householders, he ends. The Queen is at his
house at Theobalds, and will
be some time longer. He would not be content the
time were tripled, so he had
but one corn of Sir Edward Kelleys powder. Burleigh
and Kelley were also in direct
correspondence. Beside urging his return, the Lord
Treasurer, who seemed to
consider Kelley as the storehouse of the elixir of life as
well as of the philosophers
stone, begs for a prescription with the proof of
manufactured gold. In a brief
note of February 18, 1591, Kelley says he will shortly
send the good thing desired
for your health. He has received the salutations sent
through Mr. Dyer, and at his
return you shall know how I thank you. This, the
only original letter of
Kelleys to be traced, characteristically promises what he never
meant to do. Burleigh replied
in May, again begging him to send somethingof
your operation to strengthen
me afore next winter against my old enemy the gout.
He once more strongly urges
Kelleys return. How can he hesitate to bestow the gifts
that God has given him rather
upon his own Prince and Countrie than upon
strangers?
Kelley of course did not
return, but apparently wrote again, urging powerful
reasons of excuse. Burleighs
faith in him began to shake. He sent a last imperative
recall, someof which may be
quoted from the rough draft written in his own hand.
It shows once more what sort
of men the great Queen had to serve her, and what a
Queen she was to serve.
Beginning Good Sir Edward
Kelley, Burleigh acknowledges Kelleys letters
by Dyer. Without particular
knowledge of your impediments, I may not give any
such censures as others soe
unconsiderately, yea uncharitably, may doe. You confess
a desire to return to your
native countrie; your minde draws to your sovereign.
This is commendable, yet many
say if you come not, it is because you cannot
perform what has been reported
of you. Malicious persons say you are an imposter,
like some in other countries
have been proved. You fear severe punishment. Now,
good knight, though I write
thus plainly to you, yet such is my credit in Mr. Dyer,
such my allowance of your
loyal profession, such opinion do I firmly conceave of
your wisdom and love expressed
in your letters, such my perswaysion of your
habillitie to performe what
Mr. Dyer has reported (by reason of the estimation,
honor and credit I see that
you have gotton by yr behaviour), that I rest only?unsatisfied in your delaye
of coming; and I am expressly commanded by Her
Majestie to require you to
have regard to her honour, and according to the tenor of
her former letters, to assure
yrself singularly favoured in respect of the benefit you
may bring to Her Majestie....
Be assured of worldly reward.
You can make yr Queen so happie for her,
surely as no subject she hath
can do the like. Good Knight, let me end my letter
conjuring you, in Gods holy
name not to keep Gods gift from yr natural countrie,
but rather help make Her
Majestie a glorious and victorious power against the
mallyce of hers and Gods
enemies. Let honor and glory move yr naturall hart to
become honorable in yr own
countrie rather than in a strange one, and leave a
monument of yr name with
posterity. Let no other country bereave us of this
felicitie: that only, yea only
by you, I say, is to be expected. Let no time be lost; we are
all mortall: you that should
be author, this noble Queen yt should be receiver
thereof.
Then he politely acknowledges
some gift Kelley has sent. Instead of an ingot
of gold, it seems more like a
geological specimen for a museum, and certainly does
not excite the Lord
Treasurers immense gratitude.
All this in answer to your by
Dyer. I thank you for the montayn or rock sent
safely from Staden. I will
place it in my house, where I bestow other things of
workmanship, and it shall be
memoryall of yr kindness, wishing I might receive
some small receipt from you yt
might comfor my spyritts in myn age, rather than
my coffers with any welth, for
I esteeme helth above welth.
But Kelley knew better than to
face the astute Englishmen at home. In Prague
he felt secure, and all too
bitterly he learned his mistake. A couple of independent
letters from two English
merchants to Burleigh and to Edward Wootton give the
exciting story of his fall
from favour.
He had been established in a
house of his own close to the Palace; his wife and
brother had rejoined him;
Edward Dyer made it his headquarters. One day, the last
of April, perhaps even before
Burleighs letter was dispatched, he was suddenly
arrested by the fitful
Rudolphs command, and thrown into prison. A large force of
the imperial guard,
accompanied by the City Provost and one of the Secretaries of
State, burst uninvited into
his house to take him whilst at dinner. But a friend at
Court had whispered a word,
and the evening before he had ridden off with one
attendant towards Rosenberg.
The intruders had to be content with haling off
brother Thomas to prison,
pinacled like a thief. They searched the house
thoroughly, broke open doors,
and thrust their halberds into the beds or any place
where Sir Edward might
possibly lie hid. Satisfied he was not there, they sealed
up certain of the rooms, laid
some of the servants in chains one was afterwards
racked and departed,
leaving a guard over Lady Kelley and Mr. Dyer,
forbidding them to stir from
the house. Returning with their news to the Emperor,
Rudolph cursed in the Dutch
manner, and gave orders to search the town and the
highways.
Kelley had ridden off many
miles towards his patron, the all-powerful
Rosenberg, but being weary and
fasting, halted at the inn at Sobislaus, fed, and threw
himself on a couch to sleep.
By three days after, May 2, the soldiers had tracked him?down; and roughly seizing
him, they cut open his doublet with a knife to search for
concealed valuables or papers,
vowing they cared not whether they took him dead
or alive to the Emperor.
Kelley appealed to his all-powerful friend, Rosenberg. In
Bohemia, says the merchant in
his letter, it is a rule that his Majesty dares do
nothing without the Earls
consent, he being Burgrave of Prague, the immediate
person and officer under the
Crown. Rudolph was already sinking into the
melancholy and madness in
which he ended his days. However, Rosenbergs
protection did not avail.
Kelley was taken to the Castle of Purglitz, three miles from
Prague, and there he was
closely confined for more than two years.
And now for the cause of
Rudolphs displeasure, and the reason of the arrest.
First, it is surmised to be
debt, but the merchant adds that although Kelley is
known to owe a large sum to
two Cologne merchants who trade in jewels, he owes
nothing to the Emperor, nor
ever had put him to any charge, save for coals and
house room.
Next it is thought he was in
league with a professed gold- maker from Venice,
executed by the Duke of
Bavaria at Munich, on April 25. (Of him, too, Burleigh has
written in his letter to
Dyer.) Thirdly, the Emperors fear that Kelley would depart
for England is adduced. Dyer
had brought autograph letters from the Queen
recalling him. A doctors son
in the town, who had served Sir Philip Sidney in
England, and knew her hand,
had reported this. It was of course an invention; and
the merchant opines Dyer is of
too rare a discretion to permit secret letters to be seen
or even heard of; it is more
likely that Kelley has some time or other vaunted at
table that the Queen had sent
for him. He is a man who taketh, as I hear, a
pleasure that Princes desire
him. Fourthly, it is the doing of the powerful family of
the Poppels, second family in
the kingdom, and great enemies of the Rosenbergs,
who have been the setters up
and principal maintainers of Sir Edward Kelley
hitherto. The fifth report is
that Kelley had distilled an oil or medicine for the
Emperors heart disease, which
was poison. Lastly, the writer comes to what he
takes for the true reason of
Rudolphs anger.
An Italian, named Scoto,
having cast imputations on Kelleys powers of
projection, the Emperor sent
for him to come and make proof of his art at Court.
Kelley of course excused
himself, saying he was sick. Three times he was
summoned, and then the guard
was despatched to bring him. The accusation was
Laesus Mejestatis, and the
city wonders what will be the end. The Emperor dare not
openly execute him, for fear
of Rosenberg and the strong feeling in the State for a
change of ruler. Yet he may
easily be put to death secretly in that castle where he is
confined, and Rosenberg not
know otherwise than that he liveth, or is dead by
disease. Almost grown now to
be a common Practice in the Empire, and in the
Palatine especially, noted
that way.
This dark hint is almost a
prophecy of Kelleys fate; but the doom was not yet
quite prepared. On December 5,
1593, Dee received news of his having been set at
liberty on the previus October
4, just two and a half years after his arrest. Not a word
of him in Dees diary in the
meantime, until March 12 of that year, when the old
man records that he dreamt
much of Kelley two nights running, as if he wer in my
house, familiar, with his wife
and brother.
Kelley characteristically says
he was utterly incapable of remaining idle even
in prison, and employed his
time in writing alchemical treatises, from which it
seems he was allowed books and
papers, for his writings are mere compilations?from ancient chief masters of
the art. In The Stone of the Philosophers, dedicated to
Rudolph, he speaks of two
imprisonments, tells him grandiloquently that he has for
two or three years (1588-91)
used great labour and expense to discover for him that
which might afford profit and
pleasure; and adds, with great bombast, If my
teaching displeases you, you
are still wandering astray from the true scope and aim
of this matter, utterly
wasting your money, time, labour and hope. Truth is more
desirable than anything else,
and posterity will discover that he is to be counted
among those who have suffered
for it. Kelley as a sufferer for truth is highly
entertaining, but he goes on
to make a still more distasteful allusion. It always
way, and always will be, the
way of mankind to release Barabbas and crucify Christ.
Beside this treatise Kelley
certainly produced an earlier writing of some sort
on the subject, which Dee
discussed with the Archbishop of Canterbury on July 13,
1590. It had apparently
incurred his displeasure. Mr. Waite attributes two other
short papers to Kelley, The
Humid Path and The Theatre of Terrestrial Astronomy.
A couple of rather quaint
alchemical poems one of thirty-nine stanzas, from
which the heading of this
chapter is taken are doubtless by him, perhaps written
also in captivity.
During the next year letters
were two or three times exchanged between
Kelley and Dee, and in March,
1595, Francis Garland, who had then not long
returned from Prague, came to
visit me and had much talk with me of E.K.
Kelley was apparently then
restored to the Emperors favour, for on August 12, Dee
says he receyved Sir Edward
Kelleys letters of the Emperor, inviting me to his
servyce again. Did Kelley
think there might be further hints to be got from his old
alchemical master? Then under
date of November 25, 1595, Dee enters this curt
note: the news that Sir
Edward Kelley was slayne. Never thereafter does he
mention this adventurers
name.
The prevalent story is that
Kelley was again imprisoned in one of Rudolphs
castles, and that, attempting
to escape by a turret window, he fell from a great height
and broke both legs, receiving
other injuries, from which he shortly died. It is even
said with some amount of
credibility, that the Queen wrote imperatively to Dyer to
secure his release, and that
everything was prepared in readiness to convey him
secretly to England, and that
he was escaping for that purpose when the accident
happened. This story has
hardly been tracked home to its source. It may be true. On
the other hand, the end may
have come in the more swift and secret manner
suggested by the English
merchant. In either case, the spirit warning of eleven years
before, that he should die a violent
death, was fulfilled. Into his forty years as much
adventure, folly, trickery and
deceit, fortune, fame, favour, riches and poverty, had
been crowded as could supply
material for many a volume of romance.
Some of the incidents were
indeed used a few years after his death by more
than one dramatist. Dee had
only quitted the world about a year and a half when
Kelleys pretensions, Dees
learning, and the whole paraphernalia of alchemy, were
severely satirised by Ben
Jonson in The Alchemist (1610), a play which reflects all
the crudest superstitions of
the time. The credulous knight, Sir Epicure Mammon,
describes Subtle, the
alchemist, as
A divine instructor can
extract
The soul of all things by his
art; call all
The virtues and the miracles
of the sun?Into a temperate furnce; teach dull nature
What her own forces are.
A man the Emperor
Has courted above Kelley; sent
his medals
And chains to invite him.
In Butlers Hudibras, first
published in 1663, but written ten or fifteen years
earlier, Dee and Kelley are
again cited, though the satire is chiefly directed against
Sidrophel, i.e., William
Lilly. The devil is said to have appeared in divers shapes
to Kelley; and in the
description of Sidrophel, these lines occur:
He had been long toward
mathematics,
Optics, philosophy and
statics,
Magic, horoscopy, astrology,
and was old dog at
physiology;...
He had read Dees Prefaces
before
The Devil and Euclid, oer and
oer;
And all the intrigues twixt
him and Kelley,
Lescus, and the Emperor, would
tell ye.
One may wonder how much these
scurrilous references had to do with fixing
Dees reputation in the eyes
of his immediate posterity.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XVII
RETURN TO ENGLAND
If I have done my dutiful
service any way to her Majesties well liking and
gracious accepting, I am
greatly bound to thank Allmighty God, and during my life
to frame the best of my little
skill to do my bounden duty to her most excellent
Majestie.
Dee, Compendius Rehearsall
Upon Dees arrival in Bremen
on April 19, 1598, a house was at once hired,
and the family moved in on May
13. He put out his three saddle horses to grass in
the town meadow till
Michaelmas, for nine ducats, and presented the twelve
Hungarian coach horses to the
Landgrave of Hesse, to whose kindness he had been
indebted for protection as he
passed through his territories. In June, Thomas Kelley,
his wife Lydia; Francis
Garland, and Dyers man, Edward Rowley, left for England.
At the same time Edmond Hilton
returned to Prague. An agreement or bond had
been entered into between the
late partners that the proceeds of the wonderful
discovery should be shared.
Hilton was back on July 30, with news of Kelley:
perhaps not good news, for
three nights after, towards daybreak, Dees sleep was
disturbed by a terrible
dream, which visited him not for the first time, that Mr.
Kelley would by force bereave
me of my books. Hilton left almost immediately for
England with a letter from Dee
to Walsingham to disclose the treason of the Jesuit,
Parkins. This letter has been
already referred to [p. 201 in original], but it contains
other interesting matter, all
conveyed in Dees beautiful neat hand. He has already?written to acknowledge
the Queens gracious letter of safe conduct, received from
Walsingham, but Hilton and the
two English gentlemen, Tatton and Leycester, are
still detained at Stade,
waiting for a wind. After speaking of the designs of the Jesuit,
he goes on to give the
Secretary an important summary of the state of affairs in the
Low Countries, where the
struggle for independence was well advanced. The
Provinces all incline to a
desire to endure one fortune and become one whole
united. They acknowledge Her
Majesties Wars to be just but uncompassable. Their
minds are getting alienated
from us, only fayr means and great wisdom will win
them over. He has taken
counsel of the one of all the inhabitants the most sharp-witted,
the greatest understander of
all occurrences generall of secret purposes; the
best languaged one (as knowing
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Dutch, etc.);
and one employed in the
councils; one who was courageous in the first bickerings
with Spaniards at Antwerp; who
has observed all the beginnings and proceedings of
errors, political and
military, committed on all hands. Now and then he visiteth
me, and I have asked him to
pen his opinion on what can be done to recover and
reform the States, but as yet
he has not found leisure. Then he begs the Secretarys
leniency if he has offended in
writing of matters not pertaining to him, and of
which no doubt your honour has
already had all necessary advertisement from
properly authorised persons.
He will write no more of public affairs, his coming
thither was no public but his
private cause, the beginning of his nere return-making
into my most derely beloved
Native Country.
At the same time (August 20),
Dee wrote to his friend, Mr. Justice Young, that
the messengers had been
delayed twenty-five days waiting for a wind; that he feared
the Low Countries were bent on
shaking off the Queens authority if they could; and
that he feared he sould have
to endure this Breamish habitation this winter, as I do
not hear a word of the
approach of Sir Ed. Kelley, or of Mr. Dyers return.
In Bremen, Dee mingled with
all the learned and distinguished men of the
time. A memento of this period
is to be found in an album, the Thesaurus
Amicorum, of Timon Coccious
(or Koch), a young Bremen student who died while
at Leyden University three or
four years after. The album of white vellum, faded
and yellowed with age, with
its edges still shining with the mellow lustre of old
gold, was the receptacle of
autographs, wise and pithy sayings, original or quoted, all
inscribed after the beginning
of July, 1589. Sayings from Plautus and Seneca,
Juvenal, Pythagoras and Homer,
follow and press close upon the wisdom of
Boethius, from De
Consolatione, and the divine poetry of Dante. The first to write
in the book was Bruno, Count
Mansfeldt, Helmstad, July 1. He is followed by Dr.
Cristoph Pezel, then Professor
of Divinity and superintendent of the churches at
Bremen, and on the seventh
page is Dees beautiful signature and his motto in
the light of posteritys
unchallenged view of him, full of irony Nothing useful if
not honest.
Mr. Hart, minister of the
English colony at Stade, who had escaped from the
Spanish service in Flanders
with Sir William Stanley, and the Deputy Governor of
Stade, both came from the port
town near by to see Dee. Dr. Heinrich Khunrath was
the chief writer of the
advanced school of alchemists who passed from the pursuit of
material gold to the discovery
of incorruptible spiritual treasures hidden in the
palaces of truth to which they
provided a spiritual key; and it is a pregnant fact that
all of his books were
published after this conference with Dee. Daniel Vander
Muelen was another visitor,
and from Mr. Southwell Dee had news that Edward?Dyer was sent on a mission to
Denmark. Two or three weeks later, he met Dyer
unexpectedly in the town. News
came of Rosenberg, and several of Dees men left
him to return to Kelley. He
was warned to leave his house in Bremen.
By November, Dee resolved to
wait no longer for Kelley, but to start for
England. He still hoped,
however, to meet that individual ere he embarked. On
November 19, his whole party
took ship by the Vineyard. A crowd of townspeople
and students collected to bid
him good speed, and to see the homeward bound
travellers off; qute a little
scene took place, which must have pleased and flattered
Dee immensely, for there was no
lack of a mans full share of vanity in him. Pezel
had composed some verses on
his departure, had got them printed the night before,
and as the party were leaving
Bremen for the seaport, a few miles away, the
Professor distributed copies
as a parting surprise. The travellers arrived in the
Thames at Gravesend on
December 2, and on landing the next day went straight to
the house of Mr. Justice
Thomas Young, at Stratford. We may imagine Janes relief
at getting her children safely
back to England, with the addition of Michael, born at
Prague, nearly four years, and
little Theodore, born at Trebona, nearly two years
before.
Since Dees departure from
England six years ago, great events had happened.
The invincible Armada of
Philip had been beaten in a six days running fight up
the Channel. The Queens hated
rival, Mary Queen of Scotland, had been put to
death; Leicesters short
dictatorship of the Netherlands had begun and come to an
end. Leicester had been dead
about a year. New favourites had arisen in the
Queens favour. But even more
significant than these public affairs had been the
upward movement in literature,
the birth of dramatic art, a passionate outburst of
poetic fervour, the frowth of
a taste for well- disciplined prose. Many splendid fruits
of this movement had net yet
seen the light, Sidneys Arcadia and the first part of
Spensers Faerie Queen were to
be issued within a few months; the first play of
Shakespeare was publicly
performed within little more than a year of Dees return.
But Lyly and Marlowe had
already, during his absence, given Campaspe,
Tamburlaine and Doctor
Faustus, to be performed by actors in the first stationary
home of the earlier nomadic
players, the theatres of Shoreditch, immediately to be
followed by those of Bankside.
Bacon was perhaps even then meditating his Essays,
published some half a dozen
years later; Hooker issued the first books of his
monumental Laws of
Ecclesiastical Polity within four years; and nash, Peele, Green,
and a horde of ther writers,
were contributing to establish the English literary
renaissance. One can scarcely
help wondering how much the fabulous stories of Dee
and Kelley, which must have
reached Marlowes ears, contributed to his splendid
dramatisation of the Faust
legend (first printed in Frankfort in 1587). But after all,
even the story of Dees angels
and Kelleys gold, pales before the lurid glow of the
stories of the earlier
alchemists, Agrippa and Paracelsus.
Dee landed in England a
disappointed and a partly disillusioned man,
clinging to a belief which was
yet useless, unprofitable to him. He could prove
nothing of Kelleys exploits.
But he lost no time in repairing to Court, and on
December 19 he was graciously
received by the Queen at Richmond.
On Christmas Day he first
slept in his own house at Mortlake, and beheld for
himself his ruined and rifled
library, with its precious books and instruments
missing. He himself was in
dire straits. He had little left him save his wife and
children, and some still
faithful friends. He took the house over as a tenant from?his brother-in-law,
Fromond, and settled down in the old quarters. Adrian Gilbert
was the first visitor,
generously offering as much as I could require at his hands,
both for my goods carried
away, and for the mynes. Very soon Thomas Kelley
arrived and followed suit by
offering the loan of ten pounds in gold; he afterwards
sent it me in Hungary new
duckettes, by John Croker the same evening. He put
me in good hope of Sir Edward
Kelley his returning.
A second daughter was born,
and christened at Mortlake, on March 5. The
name given her was Madinia,
suggested by the busy little spirit who had been so
helpful at her first coming.
The child was christened at Mortlake on the 5th, Sir
George Carew as godfather,
Lady Cobham and Lady Walsingham, godmothers.
Letters came from Kelley by
Garland in March, and replies were despatched by
Thomas Kelley in April. Dee is
careful to give his former skryer his full title: Sir
Edward Kelley, Knight, at the
Emperors Court at Prague. Francis Garland was by,
and Mr. Thomas Kelley, his
wife. God send them well thither and hither again.
On Lady Day, the children
begin to go to school with Mr. Lee at Mortlake. I
gave him his house rent and
forty shillings yerely for my three sons and my
daughter. The house rent was
allmost 4s. yerely, of Mr. Fisher his new house.
Arthur was now ten, Katherine
nine, Rowland seven and Michael five. The
youngest boy, Theodore, born
at Trebona February 28, 1588, was rather more than
two. Dee notes that he was
wened on August 14, 1589. Katherine was not long
under the Mortlake
schoolmaster, for on May 21 my dowghter was put to Mistress
Brayce at Braynford
[Brentford], hir mother and Arthur went with her after dynner.
On April 15, he writes of his
neighbour and friend, the Vice-Chancellor: Good Sir
Francis Walsingham died at
night hora undecima. Burleigh was the only one of
the old friends left. He
records an interesting visit from the two gentlemen, the
unckle, Mr. Richard Candish,
and his nephew, the most famous Mr. Thomas
Candish, who had sayled round
abowt the world. Cavendish was a Suffolk man.
His wonderful voyage occupied
two years and nearly two months. He died at sea
within a couple of years from
Dees note. The uncle Cavendish interested himself
with the Queen and the
Archbishop to obtain for Dee the Provostship of Eton. This,
too, fell to the ground, and
Cavendish considerately sent him a hogshead of claret.
He also lent or gave money to
Dee and his wife, in all 302 pounds: in ryalls and
angels. Dee gave him in
return one of his most valued treasures an alchemical
work:
A copy of my Paracelsus,
twelve lettres, written in French with my own
hand, and he promised me
before my wife never to disclose to any that he hath it;
and that if he dye before me
he will restore it agayne to me; but if I dy befor him that
he shall deliver it to one of
my sonnes, most fit among them to have it. Theoddor
had a sore fall on his mowth
at mid-day.
Dees income was now almost a
negligible quantity. The parsonages had paid
him no rent since he left
England. He went two or three times to Lambeth, and
talked boldly to Archbishop
Whitgift of his right to them.
He began to interst himself in
his immediate neighbourhood with the idea of
stopping the Bacchus Feast,
at Brentford, a rowdy celebration which had excited
his indignation and of which
he gave the Bishop of London a warning.?In August a domestic tragedy occurred:
one of the women servants became
melancholy and went out of her
mind. Lunacy being a disease beyond even Dees
medical knowledge, and for 300
years after, being treated more or less as demoniacal
possession, it is no wonder
that the remedies he tried were ineffectual. It seems
another instance of the false
views of Dees character that have been repeated over
and over again, that the
editor of his Manchester diary urges as proof of Dees magic
and evil experiments that
some of the inmates of his house became suicides when
in his service.
Aug. 2. Nurs her great
affliction of mynde. Aug. 22. Ann my nurse had
long byn tempted by a wycked
spirit, but this day it was evident how she was
possessed of him. God is, and
hath byn, and shall be her protector and deliverer.
Amen.
25th. Ann Frank was
sorrowful, well comforted, and stayed in Gods mercyes
acknowledging.
26th. At night I anoynted (in
the name of Jesus) Ann Frank, her brest, with
the holy oyle.
30th. In the morning she
required to be anoynted, and I did very devoutly
prepare myself and pray for
vertue and powr, and Christ his blessing of the oyle to
the expulsion of the wycked,
an then twyse anoynted, the wycked one did resist a
while.
Sept. 8. Nurse Ann Frank wold
have drowned hirself in my well, but by
divine Providence I cam to
take her up befor she was overcome of the water.
After this Dee had the woman carefully
watched.
Sept. 29. Nurse Ann Frank
most miserably did cut her own throte,
afternone abowt four of the
clok, pretending to be in prayer before her keeper, and
suddenly and very quickly
rising from prayer, and going toward her chamber as the
mayden her keper thoght, but
indede straight way down the stayrs into the hall of
the other howse behind the
doore did that horrible act. And the mayden who
wayted on her at the stayr
fote followed her and missed to fynde her in three or fowr
places, tyll at length she
hard her ratle in her owne blud.
In november the Queen came to
Richmond and sent for Dee. She offered
gaily to send him something to
kepe Christmas with. This promise was repeated
to his friend, Richard
Cavendish, a week or so later: she told him she wold send
me an hundred angells to kepe
my Christmas withall. Next day, December 4, the
Queens Majestie called for me
at my dore, circa 3 1/2 a meridie, as she passed by,
and I met her at the East
Shene Gate, where she graciously putting down her mask
did say with mery chere, I
thank thee, Dee. There was never promise made but it
was broken or kept.
The thanks were obviously
ironical for the reminder of the promise; the rest
of the speech was rather
cruelly jocose, for, as Dee adds, she had promised to send
the money that day. However,
on the 6th, an earnest of the gift arrived, in the shape
of 50 pounds. On the 14th, she
again called for Dee as she rode by his door, to take
ayre, and he met her at the
park gate as before. He does not indicate the subject of
the conversation, but it was
probably a request on his part for some kind of royal?permission to continue
his experiments in alchemy or transmutation, for on the
16th he tells of a visit from
Richard Cavendish, who has received from the Queen,
warrant by word of mouth to
assure me to do what I wold in philosophie and
alchemie, and non shold chek,
controll, or molest me. Coupled with this message,
she sent another promise to
make up the 100 pounds.
Dees mind was now bent, he
says, to deal with his alchemical exercises, and
the only distractions he
appears to have had were the constant visitors and small
disasters of the children. The
boy Rowland fell into the Thames on August 5, over
head and ears, about noon or
soon after. Their favourite place of play seems to have
been on the river bank, and
accidents there were of no infrequent occurrence.
Arthur, when a child, had
fallen from the top of the Water-gate Stairs to the bottom,
and had cut his forehead
badly. Theodore also had a nasty fall.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XVIII
A ROYAL COMMISSION
A wise man never goes the
peoples way:
But, as the planets still move
contrary
To the worlds motion, so doth
he, to opinion.
He will examine, if those
accidents
Which common fame calls
injuries, happen to him
Deservedly or no? Come they
deservedly,
They are no wrongs then, but
his punishments:
If undeservedly and he not
guilty,
The doer of them, first,
should blush, not he.
Jonson, The New Inn
Dee had now abandoned all hope
of recovering the two Midland parsonages,
the small income of which was
all that lay between him and utter dependence upon
charity. His thoughts were now
set on the mastership of St. Cross, at Winchester, a
benefice which he had already,
some twenty years before, petitioned the Queen to
grant. Dr. Bennett, the
present master, who had then obtained it, might now, he
thought, fitly be made a
bishop. The Countess of Warwick secured from the Queen
a promise that Dee should have
it, if it were a living fit for me. The Archbishop
of Canterbury affirmed that it
was most fit for Dee and Dee for it. The Lord
Treasurer protested, I will
do what I can with her Majestie to pleasure you therein,
Mr. Dee. Lady Warwick,
faithful to his cause, repeated her request the following
year, and still there was no
news of Bennett attaining a mitre. Dee went to Court at
Nonsuch in August, and a day
or two after his return dined, at Burleighs
invitation, with the Lord
Treasurer and his two sons, Sir Robert and Sir Thomas
Cecil, at Mr. Maynards, at
Mortlake. Burleigh also sent him venison and invited
him again to meet Lord Cobham.
All promised their influence
in obtaining for him the coveted Mastership.
But it was another castle in
the air. His friends were extremely good to him. In
May, 1591, he says:?Sir
Thomas Jones, Knight (unaxed) offered me his castell of Emlyn in Wales
to dwell in so long as he had
any interest in it, whose lease dureth yet twelve yeres,
freely with commodities
adjoining unto it; and also to have as much mow land for
rent as myght pleasure me
sufficiently. The 27th day he confirmed the same his
offer agayn before Mr. John
Harbert, Master of the Requestes, in his hall at Mortlake,
which his offers I did accept
of and he was glad thereof.
He could never have
entertained the idea of going to live in Wales, but no
doubt it was policy to accept
all offers. Herbert was an old friend and neighbour. His
daughter Mary and Arthur had
played at a childish marriage years before. They
seem to have been playfellows
still, after the Dees long absence, for in this June an
accident happened to Arthur
at Mr. Herberts, about sun setting. He was
wounded in his hed by his
wanton throwing of a brik-bat upright, and not well
avoyding the fall of it again.
The half-brick weighed 2 1/2 lb. On May 3 of the
following year, Arthur aged
thirteen, became a Westminster scholar. Wensday at
ten of the clock Arthur was
put to Westminster Schole, under Mr. Grant and Mr.
Camden. He came back home in
two or three weeks, perhaps only for a few days,
and Dee in returning him to
lessons wrote a characteristic letter to his friend,
William Camden, the antiquary.
It shows how carefully the father had studied the
childs health, abilities, and
the quick temper, inherited from his mother. There is a
tender touch in that mothers
forethought to furnish the boy with means towards a
special cleanliness which the
provision for ablutions at Westminster did not
contemplate. The little chest
with lock and key for the firstborn son to take to
school is always a family
event of magnitude.
22 May 1592.
Worshipfull Sir. I have here
returned your scholer unto your jurisdiction,
beseching you to shew your
charitable affection towards him: he had more and in
better order then he will
recover speedily. Of your great skyll and faithfull industrie
in your function, it is most
certayne to your great credit and merit. Of the
wonderfull Diversitie of
Childrens Dispositions, much you can say by experience:
but of myne (this Arthure) I
am to request you to conceyve at my hands, that he is of
an exceding great and hauty
mynd naturally, ready to revendge rashly. The naturall
inclination is to me evydent:
as who hath [Sol] in horoscopo, and [Mars] in corde
Leonis. Dictum sapienti sat
esto: for vera curatura you may alter this naturall
courage to true fortitude and
not to frayle rash fancyes: Socrates did overcome by
grace Divine and his
industrie, his untowardness, signified by the Art
physiognomicall you know the
historie. This spirituall grammaticall concords of
good manners I have great care
that all my imps may be instructed in, to the more
apt and skilfull serving of
our Creator. Syr, my wife hath delivered unto him some
more apparayle and furniture
in a little chest with lock and key, yea, and with some
towales to wype his face on
after the morning and other washings of hands and face:
willing him to buy him a stone
basen and a pott, or a potter, to have allways clene
and wholsom water in for his
use.
The boy liketh abundance of
meate well: but very bashfully he sayd that
there proportion of Drinke is
somewhat to[o] little. I pray you by discretion listen to
the voyce and opinion of the
rest of the counsells within him, for now & in the?summer seasons, the
proportion of Drink naturally doth increase above winters
appetite thereof.
Thus I am bold to cumber your
wurship with these my speedy ragged lynes.
And therein I beseche you of
one thing more, that his writing, both of roman and
secretary hand decay not, but
rather be amended: for a fayre writing is often tymes a
good grace to matter very
simple.
Wherefore know that today
they have at the right Wurshipfull Mr. Deans
[Dr. Nowells] very honorable
guests, and that this night it is intended that they will
sup and lodge all night at
Fullham. God bless your wurship and prosper you in all
& ever your true and
faithful wellwisher.
John Dee.
To the Worshipfull my
singular friende Mr. Camden these be delivered.
On New Years Day, 1592, at
the sunrising exactly, Dees third daughter was
born. She was christened
Frances on the afternoon of the 9th, and sent off with her
nurse to Barn Elms the same
day. In August her father notes, Remember that all
things is payd to our nurse at
Barnes for the girle Francys Dee from hir birth untyll
the ende of her eighth month,
lacking 12s., and on Sunday the 27th of this August
we gave the nurse ten
shillings. The eighth month ended the twelfth of this
month. The child stayed on
with her nurse till February 14 of the next year, when
she was fetched home, the
woman very unquiett and unthankfull.
Two entries, March 9, the
Pryvy Seale at night, and March 16, the great
Seale, refer to a promise
given by the Queen to Dees cousin, Dr. William Aubrey,
of Kew, now Vicar General and
one of the Masters of Requests, about five rectories
inthe Welsh diocese of St.
Davids, which Dee was to have when they fell vacant.
They were only worth 74 pounds
11s. 2d. in all, and Dee says he never received a
penny from them.
Things were so desperate that
at last, on November 9, 1592, he drew up a
supplicattion which his
friend, Lady Warwick presented the same day to the Queen
at Hampton Court. This
document, which Dee says Elizabeth took in her own hand
to read herself, instead of
handing it to a secretary, begged for a personal audit of,
and investigation into, the
state of his affairs. It is probably a unique petition, and in
reading it we are scarcely
astonished at the confidence with which the old astrologer,
now grown old in the Queens
service, claims her consideration and provision. He
appears to regard it as little
less than a national reproach that a man of science like
himself should be left in
beggary. And so indeed it was. For thirty- four years had
the Queen, true to the Tudor
motto to use everyone as a servant, to owe no
gratitude, only acceptance or
approval spent promises upon him, but she had
never given him a chance of
providing for himself.
Forasmuch as the intolerable
extremitie of the injuries and indignities
which your most excellent
Majesties faithfull and dutifull servant, John Dee, hath
for some years last past
endured, and still endureth, is so great and manifold as
cannot in friefe be unto your
Majestie expressed, neither without good proofe and
testimonie have credit with
your Majesties, and because also without speedy and
good redress therein
performed, it is to be doubted that great and incredible?inconveniences and
griefs may ensue thereof in sundry sortes, (which yet may easily
be prevented) your Majesties
foresaid most humble and most zealously faithfull
servant beseecheth your
Majestie to assign twoe or more meet and worthy persons,
nobly and vertuously minded,
who may and will charitably, indifferently, advisedly,
and exactly, see, hear and
perceive at the house of your Majesties said servant in
Mortlake, what just and
needful occasion he hath thus to make most humble
supplication unto your
Majestie; and so of things there seen, heard, and perceived,
to make true and full report
and description unto your Majesty. And thus your
Majesties foresaid most
dutiful servant beseecheth the Almight God most
mercifully, prosperously and
alwayes to bless and preserve your most excellent
Majesty royal. Amen.
A. 1592. Nov. 9.
The result of this unusual
request was that two commissioners were at once
appointed by the Queen. Within
a fortnight Sir John Wolley, Secretary for the Latin
Tongue to Queen Elizabeth, and
one of her Privy Council, and Sir Thomas Gorges,
Knight, of the Queens
Wardrobe, were seated in Dees late library room at
Mortlake, prepared to listen
to his manifesto.
We may be sure he had long
been preparing for this day. He seated the two
gentlemen at a table in the
middle of the room, placing near them a couple of other
tables spread, one with
letters and records of his studious life for the space of a halfe
hundred years, now by Gods
favour fully spent, the other, with all his own books,
printed and manuscript, a
complete authors collection of original works. At the
suggestio of the commissioners
he had occupied the space of thirteen days in
praparing the autobiography
which he called The Compendious Rehearsall of John
Dee, his dutifull declaration,
etc., so freely quoted in these pages. It was in some
order of method most briefly
and speedily contribed against this day; and in every
respect, save that of
chronological order, it is a pattern document. It gives the
impression of having been
written down in fragments, each incident or recital being
complete in itself and most
carefully dated, on a separate sheet of paper, and then
the sheets shuffled and picked
out by chance to follow each other for putting
together. The story leaps from
college day sin 1547 to travels in 1571, on to
Christmas gifts in 1590, back
to the Queens visit in 1575, thence to his
improsonment and appearance
before the Star Chamber in 1555, and his
reformation of the Calendar in
1582. He passes very lightly over his late travels
abroad, merely ading that he
was very ungodly dealt withall, when I meant all
truth sincerity, fidelity and
piety towards God, my Queen and Country. The
catalogue of his works is
valuable, but it is unnecessary to print it in the present
volume. He concludes his list
of eight printed and thirty-six manuscript works
(some perfectly finished and
some unfinished yet) with the very latest, the
Compendious Rehearsall itself,
adding that there were many other books,
pamphlets and discourses not
set down. He explains that the list is given neither
as they were written nor by
order of yeares, but hastily as they came next to hand
out of diverse chests and
baggs wherein they lay. He ends the chapter with a
remarkable proof of the
fecundity of his still active brain, in spite of his sixty-five
years.?The most part of all
these here specifyed lye here before you on the table on
your left hand; but by other
books and writings of another sort (if God grant me
health and life thereto of
some ten or twelve years), I may hereafter make plain and
without doubt this sentence to
be true, Plura latent, quam patent. What other
works he did accomplish in the
sixteen years yet to run of his long life, he described
in an Appendix to the
Rehearsal, written about two years afterwards, and printed by
Hearne, and by the Chetham
Society at the end of the autobiographical narrative, to
which he had already added a
short chapter giving an account of the result of the
Commissioners visit, calling
it The Sequel of the Premisses.
To return to the day of the
visit, November 22, 1592. The Queens Secretary
and the Gentleman of her
Wardrobe arrived at Mortlake probably in the morning,
and stayed to dinner. Having
seated them at the tables in the library, Dee read to
them, or related with the
manuscript at hand, the story of the halfe hundred years
spent in the attainment of
good learning, which he reckoned from his leaving
Chelmsford Grammar School for
Cambridge. It was, of course, drawn up with the
skill of a pratised author,
divided into fourteen chapters, each with an attractive and
pithy title. Her Majesties
specially Gracious and very Bountifull favours towards
me used etc., is by far the
longest; the shortest is the twelfth: The Resolution for
Generall, very easy, and
speedy Remedy in this Rare and Lamentable Case. The
remedy he suggests is to make
him either Master of St. Cross; Warden of
Manchester; Provost of Eton;
or Master of Sherborne, one of which posts had been
already promised him four
times in three years. The tenth chapter is The hard
making of provision for some
hundred pounds [?a year] for the maintenance of me,
my wife, our children and
family for these three last years, and that but with a
meane dyet and simple apparel:
I having not one Peny of certaine Fee, revenue,
stipend or Pension, either
left me, or restored unto me, or of any yet bestowed on
me. He shows how at his
return three years before, he found himself penniless;
cut off for ever from his two
parsonages; disappointed as yet of the large yearly
allowance promised him for his
life from Bohemia. Probably on parting from the
then affluent Kelley, some
bond was entered into by him or by Rosenberg to
transmit to him a share of the
enormous profits they expected from the
multiplication of the gold.
To save us from hunger starving, he had had to appeal
to friends, and he records
gratefully that some who had been unfriendly before he
left came to his aid on his
return. They put to their helping hands in many ways,
and alredy he had received
from them a sum of 500 pounds and more. Yet he has
had to pawn his plate little
by little until all was gone. After the same manner
went my wifes jewels of gold,
rings, bracelets, chaines and other our rarities, under
the thraldom of the userers
grips, till non plus was written upon the boxes at
home. He has borrowed upon
sureties, upon his personal bill of hand, upon his
word, upon his promise, and he
has run up accounts, so that now he is in debt for
333 pounds, beyond the 500
pounds. The true accounts of all these gifts, loans, and
debts upon score, talley, or
book, is here before your Honours; how the usurer
devoureth him and how he is
dayly put to shame, may be seen. Other necessary
expenses amounted to 267
pounds, so that he has spent but 566 pounds in three
years for housekeeping, and
that with great parsimony, and with gifts from good
friends of wine, whole
brawnes, sheep, wheat, pepper, nutmegg, ginger, sugar, etc.,
and other things for the
apparel of me, my wife and our children. He has
mortgaged his house for 400
pounds, and now will have to sell it for half it cost to?pay his debts, he and
his family to become wanderers and homeless vagabonds,
furnished only with bottles
and wallets. What shall he do, he pitifully begs, that he
may prevent his name being
handed down to posterity as a warning to lovers and
students of truth not to
follow in his steps and be given to such disgraceful shifts
and indignities? He ends with
a passage of true eloquence:
Therefore, seeing the blinded
Lady, Fortune, doth not govern in this
commonwealth, but justitia and
prudentia, and that in better order thanin Tullys
Republica, or Books of
Offices, they are laid forth to be followed and performed:
most reverently and earnestly
(yea, in manner with bloody teares of heart), I and my
wife, our seaven children and
our servants (seaventeene of us in all), doe this day
make our petition unto your
Honours that upon all godly, charitable and just
respects had of all that you
have this day seene, heard, and perceived, you will make
such report unto her most
excellent Majestie (with humble request for speedy
reliefe), that we be not
constrained to do or suffer otherwise than becometh
Christian and true faithfull
obedient subjects to do or suffer. And all for want of due
mainteynance.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XIX
DEES LIBRARY
The commerce of books
accosteth and secondeth all my course, and
everywhere assisteth me. It
comforts me in age, and solaces me in solitarinesse. It
easeth me of the burden of a
wearysome sloth, and at all times rids me of tedious
companies. It abateth the edge
of fretting sorrow and...is the best munition I have
found in this human
peregrination. Montaigne, Essays (Florio)
The account of the library at
Mortlake as it was when Dee left it in 1583, forms
one of the most valuable parts
ofthe Compendious Rehearsall. Comparing it with
the catalogue which he made
before leaving with Laski, we can see at a glance of
what intrinsic value was this
collection of precious books which so often haunted its
owner in his dreams. Two
original copies of the Catalogue of manuscripts remain,
one of which is dated
September 6,1583, a fortnight before he sailed from England,
and there is a third, made by
Ashmole from one of these.
The library contained,
however, not only books and manuscripts, to the
number of four thousand, bound
and unbound, but scientific instruments collected
from several parts of Europe.
The books alone Dee valued at 2,000 pounds in the
current value of the day, for
many of them were unique autographia of famous and
rare authors. As a further
proof of this estimate, he cited to the two Commissioners
a great volume in Greek, two
others in French, and a third in High Dutch, which
together cost him, and his
friends for him, 533 pounds, as the endorsements upon
them will show.
The instruments included a
valuable quadrant, used and he says made, by his
friend, Richard Chancellor,
the navigator to Russia and the White Seas. It
measured five feet in semi-
diameter, and Dee relates that Chancellor and he
together made observations of
the suns height at meridian with it, before this
exploring seaman sailed on his
last voyage (in which he and his crew perished) in?1556. Many years after, the
quadrant was repaired and re-engraved by Mr.
Bromfield, the Lieutenant of
Ordnance who had given it to Dee, at a cost of 20
pounds. On Dees return to
Mortlake, he found it barbarously hacked to pieces with
hammers.
There was also a ten foot
radius Astronomicus, (some early form of
telescope), its staff and
cross divided with equal markings, like Chancellors
quadrant. It swung in a frame,
and could be easily directed to any point in the
heavens, or used for
mensuration on the earth.
A couple of globes of Gerard
Mercators best make were among the most
valuable contents of the
library, especially as upon the celestial globe Dee had
marked his own observations of
comets, their place and path in the heavens. There
were other objects which
Mercator had constructed specially for Dee, vis., three
theorics, two with horizon and
meridian lines in copper. A number of compasses of
many kinds were among the
objects, for Dee had invented, as we have seen, what
he calls a Paradoxall
Cumpass. There was also a great piece of load-stone, or
magnes-stone, of
extraordinary virtue. It had been sold for five shillings, but
being divided up and parted
with piece-meal it made more than 20 pounds.
There was also an excellent
watch-clock, made by one Dibbley, a noteable
workman, long since dead, by
which clock the tyme might sensibly be measured
inteh seconds of an houre,
that is, not to faile the 360th. part of an houre. The useof
this clock was very great,
more than vulgar.
Then in the three
laboratories, the chambers and garrets, were stores of
chemical stuff, which he had
been twenty years getting together. Also a great cart-load
of special vessels for
chemical use, some earthen, some of glass, metal and
mixed stuff, which he had
brought from Lorraine when Mr. Powell and he had gove
over in 1571. Of these, only a
few broken bits remained. He describes other things
left in his other or open
library, and in particular a great bladder with about four
pounds weight of a very
sweetish thing, like a brownish gum in it, artificially
prepared by thirty tymes
purifying it; whosoever came by it hath more than I could
well affoord him for one
hundred crownes, as may be proved by witnesses yet
living.
As regards the manuscript
treasures of the library, he mentios specially a great
case or frame of boxes, full
of rare evidences of lands in Ireland which had been in
the hands of some of the
ancient Irish Princes. Agreements for submission and
tributes, with seals appended,
and many other valuable records of the descent of
these manors to such families
as the Mortimers, the de Burghs, the Clares, etc. How
he came by these, save in the
way of a collector, does not appear. His interest in
Welsh ancestry would account
for his amassing Welsh records, of which he says
there were many deeds of gift
from Welsh princes and nobles, of land devoted by
them to the foundation and
enriching of religious houses. Norman deeds also
dating back to the Conquest.
These were all methodically stored away in separate
boxes, each marked on the
front the fore part of the boxes with chalk,
explaining its contents. When
he returned from his six years wandering abroad,
and looked in the poor boxes,
he found the name outside was all that was left. The
deeds had been imbezzled
away, every one of them, which is a loss of great value
in sundry respects, as
antiquaries can testifie for their part, and noble heralds can tell?for their
skill, and as her Majesties officers, for her interest and titles Royall, may
think in their consideration.
Near this great chest of boxes
stood another box, very much less in size,
measuring only two feet by one
and a half, which was filled with nothing byt seals of
coats of arms; many of these
were named, and had alredy proved invaluable to
students of heraldry and
genealogy, as well as to the Queens Heralds who had
carefully examined them, also
a number of other antiquaries as Camden, Stow and
others. The Clerks of the
Records in the Tower had sat whole days inthe library at
Mortlake, gathering rareties
to their liking out of them. Dee was no blind
collector, hoarding things
because they were of value to himself. He was a true
altruist, gaining his
knowledge to share with others.
Unto the Tower I had vowed
these my hardly gotten muniments (gotten as
in manner out of a dunghill,
in the corner of a church, wherein very many were
utterly spoyled by rotting,
through the raine continually, for many yeares before,
falling on them through the
decayed roof of that church, lying desolate and waste at
this houre).
But truly well deserve they
the imprisonment of the Tower, that will now
still keepe them, if any
publique warning by her Majestie or her right honorable
Councill were given for
restitution of them to the Office in the Tower.
Dees own works were of course
in the library although not included inhis
catalogue. He drew up a list
of them for his Apology to the Archbishop in 1595, by
which it appears that before
he left England eight had been published. The
unprinted books and treatises,
some, he owns, not perfectly finished, numbered
forty-six. To these others
were added before he died; two that may be especially
named were upon the Three
Oracular Sentences of the Ancients: Nosce te ipsum,
Homo Homini Deus, and Homo
Homini Lupus, (1592); and a Treatise upon the
Queens Sovereignty over the
Seas, a fitting subject indeed for an author who had
personally known most of the
great navigators, and who had already written so
intelligently upon the navy
and the coast fisheries of Albion. The book was
undertaken at the request of
an honorable friend in Court. It had, of course, a
long Latin title
Thalattocratia Brytannica, etc. It was finished at Manchester and
dated September 20, 1597.
Another work projected, and perhaps partly finished, was
to be called De Horizonte
Aeternitatis, to consist of three treatises in answer to
Andreas Libavius, who had
published a book written in misapprehension of
something in Dees Monas.
We spare the reader the long
list of titles of Dees own books, poured out in
an almost continuous stream
since The Art of Logicke, in English, printed 1547,
during his college days. The
only idle years as regards literary output, from then up
to his departure for life
abroad in 1583, seem to have been 1563, 1564, and 1566-9.
The most important of his
printed contributions to knowledge are mentioned
in these pages. One more may
be alluded to here his edition, in 1582, of Robert
Recordes arithmetical work,
The Ground of Artes, etc. Dee had probably known
this accomplished physician,
antiquary and mathematician at Cambridge, where
Recorde was a tutor before
1545. Recorde was afterwards Comptroller of the Mint at
Bristol, and Surveyor of Mines
and Money to King Henry VIII., but he died a
youngish and impoverished man,
inthe Kings Bench Prison, Southwark, in 1558.?He introduced algebra into this
country; was something of an astrologer and a good
mathematician. His choice of
titles for his books was ingenious. In The Whetstone
of Witte (1557), the signs for
plus, minus and equality were first used inthis country.
In his Castle of Knowledge, a
beautiful and dignified hymn of his own composition
appears. The Ground of Artes,
his first work (1540), went through eleven editions
before Dee augmented it and
added some of his apologetic doggerel rhymes.
That which my friend hath well
begun
For very love to common weale
Need not all whole to be new
done
But new increase I do reveale.
Something herein I once
redrest,
And now again for thy behoofe
Of seale, I doe, and at
request,
Both mend and add, fit for all
proofe.
Of numbers use, the endlesse
might
No wit nor language can
expresse,
Apply and try, both day and
night,
And then this truth thou wilt
confesse.
I. Dee.
From original and autograph
works we may now turn to the miscellaneous
contents of Dees library a
truly vast and precious collection for one private
gentleman of precarious
fortune to won in the sixteenth century. Printed books
were by no means easy to
obtain, and manuscript copies entailed a great expenditure
of skill, industry, time and
cost. The text was often ignorantly or corruptly rendered
by an imperfect scribe or
copyist, and the scholar and collector could not rest satisfied
without several versions of
one work.
The cataloguer of the 200 most
important manuscripts Dee himself
enters with exactitude the
size and substance of each volume. The bulk of course
were in quarto, although a few
folios and octavos are mentioned. Most of them
were written upon parchment,
but a certain number were on paper. Bindings were
not noticed, chiefly because
as yet few were bound. Two of Roger Bacons tracts,
however, on the multiplication
of species, and on perspective, the owner describes
as together in paste-bords
with strings. These identical tracts, in Dees own hand,
and now being edited by Mr.
Robert Steele, from the originals in the Mazarine
Library, Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris. From Dee they passed to Sir Richard Eden,
afterwards to the Kenelm Digby
Library. Treatises on kindred subjects often
followed straight upon each
other onthe same parchment, and sometimes as many
as twenty composed a single
manuscript, included under a list of titles numbered as
one. In some cases the
treatise is described as a fragment. Once he writes the
second tract is cut out and to
be answered for.
The owners tastes and
pursuits point, of course, to a large representation
among his books, of works in
philosophy, alchemy, astrology and medicine, with a
substantial proportion dealing
with metallurgy, geometry, optics, physics, Ptolomaic
and Copernican astronomy, and
every branch of science already known in a crude?form to Dees famous
predecessors. There are also historical chronicles; works of
devotion and ethics; with a
fair sprinkling of authors upon poetry, music, and the
gentler arts.
Taking first the classics: Dee
names the Meno, Phaedo and Timaeus of Plato;
writings of Aristotle,
Socrates and Hippocrates, of Cicero, Cato and Archimedes. A
copy of Plinys Mundi
Historia, Lib. ii., Frankfort, 1543, now in the British Museum,
bears Dees signature,
Louvain, January, 1550, and many of his notes. Of Euclid he
had many copies, and Augustine
was his guide and confessor. A vast number of
Arabic and Persian writers
were comprehended in the list. He was particularly rich
in manuscripts of the early
and mediaeval writers upon alchemy and the
philosophers stone: Hermes
Trismegistus, Geber, Albertus Magnus, John
Sacrobosco, Raymond Lully,
Philip Alstade, and Arnold de Villa Nova. Other
sciences are represented by
Guido Bonatus, Anselmus de Boot (Boetius), Alhazen,
John of Saxony, Jacob Alkind,
and Petrus Peregrinus and a score of learned writers.
Dees own perfect and clean
copy of the rare printed Epistle of Peregrinus, upon the
Magnet (Augsburg, 1558), is
now in the British Museum. It bears his name,
Joannes Dee, 1564, in faded
ink, with many and copious notes written by its owner
mostly in his large copy-book
hand, with a few in the scribbling writing which he
used for speed, and some
marginal sketches.
Several of the manuscripts
named in Dees list are to be found among the
Cotton MSS. at the Museum; in
Trinity College, Dublin; and at Oxford and
Cambridge.
Of English authors, who are
very numerous in the list, the most eagerly
sought after, judging by the
number of works included by one author, were Roger
Bacon and Robert Grosseteste,
Bishop of Lincoln. Bacons writings were owned by
Dee in fragments. Some had
been already collected and printed in Nuremburg and
Paris. The only other writer
as often repeated in the catalogue is Boethius, whose
Consolation of Philosophy had
tempted King Alfred into literary translation some
seven hundred years before.
Dee notes that he gave a manuscript of it in Greek to
the Library of Cracow, on July
27, 1584. Some of the ethical and philosophical works
of St. Isidore, the canonised
Bishop of Seville, were duplicated. Thomas Aquinas;
Duns Scotus; Richard of
Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans; Robert of Holcot, the
Bible Commentator; Robert of
Gloucester; William of Woodford, the Franciscan
opponent of Wycliffe; Richard
Rolle (de Hampole), the hermit and ethical writer,
are among his other English
authors. A finely illuminated history of the last years
of King Richard II., by a
French gentleman who was in his suite, once the property of
Dee, is now in the Lambeth
Library. His manuscript Life of Edward the Confessor,
by Ethelred, Abbot of
Rievaulx, is another treasure that has survived the wreck of
time. It is now among the
Harleian MSS. at the British Museum, with his name
and the date 1575 inscribed.
Of the three or four thousand
printed volumes even Dees industry has left
no catalogue. Many of them he
mentions in his diaries, as Holinsheds and Stows
Chronicles; the Arabic book
that was lost; the collection of writings upon
demonology and witchcraft,
which were to be so useful to his Lancashire neighbours
in after life. The books of
the alchemist of Louvain, Cornelius Agrippa, he once
speaks of as lying open in the
window of his study, and therefore in constant use in
the actions, whether
theurgic or alchemistic.?He refers no doubt to Agrippas de Occulta Philosophia
(Cologne? 1533), a
work enormously read in all
countries inthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and translated into many
languages. Another book by the alchemist of Queen
Margaret of the Netherlands had
an even greater popularity in England, France,
Germany and Italy. This was On
the Nobility and Excellence of the Female Sex (de
nobilitate et proecellentia
foeminei sexus) which in the translation by Henry Care in
1670 becomes magnified into
Female Pre-eminence; or, the Dignity and Excellency of
that Sex above the Male. It is
dedicated to Queen Catharine of Braganza.
These are a very few of the
authors and writings contained in the manuscript
catalogue. Such as they are,
however, they give us a faint glimpse into that realm of
learning and romance wherein
Dee, shut into his library at Mortlake, roamed a free
citizen of the world and
dwelled where he would.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XX
ADIEU TO COURTS AND COURTING
Let me weep
My youth and its brave hopes,
all dead and gone,
In tears which burn! Would I
were sure to win
Some startling secret in their
stead, a tincture
Of force to flush old age with
youth, or breed
Gold, or imprison moonbeams
till they change
To opal shafts! only that
hurling it
Indignant back, I might
convince myself
My aims remained supreme and
pure as ever.
Browning, Paracelsus.
The immediate result of the
Commissioners visit to Mortlake was a gift of a
hundred marks from the Queen.
The Countess of Warwick sent off her
gentleman, Mr. Jones, very
speedily, to tell Dee that Sir Thomas Gorges had very
honorably dealt for him in
the matter, and that the gift was granted. The money
was brought next day (December
2) by Sir Thomas himself. He brought also a letter
full of courtesie and
kindness and a token of six old angells of gold, from Lady
Howard to Jane. Dee seems to
have become intimate with Lady Warwick through
his early friendship with John
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who died, aged twenty-four,
in 1554. In his Preface to
Euclid, Dee has left an etched portrait of his own age. No
two besides himself, says
Dee, can so well say what roots vertue had fastened in
his breat, what rules of godly
and honorable life he had framed to himself, what
vices noteable he took great
care to eschew, what prowesses he purposed and meant
to achieve.
Dees few lynes of
thankfulness to the Queen for her gift were probably
written at once, but only
delivered by Lady Warwick on February 15, at Hampton
Court, on the eve of a move to
Somerset House.
On the strength of this dole,
Dee was able to settle some pressing debts, and to
hire a coach and go off with
his wife and Arthur and Kate, to spend Christmas and
New Years Day at Tooting, at
Mr. R. Luresey his howse. The Lord Treasurer, he
reports, lay dangerously sick
at the time. On the 2nd they returned. On the 7th,?welcome letters, perhaps
containing money, arrived from Count Laski in Livonia,
to which Dee replied on the
20th, sending his letter by a Danish ship called the John
of Dansk.
His reputation as an
astronomer and mathematician now procured for Dee a
pupil, from whom he was to
receive in exchange a considerable gift or loan.
March 17, 1593. At six after
none received from Mr. Francis Nicholls 15
punds, part of one hundred
pounds, the rest whereof, 85 pounds, is to be receyved
from Mr. Nicholls within a
fortnight after the annunciation of Our Lady next; and
after that in the beginning of
June 100 pounds, and in Julie the third hundred
pounds, and I am to teach him
the conclusion of fixing and teyming of the moon.
A rather unwise purchase seems
to have been made this may; Dee bought the
next mansion house, with the
plat and all the appertenances abowt it, of Mr. Mark
Pierpoint, of Mortlake. It is
true the whole mansion only cost 32 pounds, but it
entailed other purchases and
soon had to be mortgaged. Possession was not
obtained till the autumn. A
hovel in the yard was bought from Goodman Welder
in July for a new angel and
five new shillings. The bargain with Pierpoint was
concluded in the street, when
before Jane my wife, I gave him a saffron noble in
ernest for a drink penney.
Crowds of visitors came to
Mortlake to dine. Mr. Beale (who was a borrower
of books from Dee his own
Famous and Rich Discoveries, and the Chronica
Hollandiae Magnae), and his
wife; Francis Blount, uncle of Sir Charles, who had
been in Constantinople;
Mistress Banister; Mr. Redhead, one of the Queens
gentlemen ushers, and his
wife; the mother of John Pontoys, about whom we shall
hear more; Mr. Gubbens,
book-binder, and Mrs. Gubbens, and many others.
Hospitable as ever, Dee had
offered shelter for two months to Antony Ashley, Clerk
of the Council, his wife and
family, who used me worshipfully and bountifully for
our friendship. They had my
mothers chamber, the maydes chamber, and all the
other house.
Not only books were lent, but
instruments also. On Thursday, Mr. Saunders
of Ewell, sent home my great
sea cumpass, but without a needle. It came in the
night by water.
In August he is much in train
with the Lord Keeper, Sir John Eckford, at Kew.
On the 8th he dined there,
again on the 17th, this time taking Mrs. Dee and
Katherine, who at twelve was
sufficiently grown up to dine out. On the 28th he was
all day with the Lord Keeper.
The entries we have here, Mr. Web and the
philosopher came as I was with
the Lord Keeper, and Mr. Web and the
philosopher cam again, pique
ones curiosity.
At the end of the month, Dee
notes the departure from his service uppon no
due cause known to me, of
Elizabeth Kyrton, a servant who had been with him
twelve years, had passed
through the vicissitudes of travel-life in Bohemia, as
Rowlands nurse; left in
charge of him, as we have seen, in Cracow when the others
went on to Prague. She had
served five years on apprenticeship and seven for
wages: five at four and two at
five nobles a year. Of her wages there was now four
pounds four shillings due. Dee
in paying her, presented a new half-angel; Jane Dee
gave her another; Arthur
half-a-crown for him and his brother (Rowland), and
Katherine the like sum for
herself and Madinia. Elizabeths going seems to have?upset the domestic
arrangements for a month or so later Dee makes an unusual
entry about his wife: Jane
most desperately angry in respect of her maydes.
Margery Thornton, Elizabeths
successor, left next day, and Dorothy Legg came for
30s. yearly.
A messenger from Laski
arrived, Mr. Cornelio Camaiere, and stayed a week.
These constant communications
do not by any means support the contention that
Laski parted with Dee in
anger, ruined by his costly experiments. It is more probable
that Laski was urging him to
return and continue Kelleys work.
The Countess of Cumberland,
Lord Willoughby and his sister, the Countess
of Kent, came to visit Dee.
Willoughby dined and next day sent him 20 pounds.
Dee was annoyed by Mr. Gray,
the Lady Cumberlands preacher, his wrangling and
denying and despising
alchemicall philosopher. A New Years gift of 20 angels, in a
new red velvet purse, came to
Jane Dee from the Lord Keeper.
Michael Peiser, doctor to the
Duke of Brandenburg, visited Dee, also Walter
Van der Laen, an astronomer
of great promise. Mr. John Aske sent as a present
two little doubtle gilt bowls,
weighing thirteen ounces and a half. Sir Thomas
Willes offer philosophical cam
to my hands, by Mr. Morrice Kiffen. The children,
Madinia and Theodore, were not
very well. Several visits were paid to Mr. Webbe,
who had been inthe Marshalsea
prison since the days before Christmas. His chests
and boxes were sealed up. It
is possible he was the Mr. Webbe who was employed by
the Queen to visit and report
on Dyer and Kelley at Prague. He may even have been
suspected of bringing some of
Kelleys manufactured gold to Dee. Bartholomew
Hickman and his brother were a
good deal to and fro; Bartholomew was first
brought to Dee as a lad by his
uncle, in 1578, with an introduction from Sir
Christopher Hatton. Now, his
daughter Jane was taken into service. Dee gave him
a nag that the Lord Keeper had
presented, and he rode frequently homeward, to
Shugborough in Warwickshire.
In December 1594, Dee preferred him to Lord
Willoughbys service at the
Barbican, and there is a whole history about his livery,
which was ordered from a Fleet
Street tailor, Mr. Jonson.
Dees health was now often
affected in one way or another. The first mention
of trouble in the kidneys was
in 1592, when, at Court at Greenwich, a midnight
seizure was eased by a
glyster, applied by Dr. Giffard. There were other slight attacks,
and in March 1594, he had a
Great fit of stone in my left
kidney: but I drunk a draught of white wyne and
salet oyle, and after that,
crabs eyes in powder with the bone in the carps head, and
about four of the clock I did
eat tosted cake buttered, and with sugar and nutmeg on
it, and drunk two great
draughts of ale with it; and I voyded within an hour much
water and a stone as big as an
Alexander seed. God be thanked! Five shillings to
Robert Web part of his wages.
This servant was discharged on
June 23 with forty shillings for a full
satisfaction of all things.
On July 1, I gave Robert yet more, a French crown for a far
well.
A year and a half passed after
the visit of the Commissioners, and beside the
immediate result of a donation
of a hundred marks, nothing had accrued to better
Dees position. He determined
then to redouble his efforts and bring something to?pass. He certainly had
enlisted the aid of powerful friends, although no doubt there
were still many suspicious
enemies.
On May 3, 1594, the Queen sent
for him to come to her in the privy garden at
Greenwich, between six and
seven oclock in the evening. She received him alone
save for the presence of her
two ladies, Lady Warwick, Dees very good friend, and
Lady Cecil. Dee presented her
with a writing which he calls the heavenly
admonition, which he says she
took with grateful thanks. On the 18th, he writes
Her Majestie sent me agayne
the copy of the letter of E.K. with thanks by the Lady
Warwick. He had received
letters from Kelley four or five weeks earlier, on March
28, and he probably had copied
out for her certain passages, doubtless referring to the
fabulous transmutation of
metals. Did he still hold out hopes that he might be able
to achieve a like success? On
the 21st, Sir John Wolley moved my sute to her
Majesty. She granted after a
sort, but referred all to the Lord of Canterbury. On
the 25th. Dr. Aubrey moved my
sute to her Majesty, and answere as before. His
suit was promotion to the
Mastership of St. Cross, the post which had so long been
the goal of his hopes, but
which he was never destined to attain. He had set out at
length in his Rehearsall for
the Commissioners, sundry good reasons why he
desired it, rather than any
other living, see, or dignity of like value in any other
place. First, he gave as a
reason his longing to retire to a quiet spot away from the
multitude and hoards of
friends and acquaintances, chance visitors, and
distinguished strangers, who
positively haunted his house at Mortlake. There, he
could deny himself to no one
without offence or breach of friendship. It was fatally
easy and cheap for every
curious person from London, or from the Court, to find his
way down to that big rambling
place by the riverside, with whose stills and furnaces,
and wonderful doings, rumour
was so rife. So much for privacy, next for economy.
Fuel, coals, bricks, and all
things necessary for his purpose, will be cheaper at
Winchester than near London;
the glass-houses of Sussex are not far away, and he
will be able to give personal
supervision to the making of special vessels. At
Mortlake there are too many
eyes and tongues. The south coast is within easy reach,
and it will be possible to
communicate with his friends abroad, to get over things
and workers necessary, and
have the more commodious place for the secret arrival
of special men to come unto me
there at St. Crosses; some of which men would be
loath to be seen or heard of
publickly in Court or City. Is it possible that he is still
thinking of Kelley, who,
though then (1592) an Emperors favourite and the bearer
of a title, could easily in
England be identified with Talbot the coiner, forger, and
necromancer of former days?
Then Dee sets out in his
Rehearsall the capacity of the dwelling at St. Cross,
which is roomy enough to
entertain rare and excellent men from all parts of the
world, as well as any of his
fellow-countrymen. This will be for the honour and
credit of England. There is
room also for lodging his staff of mechanical assistants;
for a printing house to be set
up for reproducing good, rare, and antient bookes in
Greek and Latin, and some of
my own, to be printed with my own ordering and
oversight. Then he lays
stress upon the desirable surroundings, a chapel where
divine service is held every
day, for bringing up his children and family devoutly.
He ends with the advantages of
Winchester School, close at hand, not only for his
four sons to become
Grammarians in, but for his obtaining help from the good
Greek and Latin Grammarians
and fair writers in that school, for copying out books
for her Majesty.?He is
teeming with all these projects and activities in spite of his sixty-five
years. He was a born
librarian; and still had a national library of books and
manuscripts at heart as much
as when, nearly forty years before, he had tried in vain
to induce Queen Mary to found
one.
Dees eloquent persuasions so
far prevailed with the Queen that a draft was
prepared before the end of
May, granting to Lord Cobham the next advowson of
Holyrood, or St. Cross, at
Winchester, in the Queens gift, to present to John Dee,
M.A., on the death or
resignation of Dr. Robert Bennett, the present incumbent.
Having drawn up this very full
account of his doings and writings, to present
to the Commissioners, Dee was
naturally anxious that the appeal should be as
widespread and far-reaching as
possible. Archbishop Whitgift had shown himself
favourably inclined, and Dee
determined to approach him with a copy of that part of
the Rehearsall in which he
recited the titles of the books he had written. He
prepared a Letter containing a
brief Discourse apologeticall with a plaine
Demonstration and fervent
protestation for the lawful sincere and very faithful and
christian course of the
philosophicall studies and exercises of a certaine studious
gentleman, an ancient servant
to her most excellent Majesty Royall, addressed to the
Archbishop; he probably
presented it himself during this summer of 1595. It is a
protest and an appeal, and
emphatically states that from his youth he has used good
honest lawful and Christian means
to attain such knowledge as shall honour God,
his country and his Queen. It
ends with a prayer that he may be found of the
Archbishop, and undoubtedly
acknowledged by the wise and just, to have been a
zealous and faithful student
in the school of Verity and an ancient Graduate in the
school of Charity.
On June 3, Dee and Jane,
accompanied by all their seven children, four boys
and three girls, their ages
ranging from Arthur, the Westminster boy of fifteen, to
Frances, the baby of two and a
half, presented themselves before the Queen at Sion
House, Isleworth. Jane was
permitted to kiss her hand. Evidently this was an
expression of thanks for the
official preliminaries of the grant of St. Cross. The
Archbishop was present, and
Dee humbly requested him to come to his cottage.
The invitation was repeated on
the 6th, when Dee supped with the Primate. Things
were not, however, settled so
quickly. Dr. Robert Bennett had to be provided with a
better position before he
would resign; some hitch occurred, and on June 29, after a
visit to the Archbishop, at
Croydon, the poor man writes distractedly of his broken
hopes:
After I had hard the
Archbishop his answers and discourses, and after that
he had byn the last Sonday at
Tybalds with the Quene and Lord Threasorer, I take
myself confounded for all
suing or hoping for anything that ever was. And so
adiew to court and courting
tyll God direct me otherwise! The Archbishop gave me
a payre of sufferings [sic] to
drinke. God be my help as he is my refuge. Amen.
Everything fell through, and
things began to look darker than ever. Michael,
who had been a delicate child,
fell ill in July. On the 6th, he becam distempered in
his head and bak and arms.
Dee himself was unwell, complaining of headache and
internal pains, but he does
not forget to note that he paid Letice my servant 5s., part
of her wages, with part
whereof she is to buy a smok and nekercher. Michaels
illness was short: July 13th,
in ortu solis, Michael Dee did give up the ghost, after?he sayed `O Lord, have
mercy upon me! His father omits any reference to the
childs burial.
The summer passed with very
little to record in the diary beyond a visit on
Aug. 25, fromFerard, the
herbalist of quaint and fragrant memory; another on the
30th, from Monsieur Walter
Mallet, who toke his leave to go to Tholose. He had
the fix oyle of saltpetre.
Dee sends letters in September to Kelley, and in October
determines on another appeal
to royal favour. But Elizabeth was getting old and
hard to move; Burleigh also
was failing. Dee wrote in his wifes name to Lady
Scudamore, her old friend and
Katherines godmother, begging her to intercede
with the Queen that either he
might appear and declare his case before the Council,
or else have a licence under
the Great Seal to go where he would. St. Cross was
farther off than ever; England
cold and inhospitable; and he prepared to say a final
good-bye to courts and
courting at home, and betake himself to Germany, or
Austria, or some other land.
Francis Garland arrived on December 2 from Prague,
just as I came five years ago
to a day from Bremen to England. Little profit indeed
had he reaped in that five
years.
On the 7th, Jane delivered
her supplication with her own hand to the
Queen, as she passed out of
the privy garden at Somerset House, to go to dinner
with Sir Thomas Heneage at the
Savoy. Elizabeth handed the letter to the Lord
Admiral, but took it again
from him, and kept it on her cushion. The next day, the
Lord Admiral and Lord
Buckhurst reminded her of the matter; presently she told
the Archbishop that she wished
Dee to have Dr. Days place of Chancellor at St.
Pauls. 8th Dec. The
Chancellorship presented. The Archbishop of Canterbury
willing, he writes; but this
was apparently another castle in the air, for Dr. William
Day was not appointed Bishop
of Winchester till a year later, November 23, 1595,
and although Dees name
appears as Chancellor under the date of December 8, 1594,
he seems never to have held
office.
His friends, however, were not
idle. In a months time, January 3,
Archbishop Whitgift was
recommending Elizabeth to grant him the Wardenship of
Christs College, Manchester,
in her own gift. Dr. William Chadderton, who was
then Warden and Bishop of
Chester, was to be promoted to the see of Lincoln, and
here was an opening for Dee.
On February 5, Sir John Wolley endeavoured to get
her to sign the patent for his
appointment, but she deferred it. Dee was up and
down to London from Mortlake,
and on February 10, at two in the afternoon, he
toke a cut-purse taking his
purse out of his pocket in the Temple. On April 18, the
Queen did sign the bill, when
it was offered her by Dees friend and neighbour at
Mortlake, John Herbert, Master
of the Requests. On May 25, 26, 27, it passed the
Signet, the Privy Seal, and
the Great Seal; and, as a climax to his entry in the diary,
Dee adds, 3 pounds 12s.
borrowed of my brother Arnold, doubtless to pay the fees.
The Earl of Derby gave him
letters of introduction, and he was soon in
correspondence with Oliver
Carter, one of the Fellows; with Thomas Williams,
another; and with Mr. Goodier,
lessee of the tithes belonging to the Warden and
Fellows. Carter and Williams
were already at law with each other, and soon were
both to be at loggerheads with
Dee and his laudable desires to set the tangled affairs
of the college straight.
Carter was one of the moderators of the monthly lecture in
Manchester, had great
influence, and seems to have been unprepared to welcome a
Warden of Dees
reputation.?July 31st. The Countess of Warwick did this evening thank her
Majestie in
my name, and for me, for her
gift of the Wardenship of Manchester. She toke it
gratiously and was sorry that
it was so far from hense, but that some better thing
neer hand shall be fownd for
me; if opportunitie of time would serve, her Majestie
wold speak with me herself. I
had a bill made by Mr. Wood, one of the clerks of the
signet, for the first frutes
forgiving by her Majestie.
So at length there was
something tangible in prospect. Things had to be
settled up at Mortlake and
preparations made for the journey northward. We may
be sure that Dees
gratification at receiving a post of some sort, after a lifetime of
waiting, was mixed with regret
at quitting the place that had been his home for so
long. His yong coosen, John
Aubrey, came in May to recreate himself for a while,
and stayed nearly a month.
On August 14, Janes youngest
child, a girl, was born. She was baptised at
Mortlake as Margaret Dee on
the afternoon of August 27; godfather, the Lord
Keeper; godmothers, the
Countesses of Cumberland and Essex, all three represented
by deputy. The Countess of
Essex was Walsinghams only daughter and heir. She
had been Sidneys widow, and
was now married to Essex.
Dee was now entertained often
by Lord Derby at Russell House, once to meet
some German guests. On October
9 he dined with Sir Walter Raleigh at Durham
Place. This palace in the
Strand had seen many vicissitudes before it had been given
to Raleigh by the Queen.
Originally the residence of the northern bishops, it had
been seized by an earlier
king. Lady Jane Grey had been wedded there. Her too
ambitious father-in-law had
gone thence to the Tower and the scaffold. Catholic
plots against Elizabeth had
been hatched by Spaniards in this, her own house, and
now the great seaman, fresh
from far Guiana, was housed in a little turret,
overlooking the river and the
ships.
Dee was anxious to reclaim,
before going to his new home, an Arabic book
lent to some friend in Oxford.
He had written to Mr. Harding and Mr. Abbott
several times for its return
about a year and a half before. Now, on October 20, he
sent his man Richard Walkden
to Oxford to find and bring it. The man returned
from a fruitless errand, but
on November 19 my Arabic book was restored by Gods
favour. His gratitude expressed
itself in a practical manner to the trusted Richard:
I delivered unto Richard
Walkedyne my man, Mr. Robert Thomas his
fustian dubblet, for 10
shillings of his wages. I gave him more when he was to ride
down with my wife: 10s.,
whereof 6s. 4d. was due to him that he had layd out for
me. The other 3s. 6d. was of
his wages.
A portion of goods and
furniture had already been despatched towards
Manchester by a carrier named
Percivall, and on the 26th Jane and her children all
set of by coach towards Coventry,
a usual half-way halting place on the high-road to
Lancashire. A last piece of
business was transacted on December 23 with John
Norton, stationer, to whom Dee
owed money, perhaps for printing: I payd him ten
pownds in hand and was bound
in a recognisance before Doctor Hone for the
payment of the rest, 10 pounds
yearly, at Christmas, and Midsummer 5 pounds, tyll
53 pounds 14s. 8d. more were
paid. The same day he received 30 pounds in part
payment of 100 pounds for the
house at Mortlake, which he had lent to Mr. Paget.?
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XXI
MANCHESTER
He hath, my lord, wrung from
me my slow leave,
By laboursome petition; and,
at last,
Upon his will I sealed my hard
consent.
Shakespeare, Hamlet
The Collegiate Church, now the
Cathedral of Manchester, was founded about
1420 in this already ancient
town by Thomas de la Warre, baron and priest, rector or
parson of St. Marys,
Manchester, and lord of the manor. The flourishing town of
woollen industries, introduced
by the Flemings a hundred or more years earlier,
demanded a new and more
capacious church; and De la Warre, the last of his noble
house, determined to provide
buildings in which a Warden, priests or Fellows, and
choristers, should be
continually resident, as well as to found a new church. He
gained the consent of his
parishioners to the appropriation of estates belonging to
the existing rectory, as an
income for the college, and supplemented it from his own
lands in the district. He also
obtained a charter of foundation from Henry V., dated
May 9. The college was
dissolved by Edward VI. and refounded by Henry VIII.; but
by the time of Elizabeth its
lands had been plundered, sold or leased, she herself
becoming a sharer in the
profits of spoliation until there was hardly any clear
property left. At the instance
of Dean Nowell, an inquiry was instituted, with the
result that the college was
granted a new charter in 1578, as Christs College, to
consist of a Warden, four
Fellows, and two chaplains, with choristers. Nowell and
Oliver Carter were two of the
first Fellows. The second Warden was Dr.
Chadderton, who had been
Leicesters chaplain, and was Bishop of Chester. Under
him the Catholics were
relentlessly persecuted, Manchester prisons were filled, and
the famous Marprelate printing
press was discovered and seized. Chaddertons
promotion to the see of
Lincoln in 1595 made an opening for our persistent place-beggar
to be disposed of at last.
Dee arrived in Manchester on
Monday afternoon, February 15, 1596, and took
up his abode in the college.
On the following Saturday he was installed inthe
Wardenship, between nine and
eleven oclock, as he tells us. He has unfortunately
left no account of the
ceremony. His first business was to become acquainted with
the tenants fo the college
lands, and the owners of tithes which constituted its
revenue. On April 2, he says
Sir John Byron and his son, Mr. John Byron, dined
with him at the college. This
family, although Newstead had been acquired some
forty or fifty years
previously, were still often resident on their Lancashire estates.
Clayton, near Manchester, was
in fact then their chief residence. A little later in the
month, Dee records the courts
kept for the manor of Newton, in Manchester parish,
of which the Warden and
Fellows were lords. The Dean and Canons, the present
representatives of Warden and
Fellows, still hold a court leet twice a year for this
manor.
There is an interesting letter
from Dee to Robert Bruce Cotton, the antiquary,
dated in May this year, throwing
light on his relations with the people in his
employ copyists, assistants
or apprentices. He had brought with him from?Mortlake Antony Cowley, who had
formerly been in Cottons service. Dee was
anxious to know if he had
departed from the employ of his late master withhis good
will.
Truely, for my part, I will
receyve none to my simple service (man or
woman) unleast they come from
theyr Masters or Mistresses with theyr well liking
of suche their departure from
them. Therfore, I wold, by this bearer, gladly receyve
your answer herein, by word of
mouth or by your letter. And so shall I be free from
all offence giving to your
worship, or any els inthis cause: as I am most free from
coveting, desyring or longing
after my neighbours wife or any servant of his. If I
might have a thousand pounds
to sollicite or procure any mans servant to forsake
his master or mistress, and to
come to me or any other, I wold not do it, God
knowes.
In about three weeks Dee
received a reply to this considerate letter, evidently
not entirely satisfactory, for
on June 3 he paid Antony Cowley 20s. and discharged
him. Next day Antony went
forth early from my house, I know not whither.
Dee now began to direct his
whole attention to his charge: the college and the
college lands. A royal
commission was appointed to sit and examine its internal
affairs. On June 18 the
commission for the college was sent to London to be
engrossed inthe Duchy office.
Dee was a layman; he had always stipulated he
should have no cure of souls
attached to whatever benefice he might hold. For the
daily services at Manchester
he employed a succession of curates (mostly
unsatisfactory), to whom he
paid wages 50s. for three months. He was far more
interested in the temporal
than the spiritual welfare of his college, and indeed his
desire for such an appointment
seems rather to have been solely prompted by the
selfish, if necessary, wish
for an income and means to pursue his own studies in
peace. He was to find neither
in Manchester.
In June he received a visit
from Mr. Harry Savile, the antiquary, of the Bank,
Halifax, and by him he sent a
request to Christopher Saxton, of Dunningley, near
Halifax, to come and arrange a
survey of the town of Manchester, and consult about
the parish boundaries. Saxton
was a well-known character of the time, the holder of
a patent from the Queen, whose
arms appear upon the maps he made of the three
counties of Chester, York and
Lancaster. They were the first maps of Britain made
from actual survey, and had
been issued as an atlas in 1579, most of the maps
having been engraved in 1577.
His visits to Dee lasted over three weeks; notes are
entered of his measuring the
township and visiting Hough Hall, the seat of
Nicholas Mosely, the
Lancashire clothier who, two or three years later, became Lord
Mayor of London and was
knighted by Queen Elizabeth. The boys, Arthur and
Rowland; the two faithful
assistants, Crocker and Walkden accompanied Dee and
Mr. Saxton on the
peregrination. Harry Savile seems to have made one of the party
also. Unfortunately, Saxtons
Manchester survey is not now known to be in
existence.
A surprise visit was paid to
the Warden on June 26 by his landlord, the Earl of
Derby, and a large party of
ladies and gentlement, including Lady Gerard, wife of the
Master of the Rolls; her
daughter Frances, and her husband, Sir Richard Molyneux,
of Sefton, a former member for
the county of Lancaster. Their son-in-law, Mr.
Richard Hoghton, of Hoghton
Towers, and others, also accompanied the Earl. The?Warden says: They came suddenly
upon me after three of the clock. I made them
a skolers collation, and it
was taken in good part. I browght his honor and the
ladyes to Ardwick Green toward
Lyme, to Mr. Legh his howse, 12 myles off. Mrs.
Legh was Lady Gerards second
daughter, so it was altogether a family party that
descended so unexpectedly on
the Warden, and no doubt ate merrily of his
scholars collation. The
only absence from Manchester recorded by the Warden
(except the two years in
London) was on August 13 this year, when he says that he
rid toward York and Halifax,
returning from York on the 20th.
On September 1, Mary Goodwyn
came to govern and teach the two younger
children, Madinia, aged six,
and Margaret, one year old. There was a field or two let
with the College House, and
the Warden now turned farmer, getting a small drove
of seventeen head of cattle up
from his kinsfolk in Wales to graze the pasture. They
were brought up by the
courteous Griffith David, nephew to Mr. Thomas Griffith,
and were a present. Dee had
to visit Sir John Byron about the college tenants.
Who pretended that we have
part of Faylesworth Common within our
Newton Heath, which cannot be
proved, I am sure. We wer agreed that James
Traves (being his bayly) and
Franis Nutthall, his servant for him, shold with me
understand all circumstances,
and so duly to proceed.
The close of the year was
marked by an episode which might have gone far
towards clearing Dees
character from the aspersions still being cast upon him.
Nowhere was superstition and belief
in witchcraft more prevalent than in
Lancashire, and in November
and December of this year he seems to have been
applied to for advice as
regards a woman and seven children, said to have become
demoniacally possessed through
the influence of one Hartley, a conjurer. Dees
curate, Matthew Palmer,
happened to go in as Hartley was praying over the woman
in a fit. He demanded what he
was doing.
`Praying.
`Thou pray! thou canst not
pray, quoth he. `What prayer canst thou say?
`None, saith he, `but the
Lords Prayer.
`Say it, quoth he, the which
as I remember, he could not say.
Dee utterly refused to meddle
with the affair, and advised the father to
consult with godlye preachers
and appoint a private fast. Perhaps he remembered
that when he asked, long
before, if he had done well concerning Isabel Lister, vexed
of a wicked spirit, the
angels reply had been Friend, it is not of thy charge. He sent
for Hartley, and so sharply
rebuked him that the children had more ease for three
weeks after. The devils were
finally exorcised by a godly preacher, John Darrell, or,
as we suspect, by the
childrens release from Hartleys attentions, who was hanged
soon after. Dees library, a
good part of which he must have moved to Manchester,
was constantly in request at
this time. It was rich in books on demonology and
possession, and Lancashire
justices of the peace who had to deal with these cases of
witchcraft brought before them
seem to have resorted to such works, for and against
the persecution and annihilation
of witches, as the De Praestigiis Daemonum (Basle,
1566) of John Wier, the Fustis
Daemonum and the Flagellum Daemonum of the
monk Hierom Menghi (Frankfort
1582, Boulogne 1586). All these Dee records
lending to Mr. Edmund Hopwood,
of Hopwood, a deputy- lieutenant and
ecclesiastical commissioner,
as well as a J.P. Wier or Weier was very likely known?to Dee at Louvain. He was
one of the earliest apologists for these unfortunate folk,
and pleaded that, their brains
being disordered by melancholy, they merited pity, not
punishment. His book contains
the first account of The Pied Piper of Hamelin,
from the archives of the town
of Hamelin. A Spanish grammar was lent to Mr.
Barlow for his son. Mr.
Matthew Heton was the borrower of theological works,
including the Concordantiae
Bibliorum (1555) of Robert Stephens, the illustrious
printer of the New Testamentl;
and a Calvinistic treatise, De Coena Domini, written
by Dr. Pezel, who had, we
remember, commemorated Dees departure from Bremen
in 1589 by verses. Dee lent
Heton books,but Heton lent Dee ten pounds on a bill of
hand. To John Cholmeley I
lent my Latyn boke in 8vo, De Morbis Infantum.
The disputes over tithes and
lands belonging to the college naturally affected
the Wardens income, and Dee
found himself compelled to borrow small sums as
before. Finally he was reduced
to raise money on his plate, and especially on the
handsome double gilt tankard,
with a cover, which was the christening gift of the
Countess of Hertford to her
god-daughter Frances. It weighed 22 ounces, and Dee
tells how he delivered it to
Charles Leigh, one of the college singing men, to lay in
pawn in his own name with
Robert Welsham, the goldsmith, till within two days
after May-day next. My
daughter Katherine and John Crocker [the old servant], and I
myself [John Dee], were at the
delivery of it and waying of it, in my dyning chamber.
It was wrapped in a new
handkercher cloth. All that was obtained on the tankard
was 4 pounds of the current
value.
In the spring of 1597, Dee
records, on May 4, the last of the Rogation days of
the year, a very interesting
topographical event, viz., the perambulation of the
bounds of old Manchester by
himself, the curate, and the clerk.
Away in the south-eastern
corner of England, in the little village of Bourne,
near Canterbury, about this
very time, Richard Hooker, the saintly scholar, was
performing a similar
perambulation, of which Izaak Walton has left us the
immortal picture. A homily was
prepared for the service, a psalm sung, and the
malediction pronounced,
Cursed be he that removes his neighbours landmark.
Izaak Walton tells us that
Hooker, to look at, was an
Obscure harmless man in poor
clothes, his loins girt in a coarse gown or
canonical coat; of a mean
stature and stooping, yet more lowly in the thoughts of his
soul; his body worn out, not
with age, but study and holy mortification. Yet he
would by no means omit the
customary procession; persuading all, both rich and
poor: if they desired the
preservation of loe and their parish rights and liberties, to
accompany him in his
perambulation; and most did so. In which perambulation,
he would express more pleasant
discourse than at other times, and would then
always drop some loving and
facetious observations, to be remembered against the
next year, especially by the
boys and young people; still inclining them, and all his
present parishioners, to
meekness and mutual kindnesses and love, because love
thinks no evil, but covers a
multitude of sins.
The Warden of Manchester has
not left us such an impression of the ancient
antiquarian custom performed
as a holy rite of devotion, but as an exact topographer
and mathematician he has
givena highly valuable record:
1597. May 4. I with Sir
Robert Barber, curate, and Robert Tilsley, clerk of
Manchester parish church, with
diverse of the town of diverse ages, went in?Perambulation to the bownds of
Manchester parish: began at the Leeless Birche
against Prestwicke parish, and
so had vew of thre corner stake, and then down tyll
Mr. Standysh new enclosure on
Thelmore, wher we stayed, and vewed the stake yet
standing in the back of the
dich; [it] being from the corner eleven measures of Mr.
Standleys stik, then in his
hand, and 2 fote more; which stik I did measure
afterward, and it did conteyn
in length: feet 5, ynch 3. The total mesure: fete 69,
ynches 9. At which place
Teblow, servant to Mr. Ashton of Chaderton, did meet us.
The survey geometricall of the
very circuits of Manchester parish wer ended in this,
being the sixth day of my work
folks doings.
In the Chetham Library is a
holograph letter from Dee to the rector of
Prestwich, William Langley,
dated two days before this perambulation, informing
him of the project for making
a chart of the parish bounds, and inviting him,
As one side of our parish in
Thielmore doth border upon some parts of your
parish of Prestwiche, to
request some one or two of the auncient of your parish to be
allso beholders of our bounds,
notifying toward your parish in that place. My
neighbours do intend to come
on Wensday next, in the morning about 9 or 10 of the
clok, to that part that is by
Goodman Smehearsts house, and so toward the birche
tree that is called the
Leeless Byrche, and thereabouts, for a little space; to beggyn the
vew of the bownds and meres of
Manchester parish: by the order of an enjoyned
work by the higher powres, for
avoyding of undue encroaching of any neighbourly
parish one on the other. You
understand me sufficiently well, I dowt not. Pardon
my boldness so bluntly to
borde you with so homely a sute.
Your wurships sincere
Wellwisher in Christe,
John Dee, Warden.
John Crocker and several other
men were occupied for some weeks in
marking the boundaries of the
manor; they met with extraordinary opposition from
the landowners, and on June 14
Dee alludes to a riot that took place at Newton,
Captain Bradley and others
endeavouring to hinder the college employees in their
labour. What with opposition
abroad and difficulties with his curate at home, Dee
was finding the coveted
appointment no bed of roses. He records another of his
characteristic dreams the
dreams of a bibliophile, to whom books are treasures as
dear almost as his children:
This night I had the vision
and shew of many bokes in my dreame, and
among the rest was one great
volume, thik, in large quarto, new printed, on the first
page whereof as a title in
great letters was printed Notus in Judaea Deus. Many
other books methought I saw,
new printed, of very strange arguments. I lent Mr.
Edmund Hopwood of Hopwood my
Malleus Maleficarum to use till New Years
tyde next, a short thik old
boke, with two clasps, printed anno 1517.
It was now early August. So
Hopwood, who was bent on mastering the
subject of witchcraft, was to
have about four months to study The Hammer for
Witches, a book first issued
in 1489, after the Bull against sorcery of Pope Innocent
VIII., by the three sorcery
inquisitors. It was translated into German,?Hexenhammer, and formed the
text-book of procedure against witches in Germany.
Its authors give emphasis to
their learned observation that witch-craft is more
natural to women than men,
because of the inherent wickedness of their hearts! In
mediaeval times there
appeared, alas! no safe and inconspicuous path for ordinary
women. The entire sex
consisted apparently of either angels or devils.
On a Sunday in August, Dee
entertained the Earl and Countess of Derby at a
banket at my loding at the
College, hora 4 1/2. They had newly taken up their
residence at Alport Park,
which had been the college property before the dissolution
of the monasteries. It is now
inthe heart of the city, somewhere near the Midland
Railway works.
There was scant time for
literary labours amid so much entertaining
topographical work and
litigation; abut in September Dee sent to his former friend,
now Sir Edward Dyer, a
treatise he had some time written on The Queens Title
Royal and Sea Sovereignty in
St. Georges Channel and all the Ocean adjoining to
England, Scotland and
Ireland. He quotes in it so freely from his British Monarchy
(see ante, p. 39) that he
encloses a copy of that work, written twenty years before, in
case his correspondent does
not possess one handy. The letter gives such a graphic
picture of the state into
which the college affairs had fallen, and of the characteristic
energy with which Dee set
about to try and reform them, that it must be quoted at
some length. When the
accompanying volume and manuscript have been fully
discussed, the writer passes
on to the
intricate, cumbersome, and
lamentable affairs of estate of this defaced and
disordered college, whereunto
not only I am assigned for my portion of
mayntenance, for me and all
myne, but allso, by college oath, bownde to see unto
the right and dignitie
thereof. Which hat bred unto me already, both wonderfull
care of mynde and no little
payne taking, ever since my entrance, and daylie doth
and will brede me more and
more. And hath browght me likewise in great debt, by
reason of the pore Revenue of
my stipend (of only iiijs. a day for me and all myne),
and that in these tymes of
very great dearth here, yea, so great, that unleast (inhis
most fatherly Providence) the
Almighty God had stirred up some mens hartes to
send me, this present yere,
from Dantzig, some barrells of kye; from Wales some
cattall, and from Hull some
fish for Lent: God knoweth that it passed all our wittes
and habilitie to devise or use
any other meanes, sufficient to the preserving of the
lives of me and my familie
togither, being now but of eightene persons, most
nedefull: I my wife and our
children, being the one half of them. So hard and
thynne a dyet, never, in all
my life, did I, nay was I forced, so long to use: Neyther
did ever any household
servants of myne have so slender allowance at their Table.
And yet all that hath not so
much pynched me inwardly as the cares and cumbers
for the college affaires have
done, for they have altered, yea barred and stayed my
whole course of life, and
bereaved me of my so many yeres contynued Joyes, taken
in my most esteemed studies
and exercises.
But as it pleaseth the king
of heven and earthe thus to deale with me: So I
beseche him to give me grace
to like best of this his long leading of me per multas
tribulationes. And Beside all
the rest, This encreaseth my grief: that I know no one
as yet of her Majesties most
honorable Privy Counsaile, who willingly and
comfortably will listen unto
my pitifull complainte and Declaration: How this
Colledg of Manchester is
almost become No College, in any respect; I say in any?respect, forr I can
verifie my wordes to[o] manifestly. But why do I cumber yr
wurship (thus abruptlie) with
such my colledg cumbers? Pardon me, I pray you, the
pang of my mynde, half amazed,
when the multitude of these cumbers and of the
confused and intricate causes
of this Colledge, do russh at once into my fantazie.
But, undowtedly, either God
will give me grace sufficient and send me might help
(tempore opportune) to end
them, or else they will help to hasten my deliverance
from these and all other vayne
and earthly Actions humayne.
Sir, how well (and that
hartily) not onely I, but my paynfull Jane, and my
children of discretion, allso
do, at Gods handes, wich unto yr wurship, you my
easyly gesse, for it is our
duetie.
And so, I beseche your
wurship undowtedly to perswade your selfe of us.
Manchester, September 8, A. 1597.
Yor wurships in fidelitie and
sinceritie,
John Dee.
A new steward of the college
was appointed: Humphrey Davenport, who
afterwards became Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, and as such delivered judgment
upon ship money in Hampdens
case. Very few allusions to domestic and family
matters occur inthe diary for
these Manchester years, but in November, 1597, an
accident is recorded to
Arthur, who was at home for a time. He was amusing
himself by fencing with Edward
Arnold, one of Dees men and his usual messenger
to London, when the foyne or
thrust of the rapier of his opponent damaged his left
eye. The lad was now about
seventeen, probably already entered at Christ Church,
Oxford.
Correspondence with friends in
London, as Dr. Julio, a well- known physician
of the time, and Dr. Caesar
(afterwards Sir Julius Caesar and Master of the Rolls),
both of Italian origin,
sometimes relieved the Wardens tedious and tiresome
disputes with the Fellows, the
tenants and the tithe owners of the college.
To Caesar, as Master of the
Requests, Dee wrote on October 2, 1596, on behalf
of William Nicholson, about an
action he had brought against two persons for
enclosing moor and mine land
at Reddish. Some idea of the lawless proceedings of
the time may be gathered from
Dees description of the injuries the plaintiff had
received in having his barns
pulled down and his corn and hay, to the quantitie of
a great number of loads, cast
out of doors, which some of my family beheld. Dee
adds pointedly: I shall be
forced ere it be long to fly to your direction and help in
causes Judiciall; and ends by
a reference to Caesars recent marriage, six months
earlier, to a Manchester lady
(Alice, daughterof Christopher Green): God bless you
and your new Joye.
Oliver Carter was more troublesome
than ever, and lawsuits were instituted
by the Warden both against him
and George Birch, another of the Fellows. On
Sunday, September 25, Dee
writes: Mr. Oliver Carter, his impudent and evident
disobedience in the church.
There was evidently a scene, though not, as Mr.
Halliwell has it, caused by
Carters dissoluteness in the church. There was no
house for the Warden, but the
fines of the Fellows for absence were by the last
charter to be devoted to its
provision. If they did not pay, Dee had to meet the rent
himself. At the beginning of
1598 there were four lawsuits on the Wardens hands,
but he records that he
stayed them all, for one cause or another, one until Sir John
Byron returned. In Januaru the
college gate and a large piece of the wall fell down at?midnight, so there were
repairs to be made. He had a letter from John Pontoys, the
friend who had sent him
twenty-one loads of Dantzic rye, very useful for
consumption. Another welcome
contribution for domestic use arrived at this time,
viz., two lings and two
haberdines from Mr. Harry Savill, from Lichefield.
Haberdines are dried and
salted cod. He records an eclipse of the sun on February 25,
with the comment that although
it was a cloudy day there was great darkness about
half-past nine.
In March, the entries in the
diary end abruptly, and are not resumed again till
June, 1600, a period of more
than two years, of which there appears no record. The
time was apparently spent in
London or at Mortlake; the purpose of the journey was
no doubt to represent to the
Privy Council or other authorities the terribly involved
state of affairs in
Manchester, where the college had become almost no college.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XXII
COLLEGE AFFAIRS
I came among a people who
relied much on dreams. And I told them except
they could distinguish between
dream and dream they would mash or confound all
together. For there were three
sorts of dreams. For multitude of business
sometimes caused dreams; and
there were whisperings of Satan in man in the night
season; and there were
speakings of God to man in dreams.
George Fox, Journal
The Warden was apparently
absent from his charge at Manchester for two
years and a quarter, between
March, 1598, and June, 1600. When he resumed his
diary to chronicle his return,
it appeared that he had been very busy in London,
arranging for a special
commission to sit in the college chapter house, to inquire
into encroachments made upon
the manor of Newton. His wife and two elder sons,
Arthur and Rowland; Mary
Nicholls, daughter of his old friend and pupil, Francis
Nicholls; all travelled with
him from London. What became of the younger
children we can only guess.
The party set out on the 10th and arrived in Manchester
on June 18. Rowland was then
seventeen, a Grammar School boy on Bishop
Oldhams foundation in
Manchester. Early in the following December, he obtained
an exhibition at Oxford
fromthe school. Dee, as Warden, was charged with certain
official visits of inspection
of the Grammar School, and was by no means always
pleased with the reult. He
says, for instance, on August 5 of this year, I visited the
Grammar Schole, and fownd
great imperfections in all and every of the scholers, to
my great grief. Of an earler
visit he says it was to see the
ower, &x., for Mr. Heton,
i.e., to see the clock.
Dee had almost completed his
seventy-third year, and had maintained his
bodily strength on the whole
remarkably well. This summer he observed that for
the first time inhis life his
pulse assumed the well-known symptom of intermittent
beating, or pulsation. With
all his usual exactitude, he records that his pulse kept
on missing a pulsation after
the fifth, or the seventh, or eleventh beat, although it
was for the rest strong and
equal. He mentions a great many sleepless nights.
Nocte Amaritudo mea, Circa
mediam noctem Amaritudo mea, are entries that
occur with some frequency. On
July 7, he says, This morning, as I lay in my bed, it?came into my fantasy to
write a boke: De differentiis quibusdam corporum et
spirituum. His views on this
subject are again sometimes noted. If they are not
about books, they concerned
that long-frustrated hope of his life, that he might
actually one day, and by no
fraud or trickery, stumble on the secret which Kelley had
professed to know. By this
time, Dee must have been assured of Kelleys knavery,
and yet his faith in the
possibilities of alchemy remained unshaken to the end. I
had a dream after midnight,
he says, of my enjoying and working of the
philosophers stone, with
other. My dream was after midnight, toward day. Alas!
this pleasure he was never to
enjoy in the flesh. Next night: I dreamed that along
betwene Aldgate and the
postern on Tower Hill did men stand in a lane, with pikes
in theyr hands, as though more
should come to them, or that they wayted for
somebody. But theyr regard and
looking was directly to Y Towre, where certeyn
great personages dyd stand;
and one of them as upon a stage did declare with a loud
voice to the pikemen, matter
of importance, very loud.
The description of the
topography of his dream, given by this Londoner born,
is very exact. The gate of
Aldgate, taken down in 1606, was the eastern postern of the
City, not far from St.
Botolphs Curch. So the lane of pikemen was a very long one,
or seems so to us, who know
the distance covered with hundreds of buildings and a
network of streets.
There was little time now for
him to devote to alchemy by day. His work lay
in a more practical direction:
July 17. I willed the Fellows
to com to me by nine the next day. July 18.
They cam. It is to be noted of
the great pacifications, unexpected of man, which
happened this Friday; for in
the fore-noone (betwene nine and ten) when the
Fellows were greatly in doubt
of my heavy displeasure, bu reason of their manifold
misusing of themselves against
me, I did with all lenity interteyn them, and shewed
the most part of the things
that I had brought to pass at London for the Colleg good;
and told Mr. Carter (going
away) that I must speak with him alone. Robert Leghe
and Charles Legh [the singing
men] were by. Secondly, the great sute between
Redich men and me was stayed,
and by Mr. Richard Holland, his wisdom. Thirdly,
the organs, uppon conditions,
wer admitted. And fourthly, Mr. Williamsons
resignation granted, for a
preacher to be gotten from Cambridge.
Richard Holland, of Reddish
and Heaton House, was a man of some note in
Manchester, a feoffee of the
Grammar School, and three or four times sheriff of the
county. The preacher gotten
from Cambridge to succeed the last unsatisfactory
curate was William Bourne, a
Fellow of St. Johns. July 31. We held our audit, I
and the Fellows, for the two
yeres last past in my absence: Olyver Carter, Thomas
Williams and Robert Birch,
Charles Legh, the elder, being receyver. This entry in
the diary seems to make it
plain that Dee was absent from Manchester during the
whole of the two years of
which we have no account. In July, too, Dee records the
loan of his second part of
Holinsheds Chronicle to Mr. Randall Kemp.
In September, the
commissioners appointed by the Bishop of Chester again
met, and called Dee before
them in the church, about thre of the clok after none,
and did deliver to me certain
petitions put up by the Fellows against me to answer
before the 18th of this month.
I answered them all eodem tempore; Yet they gave
me leave to write at leisure.
The commissioners were Richard Holland and?William Langley, both of whom we
have met before, with the rector of Stockport,
Richard Gerard. Things perhaps
were set on a little better foundation for a time.
Points of dispute were
referred to the steward, Humphrey Davenport, Counsayler,
of Grays Inn, and Oliver
Carter, the contentious Fellow, died within three or four
years.
The last troublous years in
Manchester must be briefly passed over, and
indeed the material for them
is scanty. Dee had to borrow money on more plate,
double gilt potts with cover
and handells, bowles and cupps with handles, from
Edmund Chetham, the high
master of the Grammar School; and he had not been
able to redeem them when
Chethams father and executor made his will in March,
1603. He says in it that Dee
delivered to his son six severall parcells of Plate to be
kept as a payne or pledge for
the same [loan], which by reason of my said
executorshippe are now come
into my possession, and he wills the ten pounds lent
upon them to his other sons
Humfrey and Ralphe. When, if ever, the pieces were
redeemed, does not appear.
Another valuable article a silver salt, dubble gilt,
with a cover, waying 14 oz.,
had to be deposited with Adam Holland in January
1601, for a loan of five
pounds for one year. Dees store of plate, though large, was
being heavily drained and
irrevocably scattered in this way. The old man doubtless
saw his treasures, the gifts
of friends and patrons of half a century, disappear with
feelings of deep chagrin and
disappointment, mingled with memories of past
triumphs, and little light
upon the future. A piece of the plate came to light at the
Tudor Exhibition in the New
Gallery in 1890, when a silver cup, the property of Mrs.
John Hookham Frere (said to be
Dees great-great-niece), was exhibited. Writing of
this cup to her son Bartle
Frer, about the end of the eighteenth century, Mrs. Frere
says, My great thrice- great
uncle, John Dee, because he was a wise man, was taken
for a conjurer. I have his
silver cup now here with me, and you may drink of it, but
I know no story in the family
that he ever divined by it. It serves me here for a
sugar basan. Evidently Mrs.
Frere took an entirely rational view of the powers
attributed to her famous
ancestor.
Perhaps in these sad days he
looked back regretfully to the glorious visions
and promises made him by those
angelic visitors inthe years when he and his skryer
lived in the Courts of kings
and emperors, and were consulted and deferred to as
seers and wise men. Even the
thoughts of suspicions harboured; of secret and open
foes, at home and abroad; the
recollection of heart burnings and passionate scenes
with the incalculable Kelley,
must have seemed dazzlingly brilliant as compared
with these grey hopeless
years. It is little wonder that he began to seek among his
assistants and friends another
skryer, through whom he might renew some
glimmer of the former days.
Mr. Francis Nicholls, who had come to Mortlake in
1593 to learn astrology, seems
to have been tried. He was frequently with the
Warden, and his daughter Mary
stayed for two or three months with the Dees in
Manchester on their return
from London. She would be a companion in age for
Katherine, and the Warden
tells how the two girls, his wife and himself, partook of
the sacrament together on
August 10, 1600. Bartholomew Hickman was more
successful as a medium than
Mr. Nicholls, and yet at first not always to be trusted.
Dee had learned by now to be
very discriminating, and he found many of the
reports of sight and hering
spirituall, obtained through this skryer, so untrue that
he made a bonfire of all the
writings on Michaelmas Day, before his wife; Mr.
Nicholls; his brother, William
Nicholls, and a Mr. Wortley. A copy of the first?part, which was afterward
fownd, was burnt before me and my wife. The
revelations afterwards
transmitted through Bartholomew were not so treated, and
were evidently considered by
Dee to be genuine messages from the unseen. His
visitors left the next day
after the Michaelmas bonfire, the Warden accompanying
them on foot as far as
Deansgate, where they parted. On his return home a surprise
awaited the old man.
Dees servants, many of them,
attached themselves to him for life, as we have
seen. They, at least, regarded
him without suspicion. He was no invoker of devils
or conjurer of evil spirits to
them. No master could be kinder, more gentle,
considerate or more strictly
honourable. In whatever straits he found himself, he
always contrived to pay, and
faithfull record in his diary the payment of, their
wages. We have seen how he
writes to Sir Edward Dyer of their diet. It will be
remembered that one of his
early apprentices, Roger Cook, left him after fourteen
years, jealous that another
man should be admitted to processes from which he was
excluded. This was over twenty
years ago, nor had his name ever been mentioned
in the diary since. Now, Roger
Cook reappeared in Manchester, quite unsought,
offering and promising
his faithful and diligent
care and help, to the best of his skill and powre, in the
processes chymicall, and that
he will rather do so than be with any in England;
which his promise the Lord
blesse and confirm! He told me that Mr. Anthony (his
late master) considered him
very liberally and frendely, but he told him that he had
promised me. Then he liked in
him the fidelity of regarding such his promise.
A week or two later, on
November 1, Dee writes that R.C. began to distil.
Afterwards there seems to have
been cause for suspicion that Roger had spread false
reports about his former
employer, but the mistake was generously acknowledged;
matters were cleared up, and
peace once more reigned:
Feb. 2. Roger Cook, his
supposed plat laying to my discredit was by Arthur,
my sone, fownd by chaunce in a
box of his papers, in his own handwriting, circa
meridiem, and afternone about
1 1/2 browght to my knowledg face to face. All was
mistaken and we reconcyled
godly. Feb. 5. O libera nos a malo. Feb. 10.
Reconciliation between us, and
I did declare to my wife, Katherine my dowghter,
Arthur and Rowland, how things
were mistaken.
In October, Sir George Booth,
High Sheriff of Cheshire, came to Manchester to
see the steward of the
college, Humphrey Davenport, of Grays Inn, about some of
the college property in
Cheshire, which he held. Booth had been knighted since his
last visit. After all parties
had been interviewed, they came to a mutual agreement
that the Warden and Fellows
would accept the arbitrament of the steward on the
point in question, his
decision to be delivered after the lawyer had paid his next visit
to London. Davenports clerk,
John Radclyffe, and Mr. Dumbell were at the college
at the time, but Dee says
they hard not our agreement, we were in my dining
room.
He received a kind letter from
the Bishop of Chester (Richard Vaughan),
recommending Mr. Thomas
Billings to him for a curacy. He does not say if the
spiritual ministrations of Mr.
Billings were accepted. The commissioners were still?sitting, and in November
they made an award against Mr. James Ashton, of
Chadderton, for holding the
manor or property of Nuthurst while its title belonged
to the college. There was a
final scene with Oliver Carter in the college, before Mr.
Birch, Robert and Charles
Leigh. At the college audit on December 2, Dee was
allowed his portion of 7
pounds yearly for house rent up to the Michaelmas before.
A grant was now made to Arthur
of the chapter clerkship, but the holder, Owne
Hodges, was only going to
relinquish it on condition of 6 pounds being paid for his
patent. So more silver had to
be pledged to meet a loan.
The last entry made by Dee in
his diary is on April 6, 1601, when he made
Mr. Holcroft, of Vale Royall,
his first acquaintance, at Manchester, by reason of Mr.
William Herbert, his servant.
He used me and reported of me very freely and
worshiply.
For the concluding seven years
of the old mans life there are only a few
scanty outside records on
which to rely, beside two or three fragmentary entries
printed in the end of the Book
of Mysteries. In such a practised and ready writer as
our aged mathematician and
astrologer, the failure to set down records seems to
betoken failing strength of
both intellect and body.
-------Cardiff Theosophical Society in Wales-------
CHAPTER XXIII
LAST DAYS
If I read aught in Heaven,
Or Heaven write aught of fate,
by what the stars,
Voluminous or single
characters
In their conjunction met, give
me to spell,
Sorrows and labours,
opposition, hate
Attends thee; scorns,
reproaches, injuries.
Milton, Paradise Regained
A few days after the diary
closes, Dees fourth son, Theodore, died. The boy
was just over thirteen,
perhaps at the Grammar School. Michael, we remember,
had died at Mortlake seven
years before, so the only sons left were Arthur and
Rowland, both now grown almost
to mans estate. Within about a year, Arthur
married, and soon embarked on
his successful career as a physician in London,
Manchester, Moscow and
Norwich, to which we can return later.
Arthurs wife was Isabella,
daughter of Edmund Prestwich, Justice of the
Peace, of Manchester, a member
of a family whose name is perpetuated by a large
district of the town. The
marriage took place in 1602, when Arthur was twenty-four,
his bride just under twenty. The
young couple settled with or near his parents at
first, and Dee had the joy of
seeing grandchildren grow up around him. Four of
Arthurs twelve children were
born during the old mans life, and he pleased
himself by drawing a horoscope
for two of these, Margarita 1603, and Jane 1605, on
the vellum leaves of a small
square manuscript volume which still fills us with
wonder at his boundless
industry. It contains an anatomical drawing of the human
body and tables of
astrological signs for its different parts, aphorisms, studies of
medicine, the actions of
metals, and other hermetic notes. Arthurs horoscope,
drawn and expounded by his
father in the same book, is sufficiently remarkable
with its prophecy that he
should have good fortune from a prince, and die abroad, a
violent death. In the centre
of the figure, Arthur himself has added the words
sententia patris mei de mea
nativitate erat. Magna bona cum multis malis.
Arthur only added one
horoscope, that of his seventh child, Isabel, born 1614;
otherwise, as they appeared
almost annually (twelve in eighteen years), he
contented himself with simply
writing names and dates on leaves of coarse paper,
added to the beginning and end
of his fathers little commonplace book, which has
been rebound roughly in cheap
modern cloth.
Beyond these events, there is
nothing to tell of the next three years, which are
without a single jotting of
his own in any of his diaries; but the old prejudices and
suspicions must have revived
in a very active and bitter form. The aged student
could endure them less
patiently than before. He had lost hope of outliving them;
he had lost his Queen, who,
though she had held out to him promises of
preferment as unsubstantial as
a mirage of the desert, had ever been friendly and
kind; had constantly welcomed,
nay, invited, him to her presence; and had
apparently maintained her
faith in him to the last. Burleighs death in 1598, and
now the Queens, left him
without patron and protector. Elizabeth died at
Richmond on March 23, 1603,
but Dee, presumably, was far away in Manchester, and
not near at hand at Mortlake,
even had he been required. The course of the
magnificent life was run, and
no prognostications of her astrologer could put hope
into the physicians and
courtiers watching around that royal deathbed. The Queen
was seventy, and had reigned
for fifty-three years.
From King James there was
nothing to be hoped for Dee, the man familiar
with occult sciences. The
Scotsman felt himself a special expert on the subject of
witches, demons and magic. Had
he not attended the infamous trials of 1590 and
1591? And was he not the
author of a book intended to shatter the doubts of those
who were still unconvinced of
the infamy? He was aghast at the new and
unorthodox views of apologists
like Wier and Reginald Scot, and upon his accession
promptly ordered The
Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), by the last named, to be
publicly burned. Jamess
Demonologie is a strange piece of reasoning, a plea, in fact,
for the devil, with whom he
seems to be on particularly intimate terms. Gods
hangman that is the title
awarded him is, according to King James, able to
return and reanimate any dead
body. He announces his faith in the power of
conjurers to invoke the devil
when they choose, and to invest others with his spirit.
He adjures all pious people to
unite in exterminating and utterly destroying all
persons so possessed: a
somewhat unkind request, since he has previously allowed
that such objects of
reprobation are permitted to exist in order that the godly may be
warned!
The first Parliament of James
met on March 19, 1604. On the 275h a new and
more stringent Act against
Witchcraft was brought into the House of Lords. It was
referred to the bishops, who
discovered it was imperfect, and had a fresh one drawn.
On June 9 the execrable Act
that disfigured our statute book for 150 years became
law. This haste, it was
supposed, was used to meet offences exposed by the Scottish
trials, now again evidently
revived and much talked of in England. It is significant
to remember that Shakespeare
finished writing Macbeth in 1606. In what way Dee
felt himself specially
involved, unless by the publication, in 1603, of Harsnets tirade
against impostures and
exorcists, it is hard to conjecture, but the times were ripe for
him to make, at this identical
moment, a passionate appeal to the King and?Parliament.
On June 5 he presented to
James, in the Palace at Greenwich, a petition
couched in the strongest and
most piteous terms that any man could devise.
He urged upon the King
to cause your Highnesse said
servant to be tryed and cleared of that horrible and
damnable, and to him most
grievous and dammageable sclaunder, generally, and
for these many yeares last
past, in this kingdom raysed and continued, by report and
Print against him, namely that
he is or hath bin a conjurer or caller or invocator of
divels.
He went on to relate how he
had published many times his earnest
apologies against the slander
[one we remember in his preface to Billingsleys Euclid
in 1570, and another, the letter
to the Archbishop in 1595, he had republished in
1599 and 1603], and yet this
ungodly and false report, so boldly, constantly and
impudently avouched, has been
uncontrolled and unpunished for so many years;
and, moreover, in spite of
all, some writer, either a malicious forraine enemy or an
English traytor to the
flourishing State and Honor of the Kingdom, on January 7,
1592, had called him, John
Dee, in print, the conjuror of the Queens Privy
Council. It seems, therefore,
very needful that the suppliant shall be brought to
trial, for the credit of the
Lords of the Privy Council as well as for his own.
Therefore he offereth himself
willingly to the punishment of Death, yea eyther to
be stoned to death, or to be
buried quicke, or to be burned unmercifully, if by any
due, true, and just meanes,
the name of conjuror, or caller, or invocator of Divels or
damned Sprites, can be proved
to have beene or to be duely or justly reported and
told of him (as to have been
of his doing) were true, as they have been told or
reasonably caused any
wondering among or to the many-headed multitude, or to
any other whoseever else.
Dees sympathies were so
strongly with the unfortunate, persecuted, so-called
witches, that he was willing
to throw in his lot with them and share the same fate.
He ends this extraordinary
petition with a great and undoubted hope that the
King will soon redress his
farder griefs and hindrances, no longer of him possibly
to be endured, so long hath
his utter undoing, by little and little, beene most
unjustly compassed.
Following up this petition,
the poor man, grown desperate, three days later
(June 8) presented an address
in verse to Parliament, begging them to pass an Act
Generall against slander, with
a special penal order for John Dee, his case. He was
far too much in earnest to be
suspectedof any humorous intention, but a thought of
the needful reformation such
an Act might have wrought in the country by this
time cannot be suppressed.
Certainly it would have been a more creditable piece of
legislation than the Act which
afforded such wicked and cruel pretext for espionage
and terrorism, and for putting
unfortunate lunatics called witches to death by
hanging, burning and stoning
by a mob.
It seems as if Dees ruined
and beggared condition, the long procession of
disappointments he had
patiently borne, had entirely destroyed the sense of
proportion in his mind between
personal and public affairs. Continual brooding
over the thought of the
neglect, the suspicion, that his undeniable talents had
undergone, the obstinate
slander, ignorant incredulity, or flat denial of things in
which he most truly put his
faith, all distorted by his natural vanity and good
opinion, seems to have
convinced him that his crushed and melancholy fate was
little short of a national
disaster. This feeling had become an obsession.
There was unfortunately
nothing in his halting verses to induce Parliament
to pay any heed to a tiresome
old petitioner, a survival from the last century and the
last reign, who had outlived
every contemporary inclined to believe in him, and
whose course was now nearly
run.
Nor did James respond in any
way to his heartbroken petition. Robert Cecil,
and all who wished to stand
well with him, took their cue from the King, and Dee
in his old age was left
forsaken and alone.
The following is the address
to Parliament:
TO THE HONORABLE ASSEMBLIE
OF THE COMMONS IN THE PRESENT
PARLIAMENT.
The Honor due unto you all,
And reverence to you each one,
I do first yeeld most
speciall;
Grant me this time to heare my
mone.
Now (if you write) full well
you may,
Fowle sclandrous tongues and
divelish hate,
And help the truth to beare
some sway
In just defence of a good
Name.
In sundry sorts, this
sclander great
(Of conjurer) I have sore
blamde:
But wilfull, rash, and
spiteful heat,
Doth nothing cease to be
enflamde.
Your helpe, therefore, by
Wisdoms lore,
And by your Powre, so great
and sure,
I humbly crave, that never
more
This hellish would I shall
endure.
And so your Act, with Honour
great
All Ages will hereafter
prayse;
And Truth, that sitts in
Heavenly sear,
Will in like case your
comforts rayse.
Most dutifully in all
humilitie at your commandment, John Dee,
servant and Mathematician to
his most royall Majestie.
An. 1604. Junij 8.
Dees good name was one of his
dearest possessions, but he had long seen it
shadowed and dimmed. Another
treasure his painful Jane the wife who
had loyally cleaved to him
through good and ill report, was to be the next of which
he was to be bereft. She was
so much his junior that he might reasonably have
expected her to tend his
declining years and to survive him. But it was thoroughly
in keeping with her unselfish
character and devoted life that her death came as a
sacrifice to duty. In the
spring of 1605, a terrible scourge of plague visited
Manchester. She nursed her
children safely through the epidemic, but fell a victim
to it herself. She died and
was buried on March 23 in the collegiate church of St.
Mary. The old man had no heart
to take up his pen and record her death. The bare
fact is all we know, from
another source; and the fate of all Janes children, save
Arthur, is wrapped in a like
mystery. At her death, Jane was a month under fifty
years old; the twenty-seven
years of her married life had been crowded years, the
one thought in them all to
watche over and ward her great childlike, learned,
marvellous husband and her
children. Now she passed the task on to her daughter
Kate, who faithfully fulfilled
it.
A few fragments of angelic
visions, which after nearly twenty years were once
again vouchsafed, are all that
remain to tell of th last two years of the old mans life.
Bartholomew Hickman was the
skryer, and Dee was in London, at Mrs.
Goodman her house, very ill.
On March 20 and 29, Raphael appeared, to comfort
him as regards his alarming
symptoms of haemorrage, and bade him use the
medical skill that God had
given him. Dee, in utter dejection, owned that he was
beaten in his great attempt
to make the council privy of my beggary, and to offer
the Earl of Salisbury such my
duties as I may perfect to his account. He was right to
hope nothing from the great
Burleighs little-minded son. Robert Cecil lacked
almost everything that had
made William Cecil great, even a great sovereign to
serve.
In July Dee was again in
London, this time staying in Westminster, at the
Three Kings in King Street.
Katherine was with him, his devoted daughter, now
a woman of twenty-six,
apparently unmarried. Two companions or servants,
Patrick Saunders and Thomas
Turner, were in attendance. On the 9th, the angel
Raphael came to the sad and
broken old man of eighty, holiding out promises and
hopes that seem cruelly
delusive. But Dee was still wrapped in that inviolable
armour of faith or credulity
that had already withstood so many severe shocks.
Whether he now actually beheld
Raphael, whether he still with his ears heard the
angels voice, or whether only
within his spiritual consciousness he felt the impulse
and the message, is quite
immaterial. But it is noticeable that there are now no
descriptions of Raphael as an
apparition. The message is all he heeds. As he is
sinking slowly down into his
grave from natural decay, there is a double and
figurative meaning to be read
into the angels words. Raphael bade him first believe
that his perishing bodily
frame shall be restored and made sound, for, however
reluctant he at his great age
may feel, he is to go shortly on a long journey to friends
beyond the sea, where the
secrets of wisdom, the philosophers stone, the book of St.
Dunstan, and that Jewel that
was delivered, shall be made known to him. He is
not to go alone, for his good
friend, John Pontoys, will come from Dantzic to be his
stay and helper. Therefore
set thy things in order for thy Wardenship, and all thy
other worldly affairs, as
shortly as thou canst, by all means possible. He is not to
mistrust because of his
physical weakness, for he shall have long life like Hezekiah,
and instead of living in want
or beholden to those who love him not, he shall be
provided for where he shall be
able to do God service. He shall enjoy fame and
memory to the end, and Raphael
will accompany him, as he did the young Tobias,
on his journey. Perhaps Dee
remembered the mystical words of Gabriel, used to
him at Cracow in April of
1584, ?Happy is he that hath his skirts tied up and is
prepared for a journey, for
theway shall be open unto him, and in his joynts shall
there dwell no wearinesse.
His meat shall be as the
tender dew, as the sweetness of a bullocks cud. For unto them
that have shall be given, and
from them that have not shall be taken away. For
why? The burr cleaveth to the
willow stem, but on the sands it is tossed as a feather
without dwelling. Happy are
they that cleave unto the Lord, for they shall be
brought unto the storehouse,
and be accounted and accepted as the ornaments of his
beauty.
[ The old man penned on a slip
of paper some notes to aid his failing memory
when next he should see his
instructor. In two days, on July 11, he was able to put
the questions.
What country shall he go to?
The answer is, where he will.
Thou hast been a great traveller, and it is
referred to thy own choice,
subject to divine approval. Dee suggets Germany, and
receives consent.
Whom shall he take with him
besides John Pontoys? What about his
daughter Katherine, and the
young man, Patrick Saunders?
The answer is very emphatic.
It shows how dependent the old man had
become upon this elder
daughter of his old age. John Dee, thou of thyself dost best
know that without thy
daughter, thou canst not be without her.
Certainly he could not part
from Katherine, even with Pontoys as his
speciall comfort and aid,
and the honest and well-disposed young man,
Saunders, who had been sent on
purpose to go with him.
What about books and
appurtenances? Is Mr. Bardolf to go? What shall
Arthur do in his intended
travel? Shall I ever return to England, and shall I keep a
title to enjoy my house when I
do return? Will the King grant a licence, or will it
not be another disappointment,
like so many that have gone before?
It is all a vain and illusory
and impossible chimera. The only journey left for
the old man to take was the
one to that undiscovered bourne from whence no
traveller returns. Still, the
wonderful visions perhaps brought him ecstatic hours.
His brain was yet strong and
clear, less worn out than his body, but like all old
people, he lived over again
and loved to dwell upon the past. A few days later he
sat talking after dinner to
Bartholomew of divers my doings with Mr. Kelley. He
had forgotten little of these
dazzling experiences, and perhaps to while away the
time he read his precious
diaries over and over again. But of later events his
memory was failing: I asked
Bartholomew if he had ever seen my jewel that was
brought since it was set in
gold [this had been done more than twenty years before],
and he thought that he had not
seen it. Surely tactful politeness on Bartholomews
part. Whereupon I went
speedily to my chest, unlocked it, and took it out, and
undid the case and set the
stone in his due manner.
Soon Raphael appeared in the
stone, and Dee heard his voice, promising that
the powder (i.e., Kelleys
powder) which he was keeping the which thou dost
make account of as no better
but dust should be turned to its right use.
Is it possible that the old
belief in the golden secret had at last been killed?
The powder was now but dust,
as the old man would soon become, and as all his
fixed dreams of projection had
ever been.?The last entry in the spiritualistic diary was
made on September 7, 1607,
butwhether Dee was at Mortlake or in London cannot be said.
Pontoys had arrived.
Hewas anxious to know if he
would be thought fit to serve Dee in Bartholomews
absence. Also he earnestly
desired to know his guardian angel, and he would fain
hear also the end of the
Polish troubles.
Captain Langham, it is hoped,
is going to lend 100 pounds; if not, Pontoys will
set to work to win some help
for money by distillations and alchemical
conclusions. Poverty is again
stretching her gaunt fingers over this fond dreamer
of gold. He had missed his
silver double gilt bell salt and many other things from
his house. He is bereaved of
his own goods. The truth was that Arthur had
secretly taken them away to
sell or pawn, in order to provide necessities for the
family. Dee has been expecting
a sum of money from the Emperor Rudolph, how
much he does not know. But
Raphael tells him to let it go and speak no further of
it. The Emperor of all
emperors will be thy comfort. Thou hast no more need of
him [Rudolph], only to keep
good will and friendship betwixt him and thee.[Then
Raphael fades into the eternal
invisible, and the last word of the angelic visions is
written.
In the private diary, kept in
the almanack from Venice throughout this last
year, there is little beside
the bare stroke marking the months off into weeks, as was
Dees usual habit. The strokes
are continued beyond the month of his death,
December, 1608. The last
written entry is on December 19, and is almost illegible. It
is in the old mans hand and
appears to read tonitrum a Corrfe.
On which day at the death of
the old year, Dees spirit joined those others that
had always been so near to
him, we do not know, or on what precise date he was
buried in the chancel of the
church standing so close to the house at Mortlake which
had been his home for thirty
years. The parish registers for five years are missing,
and the stone which Aubrey
says marked his grave has long since disappeared.
Fifty years later, John Aubrey
talked to Goodwife Faldo, an old woman of
eighty who had known him, and
was shown a slab from which the brass had
disappeared. She said that her
mother had tended him in his sickness before he
died in his own house
inMortlake, next the house where the tapestry hangings are
made. Evidently his last days
were passed in the cottage which he had purchased
many years before to add to
the larger house, inherited from his mother. The old
womans gossip was interesting
to Aubrey, for he was a grandson of Dees cousin
and neighbour, Dr. William
Aubrey, the Master of Requests who had helped Dee to
the Manchester post. She was
full of marvellous stories, of course, for Dees
reputation for magic was
impelled to survive him. But they were harmless
stories enough: he had layed
a storm for Sir Everard Digby; he had recovered a
basket of clothes which she as
a girl, and one of his younger daughters of her own
age, had negligently lost
together; he had bidden a butler who had lost his masters
plate on a boat coming down
from London by water to go back on a certain day, and
he would see the man who had
taken the wrong basket by exchange: the butler had
done so and had found his
plate; he had told a woman that she laboured under the
evil tongue of an ill
neighbour; he would not recover some lost horses, though he
was offered several angels. He
used to distil egg-shells, and kept a great many stills
going. He had given and built
the gallery to the church at Mortlake, and Goody
Faldos father was the
carpenter that worked on it. He was a great peacemaker, and
if any of the neighbours fell
out, he would never let them alone till he had made
them friends. A mighty good
man he was.
The old woman remembered that
he entertained the Polish ambassador not
long before he died, and
showed to him the eclipse of the sun, in a dark room. She
could call to mind the stone
upon his grave: it was between the tombstones of two
other servants of Queen
Elizabeth, Mr. Holt and Mr. Miles, upon both of which
were brasses. The children,
she said, dreaded him because he was accounted a
conjurer, and yet whenever
they strayed into the church, they would run straight to
play upon his gravestone.
There were steps at the upper end of the chancel when he
was buried, but the minister
laid them plain in Olvers days, and then the stone that
covered Dr. Dee was removed.
She could recall his appearance: a man tall and
slender, clad in a gown like
an artists gown, with hanging sleeves and a slit.
These garrulous reminiscences
give us a picture of the old philosophers end
more valuable than any mere
formal entry of the date. Some day, however, it may
be possible to recover that.
Meanwhile, Dees memory may be
entrusted to the kinder judges of to-day,
who will be more charitable
because more enlightened and less impregnated with
superstition. They may see in
him a vain, presumptuous and much deluded
person, but at any rate they
must acknowledge his sincere and good intentions; his
personal piety; his uncommon
purity of thought and mind. If, in his thirst for
knowledge of the infinite
unknowable, he pushed back the curtain farther than was
wise or justifiable, did he
harm any ones reputation beside his own? Did he not
suffer all the penalty in his
own miserable failure, so far as comfort and prosperity
in material things were
concerned? In all the vague hopes held out by him to
Queen, Princes and Emperors,
of enriching them through his alchemical skill, he
was no conscious charlatan,
playing a part to lure them on, but a devout believer in
mans power and purpose to
wrest scientific secrets from the womb of the future.
Can we look back upon the
discoveries of three hundred years and feel his certainty
was vain? The powers of
electricity, the training to our uses that marvellous and
long concealed agency and
light; the healing virtues of radium, should be worth
more to us than much
manufactured gold.
APPENDIX I
THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN DEE
When the aged mathematician
died at Mortlake in 1608 he left to survive
him five or six out of his
eight children. Michael, born at Prague, had died on his
fathers birthday in 1594.
Theodore, born at Trebona, died at Manchester 1601.
Arthur and Rowland were left.
Katherine was his companion to the end. The three
younger girls, Madinia,
Frances and Margaret, had, for anything we know, survived
the plague which was so fatal
to their mother, but there is no trace of either of them
after that event in March,
1606. Aubrey, indeed, did hear from Goody Faldo of a
daughter, whose name he thinks
was Sarah, married to a flax dresser of
Bermondsey. Dee had no daughter
Sarah, and Aubrey does not suggest a name for
the problematic husband.
Arthur, the eldest son, we
have followed through a childhood of accidents to
his selection and setting
apart with a solemn rite to be his fathers skryer in the
magic crystal, in the eighth
year of his age. We have traced the failure of that ill-advised
choice, and have seen the lad
of thirteen sent off to Westminster School
with a little trunk and his
mothers blessing. The next events in his life recorded by
his father are his being
wounded by a foyne while fencing with Edward Arnold, and
the grant of the chapter
clerkship of Manchester, in 1600.
He married in 1602, lived for
a while in Manchester, and began practising
medicine. Wood says he spent
some time at Oxford, but his name has so far not
been found in any college
admissions. In his will he is described as Doctor of
Physic. Probably he took his
degree abroad. His marriage to Isabella Prestwich,
daughter of a well-known
Manchester justice of the peace, took place when he was
twenty-two, and it is to be
presumed that he continued living on in Manchester
until his father left that
city some time in 1605 or 1606, after the sad death of his
wife. Arthur set up a practice
in London some time about that year, although
precise dates are not
obtainable. He seems to have followed the common usage of
hanging outside his door a
list or table of medicines, and their excellent
therapeutic properties, which
were said to effect certain cures of several diseases.
This attracted the attentio of
the censors appointed by the Royal College of
Physicians, who proceeded
against him forthwith, under the powers granted them
against empiricks, which they
had exercised since the foundation of the College in
the early years of Henry VIII.
The learned members of the college esteemed this
crime such an intolerable
cheat and imposture, that they summoned Arthur
Dee to appear before them with
his remedies that they might impose a due penalty
upon his presumption. The rest
of the story is unrelated, and we cannot say what
fine or order was his reward.
He seems, either through
inflence or talent, to have made his mark as a
doctor. In July, 1614, he was
recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Lord Chancellor to be elected
physician of Thomas Suttons newly founded hospital,
the Charterhouse, and we may
presume the appointment was made. In May, 1627,
Charles I. recommended him as
physician to the Emperor of Russia, and in June it
was agreed to send letters out
by him or his agent, the stipulation being made that
he must sail at once, or not
have passage this year.
He took up his abode at
Moscow, if not in the splendour and riches offered to
his father, at least
sufficiently provided for to maintain his huge family in comfort.
Four or five of his twelve
children died in infancy; the complete list of them, as
given in his fathers book of
horoscopes in the British Museum, is as under:
Margaret born April 4, 1603.
Jane March 31, 1605.
John July 24, 1606 (died).
Arthur March 16, 1608.
Maria February 24, 1612.
Rowland September 8, 1613.
Isabel September 5, 1614.
Frances October 25, 1615.
William August 27, 1617.
John March 30, 1619.
Edmund baptised August 27,
1620.
buried September 23,
1621.?Anna born January 15, 1622.
Arthurs wife, Isabella Dee,
died July 24, 1634. About this time he returned to
England and settled in
Norwich, near his friend, Sir Thomas Browne, who was then
busily engaged in writing down
the ethical and theological conclusions which he
called the Religio Medici. Browne
was, of course, the younger man. Writing in
1658, a few years after
Arthurs death, to Elias Ashmole, Sir Thomas tells of the
many talks about the doings of
Dee and Kelley that he had with my familiar friend,
sonne unto old Doctor Dee, the
mathematician, who had lived many years and
died in Norwich. Browne sent
to Ashmole the scheme of Arthurs nativity,
erected by his father, Dr.
John Dee, a copy from the original, made by Arthur
himself, with comments added
by a Moscow astrologer, Franciscus Murrerus.
Dr. Arthur, in spite, or
perhaps because, of his early environment, retained
until his dying day a devout
belief in the possibilities of alchemy to make projection
or transmutation. He had grown
up in the fixed idea that the ever-exclusive secret
would soon be found out. In
fact, he was persuaded that divers workers had indeed
discovered the art. The child
of seven or eight, who had played with quoits or
playthings, which he
understood had been turned into gold upon the premises, was
likely to retain this
conviction. To doubt it would be to cast a slur upon his fathers
memory. Of Kelley his
recollections the recollections of a boy under nine
could be but dim and hazy,
untouched with any possible scepticism or critical
judgment. After the February
day when Kelley rode off to Prague in 1588, neither
Arthur or his father had ever
set eyes on this adventurer again.
He had succeeded in convincing
his old friend of the truth of these
recollections, for Browne
writes of him as a persevering student in hermeticall
philosophy, who had no small
encouragement, having see projection made, and
with the highest asseverations
he confirmed unto his death that he had ocularly,
undeceivably and frequently
beheld it in Bohemia. And to my knowledge, had not
an accident prevented, he had,
not many years before his death, retired beyond the
sea and fallen upon the solemn
process of the great work.
Continuing the correspondence
six months later, when additional matter
rises to mind, Sir Thomas
writes again to Ashmole, in 1675, with more particulars
of the solemn process.
I was very well acquainted
with Dr. Arthur Dee, and at one time or another
he has given me some account
of the whole course of his life. I have heard the
doctor say that he lived in
Bohemia with his father, both at Prague and in other
parts. That Prince or Count
Rosenberg was their great patron, who delighted much
in alchemie. I have often
heard him affirme, and sometimes with oaths, that he
had seen projection made, and
transmutation of pewter dishes and flaggons into
silver, which the goldsmiths
at Prague bought of them. And that Count Rosenberg
played at quoits with silver
quoits made by projection as before. That this
transmutation was made by a
powder they had, which was found in some old place,
and a book lying by it
containing nothing but heiroglyphicks; which book his father
bestowed much time upon, but I
could not hear that he could make it out. He said
also that Kelley dealth not
justly by his father, and that he went away with the
greatest part of the powder,
and was afterwards imprisoned by the Emperor in a
castle, from whence attempting
to escape down the wall, he fell and broke his leg,
and was imprisoned again. That
his father, Dr. John Dee, presented Queen Elizabeth
with a little of the powder,
who having made trial thereof, attempted to get Kelley
out of prison, and sent some
[persons] to that purpose, who, giving opium in drink
unto the keepers, laid them so
fast asleep that Kelley found opportunity to attempt
an escape; and there were
horses readie to carry him away; but the business
unhappily succeeded as is
before declared. Dr. Arthur Dee was a young man [he was
a boy of eight] when he saw
this projection made in Bohemia, but he was so
inflamed therewith that he
fell early upon that study, and read not much all his life
but books of that subject; and
two years before his death, contracted with one
Hunniades, or Hans Hanyar, in
London, to be his operator. This Hans Hanyar
having lived longin London and
growing in yhears, resolved to return into
Hungary. He went first to
Amsterdam, where he was to remain ten weeks, till Dr.
Arthur came to him. the Dr. to
my knowledge was serious in this businesse and
had provided all in readiness
to go, but suddenly he heard that Hans Hanyar was
dead.
During his residence in
Moscow, Arthur compiled a book of alchemical notes
and extracts, which was
published at Paris in 1631 under the title of Fasciculas
Chemicus, etc. Ashmole, among
his early enthusiastic labours upon alchemical
authors prosecuted under the
name of James Hasolle, translated this into English
in 1650. While the book was at
press in the beginning of the year, he wrote to
Arthur, apparently as a
stranger, informing him of his occupation, and putting at
the same time a question or
two upon his fathers books.
Arthurs reply, dated Norwich,
January 31, 1649 [50], now in the Bodleian
Library, begins by expressing
regret that you or any man should take plains to
translate any book of that
nature into English, for the art is vilified so much already
by scholars that daily do
deride it, in regard they are ignorant of the principles. How
then can it any way be
advanced by the vulgar? But to satisfie your question, you
may be resolved that he who
wrote Euclids Preface was my father. The Fasciculus, I
must cofess, was my labour and
work. He ends by saying that he will be in London
that day week, and if Ashmole
wants to see him, he may hear of him in Butlers
Court at the end of Lombard
Street, at his son Rowland Dees warehouse. The
writing, and especially the
signature of this letter, are good testimonies to the care
bestowed by William Camden of
Westminster School on the boys handwriting. His
father, as we remember, had
asked for special supervision of the roman hand, since
matter, poor in itself, but
set down in a good style, did, in his opinion, often receive
more attention than good
material badly written and expressed.
Browne had received from
Arthur a complete catalogue of all his fathers
writings, both finished and
intended. But there was one not included, viz., the
Book of Mysteries. Sir Thomas,
writing in 1675, says he never heard him say one
word of the Book of Spiritts
sett out by Dr. Casaubone, which if hee had knowne I
make no doubt butt hee would
have spoake of it unto mee, for he was very
inquisitive after any
manuscripts of his fathers, and desirous to print as many as he
could possibly obtain. He
goes on to say that Arthur understood that Sir William
Boswell, the English Resident
in Holland, owned a number of Dees MSS., which he
had collected and kept in a
trunk in his Dutch home. Boswell refused many
applications from Arthur for
leave to print some of these, which the famous
mathematicians son considered
should not be locked up from the world. Boswell
announced his intention of
printing them himse, which of course he never did.?Nor
did the Book of Spirits see
the light of day during Arthurs lifetime.
Perhaps had Casaubon appealed
to him as Ashmole had done, it would never have
been issued at all. A son
would certainly have remonstrated against this
revelations, this tearing down
the veil from the inner tabernacle of his fathers soul.
Arthur died in the autumn of
1651, eight years before Casaubon published his
book. He made his will on
September 17, describing himself as Doctor of Physick, of
the city of Norwich, and
leaving a small legacy of twenty shillings to the poor of the
parish of St. George Tombland,
in which he had lived.
Only three sons out of his
seven, and three daughters of the six ar named in
the will, all the others being
dead, unless it was Arthur, the eldest, who had been a
merchant in Amsterdam. There
is a legacy of twenty pounds to his wife.
The second son, Rowland, was
established, as we have seen, in Lombard
Street as a merchant. To him
Arthur had already had already given his fathers
portrait, now in the Ashmolean
Museum and reproduced as the Frontispiece to this
book; and a painted coat of
arms. Sir Thomas Browne, who had often seen it, speaks
of an addition made to the
coat by grant of the Emperor Rudolph in the shape of a
mathematical figure; probably
the delta which Dee always used for his name in the
spiritual diary. To Rowlands
wife there is a legacy of twenty pounds.
To John Dee, my youngest
son, Arthur left one hundred pounds and his
gold seal ring with the coat
of arms cut in a sapphire. John was a Russia merchant.
There is no mention of his
eldest child and daughter, Margaret, who is said to
have married another Russia
merchant named Abraham Ashe.
To three sons-in-law, my son
Grymes; my son Anguish (this was the
husband of his youngest child,
Anne); and my son Fowell, he leaves respectively a
plush coat; a saddle and
pistol; and a black gown and plush suit.
To each of his three
daughters, their wives (none of them mentioned by
name), he gives 20 pounds; and
to the two elder, his two iron-barred sealskin trunks
with long cushions and foot
carpets, feather bed, blankets, bolsters and coverlets. He
appoints his friend John
Toley, of Norwich, his executor, and gives him his watch
and silver chain, with a
square box of cypress wood, double-leafed, with drawers.
His servant, John Sergeant, is
to have all the contents of his extensive wardrobe,
consisting of his coloured
cloth suit and and cloak; black suit and cloak lined iwth
rough bayes (Norwich was the
seat of the bay and say industry); his winter pair of
boots, and two pairs of summer
boots; his hatts; his stokins whatsoever; his
black satin doublet; shirts;
six of his worst-falling bands and ruffs; and forty
shillings due for wages at the
Michaelmas following.
Arthur Dee died before October
16 of the same year, 1650, when the will was
proved by John Toley.
Rowland, Arthurs fourth son,
married and died in 1687, when his wife was
executrix of his will.
Rowlands sons by this wife Jane (d. 1698) were Rowland, born
March 25, 1646, married
October, 1675; Elizabeth Gardiner of Aldersgate (d.
September, 1698); and Duncan,
born November 3, 1657. Both were educated at
Merchant Taylors School on
the Bishop of Peterboroughs foundation (see below).
Duncan went on to St. Johns
College, Oxford, and entered the legal profession. He
was chosen Common Serjeant of
London in 1700. He defended Dr. Sacheverell for
four days of his trial in the
House of Lords in 1710; died in 1720, and was buried in
St. Mary Aldermanbury. By his
wife Mary (d. Stoke Newington, March 24, 1728) he
left a son Henry (d. 1725),
others having died young.?David Dee, born in Shropshire,
of St. Marys Hall, Oxford,
rector of St.
Bartholomew the Great,
Smithfield, 1587 1605, is said to have been a grandson of
Bedo Dee. If so, he must have
been either brother or cousin of John Dee of
Mortlake, who, strange to say,
alludes nowhere in his diary to any relation of the
name of Dee, although he
speaks often of his Welsh kinsfolk, and of his cousin
Aubrey. As he died at Mortlake
in 1608, aged eighty and a half, David, who
survived him twelve years,
must have been his junior. David Dee was deprived of
St. Bartholomew, for what,
says Newcourt, I know not; but he was brought back
there to be buried on February
3, 1620. By his wife Martia, daughter of John Rogers,
David Dee had three sons, of
whom Francis, the eldest, was educated at Merchant
Taylors School and St. Johns
College, Cambridge. He entered the Church, held
various livings in London and
elsewhere, and four years before his death was
consecrated Bishop of
Peterborough. By his will (dated May 28, 1638), he gave his
rectory of Pagham, Sussex, to
found two fellowships and two scholarships in St.
Johns College, one of which
was to be held for ever by one of my kindred or of my
name, from either Merchant
Taylors School, London, or from Peterborough
School. We have seen that two
of John Dees great grandchildren were sent to
Merchant Taylors, and one,
Duncan, proceeded to St. Johns, probably on this
foundation. The Bishops
eldest son, Adrian Dee, Canon of Chichester, died
unmarried, but his younger
sons, John and Daniel, left descendants.
APPENDIX II
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The principal authorities for
Dees Life are his own Diaries, already frequently
cited in the foregoing pages,
viz.:
(1) The Private Diary. The
original notes comprising this are in two 4to
almanacks in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, numbered Ashmolean MSS. 487, 488.
They were transcribed and
printed for the Camden Society (1842), with numerous
omissions, by Mr. J.O.
Halliwell [-Phillipps]. The Manchester portion of this Diary,
covering the years 1595-1601,
was edited with much local knowledge and care by Mr.
J. Eglington Bailey, and
privately printed; only twenty copies (1880). Mr. Bailey also
reprinted from Notes and
Queries (May, 1879) his paper on Dee and the
Steganographia of Trithemius.
(2) The Spiritual Diary, or
Liber Mysteriorum, divided by Dee into separate
books, each dealing with a
special epoch. The first five books, with an appendix to
the fifth dating in all from
December 22, 1581, to May 23, 1583 are comprised in
Sloane MSS. 3188, at the
British Museum. The remaining books, actually twelve but
not consecutively numbered,
were printed by Dr. Meric Casaubon in The True and
Faithful Relation, etc., 1659,
fol. Three of them are entitled Libri Mystici Apertorii
Carcoviensis Sabbatici; three
Mysteriorum Pragensium Confirmatio; and the two
last Liber Resurectionis and
Mysteriorum divinorum memorabilia. This ends
on May 23, 1587. About a dozen
pages of occurrences taking place in 1607 are printed
by Casaubon at the end of his
book, from stray papers.
Dees autobiographical
Compendious Rehearsall ranks next in importance.
The original MS. was partly
burned in the fire in the Cottonian Library, but a
transcript made by Dr. Thomas
Smith (author of a life of Dee, see below) was printed
by Hearne inthe Appendix to
Johannis Glastoniensis Chronicon (Oxford, 1726). This
printed version was collated
with Ashmoles transcript of the original (Ashmolean
Ms. 1788), and edited by James
Crossley for the Chetham society, in Autobiographical
Tracts of Dr. John Dee, Warden
of the College of Manchester, 1851. In his preface,
the editor promises another
volume of correspondence and selections of Dee, which
never appeared.
The Latin life of Dee, Vitae
Eruditissimorum et Illustrium Virorum, by Dr.
Thomas Smith (1707); the
article in the Biographia Brittanica, edited by Kippis (1778,
etc.), largely based upon the
foregoing, and upon Strype;s Annals (1725, etc.); some
account in Woods Athenae
Oxoniensis (Bliss), i. 639, 640, and Fasti, i. 143; in Foxes
Acts and Monuments, ed.
Townsend, vii., 77, 85, 349 n., 638, 641, 642, 681, 734, 756,
783, 784; and in Ashmoles
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652), pp. 478-483;
with Aubreys Lives, ed. by
Dr. A. Clark (1898); and A Treatise of Religious and
Learned Men (1656), by Edward
Leigh, are further sources. For the Manchester years,
Hibbert and Wares Foundations
of Manchester (1833) is useful; and for Dees
descendants, see a General
Account of Families derived from Bedo Dee, by H.B.
Wilson (1815) and his History
of Merchant Taylors School (1812-14). Later writers
who have descanted more or
less at large upon the romantic episodes of Dees
partnership with Kelley, as
apart from any other achievement ofhis long life, are
William Godwin, in his History
of the Necromancers (1834); Charles Mackay,
Memoirs of Extraordinary
Popular Delusions (1841); Isaac Disrael, Amenities of
Literature (1841); W. Cooke-
Taylors Romantic Biography of the Age of Elizabeth
(1842); A. E. Waite in his
Lives of Alchemical Philosophers (Edinburgh, 1888),
Studies in Myticism (1906),
and The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelley (1893);
Thomas Seccombe, Twelve Bad
Men (1894); Adelungs Geschichte der Menschlichen
Narrheit (1785-9); Lenglet de
Fresnoys Histoir de la Philosophie Hermetique (1742);
Mangets Bibliotheca Chemica
Curiosa (Geneva, 1702), and Louis Figuiers
LAlchemie et les Alchemists
(1856).
Purely fictitious accounts are
those in John Dee, Astrologer of Queen
Elizabeth, by Hippocrates,
jun. (1899), and John Robys Traditions of Lancashire
(1906).
For the study of witchcraft in
the sixteenth century the following may be
consulted: George Gifford,
Subtle Practices of Witches (1587); T.A. Spalding,
Elizabethan Demonology, etc.
(1880); James I., Demonlogie (1603); Meric Casaubon,
Treatise on Spirits, Witches,
etc. (1672); Reginald Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft
(1584, 3rd edition 1605); Sir
Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
(1830); Henry Howard, Earl of
Northampton, Defensative against Poyson (1583), and
many other kindred works.
For the history of crystal
gazing see Caspar Peucer, Les Devins (Antwerp,
1584); M.A. del Rio,
Disquisitionum Magicarum, 1599; Pierre de lAncre,
LIncredulite et Miscreance du
Sortilege (Paris, 1622); Guido Bonatus, The
Astrologers Guide (1866);
Andrew Lang, in Psychical Research of the Nineteenth
Century (1901), and
Introduction to Northcotes Crystal Gazing (1905); Mrs. de
Morgan, From Matter to Spirit
(1863); Sir William Crookes, Psychic Force and
Modern Spiritualism (1871),
and his Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism
(1874); Miss Goodrich Freers
Essays in Psychical Research (1899), where she
compares the revelations of
the spirits to Dee with the work of a lady novelist of
the eighties!; M. Camille
Flammarions popular and numerous works; F. W.?Myers
Phantasms of the Living (1886)
and his Human Personality (1903); with the
Proceedings of the Psychical
Reserach Society, will all afford information upon
psychical and spiritualistic
progress. The consummate description of John
Inglesants tragic and
pregnant vision of his brothers murder, seen before hand in
the crystal, as related by
J.H. Shorthouse, will occur to everyone.
Dees own writings were
extraordinarily numerous. In his Rehearsall he
enumerated forty-nine. There
is a list of seventy- nine in Coopers Athenae
Cantabrigensis, vol. ii., pp.
505-509; but some of these are doubtful: e.g., No. 66,
Treatise of the Rosicrucian
Secrets, etc.; for the Rosicrusians only came into
existence about the time of
Dees death. Others are but notes from among
Ashmoles manuscripts. One
(No. 75) is the horoscope or nativity of Kelley, drawn
or erected by Dee, which Ashmole
has printed in his Theatrum (p. 479). To add to
Mr. Coopers list there are
some Latin verses in Henry Perrys Egluryn Phraethineb
(1595).
All the printed books by Dee
are extremely rare. There is much information
about them in Ames,
Typographical Antiquities (e.d Herbert). Copies of thirteen are
in the British Museum Library,
including those of other writers to which he
contributed prefaces,
additions and notes, as Recordes Grounde of Arts (many
editions); Billingsleys
Euclid; Roger Bacons de Secretis operibus artis et naturae, etc.
and various Ephemerides. Thre
are three copies of the General and Rare Memorials
pertaining to the Perfect Art
of Navigation; and both the enditionsof his
Letter...Apologeticall, etc.,
addressed to the Archbishop as a protestation and plea for
the course of the
philosophicall studies and exercises of a certaine studious
gentleman (1599, 1603). The
petitions addressed to the House of Commons and the
King are printed on broadsides
(1604). There are also three copies of Casaubons
True Relation in the British
Museum, one of them collated with the original MS. by
William Shippen, of Stockport,
1683.
No adequate idea of the
remarkable doings of Dee and Kelley over the crystal
can be entertained without a
study of Dees manuscript Book of Enoch in Sloane
MSS., 663, 120, and 2,599,
1-45; and his Claves Angelicae, 3191 in the same
collection. the diagrams of
complicated arrangement of letters and figures, their
neatness of execution,
mathematical precision and etymological intricacy are no less
amazing than the clear bold
text in which the descriptions are written in printing
hand. Regretfully it was
decided not to reproduce an example, owing to the lack of
pictorial value.
The Portrait of Dee, now in
the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, reproduced as
Frontispiece to this volume,
was painted when he was 67; it belonged to his
grandson, Rowland Dee, and at
his death it passed to the possession of Elias
Ashmole and was by him
bequeathed to the University of Oxford. It has been
engraved by Scheneker and W.P.
Sherlock. Engraved portraits of Dee and Kelley, by
Francis Cleyne, are included,
with Roger Bacon; Paracelsus; the prophet Mahomet;
and Apollonius of Tyana, on
the title-page of Casaubons volume. Dees is the same
as an anonymous engraving
inthe Print room, British Museum, froma younger
(German) portrait, in a furred
gown and peaked cap; the globe and compasses are in
his right hand.
A number of stones and
crystals, purporting to be Dr. Dees, have from time
to time been exhibited. Two
were at the Tudor Exhibition; another was sold at
Sothebys in 1906, and is now
in
Londesborough (once Horace
Walpoles) appears to have been actually the Doctors;
also the globe of smoky quartz
now in the
The Pedigree which
King Arthur, and showing Queen
Elizabeth, through her Welsh ancestry, as related
to the same source, is
illuminated with coats of arms and a small coloured profile
portrait of John Dee,
philosophus, in a cap and furred gown. He here (Cotton
Charter, xiv. 1) describes his
grandfather, Bedo Dee, as a soldier fighting under the
Emperor Maximilian I., in
1512; his father, Rowland Dee, armiger, as gentleman
sewer to King Henry VIII.; and
himself as a philosopher.
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Preface
Theosophy and the Masters General Principles
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