2

A Biography of Edward Kelly, the English Alchemist and Associate of

Dr. John Dee

Michael Wilding

The errors, distortions, fabrications, and defamations in existing accountsofthelife uf Edward Kelly arc too many for individual refutation. Even the m ostresponsible commentators and historians have, upon dealing with Kelly, re-pea ted these unsubstantiated and generally derogatory stories. In this article I have sought to assemble most records of his Life that can be verified from contemporary evidence, focussing for reasons of space on the documentary de-tails of everyday life, rather than on the vuluminou:; dialogues with spirits that he undertook for Dee.

Edward Kelly was born at Worcester on August l, 1555, at 4 P.M. Hissurname is sometimes spelled Kelley (it is standardized toKdly thoughout thisarticle), and he alsowent under the name of Edward Talbot. John Dee recordedKelly's date of birth in the horoscope he drew up llf his nativity,1 and in the margins of the almanac he used as a diary: Kelly natus hora quana a meridie ut annotatum reliquit pater cjus."!

At some point Dcc gave Kelly a copy of an octavo bible printedby RobertStephens in 1555. It is the only book that Dec records giving toKelly Thecoincidence of its publication ·date and Kclly's birth date surely lay behindthegift, whatever other hope for moral guidance may have been implied. 3

Parish records show that Edward Kelly, son of PatrickKdly, was christenedon August 2, 1555, at St. Swithin's church, Worcester. He had a sister Elizabethbom in 1558, and a brother Thomas. Thomas later joined Dee's householdandDee records his birth date in the diary, October 17, 1565, also at Worcesterat

four in the afternoon.4 And Dee records, too the birth date of Edward Kelly'swife in his diary: June 23, 1563. "Jane Cooper, now Mystris Kelly, towardevening" (PD, 1-2). She came from Chipping Norton . .

Not much is knownof Kdly before he met Dec. Detailsof his educationare unknown Neither the Royal Grammar School nor the King's School lWorcester, has pupil records from this period. There is a story that hewas at

university at Oxford, but it has not been substantiateJ. Anthony a Woodrecords in Atheru:e Oxoniensis that Kelly "being about 17 years of Age, at which timehe had attained to a competency of Grammar learning at Worcester and else-where, was sent to Oxford, but to what House I cannot tell. However I have

36 MYSTICALMETALOF GOLD

been informedby an ancient Bachelorut Di\'inity whu in his )·uunger years hadbeen an Amanul!nsis toMr. ThomasAllen ofGloucester Hall that he (Kelly)hadspent some time in that House whereuplm I, recurring to the matriculation, could not finJ the nameof Kelly, only T albotoflrdand, three of which name were students there in 1573, 74, &c .. . This relation being somewhat dubiously delivered to me, I must tellyou rhar Kclly having an unsettled mind, left Oxon abruptly, withoutbeing entered into the m.atricula."; Somewhere along the line Kdly learned fluentLatin.

Elias Ashmolerecurded in 1675 that the astrologer "Mr Lilly toldme rhat John Evans who first taught him astrology informedhim that he was acquainted with Kdly's sister in Worcester and that she showed him some of the gold her brother had transmuted and that Kdly was first an apothecary in Worcester.'>c> Lengler du Fresnoy claimed that Kdly was a notary in London, specializing in forging ancient title deeds, but nodocumentary evidence is known to exist.i

In his ANcientFunerallMonuments (1631) John Weever cites Lucan and Chaucer onthe technique of raising the dead for spiritual prophecy. He then tells a story of Kdly in Lancashire:

This dialbolical questioning of the dead for the knowledge of future accidents was put in practice by the foresaid Kelly; who, upon a certain night, in the park of Walton le Dale in the county of Lancaster, with onePaul Waring (his fellow companil>n in such deeds of darkness) invocated some one of the infernal regiment to know certain passages in the life, as also what might be known by the devil's foresight, of the manner and time of the death of a noble young gentleman, as then in his wardship. The black ceremonies of that night being ended, Kelly demanded of one of the gentleman's servants, what corpse was the last buried in Law church,yard, a church thereunto adjoining, who told him of a poor man that was buried there but the same day. He and the said Waring entreated this foresaid servant to go with them to the grave of the man so lately interred, which he did; and withal did help them to dig up the carcase of the poor caitiff, whom by their incantations, they made him (or rather some evil spirit through his organs) to speak, who deliveredstrange predictions concerning the said gentleman.

I was told thus much by the said servingman, a secondary actor in thatdismal abhorred business, and divers gentlemen, and othersare now li vingin Lancashire tu whom he has related this story. And the gentle, man himself (whose memory I am bound to honour) toldme a little before his death of this conjuration by Kelly; as he had it by relation from his said servant and tenant; only some circumstances excepted, which_ he thought not fitting to come to his master's knowlcdge."8

W eeverbegins his accountKelly(otherwisecalled T albot) that famous English alchemist of our times, who tlying out of his own country (after he had lost hoth his cars at Lancaster) was entertained with Rudolf the second, and last of that Christian name, Emperor of Germany." Weever was born in Lancashire

l l

and retained strongconnectionsthere, so the story may be aurhcnri..:. uthenticis the. ..: tirst conuncntator to identify Kdly with Talbot; with no published records todraw on, he nonetheless knew this detail.9

The cropping of ears was a standard judicial punishmentin Tudorbut no contemporary record hasbeen discovered ot what crime Kclly wasallegedto have committed, or of the execution of such a sentence.10ln Prague in 1593Christopher Parkins was asked of Kellt "iin the Emperor's name, if I couldgiveany account of the diminishing of one of his ears.'' 11 Weever may haveexagger- ated in having both ears lopped, just as later commentatorsexaggerate inhavmg Kelly regularly digging up corpses Only one corpse is reported tll have bel.!n disinterred, and only one car is here said to have been lopped.

In 1581 John Deehad begun lookingforan assistant to help him consultwith spirits. Dce was tifry,tive, a distinguished mathematician, astrologcr, anJ speculative thinker.ll He had the largest private library in Britain butit was notenough, Now he wanted direct access to divine knowledge, mediated through angels, of course. The voluminous records of the spiritual transactions thatresulted from Kdly's partnership with Deeare preserved in manuscripts in theBritish Library. The major part arc recorded in MS Cotton Appendix XLVI parts I and 2. This was transcribed and published by Mcric Casaubon, as A Trueand Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Y l!ars Between Dr. )uhn Dee ( .-\ Mathematician of Great Faml.! in Q. ELizabeth anJ King }ames their Reignes) andSome Spirits: T cmding (hadit succeeded toa General Alteration ofMostStatesandKingdomes in the Wurld (London: Printed by D. Maxwell tor T. Garthwait,1659). 13The records of the initial transactions had become separated from thematerials Casaubon transcribed, and were acquiredby Elias Ashmole in 1672.14They are now preserved as British Library MS Sloane 3188. They were tran· scribcd and edited by ChristopherWhitby in a doctoralthesis at the Universityof Binningham, 1981, John Dee's Actions with Spirir.s: 22 December 1581 to 23 May 1583. '5 A further episode, preserved in the BodleianLibrary (MS Ashmole1790 art. 1 ), was discovered and translated by C. H. Jostenas "An Unknown Chapter in the Life of John Dee," Journalofthe Warburg and Courtauld Institutes28 (1965): 223--57; EdwarJ Fenton in The Diaries of John Dee 185--89, drawson a seventeenth-century translation llt this episode (British Library, MS Shxmc 3645, fols. 22-38). Some of the materials from the spiritual sessions were tran· scribcd and systematized into othermanuscript volumes. to ·

Dee's first spiritual experiments were unsatisfactory. He foundan assistantBarnabas Saul, a preacher and master of arts. In February 1582 Saul was indictedbut released, "his · indictment being by law found insifficient at WestminsterHall," Dee records, though without specifying what the charge was (PD. 1-t; Fenton, 24). If it involved summoning up spirits Dce was lucky not to havebeen charged too.The project could easily have come toan end. But early in March a new seer was introduced to Dee by a Mr. Clerkson. March 8 "Mr Clerksonand his friend came to my house . .. .''The following day, "Friday at

dinner time, Mr Clerkson and Mr T albot declared a great deal of Barnabas'naughty dealing toward me: as in telling Mr Clerkson ill things of me that J should mak[Fenton: "mock"his friend, as that he was weary of me, thatI would

MYSTiCAL METAL l)F GOLD

Sl ~ tlatterhis friendthe learned manthatI would borrow[Fenton:"bereave") him orhim. BU[ his friendtoldme, before my wife and Mr Clerkson, that a spiritual creature told him that Barnabas had censured [Femon: "cosened:] both Mr Clerkson and me. The injuries which this Barnabas had done me divers ways were very great, etc.(PD, 14-15; Fenton24) . Two lines partially erased iin theoriginal arc restoredin Fenton'stext: "This learned man after dinner promisedto do what he could tofurther my knowledge in magic ... with fairies ... A monstrous and hl>rrible lie" (Fenton25 ). Above the deleted entryis written, "You · that read this underwritten assure yourself that it is a shameful lie, for Talbot neither studied for any such thing: nor showed himself dishonest in anything."Above this Dce wrote, "This is Mr Talbot, or that learned man, his own writing in my book, very unduly as he came by it" (Fenton, 26 n.l3).

Halliwdl remarked, "There are severalother notices of Talbot erased, but whetherby him or by the Doctor it is impossible to say, bur most probably the tormcr (PD, 15n). The erased entriesrelate mainly to Talbot or to Dee's wife, and are restored in Fenwn's text 4445, 46, 47, 48, 51, 70 72). Two indicate Dee's doubts about Talbot. May29, 1582, "Iunderstood of EdTalbot his wicked nature and his abominable lies, etc." July 16, 1582, "I have confirmed that Talbotwas a cosener... " (Fenton, 45, 46). Yet whate\'er doubts Dee had, he continuedro employ T albot and work with him for the next seven years. His most seriousdoubtis expressed in a note to the recordof thespiritual transac, tionsot March10, 1582, when he records that Talbot told him that originally hts comingwasto entrap_ me, it I had had any dealing with wicked spirits, as

he confessedoftentimesafterand that he was set on, etc."17 Who had set him on is never recorded.

The new seer came underthe name l 1f EdwardT albot,but after November 1 582.he is knownas EJward Kclly (or Kellcy). JohnWeever, writing in 1631 ot Kelly (otherwise known as Talbot)," is the hrst commemator to identify Talbot and Kdly. With no published records to draw on at this date Weever's identification seems to be from some now unknown personal or anecdotal source. 18 .

On Saturday, March 10, 1582, Dee and his new assistant began their consultations with spirits, which continued, with interruptions, for seven years. Kelly looked intoa "show stone" and saw the spirits. Dee asked the questions. Thespirits repliedthrough Kelly Occasionally the spirits appeared outside the stone, but therewas more ofa risk of devilish impostors appearing outside the stone than m u . As R. J. W. Evans writes of Kelly, "his performances at the seances suggest at very least thorough familiarity with the technical procedures of occultism."19 Nll description of the stone survives, but it seems that Dee had more than one. Somedrawings in. the margin of the spiritual records suggest that they weresphencal balls, and trom evidence in the records we can assume they were ot crystal. In the British Museum there is a black obsidian mirror of Mexican originwhich . is said to have belonged to Dee. h is doubtful, howeverwhetherthis was used in the scrying sessions.10

. Dce himself does notseemtohave seen or heard thespiritual creatures directlyalthough the year bctore, May 25, 1581, he recorded in his diary that

.

"I had sight in crystallooftered me, and I saw" (PD, 11; Fenton 13). But thatr seems to have been a rare occasion. His practice now was to put his questionsand the spiritual creatures would answer through Kelly, who saw themin thestone. Dee would then write down what was said. The notes were later trans-scribed, and the recordsof these sessionsbound up intobooks.Other manuscriptbooks were compiled which abstracted and collated the information given.

The spiritual dialogues with Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, Raphad, Nalvage,Die Illis Mapsama, and other angels consist of lengthy instructions in angelmagic, warnings of apocalypse,explorations of genealogies,surveys ot the regionsof the world, rebukes to Kelly for privately practicingSatanic magic, and alchem-ical and spiritual parables. Some of the spirits, like the young girl MaJini (orMadimi), are amazingly individuared. Kelly's mediumistic powers have beendoubted by many commentators,hut if these dialogues were a conscioushoaxthen Kelly should be given due credit as a literary genius. !I

The spiritual explorations were often interrupted. On March 20, 1 582T albor was instructed, "He must go for the books else they will perish." Deeexplained in a note: "He meant that my partner EJ. Talbot should go tofetchthe books from Lancaster (or thereby) which werethe LordMounteagle's bookswhich Mr Mortyet has."22 William Stanley, third LL>rd Mounteagle, who haddied the previous year, is presumably meant. He was a member of oneofthosepowerful, Catholic aristocratic families, around whom plots and suspicions tl ... lur-ished. His grandsonWilliam had inherited the courtesy ride but he was onlyseven, so the books are unlikely to have been his. The young Mounteagle waslater involved in the failed rebellion of rhe Earl of Essex. He escaped witha fine and became an informer on Catholic conspiracies. It is generally believedthat it was he who revealed the Gunpowder plot. Whether or notT Talbotwentto Lancaster is unknown. He left rwo days after rhe instruction(PD, 15; Fentlm, 40) and was back with Dce five weekslater, by April28, without havingobtainedthe books.

Ar the end of April 1582, the angel MichaeltL)lJ Talbot that he shouldget married. Talbot was very unhappy ar the instruction. "Very sore disquieted,"Dee records. According toTalbot, "He said that I must betakemyselt totheworld and forsake the wurlJ. That is that 1 should marry. Which thing todoIhave no natural inclination: neither with a safe conscience may I do it, contraryto my vow and profession."23 On May 4, Talbot left (PD. 15; Femon, 4-l).

It is unclear what he meant by his vow and protession. Did he mean hewas forbidden to marry because he was a Catholic priest? What else could hehave meant? Was he operating underground in England, under an assumed nameperhaps, put into England from a seminary in Europe? Walsingham's intelligencenetwork had intercepted and turned a number of such priests and used them asinformers on other Catholics. Was Kelly/Talbot one of those? Lancashire, withwhich he is associated in Weever's story and in his proposedvisit for Moun-teagle's books, was at this timea strongholdof Catholic recusancy.

The date of the marriage is unknown. The earliest mention ofKelly'swife

is in the spiritual records on April 29, 1583, when Kelly receiveda letter from

MYSTICAL METALAL OF UOLD

her. At this point Kellyseemsnot to havebeen living with herbut staying with Dee at Mortlake.

On July 13, 1582, thename of Talbut appears in Dec's diary for thelast time: "Mr Talbur cameabout3 of thedock after noonwith whom I had some words of unkindness; we parted friendly; he saidrhat rhe LorJ Morleyhad rhe LordMounteaglc his books He promised me some of Dr.Myniver's books" (PD, 16; _Fenton, 45, reads "with whom I had some words of bookdealing: who parted in friendly terms"). Lord Mounteagle's daughter Elizabeth haJ married EJward Parker, lOth baron Morley and it was presumably he who now had the books. lr is not known who Dr. Mynivcr was, but later in the spiritual transactions (June 2?, 1584: TFR, 185) Kdly told Dee that he had learned some magic rituals fromhim. Possibly Mounteagle's books dealt with magic, too.

When rhc spiritual transactions resume, November 15, 1582, rhe scryeris named EdwarJ Kelly.25 In a spiritual session on November 21, the angelsdeliv-ereda stone, " "as big as an egg," which Dce found on the tlul)r of his study.26Atrcr this gitr there arc no recordsof further spiritual conversations for four months. The private diary records that rhe day after the gift Kelly set off to Londonand rhe following Jay to Blockleyin the Cotswolds, to return within ten days (PD, 17; Fenton, 51). But there is no indication that he did return until March thefollowing year, 1583.

Hereturned with a Mr. John Huscy of Blockley, with whom he said he haJ founda_ scrollwritten in strange characters,a powder, and a manuscript consistingoftwoindividualbookson ditterent subjects, one of them thealchem-ical boll>k of Duns ran, and the other a bookof hieroglyphics. These were found, he said, b)' spiritual directionat Nurthwick Hill near Blockley.27 The powder, Dee and Kellylater establishedwas the alchemical elixir. Kdly did not immedi- atelyreveal ro Dee rhe tull extent ofthe items found

A number of manuscripts ascribed to St. Dunstan exist. A copy of the "TractatusMaximi DominiDunstani Episcopi Cantuarinsis, veri philosophi, Je Lapide philosophorum in the hand ot Arrhur Dee survives in the British Li-brary, bound with his "Area arcanorum (MS Sloane 1876). Anhur Dee was John Dee's Slln, and ir is possible that this manuscript is a transcription of the same \\'llrk that Kelly discovered, but since the present whereabouts of the manuscript Kellydiscovered is notknown, it is impossible to be certain.28

It has beenspeculated thar the enigmatic Voynich "Roger Bacon" manu- scriptonce. belonging ro the Emperor Rudolf and now preservedin the Beinecke hbrary at YaleUni\'ersiry, was one of Kelly's Blockley discoveries. Dce's son Arthur toldSirThomas Browne that in Bohemia Dee possessed a book, foundtogetherwitha powder, "cnntaining nothing but hieroglyphics, which book his father bestowed much time upon: but I could not hear that he could make it out."Despiteconsiderable effort and computerassisted decoding applied to the Voynichmanuscript, still noone has been able to make it out.291

In later yyearsvarious other accounts of the acquisition of the powder and themanuscnpt circulated.Elias Ashmole wrote in TheatrumChemicum Bric.anni- cum thatDee andKelly"were so strangelyfortunate, as ro find a very large quantityof rhc elixirinsome parr ofthe ruins ofGlastonbury abbey."30) Bur this

was writtenbeforeAshmolc haJ acquired the manuscriptofthe first partof thespiritual records, in which the Blockley account is given. Nicolas Lenglet duFresnoy claimed in his Histoirede la Philosophie Hermetique (17 4 2) that Kellybought the powder and the manuscript for £1 in the _Welsh marchesfromaninnkeeper who had acquired them from the robbers of the tomb ofa bishop ina neighboring church. 31 There is nl) reason to credit either of these accounts.

Dee had alchemical laboratories at his house at Mortlake a few milesupstream of London on the River Thames. He had been emperimentingtherefor twenty years. His library contained some ninety alchemical books andsixtyalchemical manuscripts, n.1any consisting of more rhan one work. 32 There is adiary of his alchemical experiments for 1581 preserved in the BodleianLibrary(MS Rawlinson D 241; excerpt in Femon, 308-309), and his private diary indi-cates something of his continuing interest in the area in the 1580s. Itis not clear,however, whether he was engaged in alchemicalwork with Kdly at this time.

Amongfrequent visitors to Mortlake at this time was AJrian Gilbert,half-brother to Sir Waltcr Ralegh and assistant to Mary SiJncy in her alchcmical experiments at Wilton House. Adrian and his brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert were active in promoting voyages to the Americas, projects in which Dee was

involved. Adrian Gilbert was allowed some participation in rhe sessions wi£h d1e spirits.33

Kelly quarrelled with Gilbert, as he did with another visitor, the informerCharles Sled. "Serve God and take heed of nettles," a spiritual \'l)icc warned

·on April 5, 1583. "This was spoken to Kelly in respect l)f a great anger he wasin yesternight, by reason that one had done him injury by speech at my table,"Dee records, noting that the person who upset Kellywas Charles Sled. 34 Sledwas one of Walsingham's most effective and most treacherous secret agents. Hehad operated as a spy in Rome in 1579, reponing back on Catholic priestswhowere beingprepared for undercover operations in England. He had compiled adossier on nearly three hundred priests, soldiers, merchants, and students he h aJ met there. After his cover was blown he returned toEngland wherehe continuedhis activities for Walsingham. He presented evidence for the state at the trialof Edmund Campion. The evidence is widely believed tu have been fabricated.Campion was sentenced to death and executed. Sled hung around Dee's worldfor a number of years and was involved in the plundering of his library. WasKelly's rage a psychic recoil from him? Or did Kelly know what Sled was? WasSled there watching Dee,or Kdly, or both? Was Sled trying toundermine Kellyin Dee's eyes by provoking him in some way? Or if Kelly as Tal bot haJ originally been set to entrap Dee, did they know each other, Kelly and Sled, from workingtogether in the past, or prcsent?35

Kellyhad a tiery temper, and his relationship with Dee was often stormy.. He frequently refused to continue tu scry. Of one such occasion,April 20 1583when the stone showedonly a dark cloud, Dce records:

This Saturday had been great and eager pangs between E. K.andmJ me:while he would utterly discredit the whole process ofour actionsas, to •

be dune by evil and illuding spirits: seeking his destruction. Saying that

42 MYSTICAL METALOF GOLD

he has oftenheretofore been told things true, but of illudingdevils: and now, how can this he other, than a mockery, to have a cornered Jack cloudtn be! showed him instead of the plain writing which hitherto he had written l)llt l>f_? And that when they shl>uld do good in deed that then they shrank from us. And that he was not thus to lose his time: but that he is to study, to learn some knowledge, whereby he may live: andthat he was a cumber tll my house, and that he dwelled here as in a prison: that it were better for him to he near Corsall plain where he might walk abroad, without danger tobe cumbered or vexed with such slanderous fellowsas yesterday he was, with one little Ned dwelling at theBlack Raven in Westminster: who railedat him for bearing witness ofa bargain made between the same Ned (or Edward) and one Lush, a surgeon, whowas nl>\\' fallen in poverty, a very honest man, etc.30

Bll( forall Kelly'sdoubts and rages hismeJiumistic powers were extraordinary. On May 5, 1583, Dce _asked the spirits about "the vision which yesternight wa.s presented (unlouked tor) to the sight of E. K. as he sat at supper with me, in my hall, I mean:the appearingofthe very sea, andmany ships thereon, and the cuttingot the head ofa woman, by a tall black man, what are we to imagine thereof??" He wastold, "The one, did signify the provision of foreign powers against the welfareof this land:. which they shall shortly pur in prdctice: the other the death of the Queen ot Scots. It is not long unto it."37

Dee noted in the margin of his records, "The Queen of Scots to be be-headed." At some later date he added, "So she was, Anno 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle.Andalsothe same year a great preparationof ships against England by the KingofSpainm, the Pope and other princes called Catholic, etc." That was the Spanish Armada of 1588. Kelly had seen into the future.

On May 1, 1583, Dee noted in his privatediary the arrival in London of the Polish lordOlbrachtLaski--orAlbert a.s the English called him (PD, 20; Fenton 78). Laski (1536-1605), the Palatine of Sieradz, a powerful figure in the elections to the Polish throne, had been a major participant in the Polish delegation toFranceafter the election of Henri de Valois. During his visit there he_had married the daughter of the King, Sabine de Seve, his third, and last, wife. An archetypal Renaissance aristocrat, he was the author of two books in Latin,one a military treatise, the other on religion and politics. He had travelled widely aroundtheEuropean courts. And he was known as a great patron of alchenusts, spiritual retormers, and poets. In 1569 he had financed the first editionof Pardcelsus's Archidoxae Philosophia, book X, annotated by his personal physacaan John Gregory Macro and translated by the poet laureate of Silesia Adam Schroeter3838 '

The English authorities were unable to establish why Laski was visiting England, and indeed no certain explanatilln has ever been found. For all his vastlandholdings,laski was impoverishedand one theory is that he hoped for financialbenefitfromDeeand Kelly's alchemical expertise. The English watched him carefully and provided him with a servant,William Herle, who had been a crucial informer in the Ridolfiplot.39' Another spy called Henry Fagot (alleged

by JohnBossy tobe a covername forGiordano Brunu) liaised withHcrlc tokeepWalsingham informed of Laski's activities.40 Yet another Walsingham agent,the Catholic poet Thomas Watson, applied unsuccessfully to attach himselftoLaski's entourage."'41

Laski visited Dee within a fortnight of his arrival--avisit reportedon byHerle. laski had a particular interest in his own genealogy, and in his chancesof acquiring the elective crown of Poland. Dee and Kdly consulted the spints on these topics for him and he participated with them in their spiritual transac-tions in June. The young spirit maiden Madimi informed them that Laski wasrelated to the Laceys, the Norman lords of the Welsh marches.42 Laski alsoconsulted with Sir John Feme about his genealogy, bur according to the accountin Feme's The Blazon of Gentrie (London, 1586) nothing satisfactory resulted.Laski also approached the mathematician and magician Thomas Alien aboutentering his service in Poland. Allendeclined the offer.43

On June 5, 1583, Dce recorded some disturbing news. "E. K. had been eversince nine of the clock in the morning in a marvellous great disquietness ,,t mind, fury, and rage by reason his brother Thomas had brought him news that a commission was out to attach, and apprehend him as a felon for coining ofmoney. Secondly, that his wife was gone from Mistress Freeman's house at Blockley, and how Mr. Husey had reported him to be a cozener,and hadusedvery bitter and grievous reports of him now of late; and that his wife was at home with her mother at Chipping Norton. 44

Kelly's reaction is interesting. Wouldn't fear have been the most likelyresponse to the news of an impending arrest for coining money? Perhaps disqui-etness of mind implies fear. Bur Dee stresses fury and rage. Is that the reactionof a man caught out? Or of a man who suspects thathe has been set up? Or isit guilty bluster? It is not clear when the coining was supposed to have occurred.Was it perhaps some old charge that had been helJ over him? The timing ofevents is interesting: it occurred two weeks after Laski visited Dee. And the incident itself has strange reverbemtions. Ten years later in Flushing, CHristo-pher Marlowe was similarly involved in a coining charge that was not all thatit seemed to be, that overlapped with the duplicities of the secret service worldaround Catholic activists.45 Was this pressure on Kdly to get him to spy onLaski? Coining was a serious charge, the sort of thing that might make a man want to leave the country. Was the intention behind it to encourage Kelly tocommit himself to Laski and so get out of England? So that Burghley would have his man in cenrral Europe? Laski had connections nl)[ only with Poland but also with the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire. lt is the timing that encourages the speculation, this dramatic event so soon after Laski had madecontact; the riming, and Kdly's rage, rage at entrapment rather than a fearof arrest.

No arrest ever ensued. Were the charges dropped in exchange for adeal?Was the story not true, just a false rumor that his brother Thomas haJ heard?Or did Kelly invent the coining charge as a persuasive reason for joining himselfand Dee to Laski,seeing in Laski a more substantial form of patronage thananything offering in England?46

44 MYSTICAL METALAL OF GOLD

_In_ themargin Deewrote of the charges:"a mere umruth in every partthereof, anJ a malicious lie" (TFR, 6). It is not clear when he added that commentnoronwhat groundshe made it, whether that is Kdly's rebuttal, or based on informationDce was able to obtain through official channels, or just a personalconvictionBut this episode, which appears in the opening pages of Meric Casaubon's 1659 publication of the spiritual transactions, is undoubtedly thebasis tor the subsequent frequently repeated claims that Kelly was convicted ot coining, and suffered ear-cropping as a punishmem. As far as the records go, however, there is no evidence that there was any substance to the charge, or that any trial or punishment ensued. It is most unlikely that Dee would not have recorded a trial, conviction, orpunishmenr in either the spiritual transactions or his private diary, if such had taken place.

On June 15, 1583, Laski, together with LordRussell and Sir Philip Sidney, called in on Dee on his return from his ceremonial visit to Oxford, where he had been lavishly emertained and heard Bruno debate:47 Four days later, on June 19 "the Lord Alhcrt Laski came to me and lay at my house all night" (PD, 20; Fenton 9 3 ). And now Dce and Kelly commiued themselves to Lask.i's service. On September 21, 1583, Dee and his wife, family and servants, and Kelly andhis wife leftwith Laski from Gravesendfor Europe. The departure "at dead ot night" may have been motivated by a desire for secrecy. At one point they nearly drowneJ when one of the dinghies was swamped "but in the mean- while E. K. with a great gauntlet emptied most of the water out of the boat, else it must needs havesunk, by all man's reason.'"45

No private diary entries of Dee's are known to survive for the next three years, from the time oftheir leaving England until their arrival in T rebon in September 1586, but the spiritual transactions continued unabated, and in their records some of the eventsof everyday life are noted.

ll1ey spent four months travelling. Lmding at Brill they went by a small coastal vessel to Haarlem and Amsterdam. Then they proceeded along the northern edgeofEurope, never tar from the coast, by small boats and by coach and cart. Fmm Dokkum they went to Anjum, Emden, Oldenburg, Bremen, Harburg, Hamburg, Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock, and Szczecin, where they arrived on Christmas morning and stayed for three weeks.

ll1e spiritual dialogues continued during their travels. In Lubcck, Novem-bc_r 15, Dee receiveda spirit message via Kelly: "Your brother is clapped in prison,how do you like that? Your housekeeper, I mean." Dee's brother,in,law NicholasFromond was looking after the house at Mordake. "They say that you havehiddenvarioussecret things. As for your books, you may go look them at leisure. It may be that your house may be burned fur a remembrance." Eight monthslater in Prague August 27, 1584, Dee received letters telling "how Mr Gilbert, Mr Sled,Mr Andreas Fremo_nshdm my bookseller, used me very ill" andraidedhislibrary.Is it likely that it the raid had taken place by November no onewouldhave writtento Dee before the following August? Is Kelly's spiritual informationmost satistaaorily taken as a prevision? That the spirit in question seems not to have been a divine one, so Dee suspected at the time, is nut necessarily a problem; evil spirits could readily impart true information; rhe

problem was that they habitually intermingledit with disinformation.Anotherpossibility is that Kelly had prior knowledge that a raiJ was going tt> takeplace.Already back in July 1583 he had delivered the spiritual warning to D~e thathis home would be searched. Did he have other sources of information?Or didhe need anything other than a realistic paranoia? Certainly, at some point,orpoints, the Mordake house was raided and some five hundred books plus labora-tory equipment stolen or damaged. Dee marked the stolen books in a copy ~Jt hislibrary catalogue, and described the losses in detail in his Compendious Rehearsal.

They arrived in Lasko on February 3, 1584 (TFR, 62) and the followingmonth settled in Krakow. The spiritual dialogues continued in Poland. Theywere deeply involved in assembling a comprehensive table by which tosummonup angels. The code words were dictated by spirit in reverse, anJ thewholeprocess was extremely complex and timc~consuming. lt is not known it they werealso engaged in alchemical experiments. Kellyalsll cuntinued, as in England, topractice magic on his own, and the spirits often rebuke him for this in the sessions with Dee. Kelly was also consulted by Laski separately from Dee. Hewas to receive $400 a year from Laski, but Lasli, known in Poland as a bottomlessbucket, was short of funds and by 1584 was bankrupt. Deeand Kelly were thendirected by spirit to "go to the Emperor,"Rudolf II the Holy Roman Emperor.

They arrived in Pragueon August 9, 1584, and foundaccommodations in the house of DrT adeas Hajek, reputedly the senior alchemical adviser to theEmperor RuJolf. 49 His house was used for alchemical work and rhe study wasadorned with alchemical hieroglyphs and verses. lnstructcd by spirit, Deewroteto Rudolf seeking an audience. On Sunday, September 2, the day beforeDeemet

Rudolf, Kelly got splendidly drunk. Dce recorded the occasion in the spiritualtransactions (TFR, 229-30):

Therewas a great disquietnessin E. K. being comehomefrom ourhost'shouse where he had lain all night upon a form, by reason he haJ beensuddenly overcome with wine, which he never was like that before,hesaid. Yet intending with himself to take heedof beingovershotin drink-ing wine, being requested by the hostess to give her a quart of wineup, the good bargain he had in a clockhe bought from her for fiveducats.

In this drinking company was Alexander, LordLaski'sservantant, whocame with us to Prague to whom E. K., when the drink on rhc suddenhad overcome him, said he would cut offhis head, andwith his walkingstaff touched him fair and softly on the neck, sitting in from ot him.

This Alexander being half drunk himself by and by took thesewords

in great snuff and went to defend himself and so took his weapontohimand thereupon they caused Alexander to go down

It was supper time and that night l refrained from eating, andwaiting at my lodgingand looking out saw Alexander sitting on thegreat stone outside our lodging. I called to him and told him that theywere at supper. He came over tl) me and he had wept much. He com-plained ofKelly's fonner words and thetouch ot the staff, how it was

46 ~1\'STlC:\L METAL OF GOLD

against his credit to rake that in good part, and spoke many soldiers' terms ofstout words not worthyof recording.

1 thereuponwentto our host's house tofind out the truth and there l found E. K. fastasleep ona form most soundly, for which1 was right St orry And yet better pleased to perceive the words of E. K. which so moved Alexander, being half drunk, to have been spoken by E. K. when wine and notwit bore rule. And so I pleaded a long time with Alexander that of words spoken so as they were, no such exact accounr was to be given to him; anJ after two hours persuasion caused Alexander to go to bed in our lodging where he used to lie, for he would have gone out to llUr furmer inn in those raging half drunken pangs he was in, which I thought was not good. ...

This Monday moming E. K. coming home and seeing Alexander as he came in, said, "They say 1 spoke words which greatly offended you last night, and that l touched you with my staff, etc. I know nothing of it," and sh0l>k hands with Alexander in friendly fashion.

"Well," said Alexander, "si fuisset alius, etc." E. K. came up to me. l told him how sorry I was fur this mischance

and told him of the watchman perceiving Alexander's disquietmind and hearing his words, they came to me and charged me to have a care of the peace-keeping, as they did indeed. And further said that Alexander in his rage said that rather, or before he should cut off his head that he would cut E. K. in pieces.

As soon as I had expressed that word of this drunken Alexander, whlllll now I saw quiet and E. K. also quiet, suddenly E. K. fell into such a mge that he would be revenged on him for so saying and for railingon him in the street as he did, etc.

Much ado I, Emeric and his brotherhad to stop or hold him from glling to Alexander with his weapon, etc. At length we let him go in his doublet and hose without a cap or hat on his head, and into the street he hasted with his brother's rapier drawn and challenged Alexander to tight.

But Alexander went"tn.lm him and said, "l will not, Master Kelly,1 will not."

At this E. K. tlli.Jk up a stoneand threw it after him as after a dog,and so came into the house again in a most furious rage that he might not fight with Alexander. The rage and fury was so great in worJs and gestures as might plainly prove that the wicked enemy sought either E. K.'s own destroying of himsdf, or of me, or his brother, etc.

This may suffice to notify the mighty temptation and vehement working of 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, as the truth was, havecome to the Emperor's understanding, except he had known me well, etc.

I was in great doubt how God would take this offence and devisedwith myself how 1 might with honesty be cleared from the shame and !

A Biugmphy uj EJu·an.1 J:.:~Uy, eh..! En~lish Ak·h~mi:;c

danger that might arise it these two should fight, etc. At . the least itwould cross all good hope here with the Emperor, etcfor a timetillGodredressed it.

After I had brl1ught E. K. to some quietness, by yielding much to

his humour etc. andsaying little, not long after came my messenger frommy wife at Krakow, and Hugh my servantwithhim, to my great comfortthrough her letters, and the full satisfying ot me by Hugh myservant ;) knowledge funher than conveniently could be written. Comfortin timeof need.

Dce met with RudolfonSeptember 3 (TFR230). Shortlyaitcrwards, followingspiritual instructions he wrote to RuJolf that hecouldmake the philosopher'sstone (TFR, 243, 246). There is no record llt any further meetmg. RuJl)lt delegated his adviser, Dr. ]akob Kurz, to deal with Dee. When Kurz visited Dee,September 26, "Mr Kelly had gotten him into his chamber, not willing to beseen" (TFR, 247). Dee also came to know the Spanish ambassadllr, Don GUlllen de San Clemenre, a descendant of RamonLull, as he told Dee. The spiritualtransactions continued unabated. Records of Dee and Kelly'sother activities forthis period are slight, but, R.]. W. _Evans stresses,"lt wouldbe false .. toinfer from this that they necessanly remamed out ot touch wtth the court. Theyretumed to Krakow in October and then in December came back t Praguewhere Dee left Hajek's rooms and leased a house in Salt Street not far from the market place in Old Prague (TFR, 354). In Aprill585they returned to Krak6w. April 22, Easter Monday, Dee records that "very devoutly in St Stephen's 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 spiri[Ual good friends." Laski arranged for Dee to meet the King l)f Poland, Step hen Bathory, and Dee and Kelly held a seance with Stephcn on May 27 (TFR, 404). But no patronage seems to have resulted from the encounter. Around this time they met the theological controversialist Francesco Pucci, who had _ followedSocinus to Krakow, and now became a member of Dee's household.,' ln July they returned to Prague. - .

Dee and Kelly's spirit raising activities had come to the attentilm of the Catholic church, and on their return to Prague they were summoned to explain themselves. They delayed responding as long as they could, but finally on March21, 1586, they had an audience with the papal nuncio, Gennanico Malaspina, bishop of San Severo. Dee handled the interview tactfully, but then Kelly sug-gested that one of the problems with the Catholic church was the poor conductof many of the priests. The nuncio was not amused. Dee was told by "rh~ secretary of a certain great king," who had been told by the nuncio himself,that Kelly's speech had so enraged the nuncio that he was tempted tohavehadhim thrown out of the window. There was something of a tradition ot disposingof people by defenestration in Prague. The church authorities had hearJ ofthevolumes of spiritual records, and later endeavored to get Kelly toproduce them, withholding confession from him when he refused. On AprillO Dee anJ Kellyreceived a spiritual instructionto bum their entire records, and Dce recordsthe

..

~lYSTIC:\L ~IETAL OF GOLD

occasion ofthe burning done in the presence l)f Pucci, in meticulous and lengthy detail.52l.)n April 30 the records were miraculously restored, an episode recorded in similar detail (TFR, 418-19).

Meanwhile Oce and Kellyfound a new patron anJ protectorVilemRozmb-erk, llr William, Lord Rosenberg to give the Germanic form of his name that Deegenerally used(TFR, 420). Rozmbcrk, born fifty-one years ea.rlier in 1535, was head ofone of the most powerful Bohemian families. He was among Rudolf's closest associates,and had carried the crown at Rudolf''s coronation in 1575. He was the senior Bohemian official, the burgrave, rhe right hand man of rhe monarch in Bohemian affairs. Rozmberkwas second only ro Rudolf as a

4

patron of alchemists, employing adepts both at his residence, which adjoined Rudolf's on the Hradschinin Pragueand in his extensive estates in southern Bohemia, centeredon CeskyKrumlO\'. He participated in a number of spiritual sessions with Dee and Kelly, consulting on, among other matters, his aspimtions to the Polish throneand his plans to marry again. His brother, Peter Vok Ro::mberk also had alchemical interests. 53

Bur theCathtllic opposition tDeeand Kdly continued. The new nuncio, FilippoSega Bishop ofPiacenza, reported on April 29 that Dee and Kelly were importantand dangerous adversaries: "Giovanni Diiet il Zoppo suo compagno sonoin questacortebuon pezofa, et vanno a camino di farsi autori d'una nuova superstitione, per non dire heresia, sono noti all'imperatore et a tutta la corte."("John Dee and his companion the lame one were at this court a good while ago, and are on the., way to being the authors of a new superstition, not to say heresy, and are known to the Emperorand all of the court,")54

This is the only reference to Kdly's being lame, although on May 23, 1587, aspirit says "Kelly, I know it is uoublesome for thee to kneel. Sit.";;--55 Whether it was a permanent or temporary condition, or whether Sega was writing meta-phoricallyand comemptuously, is unclear.

May 29, 1586, succumbing to combined pressure from the papal nuncio, Sega, his predecessor Malaspinaand the High Steward of Bohemia, George (Jiri) Popel LobL:ovic, Rudolf expelled Dee, Kdly, and their households from theempire on the groundsof necromancy. 56 They stayed first in Erfurt, but since thesenators refused to let them lease a house there, they moved on to Kassel, where the Landgrave of Hessc-Kassel had his court.57 Pucci attempted to per-suade them to follow the nuncio's request that they should go to Rome tobequestioned... They _ refused, suspecting a trap from which they might not escape and, suspicious ofPucci's role, henceforth began to distance themselves from him. On August 8 Rodolf relented, and allowed them to return to the Bohemian estatesand towns of CountVilem Rozmberk. Dee and Kelly arrived at T rebon (also known as Wittingau) in southern Bohemia on September 14, 1586 (PD, 21; Fenton, 203; TFR, 444).

; They settled there for the next two years, though Dee's diary records that Kelly made a number of trips to Poland to Linz, to Reichenstein in Silesia (whereRo:mberk had laboratoriesin the castle), to Budweis ( Ceske Budejovice to give it its Czechname, 24 kilometres west of Trebon) and to Prague. They

A Biob.,raphy of EJu•LtrJ Kelly the Ak:~mist

receiveda number llf visitors in Trebon induding Laski on a numberof .. occa-sions, Pucci, Christian Francken, and various emissaries fromEngland.58

On December 19, 1586, Dee'sdiary records Kelly giving a demonstrationofgold production. It is the first account of his engaging in an alchemicaltransmutation. "For the gratification of Mr Edward Garland and Francis, hisbrother, which Edward was sent to me as messenger fromthe Emperor of Moscowthat I should come to him, E. K. made projection with his powder in the proportion of one minim (upon an ounce and a quarter uf mercury) and producednearly an ounce of best gold; which gold was afterwards distributed from the crucible and one part was given to Edward Garland."59

In later years Dee's son Arthur often told people about the alchemicaltransmutations he had observedat this time. One of the people he told was Sir Thomas Browne, his neighborin Norwich, andin 1674 Browne sent an accountof Anhur's recollections to Ashmole:

DrAnhur Dce was a young man when he saw this projectionmadein

Bohemia, but he was soinfluencedtherewith that he tell early upon that study and read not much all his life but books of that subject.

I have heard the doctor say that he lived in Bohemia with hi:~ father both at Prague and other parts of Bohemia. That Prince orCount Rozmberk. was their great patron who delighted much in alchemy. l haveoften heard him affirm and sometimes with oaths that he had seenthprojection made and transmutation of pewter dishes and flagons intosilver which the goldsmiths at Prague bought of them. And that Count Rozmberk played at quoitswith silver quoits made by projectionas be~ fore: that this transmutation was made by a small powdertheyhad whichwas found in some old place and a book lying by it containing nothing but hieroglyphics which book his father bestowed much time upl)n, but 1 could not hear that he could make it out.

InApril, 1587, Kelly announced that he was unwilling to scryan ylonger Deeattempted to train his seven,year-old son, Arrhur, as a medium, but Arrhur saw little of significance. Kelly joined them in one of these attempts, April 17, and said,

I marvel if you had no apparitionhere, tor 1 somewhatthinking ofArthurand his proceeding in the feat of scrying, came here into the gallery, anJ I heard you pray. And opening the window I looked out and I saw a great number going in and out of this chapel at the little hole in the glass window. 1 saw Madini, ll and many others that had dealt with us heretofore, but they showed themselves in very tilthy order. And Urid appeared and justified all to be of God, and good. And therefore I wonderif here you have no show. Perhaps there is something, but Arrhur dL)n not see it (TFR, 2nd pagination, 8).

Kdly then received a spiritual messagethat he and Deewere to hold their wivesin common (TFR, 2nd pagination, 11-12). The wives were unenthusiastic, and

50 ~lYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

Kelly madea number offurtherconsultations with spirits. Ashmlllc writes that the angels wc:re so "distasted" with Kelly's "vicious course of life" that they "would discharge him from that employmem"-that is, scrying--but this inter~ pretation is not home out by the spiritual records. Kelly had frequently desired to cease scrying, and had nllW once again proposed to end this activity. Ashmole also wrote that "Kelly perceiving that he should be wholly set aside and become useless in matter of scrying, he insinuates himself into their company one day while they were at exercise, and Arthur waiting for a vision, Kelly pretended to see something, llf which he there gives an account: and by this cunning artificethat delusive and impure doctrine took place, from whence Or Dee and Kelly were induced tl> mix with each others' wives."61 But the evidence of the spiritual records is that Dee was eager for Kelly to help in training Arthur, who was not proving a successful seer, and only too ready to have Kelly resume scrying.

The "cross-matching" seems to have taken place on May 22, 1587, but was nut repeatcd.02 .The following Jay the last known spiritual consultations Dee and Kelly held together are recorded. Years later, back in England, Dee was to experiment with other scryers. But this is the last known consultation through the medium of Kelly.

Fifty~three years later Arthur Dee gave one llf the crystals his father and Kelly had used to the apothecary Nicholas Culpeper "as a reward for having cured a li\'er complaint of his with the b'l'eatest rapidity, A.D. 1640." According to Culpeper this was the crystal that had been given to Dee by an angel in 1582, which Dee gave to Kelly, who gave it to Lord Rozmberk but then retrieved it.

Culpeper records, "I have USL~ this crystal in many ways and have thus cured illnesses, but with its use a very great weakness always sets in and lethargy of the body. And further a certain demoniacal apparition which exercised itself to lewdness and other depravity with women and girls, used to tempt me, but by making the sign of the cross and speaking these words, "Pah Adonai, by thy strength am I fortified. Phorrh! Phorrh! Haricot! Gambalon!" the apparition used to tly soon or instantly, with noise and evil smell. For these obscenities I have given up the use of the crystal, and to witness these things I have written them on this sheet on the 7th day of March in the year 1651."

William Lilly bought the crystal from Culpeper's widow and tried his own experimentson it with Elias Ashmole. They conjured up "a female devil lewd and monstrous," he records, February 10, 1658. The crystal is now in the Well~ cume collection in the Science Museum, South Kensington.65

The exchange of panners resulted in tensions between the two households, alluded tl• in Dee's diary. And then on February 28, 1588, nine months after the cross-matchingJane Dee gave birth to a boy, who was bapti:ed the following day. and named Theodorus T rehonianus Dee. Theodorus T rebonianus, the gift of God at Trebon (PD, 26; Fenton, 233). Was this Dee's child or Kelly's? Did anyone everknow for sure? The question is never raised in the diary let alone answered. Could Kelly have children anyway? In the spiritual transactions of April 4, 15tH. Kelly was told of his marriage, "barrenness dwells with you," which could be interpreted as meaning Kelly was sterile.

A Biography uf Edward Kellyeh~ Engli:;h Akh~mi:;c 51

April 10, Dee records in his diary (PD 27; Fenton 234), "1 writ toMrEJ Kellyand to Mistress Kelly two charitable letters, requiring at theirhands mutual chariry." April 12, "My wife churched, and we . received the communion." TheoJorus Trebonianus was evidently being treated as Dee's child. And since the four of them had vowed to tell nobody of the episode why would anyone suspectotherwise? It is only Dee's spiritual records that break the vow of secrecy; anJ Casaubon's transcription of them, followed by later commentators. On May 22, 1588, Dee records, "Mistress Kelly received the sacrament, and to me· and my wife gave her hand in charity; and we rushed not from her" (PD .. 27; Femon, 235, reads "and we wished well to her"). It was the anniversary ot the cross-matching.

On June 13, 1588, FrancisGarland arrived in T rebon with Edmond CooperMrs. Kelly's brother (PD, 28; Fenton, 235). Had CllOper come to help resolvethe tensions, or to escort his sister hack to England? On October 17. Dee's diary records, "Mistress Kelly and the rest rode toward Punchartz in the morning"(PD, 29; Fenton, 237, reads "Mistress Kelly and the rest rode toward Prachatke to the marriage"). It is the last mention of her in any of Dee's records. Butwhether she now left for England, or for Prague, is unknown.

Passages of three letters written by Kelly during this period (j une 20 and August 9, 1587, and November 15, 1589) survive.64 They deal with alchemy, but it is not known to whom they were addressed. The alchemical activities continued. To what degree Kelly and Dee were working separately or together now is unclear. There was certainly some cooperation: September 28, 1587, Deerecorded, "I delivered to Mr Ed. Kelly, (earnestly requiring it as his part) the half of all the animal . which was made. lt is to weigh [Fenton, "to wit"] 20 ounces: he weighed it himself in my chamber. He bought [Fenton: "brought"] his weights purposely for it. My Lord had spoken to me before for some, but Mr Kelly had not spoken" (PD, 24; Fenton, 230). Fenton notes the inclusilm l)t the symbol for mercury before "animal."

On December 12, 1587 there was one those that alchemicalexperimenters often suffered. "After noon somewhat, Mr Ed. Kelly his lamp overthrow [Fenton: "overthrew"), the spirit of wine long [Fenton: "being") spent too near, and the glass being not stayed with books [Fenton: "bricks") about it, as it was wont [Fenton: "meant") to be; and the same glass so tlitting on on.: side, the spirit was spilled out, and burnt all that was on the table whl!rc it stood, linen and written books--as the book of Zacharias with the alkanln [Fenton: "athanor"] that I translated out of French for some by spiritual couldnot [Fenton: "for him by spiritual commandment"]; Rowlaschy his third bouk of waters philosophical; the book called Angdicum Opus, all in pictures oftheworkfrom the beginning to the end; the copy of the man of Budweis's Conclu-sions for the Transmutation [Fenton has the symbol for mercury;. not "T ransmu· ration"] of metals; and 40 leaves in quarto, entitled Extractiones Dunstani. whichhe himself extracted and noted out of Dunstan his book, and the very book ofDunstan was but cast on the bed hard by from the table" (PD. 25; Fenton231-2).65

~lYSTlCAL ~lETAL L)f GOLD

h was lllll all \\'llrk anJ ndtensionJanuary 13, 1588, Dce recorded"At dinnerrime Mr EdwardKellysenthisbrotherMr Th. K. to me with these words, 'My brothersays that you study so much, and therefore, seeing it is too late to go today to Krumlov, he wishes you to come to pass the rime with him at play. I went after dinner and played, he ;.md I against Mr F. GorelFenton: "Garland"] and Mr. Rob [Fenton: ''Robert Garland,] till supper time, in his diniRg room: and after supper he came and the others, anJ we played there two or three hours, and friendly departed. This was then after the great and wonderful un~ kindness used toward me in taking [Fenton: "bcating'').my man" (PD, 25-6; Fcnton, 232-3 ). ,_

The alchemical iKtivirics continued thmugK 1588. February 8, ··~'lr. E. K. cU nine of the clock after noon sem t~n me to his laboratory over the gate tosec how he distilled sericonaccording as in time past and of late he heard of me out ofRipley." :March 24, "Mr. K. put the glass in dung." May 10, "E. K. diJ open the great secret to me, God be thanked!, August 24, (in Latin) "I saw the divine water, hy rhe demonstration of the magnificent master and my incomparablefriend Mr Ed Kellybefore midday: in the space of three hours." December 7, (in Greek characters)"Great friendship pmmised for money and two ounces ofthe thing." December 18, "Mr Edward Kelly gave me the water, mercury, all 30 oz. Water, earth anJ all" (PD, 26-30; Fenton, 233-7).

- In November 1587 Francis Garland had brought a letter fur Dee from EJward Dyer in England (PD, 24; Fenton, 231 ). The courtier and poet Edward Dyer, knighted in 1596 but at this time still plain Mr. Dyer, had stood as godfather to Arthur Dee in 1579. He had studied alchemy under Dee with Philip Sidney.6«1 He had retained his interest in the subject, and in the mid 1570s he had assayed fur Walsingham a sample of the ore Frobisher had brought back from NorthAmerica, bdieving it was gold. Dyer had demonstrated that it was not. In Europe in 1588, Sargent writes, "he could not resist the temptation tu continue his joumey and investigate the alchemical labours of Kelly in per~ sun ... 67 Was it simple temptation, or was he under instructions from Elizabeth, or Burghley, or Walsingham? He arrived in Prague, paid an official visit to the Emperor RuJolf, and then came to Trebon on July 20. Two days later Dee records, in a mixture of Latin, English, and Greek characters, that "Oyer did injure me unkindly," bur the following Jay reconciliation was effected by the mediation of Kdly. Dyer left on August 9 (PD, 27-8; Fenton, 235-6).

In Nu\'embcr 1588 Dee wrote to Queen Elizabeth, congratulating her l>n the English victory over the Spanish armada, and promising to return. He writes of "finding our duty concurrent with a most secret beck of the said gracious Princess L'lJy Opportunity, now to embrace, and enjoy, your most excellent royal Majesty's high favour, anJ gracious great clemency, of calling me, Mr Kdly, and our families hllme, intoyour British earthly paradiseand monarchy incomparahle.''NI Was Eli:abeth summoning them back so that their alchemical experiments could proceedin England, and supplement the English coffers? Had Garland reported the alchemical transmutation he had observed on his previous visit? Had Dyer been sent on a mission?

)

and his family left Trebonon March11, 1589. On April 1 1 9theyreached Bremen where they stayed for seven months before departing fromStadeon November 19, finally arriving back in England on November 22, 1589{PD, 30-2; Fenton, 239-46). Dce gives an accountof this return journeyinhisCompendiousRehearsal

Kelly remained in Bohemia. While underthe patronageofRozmberk, Kellyhad begun working with some of Rudolf's alchemical projects. Rudulf was asenthusiastic an alchemical experimenter as Ro:mberk. R. J. W. Evans citesa

letterfrom the Emperor tu Rozmhcrk, dated October 27, hut with noyear given, which "requests'-in friendly terms-rhar 'Eduardus' he temporarily releasedfrom his service thereto come to PragueanJ supervise a great alchemicalworkwhich is in progress. RuJolf will nor detain him ('will in nit langer autho.1hcn, als er sdbst begem wird'), but the operation is a difficultone which nceJs expertassistance: 'das Hocchststuck dar.:u mangdt, Jer mercurius Sl)lis, an dem die sa(h nit kan vertertigt werden, halt derhalhcn fur guet das der EJuard dersdhst hie her khamb, disem manglen zu helffen.' "70

Kelly now gained the Empcmr Rudolf'sfavur, was accepted as a citizenofBohemiaand granted a patent of Imperial nubility, equires aurari. He becameSir Edward Kelly. Dce wrote to Walsingham on August 20, 1589, that Kellywas "now in most favourable manner created a Baron of the kingdum of Bohem-mia; with the grant of a coat ofarms: as I have seen in a large seal, being a lionrampant with [the lion of England] in a bordure, with the year on the seal, vi1573, and a motto round it. According tothe records Kdly claimed relation-ship to the ancient Irish nobiliry: "Edward Kelly, bornan Englishman, of theknightly kin and house called lmamyi in the county of Cunaghaku in thekingdom of lreland."72This claim has generally beendiscountedas a fabricationby Kelly. But drawing on the Irish geneal,lgical compilationAn LeabharMuinh-n~ach, Liam Mac Coil has shown that these genealogies "make the Ui Chcallaigh (O'Kelly, Kelly) descendants of Maine. The Ui Mhainc {Hy~Many, lm.any) heldterritory in Connaught, more precisely in east Galway and south Roscommon. h would have been quite normal and proper, therefore-orthography and phrasing aside-for someone called Kelly to say that he was uf the noble 'house of lmamyi in the countyof Conneghaku' and only a little exhibitionistic. "il

The Bohemian ennoblement occurred some time after Dee's departure butbefore the end of June, 1589. Ro:mherk is said to have given Kelly two fiefswith their villages near Jilove-Libcrice and Nova Liben.i-4 Vladimir Karpenkowrites that while at T rebon, Kdly "received or purchased 'me small castle, nin~ villages, and two houses in Prague. "71

In June 1589 Kelly wrote to LorJ Burghlcy about alleged treason by CHristo-pher Parkins. The British Library preserves Kelly's letter (MS Lansduwnc 61, fol. 64)16 and a letter from Dee on the same topic (MS Lansdowne 61 art. SS, ful. 159).

Kelly reported "That fourteen Jays befme-the feast l>f Pentacost last, thatoneParkins, born in England and now a Jesuit came from Rome tll the city ofPrague in Bohemia. And there coming into an inn, where the saiJ Sir E. K.

~IYSTlCAL METAL OF GOLD

was, anJ uttering Jivers noveltiesamong others he plainly (but as it were in great secrecy) opened tl) the said Sir E. K. this horrible conspiracy against her Majesty:

1. Thattherewere now seven such ways l)r means, concluded and agreed upon by the Pope and his confederates for the murdering of the Queen, that if the first, second, third, fourth and fifth failed, yet were the (plots] ere. in such sort· to be executed, that the sixth or seventh should take effect: yes, if all the devils in hell thereunto say nay.

2. And further Parkins declared, that those ways and means were by him and his cohercnts to be . executed against her Majesty's own person, for the performance whereof he declared also, that he would funhwith go into England by the way of D.mzig. And so from thence, in the habit of a merchant, into England.

3. That when the said Sir E. K. d~larl!d the same strange news to the Lord Ro:mhcrk, Viceroy of Bohemia, the said Rozmberk told Sir Edward d1at the said Parkins was the right hand, or chief man ro rhe King of Spain and rhe Pope, in all their treacherous l!nterprises against England.

4. Ar rhe same rime anJ instant the said Rozmberkshowed unto Sir E. K. a letter, written by one of the chief of the states of the Low Countries with the Emperor, requesting the Emperor to be a means to take up the matter between them and the King ofSpain. And also requesting this Emperor to send them some aid to help them away with the English that were in those provinces.

5. That the said Sir Edwardat his faithful disclosing those things (thus by divine providence come to his knowledge) to these subscribed gentlemen, did funherml>re much marvel and wonder, how it was possi# ble that the stmngers of the Low Countries, dwelling in England, would or could lend and send untothe Emperor or King of Spain a million of gold at any time or times, to his or their helps: which he of his certain knowledge assured to be done. But he well hoped, that the treason therein by this time was come to the knowledge of some of her Majesty's most honourableprivy council.

We Roben Tatton and George Leicester, gentlemen, do witness these anicles and the effect of every part of them to have been declared unto us, and Edmond Hilton, servant to the right worshipful John Dee, Esq, by the within named Sir E. K. at our being with him at T rebon in Bohemia in the end of June last, 1589.

Leicesterwas presumably the Georgc Leicester who was victualler l)f her Majes-ty's garrisons in the Low Countries.

·Parkins wrote to Walsingham May 12, 1590, complaining about the trouble Kclly's report cau~d him. "Right hlmorablc Sir, it has ht!en some comfort unto me tu understand by your letter, that my trouble is prolonged, by looking for an answer from Sir Edward Kclly, who has been conjured to deal hereinsincerely.

So ifKelly deal Christianly wid1 time all will be well. Bur if he bea nevil ilmeaningman as common fame reportswhat conjuring will be sufficienttomakehim deal sincerely: specially if he follow the counsel of his friends and ghostlyfathers the Jesuits, who have vowed their endeavour to trouble this estateandall well#wishers" (Public Record Office, SP 12/231, fol. 22).

Parkins had been at school at Winchester with Thomas Watslm, the Wal-singham agent who had offered his services to Laski. ln 1566, aged 19, Parkinshad entered the Society of Jesus at Rome. He had been an eminent professoramong the Jesuits for many years, bur gradually became distanced from themIn the mid-1580s he proved himself useful to Burghley, intervening to saveBurghley's grandson from trouble after some indiscreet expression of Protestantopinions on a visit to Rome. Parkins is said to have returned toEngland withthe young William Cecil, who recommended him to his grandtather. In 1 :>b I Parkins was still described in the government's list of recusants abroad as a

Jesuit, resident in Prague. What inspired Kelly's letter is unknown. Had he beenfed misinformation? Was he trying to present himself as useful to the govern-ment? Or was he trying to pre-empt any reports Parkins may have made abouthim? Parkins seems to have been imprisoned on his return to England, but was

rcgularly employed on diplomatic missions after this, and in 1591 was madeambassador to Denmark and given an annuity of 100 marks. Whether he hadbeen an English agent beforehandor whether he was recruited after a softening·up spell in prison is unclear.

Dee had expected Kelly to meet him in Bremen and return toEnglandwith him. He wrote to Mr. justice Young, August 20, 1589, that he fearedhewould have .. w endure this Breamish habitation this winter, because I hear no

word of Sir EJ Kelly's approaching" (SP 15/31, fol. 35). Nuvember 3, old stylehe records in his diary, "I resolved to go into England, hoping to meetMrEdward Kelly ar Stadegoing also into England; and that I suspected upon MrSecretary Walsingham's letters" (PD, 32; Fenton, 241). Back at MortlakeJanu-ary 23, 1590, (Fenton, 247, has December 23, 1589), Oee wrote, MrThomasKelly came from Brainford;put me in good hope of Sir Edward Kelly's returning"(PD, 32). But he never saw Kelly again.

And now Sir Edward flourishedas one of Rudolf's favorites. His alchemicaltransmutations were widely reported. Ashmole records in Thearrum ChemicumBrirannicum: "I have received it from a credible person, that one Broomfieldand Alexander Robertstold him they had often seenSirEd Kelly make projec-tion, and in particular upon a piece of metal cut out of a warming pan, andwithout SirEdward's touching or handling it, or melting the metal (only warm-ing it in the fire) the elixir being put thereon, it was transmuted into puresilver: the warming-pan and this piece of it was sent to Queen Elizabeth by herambassador who then lay at Prague, that by fitting the piece intl) the placewhence it was cut out, it might exactly appear to be one part of that warmmg-pan. The aforesaid person has likewise seen in the hands of one Mr Frye andScroope, rings of Sir Edward Kdly's gold, the fashion of which was only goldwire, twisted thrice about the finger; and of these fashioned rings, hc gaveaway.\ ·'\ , to the value of £4000 at the marriage of one of his servant maids. Thiswas

56 ~lYSTlC.-\L METAL OF GOLD

highly generous hur tsay truth he was openly profuse, beyond the modest limits ,,t a sober philosopher. Wund repeats the story in AthenaeOconiensisadding the derail that the ambassadorwas Lord Willoughby.77

R. J. W. Evans cites other reports that circulated through Europe The Bohemian adept MatthiasErbinausvon Brandau wrote around 1630 that he had seen Kelly's tincture, and that Kelly could produce the Mercurius Solis in no more than fifteen minutes. Another occasion is reported by Gasscndus at Dr.Hajek's house, where with the infusion of a single small drop of red liquid, Kelly transmuted a pound of mercury into gold. Rudolf used Hajek to test out the credentials ofalchemists before taking them into his service. This occasion may have been such a test, one which Kelly passed successfully. Nicolas Bamaud, who was living at Hajek's house is variously reported to have observed or participated in one ofKelly's transmutations. A number of Bohemian manu-scripts of the sixteenth and seventt.!enth century contail1 alchemical recipes which an: ~scribed !o Kellyi and a Hungarian alchemist claimed to be reiterating the true wtsJmn ot Sr. Dunstan which Kelly had rediscovered and transmitted throughRudolf.1:1 .

On October I, 1589 Edward Dyer left London on a secret mission to persuade Kelly to rerum to England with his alchemical expertise. Burghley received reports on Dyer's progress from Thomas Bodley at The Hague (SP 84/ 35, f,)ls. 27-28) and William Milwardeat Stade (SP 82/3, tol. 116). On March 7, 1590, an English merchant at Hamburg, William Fowler, reported to Burghley "upon my late travel in the countries of Deutschland and Bohemia for her Majesty's .service":

And comingunto the city ofPrague met with the worshipful Mr Kellywhomafterhis triendly entertainmentand at my departure from thence, delivered unto me a box with the ore and order of the silver mines, for to deliver unttl ynur honour with this letter here enclosed ... not dtlubting with God's help but that he himself will be here very shortly, as he fully intended at my coming away. Mr Dyer is gone unto him, and has been now there a month from Stade, and is looked for daily. I hope they will come together, God grant they may, tor he is a good subject and to be accounted of.

The letteris preservedin Ashmole's papers in the Bodleian Library (MS Ash-lllt>lc 1788, t~1b. 159-60). According to Dee's diary, Dyer had returned to Lon-don by March 14; Dee received a letter from Kelly March 17 (PD, 33i Fenton, 247).

Queen Elizabeth's most senior statesman, William Cecil, lord Burghley, the lord treasurer, now wmte directly to Sir Edward. An undated dmft of a letter survives in the British Library (MS Lansdowne 103 no. 73, fol. 211).79 He thanked Kelly ft>r his letter received via Dyer and noted

that you Cllllfess t.t desire to return to ynur native countl)'i which is very commendable in you. Ipercei\'e also by your own words, expressly, that

r.

A Biogrl.lphy uJ EdwarJ ~dly, thl.! Engli.sh .~lh~mi.st ) '

your mind draws )'l)U toward your gracious sovereign; whom above.. \·~ alworldly Majesties you desire ltoserve and please which intent you also1

desire me to further .... And yet nevertheless, l would not haveyou

ignorant, that sundry men, being not acquainted with these your faithfuloffers and purposes, let not in some sort, since it is seen that you camenot with Mr Dyer, to divine variously of your stay, some saying that you

do forbear to come, because you cannot performthat indeed whichhasbeen reported of you. Some that you are enticed (by such as bearnot

the Queen nor this realm any good will), not to come tu beneht her Majesty. Some allege that your own profession tl"t religion dues not &.~gr&.:~ with ours here. Yea smue that malicillusly are Jispllsed, say, that )'tlU .. m.: an impostor [and a deceiver-dek~d) with your sophistications.

lt is clear from Burghley's letter that QueenEli:abeth had requestedhim towrite

to Kelly, and that she herself had alreadywritten. "lam expressly commandedbyher Majesty to require you to have regard to her honourand according tothetenor of her former letters, to assure yourself, to be singularly favouredj yea. in respect, of the benefits that ynu may, by the gifts that God has given, bring toher Majesty, to be honoured, to the comfort oyourself and all yours." Heconcluded with thanks to Kclly "for the mnuntain, or rock that you sent .• andwas safely brought to me from Stade which I will place in my house where I do bestow other rare things of workmanship, and shall be a memorial of yourkindness. Wishing I might enjoy some small receipt from you, that might comfortmy spirits in mine age, rather than my coffers with any wealth: for l esteem health above wealth."

The "mountain or rock" that Kelly sent to Burghlc)' was probably a GermanHandsteine, a model of a mountain madt.! up of assays of ore, stone and crystalsshowing in section the layout of the mine workings with miners at their differenttasks. Burghley was knownto have an interest in mechanical devices andnovel-ties, which he kept, together with an exhaustive collection of maps, ·in thecabinets in his studies and gallt.!ries.~

Burghley's letter to Kelly scrupulously avoiJs mentioning alchl;!my. Presum-ably this was in case the letter was intercepted. The matter was judgcd to be;t

sensmve one. Burghley was certainly deeply interested and followed up hisinquiries through other means. The British Library document uf February2 231590 (MS Lansdowne 846, fols. 216-17) containing the copy ot a patent ur knighthood granted by Rudolph to Kelly may well bt! a resplmse to such in~uir-ies. On March 8, 1590, at the end of a long letter to Sir Horati\., Palavicin-•. Burghley writes, again unspecifically, "l pray you learn what you can,h\)\\. Sir Edwd. Kelly's profession may be credited" (SP 81/6, fols. 7-8).

Palavicino was a financier whose fortune was based on the Europea.. m ndum monopoly. From 1580 to 1592 he was the English government's fiancial agentin European dealings. He worked closely with Burghley, providing a conduit.. ;! finance for diplomatic, t!spionage, and other expenditures, and he was a hi~h-level source of infonnation for Burghley and Walsingham.~1

58 ~IYSTlCAL ~tETAL OF GOLD

July 13, 1590, Dee records in his diary "l went to the Archbishnp llf Canterbury: talked with him boldly ofmy right to the parsonages; and to the treatise ofSir Edward Kdly's Alchemy" (PD, 35; Fenton, 249). Was Dee claim, ing some rights toa work of Kelly's, or was it a matter of ownership of a manuscript? l11e following year Raph Rabbards organized the publication of the first edition of GeorgeRipley's TheCumpound of Alchemy. Among the prefatory essays and verses .. of other notablewriters" appeared the poem "Sir E. K. Con, cerningthe Philosopher'sStone written to his especial good friend, G.S. Gent." Dce also contributed a prefatory poem to the hook, "J. D. Gem: in praise of the author and his work ... so he may well have been involved in arranging the publication of the poem hy Kdly. Kelly's"especial good friend G. S. Genthas not been identified.

Kellyrepliedto Burghley from Prague, July 24, 1590 (SP 81/6, tols. 56-7). Kellyrefuted "whatsoever has been spoken of me and by whom l know not but am assured that no man has commission to repeat any words formally from me in England to that pretended effect, Mr Dyer I!XCepted who has done the! part of a faithful subject and told a truth such as none of these blabbers shall ever overthrow." He went on to add that

such as reward me t~,r my faithful service are not to he counted enticers neither is my discretion so Wl!ak as to apply any service! to the enl!mies of her Majesty or my native country which hitherto l doubt not but that I have well avoided ... I protest before God the true and sincere love, Jury and o~.Jience that l do and always shall bear to her sacred Majesty and the honour of my country; and so an end for this.

Wdl a word or two with those that find fault with my rdigion. lf they be such as love God themselves, care for honesty, hate pride and covetousness and the filthy sin of lechery: if they prefer not the court before their conscience and Machiavd's doctrine before the word of God then am I of them. And hope shall well conform with their religion, etc. But now I sing of amts and the man. And under your correction my good lord say whatsoever he be in England that is not ashamed to report that I am an imposter I will not be abashed to say that he is a knave and that he lies in his throat and will maintain it with my sword upon his carcase wheresoever I can or shall tind it abroad. will gladly and maliciously tread it Jown at home.

(He went on to explain his situation in Bohemia.] Being in security, and that in a country full of peace and liberty. seised in lands of inheri, ranee yielding £1500 yearly, incorporated to the kingdom in the second order, of some expectation and use more than vulgar, of his Majesry•s privy council (notwithstanding not yet sworn for the love I bear unto my sacred Queen and country), chief regent in and over all the lands anJ affairs of the Prince Ro:mherk: I cannot see how 1 might easily or honestly depart, much less so steal away, for why such properties belong to a paltry minded man and to him that knows not the use of honour.

A Biography of EJwurJ Kdly, tll!! Engli.sh Akh!!mi.st

A knight I am and sworn to promote virtue and chivalry which I will &11_

perform by all endeavour {God helping me) to the uttermost.But if it may please my most gracious sovercign and country to

redress the injuries done against me heretoforeand to call me home tothe like honour; assuring me of so much lands of inheritance by yearh,

serve her, as I shall leave behind me in Bohemia for her; then will 1 declare myself openly. take lea\·e of his Majesty and kingdom andrcr .... tr home to her highness.

KellyJoes not specify the! "injuries done against me heretoforebut they couldbe the ear lopping or the coining charge.

On August 10, 1590, Kelly wrote replying taturthcr letterfromBurghley"Iam not so mad to run away from my present honour and lands toshow fora new. Satis est per virtutem moxi qua per dedeam vincere.: . . To deal plainlyI find myself wdl at ease. And can well content myselfwithmypresent stateand will not remove but upon greater reasons than I yet find (SP 81_/6_. fol. b_' ).

Sir Horatio Palavicino responded to Burghley s request for information.about Kelly by forwarding a long, rambling letter Puc.ci had sent him fromPrague on August 25. 1590 (SP 81/6, fols. 68tt). Puccireported thathhaJ broken with Kelly, finding him "ever more inconstant m matters ot religionanJ . piety and knowing him in matters of friendship long in promisesand. word:. butshort in deeds, finding him over long months and years vain and intolerablyhaughty." Pucci went on to complain that Kelly owed him money, and to

describe a quarrd that haJ developed between Kelly and Count Scotto.Thequarrel, he reported, had been started by Kelly"who wrotethat hehad it fromtrustworthy persons that Scotto was speaking untlattenngly ot himanwasthreatening to beat him up, whereby if such was the casehe ordered . hun toindicate the place and the time so that he might respond with weaponinhand. . . . Suffice it to know for the moment that the quarrd in my opinioncannot

have an early end without bloodshed, and that all in all I don't believe there imuch to chose between them. s

Count Scotto, the Italian alchemist, was a sinister figure Also knownn as

Scoto or Scota or Scotta or Scotti, and variously given the first name Geronimoor Alessandro or Giovanni, he had arrived in Prague earlier that year. 1590,and seems to have played a part in the events that precipitatedKdly's downfallin 1591.11} .

Once again Edward Dyer was sent to deal directly with Kelly. He. arrived~.:..l in Prague early in October 1590. He presented his papers to the ministers ofstate, but the political climate was uneasy and he lett rap1Jly. He wrote t tBurghley October 31, .. 1 used all my best means to h.ave gotten .some medicineto have satisfied her Majesty by her own blisstul sight: but SirEJ feared toconsent thereto, lest the report thereof being blown over, it migh,t he an occasionto kindle jealousy here, whereof he being now of the Emperors pnvy councilhe has more regard than in time past" (SP 82/3, tol. 134). . ) .

The same day, October 31, Kelly wrote to Burghley fwm Prague (S1 ~ i 1

6, fol. 76):

60 l\IYSTICAL l\IETAL OF GOLD

V cry gla~l I am rhat her royal Majesty has seen anJ likcJ these my lasr lerrcrs. AnJ am wdl pleased also, that you account yourself therein fully saristieJ. Bur whereas you move me (as from her Majesty) to make some demonstration in the principal point (as it pleases you to term it) of my science, to the end her Majesty might be rhe better satisfied, and for the so doing promise me (in her Majesty's behalt) gracious favour, increase of honour and living, I thus answer: if her highness had specified any particular by her gracious own direct or indirect lcner, wherein her satisfactionhad consisted it should have taken such performance as the desires of so great a Majesty, and the show of my real love and loyalty towards her might any way require. But because your lordship's letters are too weak in that behalf, and for that the proceedings are so entangled with the tossing of some worthy man's well known and unstainable credit, I thought it tit to take a pause until I learn from her Majesty t~>rmally wherein I might honourably serve and satisfy her gracious high· ness abrtlad, being settled and contented already with sufficient reputa· tion and living.

Dyer returned to Prague in November. Accordingto Sargent, Dyer found Kellyso deeply involved with the Emperor that he could not have left the Empire even had he wished to. "Whence came the original suggestion one cannot say, but between the two, Kdly and Dyer, they hit upon an ingenious solution. Since Kclly could not carry away his secret, it was proposed that Dyer should enter into collaboration on the experimems, with the expectation that Dyer should eventually learn the method of tr.msmutatiun for himself. Dyer was delighted with the pruspect. Edward Dyer accordingly established himself in Kelly's house· hnld, and under Kdly's tutelage plunged into the mysteries of alchemical labour. TI1c whole winter was given 0\"er to the pursuit. "114

h seems unlikely that Kclly would have shared his secrets. But they cer· tainly did work together. Kelly later recalled this period in a letter to Dyer, September 14, 1595 (Bodlcian LibratyMS Ashmole 1420, p. 328): "Yea, honor· able sir, you know very well, what delight we took together, when fmm the metals simply calcined into powder after the usual manner, distilling the liquor so prepared with the same we convened appropriate bodies (as our astronomy infcritlr teaches) into mercury their first matter."

Dyer's invoh·emcnt with Kelly is the subject of lllle of Francis Bacun's Apophthegms:

Sir Edward Oyer, a grave and wise gentlemandid much believe in Kellythe alchemist that he did indeed the work, and made gold: insomuch tha£ he wcm into Germany where Kdly then was, to inform himself fully thereof. After his rerum, he dined with my lord of Canterbury, where at that timewas at the table Dr Brown the physician. They fell in talk of Kclly. Sir Edward Dyer, turning to the archbishop said, "l do assure your grace, that that I shall rdl you is truth, I am an eyewitness thereof; and if I had not seen it, I should nor have believed it. I saw Mr

A Biugmphy uf EJu·arJ Kdly, th~ En~li.sll :\ldt~mist ol

Kdly put of the base metal into the crucibleandafter it wassea littleupon the fire and a very small quantity ot medicineput in andstirredwith a stick of wood, it came fllrth in great proportion perfectgold to

the touchto the hammer, tothe test. My lord archbishop said, "You had need take heedwhat you say,

Sir Edward Dyer, for here is an infidel at the board." . Sir Edward Dyer said again pleasantly, "I would have looked foran

infidelsoonerin any place than at your grace's table." "What say you, Dr Brown?" says the bishop. . Dr Brown answered, after his blunt and huddlmg manner, "The

gentleman has spoken enough for me." "Why," says the bishllp, "What has he said?" . . "Marry," says Dr Brown, "he said, he. would not havebelieved it.

except he had seen it, as no more will I."

1Jn February 18, 1591, Kdly wrote to Burghlcy, mentioning "I had forgottenh •

let you understand in my last letter that I wouldshortly sendyouthatsomegood thing you desired tor you[r) health (Bnush LibraryMS Lan~do~\tk. bb, ~o. 58, fols. 164--65). In May 1591 Burghley ~wte agam tu Kdly: a Jratr ot the letter survives (MS Lansdownc 103, no. 72):

I have cause to thank you, and so I do very heartily foryourgood, kindletter sent to me by our countryman, Mr Roydon: who makes suchgoodreport of you, (as dues every other man that has had a conversation\nrh you), as that I am comforted to hear their reports. Ye~ I have the samemingled with some grief, that none of them can g1vc me .any goodassurance of your return hither; the thing most earnestly desired of all well disposed persons to the Queen's Majesty, and to theircountrymen. .. And I hope to hear from you to have something ot your approbationill ,

to strengthen me afore the next winter against my old enemythe goutwhich is .ratherfed by a cold humour than a hot, and principallyby arheumatic head, which l also think receives his imperfectionfrom a

stomach not fully digesting the food received. But to affirm whatI taketo be the most direct cause is, oppression with attairs and lack ot libertyagainstthwhich no medicinal receipt canserve. And yet I will begladto make use of any you will send me, wtth your assurance that lt shalldo me no harm.

Matthew Roydon, who had deliveredKelly'sletter fromPrague waslikeDyera poet and a member of the Sidncy circle. He wroteanelegy o.n Sidney's:~ death,"A Friend's Passion for his Astrophel." He was a tricnd of ChristopherMarloweand Gcorge Chapman, he was linked with Lord Strange and Ralegh's "Schoolof Night," and he is generally believed to have been part of Walsingham':~ anBurghley's dintelligencenetworks.87

. . . . , Was Elizabeth's senior statesman really discussing his gout with Kelly?

Would a political figure reveal a disabling sicknessby letter, so readily inter-ceptible, to an expatriate alchemist who refused to return home?Or is the

~lYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

letter offeringcodedpolitical speculations? Is the rheumatic head Rudolf, rhe impertecdy digesting stomachRudolf's advisers, and rhe lack of liberty a com-ment onBohemian attairs? And does that imply rhar Kelly was operatingas an agent forBurghley in Prague, "a highly-placed asset in the courr of Emperor Rudolf,"as Charles Nicholl asserts, with rhe known agent Roydon acting as courier?89

RobertHookecertainly thoughtso. He speculated that Dee'sentirespiritual records were coded accounts ot political events: "And when he returned, he left Kelly with the Emperor who for several years after kept correspondence with Dr_ Dce here, which might possibly continue toexecute the same design; Kdly beingnowgrownSir Edward Kelly, and thEmperor's chymist. And in probabil-eOr Dee mighthave sufficiently furnished him wirh cryptography enough to send what intelligences he pleased, without suspicion, which was easily con-ceivedunder any other feigned story." In probability, perhaps; but Hooke never offers~ny examplesof thealleged cryptographs decoded. Nonetheless, the specu-lauon _1s not an 1mposs1ble one. _The third volume ofTrithemius' Steganographia, ostensibly a sequence of tables tllr summoning up spirits, has now been revealed to be a work of cryptobrraphy. This was the book rhat Dee had tried to acquire in 1563 forBurghley (SP 12/27 fol. 63).1i'l

On May 12, 1591, Burghley wrote at length to Dyer:~

I have received your two letters; the one of the 15th, the other ut the 16th. By both which I perceiveyou hold fast your first opinion of Sir Edward Kelly, namely, as you write, for that worthy truth in him at the highest point that has been before you reported: and rherero you add in the same letter, that forhis pertect love towards her Majesty you think rhere cannot be found better in any man; move me to expect cerrainly by your meansa perfect resolution in Sir Edward K. wirhour all scruples to return to h1s nativecountry; to honour her Majesty, as a loyal natural subject, with the fruits of such great knowledge as God has given him.

Burghlcy was at pains tll refute some

light and very false rumours carried thither; the falsehouJ ofsome of them beingbyme even at rhis present discovered, that my Lord Chancd-lor [SirChnstopher Hatton] showed me in a letter from you brought with mine wherein you wrote, that Sir Edw. K is informed that my LordChancellor has utteredJivers reproachful speeches even afore her MaJesty: whereot my lord is notably wronged. For on my faith I never heard my lorduse any evil words of him: and he himself, upon the receipt of your letterhas and does avow it upon his faith and honour, and so has protested aforeher Majesty; and that he never uttered any reproach-ful words, e1thcr atore her Majesty or out of her presence. Which also her Majesty in my hearing has confirmed, never to have heard his lordship to havedepravedhim.

63

But Burghley did concede that doubts had beenexpressed.Somepeoplehewrote, "seeming to think the actionimpossible to pertorm, wh1ch is reportedofSir Edw. K., conceive that they which make report of their own excellenceby setting transmutation of metals into gold by him Jll notwithstandingcontendwith the reporters that they are deceived; and so may be to us." And Burghley concludedthat, if Dyer was unable to persuade Kellyto return, ·"I must certainlythink that he cannot perform that which you conceive of him, but that by some

cunning, or, as they say, legerdemain, both you and all others havebeen de-ceived, as the wisest in Venice were the las! year: or else 1 must in my heart(which I would be most loth to do) condemn him, as an unnatural bom manto his country, and a very disloyal subject to a most virtuous godly lady, hissovereign." And he concluded with the request that "ifyou cannut obtainSirEdw. Kelly's rerum personally, yet that you would, tor maintenance l>t yourcredit, procure some small, though very small portion of thepowderto makedemonstration in her Majesty's own sight ot the perfecnon ot h1s knowl-edge .... I wish he would, in some secret box, send toher Majestyfor a tokensome such portion as might be to her a sum reasonable to detray her. chargesfor rhis swnmer for her navy which is now preparing to the sea to withstandrhc strong navy of Spain, discovered upon· rhe coasts between Britanny anJ Cornwall within these tw days. But wishers oand woulders were never goodhouseholders."

There are various highly colored thoughunauthenticated Czech storiesofKelly at the height of his success. Josef Svatek, writing in the 1890s, has him buying a brewery, mill,and property in Kiloveandgradually gaining a monopolyover rhe food trade in the district, raising prices, ignoringthe protestingpopu-lace. When he was not on his estates he was in Prague; indulging in orgies ofwine and women. lvan Svitak attributes Kclly's undoubted wealth to his re-processing waste from the J ilove mines, retrieving gold by the use of mercuryReputedly Kelly bought a house in Dobytcitrh, the _Cattle Market,in whichnone other than Dr. Faust was supposed to have hved. He is said to havebeen less thanenthusiastic about the various other travelling alchemists whoconverged on Prague. Mamugnano he kept at a distance. Similarly, when Mi-chael Sendivogius arrived in 1590, Kelly is said to have lodged him in one ofhis houses at Jilove to prevent his becoming a rival for Rudolf's patronage."

Events now took a dramatic turn as Rudolf ordered Kelly's arrest. Theearliest report is in "The true copy of a letter written from Frankfurt, the l 5thof May," 1591, now in the British Library.'13 John Strype attributed it tn "anEnglish merchant, as it seems, at Frankfurt, ""~• presumably becausetheopeningparagraph declares, "To Prague I came on the 28th Apnl, makingmy journeyso as I might fall in with the end of the Leipzig mart because of the occasionfor Frankfurt with the merchants of Cologneand Strasbourg." This attributionhas never been disputed. However the letter is most probably fmm HenryWot-ton. lr is written to Edward Wotton, his half brother, with whom he frequentlycorresponded, and the rderence in it to Boughton House shows a familiaril) with that family hume ofthe Wottons, where Henry and Edward were broughtup. The known timetable of Wouon's travels supports the conjecture. Logan

~IYSTlC.-\L ~lETAL OF GOLD

Pearsall Smith writes rhar "at rh~ end ofApril, 1591, Wottonleft Viennaand wenttu Prague; andin Juneofthis yearwe finJ him again at Frankfurt, where he seemsto have arrivedbefore the end of May, and where,as he writesto Bllltius, he haJ sufferredfrom a severeand expensive illness of a month'sdura~ tion." Thelatest biographer llf Wotton,GeraldCurzon,accepts my identifica-tion of Wottonas the author.'~;

At my first coming, I W<lS advertised that there were many English in the town. Upon which I meant not to discovermyself, till I had sounded out what they were, the state they bore, and what course they took. Word was givenme that oneMr Dyer was in Sir Edward Kelly's house, andanother page with one of the Lees in the town and two or three other captains which departed,(as I was informed)that Jay to Ni.irnberg: I did think the next day to offer my duty to Mr Dyer, in mean while happened this alteration. His Majesty on the last of April about twdve of the clock sent the most part of the gentlemen of the guard and the other down from thecourt castle toSir EdwarJ Kelly's house with commandment to bring him up bound, the cause concealed, the house chosenas it was thought that he might be taken at dinner. And because it seemed somewhat a hard proceeding to enter the house of a councillor l,f estate with the guard alonethey had joined unto them the captain and lieutenant of the castle, provost of the town, and secretary in the star~ of Bohemia.

The officerscoming in found him not therebut as somesaid upon intelligence from a secret friend in the court departeda little before, which by reason of the little distance between thecourt and Sir Edward's lodging (being no further than from Boughtonhouse to the vineyard) was unprovable,especially being not able to go, so that some time must be spent in the preparation of a horse or coach. Others said, that he was departed the night before which indeed was theright truth though done so secretly as his own family was kept from it. The officer finding not theprincipal seizedon the accessories, boundhis servants and led them up to prison in sight uf the whole town, sealed up the doors of every chamber, usedchief extremity on his brother, not without speech that he was tortured which yet was false. Mr Dyer with his servants was commanded tokeep the house rill further hearing of his Majesty's plea, sureSome say, he kept in upon his own wisdom and judgement which the secretary -of Bohemia told me himself, but I dare not affirm it, because I hear of persons in great authority the contrary. It may be he was only admonished without commandment or charge and thence it arose.

His MajestyaJvertised that he was gone is said to have cursed in the Dutch manner, gave forth present order to have the highways set, places suspected to harbour him were searched in the town, a post dis~ patched toward theEarl Rozmberk his patron with a letterfrl)m the Emperor of these contents that if hecame unto him, he should deliverhim upon his allegiance to thecrownof Bohemia.

65

The tumult being ovt:r, what should be the cause was the nextquestion. To be weighty and heinous it was Clmj~ctur~J. beca~se it was

contrary ro the Emperor's humour and course ot the house of Austriato proceed in criminal matterseither so violentlyor so generally,That it touched the Emperor's own person was manifestedby keeping it closeat least by interpretation received no otherwise. The causesgiven forthwere these. Some said it was for debt, which though it were probably spoken because I find the suppuration of his debtin the town to arise torhirry~rwo thousand dollars, which he owesto two Cologne merchants that trade with jewels, yet did two reasons make evidentlyagainst ir. First because he was known tohave much more in present moneyandlands than his debts -came unto and no entry or distrainmentheardonupon his unmovables which according to the pmcess of that crown oughtto have been in the case of debt. Secondly to the Emperorhe was knownto have owed nothing nor ever to have put him in any charge saveforcoals and house room, and it was nL)t his Majesty's manner to follow thactions of his own subjects, ebeingprince and procurator of his people.

Others said that the Dukeof Bavaria examining the goldmakerofVenice (whom he executed at Munich the 25 of April) he confessedunto him that he was sworn .in one leaguewith Mr Kelly which theDuke signifying to the Emperorshould desire in his letter to have him imprisoned. Of this 1 can neither find the falsehood nor truth.

A third gave forth that Mr Dyer had broughtunto him the Queen'sletters to call him home, which coming to the Emperor's ears andhiMajestyseeking to hinder it, imprisonment was thought for the presenttime a good means to stay his departure and afterward he might be talkedfurther withal. This 1 take to have been some of his friends' inventionto still the people from speaking the wors'C of him. Whether Mr Dyerbrought them or no, I cannot say. TheFrenchagent has affirmeditmostconstantly unto me as likewise that the Emperor was certifiedof it. Adoctor's son in the town told me, he knew the Queen's hand anJ readthe letters having served Sir Philip Sidney sometime in England bywhose means he came to the sight of such things. I dare not hasten tobelieve it, till I hear further grounds of truth, because being lettersofsecrecy, Mr Dyer a gentleman of rare discretion would have handledit so as they should not have come forth, at leastbeen known that heJiJ bring them which might endanger himself. Till certain advice 1 will hulJ the opinion that Sir Edward Kdly has at some time or other vauntedahis table or in his tconversationwith others, that theQueen has sentforhim (as he is a man who takes as I hear a pleasur~ in speaking thatprinces desire him.) Howsoever it be it is likely in this case muchto

hurt him, the Emperorbeing assuredly informed that he is sent tor. The fourth cause alleged was that he had at his table spokenperil, oud

words against the Emperor, and the Poples which is thesecondfamilyof Bohemia who being the old enemies of the Rozmberks and being thispresent the principal officers of that state as one a privy counciller

66 ~lYSTIC:\L METAL OF GOLD

<Hlllth~r masterofthe court, a third land officer, a fourth ofthem presi- dent in the appellation, have prevailed with the Emperor tu havehim imprisoned; so under pretence of public justice, to revenge their own private quarrels upon the Rozmberk.s who have been both the setters up of Sir EJward Kelly and the principal maintainers of him hitherto.

The fifth report was that his Majesty having long had a throbbing of the heart (as it were an hereditary disease from his father who died of it)by which he often falls into a swoon, Sir EdwarJ Kelly distilled an oil for it which being sent unto the Emperor and Sir Edward's enemies being by persuaded his Majesty it was appointed to poison him. Proof was made of the force in it and it wrought the effect of poison. Some said, the throbbing of the heart was given forth for a colour to hide a more infamous disease which I leave in doubt. The circumstances beat shrewdly about it, for the oil is said to have had the virtue of acting in favour, or otherwise, according to the quantity, which fur an inward disease sounds somewhat improbably.

The last reason of his imprisonment which I could by any means receive was that his Majesty three days before his departure should have sent for him to male proof of his art at · the court which one Scotto an Italian had disabled him in. Mr Kelly returned answer he was sick and not long after tled. He was taken on the second of May at Sobeslav, twelve miles from Prague, a town belonging to Peter, Earl of Rozmberk., as he was in his journey toward William, Earl of Rozmberk.. At first he resisted the officer making answer he was a citizen of Bohemia and a councillor of state. His flightwas objected to him which he denied and called it only a visiting of his patron the Earl which he might do either secretly or otherwise. A courier was despatched in post to the court to know the Emperor's will who commanded him to be brought to his Castle Purglitz situate three miles from Prague. Mr Dyer was, as I take it, on the 2 of May sent for up to the court with the secretary and anothercouncillor that conducted him in good convenient sort home again. The secretary I spake withal afterwards who commended him for his grave behaviour and answers and added this praise of him that he had so great a grace in courtesy, as non pocuimus ullo modo par referre. Those were his words.

What will be the conclusion I know not. The action is lese-majesty whichthe Emperor inrends. To have him openly executed there is no fear, because the Earl of Ro:mberk. will earnestly interpose himself, and in Bohemia it is a rule that his Majesty dares do nothing without the Earl's consent being burgraveof Prague, the immediate person and officer under the crown. If difference should arise between them, the Emperor has cause to think upon his own security, matters going not so as the people would, in the regiment who wait upon such an occasion to work a change in the stare. Secretly in the castle it may be done and the Earl notknow otherwise than that he lives or is dead by diseasealmost grown now to be a common practice in the Empire, and the Palatine specially

noted that way. This I tear is eitherdone alreadyor will bedone. Hisservanrs shall nodoubt be setat liberty, one of them I hear was racked.Mr Dyer at his return from the court where he made his answer beforethe councillors was not fully free as far as I could hearby the Frenchagent's means.

lr was a great cross that kept me trom Mr Dyer, SirEdwardKelly,and the rest of the English. The actionbeing· treason drew the wholenation into jealousy and for my part I had rather be spectator llf a tragedythan an actor. Neither indeed could I well come afterthe apprehensionn to either the sight or speech of that honourable gentleman. In Prague l found the state of the Emperor's court otherwise quiet and still, nospeechof any marriage with Spain which was stirring inAustria, many otheresvoid by death of great men lately as the Earl ot T rivulse, master ofthe horse, the Lord ofTrentiane a councillor of the privy chamber, the Ll1rJ of Dietrichstein, master of the court, the vice-chancellor and others,great way for preferment and whole suit made fllr it and one reason tllf all, his Majesty is no good paymaster whichmakesmen weary llt thetime. The constitution of the Emperor's bodyis latelychanged andhe is grown very fat though as it seemed unto me rather puffed up than firmtlesh howsoever they call it at the court.

The arrest created a sensation, and news of it spread rapidly. Burghlcy receiveda report from Robert Sidney, the governor of Flushing, dated May 22 1591. "Ihad letters lately from Augsburg that the great Italian alchemist Bragadinihadabout a month ago his head cut off at Munich by the Duke of Bavaria's com-mandmenr and that about the same time Kelly had thought to have fledbur was brought back and it is thought there he will run the same race that the other did" (SP 84/42, fol. 68).

June 4, 1591, a report came from Matthew Greensmith:

In my last letter I wrote you that a frienJ ofmine wroteme fromPrague

that Kelly and Mr E. Dyer, or as he wrote an English gentleman, beingsuddenly departed from there was post hasted after and stayed twelvemiles from Prague where remaining three days the Emperor's pleasurewere brought from there and carried to a castle prisoners in Bohemia.Kelly's cunning being doubted and his practicelongsuspected.

The 2nd of this month I had news trom a triend at Colognethatthe 29th April last was hanged at Prague an Englishman sometimeofgreat reputation by the Emperor ... accused and condemned fordiversmatters of treachery. So that I camlllt judge it nobody but Kelly.Therewas alsoanother hanged with him on a new pair of gallowsofgreatat

height and the chain wherewith the principal was hanged after he wasstrangled was over all gilded; and over the gallows copper goldchainshanged and buttons, rings with such like nailed on the gallows,\\ whetherthey were made of purpose or of Kelly's counterfeiting I know not.(SP81/7, fol. 28)

t..lYSTICAL METAL OF GOLD

Itturnedoutto be a false report. Whoeverwas hanged, it was nor Kdly. Bur the threat ot such a fate remainedfor him.

Thomas Webbe was despatched with letters from Queen Elizabeth to ensure the release of Dyer, who was said to be under house arrest.97 Webbc reportedback to Burghley, June 26 (British Library, MS Lansdowne 68, no. 93, tols. 210-11)):

It is fora truth reported thatSir EJward Kelly was accused by one Scotto to the Emperor.The effectofhis accusation is uncertain, yet some report was that he should practice to poison the Emperor, and others rhar it was for debt. Upon which his accusation the Emperor sent for him thrice, Sir EdwardKelly always excusing himself that he was not well, and wentnot. Bur that night he had word at midnight that he was to be appre- hended the next morning, and so instantly departed with one man to- wards the LordRozmberk. Thenext day somewhat early the Emperor sent his guard forhim in great number who brought with them not only chains or fetters but irons of torture. And findingthat he was departed they searched his house, broke open his doors, thrust their halberds through his beds or in any place where it might be supposed he might be hid, apprehending his brother and using much violence, in leading him to prison pinnacled like a thief, and there left in chains with all the rest of his servants. And a great guard was left over the Lady Kelly and Mr Dyer, who since has answered such objections as has been laid to . him Jivers times and as I hear thrice in one day, yet now I hear that Mr Dyer is more favoumbly entreated and is in another lodging where he goes not out: neither can I certify unto your honour that he is restrained neither shall I be able to certify unto your honour of the particularities of Mr Dyer's trouble until I shall have spoken with himself.

Bur to proceed with Sir Edward Kdly's apprehension, as I do cer-tainly understand more thus. Departing early he went six Dutch miles towards the Lord Rozmberk to a certain town under his jurisdiction where he being weary and without suspect he reposed himself after dinner ona bed and slept. In which time the Emperor's guards entered, rook himentreated him very ill, cur his doublet open with a knife, searching himand toldhim they were by the Emperor's commandment to carry hun back agam, dead or alive, which they cared nor, and so prisonered he was carriedback again to a castle about of tive miles from Prague, wherehe ts closely L:ept, without any manner of access to him. But he proved that he was going to th~ Lord Rozmberkand that the Lord Rozmberksent for him and that hewas expected at thesame rime by theLord Rozmberk. At which time theLord Rozmberk was sick which caused him to be somewhat long erehe came to the castle in which time all Sir EdwardKelly's lands and goods were seized totheEmperor's behalf:but since the Lord Ro:mberk's coming all his men were enlarged, hunself better entreated, only deprivedof his liberty and fri~nds.

Since which time as I Jl) learn Scottohimselfis fledsoas noperso.n can say how or whither. Farther at this time I cannot write. But J\) sendthis lerr~r to your lordship by a gentleman one of Sir Edward Kelly'smen and was prisoner amongst therest for the same and who perhapscan certify your honour moreat large of all courses hitherto passed.

There is more informationin a letter from Thomas Page, catalogued in thePublic RecordOffice under July 2, 1576, though from the eventsdescribed theyear is clearly 1591 (SP 12/108.fol. 119). From this account it emerges[h .. ttherehad been attempts to involve"Sir Edward Kdly for the working him tobe a favourer of theattemptof a true discovery for China or the Nonh andEast part thereof otherwise called Cathay, which enterpriseof him greatlycom-mended, but nor allowing the weakness of theauempr, persuaded rhe contrary,, and it became to be suspendedupon betterdeliberation, as also his own secretbusiness, somethingfor the better furthering thereof in rime." It was one ul those schemes of explorationand trade in which Dce had been involved. Perhaps the English hoped to draw on Kelly'snew found wealth to invest in it. Rudolf'ssuspicions that Kelly was still dealing with the English is confirmed, and the speed with which Pagegot out of Praguesuggests things may not have been utterly above board. Page offers another account of the reason for Kelly'sarrest."Lies here verytit matter to allege for his going to the Lord RozmberL: concerninga cozening practised by a Portingal [a Portuguese) with certain cups of polishedhorn resembling agate, and sold for agate by this same Portingal to Sir E. K. td the value of 14 thousand dollars, th~ one half whereof Sir E. K. paid him, therest to be paid within a short space, which timeexpiredthePortingal demandedpayment bur Sir E. K. deferred him, for rhar h~ perceived theplot laid to deceivehim, which nor yet ripe would nor fear to prove it, expecting the coming ofthe Lord Rozmberk to the town, who in respect he is viceroydoes determine all controversies in the kingdom, the Portingal importuned his payment. Sir E. K. delayed him, still expecting the Lord Rozmberk coming, for that their term wa~ then to be holden, who falling sick came not. This payment was urged still bythe Portingal in theend by the meansof theSpanish ambassador anJ the papallegate. The Emperor was possessedwith the Portingal's plaint, and as Sir E. K was certified, had grantedto send for him with summons, it should seemheprevented by departingbefore it camehastening to theLord Rozmberk tocomplain him of his wrong, but this the least of many practised against himcontrary whereof the Lord Rozmberk had promised by oath when he tirsr estab-

. lished him with the Emperor." Page goes on to give assurance that Rudolf haJ indeedcreatedKelly

his subject, a lnighr of the Empire anJ one of his privy council, thetruth whereofis nor receivedalmost with any in EnglanJ, bur l havethis reason ro leadme that it is true by an incident that happenedat d

banquet whither it pleased Sir E. K. to carry me with him, Mr Dyer,,alsopresent, by the secretary uf the Emperor,who coming in rhe latterendthereof, saluted all thecompany but notSir E. K., but began to take

70 ~lYSTlCAL l\IETAL l1F GL)LD

exception that he deserved tobe lllllrc regarded with Sir E. K. in that hehaddone.him afavour in the quick dispatch uf a matterwhich passed his placebcmg secretarywhereto Sir E. K. answered that . in that he sought tu teach him manners, he could not be spared, but must tell him he did but his duty to the Emperor. The matter still aggravated with many other words by the secretary, Sir E. K. bade him remember he spakc toa councillorof the Emperor, with such other dignities beforenamed, .if notheshould knowit with the price of his life in these express words (ifnot) per deum actum est dete, whereupon the secretary fledled the table. The Emperor acquainted herewith, the secretary was chastised and reconciledhimself to Sir E. K., all which I write in confir-mation of the truth that the Emperor has gracedhim with these dignities uf hunuur. But yet within this business there was, as after appeared, purposedpracticeby the secretary to drawhim within compass uf treason, informing.as it is by their laws treason for any of them to report the meetmg ot each otherin council, and the secretary asked him at his first meeting if he knew him not, who knew him no otherwise but by meeting him in council, which, if he had expressed, he had beenwithin compass, but this not growing current it should seem they have practiced some other course_ to bring him within breach of their laws, by colour whereof they might torce from him what God has blessed him with, I mean the philosopher'sstone which_ he possesses without question to the contrary,withwhich knowledge, it Godshould permit, he is able to perfect all the imperfectmetal in theworld, which for my part I do not at all marvel at but hold it asnaturalsecret which God has reserved to be impartedunto the true faithfullabourers and delighted in his work not delighting the world but contemplating his divinity and unsearchable works.

The Fuggcr banking house also carefully monitored the case. Gold manufactur-ing touched un their professional interests. May 8, 1591, a correspondent re-portedKdly's arrest and imprisonment: "He was not evenalloweda bread knife everythingwas taken away. His servants are still here under restraint. But hiswifeand otherwomenare L:ept under arrest at home. It would appear that there IS somethmg behindall this, we do not yet know what." A letter on May 14 reported"The English akhemist who has recently been taken to Purglitz as a prisoner appeared to be in the depthsof despair these latter days and refused to partake of food, so that it was teared he might die." There were further letters onMay21_, June 30, andJuly 2, the latter reporting that Kdly was imprisoned with no airbut that whichcomes through a hole, through which he can reach forhis food bit bybit ... . On examining the accounts of Rozmberk it was foundthat the Englishman had cost him over three hundred thousand florins. It is amazingthat . thesenoblemen have allowed themselves to be duped in such a fashion. He is said to have cost the Emperor near on a thousand Rhenish guilders."

Dyer was allowed toreturn toEngland with Webbein July 1591. Dee notesin his diary, July 28, "Mr Dyer sent me 20 angels by Mr Thomas Webbe," and

A Biography of Edward Kelly, the EnglishAlchemist

July 30, "reconciliation betweenMr Dyer and me solemnized the afternoonon

Friday, and on Saturday (the 31st) all day till my going by [Fenton: "to"] ...at Mr Webbe's lodging at Rochester House" (PD, 38-9; Fenton, 253).

Meanwhile Kelly languished in prison. In 1592 Vilem Rozmbcrk died. Kellywas now without his prime protector. The English government continuedto

maintain an interest in the case. Christupher Parkins reponed back to Sir RobertCecil, Burghley's second son, who was now running intelligence operations, in leuers of July 18 and 20, 1593 (SP 81/7, fols. 140, 143-4):

Of Kelly's skill I tind here in Prague three opinions. The tirst is that hemakes neither gold, neither in truth transmutation of metals, but only that he has a new r.ue kind of juggling, whereby he seduces some wisemen to believe what is not, as common jugglers deceive common people.

Others think this opinion too austere, esteeming that he makestruetransmutation of metals yet in such sort that he has thereby loss anJ nocommodity. The ground of this opinion is that he has been apprehended for debt, whereby he is esteemed to want and have need.

Othersalso think this opinion of little belief, and they esteem thatKelly can do what he will. And that this show of need and want isunto him voluntary and not necessary, standing upon general point ofreputation and comempt of dross. Men of this opinion be accountedsimple. And those best men about the Emperor be uf the second opinion.

This much of his opinion. This is his state. After he had been provedtdally with jewelsof

great importance showing that he had will tu buy now uf one, and nowof another, taking them upon credit, and pawning them to the Jews forpresent money, and redeeming sometimes the jewels of one with thejewels of another as each one urged him, and thereby giving some con-tent to each one at sundry times, by seeing their jewels in his handsforthcoming, at the length some got their jewels from him again, otherswhose jewels lay irredeemable with the Jews, urged him tu their utter-most, and at the length being altogether without satisfaction they com-plained to the Emperor who called Kelly before him. He excused himselfby sickness, yet in the night he hurried toward Rozmberk, anJ it isthought to seek some remedy to uphold his creditors.

The Emperor forthwith had intelligence that his excuse of sicknesswas not sincere, whereupon adjoining some offences that had passedbefore, the Emperor sent to apprehend him in his voyage, the which w asperformed accordingly. And Kelly apprehended was by the Emperor'sorder led to the castle called Purglitz four miles from Prague where heis now detained.

The former offence is this. Kelly having made many petty proofs• ll

no gain, had made a solemn promise long since of a grand proofthewhich should be with Caesar's great advantage, but delaying from time to time about the effect it was agreed of a peremptory day, and thatmore

than once, Kelly ever failing and finding some general sleeveless excuse,

1 MYSTICAL~lETAL OF GOLD

yet Caesar in themean season cherished and countenanced him well,daily more and more by this good dealing encouraged to stand uponpoints ot reputationyet nothing was performed of him accordingly, so that this order ofoffence joined with the suit of his creditors, and his declininghas been the cause of his imprisonment. And now Caesar otters him his enlargement prescntly when he has made his grand proof. He standing upon his reputation, answers that he will not so disgrace his cunning tomake any proof until he be fully at liberty. So he remains in hllld upon these terms.

Parkins reported that his informationcame from the emperor'scouncillors.The also showed him a letter Kelly

said her Majesty wroteuntohim, whereinhe was required to come home and advance his own country with his skill, with divers promises. In the same letterthey said there were certain words written with her Majesty's own hand, thewhich they showed unto me, and required of me if I could givejudgement of them, signifying if Kelly did interpret them too much to his advantage. And at length they required of me in the Emperor's name,if I could give any account of the diminishing of one of his ears, or ofhis good or evil behaviour in England. Whereunto I answered, that I might seem an unfitman to talk of Kellywithout some affection, who has so grievously and falsely oftended me, yet setting aside all passion, being required in the name of such a monarch, I would refer what I knew onlyupon the ground of common report. And so I did.

Unfortunately Parkins does not report what he said in response to the emper-or's enquiries.

Back _in England, Parkins wrote enigmatically to Sir Robert Cecil, Novem-ber 20, 1593,"For that I think her Majesty will have no mention made of Kclly's matter that is now dead, I will attend the occasion well to bury it."99 _ Kelly'sdealings with the Portuguese jewellers are also reported in a letter from Seth Cockes, July 28, 159.3 (SP 8011, fol. 154) who says he passed on the informationto Parkins: "I find by those that were thoroughly acquainted with many ot his shifts, that the philosopher's stone has been nothing else than the provision of 6,000 ducats of the Baron of Rozmberk, together with an extraction ofcertainjewels which by the credit he had by the Lord Rozmberk he took up ofa Portingaland French jewellerout of thc which being pawned to the Jews he distilled to the value of 16,000 ducats, whereof he melted many and sent the wedges to be sold to the goldsmith, which gave such opinion of his skill that it was _thought therc would nor be lead enough in the country for the operationot his powder, and rhus he lived for a while in liberty."

Czechaccountsby]osef Svatek and Vaclav Kaplicky, havc Kelly impris-oned for killingan officialof Rudolf'scourt, Georg or ]an or ]iri Hunkler, in a duel in 1591. Hunkler had been inquiring about the cropping of Kelly's ears.

A Biography ofEdwardKellythe EnglishAlchemist 73)

But Kaplicky's novel is a work ofromantic fictiun and not generally histori-cally reliable. 100

Kelly now begins to feature in the literary rccord. 1l11 GabrielHarveywrites

ii1 Pierce's Supen .. •rogation (1593), "I wondered tohear that Kelly had gottentheGolden Fleece, and by virtue thereof was suddenly advancedinto so honourablereputation with the Emperor's Majesty; but would have wonderedmoreto have

seen a work of supererogarion from Nashe: whose wit must not enter the listsof comparison with Kelly's alchemy: howsoever he would seem to have thegreen lion, and the tlying eagle in a box. Bur Kelly will bid him lookto theswollen toad and the dancing fool. Kelly knows his luteof wisdom, and uses hisrenns of art. "102 Thomas Nashe himself refers to Kdly in Have With You to

Saffron-Walden (1596). Lull and Paracelsusare called upon, which provokestheresponse, "Let him call upon Kelly,who is better than them both; and forthespirits and souls of the ancient alchemists,he has them so close imprisonedinthe fiery purgatory of his furnace, that tor the wealth ofthe King ot Spain':;:, lndies, it is not possible to release or gct the third part ot a nit of any one ofthem to help any but himself." 10·1 In Ben Jonson'sTheAlchemist (1610)_ SirEpicure Mammon refers to Subtle as ''A man, the emperor/Has courted, aboveKelly: sent his medals, I And chains, to invite him" (Act 4scene 1, 89-91) _. . ., In Hudibras (1663), the Worcestershire poet Samuel Butler cites the intriguesbetween Dee and "Kelly, I Lescus and th'Emperor"(2. 3. 237-8).1"105

Kelly was finally rdeased by Rudolf. Edward Suliarde reported back toEngland from Padua, July 3, 1593 (SP 8511, fol. 158) "there_is now news thatKelly is set at liberty and in great favour again, but not of sufficientcredit untilthe next post." Suliarde's infonnation may havebeen premature. September 9, Abraham Faulkon wrote from Bohemia to Richard Hesketh in Lancashire.,"Asconcerning Sir Edward Kelly, his delivery has been the 16th day of Octobernew style, and is in good health, both fat and merry. Thomas Kdly took mealong with him at Leben, where I was three days by his honour, and receivedme very couneously, and must sit at table, both dinner and supper, what guestssoever his honour had, and promiscd whatsoever has not been done his honourwould do .. At my being at Lebcn, his honour did fish a pond, and gave me goodstore of fish home with me likewise. "106

Puzzlingly, this letter dated September refers to Kdly's release in OctoberBut Dee also gives an October release date: his diary records "the news ofSirEdward Kelly's liberty" on Decembcr 5, and he noted it retrospectivdy forOctober 4, 1593, old style, which correlates closely with Faulkon's October16new style (PD, 46--7; Fenron, 262-3). December 9, 1593 Seth Cocks reportedfrom Padua, "Mr Kdly is discharged of his long imprisonment and in great creditwith the Emperor" (SP 8511. tol. 163).

On August 28, 1593, Burghley had despatched a letter to Kellyby J couriercalled William Hall. The record of the despatch survives in the Cecil collectionat Hatfield, but the contents of the letter are unknown. It has been suggested that William Hall was an alias used by none other than William Shakespeareon secret service work, and that the message involvedcommunications to Kelly

74 ~lYSTlCAL METAL OF GOLD

in connectiun with the Heskcth conspiracy, anotherdoomed attempttu create a Catholicuprising in Britain. 107

Sir RobertCecil_ had devised a scheme to test the loyaltyof Lord Strange, who was suspected ut Roman Catholic sympathies. A letter was to be sent to him by one of the exiled English papists living in Prague, calling fur a Catholic insurrection. If Strange failed tu report the letter, his treachery could be assumed. RichardHesketh had been living in Prague for three years; returning to England m September 1593, he stopped at the White Lion Inn in Islington on his way from Prague to Strange's seat in Lancashire, and was given the letter by "Mr Hickman," possibly Dee's formershyer, Bartholomew Hickman, or his brother. Hesketh delivered it to Strange who reported it to the Queen. Hesketh was arrested in October, and hanged, drawn, and quartered at St Albans on Novem, bcr 29.

Since Kdly had been under arrest and in jail frum May 1591 until mid, October1593, his activeparticipation in the Hesketh affair, whether as conspira, tor, provocateur or informer, is unlikely. The names of KellyLady Kelly, and his brother Thomas certainly recur in letters intercepted in the ensuing investi, gation They were clearly acquainted with participants in the conspiracy. But there is nothing to suggest any direct involvement by them in the affair.

October 15, 1593, Richard Hesketh wrote from imprisonment to Lord Cobhamor Sir Rubert Cecil: "Besides it were convenient to understand whether Mr Dyerunderstand of my imprisonment or not, for if it be bruited amongst his menor followers, they will straight write to my Lady Kdly or Mr ThomasKelly, in respect of that I toldyour honour the other day, and then the goldsmith wiJl know it, anJ he will tell the Father Jesuit, and the Jesuit the Cardinal, so shall your honour never have them, which would be a great hindrance to the satisfac, tion of )'our honour in my behalf. If Mr Dyer, nor his, have written nothing, it were good they should not, under your Honour's favours."1()!

On December 8, 1593, a Jesuit priest in PragueThomas Stephenson, wrote to Richard Hesketh. In the course of his letter he remarked, "Our Lord send us a King, and some more comfort after so many surging waves. Mr Thomas is in health. I have been with him twice. Sir Edward is at Leben, not yet in his tlower. Mr Hammon is become a new man, and I hope will continue. Commend me to your good bedfellow, though unacquainted. I beseech you deliver my letter ll> Mr leigh. "ll'IY Mr. Thomas may have been Thomas Kelly, Mr. Hammon may be John Hammond, (see note 130 inf.), and Sir Edward is certainly Kelly, now at liberty on his Leben estate.

. Stephenson wrote to Henry Leigh the same day. "Courtesy compels me to wnre, and our old acquaintance moves me continually to remember you: I marvelled ofyour so sudden departure from us, without any further notifying your meaningbut you, I doubt not, did all for the best, and so, as I understand, lt has fallenout, and wrote of you from London, that you were become a good subject for the current time. However it be, no tales, nor talk nor flying words shall make my will to shrink, so longas I live I will not leave dearly on you to think. I desire heartily to see you. Sir Edward is at Leben, and was delivered (WO mt.mths ago."110 .

A Biugruphy <:>f EJU>arJ Kdly, eh~ English Akhl.!misL 75

Henry Lcigh had served as a courier for leners between Burghlcy and KellyanJ Dyer in August and October 1590. "His lodging was wont to be aboutHolborn bridge;" the Earl of Huntingdon infonued Sir Robert Cecil. 111 He m.ay well be the Harry Lee who offered Kelly an annuity of forty pounds a year, referred to in Kelly's argument with Dce, June 29, 1583 (TFR, 28). Being mentioned in Stephenson's intercepted correspondence caused Leigh consider-able trouble, and in December 1593 he wrote the earl of Hunringdon an accountof his acquaintance with Kelly and Stephenson at the time of Kelly's arrest:

First, I, the said Henry, do confess that after I had overspent my wholeestate in Her Majesty's service, without any recompense, and by thecause of my fortune was driven to go to Prague, to seek some favt.lur ofSir Edward Kelly, I did there see the said Thomas Stephenson in the company of one Richard Tankard, an Englishman, who did Jivers time:! resort to Sir Edward Kelly's house. And not long after the surprising ofSir Edward Kelly and all the Englishmen that were then at Prague, itwas my chance to meet the said Stephenson upon Prague bridge, wherehe began to dissuade me from that melancholy wherewith it seemedtohim I was oppressed, offering unto me all love and service to steal mein that so dangerous a time for all Englishmen.... All which his cour-tesy and offers of friendship at that time I was content to accept ot, therather for that Mr Dyer was then closeprisoner, with whom l couldhave no conference, nor receive direction what I might best doforthe furtherance of Her Majesty's service in that behalf. And I thought ir notamiss to entertain him at that time, as well for my own safety and liberty,as also to understand by him from time to time the proceedings in Sir Edward Kelly's case with the Emperor, for that one Methur and oneAquensis, which were in the college with him, were confessors andspecial intlamers of the Poples, the great family of Bohemia, against Sir Edward Kelly, and the said Poples were as it were in sinu Caesaris; so as l purposed by that means to await the best opportunity to do Her Majesty'sservice ... I was almost in despair of any comfort in mine own counrry. and as it were plunged in the depths of desolation abroad by the changeof Sir Edward Kelly's fortune, having then neither money nllr means tomaintain me, yet even at that time when all Englishmen in Prague were

in prison and none durst speak .... As touching the contents of the letter sent frum Stephenson tome,

which it has pleased your Honour to show me, I trust to discharge myself,for though I cannot let or prevent any man to write to me, yet doesthevery first part give testimony to the world that he had nut any waybewitched or entangled me with any covenants of secret love l)f inter-course of friendship, for that he seems to complain I left him suddenlyand unsatisfied, without taking my leave of him, which is a soundargu-ment of the little account and small regard I gave to his charming, forin very truth when I had wrought him so far as I could in Sir Edward

76 ~lY~TlCAL ~IETAL OF GOLD

Kelly'scaseI lefthim and all his 'accomplices' with theirtrash to them, selves; and according to my Jury I returned to serve my natural prince anJ my country.

Leighwentonto conclude,"And whereas the said Stcphcnson does open his pack ot occurents as to Sir Edward Kdly's liberty he and all men know it was the only matter I managed or dealt in, in those parts."1 12

Leigh wrote a further letter February 21, 1594, protesting his innocence, to Sir Robcrt Cecil. In a postscripthe remarks, "In the very last of Stephenson's letter mention is made of a letter he received from Mr H. from his house in Lancashire, which I forgot to explain in my answer delivered to my lord of HumingJon. It seems to me that the letter came from one Mr Hesketh, a Lancashire man, which was at Prague the same time that I was there, and was familiar with Stephensonbut I have not seen him these two years almost."113

Leigh admits to having "seen" Hesketh in Prague though does not indicate whether he ever spoke to him. He met the priest Stephenson through Richard Tankard, a goldsmith, whu knew Kdly. But there is no evidence that Kelly ever met Hcsketh, or, indeed, Stephenson. Kelly was in jail for most of the period ot Hesketh'sresidence in Prague.The mentions of him in the imercepted corre, spondence need suggest no more than his imprisonment had been a cause celebre and his release a matter of continued interest to the English community in Prague. There is no substantiation to Charles Nichull's claim that "this dac, monic tigure [E. K.] was undoubtedly involved with the Catholic plotters in Prague."114

Dce's correspondencewith Kdly resumed now Kclly had been set at liberty, and his diary records letters to Kelly lln March 28 and September 18, 1594, and from Kelly on November24, 1594 (PD, 48, 50, 51; Fenton, 265, 267, 268). He also records, May 18, 1594, "Her Majesty sent me again the copy of the letter of E. K. with thanks" (Fenton, 265; PD, 49, has "G. K."); it is unclear whether this is the copy of a letter from Kelly to the Queen or to Dee. The contents of these letters arc not disclosed and Kelly's activities Juring this time are un, known. According to lvan Svitak, however, Kelly, released from imprisonment, was hghting in Peter Rozmberk's anny against the T urksin the summer of 1594 near Komarno.115

English intelligence continuedto monitor Kelly. Scth Cocks wrote to Sir RobertCecil from Krakow April 8, 1595, "I am now within these two Jays to depart hence and mean to pass by Pmgue, because I will see Sir Edward Kelly, who they say enjoys his formerfavour with the Emperor" (SP 88/1, fol. 221). In May 1595 another English secret agent was in Prague. He went under the name of John Snowden, but he had been born John Cecil in Worcester in 1558, three years after Kelly was born there. 116 Was this a childhood acquaintance of Kelly's sent to make contact?Or someone with a shared background which he could use to ingratiatehimself? Or someone on an entirely separate operation?

On August 12, 1595, Dee records "I received Sir Edward Kelly's letters of the Emperor's, inviting me to his service again, (PD, 53; Fenton, 275). Kclly, it appears, was accepted by the Emperor once more. Was he now able to offer

A Biugral'hy of EJuurJ J..:dly, th~ English Ak:h&:misc 7 7

patronagehimself? Or was he in need of assistance?Scptemhcr 14,Kelly wrote

to Oyer, recalling their experiments: "Yea, honorahlc sir, you know verywell,what delight we took together" (MS Ashmolc 1420, p. 328}.

But Kelly was soon imprisoned a second time. His offence, accordingtoIvanSvitak, was that on November l, 1596, back in court, he woundedthoughdid not kill, George Hunkler, assistant of the alchemist SchalJ Schwerter. Thiswas "the immediate cause, of the arrest: but Svitak at the same time has Kellyimprisoncdfor debt and his estate confiscated by "a corrupt anJ influentialmanKrystof Zelinsky zc Sebuzina ... 117 ·

He was imprisoned at Most (alsoknown as Brux), andJuring this periodcomposed his alchemical treatise The Stone of the Philosophers, which he wrotein Latin and dedicated to RuJolf; the opening refers to having "already twicesuffered chains and imprisonment in Bohemia."118 The alchemist Oswald visitedhim in jail "apparently in the hope of some enlightenment over the Secretumsolutionis. , 119 Michael Scndivogius is said to have bought one ofhis estates whichLady Kelly sold to raise money. 110 Some details of Kelly's finances and the disposal of his property at this time survive in Czech archives.1121

The end, like the beginning, remains obscure. Dee's diary recordsNovem-ber 25, 1595, "news that Sir EJward Kdly was slain" (PD. 54; Fenton, 277). But the modem historianof the emperor's court, R. J. W. Evans, cites a docu-ment indicating that Kellywas definitely alive on May 22, 1597, at the castleof Most. Borbonius thought he was still active in I 598. 12! A number of storiesrecord that trying to escape from the castle he fell and broke his leg; someaccounts say he died from his injuries; Kaplicky writes that, badly injuredhe took poison and died on November 1, 1597.

According toJohn Weever, Queen Elizabeth sent "Captain Peter Gwynne with some others, to persuade him to return back to his own nati\'e home,which he was willing to do: and thinking to escape away in the night, by stealth, as he was clambering over a wall in his own house in Prague (which hears hisname to this day, and which sometime was an old sanctuary), he fell downfromthe battlements, broke his legs, and bruised his body; of which hurts a whileafter he departed this world."123

Ashmole records in 1652 that Kdly "was clapped up again into prison andattempting to make his escape out of a high window, by the tearing of his sheets,which were tied together to let him Jown, he (being a weighty man) fell and

broke his leg anJ thereof died, (TCB, 483). Arrhur Dee gave a more detailedaccount to Sir Thomas Brownc, who conuuunicated it to Ashmole in 1674:

He said also that Kdly dealt not jusdy by his . father and that he wentaway with the greatest part of the powder and was afterward imprisonedby the Emperor in a castle from whence attempting an escape down the wall he fell and broke his leg and was imprisonedagain. That his fatherOr John Dee presented Queen Eli:abcth with a little of the powder, whohaving made trial thereof attempted to get Kelly out of prison. Andsentsome to that purpose who giving opium in drink unto the kccpcrs, landthem so fast asleep that Kelly found opportunity to attemptan escapeand

t..IYSTIC.-\L METAL OF GOLD

therewere horses ready lll carry him away! But the business unhappily succeededas is before declared.124

Kelly was survived by his wife, Lady Joanna Kdly (d. 1606) and two step- children, a son Jllhn FrancisWcston (1580-1600) and a daughter, Elizabeth Weston (1582-l612). Elizabeth achieved considerable fame as the Latin poet Westonia.125

In the spiritual transactionsof April 4, 1587, the lack of children in Kdly's marriage to )oan Cooper is discussed. Kdly was tolJ "barrenness dwells with you, because you did neglect me and take a wife to yourself contrary to my commandment .... Therefore you shall have the womb which you have barren and fruitless to you because you have transgressed that which I commanded you." Nowhere in Dee's private Jiary or in the spiritual transactions is there any reference tl> JoanCooperhaving been married before or having any children, either by Kelly or by any previousrelationship. The step-children are never men-tioned.

However, the editl>rs of Elizabeth Weston'sCollectedWritingsaccept that Kelly'swife Juan Cooper had been previously married.

Parish recordsshow that John Wessone and Joane Cowper were married on 29 June 1579 at Chipping Nonon, Oxfordshire.... A son of this unil1n, John, was christened on 23 July 1580, and Elizabeth, daughter of "John Weston," was christened some time later, seemingly between 4 March and 31 October 1581. John Weston, "clark," was buried on 6 May 1582.

A week before Weston's burial, Edward Kelley ... reportedthat the Archangel Michael had told him that he must marry; this injunction was repeated on May 4th. Shortly thereafter, Kelley married the recently widowed )ane Cooper Weston.

The following year, Dee and Kelley left with their wives (but appar-enrly without the two young Weston children, who are not mentioned in Dee's diary account of the voyage, and who presumablystayed behind with theirmaternaland paternal grandmothers for the time being, as Weston'ss elegy forher mother would suggest) ... it seems likely that the frequentclaims by her admirers that Westonia came from a glorious and noble family were based on the grandeur and pretensions ofthe Kelley houshold in its heyday, and not on any family connexions of "John Weston, dark" whose memory had died with him in Chipping Nonon.116

ElizabethWestonrefers toKellyin a Latin poem, published in Prague in 1606, that she wrote on the death of her mother,127 "Upon the death of the noble and high-born woman Lady )oanna, widow of Sir Edward Kelly of I many, distin-guished and well-born knight, councillor of his sacred imperial Majesty, a most honoured and beloved mother, her daughter poured fonh the following elegy":

When I was an infant uf barely six months, 1 suffered the wound of my father's loss; and shortlyafterwards the loss of my two grandmothers,

A Bioj.'l·ujJhy uf EJlmrJ Kdly, th.: E ngli.sh .-\k·h.:mi.st

whose special care 1 h<1J been. Heaven gave me a step-father,. andhimI loved as a second father, but death took him. A brother remainedh •

me; yet insatiable death cut him down in the flower ofyouth.

Anepitaph by Nicolaus Maius onLady Joanna'sdeathalso referstoherm.lrn .• ; ...: toKelly, making it clear he was the "philosopher," and confirms that shewasofEnglish birth.

I, Joanna, who had been wife to the philosopherKelly,Buffeted by the changing fortunes of the world rest here. The greater the cross I bore, the greater the patient endurance,The greater the glory in Heaven. . England gaveme a native land, Bohemian soil a grave ... , 1

·"

Maiusalso wrote an enitanh on Westoniaherself. He was one ofa number ofW . members of the Dee and Kelly world who were known to estonia. he .1 :.

knew Edward Dyer and she wrote two name day poems for Jindrich: Pisnice, a powerful political tigure, the deputy chancellor, whose nieceLudmillahad mar-ried Kelly's brother Thomas in 1587. Another connectionwtth Deeand Kellyis a poem Elizabeth wrote to one of her teachers, John Hammond. She alsowrote verses to Peter V ok Rozmberkand to the alchenust Oswald Croll,who.. I

asked her to compose a poem which he included in his Basilica Chymica. Of Kelly's own writinbrs, the poem, "Sir E. K. Concerningthe Philosophers

Stone written to his especial good friend, G.S. Gent.," tirst published amongthe prefatory essays and verses to Raph Rabbards' edition of George. Ripley's The Compound of Alchemy (London: Thomas Orwin, 1591) was reprintedto-

gether _with a longer poem, "Sir Edward Kelle's Worke," i~1 Elias Ashmole'sTheatrum Chemicum Britannict'm (London, 1652). Excerpts fromKdly s lettersappear in Tractatus Duo Chemici Singulares et Breves (Geismar, 1647).1~1 The: most substantial collection of work ascribed to Kelly is Edouandi Kellaei AngleTractatus Duo Egregii De IApide Philosophorum, Una Cum Theatro AstronomiaeTerrestri, published posthumously in Hamburg in 1676 "per Gothotredum Schul-tzen It contains, in Latin, The Stone of the Philosophers, The HumiJ Path ur Discourse on the Vegetable Menstruum of Satum, and The Theatre of Terrestrial... d Astronomy, and brief excerpts from three letters of 1587 and 1589. The editorJ. L. M. C., has not been identitied._132 A translationof the volume byA. E. Waite was published in 1893 and frequently reprinted as Edward Kelly TheEnglishman's Two Excellent Treatises On The Philosopher's Stone Together WithThe Theatre of Terrestrial Astronomy. 1

H

Notes

1. Oxford,BodleianLibrary,MSAshmole1788fol.~4_0. Reproducedby Eliasin Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum (London:J. GrismondforNashBr oooke, lt))_ . facsimile repr., New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1967}, 479.

~lYSTICAL ~lETAL OF GOLD

2. Jam.:s l )r~har\1 Halliwdl, ..:J., Th.: Pril'UU Diury uf Dr John D.:.: ~.mJ eh.: Cacalogue uf his Library ofM.nut:icrif•ts (lonJl1n: Camd~n Sllcicry, 1ti42), l. Rd~rrcd tu henceforth as PD. Dc~'s Jiary ~mries arc found in the margins of two almanacs pr~servcd in the BuJI~ian Library: the Eph .. >tn .. >ric.ks of Stadius for 1554-1600 (Cologne, 1570) (MS Ashmole 487), anJ the Epli4.'1lk.'1W of Magius f\,r 1581-1620 (Vcnic~ 1582) (MS Ashmule 488). A new tra~ription by EJward Fenton, The Diuries of John Dee ( Charlbury: D.ty Buuks, 1998), restores material omitted by Halliwell anJ corrects mistranscripriuns he maJc; it is referred to hencefonh as Fenton.

3. Se~ ]ulian Robcns and Andrew G. Watson, John Dee's Library Cacalogue (London: The Bibliugr.Iphical Society, 1990), item 1099, and p. 96n.

-l. PD. 2. The parish records are reptlned in Susan Bassnctt, "Revising a Biogmphy: A New Interpretation of the Life of Elizabeth Jane Weston (Wcstonia), Based on her Autubingmphical Poems on the Occasion of the Death of her Mother, "Cahit.>rs Elisubt?rhains 37 (April1990): 3. Tcn miles south of Worcester is Upton,upon,Sevcm. Dce was gin!n the reclllry there in 1553, and it was one of his basic sources of incumc. There is nll reCllrd that he ever went there; the parish providt:d a living, but he felt nu l•hligation to live in it. Ht: may have visitl..J Worcester. His library contain~ a Cl•rv of At:thicus lsh:r's Cusmographia given him, he noted inside it, by Juhn Pt..Jder, a Jean at Worcester Cathedml, on February 21, 1566. But there is no evidence that he L:nt:w Kdly from Worcester.

). Wl1lld, Arhenae Oxon~nsis. 2 vob. (London: R. Knapkx:L:, D. Midwinter and J. TonSl1n, 1721), 1: 279. A misreading of Anthony a Wotld's text seems to lie behind the claim that Kdly h..J ~n an arnanuensis to Thomas Allen. It was Wood's informant who was the amanuensis. Gloucester Hall is now Worcester College.

b. Bodldan Libmry, MS Ashmole 1790, fol. 58, printed in C. H. josten, ed., Elias Aslunule 1617-1692: His AurobiugrL!fJhical and Hisrorical Notes, His Correspondence and otht.>r CmltL>tnpumry Soam:es Rdating w his Life and Work, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clart:ndun Press, 1968), 4:1436.

7. Nicolas lenglct Ju Frc:;noy, Histoire de la Philusop~ H~'Tlllicique, 1 vols. (Paris: Cous, telier, 1742; facsimile repr. Hildcshdm: George Olrns, 1975), 1:306-07.

8. Jolm Wcever, And4?nt Fun'->r.aU ~lonum~'lllS (London, 163 l), 45-46. AccorJing to Graham Phillips and Manin Kcatman, The! Shthspeare Conspiracy (London: Arrow, 1995), 151, for this oft'i!nce "Kdly was hauk.J before the local squire Thomas lang, tun. Fortunately, langton was a friend of Lord Strange, whose father, as Earl of ~rby, was lord Lieutenant of the County. Strange intervened to free Kdly and the two men lx-came llCcult colleagues. Strange was infatuated by KcUy's unholy activi, ties, and SlJ\lll the pair were experimenting with alchemy." No evidence is given for this claim, and it is unlikely that Weever would not have mentioned a court appear, ance if there haJ been one. On langton's friendship with Strange, and funher unsuppt,ncd S(X>culariuns about Kelly in Lancashire, see Charles Nicholl, A Cup of Neu·s: The! Life ufThutnas Naslk! (wndon: Roudedge and Kcgan Paul, 1984), 193-4.

9. On W~ver's Lancashire conncailms, see E. A. J. Honigman, Shakespeare: The Lose \'e41rs (Manchester: Manchester Uni\'. Press, 1985), 6-7, 50-58.

10. T. R. Nash, Hiswry and Antiquities of Worcestc!Tshire, 2 vols. (London, 17ti1 ), 2: H6, _ has Kelly in the pillory at Lancaster tor forging some ancient title det:Js. Lenglt:t du

Fresnoy has him lnsing his ears in London on a similar charge (1:307). Others claim he was convicted of coining. No c\·idcncc has been adduced for any of these asser-tions.

11 . Parkins's lener rt:(ll1rting this inyuil)' is in tht: State Papers in the Public Record Office, Kew (SP 81/7, t'l"lls. 143-4).

A Biugruphy of EJU'urJ 1-..:t!Uy, [he English :\k:lu!mi.lC ~1

12. On Dec sec Charkmc Fdl Smith,Jolm D~c 1527-1608 (LlmJlm: Cunst.1bl..:, b~ :Ji . r~rcr ]. French, John Dce: The World of an Eli:~akchan M.:tgu.s (Lo~\dlm: R.~utldt: .. and Kcgan Paul, 1972); Nicholas H. Clulce, John D&:/.s Natunll Phi~up~y: ~t.!t;. • .:.;~. Science and Religion (LonJon and New York: Routledg~. 19~8); BcnJanun \\~>ull..:') . The Queen's Conjuror: the Science anJ Magic of Dr. D~.: (LonJ\m: Hlrp~:rLullu~ .

2000). - l lx k . h l . ll Referred to henceforth as TFR. Elias Ashmol~'s Cllp)· llt t 1is ~ ll1- Wlt 1t:.,ann, •l,, -tions and corrections is prcserv~d in rh~ Bodlcian Libra[)', ~tS Ashmulc SoO.

H. Josten, Ashrnok, 1:185. . . , . _ _ , _ _ 1 , , 1i Christuphcr Whitby, John o~c·s Acuons w&th SJmm: 22 D.:L~IIlb&!r l)dl tu --' ~L)

1583. 2 vols. (New Y orL:: Garland Publishing, 191:)8) · . . _ 16. These are the Liber mystc!Tiurum, sextus et sancms; 48 Ck.a·&:s 1.mgdlCLU!; L&bl!r ~~l..:ll[l~

auxilij & victoriae rerrc.stris; De heprarchia mystica; T ulmla bonorum angdurum; Flllili-menta' in\'Ocationum. (British Library, MS Sloane 78, 2575, 2599, 318ti, Jlti?, 3t;>l , 3678, MS Add. 36674, fols. 167-88; Bodlcian Libr~ry, ~~~ Aslunulc 1790, t(1l:.. '-t-56· 422; 1790, art. 2) Som~ of the mat~rial is pubhshcd m Robert ~umcr, eJ., Th .. H~pcarchia Mystica of John Dce (Edinburgh: Magnum Opus ... He_~mcuc Sourccw,.rk , 1983; 2nd ed., Wdlinglxuough: Ayuarian Press, 191:)6); Gcottrcy Jamcs, cJ., Th~ Enochian Magic of Dr John Dce (1984; St Paul, MN: Llewdyn, 1994), a_n~l o .. ,n...~IJ C. LaycocL:, The Compfe[e Enochian Dictionary: A Dictiunary of the Ang.:~c Lln~l~o.t.~..: as Revealed tu Dr John Dee and Edu•ard Kdky (1978; York Beach, ME: W~tser, 1994) . See Clulee,John Dee's Natural Philosophy, 204, 296-7,306-7.

1i . British Library, MS Sloan~ 3188, fol. 9r; Whitby, 2:18. _ ld. It is possible to deduce from Dce's diary and spiritual rr.msac_u .. ,ns that T albut \\.1~

Kdly but Dee's diary was not published until 1842. Whcn Menc Cal)aulx~n publl:.h..:J a large pan uf the spiritual transactions in 1659 he was not aware ot _ t~e earl~..:~ materials dealing with the scryer unJcr the name nf T albut; those manul)cnptl) \H:r\:

lost from view until Elias Ashml1le acquired them in 1672. . __ _ , 19. R. J. W. Evans, RuJolf 11 and his World: A Study in lncdkctual HISWT)' 1)/()-loL.

corr. eJ. (Oxford: ClarcnJon Press, 1984). 226. , .. 20. On the show stones, see Hugh Tait, "'The Devil's L(lllking-Glass : The ~l : ~.:~~ - •1

Speculum of Dr John Dce," in Warren Hunting Smith, cd.~ H~~.~e~ \X-~a~~~ : - \\ m..:r · Politician, Connoisseur (New Haven anJ London: Yall! Umverstty Pr~:,:,, .19o7_). ~),, . · · C L Wht.tby "]llhn Det: and Renaissance Scrying," Bulleun oj eh.: So.:-ld:· scrymg sec . . , ·-'~ . . j of Renaissance Studies 3 (1985): 25-35; Thcodore ~ste~man, Crysuu _azmg: ·~ ~[u :·

in the History, Distribution, Theory anJ Practice oj Skrymg (London: Rtd~r~ 1-J.i). 21 . For discussions of the sessil1ns, see E. M. Butler, The M1ch uf ~ Maglt:i ( ~amh:J.;..: ·

Cambridge University Press, 194ti}; E. M. Butler, Ricual Magu: (CarnbnJ~c: C..im-bridge University Press, 1949), 258-81; I. R. F. CalJcr, "John ~e SruJ1cJ a:. .m English Neoplatonist," 2 vols. (Ph. D. thesis, The Warburg _ lnsut~te, ~ .. hu_\·c~~lt) of London, 1952); Waync Shurnaker, "John Dcc's Convcr~atlll_ns wtth :,pm:., m Renaissance Curiosa, Medieval and Renaissance T cxts anJ Studlcs, 8 (Bmghamt- ~n. NY: MRTS, 1982), 15-51; Clulce, John Di.!~'s Natural Philosophy, 203-30; Dd:<~ub E. Harkness, "Shows in the Showstllnc: A Theatre of Alchemy and Arl-..:alyr3..: u-, the Angel Conversatinns of John Dce ( 1527-1608/9)," ~e~sanc&: Qu .. tr~rl; 4'J (1996): 707-37; Stephen Clucas, "'Non e:,t le~endum st:~ tns~tcenJum M.llutn ;. ln: spectival Knowledge and the Visual Logic ot John Dee s Uba ~l)sr.:nurum .. u. Alison Adan1S and Stanton J. Lindcn, eJs., Emblems unJ Alchemy. Ula:.gll\\. EmH.:~H Studies, 3 (Glasgow: Glasgow Emblem Studies, 1998), 109-32; De~r;.th l-iar~ _,_,..: ,. John Dee's Conversations with Angels : Cubalu, Alchemy and the EnJ oJ Nucurl! (L.ioll ·

bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

o2 ~lYSTIC.-\L ~lETAL OF GOLD

11 Briri~h Library, ~IS Sh!n~ Htiti, 1~,1. 24v,25r; Whitby, 2: 7ti-9. 23. ~IS Shutc 31t>d, t~1l. 39v; Whitby, 2:126. H. MS S1uanc 3188, ti.1l. 98v; Whitby, 2:367. 25. MS Sluane 3188, t'l1l. -Hr; Whitby, 2:138. 26. MS Sluanc 3188, fol. 59v; Whitby, 2:218. 27. MS Sloane 3188, ti.1l. 61r; Whitby, 2:220. 28. LynJy Abraham, cJ., :\nhur ~l!, f.lSckulu.\ Chemi(US, ur Ch~mi .. ·tll Culk(tiuns, trans.

Elias Ashmult:, English Rt:naissanct: Hermcticism, 6 (New \'ork and London: Oar, land Publishing, 1997), lxi,lxii.

29. See Robcn S. Brumbaugh, "The Vtlynil:h 'R~_lgcr Bacon' Cipher Manuscript: DeLiph, erL.J Maps nf Stars," Joumal of the \\:'arburg and Courtduld lnstitur.:s 39 ( 1976): 139-50. Arrhur's comments are in :\shmole's papers in the BoJlcian Library, MS Ashmole 1788, tols. 151 r-v. They arc primt:d in Josten, Ashmole, 4:1372 and in Geoffrey Kcyn~s. cd., The ~'orks uf Sir Thomas Brourne, 4 vols. (1928; London: Faber and Falxr, 1964 ), 4:296-8.

10. Thearrwn Ch.:micum Brilunni(lllll, 4til. Ashm~..1lc recorded a highly cok1red srory ot Kclly's receiving the elixir frum a mystt:rit..lus friar, told him by William Backhouse (MS Ashmnle 1790, t~1ls. 60-1, primed in Justt:n 2:603-5). Another version told him hy William Lilly is r~::wrded in MS Ashmole 421, fols. 220v,22l, and published in William Lilly, History of His Lij~ and Tinll!s (London, 1822), 225--6. Ashmole anached no credence hl the stories, nor need we.

ll . Lcnglct du fresnuy, 1:307-10. The story is repeated in Louis figuicr, L'Alchimic et b AL:himis~s. 3rd cd. (Pari:., 1860), 232ff. and in A. E. Waite, ed., Edward KeUy, Th<! Ent,~ishnwn's Tuoo EXA:dkm Tretuises on the Philosopher's Ston.!, Togethc..>r with Th.! Theutre of TL'TTl!srriul Astronomy (1893; rcpr., larbrs: Banton Press, 1991), xvii-xix.

12. Sec Julian Rohcns and Andrew G. Watson, John Dee's Library Cutalogue, 34-5. 3 3. On Adrian Gilhcrr and Mary Sidney, see John Aubrcy, Aubn .. ry's Brief Li\'I!S, cd.

Olh·er LaWSlln Dick (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982), 220. Dee had instructed Mary's brother, Philip Sydney, in alchemy; see Thomas Moffet, Nobilis, ar A View oj tlk! Lije and Ol!ath of a Sidn'"'Y, cd. and trans. Virgil B. Hdtzel and Hoyt H. Huds.1n (San t.larino: Huntingtun Libr<1ry, 1940), 75. Ralegh, as Aubrey and Lucy Hutchins.ln n .. -cord, was actively involved in alchemical experiments; see Lyndy Abraham, Man•eU und Al-henty (Ald~::rshot: Sctllar, 1990), 2-3. On Humphrcy Gil, ben's rropllSC!d American scttlt:mcnt see R. B. Merriman, "Some Notes on the

· T rcatment uf dtc English Catholics in the Reib'll of Elizabeth," American HistoricaJ Rcvieu•, 13 (1907--8): 480-500. On Ralcgh's acquaintanceship with Dee, see Wool, ley, The l,Ja«!L'n's Conjuror, 309-11, and Ralt:igh Trevelyan, Sir Walrer Rakigh (Lon, don: Pcnb'ltin, 2003), passim.

H. MS S1uanc 3188, fol. 77v; Whitby, 2:294. 35. On Sl\..J sec Rohcns and Wats.1n, John Dce's Ubrury, 51-2; Alan Haynes, lm·isibk

Ptm'L'T: The Eli~c:tbl!chan Sct.Ter &n·kc 157~1603 (Struud, UK: Alan Sutton, 1992), 37, 3~; Evclyn Waugh, EJmunJ Campion, 3rd ed. (Ltmdon: L.1nb'11\ans, 1961), 108, lt\8. On Walsingham's intelligence operations, see Curtis Breight, Sunoeillana, Milir.,rism unJ Drama in rh.: Eli~ab.?chan Era (London: Macmillan; Nt:w York: St Martin's Pre:,:;, 1996), 24-25, 101-10, 278. Brdght argues that Wabingham was Burghl!!y's protege, selcctul tu run the surveillance operations established by Bur, ghley, and that Burghll!y resumL.J Ctlntrnl after Walsingham's death in 1590. Dee was aS!olx:iateJ with buth Burghlcy anJ Walsingham. On WalsinJ!ham's connections with [lL"t:, see C.myers RcaJ, Mr s~lTetury \t'alsingham and rh.: Pulic~ of Quet.>n Efiza, b.:th, 3 \'ob. (Cambridg~: HarvarJ University Pr~ss. 1925), 3:4Q.k15, 434-35.

)6. ~IS Shme 3l8ti, tol. 91r; Whitby, 2:339-40. ''CL)t:.all plain" is pn.:sumably th~ Cd ~ ­wolds.

37. MS Sloane 3188, ful. l04r; Whitby, 2:389-90. 38. On La:;ki St:e Konstanty Zantuan, "Olbracht Laski in Eli:ahdhan EngbnJ: :\n Ep-

soJe in the Hiswry of Culture," Polish Ret·ieu• 13,4 {1968): 3-22; Evans, R•i.LiJ u. 219-20. ,-.

H. On Herle, see Haym:s, hwisibk Puu·er, 5-9, 16; Jnhn Bu:,:;y, Giunlano Bruno .mJ th..: Embassy Affair (New Haven and London: Yalt: University Prt:ss, 1991), 26-H. 101-04; Alison Plowden, The Eli~ubt!than Sc.:cret &n·ic.! (Hemel Ht:mpsteaJ: Har-vester Wheatsheaf; New York: St Martin's Press, 1991), 25-29; Curtis C. Brcight. Suweillance. 106--{)7, 242, 256, 277 .

.;J. Bossy, Giordano Bru1w, 22-7. The ptlSSibility th<lt Brun" anJ fagllt may lltlt h.l\· .... been the same pt:rson is allowed in John Bossy, Un~L.~r me MukhiU: Llll Eu~.J~_UWll Spy Swry (New Haven and Lnndlm: Yale Uni,·crsity Prt:ss, 2001 ). .

~1. Zantuan, "Oibracht Laski," 15, citing Watson's letter to Laski, British Library, ~b Sloane 3731. WatSlm had spent Sllllle time at !Xluai, tht: seminary ltlr trainmg Catholic pri~sts to be st:nt secretly into England, and he formed a connt:ctit..lll \\ iLh Walsingham when the latter was ambassador in Paris. His pllt:lll lvldilxcus i~ an ckgy for Walsingham. Jailt:d for killing an inn-keeper's son who was having a hglu with Christopher Marlowe, he was acquittt:d on the gwunds of sdf-deti::nce. His as:.o.R:ia.-tion wilh Marlowe and Walsingham is generally tak~::n tll indicate that he was u111.:

of the lauds secret agents. Se~ Charles Nicholl, The R.:dwning: The Munlor u] Chriswp/k..>r ~tirwe (London: ]onarhan Cape, 1992).

42. MS Sloane 3188, fl)b. 107r,10Mv; Whitby, 403--6; TFR, 1, 22, 25. -43. On Laski's approach to Allen SI!\! Anthony a Wt..M.ld, Ath ... 'llcl4: Oxonicnsis, \'1..11. l.

cols. 574-5. 44- TFR, 5-6. The name llt Freman and Frccman(s) recurs in sixtt:t:nth-cemury Bl, 'ckl..·y

records. See H. E. M. lcdy, Bh:kky Through Twdw Centuries: Amwls of u CucsuuiJ Parish (Aldburgh, Norfl>lk: Erskine Press, 1988), 27, .35-37, 43, 48, 51, 56.

45. See Nicholl, A Cup of Neu•s, 194-98, and Th.! Reckoning, 234-39. 46. Clulee, John Ol!e's Natural Philosophy, argues thar Kdly manipulated the spiritu.Jl

dialob'Ues "to draw Dee away from England, breaking his ties with his llltUC ~l>b..:r scientific work.. The key clement in this was the appearance of Albrecht Laski" ( 1 ';)7) .

4 7. For an account of LasL:i's visit to Oxford see Raphad Holinshed, Holinshed' s ChrtJJ.i-des of England, Scotland und lrdand, 6 vols. (London: J. JohnSlm, 1808), 4:j07--6 . anJ J. G. Nichols, Th.! Prugrcssl!s and Processimu of Queen Elizah.!th, 2 vols. (Lund .. n , 1823), 2:398-411. On Bruno's Oxford debates, set: Robert McNulty, "Brunl) .1t Ox· ford," R~..>naissancc News, 13 (1960): 300-5; on Bruntl's ac4uaintanct: with SiJn~:y, to whom he dedicated a number of bt.M.1ks, see Frances Yates, Giordanu Bnmo i.mJ th.: Hennetic Tradition (L.md~..m: Ruuti~:Jgt: & Kegan Paul, 1964). Despite their sim1l.u interests, there is nu rt:cord that Bruno ever met Dt:e or Kdly, t:ither in Engl.mJ ..11

this time or later in Europe. 48. PO, 21; Fenton, 100; TFR, 33. Kdly's departure trnm England may bt: an ·'~~pr.•pr< .itl·

point to note d1at the various grotesque acti\·ities in Lundnn attributed tu Kd~y 111

P~ter Ackroyd's ntlVd Th.! HoUS\! of Doctor Dee (Llltdtm: Hamish Hanulton, I ':N)) are without any basis in the historical record. Nll l~:ss fantastic is the ~ummlming ur of Kelly's spirit in Umht:rto Eco's novel, Foucault' s Pendulum ( 1988; Lmdt~n: Ph.:.!J, ,r. 1990), 591-92 (chapter 113).

~9. TFR, 212. On Haj~:k, see Evans, Rudolj 11, 152, 203-04, 222. 50. Evans, Rudolf ll, 223.

1 ! ~lYSTIC.-\L ~lETAL l)f Gl)LD

51. Un Pu.:.:i :.~~ LJN ll; Fr;m.:~:.-=• 1 l'u.:(i, L!u.:r.:, JtJ~:wn.:nci .:c c.:scimoniun~.:, cJ. L. Firpo anJ R. Piartuli, 2 \·ul:.. (Flnrcncc, 1')55-59); L. Firpo, "John Dcc, ~i\!n:iatu, n\!-gromanrc e av\·cnrurier,,," Rin,zsdm.:mo 3 (1952): 25~i; anJ Miriam Eliav-FdJon, "Sc.:rer S,lCit:lies, Uwpias anJ Pea.:c Plans: The CaS\! of Fmnccsco Pucci," Juumal uf M.:Ji.:ml unJ R.:nuis.SUJ'II:'l! .Studies l4 (1984 ): 13'}-58.

52. The vi\·id accmmr ut this exrra,,rJinary episode, prescrvcJ in the &x.lleian Library (MS A~hmulc 17')0 art. 1, t~1b. l-19), was discover~ anJ u-.mslatcd from rhe Latin hy C. H. Jostcn as "An Unknnwn Chapter in the Lite of John Dee," Joumal of db! \Vurburg and Courc.mfd lnscinucs 28 ( 1965): 223-57. A sewntL-emh-cemury transla-ri,m is prescrvcJ in the British Library, MS Sluane 36i5, fuls. 12-38, and is drawn ,,n h)' Fenton, 1ti5-'Jl.

5 ). On Vilc!m Ru:mbcrL:, sec hans, RuJolf 11, 64-8, 212-16. On Peter VoL: Ro:mbcrk, ibiJ, H0-43. LlsL:i al~, aspirnl hl the p,,li:.h thwne. Neither Will> succ\!ssful.

H. Ev<ms, Rudvlf 11, 223. (1 am inJebted tu Su::anne Kkman t~>r the tr.ms1ation. ) 55. TFR, 26(2nJ paginatinnJ. 56. TFR, 4N; E,·ans, RuJulf 11, 223. 57. TFR. 42'), 434. Further Jetai1s in l]ulcc, John D.:/s Nucur,ll Phi~Jsuphy, 226, 300 n.

78. The Landgravc at rhis time w~ Wilhdm. His sun Morit: had srrong alchcmkal inrcrc:.ts. See Bru.:c T. ~lumn, Th.: Alch.:Jni·,d World of the Gt."nlUJil Court: Occult PIUlosoph:y und Chl.'lnil:al Medicine in tit.? Cirtk uj Moritz of HesSL'll ( 1572-1632) (Stutt-gart: Fr-.m: Sreincr Verlag, 1991 ). On Dce and the Landgtave see Abraham, ed., Arrhur Dce, Fczsciculus Chcmicus, lxiii.

5~ . Evans, Ra.dtdf ll, 216, 225; PD, 21-.30; Fem,,n, 203-39. Fcnron's transcription of the Jiary renJcr:, rhe names of visitnrs more accur.udy than Halliwdl.

5'). PD, 22; Femon, 204. Translation fr,,m the Latin in Ra1ph Sargem, At the Coun uj Qu.:l?n Eli~dbcch : Thc Lij~ anJ Lyrics of Sir Edu:ard Dy.:r (New Y orL:: Oxt"l1rd Unin:rsity Press, 1935), 102. Dce refers tu the Tsar's invitation in hi:. Com~nJious Rehcarsul, printed in Jamcs Crossley, eJ., Aucobiugraphicul Tracts of Dr John De.: (Manchester: Chetham &x:icty, 1851 ), ~'). The text of the invitation is primcJ in Richard HaL:luyt, Jlrindpul Nul'iguciuns, 12 ,.l>ls. (Glasg,>w, 1903), 3:+15--48.

<lll BoJlcian Library, MS Ashmule 1768, tl.lls. 15lr-15l\', primed in ]l>sren, Ashmuk, 4:1371-73 anJ in Keynes, Brou1te, 4:29~. Other accounts by Arrhur Oee arc in MS Aslunl>le 1768, ti.1l. 153, printl..J in Josten, 2:755 and Kcynes, 4:293; ;md in BoJidan Library MS Ballard 14, fuls. 13-14v, primed in Josten, 4:1757. On Arrhur Dec, S\!e LynJy Abr..iliam, "Arthur Dce, 1579-1651: A Life," Cauda Pal'Onis, n.s., 13,2 (l9'Ji): 1-14 (rcprimcJ in this cnllection), and rhe intwducrion to Lyndy Ahraham, eJ., Arthur ~c. Fusciculus Ch.?micus.

ol. MS BallarJ H. ti.1ls. 13-l4v, primeJ in Jnsten, Ashnwle, 4:1758. 62 . Fcnwn, 223; Sllllle passage:, fmm the spiritual records omiueJ by Ca:.aub,m are

primeJ in Fcnton, 224. Fcnron 241 n . I, suggests that the "cross-matching" was rerx:areJ. The epis.~e has ~en uSt:J as the subject tor a play, The Alchemical Wcdding by Stcphcn L,,we, hrst pcrt,•rmcd in Britain at the Salisbury Playhouse in May 1998. (RcvieweJ in The \X'e.:kly Tckgraph, 356 (May 20-May 26, 1998): 24.)

6 3. Culpcpcr's anJ Lilly's accuunts of experiments with Dee's crystal are r..:puneJ in John Applcby, "Anhur L"\.-e and Johann\!s Banfy Hunyades: Further lnfunnatilm on rht:ir Alchemical and Pn,fcssional Activities," Ambix, 24 (1977): 96-109.

b4. They arc primed in EJuudrJi Kdlci Angli Tractatus Daw Egregii De I...apidc Philosopho-mm, Unu Cum The.um Asrrunimia! TL'TTcstri, ed. J. L. M. C. (Hamburg: GorhotreJus Schulr:en, 1676), 40-42; translatcJ in Waire, Eduurd K.:Uy, 51-53.

A Bio&rruJ>hy of EJm.trJ Kdly, £h~ Engli:sl1 .-\l •. :h~mis£

65. Ft:ntllll idl!ntities Rlm:laschy as Philippus Rouilla~~hus (242 n. 15). D\!c's t,h_,, , catalugue lists a copy of the tirsr Frt:nch eJitillll ut Dcnis Za..:airc's OpttS(ul.: Tld-EXLelknt de la vraye PhilusupM! nuturclk J.:s Mecuux (Antwerp, 1567), and a m•mu· script also in French. (See Rubcrts and Wats.m, John Dee's Librury Cacalugu.:, ih.:m, 1546, M50.) Possibly it was this larrer manuscript that was d\:stroyeJ. In hi:. Ji.tr~ fur July 31, 1590, Dee recorJs "I gan: Mr Richard CanJish the wpy of Zach..1nu:.· twdve leners, wrinen in French with my own hanJ; and he promisd me, bd.or.: my wife, never tu Jisclusc to any that he harh it; anJ that if h!.! dil.! bctorl! m~: hl will restore it again tu me: bur if I die before him, that he shall Jdivcr it tll l1l1t: ••I

my sons, most tit [Fenwn: "apt") amung them to have it" (PD, 35; Fcmun, 2 52; Halliwell's text has "Paracdsus" f,.,r "Zacharius").

oo. See Moffet, Nobilis, or A Vicu.• uJ the Life and D.:ai.h of a SiJll.:). 7 5. 67. Sargenr, DyL'T, 102. ·· 66. The lener is prt:S\!rn:J in the British Library (~IS Harkian bY86 art . 2~) an~l rul

lished in Henry Ellis, ed., Ori&rinul l...:tc..!rs of Emin.:m Uc.:rary M.:n oJ Ut.: 16m. 17!1~ and 18th Cencurk!s (LonJon, 1843), 45-46.

o9. In Crossley, Auwbiogruphiad Tracts, 32-34. 7u. Evans, Rudolf 11. 226. 71. Public RecorJ Otlice, SP 15/31, td. i5, primcJ in j,1hn Stryp~:, .-\JilL.Ih uJ rlt.: R.:J .. nn .. ·

tion, 4 vols. (OxforJ, 1824), vol. 3, pr. 2, 133. Strype ( 132-33) yu,,tc:. Sl.)nlc ..:.)m· ments of Dee's earlier in this letter whkh he raL:cs as rderring ru Kelly, bur they in fact refer to an unidentitieJ person in the Luw Countries whnm Dl!c haJ sp..mcJ a ~ a potential agent for Walsingham. See als.1 British Library, MS LmsJ,>wnc 846. l,,b 216-7, containing the copy of a patent of L:nightholx.l grantcJ by RuJolph to 1-:cll) . in a letter of February 23, 1590.

i2. Snemy C.:skt od kta 1526 (Prague, 1877-1910), 7, n~l. 412 (158')), .:ilcJ in h .• n' Rudolf 11, 226n.

73. Liam Mac COil, "Kdley of lmamyi," LmlJ,m Reti.:u· uJ lluuks 2J, 10 (May 24, 2~\~l) 4. My colleague the late B. K. Martin came tu a similar Clmclusi.m fwm lu:. examm.l-tion of the Irish recorJs.

H . Angdo Maria Ripdlino, Mugic Pr,~guc, rrans. D.aviJ Ncwt,ln t-.brindli, cJ. ~1~-:h.,~l Henry Hdm (London: Picador, 1995), 97.

75. Vladimir Karpenko, "Bohemian Nobiliry anJ .A.khcmy in the Sc~unJ Half , •I 'L~ Sixteenth Century: Wilhdm of Rosenberg anJ T w,, Akhcmi:.t:.," Cwult.1 P.,l ll iO..l

n.s. 15,2 (1996): 14. 76. Published in Strype, Annals, Vl>l. 4, 1-2. For ParL:ins, :.cc DNll. 77. Theanum Ch&!micum Britanninmt, 4814i2; Arh.:JW4: Oxonk!nsis, l:2o0. :\nhur 1 \.: ~

in a letter to Mr. A1Jrich in Norwich, l6i9, also Lites Ll>rJ Willoughby a:. a \l.llll.:> ~ of transmutations in Bohemia (information from Stcphcn Clucas, Birkbcd. c .. ,ll..:~.: , London University). Dee's assistam Barthol,uncw HicL:man, who rcp1a.:cJ Kdl; ·" Dee's scrycr back in England, ldt Dec's M:rvkc tor Lord Willnughby on l.k(clllh.:r 2, 1594 (PD, 51; Fenron, 268).

7ti. Evaru;, Rudolf Jl, 226; Waite, EJu•,,rJ J.;dl)·, xxxv; Ja.:yucs van Lcnncp. Alr.- i; .. ~ ContriblCtion a l'hiswire de l'arc alchimique (Brussd:.: CreJit Cummunal, I Yl:l5 ), 22-t.

79. Published in Srrype, Annals, vol. 4, 4-6. Burghlcy's corresponJt:nce with Kdl ·, , .. discussed brietly in Cunycrs R..:aJ, Lord Burghky unJ (Ju.:cn Elizabcth (L~mJ,lt1: J• •li.l· than Cape, 1960), 474-76.

8u. See B. W. Bt:ckingsale, Burghl.:y: Tudor Swtcsmun 1520-15')8 (Ll1nJun: ~l.i..:n.tiL ·. New York: Sr Manin's Press, 1967), 261.

81. On Palavidn,>, see Lawrence Stone, An Eli~ub.:[lwn : Sir Hmuio PuLLt.:m., l'-):.;1. rJ Clarendon Press, 1956 ).

bo MYSTlC.-\L l\IETAL OF GOLD

8 1 I am grardul h1 Su:anne Ki~rno.m tur the tran:.lation trom the Italian. 83. o,~ s~olto, sec ~ipd~inu, 1vL:lgic Pragt~. 103; Tl4! FuggL"T N!!WS,UttL"TS (s!!..:onJ Sl!rics)

lJl!mg Ll Furdh.or Sd.:cuon from llu: F1tgga Papers SpeciaUy R4t..>rring to Qul!t!ll Eliz~ch w~ ;\lattt!r.s Rdu~~ng to England ~Uling ~ Years 1568- 1605, Here Published for the Flr.st Tnnt!, cd. \ 1ctnr von Klarv.·1ll, trans. l. S. R. Bym~ (Londlm: John Lan~. The ~odlc\:,Hcad, 1926), 203, 208. R. J. W. E\'an.s, RuJulf 11, speculates about "Odoardus Sclltus . • ~he aud~ur of th~ Vienna ~anuscript, Speculum Alcl4!mit-.e, dedicated to Rudl>lt:_ Scl>tus 1s another unidcntiheJ, tleeting figure-his Christian name seems most ohcn tn be rccl•rd~d as Alessandro and his origins as halian" (210); "there are two scparmc qucstim1s h~re: whether Kdly and the so-call~d 'Scono' were one and the :.<nne; anJ whether Kdly wrote the treatise" (227). From Pucci's lencr cited here and Wehhc's uf June 26, 1591 (British Library MS Lansdllwne 68 no. 93, fob. 2.10-1 ~) citcJ later, there is nu duubt that a Count Scotlll, distinct frum Kelly, J1d ~XIS( .

:-;~ . Sargent, Dyt!r, lll-12. 85. Fr.mcis Baclln, "A~_'J'~Hhcg~ns," in T14! 'X-'urk.s uJ Fnmcis Btk:on, ~J. Basil ~lllntague,

3 vol~. (lundon: Wllham P1clering, 1823), 1:122. 86. Puhlislu:d in Stl')·pe, Annuls, vol. 4, 3-4. 87. &-c Phillips and Keatman, Tl4! Shak.:.spcart! Cmspir,ll.')', 105, 119-121, 152. ~8. ~ic~l•>ll, T_l4! Reckoning, 259. Nkholl Ji:.cusses Roydon's gll\'crnm~m work and assu-

Clatll.ms wuh Marluwe, ibid., passim. . 89. R •• ~rt Hnuke, Tl4! Postlucmow; Wurk.s (lonJun: Richard Wailer, 1705; facsimile

r~rr., London: ~rank Cass, 1971 ), 206. I have modernized the spelling. Whitby (1:1~) e~a~uncs the cryptugraphic claims and is sceptical. So was lsaac D'lsr.Jdi, Am~JUUt!s ~J Uf4.'Ttltlcrc (1840; London and New Yorl: Georgc Roudedge, n.d.), "The ~c~lr Philosopher, Or Dee," 343-4. Secret service work by Dee and Kelly is assumed m. R1chard Deacon, John Det!: &ientist, Geograph.."T, Astrologt."T and SeLTet Agem w Eli~~rh I (L.~nJl,n: ~reJ~rick Muller, 1968.) Finn evidence is ine\'itably lacking. For ~~e decl"'ldlll~ ot Sc.:ganographia, see Thomas Ernst, "Schwar:weissc Magie. Der ~hlusscl zum dntten Buch der Steganugraphia des Tritht!mius," Dt.qllmis 25,1 ( 1996); J u~ Reeds, "S...•lveJ: The Ciphers in Bool Ill ofT rithemius' Sc.:ganographia," Crypw.-~Jgkl 22.4 (1998); W.>~.lllt!y, The Q1~en's Conjuror, 72-81.

\)0. (British Lihr.Jry, MS Cl[tun Lib. Titus ll). Published in Stn'J"lt! Annuls ,·0 1 3 pt 2, 617-20. ., • • . • .

91. The reference fll V~nicc is hl the acti\'itics there of the alchemist Mamug, n~nn-Marco AnhlniO Br.Ji-:adini-which were later bclie\'ed lll be fr.Judulent. Sec R1pdlino, MLlgic PrLJg~~, 103; Th.! Fu~"T Neu.•skfk."TS, Being a St!k.:tion of Unpubli.sl4!d Lt!tter~ from me Correspondents of~ House of Fuggcr During the Years 1568-1605, ed. Victor \'on Klarwill, trans. Pauline de Chary (London: John Lme, The BoJley Head, 1924), 140-43, 146, l4M, 149-50.

lJ2. Joscf Svatek, "Anglicly alchymista Kdly v Cedkich," in Obru::zy z kulumlkh dijin ~e~kyL~ (Pr-4,rttc, . 189.1), 1.:142-47, and "Akh}·mie v Cechach :a doby Rudolfa 11," ibiJ ·• ... :48-51, cueJ m R1pellino, Magk: Prague, 97, 99, 103. lvan Svitak, "John Dce and Edward Kclley," Kusmus (T~ Journal of Cz!!chslol•ak und Cmtral European Studies) 5 (1986): 134. lvan Svitcik, Kou~dnik z Lmdyna: John Dee " Cecach, 1584-1598 (Prabrue, 1994); lvan Svitak, Sir Edu.ourd Kellry: ct!sky rytir 1555-1598 (Pra •ue 1994), cirL.J in Wnulley, The Qu.:en's Conjuror. On Sc:ndivo~ius in Prague see ~1~ hans, Rudolf 11, 211. '

'} l. MS LansJuwne 68 nu. 85, l~>ls. 192-5, publi:.heJ in Stl')·pc, Annuls, Vl)l. 3, pt. 2, 621-25.

':1~ . Srryp.:, Annals, vol. 3, pr. 2, l.H. ~S . Logan Pcarsall Smith, cd., The Lif!! u1ld L:u.:rs of Sir Henry \X ·ouun, 2 ,·ub. (Oxr •. rJ :

Clarendon Press, 1907), 1:16-17. (The lcucr under Jiscussi•Hl is ndt induJcJ i11 this collection.) Gerc1ld Cur:on, \t-'uttun and His ~'orlJs: Spying, Sci.:n.:t! .. nul Vent:ti..41l Intrigues (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004 ), H .

'io . Webbe was one of Burghley's couriers. In 1593 he was ~hargL·J with wining, i.inJ pardoned in 1594; set! Nichull, Th.! ReLkuning, 259, 387n, ciring PRO SP l2/2.H no. 20. This is presumably the Mr. Webbe who, l"ke lll)tes, was commirreJ h) rh~ Marchelsea, December 24, 1593, whom ht! visits there janual')· 26, 1594 and of wl1lllll he writes March 10, "upon a tlight l)f fear because of Mr Wcbhc's sending inr me t.>

come to him to the Marchdsca, now when he looked to be c~.mdcmneJ on rh~: Monday or Tuesday ncxt"(PD, 47-48; Femun, 263-64).

':ii . Webbe's instructions are published in Strypc, Annals, vol. J, pt. 2, 115-36. Th.: Public Record Office hulds Queen Elizabcrh 's letters to Ruduli ll ( SP 80/1, t(ll. 1 3 3) and the Elector of Saxony (SP 81/7, fol. 31).

~::l .. The FuggL"T Neu,s-L?U4."TS, first scri~s. 160-61, 162-63; scconJ :.cries, 121-21, 221. •:N. Historical ManUSL.Iipts Commission: Calendar of eh.: ~lanuscriprs of t#4! Must Hun . Tik'

Marquis of Salisbury, K. G., &c. &c. &c. pr!!St.'Tl'ed ac Hutfidd Houst!, Hertfonl.shir.:. Part IV (London: Her Majcsry's Stationery Otiice, 1892).

JJ0. Joscf Svarek, "Anglicky akhymisra Kdly v Cecha~h." in Obra-v ~ kulwmi.:h .l.;J"' -ceskych (Prague, 1891) 1:147-48, drcd in Ripdlino, 98; Vadav Kaplicly, :llul

Alch:Ytnisucv, IT14! Life uf an Alchemist} (Pra~uc, 1980). I am grateful tu VlaJium Klima for locating anJ translating material frum Kaplicly's text.

101. Sec Stantlm J. LinJcn, Darkt! HiL."Tugliphi.:ks: Alchemy in English Lir.:r.uur~ jimn Cf4.,, . ea w the Re.storlltion (lt!xington: Univ. Press of Kcntucly, 1996), ti7, 88, 126, 2;,5 . 287,290,311 n. 42.

101. Alexander B. Gmsart, ed., Tht! 'X-'ork.s ufGubrid Hart't!Y, 3 , .,1ls. (lllnJnn: Th~ Hurh Library, 1884). 2:6t)-69.

103. The Works of Thomas NtlSh.:, cd. Runald B. ~kKcrr.>w, 5 n•ls. (lllnJ.m: SiJ~w~..:k and jacks.)n, 1905), 3:52. Nichnll suggests in Tl4! Rt!..:kouing (Jti6n) that "there ,trc allusions to Kdly in Nashe's burlc~ue of the 'cunning man' in Tenors uj llu: !\i;_;hr (Nashe, I: 363-67)."

IJ4. G. A. Wilkcs, ed., Tl4! Compb.: Plays oj B.:n )onson, 4 vnls. (Oxt~1rJ : CbrenJ .. n Press, 1982), 3:307. John RcaJ suggcsrcd that "the characters of Subrl~..> and Fa.:~: may have het!n a reflection uf Or Dee and his as::.ociate, Edward Kclly, whl1sc J.:~.-:..1: and deaths wt!re frt!sh in men's memories at the time when Jonson was writing d1c play" Oohn Rt!ad, The Alcl4!mist in Life, Liu.-,·uturt! utld Art (194 7; repr. Largs: B.ltH<~la Press, 19901, 42. H(>wcver, in his later study Through Akh..!my to Ch.!misrry (I •)57; repr. -Kila, MT: Kessing~r Publishing, n.d.) Read remarkcJ, "Ot the thr~..>~ hkd} originals, jllhn Dee, EJward Kdly, and Simon Forman ... all the cviJcncc l' -' inr ~ to Fonnan as the 'akhemist' whom Jnnson had in: mind" (75).

105. Samuel Butler, HuJWras, ed. John Wilder:. (Oxt~nd: Clarendon Prc~:.. 19oi ). ~..:...: Linden, Darke Hk"Togliphicks, 285, 287, 90.

106. Historical MamlS4..Tipts Commissiun: Cakndar oJ llu: .\lunu.sl.TiJ>t.s oi Th.: .\L.11.1 ... : "; Salisbury presen,ed at Harfidd Huus.:, Part IV, 366.

107. Phillips and Keatman, The ShukesJ>eare Con.spir~y. 158ft. Wllulky, Th .. : )....;:•·-··· : Conjuror, 315-17.

108. Historical M • .musn·iJJt.s Commission: CaknJur of dta.: fo.lwut.so·ipts uJ Th..: .\t_.r+•··' ; Salisbury pres.!n'cd ac HutfidJ Hmt.st!, Parr IV, .3&9. .

109. Ibid .. 424.

~lYSTIC.-\L METAL OF GOLD

110. lhiJ., -!24-25. 111. lhiJ., -!98, -lit-~-7'). 112. lhiJ. , -!50--51. 113. lbiJ. , 481. 1 H . Nichull, A Ci1j1 11i N~u ·s, 192-9-!. Se~ als,, Nidhlll, Th.: N!!L·kuning, 258-60, 386~7 .

Woullt:y, Th.: (Ju..:~!n's Cmjurur, lhJtcs how members of the conspiracy were knl.lWn tll Lnnh Kdly anJ Occ, 315-17.

115. S\'it;ik, "j.-1hn Del· anJ EJwarJ Kdley,"l37. 116. Haynt:s, lnl'isili! PoU'I.!T, 1.33-.H. 117. Svit<ik, "John Dec anJ EJwarJ Kdl.:y,"l37 . Thi:. :..,unJs like a versi•m,,frhe Jud

JareJ I 591 rhat resulteJ in his firsr arrest in the acc.nmrs by Josci Svatck anJ V,idav Kaplil:ky (n.nc 98, sup.). Ripcllin•1, Magic Pmg~. 98, has Jcbt as the "pretext" t~1r RuJolt\ scconJ impris,Jnmcm nf Kdly.

llti. Trucuuus Duu Egr..:gii, 3; Wait~:, Edumd J.:dly, 5. 119. Evans, Rudullll. 228. 120. Ripdlino, Ml1gic Pmgu.:, lOO. 121. Charlc:. Nichnll, "The Last Year:. ,,f EJwarJ .Kdlcy," LuruJm H..Ticu• of Bouks, 23,8

(19 April 2001 ): 3-8. I ha\'e not cxamincJ the originals ut this material. Nicholl pro\'iJcs no Jucumcmatiun.

122. E\'ans, RuJulf 11, 227. 123. Wccwr, Anci~m Funcr<1ll MuiiUIIk'IICs, 45-46. 12-l. MS Ashmole 1788, t~1ls. 151r- 152; josten, Aslunt,l..:, 4:1372-73 anJ 1-:cyn~.:s,

Brouon.:, -!:296-98. 12 5. Sec Susan Bassnett, "Re,·i:.ing a Bi,1graphy: :\ New inrerpr~.:tati~m ut the lite ,1t

Eli:aheth Jane Wcstlln," (n,ltl! 4), 3. L.mise Schldner, "Eli:ahl!th Westllll, Akhl!-mist's Step#D.lUght~r anJ Published Poet," Cauda Pat•mlis: Sucdi.!:s in HL'11nl.!ticism, n.s., 10 (1991): 9, 14. anJ Louisc Schlciner, Tudor and SuUin Wum~n Writers (Bh)mington: Indiana Uni\·l!rsiry Press, 1994). On Wcswnia's poems, see also j. W. Binns, lmelkcu"-'l Culcuro? in Eli~abethan and)ucobean England: The Latin \t'rirings of Ute Age (LeeJs: Francis Caims, 1990), 110--14.

12b. Eli::abeth Jane Weston, Collecccd Writings, eJ. DonalJ Chcncy anJ BrcnJa M. Hnsington, with the assistance of D. K. Money (Tomnro: University of Toronto Press, 2000), xii. The sources Citl..J are W. P. W. Phillmore, ed., Ol.ford Parish RcgistL-rs. Marriag.:s, ml. 1 (LonJun, 1909), 4; Jack Howard#Drake, Ol.ford Church <?utt.ns Vo?pusitions !542-1550 (Oxford, 1991), item 3; Chipping N.mon History ~1\::h.!ty anJ the M 1sses Meadcs, cht!cked against an anonymous copy of ea. 1790.

12 7 · W eswn, CoUecto?d W'rirings, 336-4 I. I am grateful tu Susan Bassnctt for Cllpies of ~he original publication of Wcswn's poems anJ to B. K. Manin for the translations trl1m the Latin.

12::i. Wcstun, CuUec..·t.:d \X 'ritings, 34~l. 129. Wcstun, Collected ~'ricings, 376-79. r\:e corrcsponJcJ with Maius, anJ was visitcJ

by him in Trebon (FI.!nton, 204, 238). 130. Ad Nobikm et litc..-r.num trirum Dn IOANNEM HAMMUNIUM amicwn :s1mm cokn#

dum. ~L Magismnn olim studiuis.simum, gratiumm actiunis ergo ( Collecr.:d W'1icings, 3!2-13). He has been iJ~nrificJ with rhe man Dee hireJ iri Trebon on August 7, b88 (PD. 28, 31, 32; Fenton, 236, 240).

1 31. I ha\'e not seen rhis \'ulume. My information is fwm juhn Fcrguson, Bibliotheca Ch.!miL·ll: a Caralogu.! of the Alchcmici.Jl, Chemical and PhanTWCeurical Books in the Culkction ultheLJtc!}llmo?s YoungofKdly and Durris, Esq, LL. D . , F. R. S., F . R. S. E., 2 \'ols. (Kila, MT: Kcssinger, 1991), 1:454, 2:463.

A Biogruphy uf Etltmrtl ~dly , rh~ English .-\kh(!mist

132. The tide page of Waite, EJu·urJ Kclly, rcaJs "N,l\v tlr:.t publi:.hl!d t•1r rh..: bcn~tu of the sons of Hermes by]. L M. C. (That is, John Lilly anJ Mcric Casauhon)." This iJentification has n.-, crellibility. Ferguson suggests jllhann Langc McJicina~.: CanJiJatus (Bibliotheca Ch!.!mk:a, 2: 8). The treatise on the Philosllpher's Swnc which Kdly deJicateJ to Rud,,1f first appeareJ in a collectinn cditeJ by Pcrrxu.s, Drey V ortreffliche und nvch nit! im Druck geu..'t.!sclll? Ch)'misch.! Bikh.!r a1s . . . (Ill) D.:..s Weltberilhm~n Engelliitu.l-'fs Edoardi Kella.d aussfuhrlicher Trw:uu &m Ku)SL'T Rudolphu tugeschriebc...>Jl, publisheJ in Hamburg by juhan Nauni.an, 1670, reprinted by Gon-fried Liebe:t!it, 1691 (Bibliutheca Chemicu, 1:226-27, 437-38; Ev . .m:., Rud,llf 11 , 227 n.2).

1 H. First publisheJ LnnJ,,n: Elli,,n, 1893; reprints induJc Llm..iun: Stuan anJ Watkin;,, 1970; New York: Samud Weiscr, 1970; Lugs: Bam,m Press, 1991. For c.muncntary, see Lyndy Abr..tham, "EJwarJ Kelly's Hieruglyph," in Adams anJ LinJen, eJ~ .• Emblems and Alchemy, 95-108. I have been unabll.! to locate J. Gibson, "An lnt~r­preration of Alchemical Symbolism with Reference to the Writings uf E..iwarJ Kdly," }ounud of the Alchemical Society 3,15 (December 1914): 17-25, cited in Alan PritcharJ, Alchemy: A Bibliography of English-lun~'1Wgl! W'ricings (London: RoudeJge & Kegan Paul, 1980).

I have moJcmi:ed spelling anJ standarJi:~J names in the J,x:ument:> cxcapkJ in this ankle; the full texts are given in my Raising Spirits, Making GulJ, Su;apping Wives: Tit.! Tr~ Adwmures oJ Dr John D~e and Sir Edu:urd K.:Uy (Nottingham: Shoestring Press, 1999). Texts anJ digests uf the State Papers can be f,,un..i in CalendaT of Sea~ Papers Dom~stk:.&.'Ties, of the Rcigns of Edward VJ, Mary, Eli~ab.:ch . 1547-1580, ed. Robert Lemon (lonJon, 1856) ; Cul'ltdar of Swcc Paf>L'TS Dun~ttstk: Series, Elizubeth and }an~tts I, Addcnda 1580-1625, ed. Mary Ann Everen Grt!cn (Lond,ln, 1872); Calendar oJ Scare Papers Forei&Tfl Serics, of the Reign oJ Eli~(Weth . vol. 21, pt. I, )lH~tt 1586-)ul~tt 1588, ed. Sophie Crawford L,1mas (londm1, 1927) ; Cakndar of Scat~ Pc!pers Foreign &Tics of the Reign of Eliz.ubcth, vol. 23, January-) aJ) 1589, ed. Richard Bruc~ W emham ( LonJon, 19 50); List and Anuly:sis of Swtl.! P ap.:r~ Foreign Sc..-ries Elizabeth I Prcsert.'o?d in the Public Record Office, vol. 1 , AII&'11Sl 1589-}une 1590; vol. 2, July 1590--May 1591, eJ. Richard Bruce Wemham (llm· don, 1964, 1969). Crown copyright material fwm the Public Rccllrd Ofu~c. Kew-(SP 81/6, t~1ls. 7-8), (SP 81/7, ttll. 140), (SP 81/7, fllls. 143-4) anJ (SP 82/3, fol. 134 )-is rcpmJuceJ by permission of the Conrr.,ller of Her Majc:.ry'~ Stationery Office.