QUEEN ELIZABETH’S MASTER IN ALCHEMY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20288, 22 December 1927, Page 18

QUEEN ELIZABETH’S MASTER IN ALCHEMY.

SCIENTIST OR WIZARD? Of all tho picturesque characters in that overflowing Elizabethan age, there is none more curious than Dr John Dee (says the Observer), Dee was variously described in his own age. One account describes him as “ a man vain and conceited in the highest degree, 1 ' but Aubrey gives a more attractive picture of him in old age. “He had a very fair, clear, sanguine complexion, a long beard as white as milk. A very handsome man. He was a great peacemaker; if any of his neighbours fell out, he would never let them alone till he had made them friends. He was tall and slender. He wore a gowne with hanging sleeves and a slitt. A mighty good man he was.” John Dee, son of a vintner and claiming descent from Roderick the Great, Prince of Wales, was born on July 13, 1527. He had exceptional brains, and after leaving St. John’s College, Cambridge, continued his studies at Louvain, met and other notables, became a mathematician of the first rank, and studied chemistry and navigation. As was not unusual with students of chemistry in his period, he was deeply interested in alchemy, find, which is less usual in exact mathematicians, plunged into the occult sciences, and studied astrology, spiritualism, and star-gazing. Returning to England in 1551, he was well received by Edward VI, and given a small pension. Queen Mary favoured him for a time, but he soon got himself into trouble by attaching himself to the fortunes of the Princess Elizabeth. It is in his relations with Elizabeth that his career is most interesting, though illomened at the outset. He came into touch with her through the Parry family, seems to have cast Queen Mary’s nativity with unfortunate correctness, was accused of practising black arts with Elizabeth’s entourage, and was imprisoned. From this charge he escaped, but came under the ban of the Bishop of London on suspicion of heresy. Eventually he was set free, and the accession of Elizabeth brought him into favour. He was consulted as to the date of the coronation and fancied himself a made man. Many years of disappointment were to give him a more correct view of the Queen’s dealings with her servants.

By 1502 he was weary of waiting tor preferment, and went over to Antwerp to arrange for the publication of his books. Thence he journeyed far, to St. Helena in 1563, and, in the same year, to Pressburg to present one of his books to thd Emperor. In 1504 he came home, obtained a grant of two rectories, and enrolled the Queen as a pupil in the occult.

Finally, in 1578, he was sent by the Queen and Council to Germany, nominally to consult physicians about the Queen’s health, really on some secret diplomatic business. On his return the Queen resumed her seances with him, for by this time he was chiefly devoted to crystalgazing and occult science generally. He came into touch with one Kelley, alias Talbot, a scoundrel who had lost his ears in the pillory. It is said that Kelley was sent to Mortlake to trap Dee into a confession of dealings with the devil, but thought that he could make more profit out of a partnership in the occult. The two were joined in their magical conjurations by a Bohemian nobleman named Laski, who was searching for the “ philosopher’s stone,” and Laski invited them to his domain. Dee’s reputation in Mortlake was now so omnious that he was glad to leave, and his departure was a signal for an attack on his house and the dispersal of many of his books. They arrived in Bohemia in February, 1584, but Laski grew weary of them and passed them on to the Emperor" Rudolph. Later they found a refuge with another Bohemian magnate, fo whom they had promised a crown, and Dee notified Elizabeth of the transmuting of a piece of a warming pan into gold. But Kelley was becoming unbearable, and presently the two separated. ■ Dee was quite ready to accept Elizabeth’s invitation to return, was kindly received by her towards the end of 1589, and recovered a great part of his library. But his financial position was desperate. From the Queen he could get little but promises, and even such sums as she sent him dwindled on the way. He applied in vain for the Deanery of Gloucester; was promised the Chancellorship of St. Paul’s, in which there was no vacancy', and eventually accepted in 1595 the Wardenship of the Collegiate Foundation of Manchester, where he spent some miserable years in constant enmity with the Fellows. He returned to Mortlake, and died miserably poor in 1608. Dee's magic mirror passed to Lord Londosborouph after belonging to the Mordaunts, Lady Betty Germain, John Duke of Argyll, and others. His globe of polished crystal is at the British Museum. E”"...ssrr riv— —ss