antiquorum et recentiorum omnium astronomorum modos cometarum et
corporum coelestium distantias et magnitudines metiendi quos unquam
legeram in animum sevocare coeperam, nec quenquam reperire poteram
qui viam huic subtilissimae parallaxi examinandae convenientem
demonstravit. Solus igitur, omnium astronomorum antiquorum et
recentiorum ope orbatus, (in fluctuanti dubitationum plurimarum
pelago jactatus) ad meipsum redii: brevissimoque spatio (foelicibus
mathematicis spirantibus auris) portum optatum assequendi varios cursus
expeditissimos hactenus a nemine exploratos atque ab omni erroris
scopulo tutissimos inveni. Quos in exigui libelli formam redactos
honori tuo exhibere decrevi, mei officii testimonium (nisi me fallit
Philautia) haud vulgari genio conscriptum, neque brevi temporum
curriculo periturum--
[881]Praefatio Authoris.
Sed plura de hujus stellae historia scribere non decrevi quia eximius
vir Johannes Dee (quum in reliqua philosophia admirandus, tum
harum scientiarum peritissimus, quem tanquam mihi parentem alterum
mathematicum veneror, quippe qui in tenerrimâ meâ aetate plurima harum
suavissimarum scientiarum semina menti meae inseruerit, alia a patre
meo prius sata amicissime fidelissimeque nutriverit atque auxerit)
hanc sibi tractandam assumpserit materiam quam.... Conatus igitur
sum et assequutus variis problematibus demonstrative et practice
exactissime parallaxin hujus phaenomeni et cujusvis etiam alterius
concludere, licet Saturni Jovis et Martis parallaxeis adeo sint exiguae
ut sensuum imbecillitate vix discerni possint. Si tamen ulla arte vere
animadverti queant (hoc ausim dicere) aut his nostris sequentibus
problematibus aut nullis penitus praeceptis geometricis inveniri
posse--Si aequi bonique consuleris, majora (annuenti potentissimo)
in posterum promitto, quibus (non probabilibus solummodo argumentis
sed firmissimis apodixibus) demonstrabitur verissimam esse Copernici
hactenus explosum de terrae motu paradoxum--1573.
To these _Alae seu Scalae_ Mr. Digges hath annexed
Parallaticae commentationis praxeos nucleus quidam, Jo. Day--
writ by John Dee, a small treatise, Lond. 1573; and hath writ thus
Lectori Benevolo.
--Me autem isti meo opusculo annectere et in lucem simul emittere
variae impulere causae--Iᵐᵃ ne charissimus mihi illius author debita
suae inventionis privaretur laude: cum nonnulli fortassis si postea
ederetur suspicari possint a meis methodis derivatum fuisse. Fateor
equidem adeo late mea sese extendere fundamina ut tum istiusmodi tum
plurimi etiam alii nuclei inde excerpi possint, etc.
[882]_Pantometria_, containing longimetria, planimetria,
stereometria--was writ by Leonard Digges, esq., but published by his
sonne Thomas Digges esqr. and dedicated to Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight,
Lord Keeper, lately reviewed and augmented by the author, printed at
London, 1591.
In the preface, thus:--
'But to leave things doone of antiquity long ago, my father, by
his continuall painfull practises, assisted with demonstrations
mathematicall, was able, and sundry times hath, by proportionall
glasses duely situate in convenient angles, not onely discovered things
farre off, read letters, numbred peeces of money with the very coyne
and superscription thereof cast by some of his freends on purpose upon
downes in open fields but also seven miles off declared what hath been
doone at that instant in private places; he hath also at sundry times
by the sunne fired powder and discharged ordinance halfe a mile and
more distant--which things I am the bolder to report for that there
are yet living diverse of these his doeings _oculati testes_, and many
other matters far more strange and rare which I omit as impertinent to
this place. But for invention of these conclusions I have heard him say
nothing ever helped him so much as the exquisite knowledge he had, by
continuall practise, attained in geometricall mensurations.'
=Michael Drayton= (1563-1631).
[883]Michael Drayton, esq., natus in Warwickshire at Atherston upon
Stower (quaere Thomas Mariett).
He was a butcher's sonne. Was a squire; viz. one of the esquires to Sir
Walter Aston, Knight of the Bath, to whom he dedicated his Poeme. Sir
J. Brawne of ... was a great patron of his.
He lived at the bay-windowe house next the east end of St. Dunstan's
Church in Fleet-street. Sepult. in north + of Westminster Abbey.
The countesse of Dorset[884] (Clifford) gave his monument: this Mr.
Marshall (the stone-cutter), who made it, told me so.
Sir Edward Bissh, Clarencieux, told me he asked Mr. Selden once
(jestingly) whether he wrote the commentary to his 'Polyolbion' and
'Epistles,' or Mr. Drayton made those verses to his notes.
Vide his inscription given by the countess of Dorset.
_In Westminster Abbey, neer Spencer._
MICHAEL DRAYTON, ESQUIER,
[Sidenote: A MERCURIE'S CAP IN THE SUN[885].]
[Sidenote: A PEGASUS[885].]
A memorable Poet of this age, exchanged his Laurel for
a Crowne of Glorie, Anno 1631.
Doe, pious marble, let thy readers knowe
What they, and what their children owe
To DRAYTON'S name, whose sacred dust
We recommend unto thy trust.
Protecte his mem'ry, and preserve his storie,
Remaine a lasting monument of his glorye.
And when thy ruines shall disclame
To be the treas'rer of his name,
His name, that cannot fade, shall bee
An everlasting monument to thee.
Here is his bust in alablaster. The inscription is on black marble.
Mr. Marshall, the stone-cutter, of Fetter-lane, also told me, that
these verses were made by Mr. Francis Quarles, who was his great
friend, and whose head he wrought curiously in playster, and valued for
his sake. 'Tis pitty it should be lost. Mr. Quarles was a very good man.
=Sir Erasmus Dryden= (1553-1632).
[886]Sir Erasmus Dryden, of <Canons Ashby> in Northamptonshire:--John
Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureat, tells me that there was a great friendship
between his great grandfather's father[887] and Erasmus Roterodamus,
and Erasmus was god-father to one of his sonnes, and the Christian name
of Erasmus hath been kept in the family ever since. The poet's second
sonne is Erasmus.
And at ..., the seate of the family, is a chamber called 'Erasmus's
chamber.'
I ghesse that this coate[888]--'azure, a lion rampant and in chief a
sphere between 2 estoiles or'--was graunted in Henry 8th's time by the
odnesse of the charge.
=John Dryden= (1631-1700).
[889]John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureate. He will write it[890] for me
himselfe.
[891]John Dryden, poeta, <born> 19 Aug. 1631, 5ʰ 33´ 16˝ P.M.
[892]'Natus insignis poeta
1631
Aug. 9°, 5ʰ 53´ P.M.
Latit. 52° North.'
This is the nativity of Mr. John Dreyden, poet laureat, by Mr. John
Gadbury, from whom I had it.
=Sir William Dugdale= (1605-1685/6).
[893]Sir William Dugdale, Garter, <born> 12 Sept. 1605, 3ʰ 15´ P.M.
[894]'Sir[EC] William Dugdale avow'd to mee <that> at the time of his
birth (10 September, as I thinke, which was the birth day of Francis
the first) a swarme of bees came and settled under the window where hee
was borne, September 18. Johan. Gybbon.'
Memorandum that Sir William Dugdale did not tell his son or Mr. Gibbons
de Edward the Confessor and he laught at it--quod N. B.
'Sir[ED] William Dugdale was borne September 12, 1605'--from Mr.
Gibbons, Blewmantle. That afternoon a swarme of bees pitch't under
his mother's chamber window, as it were an omen of his laborious
collections.
_Notes._
[EC] This is a note in the handwriting of John Gibbon ('Blue Mantle'
pursuivant, 1668); followed by a memorandum by Aubrey.
[ED] A note by Gibbon, correcting the previous one: followed by a
memorandum by Aubrey.
=Sir John Dunstable.=
[895]Sir John Dunstable:--the cellar he calls his library.--Parliament
men prepare themselves for the businesse of the nation with ale in the
morning. Some justices doe sleepe on the bench every assizes.
[896]At Chippenham the Deputye Lieutenants mett to see the order of the
militia, but quales D: Lieutenants tales officiarii. After a taedious
setting (at dinner, and drinking after dinner) the drummes beate and
the soldiers to march before the windowe to be seen by the Deputy
Lieutenants. Justice Wagstaffe[EE] (colonell) had not marcht before 'em
many yardes but downe a falls all along in the dirt. His myrmidons,
multâ vi, heav'd him up, and then a cryd out 'Some drinke, ho!' and so
there was an end of that businesse.
_Note._
[EE] The hero of the anecdote is no doubt Sir John Dunstable. In
the _Dramatis personae_ for Aubrey's projected comedy, one of the
characters is 'Justice Wagstaffe' (MS. Aubr. 21, p. 2), over which name
Aubrey has written 'Sir J. Dunstable,' apparently as the name of the
person he meant to copy.
=Saint Dunstan= (925-988).
[897]I find in Mr. Selden's verses before Hopton's 'Concordance of
Yeares,' that he was a Somersetshire gentleman. He was a great chymist.
The storie of his pulling the devill by the nose with his tongues as he
was in his laboratorie[898], was[899] famous in church-windowes. Vide
... Gazaei _Pia Hilaria_, <where it is> delicately described.
He was a Benedictine monke at Glastonbury, where he was afterwards
abbot, and after that was made archbishop of Canterbury. He preached
the coronation sermon at Kingston, and crowned king <Edwy>. In his
sermon he prophesyed, which the Chronicle mentions.
Mr. Meredith Lloyd tells me that there is a booke in print of his de
lapide philosophorum; quaere nomen.
Edwardus Generosus gives a good account of him in a manuscript which
Mr. Ashmole haz.
Meredith Lloyd had, about the beginning of the civill warres, a MS. of
this Saint's concerning chymistrey, and sayes that there are severall
MSS. of his up and downe in England: quaere Mr. Ashmole.
Edwardus Generosus mentions that he could make a fire out of gold, with
which he could sett any combustible matter on fire at a great distance.
Memorandum:--in Westminster library is an old printed booke, in folio,
of the lives of the old English Saints: vide.
Meredith Lloyd tells me that, three or 400 yeares ago, chymistry was
in a greater perfection, much, then now; their proces was then more
seraphique and universall: now they looke only after medicines.
Severall churches are dedicated to him: two at London: quaere if one at
Glastonbury.
=Sir Edward Dyer= (15..-1607).
[900]Sir Edward Dyer, of Somersetshire (Sharpham Parke, etc.), was a
great witt, poet, and acquaintance of Mary, countesse of Pembroke, and
Sir Philip Sydney. He is mentioned in the preface of the 'Arcadia.' He
had four thousand pounds per annum, and was left fourscore thousand
pounds in money; he wasted it almost all. This I had from captaine
Dyer, his great grandsonne, or brother's great grandson. I thought he
had been the sonne of the Lord Chiefe Justice Dyer, as I have inserted
in one of these papers, but that was a mistake. The judge was of the
same family, the captain tells me.
=St. Edmund= (1170?-1240).
[901]Seth, lord bishop of Sarum, tells me that he finds Saint Edmund
was borne at Abington. He was archbishop of Canterbury. He built the
college at Sarum, by St. Edmund's Church: it is now Judge Wyndham's
sonne's howse. He resigned his archbishoprick, and came and retired
hither. In St. Edmund's church here[902], were windowes of great value.
Gundamore[903] offered a good summe for them; I have forgott <what>. In
one of them was the picture of God the Father, like an old man (as the
fashion was), which much offended Mr. Shervill, the recorder, who in
zeale (but without knowledge) clambered up on the pewes[904] to breake
the windowe, and fell downe and brake his legg (about 1629); but that
did not excuse him for being question'd in the Starre-chamber for it.
Mr. Attorney Noy was his great friend, and shewed his friendship there.
But what Mr. Shervill left undonne, the soldiers since have gonne
through with, that there is not a piece of glass-painting left.
'Edmundus, Cant.[905] A.B., primus legit Elementa Euclidis, Oxoniæ,
1290[906]; Mr. Hugo perlegit librum Aristotelis Analytic. Oxon.;
Rogerus Bacon vixit A.D. 1292.'--This out of an old booke in the
library of University College, Oxon.
=Thomas Egerton=, lord Ellesmere (1540-1616/7).
[907]Sir Thomas Egerton[EF], Lord Chancellor, was the naturall sonne of
Sir Richard Egerton of <Ridley> in Cheshire.--This information I had 30
yeares since from Sir John Egerton of Egerton in Cheshire, baronet, the
chiefe of that family.
He was of Lincoln's-Inne, and I have heard Sir John Danvers say that
he was so hard a student, that in three or 4 yeares time he was not out
of the howse. He had good parts, and early came into good practise.
My old father, Colonel Sharington Talbot[LXXII.], told me that
(Gilbert, I thinke), earle of Shrewesbury, desired him to buy that
noble mannour of Ellesmer for him, and delivered him the money. Egerton
liked the bargain and the seate so well, that truly he e'en kept it for
himselfe, and afterwards made it his baronry, but the money he restored
to the earl of Shrewsbury again[908].
[LXXII.] He had, I believe, 200 adopted sonnes.
Dyed ..., and was buried....
He was a great patron to Ben Johnson, as appeares by severall epistles
to him.
His son and heire, since earle of Bridgewater, was an indefatigable
ringer--vide the ballad.
[909]Chancellor Egerton haz a monument in the south wall of St.
Martin's-in-the-fields chancell; but the upper part (greatest) is
covered with a pue or gallerie.
Tuta[910] frequensque via est, per amici fallere nomen;
Tuta frequensque licet sit via, crimen habet.
OVID <Ars Amat. i. 585>.
Translated by Theophilus Wodinoth:--
A safe and common way it is by friendship to decieve,
But safe and common though it be, 'tis knavery, by your leave.
_Note._
[EF] Aubrey gives in colours the coat:--'argent, a lion rampant gules
between 3 pheons sable [Egerton].'
=George Ent= (16..-1679).
[911]G. Ent[912] obiit Septemb. 2, 1679. Buried in the north of the
rotundo at the Temple Church. Motto of his ring:--
Quam totus homuncio nil est[913].
_Note._
In August, 1674, this George Ent came to Oxford, to live there. He
brought with him a letter of introduction from Aubrey to Anthony
Wood, which is now in MS. Ballard 14. Wood and he did not get on,
and Aubrey several times makes excuses for his friend; e.g. Aug. 26,
1674 (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 110), 'he is a very honest gentleman and
his rhodomontades you will easily pardon.' The quarrels, however,
became fiercer. Aubrey to Wood, March 9, 1674/5, (MS. Ballard 14, fol.
115):--'I am exceeding sorry for Mr. Ent's strangenesse to you; but
'tis confess't his friends must beare with him. I did not shew him your
letter; but, expostulating with him, and he being cholerique, etc., I
read only that paragraph where he "introduced into your company two
boy-bachelors and upbrayded you with dotage"--.'
=Desiderius Erasmus= (1467-1536).
[914]'Nascitur Erasmus Roterodamus anno 1467, Octob. die 27, horâ 16,
30´: poli elevatio 54° 0´'--<from> David Origanus, p. 603.
'Mercurius, Venus, Luna et Leo conjuncti, praesertim in ascendente,
faciunt oratores doctissimos. Talis ex parte fuit constitutio Erasmi
Roterodami, cujus judicium gravissimum, ingenium acutissimum, et oratio
copiosissima, ex scriptis editis eruditissimis, omnibus nota est.
Habuit enim Mercurium cum Venere in horoscopo, in signo aereo Libram,
et Jovem trigono radio Mercurium et Venerem intuentem'--<from ibid.>
pag. 601.
Obiit anno Domini MDXXXVI, mense Julii--vide praefationem de obitu
Erasmi ante Epistolas, impressas Antverpiae MDXLV.
[915]Erasmus Roterodamus was like to have been a bishop--vide Epistolas.
[916]Desiderius Erasmus, Roterodamus:--
His name was 'Gerard Gerard,' which he translated into 'Desiderius
Erasmus.'
He was _begot_ (as they say) _behind dores_--vide an Italian booke
in 8vo. _de famosi Bastardi_: vide Anton. Possevini _Apparatus_. His
father (as he says in his life, writt by himselfe) was the tenth and
youngest son of his grandfather: who was therfore designed to be
dedicated to God.--'Pater Gerardus cum Margareta (medici cujusdam
Petri filia), spe conjugii (et sunt qui intercessisse verba dicunt),
vixit.'
His father tooke great care to send him to an excellent schoole, which
was at Dusseldorf, in Cleveland. He was a tender chitt, and his mother
would not entruste him at board[917], but tooke a house there, and made
him cordialls, etc.--from John Pell, D.D.
He loved not fish, though borne in a fish towne--from Sir George Ent,
M.D.
<From> Dr. John Pell:--he was of the order of ..., whose habit was the
same that the pest-house master at ... (I thinke, Pisa: quaere Dr. John
Pell) in Italie wore; and walking in that towne, people beckoned him to
goe out of the way, taking him to be the master of the pest-house; and
he not understanding the meaning, and keeping on his way, was there by
one well basted. He made his complaint when he came to Rome, and had a
dispensation for his habit.
He studied sometime in Queens Colledge in Cambridge: his chamber was
over the water. Quaere Mr. Paschal more particularly; and if a fellowe:
he[918] had his study when a young scholar here.
'The staires which rise up to his studie at Queens Colledge in
Cambridge doe bring first into two of the fairest chambers in the
ancient building; in one of them, which lookes into the hall and chiefe
court, the Vice-President kept in my time; in that adjoyning, it was my
fortune to be, when fellow. The chambers over are good lodgeing roomes;
and to one of them is a square turret adjoyning, in the upper part of
which is that study of Erasmus; and over it leades. To that belongs
the best prospect about the colledge, viz. upon the river, into the
corne-fields, and countrey adjoyning, etc.; ☞ so that it might very
well consist with the civility of the House to that great man (who
was no fellow, and I think stayed not long there) to let him have that
study. His keeping roome might be either the Vice-President's, or, to
be neer to him, the next; the room for his servitor that above, over
it, and through it he might goe to that studie, which for the height,
and neatnesse, and prospect, might easily take his phancy.' This from
Mr. Andrew Paschal, Rector of Chedzoy in Somerset, June 15, 1680.
He mentions his being there in one of his Epistles, and blames the
beere there. One, long since, wrote, in the margent of the booke
in <the> College library in which that is sayd, '_Sicut erat in
principio_, etc.'; and all Mr. Paschall's time they found fault with
the brewer.
He had the parsonage (quaere value) of Aldington in Kent, which is
about 3 degrees perhaps a healthier place then Dr. Pell's parsonage in
Essex. I wonder they could not find for him[919] better preferment; but
I see that the Sun and Aries being in the second house[920], he was not
borne to be a rich man.
He built a schoole at Roterdam, and endowed it, and ordered the
institution[921]. Sir George Ent was educated there. A statue in brasse
is erected to his memory on the bridge in Roterdam.
'The last five bookes of Livy nowe extant, found by Symon Grinaeus
in the library of a monastery over against the citie of Wormbs, are
dedicated by Erasmus Roterodamus unto Charles the son of William lord
Montjoy in the reigne of Henry the eight of famous memory, king of
England, etc.'--Philemon Holland's translation.
Sir Charles Blount, of Maple-Durham, in com. Oxon. (neer Reding),
was his scholar (in his Epistles there are some to him), and desired
Erasmus to doe him the favour[922] to sitt for his picture, and he did
so, and it is an excellent piece: which picture my cosen John Danvers,
of Baynton (Wilts), haz: his wive's grandmother was Sir Charles
Blount's daughter or grand-daughter. 'Twas pitty such a rarity should
have been aliend from the family, but the issue male is lately extinct.
I will sometime or other endeavour to gett it for Oxford Library.
They were wont to say that Erasmus was interpendent between Heaven and
Hell, till, about the year 1655 (quaere Dr. Pell), the Conclave at Rome
damned him for a heretique, after he had been dead ... yeares.
Vita Erasmi, Erasmo autore, is before his Colloquia, printed at
Amstelodam. MDCXLIV. But there is a good account of his life, and also
of his death, scil. at Basil, and where buried, before his Colloquies
printed at London.
His deepest divinity is where a man would least expect it: viz. in his
Colloquies in a Dialogue between a Butcher and a Fishmonger, Ἰχθυοφαγία.
_Scripsit._
Colloquia: dedicated 'optimae spei puero Johanni Erasmio Frobenio.'
Liber utilissimus de conscribendis epistolis: dedicated 'ad Nicolaum
Beraldum.'
Liber Adagiorum.
Verborum Copia.
Epistolae.
Exhortatio ad pacem ecclesiasticam.
Paraphrasis in quatuor Evangelistas.
Matth.--dedicated Carolo, Imperatori.
Joan.--dedicated Ferdinando, Catholico.
Lucas--to Henr. 8, Rex Angl.
Marcus--to Francisc. I, Gall. Rex.
Novum Testamentum transtulit: memorandum--Henry Standish, bishop of St.
Asaph, wrote a booke against his Translation on the New Testament; vide
Sir Richard Baker's _Chronicle_ (Henry VIII).
If my memorie failes me not, I have read in the first edition of Sir
Richard Baker's _Chronicle_ (quaere) that the Syntaxis in our English
Grammar was writt by Erasmus.
Memorandum:--Julius Scaliger contested with Erasmus, but gott nothing
by it, for, as Fuller sayth, he was like a badger, that never bitt but
he made his teeth meet. He was the Πρόδρομος of our knowledge, and the
man that made the rough and untrodden wayes smooth and passable[923].
=Anthony Ettrick= (1622-1703).
[924]Anthony Ettrick, esq., borne at Berford in the parish of
Wimburne-Minster com. Dorset, November the 15th (viz. the same day that
Queen Katherine), A.D. 1622--quaere horam--on a Sunday. His mother
would say he was a Sundaye's bird.
His eldest son, Mr. William Ettrick, was borne also on the 15 of
November, A.D. 1651.
Maried Aug. 1651.
Reader at the Middle Temple 167-.
=John Evelyn= (1620-1706).
[925]John Evelyn, esq., Regiae Societatis Socius, drew his first breath
at Wotton in the county of Surrey[EG], A.D. 1620, 31 October, 1ᵐᵃ hora
mane.
_Note._
[EG] In MS. Wood F. 49, fol. 39, is the cover of Aubrey's _Surrey
Collections_:--'An essay towards the description of the county of
Surrey, by Mr. John Aubrey, Fellow of the Royall Societie.' On the back
of this, fol. 39ᵛ, Aubrey has the note:--'Note that the annotations
marked J. E. are of John Evelyn, esq., R.S.S.' These Surrey collections
are now MS. Aubr. 4.
=Thomas Fairfax=, 3rd baron (1611-1671).
[926]Thomas, lord Fairfax of Cameron, Lord Generall of the Parliament
armie:--Memorandum, when Oxford was surrendred[927] (24º Junii
1646), the first thing generall Fairfax did was to sett a good guard
of soldiers to preserve the Bodleian Library. 'Tis said there was
more hurt donne by the cavaliers (during their garrison) by way of
embezilling and cutting-off chaines of bookes, then there was since.
He was a lover of learning, and had he not taken this speciall care,
that noble library had been utterly destroyed--quod N. B.; for there
were ignorant senators enough who would have been contented to have had
it so. This I doe assure you from an ocular witnesse, E. W. esq.[928]
He haz a copie of verses before ... in folio.
=George Feriby= (1573-16..).
[929]In tempore Jacobi one Mr. George Ferraby was parson of Bishops
Cannings in Wilts: an excellent musitian, and no ill poet. When queen
Anne came to Bathe, her way lay to traverse the famous Wensdyke,
which runnes through his parish. He made severall of his neighbours
good musitians, to play with him in consort, and to sing. Against
her majestie's comeing, he made a pleasant pastorall, and gave her
an entertaynment with his fellow songsters in shepherds' weeds and
bagpipes, he himself like an old bard. After that wind musique was
over, they sang their pastorall eglogues (which I have, to insert in to
liber B.).
He was one of the king's chaplaines. 'Twas he caused the 8 bells to be
cast there, being a very good ringer.
He hath only one sermon in print that I know of, at the funerall of Mr.
<John> Drew of the Devises, called _Life's Farwell_.
He was demy, if not fellow, of Magdalen College, Oxon.
[930]Thomas[931] Ferraby, formerly a demy or fellow of Magdalen
College, Oxon, minister of Bishops Cannings, Wilts, was an ingeniose
man and a good musitian and composer.