or piece of polished coal. The following account of it is
given, in the supplement to Granger's _Biographical History_.
"The black stone into which Dee used to call his
spirits was in the collection of the Earls of Peterborough,
from whence it came to Lady Elizabeth Germaine. It was next
the property of the late Duke of Argyle, and is now Mr.
Walpole's. It appears upon examination to be nothing more
than a polished piece of cannel coal; but this is what Butler
means when he says,
'Kelly did all his feats upon
The devil's looking-glass--a stone.'"
[Illustration: SHEW-STONE OF DR. DEE, IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.]
He had at this time in his service, as his assistant, one Edward Kelly,
who, like himself, was crazy upon the subject of the philosopher's stone.
There was this difference, however, between them, that, while Dee was more
of an enthusiast than an impostor, Kelly was more of an impostor than an
enthusiast. In early life he was a notary, and had the misfortune to lose
both his ears for forgery. This mutilation, degrading enough in any man,
was destructive to a philosopher; Kelly, therefore, lest his wisdom should
suffer in the world's opinion, wore a black skull-cap, which, fitting
close to his head, and descending over both his cheeks, not only concealed
his loss, but gave him a very solemn and oracular appearance. So well did
he keep his secret, that even Dee, with whom he lived so many years,
appears never to have discovered it. Kelly, with this character, was just
the man to carry on any piece of roguery for his own advantage, or to
nurture the delusions of his master for the same purpose. No sooner did
Dee inform him of the visit he had received from the glorious Uriel, than
Kelly expressed such a fervour of belief, that Dee's heart glowed with
delight. He set about consulting his crystal forthwith, and on the 2d of
December, 1581, the spirits appeared, and held a very extraordinary
discourse with Kelly, which Dee took down in writing. The curious reader
may see this farrago of nonsense among the Harleian Mss. in the British
Museum. The later consultations were published in a folio volume, in 1659,
by Dr. Meric Casaubon, under the title of _A true and faithful Relation of
what passed between Dr. John Dee and some Spirits; tending, had it
succeeded, to a general Alteration of most States and Kingdoms in the
World_.[42]
[42] Lilly the astrologer, in his _Life_, written by himself,
frequently tells of prophecies delivered by the angels in a
manner similar to the angels of Dr. Dee. He says, "The
prophecies were not given vocally by the angels, but by
inspection of the crystal in types and figures, or by
apparition the circular way; where, at some distance, the
angels appear, representing by forms, shapes, and creatures,
what is demanded. It is very rare, yea even in our days,"
quoth that wiseacre, "for any operator or master to hear the
angels speak articulately: when they do speak, _it is like,
the Irish, much in the throat_!"
The fame of these wondrous colloquies soon spread over the country, and
even reached the Continent. Dee at the same time pretended to be in
possession of the _elixir vitæ_, which he stated he had found among the
ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, in Somersetshire. People flocked from far and
near to his house at Mortlake to have their nativities cast, in preference
to visiting astrologers of less renown. They also longed to see a man who,
according to his own account, would never die. Altogether, he carried on a
very profitable trade, but spent so much in drugs and metals to work out
some peculiar process of transmutation, that he never became rich.
About this time there came into England a wealthy polish nobleman, named
Albert Laski, Count Palatine of Siradz. His object was principally, he
said, to visit the court of Queen Elizabeth, the fame of whose glory and
magnificence had reached him in distant Poland. Elizabeth received this
flattering stranger with the most splendid hospitality, and appointed her
favourite Leicester to shew him all that was worth seeing in England. He
visited all the curiosities of London and Westminster, and from thence
proceeded to Oxford and Cambridge, that he might converse with some of the
great scholars whose writings shed lustre upon the land of their birth. He
was very much disappointed at not finding Dr. Dee among them, and told the
Earl of Leicester that he would not have gone to Oxford if he had known
that Dee was not there. The earl promised to introduce him to the great
alchymist on their return to London, and the Pole was satisfied. A few
days afterwards, the earl and Laski being in the antechamber of the Queen,
awaiting an audience of her majesty, Dr. Dee arrived on the same errand,
and was introduced to the Pole.[43] An interesting conversation ensued,
which ended by the stranger inviting himself to dine with the astrologer
at his house at Mortlake. Dee returned home in some tribulation, for he
found he had not money enough, without pawning his plate, to entertain
Count Laski and his retinue in a manner becoming their dignity. In this
emergency he sent off an express to the Earl of Leicester, stating frankly
the embarrassment he laboured under, and praying his good offices in
representing the matter to her majesty. Elizabeth immediately sent him a
present of twenty pounds.
[43] Albert Laski, son of Jaroslav, was Palatine of Siradz, and
afterwards of Sendomir, and chiefly contributed to the
election of Henry of Valois, the Third of France, to the
throne of Poland, and was one of the delegates who went to
France in order to announce to the new monarch his elevation
to the sovereignty of Poland. After the deposition of Henry,
Albert Laski voted for Maximilian of Austria. In 1583 he
visited England, when Queen Elizabeth received him with great
distinction. The honours which were shewn him during his
visit to Oxford, by the especial command of the Queen, were
equal to those rendered to sovereign princes. His
extraordinary prodigality rendered his enormous wealth
insufficient to defray his expenses, and he therefore became
a zealous adept in alchymy, and took from England to Poland
with him two known alchymists.--Count Valerian Krasinski's
_Historical Sketch of the Reformation in Poland_.
On the appointed day Count Laski came, attended by a numerous retinue, and
expressed such open and warm admiration of the wonderful attainments of
his host, that Dee turned over in his own mind how he could bind
irretrievably to his interests a man who seemed so well inclined to become
his friend. Long acquaintance with Kelly had imbued him with all the
roguery of that personage, and he resolved to make the Pole pay dearly for
his dinner. He found out before many days that he possessed great estates
in his own country, as well as great influence, but that an extravagant
disposition had reduced him to temporary embarrassment. He also discovered
that he was a firm believer in the philosopher's stone and the water of
life. He was therefore just the man upon whom an adventurer might fasten
himself. Kelly thought so too; and both of them set to work to weave a
web, in the meshes of which they might firmly entangle the rich and
credulous stranger. They went very cautiously about it; first throwing out
obscure hints of the stone and the elixir, and finally of the spirits, by
means of whom they could turn over the pages of the book of futurity, and
read the awful secrets inscribed therein. Laski eagerly implored that he
might be admitted to one of their mysterious interviews with Uriel and the
angels; but they knew human nature too well to accede at once to the
request. To the count's entreaties they only replied by hints of the
difficulty or impropriety of summoning the spirits in the presence of a
stranger, or of one who might perchance have no other motive than the
gratification of a vain curiosity; but they only meant to whet the edge of
his appetite by this delay, and would have been sorry indeed if the count
had been discouraged. To shew how exclusively the thoughts both of Dee and
Kelly were fixed upon their dupe at this time, it is only necessary to
read the introduction to their first interview with the spirits, related
in the volume of Dr. Casaubon. The entry made by Dee, under the date of
the 25th of May, 1583, says, that when the spirit appeared to them, "I
[John Dee] and E. K. [Edward Kelly] sat together, conversing of that noble
Polonian Albertus Laski, his great honour here with us obtained, and of
his great liking among all sorts of the people." No doubt they were
discussing how they might make the most of the "noble Polonian," and
concocting the fine story with which they afterwards excited his
curiosity, and drew him firmly within their toils. "Suddenly," says Dee,
as they were thus employed, "there seemed to come out of the oratory a
spiritual creature, like a pretty girl of seven or nine years of age,
attired on her head, with her hair rolled up before and hanging down
behind, with a gown of silk, of changeable red and green, and with a
train. She seemed to play up and down, and seemed to go in and out behind
the books; and as she seemed to go between them, the books displaced
themselves, and made way for her."
With such tales as these they lured on the Pole from day to day, and at
last persuaded him to be a witness of their mysteries. Whether they played
off any optical delusions upon him, or whether, by the force of a strong
imagination, he deluded himself, does not appear, but certain it is that
he became a complete tool in their hands, and consented to do whatever
they wished him. Kelly, at these interviews, placed himself at a certain
distance from the wondrous crystal, and gazed intently upon it, while Dee
took his place in a corner, ready to set down the prophecies as they were
uttered by the spirits. In this manner they prophesied to the Pole that he
should become the fortunate possessor of the philosopher's stone; that he
should live for centuries, and be chosen King of Poland, in which capacity
he should gain many great victories over the Saracens, and make his name
illustrious over all the earth. For this purpose it was necessary,
however, that Laski should leave England, and take them with him, together
with their wives and families; that he should treat them all sumptuously,
and allow them to want for nothing. Laski at once consented; and very
shortly afterwards they were all on the road to Poland.
It took them upwards of four months to reach the count's estates in the
neighbourhood of Cracow. In the mean time, they led a pleasant life, and
spent money with an unsparing hand. When once established in the count's
palace, they commenced the great hermetic operation of transmuting iron
into gold. Laski provided them with all necessary materials, and aided
them himself with his knowledge of alchymy; but, somehow or other, the
experiment always failed at the very moment it ought to have succeeded,
and they were obliged to recommence operations on a grander scale. But the
hopes of Laski were not easily extinguished. Already, in idea, the
possessor of countless millions, he was not to be cast down for fear of
present expenses. He thus continued from day to day, and from month to
month, till he was at last obliged to sell a portion of his
deeply-mortgaged estates to find aliment for the hungry crucibles of Dee
and Kelly, and the no less hungry stomachs of their wives and families. It
was not till ruin stared him in the face that he awoke from his dream of
infatuation, too happy, even then, to find that he had escaped utter
beggary. Thus restored to his senses, his first thought was how to rid
himself of his expensive visitors. Not wishing to quarrel with them, he
proposed that they should proceed to Prague, well furnished with letters
of recommendation to the Emperor Rudolph. Our alchymists too plainly saw
that nothing more was to be made of the almost destitute Count Laski.
Without hesitation, therefore, they accepted the proposal, and set out
forthwith to the imperial residence. They had no difficulty, on their
arrival at Prague, in obtaining an audience of the emperor. They found him
willing enough to believe that such a thing as the philosopher's stone
existed, and flattered themselves that they had made a favourable
impression upon him; but, from some cause or other--perhaps the look of
low cunning and quackery upon the face of Kelly--the emperor conceived no
very high opinion of their abilities. He allowed them, however, to remain
for some months at Prague, feeding themselves upon the hope that he would
employ them; but the more he saw of them, the less he liked them; and,
when the pope's nuncio represented to him that he ought not to countenance
such heretic magicians, he gave orders that they should quit his dominions
within four-and-twenty hours. It was fortunate for them that so little
time was given them; for, had they remained six hours longer, the nuncio
had received orders to procure a perpetual dungeon or the stake for them.
Not knowing well whither to direct their steps, they resolved to return to
Cracow, where they had still a few friends; but, by this time, the funds
they had drawn from Laski were almost exhausted, and they were many days
obliged to go dinnerless and supperless. They had great difficulty to keep
their poverty a secret from the world; but they managed to bear privation
without murmuring, from a conviction that if the fact were known, it would
militate very much against their pretensions. Nobody would believe that
they were possessors of the philosopher's stone, if it were once suspected
that they did not know how to procure bread for their subsistence. They
still gained a little by casting nativities, and kept starvation at arm's
length, till a new dupe, rich enough for their purposes, dropped into
their toils, in the shape of a royal personage. Having procured an
introduction to Stephen king of Poland, they predicted to him that the
Emperor Rudolph would shortly be assassinated, and that the Germans would
look to Poland for his successor. As this prediction was not precise
enough to satisfy the king, they tried their crystal again, and a spirit
appeared who told them that the new sovereign of Germany would be Stephen
of Poland. Stephen was credulous enough to believe them, and was once
present when Kelly held his mystic conversations with the shadows of his
crystal. He also appears to have furnished them with money to carry on
their experiments in alchymy; but he grew tired, at last, of their broken
promises and their constant drains upon his pocket, and was on the point
of discarding them with disgrace, when they met with another dupe, to whom
they eagerly transferred their services. This was Count Rosenberg, a
nobleman of large estates at Trebona in Bohemia. So comfortable did they
find themselves in the palace of this munificent patron, that they
remained nearly four years with him, faring sumptuously, and having an
almost unlimited command of his money. The count was more ambitious than
avaricious: he had wealth enough, and did not care for the philosopher's
stone on account of the gold, but of the length of days it would bring
him. They had their predictions, accordingly, all ready framed to suit his
character. They prophesied that he should be chosen king of Poland; and
promised, moreover, that he should live for five hundred years to enjoy
his dignity, provided always that he found them sufficient money to carry
on their experiments.
But now, while fortune smiled upon them, while they revelled in the
rewards of successful villany, retributive justice came upon them in a
shape they had not anticipated. Jealousy and mistrust sprang up between
the two confederates, and led to such violent and frequent quarrels, that
Dee was in constant fear of exposure. Kelly imagined himself a much
greater personage than Dee; measuring, most likely, by the standard of
impudent roguery; and was displeased that on all occasions, and from all
persons, Dee received the greater share of honour and consideration. He
often threatened to leave Dee to shift for himself; and the latter, who
had degenerated into the mere tool of his more daring associate, was
distressed beyond measure at the prospect of his desertion. His mind was
so deeply imbued with superstition, that he believed the rhapsodies of
Kelly to be, in a great measure, derived from his intercourse with angels;
and he knew not where, in the whole world, to look for a man of depth and
wisdom enough to succeed him. As their quarrels every day became more and
more frequent, Dee wrote letters to Queen Elizabeth to secure a favourable
reception on his return to England, whither he intended to proceed if
Kelly forsook him. He also sent her a round piece of silver, which he
pretended he had made of a portion of brass cut out of a warming-pan. He
afterwards sent her the warming-pan also, that she might convince herself
that the piece of silver corresponded exactly with the hole which was cut
into the brass. While thus preparing for the worst, his chief desire was
to remain in Bohemia with Count Rosenberg, who treated him well, and
reposed much confidence in him. Neither had Kelly any great objection to
remain; but a new passion had taken possession of his breast, and he was
laying deep schemes to gratify it. His own wife was ill-favoured and
ill-natured; Dee's was comely and agreeable; and he longed to make an
exchange of partners without exciting the jealousy or shocking the
morality of Dee. This was a difficult matter; but to a man like Kelly, who
was as deficient in rectitude and right feeling as he was full of
impudence and ingenuity, the difficulty was not insurmountable. He had
also deeply studied the character and the foibles of Dee; and he took his
measures accordingly. The next time they consulted the spirits, Kelly
pretended to be shocked at their language, and refused to tell Dee what
they had said. Dee insisted, and was informed that they were henceforth to
have their wives in common. Dee, a little startled, inquired whether the
spirits might not mean that they were to live in common harmony and
good-will? Kelly tried again, with apparent reluctance, and said the
spirits insisted upon the literal interpretation. The poor fanatic Dee
resigned himself to their will; but it suited Kelly's purpose to appear
coy a little longer. He declared that the spirits must be spirits not of
good, but of evil; and refused to consult them any more. He thereupon took
his departure, saying that he would never return.
Dee, thus left to himself, was in sore trouble and distress of mind. He
knew not on whom to fix as the successor to Kelly for consulting the
spirits; but at last chose his son Arthur, a boy of eight years of age. He
consecrated him to this service with great ceremony, and impressed upon
the child's mind the dignified and awful nature of the duties he was
called upon to perform; but the poor boy had neither the imagination, the
faith, nor the artifice of Kelly. He looked intently upon the crystal as
he was told; but could see nothing and hear nothing. At last, when his
eyes ached, he said he could see a vague indistinct shadow, but nothing
more. Dee was in despair. The deception had been carried on so long, that
he was never so happy as when he fancied he was holding converse with
superior beings; and he cursed the day that had put estrangement between
him and his dear friend Kelly. This was exactly what Kelly had foreseen;
and, when he thought the doctor had grieved sufficiently for his absence,
he returned unexpectedly, and entered the room where the little Arthur was
in vain endeavouring to distinguish something in the crystal. Dee, in
entering this circumstance in his journal, ascribes this sudden return to
a "miraculous fortune" and a "divine fate;" and goes on to record that
Kelly immediately saw the spirits which had remained invisible to little
Arthur. One of these spirits reiterated the previous command, that they
should have their wives in common. Kelly bowed his head and submitted; and
Dee, in all humility, consented to the arrangement.
This was the extreme depth of the wretched man's degradation. In this
manner they continued to live for three or four months, when, new quarrels
breaking out, they separated once more. This time their separation was
final. Kelly, taking the _elixir_ which he had found in Glastonbury Abbey,
proceeded to Prague, forgetful of the abrupt mode in which he had
previously been expelled from that city. Almost immediately after his
arrival, he was seized by order of the Emperor Rudolph, and thrown into
prison. He was released after some months' confinement, and continued for
five years to lead a vagabond life in Germany, telling fortunes at one
place, and pretending to make gold at another. He was a second time thrown
into prison, on a charge of heresy and sorcery; and he then resolved, if
ever he obtained his liberty, to return to England. He soon discovered
that there was no prospect of this, and that his imprisonment was likely
to be for life. He twisted his bed-clothes into a rope, one stormy night
in February 1595, and let himself down from the window of his dungeon,
situated at the top of a very high tower. Being a corpulent man, the rope
gave way, and he was precipitated to the ground. He broke two of his ribs
and both his legs; and was otherwise so much injured, that he expired a
few days afterwards.
Dee, for a while, had more prosperous fortune. The warming-pan he had sent
to Queen Elizabeth was not without effect. He was rewarded soon after
Kelly had left him with an invitation to return to England. His pride,
which had been sorely humbled, sprang up again to its pristine dimensions,
and he set out from Bohemia with a train of attendants becoming an
ambassador. How he procured the money does not appear, unless from the
liberality of the rich Bohemian Rosenberg, or perhaps from his plunder. He
travelled with three coaches for himself and family, and three wagons to
carry his baggage. Each coach had four horses, and the whole train was
protected by a guard of four and twenty soldiers. This statement may be
doubted; but it is on the authority of Dee himself, who made it on oath
before the commissioners appointed by Elizabeth to inquire into his
circumstances. On his arrival in England he had an audience of the queen,
who received him kindly as far as words went, and gave orders that he
should not be molested in his pursuits of chemistry and philosophy. A man
who boasted of the power to turn baser metals into gold, could not,
thought Elizabeth, be in want of money; and she therefore gave him no more
substantial marks of her approbation than her countenance and protection.