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Article ACCOUNT OF DR. DEE, THE ASTROLOGER. ← Page 5 of 6 →
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Account Of Dr. Dee, The Astrologer.
throne , when she promised , that where her brother had given him a crown , she would give him a noble . The instances of her Majesty ' s attention to him were striking and numerous , and . certainly prove either that she was indebted to him for real , or that he duped hev by magnifying the importance of imaginary , services . When he was sick , the Queen ordered her own physicians to attend him , " sent '
him divers rarities to eat , and the Hon . Lady Sydney to attend on him , and comfort him with divers speeches from her Majesty , pithy and gracious ! " The Queen frequently visited him at his house at Mortlake ; one day she came on horseback , and " exhorted him'to take his mother ' s death patiently . " Another time , as he describes it himself she came from Richmond in her coachthe higher of
, " , way Mortlake field , ' and when she came rig ht against the church , she turned down ( says he ) towards my house , and when she was against my garden in the field , her Majesty staid there a good while , and taen came into ' fhe field at the great gate of the field , where her Majesty espied me at my door , making reverent and dutiful obeysances to herand with her hand her Majesty beckoned me to come unto
; her , and I came to her coach-side ; her Majesty then very speedily pulled off her glove , and gave me her hand to kiss ; and to be ' short , her Majesty willed me to resort oftener to her court , and by some of Iter privy chamber to give her to weete when I-am there . " Dee was undoubtedly a man of very great research and singular character and learning , as is evident by his various writings both
p rinted and MS . in almost every science . He wrote upon the reformation ofthe Gregorian calendar ; on the mode of propagating the Gospel on the other side of the Atlantic ; on geography ; natural philosophy , particularly optics ; mathematics ; metaphysics ; astronomy ; astrology ; and the occult sciences . He wrote an account also of his voyage to St . Helena , and a treatise on the Queen ' s right to certain forei countries ; and projected a scheme for the preservation
gn of ancient MSS . by establishing a general repository , a plan which is in a great measure realised by that noble national collection at the British Museum . Whether with all his learning he was himself the dupe of ah enthusiastic imagination , or whether he availed himself of his knowledge to dupe others in an age when all ranks were given to credulity , may perhaps admit of a question . I own 1 am rather
inclined to the latter opinion . As a proof of the superstition and credulity of the age , it will not be amiss to mention that Dee was employed to determine according to the . opinion ofthe ancient astrologers , what day would be the most fortunate for Queen Elizabeth's coronation . Some time afterwards he was sent for by the lords of the council to counteract the ill effects which it was apprehended would ,
befal the Queen from a waxen image of her Majesty stuck full of pins , which was picked up in Lincoln ' s-inn fields . This we are told he performed " in a godly and artificial manner , " in the presence of the Earl of Leicester and Mr . Secretary Wilson . Dr . Dee was much connected with the Earl , and has been accused of being an instrument
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of Dr. Dee, The Astrologer.
throne , when she promised , that where her brother had given him a crown , she would give him a noble . The instances of her Majesty ' s attention to him were striking and numerous , and . certainly prove either that she was indebted to him for real , or that he duped hev by magnifying the importance of imaginary , services . When he was sick , the Queen ordered her own physicians to attend him , " sent '
him divers rarities to eat , and the Hon . Lady Sydney to attend on him , and comfort him with divers speeches from her Majesty , pithy and gracious ! " The Queen frequently visited him at his house at Mortlake ; one day she came on horseback , and " exhorted him'to take his mother ' s death patiently . " Another time , as he describes it himself she came from Richmond in her coachthe higher of
, " , way Mortlake field , ' and when she came rig ht against the church , she turned down ( says he ) towards my house , and when she was against my garden in the field , her Majesty staid there a good while , and taen came into ' fhe field at the great gate of the field , where her Majesty espied me at my door , making reverent and dutiful obeysances to herand with her hand her Majesty beckoned me to come unto
; her , and I came to her coach-side ; her Majesty then very speedily pulled off her glove , and gave me her hand to kiss ; and to be ' short , her Majesty willed me to resort oftener to her court , and by some of Iter privy chamber to give her to weete when I-am there . " Dee was undoubtedly a man of very great research and singular character and learning , as is evident by his various writings both
p rinted and MS . in almost every science . He wrote upon the reformation ofthe Gregorian calendar ; on the mode of propagating the Gospel on the other side of the Atlantic ; on geography ; natural philosophy , particularly optics ; mathematics ; metaphysics ; astronomy ; astrology ; and the occult sciences . He wrote an account also of his voyage to St . Helena , and a treatise on the Queen ' s right to certain forei countries ; and projected a scheme for the preservation
gn of ancient MSS . by establishing a general repository , a plan which is in a great measure realised by that noble national collection at the British Museum . Whether with all his learning he was himself the dupe of ah enthusiastic imagination , or whether he availed himself of his knowledge to dupe others in an age when all ranks were given to credulity , may perhaps admit of a question . I own 1 am rather
inclined to the latter opinion . As a proof of the superstition and credulity of the age , it will not be amiss to mention that Dee was employed to determine according to the . opinion ofthe ancient astrologers , what day would be the most fortunate for Queen Elizabeth's coronation . Some time afterwards he was sent for by the lords of the council to counteract the ill effects which it was apprehended would ,
befal the Queen from a waxen image of her Majesty stuck full of pins , which was picked up in Lincoln ' s-inn fields . This we are told he performed " in a godly and artificial manner , " in the presence of the Earl of Leicester and Mr . Secretary Wilson . Dr . Dee was much connected with the Earl , and has been accused of being an instrument