The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly

Front matter

The Alchemical Writings of Edward Kelly.

THE

ALCHEMICAL WRITINGS

Biographical Preface

I VENTURE to hope," says the subject of this memoir, in his treatise entitled De Lapide Philosophorum, "that my life and character will so become known to posterity that I may be counted among those who have suffered much for the sake of truth." The justification thus modestly desired by Edward Kelly has not been accorded him by the supreme court of judgment to which he appealed. Posterity continues to regard him in much the same light as he was looked at by the men of his immediate period, as a fraudulent notary who was deservedly deprived of his ears; as a sordid impostor, who duped the immeasurable credulity of the learned Doctor Dee, and subsequently involved his victim in transactions which have permanently degraded an otherwise great name; finally, as a pretended transmuter of metals, who was only too leniently treated by the emperor whom he deceived. For example, the astrologer depicted by Hudibras had read

"Dee's prefaces before The Devil, and Euclid o'er and o'er, And all th' intrigues 'twixt him and Kelly, Lexas and th' Emperour would tell ye."

But to Doctor Dee, at least, this is demonstrably unjust. This is the verdict of posterity in so far as it has concerned itself with the subject; it is the verdict of the biographical dictionaries, who have faithfully transcribed from one another, after the easy method which prevails with biographical dictionaries when they deal with magicians and seers, with alchemists and other professors of mystic physics, as, generally, with all the oracles of the borderland; and, in so far as it concerns itself with borderlands, unerudite public opinion has been led by the erudite ignorance of the dictionaries. Now, in offering for the first time to the English reader the three very curious treatises which constitute the chief literary remains of Edward Kelly, it is not necessary, as it would be in fact without reason, that the editor should accept an indiscriminate brief for the defence of the alchemist who wrote them. To the collector of curiosities in science and choses inouies in literature, the interest which may attach to them will be unimpaired by the mummeries or crimes of their author. For the student of Hermetic antiquities, it will become evident, and he may already be aware, that the value of the duo tractatus and their complement is not that they are the work of an adept, but that they comprehend a careful digest or concensus of alchemical philosophers. while the interest which attaches to the man is created by his possession for a period of the two tinctures of alchemical philosophy, and not in his ability to compose them. At the same time, the adventures and imprisonments of Kelly, with his transitions from abject poverty to sudden wealth, from a proscribed and law hunted fugitive to a baron or marshal of Bohemia, and then again to disgrace and imprisonment, ending in a death of violence, to say nothing of his visions and transmutations, constitute an astonishing narrative, and make up the broad outlines of a life which would be possible alone in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Moreover, here, as in so many other cases, the student of transcendental history will hardly need to be informed that the "skryer" of Doctor Dee and the discoverer of the so-called "Book of Saint Dunstan" has been accredited with many iniquities of which he does not seem to have been guilty.

If it be permissible to set aside for the moment the mere antiquarian interest in these remains of Edward Kelly, and to exhibit a preferential attention towards that point of view from which the Hermetic student would be disposed to regard them, it will be reason- able to affirm that the importance of this alchemist's history concentrates entirely in his possession of the transmuting powders, and in the manner by which he is said to have acquired them. The other episodes of his life may be treated with comparative brevity.

Edward Kelly appears to have been born at Worcester, the event occurring, according to Anthony à Wood, about four o'clock in the afternoon on the first day of August, 1555. This was in the third year of Queen Mary's reign. He was educated in his native city until the age of seventeen, when he is supposed to have repaired to Oxford. The registers of that University contain no record of any Edward Kelly having entered at the period in question, and it is assumed that his real name was Talbot. Three persons bearing this designation were entered at Gloucester Hall about this time. Possibly the University records have not been adequately searched, and if not, the evidence for his sojourn at Oxford is of a very slender character. If, beyond the difficulty that has been mentioned, there are no other reasons for supposing that he changed his name, and none others seem forthcoming, there is, perhaps, more reason to discredit his university career than to accept the theory of the alias. If he were at Oxford, it would be only for a short period, and he is said to have left abruptly. Other narratives state that he was bred as an apothecary, and in this way acquired some skill in chemistry. It was more probably the profession of his father, of which he may have picked up some knowledge in boyhood. After the termination of his scholastic studies, whether at Oxford or elsewhere, he himself seems to have embraced the law, and to have settled in London, or, according to another account, at Lancaster, but possibly in both places. It was in the latter certainly that his troubles began. He was a skilful penman, who had been at the pains to acquaint himself with archaic English, and, as a Worcester man, not improbably with Welsh, and by the help of these accomplishments he was accused of producing forged title deeds in the interests of a client. The indictment is very vague, and does not rest upon anything which can be termed evidence. He is said, however, but upon equally uncertain grounds, to have been pilloried at Lancaster, and to have been also deprived of his ears. There is no doubt that he fell into grievous trouble, for to his life's end he was always less or more in fear of English law, and sometimes seems to have preferred a foreign prison to the uncertain reception which was to be anticipated on his return home. But that the penalty which his biographers have meted out to him, whether deserved or not by his misdeeds, was in some way evaded, it seems more reasonable to think. The distinguished position which he held subsequently at the Court of the Emperor Rodolph, would have scarcely been possible to a man who had lost his ears. The credulity of royal personages at the end of the seventeenth century may have facilitated many impostures on the part of the alchemists whom they protected, but could scarcely have extended to accepting the philosophical illumination of an adept who had been branded by law. The alternative story is, then, apparently preferable, and this says that Kelly sought refuge in Wales. Here it is exceedingly probable that he adopted an assumed name, but whether Talbot became Kelly or whether Kelly merged for a moment into Talbot, or some other designation, is a mystery of modification in Alchemy which the past is not likely to give up In Wales he would seem to have embraced a nomadic life, staying at obscure inns, and after a time he must have worked his way down into the neighbourhood of the historic abbey of Glastonbury. What occurred to him here, what was destined, in fact, to be the turning point in the life of this fugitive, has been recited by more than one of his biographers; and if, in the present narrative, it be based on the record of the French scientific littérateur, Louis Figuier, that is not because his account is specially preferable, but because it is nearest at the moment.

He put up, among other places, at a lonely hostelry in the mountains, and there it came to pass that he was shewn an old manuscript which no one in the village could decipher. Kelly had good, if somewhat mournful reason to be well acquainted with the mysteries of ancient writing, and he saw at a glance not only that it was in the old Welsh language, but that it treated of the transmutation of metals. He made inquiries as to the history of this bibliographical rarity, and learned that its discovery was due to one of those outbursts of religious fanaticism which were common enough in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The sepulchre of a departed bishop interred in a neighbouring church had been violated, the zeal of the Protestant being not unmixed with the desire of obtaining hidden treasures. However, the sacrilegious act was only rewarded by the alchemical manuscript which the despoilers could not read, and by two small ivory caskets, containing respectively a red and a white powder, which in their eyes were equally useless. The receptacle of the red powder was shattered in their fury, and much of its contents were lost. What remained of it, together with the second casket and the accompanying document, they readily disposed of to the innkeeper, who seems to have had a hand in the discreditable transaction, in exchange for a flagon of wine. The manuscript was retained as a curiosity to be exhibited to strangers frequenting the hostelry; the intact casket was a plaything for the innkeeper's children; the remnant of the red powder seems to have remained by chance in its shattered receptacle; and it came to pass, in due time, that Kelly, in his capacity as a stranger, examined the entire treasure-trove. If Kelly had begun life as an apothecary, he had doubtless a smattering of chemistry, and there would have been few educated persons at that period who, in connection with Alchemy, had heard nothing of the red and white tinctures which were the instruments of the Magnum Opus. He knew enough to be anxious to possess them, and for the whole archaic collection he offered one guinea to the innkeeper, who accepted these terms.

Such is the narrative of the discovery, stripped of a few elaborations, which are due to Gallic insight. Now, Nash, who is responsible for the story of the pillory, assigns no date for the supposed mutilation of Edward Kelly, but it may be regarded as having taken place, if at all, about 1580. If the mutilation in question be rejected, the same date will serve us as the commencement of the Welsh wanderings. After he had secured the Hermetic treasures his occupations for a time are uncertain; when he reappears it is in company with Dr. John Dee. Figuier, still elaborating upon the outlines of unfanciful and ineffective biographers, recounts how, being unable to make use of his treasures, through his alleged ignorance of chemistry, he had recourse to his old friend Dee, wrote to him on the subject, received a favourable reply, and forthwith betook himself to London. Whether he wrote or not, there he was evidently established in the autumn of 1582. It is difficult to decide whether this was a first acquaintance. Lenglet du Fresnoy, who was fairly careful in the collection of his data, states that Kelly was really a notary of London, and that Dee was his old neighbour and friend. They are supposed to have set to work together, and in the month of December, 1579, it is said, in the laboratory of a goldsmith, they accomplished a transmutation of metals which proved the richness of Kelly's tincture to be one upon two hundred and seventy-two thousand two hundred and thirty; but, it is added, "they lost much gold in experiments before they knew the extent of its power." If this date can be accepted, Kelly was then twenty-four years old, and his companion was his senior by something like

thirty years. But the dates are not easy to reconcile at this period, and the diaries of Dr. Dee make no mention of the subject till several years have elapsed. There is naturally no reason to doubt that they soon made experiments with the powders, and as the bona fides of Dr. Dee cannot be seriously challenged through any of the subsequent transactions, he must have regarded the results as satisfactory; it is, further, evident from his own memoranda, made for his personal use, and not designed for publication, that he was not only convinced of the actuality of Kelly's transmutations, but that he had formed a high estimate of his companion's proficiency in Alchemy, and seems always to have received his communications on this subject with gratitude and reverence. But it would appear also that, both in England during the period in question, and afterwards abroad, Dr. Dee was far more profoundly and lastingly interested in the mysteries of visions in the crystal than in the accomplishment of the metallic magnum opus. His references to Alchemy are few and far between, but his communications with angels and planetary spirits, and indifferently with all sorts and conditions of invisible intelligences, were recorded in writing by himself with the most scrupulous and exhaustive fidelity. They were subsequently deciphered, arranged, and published in a large folio volume; and constitute to this day not only the most prolific source of information as to the relations between himself and Kelly, but, in spite of all modern marvels, remain the most curious account extant in the English language of alleged intercourse with the world of spirits. And,

whatever has been advanced to the contrary by sensational biographers like Louis Figuier, elaborating with a view to effect, it was not in the main as an alchemist, but as a seer in the crystal that Edward Kelly posed before the doctor of Mortlake. It was also in that capacity that he chiefly influenced his companion. It is immaterial for the purposes of this notice, which, as already intimated, is not devised as an apology for its subject, to determine whether the visions of Edward Kelly were genuine or not. In the present state of psychological knowledge, imperfect as it still is, it is, on the one hand, too late to deny that a state of lucidity can be frequently induced by the mediation of crystals and similar transparent substances while it is evident, on the other hand, from the history of the subject, that beyond the bare fact and such possibilities as may be reasonably attached to it, nothing of real moment has resulted from any such experiments. Edward Kelly may have lost his ears for forgery, or he may have deserved to be deprived of them, and he may still have been a genuine clairvoyant, for the faculty does not suppose an advanced, or even tolerable, morality in its possessor. He may equally have been guiltless of any otherwise illegal practices, and still he may have shamefully imposed upon his friend. There is only one fact of importance for this notice—that Edward Kelly, apparently by no desert of his own, came into possession of the two tinctures of Hermetic philosophy. Convict or martyr, seer or cheating conjuror, knave or saint, matters nothing in comparison. He may further have accounted for his possession of the tinctures by a romantic fiction, but this in itself is trivial. At the same time, with regard to his visions, it must be admitted that either he was a clairvoyant of advanced grade, or he was a man of most ingenious invention. Between the period of his alleged departure from Oxford and the completion of his twenty-fifth year, he has been accused of so many crimes, not one of which could have been effected without a considerable apprenticeship, that, assuming an extraordinary capacity for misdeeds, it is really somewhat difficult to believe that he could have accomplished so much in so short a space of time. The list includes necromancy, dealing with the devil, forgery (as already seen), and the uttering of base coin.

On the 21st of September, 1583, Edward Kelly and his patron left England for the continent. Various reasons have been assigned for this removal, as, for example, that Kelly went in continual fear of his liberty and even his life; that they could not carry on their

alchemical experiments under the best circumstances in their own country; that such operations were calculated to make them notorious, and liable to the superstitious fury of the populace; that Doctor Dee, in particular, had been disappointed of reasonably expected preferment. All

of these causes may have contributed to make their departure desirable, and they may not have been actuated by any of them. As to Dee, he enjoyed a considerable share of Court favour, that of royalty included, and there is no reason. to suppose that his journey was in search of preferment, or that he contemplated

a protracted absence, for he left his library behind him in his cottage at Mortlake. His wife and his children accompanied him, as well as the family of Kelly, who also appears to have been married, though at what period is unknown. This considerable party was completed by Lord Albert Alasko, a Polish noble, who had sought and obtained the familiar acquaintance of Doctor Dee during a residence of a considerable duration in England. Whether he was interested in the alche- mical experiments of the two Hermetic confederates does not appear from the evidence, though it may be reasonably assumed. But, like Dee himself, he was profoundly impressed by the spiritual revelations in the crystal, and the records exhibit him as a regular and active participator in the clairvoyant séances. The entire journey would seem to have been undertaken at the instance of Lord Albert Alasko, who had invited them to visit him at his castle in the neighbourhood of Cracovia. Hostile biographers like Figuier have therefore represented him as the dupe of the two colleagues, whom they plundered without mercy, with whom they outstayed their welcome, and were at last shaken off, not without great difficulty, when their victim could tolerate them no longer, and when he was practically ruined by their rapacity. For all this there is not a particle of evidence. It is certain that they did not reach Cracovia till March 13th, 1584. They had scarcely arrived in the north of Germany before Doctor Dee had intelligence of the destruction of his library at Mortlake, by the fury of a fanatical mob, who took advantage of the wizard's absence to revenge themselves on his effects. The sequestration of his rents and his property seems to have followed quickly on this act of vandalism. During this period, as already seen, there is a gap in the "Private Diary," and it is only imperfectly supplied by the "True and Faithful Relation," which is devoted to the visions in the crystal. There is no record of the circumstances under which they parted from the Polish noble, but the date of their departure from Cracovia is fixed by the "Faithful Relation" as the first day of August, 1584, new style. There is evidence to shew that, in common with Doctor Dee, he had experienced much from the unreasoning violence of Edward Kelly's temper; but there is no evidence that they parted unpleasantly. The visions and revelations in the crystal continued abroad as at home with the utmost regularity and persistence, doing credit as before either to the marvellous clairvoyance of the seer, or to the variety of his imaginative resources, but destined ere long to be stained with one foul record. It is certain, on the other hand, that during this period the alchemical experiments which have been assumed to be the object of their journey do not appear to have been prosecuted. It is even affirmed that, in spite the Donum Dei, the two families were sometimes in great poverty. But at length they repaired to Prague, reaching that city seven days after their departure from Cracovia. There all men talked of Alchemy, numbers practised it, half the world credited the marvels concerning it, and supposed processes were more numerous than even the adepts themselves. Inevitably, the possessor of the Bishop's powder, obtained at the digging in Wales, must have been calculated to shine in this city of hierophants, and Edward Kelly came among them like that artist Elias foretold years previously by Paracelsus, and still expected by his disciples. Within a very short time all Prague was in transport, for the adept Kelly was transmuting everywhere, as, for example, at the house of Thaddeus de Hazek, the imperial physician, and even initiating disciples like Nicholas Barnaud and the Marshal of Rosenberg in the process, if not in the secret. Many authorities, including the great name of Gassendus, have been cited in support of these prodigal transmutations, but some who have been quoted either utter an uncertain note or are altogether silent. However this may be, the whole party became exceedingly and suddenly affluent, great in their extravagance, and magnificent in their retinues. They were invited to the Court of the Emperor Rodolph II., King of Hungary and Bohemia, and they repaired thither, Kelly to dazzle that potentate by his transmutations, and to be made a marshal in consequence. Doctor Dee, who knew nothing of Alchemy, remained in comparative retirement, while his companion multiplied his extravagances and the enemies of his sudden success. As time went on, the philosopher and the alchemist became mutually intolerable, and there was a distinct rupture between them, the explanation of which must be sought in the profligacy of the younger man. In April, 1587, while they were at Trobona, a naked woman, in an apparition described by Kelly, directed the 'Skryer' and his master to use their two wives in common." Kelly convinced Dee of the bona

fides of the spirit, and after some hesitation, a solemn covenant was drawn up in accordance with the direction between Doctor Dee, Kelly, Jane Dee, and Joan Kelly, "as the third part of the 'Faithful Relation' testifies."

Meanwhile the powder, diminished by excessive projection, became exhausted; it was squandered still further in futile attempts to increase it; and when the Emperor commanded his guest to produce it in a becoming quantity, all experiments proved failures. Yet Kelly had boasted that he was an adept; he had everywhere paraded his powers; he was not the mere heir of the Stone—he was an illuminated and proficient master. The Emperor believed all this, and he believed it even to the end; the impotence of the exhausted alchemist was attributed to obstinacy, and the guest was changed into a prisoner. He is said to have been confined in a dungeon of the castle of Zobeslau. To regain his liberty he promised to manufacture the Stone, on condition that he returned to Prague and took counsel with Dr. Dee. To that city he was consequently permitted to go back, but his house was guarded, and as fresh experiments in the composition of a transmuting powder were abortive as ever, the alchemist, seized with rage, made a futile attempt to escape, which ended in the murder of one of his guards.

A second imprisonment, this time in the castle of Zerner, followed his violence. Doctor Dee returned alone to England, but at a date which conflicts with many alleged incidents in the life of his seer. The two confederates seem to have parted amicably, and they corresponded after their separation. At the instance of the philosopher of Mortlake, Queen Elizabeth claimed the alchemist as her subject, but the Emperor excused himself from releasing him on the ground of the homicide. The second imprisonment of Kelly, according to accepted dates, lasted till the year 1597, when he attempted to escape by a rope, but, falling from a considerable height, sustained such injuries as resulted in his death at the age of forty-two. His treatise on the "Stone of the Philosophers" was the product of his enforced leisure, but it did not appease his captor. The other tracts contained in the present volume may have been earlier compositions. As previous to his acquaintance with Kelly Dr. Dee had no transactions in Alchemy, so, after his return to England till his own death in the year 1608, he eschewed experiments which had involved his clairvoyant in misery, and was content to be Warden of Manchester, to be persecuted by the Fellows of the College, and to suffer other indignities with the patience of an enlightened philosopher.

The student of alchemical literature will naturally be curious to know whether the mysterious manuscript of Glastonbury has been pretended to have survived. Tradition has ascribed to it the name which heads this section, and there is the following evidence, which must be taken with all faults, to account for it. The abbey of Glastonbury was founded by Saint Dunstan, but he does not appear to have been buried there, despite the supposed translation of his relics from Canterbury. Yet it must be inferred from the tradition that the remains of the disinterred bishop were those of the saint himself. Saint Dunstan was supposed to have been an alchemist, and has been regarded as the patron of the goldsmiths; but an anonymous compiler in manuscript of the seventeenth century affirms that he "had no other elixir or Philosopher's Stone than the gold and silver which, by the benefit of fishing, was obtained, whereby the kingdom's plate and bullion was procured. For the advancement of the fishing trade, he did advise that three fish days be kept in every week, which caused also more abstinence, and hence the proverb that St. Dunstan took the devil by the nose by his pincers." The "Book of St. Dunstan" is mentioned occasionally in the diaries of Dr. Dee, in connection with the "powder found at the digging in England," and in such a way as to make it a reasonable inference that this name was borne by the Glastonbury manuscript. A work of the same title is the subject of continual reference by the son of the philosopher of Mortlake, Arthur Dee, especially in his Fasciculus Chemicus. The British Museum contains a Latin copy in manuscript of another treatise by the same author, under the title of Arca Arcanorum, which is followed by the Tractatus Maximi Domini Dunstani, Episcopi Cantuariensis, veri philosophi, de Lapide Philosophico. Several extant manuscripts, both in Latin and English, widely at variance in their dates and in the nature of their contents, are, however, attributed to St. Dunstan. The first impression printed at Cassel in 1649. A few ignorant critics have gone so far as to regard Kelly's own treatise as the genuine Glastonbury manuscript. Others, discountenancing the connection with the saint, have been inclined to consider two metrical treatises, which are included by Elias Ashmole in the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, as constituting the original work, though not, of course, in the original form or language. There may be little evidence in support of this hypothesis, but it does not exceed possibility; if rejected, the verses in question may be safely regarded as additional literary remains of Edward Kelly; in either case, they demand a place here.

All you that faine philosophers would be, And night and day in Geber's kitchen broyle, Wasting the chipps of ancient Hermes' Tree, Weening to turn them to a precious oyle, The more you worke the more you loose and spoile; To you, I say, how learned soever you be, Go burne your Bookes and come and learne of me.

Although to my one Booke you have red tenn, That's not enough, for I have heard it said The greatest clarkes are not the wisest men: A lion once a silly mouse obey'd. In my good will so hold yourselves appaid, And though I write not halfe so sweete as Tully, Yet shall you finde I trace the stepps of Lully.

Yt doth you good to thinke how your desire And self-conceit doth warrantize vaine hope; You spare no cost, you want no coals for fier, You know the vertues of the Elitrope; You thinke yourselves farr richer than the pope; What thinge hath being either high or low But their materia prima you do know.

Elixir vitæ and the precious Stone You know as well as how to make an apple; If 'te come to the workinge then let you alone You know the coullers black, brown, bay, and dapple; Controwle you once then you begin to fraple, Swearing and saying, what a fellow is this? Yet still you worke, but ever worke amisse.

No, no, my friends, it is not vauntinge words, Nor mighty oaths that gaines that sacred skill; It is obteined by grace and not by swords, Nor by greate reading, nor by long sitting still, Nor tond conceit, nor working all by will, But, as I said, by grace it is obteined; Seek grace therefore, let folly be refrained.

It is no costly thing I you assure That doth beget Magnesia in hir kind; Yet is hir selfe by leprosie made pure, Hir eyes be cleerer being first made blind, And he that can earth's fastnes first unbind Shall quickly know that I the truth have tould Of sweete Magnesia, wife to purest gold.

Now what is meant by man and wife is this, Agent and patient, yet not two but one, Even as was Eva Adam's wife I wisse, Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone— Such is the unionhood of our precious Stone; As Adam slept untill his wife was made, Even so our Stone; there can no more be said.

By this you se how thus it came to pass That first was man, and woman then of him; Thus Adam here as first and cheefest was, And still remained a man of perfect limme; Then man and wife were joyned together trimme, And each in love to other straight addressed them, And did increase their kind when God had blessed them.