DECKER, THOMAS. 



DEE, JOHN. 



withdraw the bountiei on exported corn, and to erect public migwdnes 

 of corn in every county ; 3, to discourage idleness by well regulating 

 our poor (be adopts Sir Jcwiah Child'* plan for the management of 

 the poor, and would transport all able-bodied persons who oannot 

 find employment) ; and 4, to pay off our debts by public bonds, bearing 

 interest, and liquidating part of our debts yearly. The bolanoo of 

 trade theory U auumed, but many of the remarks aro both just and 

 ingenious. 



DECKER, or DEKKER, THOMAS, flourished as a dramatic author 

 in the reign of James I., though the precise time of his birth and 

 death, liko that of many of Lis contemporaries, U uncertain. He is 

 celebrated for a quarrel with Ben Jousou, who satirised him under 

 the name of Crispinua in his ' Poetaster ; ' Decker returned the com- 

 pliment by writing his ' Satyromostix,' whereiu Jonson U attacked 

 under the name of ' Young Horace.' The author of the ' Biographia 

 Dramatics ' says that be became more famous from this quarrel than 

 from any merit of hia own. Later critics hare however been more 

 favourable to Decker, and Mr. Hazlitt pronounced the character of 

 Frisoobaldo in the ' Honest Whore ' to be perfect in its way, as a 

 picture of a broken-hearted father with a sneer on his lips and a tear- 

 drop in his eye. This comedy is written with great power and with 

 a high moral feeling. Decker composed many plays in union with 

 other dramatists; and his name often occurs in connection with 

 Chettle and others in Henslowe's ' Diary ' as receiving small sums for 

 plays written or promised. The collected Works of Webster, Mas- 

 singer, and Ford exhibit specimens of Decker's partnership-writing, 

 though it is liard to assign the respective portions of productions of 

 this sort to their right authors. Mr. Gilford has attributed all the 

 gross indecencies of Mossinger'a ' Virgin Martyr ' to the hand of 

 Decker ; but this is merely a guess, and is hardly a reasonable one. 

 Of the plays written solely by Decker the 'Honest Whore' is the 

 most celebrated, and is printed in Dodsley's Collection. Besides hia 

 dramatic works, his ' Gull's Hornbook ' has become better known by 

 an edition published a few years ago; it contains much valuable 

 information illustrative of the manners of Decker's time. 



hi:K, JOHN, a distinguished astrologer and mathematician, was 

 the sou of a wealthy vintner, and born in London in 1527. Lilly says 

 he was a Cambro-Briton, but this is not in accordance with better 

 authorities. At the age of fifteen he was entered of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, where his attention seems to have been chiefly directed to 

 math, maticol, astronomical, and chemical studies ; and his assiduity 

 was there, as through life, even to extreme old age, truly remarkable. 

 At twenty he made a twelvemonths' tour on the continent, chiefly in 

 Holland, for the purpose of scientific intercourse ; and returning to 

 Cambridge, he was appointed one of the fellows of Trinity College, 

 upon its foundation by Henry VIII. in 1543. In 1548 the suspicions 

 entertained of his being addicted to the ' black art ' induced him again 

 to go abroad, having first taken his degree of A.M. Whether this 

 prejudice really arose from his having already begun tho astrological 

 career for which he was in subsequent life so celebrated, or simply 

 from his astronomical pursuits and his mechanical inventions, there 

 is no distinct proof. 



Dee's first residence on this second continental visit was the 

 University of Louvain, at that period in high repute as a place of 

 education ; and he was there much esteemed for hiu mechanical skill 

 and his intellectual resources, which, combined with his manly 

 character, caused him to be visited by persous of the highest rank. 

 Two years afterwards he went to France, when he read lectures on 

 the ' Elements of Euclid ' at Rheims. The character of tho ' lectures' 

 on Euclid was in those days extremely different from that of our o-.vn 

 time. A series of speculations in all the sciences, whether physical, 

 moral, or mental, were usually given under thii title, the propositions 

 of Euclid being taken as so many " pegs to hang a speech upon." The 

 more visionary and romantic of tho lecturers generally contrived to 

 render a course on Euclid a discourse on all the dogmas of tho school- 

 men of the middle ages, whiUt the more reasonable and sober of them 

 confined their discourses to natural phenomena and tho practical 

 applications of geometry. It is almost unnecessary to say that a 

 proof that " spirits would be in earth and heaven at the same time " 

 (founded on Euclid i. 37), would be more attractive in an academical 

 course than any ' vulgar mechanical ' application of the same pro- 

 position could be. Of Dee's lectures we may fnrm a tolerably good 

 estimate from his preliminary discourse in Billingsley's ' English 

 Euclid,' and a few other occasional paragraphs of his in that work. 

 It places Dee's acquirements in a very favourable light; and hi* 

 judgment, considering hi* time and circumstances, in one still more 

 favourable. The dissertation of Dee is however to be found in works 

 subsequently printed, and much more easily obtained ; as in Leeke 

 and Serlo's ' Euclid,' two or three editions, fcc. To read that dis- 

 sertation U sufficient to convince us thst his lectures would bo received 

 at Rheims " with great applause," an indeed from direct testimony we 

 otherwise know they were. 



In 1551 Dee returned to England, nnd was presented to King 

 Edward VI. by Cecil, and a pemion of a hundred crowns was assigned 

 to him. This he however relinquished for the rectory of Upton-on- 

 Severn. 



Shortly after the accession of Mary ha was accused of " practising 

 against the queen's life by enchantment ;" so that his fame as a dealer 



in the black art still clung to him. This charge was founded on some 

 correspondence which wss discovered between him and the " servants 

 of the Lady Elizabeth;" and it led to a long and tedious imprisonment, 

 with frequent examinations; but as nothing could be established 

 against him, he was ultimately (1656) set at liberty by an order of 

 the council. 



On the accession of Elizabeth, Dee was consulted by Lord Dudley 

 respecting " a propitious day" for the coronation. The queen, to whom 

 be was presented, made him great promises. In 1564 he again visited 

 the continent to present a book which he had written and dedicated 

 to the Emperor Maximilian, under the title of ' Mount Hieroglyphic.!,' 

 and which he printed at Antwerp in. that year ; and within the year 

 he returned to England. 



There is reason however to doubt whether the charge of neglecting 

 Dee, brought against Elizabeth and her ministers, is well made out, 

 however strongly and confidently it has been assumed and repeated. 

 Even this visit to the court of Maximilian might have hod an object 

 very different from the ostensible one. There is much probability iu 

 Lilly's statement, who saya : " To be serious, he was Queen Elizabeth's 

 intelligencer, and had a salary for his maintenance from the secretaries 

 of state. He was a ready-witted man, quick of apprehension, and of 

 great judgment iu the Latin and Greek tongues. He was a very great 

 investigator of the more secret hermctical learning, a perfect astronomer, 

 a curious astrologer, a serious geometrician ; to speak truth, he was 

 excellent iu all kiuds of learning.'* (Lilly, ' Memoirs,' p. 224.) Whorw 

 could a man better adapted to the purpose of ' secret intelligence' than 

 such a one bo found ? This view too U borne out by many striking 

 circumstances. Being in 1571 seized with a dangerous illness in 

 Lorraine, the queen sent two physicians to his relief. This is an act 

 the signification of which cannot be doubted. 



He afterwards returned to England and settled at Mortlake in 

 Surrey, where he led a life of privacy for some years, devoting him- 

 self to study with great ardour, and to tho collecting of astronomical 

 and philosophical instruments, not omitting of course a sufficient 

 number of beryls, talismans, and the like. He seems also to have 

 been consulted by persons respecting their horoscope*, fie. His repu- 

 tation as one who dealt with the devil seems to have strongly mani- 

 fested itself during this time in his own vicinity, as the mob in 157'i 

 assembled, and destroyed all his collection, or nearly so; and it 

 was with difficulty that he and bis family escaped the fury of the 

 rabble. 



In 1378, the queen being much indisposed, Mr. Dee was sent abroad 

 to consult with the German physicians and philosophers (or rather 

 astrologers) relative to the means to be employed for her recovery. 

 This was at least the ostensible object ; but as no account of the 

 result of this mission exists, except that we know that the queen 

 recovered, we may perhaps infer that it was a secret political mission. 

 After his return to England he was employed by the queen to draw 

 up a condensed account of those countries which belonged to h<>r 

 crown, on the ground of being discovered by British subjects, both 

 as to geographical description and the recorded and other evidence 

 upon which her claim rested. With his usual activity he speedily 

 accomplished his task, and in an incredibly short time he presented 

 her majesty with two large rolls in which the discovered countries are 

 geographically described and historically illustrated. These two curious 

 manuscripts still exist in the Cottouiau Collection in the British Museum. 

 About this time, too, he paid much attention to the reformation of 

 the Calendar, n treatite on which subject by him, and which is con- 

 sidered both " learned and rational," is still in manuscript in the 

 Ashmolcan Library at Oxford. 



.Most of the proceedings and writings upon which hii fame with 

 posterity as on astrologer rests, were written subsequent to thii 

 period, and he was now upwards of fifty years of age. This is not 

 the general period at which men of activity both of mind and occu- 

 pation sink into dotage; and it is impossible, taking into account 

 several of the succeeding circumstances of the life of Dee, to imagine 

 that this hypothesis can be applied to his case, in explanation f I he 

 extravagances which he perpetrated about this time, and soon after. 

 The belief in supernatural agency was general at that period, and tin; 

 belief in the power of controlling that agency was equally general 

 we may say universal. That Dee, admitting this in common with 

 all the orthodox, whether of the Roman Catholic or reformed religion, 

 was liable to be the dupe of crafty men, older than himself, is evident, 

 and that with a strong and active imagination he should be led to 

 interpret any sensible phenomena in accordance with it, is extremely 

 probable. Whether he intended to be understood literally, or merely 

 to express under those disguises information and memoranda of a 

 very different nature, it is difficult now to determine. Wo incline to 

 the latter opinion, and we think this view U borne out by circum- 

 stances ; we shall however annex the usual account, which does indeed 

 contain the ostensible view of bis later life. 



In tho year 1681 he took into his service an apothecary of Worcester, 

 named Edward Kelly, as an assistant. The " conversations with 

 spirits " were held by Dee, in common with this person ; t and indeed 

 Kelly was in general Dee's amanuensis during the time they were 

 together. They had a speculum, which is generally said to have been 

 " a polished piece of cannel coal," but which was doubtless glass one 

 of the very ' stones ' which Dee used being now in the Britisii 



