Quoth Sidrophel, If you fuppofe, Sir Knight, that I am one of those, You have a wrong fow by the ear; I only deal by rules of art; 575 580 To raise the devil, and mean one thing, And that is down-right conjuring; And in itfelf more warrantable 595 Than cheat, or canting to a rabble, Or putting tricks upon the moon, R 3 600 Which Which every almanack can tell, 605 Perhaps as learnedly and well As you yourself.---Then, friend, I doubt Makes but a hole in th' earth to pifs in, To catch intelligences in. Some by the nofe, with fumes, trapan them, 610 615 Catch them, as men in nets do birds; 620 And fome with fymbols, figns, and tricks, With their own influences will fetch them Down from their orbs, arreft, and catch them; Ver. 618.] St. Dunstan was made Archbishop of Canterbury, anno 961. His skill in the liberal arts and fciences (qualifications much above the genius of the age he lived in) gained him first the name of a Conjurer, and then of a Saint: he is revered as such by the omanifts, who keep a holiday in honour of him, yearly, on the 19th of May. That taught him all the cunning pranks Of past and future mountebanks. Kelly did all his feats upon The devil's looking-glass, a stone, 630 Where playing with him at bo-peep, To this, quoth Sidrophello, Sir, Nor Paracelfus, no, nor Behmen; 635 640 But Ver 631.] This Kelly was chief feer, or, as Lilly calls him, Speculator to Dr. Dee; was born at Worcefter, and bred an apothecary, and was a good proficient in chemistry, and pretended to have the grand elixir, or philofopher's ftone, which Lilly tells us he made, or at leaft received ready-made, from a Friar in Germany, on the confines of the Emperor's dominions. He pretended to fee apparitions in a cryftal or beryl looking-glass (or a round stone like a crystal). Alafco, Palatine of Poland, Pucel, a learned Florentine, and Prince Rofemberg of Germany, the Emperor's Viceroy in Bohemia, were long of the fociety with him and Dr. Dee, and often prefent at their apparitions, as was once the King of Poland himself: but Lilly obferves, that he was fo wicked that the angels would not appear to him willingly, nor be obedient to him. But a true dog, that would fhew tricks 645 All that they do, and all they know. Quoth Hudibras, Alas! what is 't t' us 660 Can make a gentleman, fcarce a year old, 670 Το Ver. 669, 670.] Such gentry were Thomas Pury the elder, firft a weaver in Gloucefter, then an ignorant folicitor. John Blackston, a poor fhopkeeper of New castle. (As Averrhois play'd but a mean trick, To damn our whole art for eccentric) 680 For who knows all that knowledge contains? Men dwell not on the tops of mountains, But on their fides, or rifing's feat; So 'tis with knowledge's vaft height. 685 Do not the hiftories of all ages Of ftrange turns, in the world's affairs, Chaldeans, caftle. John Birch, formerly a carrier, afterwards colonel. Richard Salway, colonel, formerly a grocer's man. Thomas Rainsborough, a fkipper of Lynn, colonel and vice-admiral of England. Colonel Thomas Scot, a brewer's clerk. Colonel Philip Skippon, originally a waggoner to Sir Francis Vere. Colonel John Jones, a ferving-man. Colonel Barkstead, a pitiful thimble and bodkin goldfmith. Colonel Pride, a foundling and drayman. Colonel Hewfon, a one-eyed cobler; and Colonel Harrifon, a butcher. Thefe, and hundreds more, affected to be thought gentlemen, and lorded it over perfons of the first rank and quality. |