Joum.l oi!M 'WMiem ..

,_I)'TIItdhlon ff
No. 15. Vol. 2. Equlnox2008
CoJDIIIIDg EeL Kelley' PoeJ11
by Tereta B1nl
Edward Keky's poem the Philosopher's
Stone" :li:8t appeared m I' I i4r.f ilmlmBiilla Allmlle'1 1652
'I'hulrum Chemicum Brikmnicum. Ina related article m til
illlue, [2) I eJII)lm: dli:: possMty dlaUbc "G.S., Gas" D die
dMbtnry Iii:: JJay be Ooli:Jm Slwbper, die mm who came to
be cd:d w.m Shab:llpClB. "ttpec:illl
JP)CIF'n:DI"il, 5I ill dli:: ccilb-JX:.ndBt
IICCIIII to OOl&)ml dli:: role ofanllll!m D aeaJticwmb dBt are
al;lx:nj:aJ l'I:SiJdl.
Wbatil :&iml, Auiw&iqsdBt
qiii!S1imillwM!s poiiD's aJrJ.r.ni-al \npi!J',
iiCieiqs bow mchJms!F wmb Dad. Dll(!i:aliDlll
alcihmjr:aJ C4 rtei'Jll IIIUO...Jilg both poiiDaul polll
Fbtofal, hi Iiiii Bwas added by Ashma
OUOIII!ODIIW D hi :Umriiliigam, "'IIIIK!M who Jbly Jm
law lost: most obwnBiy, tm piiiSIIJlkllllw to
vmamKd!fwm!ll hi poam, ami t111t i had to do wih "'IIII
Plilo!ophm's A n:uch earlilr "*sim, dldlld 1589 IDlll
sp.ct "'F.dwmd Kd!," las bllcinlooat...t iD. tm RDya!Limlry D
Copenbara, as part of a dllltJan Blrm
Mmwfl3 to anaJcbmical c:D:lll amiDI.JohoDIIe IDlll Edward
KcleyJ41 'l1il o& versi:m bears cmlythc dedication, "11lr:
p!3ile ofay :IDr fumdslql's sake llBIIe by a stuwgu1 to mh.tt.d&.-.
biJ :li-eDde biJ CoDI:cyiB."iSJ
So we bal'l: IS8911Dlassocided
v.ihDee, Kcley,IDlll otbe:r USC>' "'H ofthm,[6J whm
Bkktmd dDs 01 igittd io.Prap IDlll wm:.bow,lbly"Wt
&pnd, woiDI io.Den+lk,17l IDlll the otta, rcUied by
.Aahm:lJc or 80lDI: tbd wixls 1111 D Theatrum
Chemkum Brl/QMictult. Both ()1 h4NI+ Jlllb- eel)' to pace die
al;lx:nj:aJ .. .,., . Some ofXelley's n,.J word
lllllth die II8IF of other al:bmhl poeCI io.AIImlle'1
11211
ca-,- Potm-1111111
7leat1W1118J but OCC1E olllyl:mllyil p,ph wmb mt
ilcble the: to o1ber &mnJs ..w., .. wca,I!Otably
Oeo!:Je apy, Raymollll Lull, ml Aallll ml
ilcble a 1Di of co:lllleCiiDm betwealBitlabeCIIm wdl:r-coii:iw
1114 the ngVl ckJe: aro\111 Dee 8111 Kelle:y.l9l
1hil older venkln'a dedJ:afun lbr
sake," ODe nay recall bit "'lily," '\d," mi
muber "oDe" '1\'C:ft: the most conm 'IIPqi!M tnalilbml ilr
Qeek 110-k I efinied a& IMIJII6, a& D the: UJe ofJoiiDDee'a
MoNI6 .HiuoglyphictJ or lliuoglyphic MoNMl. Dee commred
hi& JII)II8IJ &1Jph81l ll)'lrbol ofthe: moat ll8cred
IDfo!IJ:i:a, mi cetlailly Kelcy \lldcnCood i welL Jn &et, L)Uiy
Abral!em !he ..w...m:at arhblii8CCO'qlaeyilg
cllipll:rODe oflt.d:y'a '11te4treofTeuestritll..4stm110nry, mi
IJIII!F!IB !hat K.d:y'a Q:-.......;:al 'by" ill iaelfa t)pc of
bi::roBJjpiE iiiJiid bas Dee'& J!}}ph 111 a modcl110]
Keky"s pmiJc of"'dy" here nay be DOt-10-'\'l:ibl pmiBc ofthe:
roc-\'- dedicab to 81lalilnnnlkeywhi:h, 1b the: key of
Bad Valm!iwJ'& afler or Gecnp bDfiml, uch dlD
iitiClallil oflha Gleat Wmk..
Kd!y,like Dllc!, !ICICIID!I to llllb a iKUs ofpm-Soaati:, mmly
Pytbasomancam5sp - ..-: ti:. In descrb.dm
For God 1m IIIBJitllld mi
-w a1 CRIIddD ttqs \'db
tbil cl & t& of'IDdy, u a
Dig ofhilllogl)phi:al willile
wt&aby his ownlllltln.
be bown. For dlD ..mar 3
ml dlD IJIII8i: Dlllilllr 411111b
Dlllilr:r 7, the
seatoflliiiDYDI)stDies. Alxl
seemgtt.tthe Qey
mas il the Tr:muy, i is a
llllilr:r which stm:ls Oil the
J. II hun Of etr::tdy, aa:l dodl
edl' C\U)Ihi:w boud \'db
God illll, diD ilcbl.q God,
mea, ml a1 creeted tilp,
Mhal dn Dl)lteliJ16
povAD. A&q*ee, you get
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
Edward Kelley'semblem
From Theater of Terrestrial Astronomy
ten, which nmks the retmn to
unity. In this Arcamnn is
included an knowledge of
hidden things which God, by
His word, has made known to
the mm ofHis good pleasure,
so that they might have a true
conception ofhim. [
11
l
The second part of the 1589 dedication, "made by a stranger/ to
finther his frende his Conceyts," rmy make trore sense after we
look at the first sextet. Let's take a close reading of these opening
lines.
The heavenly Cope hath in him Natures sower
''Cope" is a gat'lrent, particu1arly a religious gannmt, trore
particu1arly how a Renaissance writer might render in English the
Latin toga or a variety of ancient Greek words fur the same. The
Oxford English Dictionary defines toga as ''the outer gannmt of
a Rotmn citizen in titre of peace;" it rmst :frequently refers to the
toga prcetextra, ''a toga with a broad purpJe border worn by
children, rmgistrates, persons engaged in sacred rites, and later by
emperors."
A "cope" might also refur to the religious garb of a tronk or friar:
one thinks ofthe poor friar in the "General Prologue" of
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, wearing "a thredbare cope a s ~ a
poure scoJer." So to begin, Kelley is addressing som:one
"garbed" in whatever a ''Cope" might represent-a gannmt of
peace, the gannmt of a poor scholar, or some rmre ''heavenly''
gannmt.
Notably, and unlike llllChofthe akhemicallanguage to fuDow, the
word "cope" is used by none of the other writers anthologized in
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Instead, it seems ahrost
ubiquitous in late m:dieval and Renaissance literature, :from
Gower to Chaucer to Caxton to Spenser to Shakespeare to
Mihon, an of whom at sotre point refur to the celestial sphere or
night sky as the ''cope ofHeaven" Meanwhile, a Jead "cope"
cou1d m:an a Jeaden coffin; a cope cou1d a1so be any type of
vauhed covering; so we can tease out the larger meaning of this
"gannmt" as the visible part of a container or v e s s e ~ and hence
the notion of the heavens and creation itself as the macro cosmic
v e s s e ~ or stage, of akhemical theater.
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
That ga.rnxmt: has made Kelley's friend ''Nature's sower:" one
who sows the seed, literally or tretaphoti;ally, one who
disseminates infurmatkm leading to the "harvest'' of the
philosopher's stone. It also puns on ''bower," a coiiliWn poetic
term fur abode or dwelling, such as a woodland ''bower;" and on
"soe," which can be a Jarge tub used in sotre alchemical
exper:itrents. But first and furetmst, Kelley's friend begets and is
begotten by ''Nature," a rwch rrore complex and encoded idea to
medieval and Renaissance writers, tmgicians, and alchetmts than
to us now. l
12
1 In his Stone of the Philosophers, Kelley says:
All genuine and judicious philosophers have traced
things back to their first principles, that is to say,
those comprehended in the tbreefukl generation of
Nature. The generation of animals they have
attributed to a mingling of the rmle and fuma1e in
sexual union; that of vegetables to their own proper
seed; while the principles of minera1s they have
assigned earth and viscous water. [ 13]
He is stating rrore directly the satre idea that John Dee includes in
his tan1:li; or ecstatic ''key'' to the Hieroglyphic Monad, Theorem
XV, where Dee quotes the phrase ''Nature rejoices inN ature,"
then tells us that these words contained the concealed and 100st
secret mysteries of the great Ostanes.l
14
1 Dee thus gives an insne
nod to the longer oft-paraphrased saying:
Nature rejoices in nature, nature ru1es over nature,
and nature is the tritnnph of nature. A hmmn begets
a human, the lion begets the lions, the dogs beget the
dogs, grain begets grain. What is begotten against
nature is a rronster incapable oflife. The Adepts
teach t:lm: only gok.i brings furth gok.i again at the
harvest. This is the revealed mystery_l15]
Simi1ar lines appear in the Turba Philosophorum, as wen as a
rrore cryptic speech from the angel Anmael to Isis the
Prophetess, as recounted in the Codex Marcianus. l16] Ke1ley, in
Stone of the Philosophers, paraphrases the Satre Xleas from the
Turba - "every subject derives from that into which it can be
resolved'i
1
1l - after listing out 48 diffurent Jaws by which
Nature acts upon Nature. l
18
l "Whoever would imitate Nature in
any particular operation must first be sure he has the Satre
matter," Kelley infuriili us, "and secondly, that this substance is
acted on in a way simi1ar to that ofN ature. For Nature rejoices in
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
naturaltrethod, and like purifies like.'i 19]
The sa.tre notion is alluded to several t:irres in Theatrum: see, for
instance the tenth octet of"John Dastin's Dream:'i 20]
'
10. A Man ofN ature ingendereth but a Man,
And every Beast ingendereth 1m semblable;
And as Philosophers rehearse well can,
Diana and Venus in marriage be notable,
A Horse with a Swine joyneth not in a stable,
For where is tmde unkindly geniture,
What fulloweth but things abominable:
Which is to say Monstnnn inN ature.
This complex alchemical notion ofN ature is often referred to but
rarely explained, first because the explanation is rather
cmnbersotre, and second because it involves chasing around
mmy texts and allusions to texts that oo Jonger exist Indeed even
in these paragraphs such explanations have been be simply
fuotnoted and left fur the reader's own exp1oration [
21
1 Yet un1ess
one takes tirre to really ponder what is treant by ''Nature begets
Nature," KeiJey's reference to his friend as ''Nature's sower''
won't be grasped at aD.
If we assurre Edward Kelley was intirmtely fiunilia.r with Dee's
Hieroglyphic Monad and how its core teachings rmy have
spnmg in part from a much rmre ancient Greco-Egyptian-Hebraic
rmgical tradition, l
22
1 the outline of an entire ancient ecstatic
philosophy starts to cotre dimly into view from this one word. In
the Codex Marcianus, which Dee had a copy of during the tirre
he and Kelley were on the continent and which Dee left with the
Landgrave ofHesse - K a s s e ~ [
23
1 it is Amnael who speaks of
''Nature" to Isis, who then passes the secret to her son, Horus.
Given the likely association between this Amnael and the
AnnaeVAnael who appears in Dee's first recorded angelic
working and again throughout 1m and Kelley's angelic
conversations, [
24
1 it would seem rather axiormtic that Kelley had
a simtlarly complex and ecstatic notion of''N ature" begetting
''Nature" and sowing the harvest ofthe Philosopher's Stone. If
one fullows those assmnptions-which fur now we'll coDapse
back into the idea that Kelley knew the ideas expressed by Dee in
Theorem XV and not only embraced them but elaborated upon
them in his own work, and is referring to somrthing simtlar when
he talks about ''N ature"-then Kelley is here telling 1m friend that
the friend could becom:, like Isti or her son Horus, the begetter
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
of the magical secrets of''Nature."
If we put an of this together, what do we have? In this very first
Jine, Kelley declaims the poem's recipient (G.S., or the ' ~ ' )
as the one who sows or explains the heavenly mysteries, by
hirme:tt; as a microcosm, becoming a vessel of the macrocosm
Two hidden; but the rest to sight appeare:
First, the "two hidden" is Aslnmle's 1anguage, or that of an
intervening copyist. The manuscript dated 1589 and signed by
"KeDe" says 'To hidden, but the rest to sight appear."
25
1
Whether changing ''to" to "two'' still correctly expresses Kelley's
multiple rreanings, or whether the later copyists shaped the
Janguage to match the copyist's understanding of the poem is an
open question, and an important one, since that copyist or
Asln:mle himself added to dedication to ''G.S., Gent." We are in
eifuct here analyzing Asbrrole's or the intervening copyist's
understanding that led to the change of''to" to ''two."
That said, the ''two hidden'' might remind a reader of the two
faces or heads of Janus, the Roman god of gates, doors,
begirmings, and endings. Because Janus, from whom we get our
~ fur January, looked one way into the new year and the
other at the year just ended, he was often thought of as a God of
transition or ba1ance point between the two: that balance being the
present, what you can see. Janus, tmlike IIJJst of the Roman
pantheon, has no direct ancient Greek analog, though he may
appear in "compm.md gods" related to Henres, such as
Henmnubis, Hermathena, and Hermaphrodites-all gods who
seem to mix genders. And curiously, in one of the IIDst enigimtic
books of the Renaissance, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,
''Herni' appears as a three-headed being atop a pillar, whose only
other recognizable anatomical attribute is an oversized erect
pballus. [26]
6/28
1he
llemletiMemly
CO"" ctkm fabt 111
still fil:tber irwe IIOCe
dJe fi:eqDed
CON ctkm hetwCCD
Mal3ymldle
Celi: tpd I...,.,
oflal podrayed will
dl'ee &cet, ml if'
we IIOti:e diJt dJe
Cllillem of'K.elby's
&howD earlier
D:Wea 'Indy
ofdJe Dcjyinmy,
God wih dl'ee
hcadamlcm;
cmwn. -1271 FiBily,
COJJIKh:r dJe "two
'----.. . - tmdm"dJehcadaof
dJc IICIJ>ClD ofdJc Cwhrall ofHc:ml:s, mJ note diJt-
cmiJlmll boob or1111m alJo show Mm:myJH- .. two-
b w l2lll
'l'basa a C0!11'1e' acay Kabbllilli: D&pit4eli"' of
llllliaa. Whll ilw law clilc:IJnecl Ke111!1 wmk u tiiiiDI of
K ahab, hll had to lmow i waD, ami mt cm1y dao9hill
associllmn v.ihDee. Mlqr BS"WM dllt Dee or Kelllly or bolh
Win funiirr will difin:&l C<OUCjwAIJawidl CO UIMMM"'iN mi
thllr IDadm SDChas JlllahLDIIw. In lid, Kelay is u 11011111 Wll)'S
p"m111 .. .pndjl!lt!!, i-smrb as Dlles dmyefin to

"''be Jeww,t\291 mt of'K.eJey's &e.l. >-in
l'1llpe lllmw v.ihthePrapJewish
QuarE, if:lilrmtbilgelse to oblaDlolllll. In my case, the idea
exptesaed to liB :liiml 11m! is Kabbalah m begin;D: the two
hildeu, in thia c:uc die AiDB ami Abba EbhiD, dao91hcir
coJiupl UDionp birth to wlllt can be seco, the Z81lir Aqlin, or
die tbat mrtmi'USC$ an the
Sep!D bebw die S'V""" except Mela6, ml u so doq
C8IIIICI Cftl8tiln to tab imD. 'lbe two are Jmdm; whit dley
C1a%e can be eeen. 'lbe cowtion to Meml:yi.Helmet msJcr.o.
peziet seDSe if one beps inmbl Kelby's ileu of"Nidlft, "ml
h8 of77te 71teaterof
Tenwtrilll AIITOIIOMY:
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
After creating the matter of the rreta1s, IlaiD!ly, living
Mercury, Nature added to it an active quality. For
Mercury, the substance, could not ofitselfma.ni:fest
its efrects, and Nature wisely joined to it an active
kind of mineral earth, wctuous and mt, thickened by
long digestion in the mineral caverns of the earth,
which is connmnly called Su1phm. This
however, not the connmn rreta], but the princip1e
and origin oftn!ta1s. Mercury is the matter, Su1phur
the furm of tn!ta1s, natural heat acting upon the
matter ofMercury, as upon a fit and well adapted
subject. [
30
1
Combine this with the ideas in line one, and Kelley seems to be
telling ''G.S." that he is such a "fit and adapted subject'' to
ma.ni:fest rrercuria1, or Herrretic, subjects.
Of course, one could make all of this Jess lofty and just attempt to
narre narres, as sorre are rmre interested in naming the "young
man'' or "dark Jady'' in Shakespeare's sonnets rather than
rreditating upon the abstract ideal! ofLove or aJchemy or spiritual
exploration therein. If one must try to identifY the real three people
here actually referred to; that is, if one must project the poem's
chemical theater onto real p1ayers in physical worJd, then one
wonders ifKelley and Dee are the "two hidden" influences
Ashrm1e or the copyist had in mind, and G.S.'s friends and
associates the rest who to "sight appeare." The implications are
mscinating: by this reading, ''G.S." becorres the public explicator
of the of the other two.
How might that line read difi.erently if we returned to KeDey' s
original spelling? I'll leave that to the imagination of the reader.
Wherein the Spermes of all the Bodies lower;
Here we encounter one of the rmst connmn actions in chemical
theater, albeit with unusual wording. KeDey prefers "sperrres" to
the rmre usual

perhaps fur the implicit

Herrres/''Sperrres" pun, since the dew from heaven, also called
rrercurial or Herrretic water, is what magically cleanses,
transfui'IlE, re-animatesl
32
l andre-impregnates matter. As
described in KeDey' s Stone of the Philosophers, philosophic
rrercury (or Herrres, or here "Spermes') is also the seed or
commn origin ofliving ')netal"
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
If we retwn to the rmre usual word, "dew," we see this idea ~
right out of tredieval alchemy as it ~ later absorbed by
Paracelsans and transmitted into later works. Ursula Szulakowska
explains:
Fifteenth and early sixteenth [century] a1chemical
mmuscripts and printed books had pictured the
celestial virtue as the full of a heavenly "dew" or ''ros
coeli'' onto the earth ... The original concept ofthe
dew ofheaven had been developed and dispersed
by an influential alchemical text of the late fourteenth
century, the Rosarium Philosophorum. This was
composed of quotations from the master alchemists
of the middle Ages, orga.nired into a sequential
accomt of the alchemical process with additional
colll[rentaries ... the icooographic sequence
remained constant between manuscript and printed
versions, of which the first appeared in Lyon in
1504.
33
1
The dew of the heavens descending was often called the "washing
of the Stone," or as Kelley wouki have it, the "sperming'' of the
stone. In the tredieval Rosarium Philosophorum, no doubt
fumiliar to both Kelley a n d ~ friend John Dee,[
34
1 ''the picture of
the dew ofheaven illustrates the final stages of the alchemical
work, that ofthe 'ablutio velmmdificatio,' a series of
purifications. The image depicts a dead hermaphodite, signifying
the incomplete phik>sopher's stone, being washed by heavenly
efilux. ,!{35]
The sa.rm work associates Latona, mother of Apollo and Diana,
gods of Sun and Moon, with the macrocosmic alchemical v e s s e ~
and tbis thirteenth century idea continues in a1chemical books two
centuries later, when we see Michael Maier's emblem; in
Atalanta Fugiens, which include the washing ofLatona. In
Kelley's Stone of the Philosophers, he writes, "PurifY Laton, ie.
copper (ore), with Mercury, for Laton is of gold and silver, a
compound, yellow, imperfect body. 'i
3
6l If one rmkes the
comron associations of copper to Venus and Venus to the entire
Kabbalistic Tree,[
3
7J then the washing or "dewing" ofLatona
becotres the process of cleansing the impurities from the :fhl1en
Tree.
We find sinnlar ideas in Shakespeare's plays, though they have
rarely been discussed as such. For instance, consider the words
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem -Burns
of the fitiryinAct II scene I of A Midsummer Night's Dream: "I
do wander everywhere/Swifter than the rroon's sphere;/ And I
serve the fitiry queen,/fo dew her orbs upon the greert."
To put tbi<; in terms of the rrost fiuniliar Hennetic philosophy,
when the heavenly dew, or to use Kelley's language, ''Spennes,"
descend, "as above" is evoked "below;" when Latona or (in
Midsummer Night's Dream) the Fairy Queen is cleansed, or her
orbs "dewed," the macrocosm ("as without'') is evoked from
within, in those who share her Nature.
Most secrett are, yett Spring forth once a yeare,
Finally we have a line that can be simply paraphrased: the
mysteries of these heavenly bodies are secret, Kelley teDs his
friend, but can be seen every spring, when winter ends and spring
appears.
But of course the line becomes rrore complicated as it becomes
rrore allusive.
Traditionally in Europe the new year began not witb Janus'
January, but at the spring or vernal equinox, so tbi<; line too
suggests a new year and three-in-one. We might associate the
new year witb a particular zodiacal sign, and can, though tbi<; will
further nruddy the waters: because of the precession of the
equinoxes, the constellations and signs of the zodiac no longer
match up, as they did in Roman times, when the particular
zodiacal names we still use were emnnerated. The vernal equinox
is still occasionally refurred to as the first point in Aries, though
zodiacally it fulls in Pisces. Approximately one precessional age
ago, in Roman times, the first point of Aries, or Spring, or the
vernal equinox, or the new year when measured from tbi<; point,
really renin Aries. What are we to make of these three difierent
temporal rererences?
If nothing else, the nruddied waters should teach us a lesson about
how "green'' language, or the hidden allusive language of
esotericists, works. One does not assume one speaks a language
witb perrect correspondences between the macrocosm and
microcosm, as many alchemists thought was true ofHebrew and
ancient Greek. Still today, Kabbalists study an of creation as
emanating from the Hebrew alphabet. Likely none of Ashrrole's
anthologlz.ed alchemists thought tbi<; about their English alphabet,
so they resorted to a complex web of symbols; beneath the
syniJols, however, lies a deep skein of correspondences learned
through the art or theater of merrory. The nruddied
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
correspondences refer the initiate to a system already learned, and
thus p1ay against and remind the initiated reader of transfOrmations
he or she already knows. Each new aBusion should suggest
diffurent correspondences recognimble, or at least &coverable,
from within the system one already knows.
With that in mind, we'll return to the ''Spring'' equinox. The
tnld<liness adds two other possible r e a ~ : Aries, the first sign
and a fire sign, a1so alludes to Aries the ram with golden fleece
given by Hernxs to N ephele. Or if one prefers to refer the Spring
to Pisces, since in the 15 80s the spring equinox fell in the
constellation ofPisces as certainly KeDey would have been aware,
then we're referred to the fish, which itself is often a symbol of the
prima materia: a :fish swimming in the "Great Water'' which
Ripley says is the first elemmt. Then, if one equates a ''fish'' with
' ~ e " by equating this 'fut fish'' to alchemy and a serpent, one
nms into a whole constellation of rredieval and Renaissance
alchemical symbols cormecting the fish to the Ouraborous serpent
which eats its own tail, and we corm full circle, an puns intended,
to the cockatrice and the entirety of the Philosopher's Stone,
rmking ''Spring'' itself the beginning, ending, and center point, in
eifuct the prima materia ofKelley's a1chemy, philosophic
mercmy. If Kelley's ''fiiend" has the smre ''Mercurial'' nature, and
heat acts upon him, he or his works will "spring'' furth.
If the above sequence strikes the reader as bizarre or random or
just incomprehensible, it may be because that reader, like rmst, is
oot at an fiuniliar with the language of chemical theater employed
by Kelley or the other writers anthologized by Aslnmle, let alone
oow one might learn the correspondences that infurm such
language. Another m.ICh hnger chemical poem in Theatrum
Chemicum Britannicum, ''Bhomfields Blossoms," tmkes an of
the sarre associations except the Jast (Bhomfield is spealdng to
hiln;elf; so there is no friend to spring furth.) Since this duster of
images and transfOrmations been ana]yz.ed in detail e1sewhere, [
38
1
I won't repeat the analysis here. But to those who catch the
references, it is no smprise that Bhomfield, after being handed to
Lady Philosophy and then to Raymund LuD, is imtructed using
sorm of the sarm language we find in Kelley's poem: Bhomfield
is to study 'The Blessed Stone/One in Nmnber and no rme/Our
great Elixir rmst high of price/Our Azot, our Basiliske, our
Adrop, and our Cockatrice."[
39
1 When? Implicitly, in Spring;
hence the title ''Bhomfields Bhssmm."
And as the Earth with Water, Authors are,
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As the :first Waters anilmte the elemmtal earth, so do authors
animate the subject of comparison here: perhaps, the
"dense matter'' of their audiences, in the alembic of theater. As
ooted earlier, if one searches through all of the poetry in
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, one :finds that only Kelley
uses the word "Author'' in his work. (Aslumle, oot smpmingly,
uses the word repeatedly in his pre:fu.ce and notes, but none of the
poets he save Kelley, say anything about authors.) It
is worth re-emphasizing that this is the only poem in the collection
that seem; to be telling a writer how to turn his works into
alchemical
So of his parte is Drines end of care.
''Parte" here can rman a gramnat:ical part of speech, a unit of
tirre, a section of a book, an act of or role in a play, in :fu.ct
anything which can be divned: but the previous line implies that
we're at least looking at somrthing than an "Author'' would sub-
divide, or that :ii "ofhis [the author's] parte"as a writer. While
only Kelley speaks to an ''Author," the language of grammr
oonetheless pervades the Theatrum just as it pervades Dee's
Hieroglyphic Monad and many intervening alchemical texts. For
instance, in Thorms Norton's ''Ordinan of Alchemy," whose word
choice often seetm echoed by Kelley, Norton exhorts his reader
to ''Conjoyne your eJerrents grammatically/With all their
Concords conveniently ... Joyne them in Rhetoricall guise/
With Natures Ornate in purified wise.'f
4
01
That takes us all the way to this sixth line's sixth word, "Drines."
"Drines" :ii an obsolete spelling of"dryness," and occurs many
tirres throughout Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, where in
every case it can refur to the qualities of one of the fuur eJerrents,
just as it does in Kelley's Theater of Terrestrial AstronomyJ
41
1
Of course, as an alchemical symbol it may rerer to smoothing
e1se. "Drines" shows up rmst often in Thomas Norton's
''OrdinaD,"l
42
1 where he tells his alchemical "sower'' to make sure
he knows the effects of the qualities ''Called Heat, Co1de,
Moisture, and Drines," and several lines later, adds: "Heate, and
Co1d, be qualities Active/Moisture, and Drines, be qualities
Passive." Again, Norton's usage matches that ofKelley, both in
Theater of Terrestrial Astronomy and in his 48 part list in Stone
of the Philosophers. In the latter, the number itself might suggest
what is missing, since Kelley's Enochian work might lead a reader
to expect 49, rather than 48, itetm. One oot:ices there are 48 Jines
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in this poem as wen
To retmn to another work in Theatrom quoted earlier, ''Dastin's
Dream," we see a ofhow "drines" can rmrph into the
fifth eletrent. Dastin dreams of a 'hevenly Boke brought/Of so
greate lliches that yt may not be bought/ In order set by Dwre
Philosophie." After a long theogeny, the ''Children'' in the dream
return mrto 'lheir Mother that "caiJed was Mercury," and she
describes her tmst pure "Child":
25. Whose Nature so
That fire so burning doth him no dis1resse:
royall kinde so celestiaD,
Of Corruption he taketh no sickness;
Fire, Water, Air, nor Erth with his drines,
Neither of them. may alter his Complexion,
He fixeth Spirits through his high noblenes;
Saveth infucted bodyes from their Corrupcion
This Son, we Jearn, will never die. And again I'll leave the reader
to his or her own interpretation, because we are finally to the end
ofKeiJey's first sextet, where the friend/author's "Drines" bring
about the "end of care." The "end of care" tmans simply the end
of su:trering or sorrow, using the now-obso1ete usage of"care" as
mental suffering, sorrow, grief; or troubJe. l
43
1 Presumably, if one
understands what Kelley is telling G.S., one will oo longer su:trer.
***** ***** ***** ******
And mrrcifully, this explication will speed up smrewhat now that
we've :firmhed the first sextet. While every line couki be unpacked
synilol by symbo\ it might make rmre sense to let those
interested in chemical poetry decipher the rest on their own I'll
add a fuw rmre suggestions ofhow one might do that in the
remaining pages. But if you try to work through these
transfOrmations, notice that along with fiuni1iar alchemical ideas
Kelley is identizying the poem's recipient as a person with
Kelley's alchemical key. He's telling this friend that ifhe does
and learns he will appear to be
diffurent from who or what he really is, and be influenced by the
of two who are l.UlSeen, and/or becotm the visible
sphere of their their Son'Sm or Zauir Anpin, to
intentionally mix tmtaphors and refer the chemi::al theater back to
Tiphareth. He will cotm furth in the Spring, which might refur to a
point in the year, or allude to the friend evoking the Great Work
from himself; with a little help from the "two hidden," whatever the
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reader takes those ''two" to be, or not be, allusively.
Perhaps we can now make rmre sense of the 1589 de<fuation,
'The praise ofvnity fur frendship's sake made by a stranger/ to
finther his frende his Conceyts." As <mcussed earlier, "unity" may
suggest Kelley's emblem from Theatre of Terrestrial
Astronomy, which might be considered the ')mnad" ofKelley's
beliefS. Kelley clearly refers to hitmelf as the ''stranger," which
rmst likely just rreans "one not :from t:1mi place," without the sense
offurebodmg in rmdem usages. ''Stranger" cou1d even allude to
both mm's connection to Ferdinanda Stanley, Lord Strange, the
patron ofLord Strange's mm, the theatri;al company we have
the rmst early records fur, and whose Lancashire fiunily might
well have been friends or patrons ofKelley.
Conversely, the line cou1d as easily rrean that outside of their
alchemical (and perhaps espionage) pmsuits, [
44
1 Kelley and his
friend do not koow each other weD. If t:1mi 'hnd" is the spy
Francis Garland, as I have suggested e1sewhere,l
4
51 and that
sarre Garland is Shakespeare and the ''Garland" referred to in the
Copenhagen manuscripts where this poem appears, then we have
fuund an amazing series of connections indeed: ''G. S." woukl be
one ofthose fur whom, according to Dee's diary, "E.K. made a
public demmstration of the phihsophers' This :frXmd
then has seen, or at the least thought he has seen, amazing tllings;
he rmyknow details ofDee and Kelley's 1586-1588 workings
that we have no record of at all; but that magical knowledge does
not necessarily rrean he and Kelly know each other well
personally. But Kelley seenE to know smoothing about this man's
planned "Conceyts" --a coiiDDJn term fur personal creative
endeavors-- and their possible connection to the ''Schoole"
referred to in this poems's final sextet Taken this way, Kelley's
original dedication is to a man he knows is a writer, perhaps a
poet of magical or "chemicaf' theater, whose art connects to the
exposition of principles deriving therefrom
Moving on to the second sextet:
No flood soe greate as that much Ooweth still,
Nothing more fixt than Earth digested thrise:
No Wmde so fresh as when it serveth "Wiil;
No Profitt more, then keepe in, and be wise,
No betterhapp, then drie up Aire to dust,
For then thou maist leave of and sleepe thy lust
Kelley gives us an intentional paradox: nothing rmre fixed than
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sorrething digested three tirres. The aBusion to ''tlnice-great"
Henres and three types of alchemical transfOrmations and three
types ofN ature discussed earlier shou1d be apparent, as shou1d
the Earth as an akhemical vessel and an eJemmt and dense
matter. The fresh 'Winde," rmst easily identified as the
vapor given off during sublimation, or ftom the fOurth law of the
Emerald Tablet, a1so suggests Zephirus, the warm west wind that
herakls spring and inspires artists and lovers of all sorts. Probably
the rmst fiumus literary rendering of Zephirus is :from the first few
lines of the ''General Prologue" to the Canterbury

Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every hoh and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge some
Hath in the Ram his half cours yrome,
And srmle fuweles maken rrelodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So prikethhemNature inhir corages),
Thanne longen fulk to goon on piJgrirmges,
Mythologically Aeolus is ruler of the winds, which he keeps in a
cave, that cave later becoming yet another alchemical symbol We
can a1so read 'Winde" as a verb, such as a river that winds, or
ship or person that wends along a particu1ar tack, or a wende or
wand, a long wand or pointed staff like the caduceus ofHenres.
AD. of these verbs share sirmlar etyrm1ogies. Finally, if our ''G.S."
is indeed Guliehmls or William Shakespeare, windy line-- No
Winde so fresh as when it serveth will-also plDlS on 'Will
Shakespeare."
If''G.S."was poet or p1aywright of any sort, the next two lines
refer us to a particular sort of narrative:
No better happ, then drie up Aire to dust,
For then thou tmist leave of and sleepe thy lust
No better happ, or happiness, than drying air to dust alludes to
sorre sort of filtering out process, a "dryness'' difierent :from
"drines" as one offuur elerrents, and rmre in keeping with the five
elerrents of pre-Socratic philosophy. This "drie"ing allows
Kelley's ftiend to leave off; or take leave sorre situation, and
''sleepe thy lust" The word ''lust" in the 1500s did not carry the
intense rmraljudgrrent connected to today's usage: it cou1d rrean
simply being in a state of pleasure, delight, or passion Leaving a
difficuh situation to ''sleep" or perchance dream one's lust is a
scene one :finds over and over in Shakespearean dramas, :from the
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tour lovers lost in the woods in Midsummer Night's Dream to
the shipwrecked survivors alternately put to sleep then awakened
on Prospero's in The Tempest. In both plays we have a
:n:Jb'ocosm of society where one or m>re characters with
supernatural abilities put other characters to sleep, using spirits or
firiries to tm.nipu1ate the main action in an attempt to purny and
c1arifY volatile characters, and where the closing speeches ask the
audience to question the boundaries between sleeping, dreaming,
watching a play, and being a player in one's own lifu. As
Prospero daughter, 'We are such stuff/As drearm are
made on, and our little life /Is rounded with a sleep."
Yett will I warne thee least thou chaunce to faile,
Sublyme thine Earth with stinking Water ent,
Then in a place where PhEbus onely tayle
Is seene art midday, see thou mingle best:
For nothing shineth that doth want his light,
Nor doubleth be ames, unless it first be bright
Like several other writers in Theatrom, including George Ripley
and John Dastin, Ke11ey presents us with Phrebus the sm god,
who shown fOllowed by Mercmy in sotre
emb:Jem;.
48
1 Szulakowska thinks KeD.y could be influenced here
by Dee's Paracelsan catroptics, or mirror-tmking, as wen as
Ripley's alchemical symbolmn, because in the above lines he
"describes the lighting conditions necessary fur the preparation of
chemicals. 'l
4
91
This sextet could also just be ana.Jyzed on its own as describing
the process of sublirmtion, but fur one added just how
bright is Phrebus, or the sun, anyway? Kelley tells us Phrebus in
a pJace where "onely'' ''tayle" can be seen, "art'' midday. Does
this trean "art" at mid-day, or that ''thou," his friend, "art midday,"
since ''thou'' would be the pronom to "art''? Is the middJe
of the day supposed to aBo suggest the middle of the year, or the
surmrer solstice? What the "mingle" he wants his friend to see?
Kelley's first point in The Stone of the Philosophers was that an
things traced back to their ''first principles, that is to say, the
three-told division ofNature," and that fur a.nima1s, and by
implication hmna.ns, this generafun attributed to a mingling of
the tmle and fumale in sexual union 'l
50
1 Midsurmrer was a good
tirre fur the "art'' oflove spells: is that what refurring to?
Probably not. But he refurring to sotrething taking place
at midday and/or midsurmrer, when the sm is at its most intense.
''Seene" can of course plDl on "scene," so if the a
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playwright then to '1ningle" might a1so suggest the proper
"mingling'' or combination of alchemical truths so that they might
shine the brightest or reflect rmst effuctively. If the line shifts to
:rrean Phcebus' "one tale," or one story, that is best told at
midday, then the last Jines make sense, since any other light that
shines at midday is reflected light ftom the Sl.Dl.
But all of these only work if we ignore the m>st bgal
astronomical explanation of the sm having only a "tay1e" at
midday. The sm has only a thin round tail during an eclipse. Thus
line might well refer to a particu1ar date, just as it certainly
rerers to a rather ancient teclmique of tmking magical Sea1s: one
use of an eclipse was to capture the light, and thus the power, of a
particular star or planet without it being ovenvhehred or
contaminated by the light of the sun. Finally, if this refers to a solar
eclipse that eclipse by definition will be a sun/rmon on
the new m>on, or the theater-in-the-sky's enactrrent of the
union ofSm and Moon described in the Emml1d
Tablet.
On a more lrumorous note, the Sun having only a tayle, or tai1,
might to sorre suggest a Golden Ass, and thus comect to the
Foole in the poem's 1ast couplet The Sun's taybr, or ga.rm:mt-
maker, would be the heavenly ''Cope" in the first line.
Lett no man leade, unlesse he know the way
That wise men teach, or A drop leadeth in,
Whereof the first is large and easiest pray;
The other hard, and meane but to begin.
For surely these and no one DHJre is found,
WhereinAppollo will his harp-strings sound
The first line might be paraphrased, ''let no one teach unless they
know what they're talking about," and reminds us of the Latin on
the frontispiece ofDee's Hieroglyphic Monad, usually trans1ated
as ''One who does not understand should be silent or learn."
Kelley seems to suggest two ways being irritated into the mysteries
-by having '\vise mm'' teach them, or being led by ''A drop."
"Adrop" likely corres ftomArabic usrubb, or lead,[
51
l and
appears in rredieval Latin alchemical texts as well as the
Renaissance English texts collected by Aslnmle, as well as in Ben
Jonson's satiric p1ay, The Alchemist .. Over a hundred years :later,
in 1753, Hill will define adrop as sorrething "wrong
alcheiDicits, denotes either that precise matter, as lead, out of
which the rrercury is to be extracted fur the philosopher's stone;
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or it denotes the philosopher's stone itself; inasnmch as this is ~ o
called satwn and plumbmn, or lead.l
52
1 Thereibre ''lead" and
''leadeth'' in the first two lines a1so p1ay off of adrop, lead.
To the ear, it might also sound like "Adept," and in terms of
spiritual alchemy it is--adrop is philosophical rrercury, as is, in
another sense, an alchemist or tmgus who is an Adept The
telescoping of these ideas back into the body of a solitary
practicioner would have a commonp1ace at this 'titre, as one
reason s o r r e ~ s given fur fuilure in particular alchemal
experitrents was that the alchemist himc:!elfhad not been purified.
Thus Ke1leyseerm to be telling ''G.S."that one can't lead (verb)
or be lead (noun, philosophic rrercury) until he knows ''the way,"
and suggests two paths: one, to study with wise mm, and the
other, ftom a "drop" of philosophic rrercury, or ftom that tiny
spark within oneself; to try to intuit it on one's own.
The first is easier, the second IWre difficult. The Jast two lines
suggest a third way: ''WhereinAppol/o willlm harp-strings
sound." Apollo, one of the twelve Olympians, leader of the
muses, god of the oracle at Delphi, crowned with Jaurel to show
his achieverrent in the arts, often is shown p1aying a harp or m>re
often, a lyre, which makes his appearance in magical texts ~ o
often a nod to Pythagorean beliefS. In R.erlai;sance art, Apollo is
often presented as "the emboclitrent of the c1assical Greek
spirit,'i 5
3
1 and representing the rational, civilized aspects of
society (as opposed to passionate and irrational represented by
Dxmysus.) He's also inp1aces synonyrmus withHelios and ...
Phcebus. So why doesn't Kelley just repeat ''Phcebus''?
Apollo, as the son oflatona and Jupiter/Zeus and twin brother of
IOOon goddess Diana, has a very particular connotation in alchemy
and Henretic tmgic: "Apollo represents the hot, dry, active,
tmSculine principle of the opus which the alchetm,t must unite with
his sister, Diana, the cold, rmist, receptive tema1e principle. The
process is depicted as an incestuous chemal wedding or union
ftom which the philosopher's stone is bom'i
54
1
Thus we have Kelley's third way: Apollo's harp strings sound,
and one becorres drawn to the chemal wedding, if that music
resonates within the student or bride. Notice that in Kelley's
sentence it is gramnatica11y impossible to dist:ingtmh whether the
'Will'' belongs to Apollo or the student, and whether the harp is
played ftomMt Olympus or within the person who hears it. The
double rreaning of"surely these and no one rmre is round"
suggests that by this third way, the initiate becorres "no one"-he
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gives up hi<! personal identity and takes on one tmre
rnultidinx:nsional, where like the ''Sun/Son'' rererred to Tiphareth,
he acts transpersonally on behalf of the greater good.
''No one" al<;o suggests the fiuniliar Pythagorean idea that one, a
point, the monad, Kelley's ''unity," doesn't really exist until it
unites with a two, and becomes three.
Example leame ofGOD thatplaste the Skyes,
Reflecting vertues from and t'every poynt,
In which the mover wherein all things lyes,
Doth hold the vertues all of every Joynt:
And therefore Essence sift may lWll be said,
Conteining all and yett himselfe a Maid
In this sextet and the next, Kelley tells his friend to learn of the
theogonys that placed, or created, the skies. The idea of every
point of the universe reflecting and collecting ''vertues" from every
other point, and thus every microcosm containing within itself the
macrocosm as its own central point of refurence, is repeated again
and again in the western mystery tradition, from ancient Greek
geometric proo:fS to the fumous statement by fifteenth century
theologian and mathematician Nicolas ofCusa ('The fubric of the
universe has its center everywhere and its circumfurence
nowhere') to one of the tmst wen-known lines from Aleister
Crowley's Book of the Law (''In the sphere I am everywhere the
centre, as she, the circumfurence, is nowhere fuund.')
''Sift," plllllling on "gift," is used here with the old meaning
something sifted out, or something that has been nm through a
sieve; in other words, some substance that has been purified. The
poet "contains aD," is a vessel of the macrocosm, but is yet a
"maid" or microcosm "rmde" by God. Thi<l same cluster of
metaphysical images can still be fuund a generation later in English
metaphysical poets from John Donne to Andrew Marven to
George Herbert.
Remember also how the Gods began,
And by Discent who was to each the Syre,
Then learnt their lives and Kingdomes if you can,
Their Manners eke, with all their whole Attire;
Which if thou doe, and know to what effect
The learned sophets will thee not reject
Most simply put, this sextet exhorts the friend to remember or
learn mythology and history as one and the same: what Nature
begat Nature down through the ages, as told by different stories
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of"descent" or creation. Then one shouk:lleam to cormect these
subjects or "nmmers" ofbehavior to the '\vho1e Attire" or whole
array of apparel that decks out the Earth
If one considers the classical theogonies as a1chemical
transfunnations, and the stories of difrerent historic Kingdoms
similar transfOrmations but fi.nther descended from the source, one
will have cJose to the idea. Doing this, of course, treans totally
innnersing oneself in pagan theogenies and hmnan histocy as a
spiritual pursuit, and if the friend being instructed here is a
playwright or poet, can also be taken as general instructions on
how to encode such things into works to inspire others.
Kelley's refurence to sophet Jets us know he expects the friend to
find sorre tmderlying mathematical, georretric, or Kabbalistic
ordering to these stories. This word appears nowhere e1se in the
Theatrum, or in any other a1chemical writing I'm aware
though it does show up in Jewish histories. The sotmd at first
suggests sophists, the teachers of writing, speech, and rhetoric
who trave1ed arotmd Greece during the fifth century BCE, without
the pejorative attitude Jater directed towards them by PJato and
Aristotle. It also suggests fOllowers of Sophia, the goddess of
Wisdom, whose ll3.tre treans ''She who knows," Hugo called the
study ofHerrretics itself that ''sophia of all sophias." Within
European Jewish histocy, however, sopherism, or sopheric
Jiteratme, rererred specifically to literatme not futmd within the
canonical Mishnah: in other words, the study ofKabba1ah, ancient
Greek geotretry, non-Judaic philosophy, and classical mytho1ogy
of any non-Hebraic canonized sort wouk:l be a type of sopheric
Jiteratme. Jewish wisdom represented by Sok.nmn, and to a
therefOre much ofSolmmnic magic, was often called
''Sophian.,
Most directly, sophets, with what must be Kelley's intentional pun
on "prophets," were Hebrew scribes, trembers "ofthe c1ass of
proressional interpreters of the Law after the return from the
Captivity; in the Gospels often coupled with the Pharisees as
uphokiers of ceretronial tradition.'{SS] The English word ''scribe"
cotres directly from the Hebrew word, sopher.
If this my Doctrine bend not with thy brayne,
Then say I nothing though I said too much:
Of truth tis good will moved me, not gaine,
To write these Iynes: yett write I not to such
As catch at Crabs, when better fruits appeare,
And want to chuse at fittest time ofyeare.
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If the reader has tmde it this fur, the first fuur lines should cause
no diftkulty. One might reflect back over the earlier six sextets to
try to tmderstand the "Crab" reference here. Is it another
reference to midsmr, when the Sw is in Cancer, the zodiacal
crab? He wants the :friend to bend his brain a bit over when the
fittest tirre of year is, so to not choose incorrectly. The ''Doctrine"
of correspondences and transfOrmations Kelley is alluding to thus
hkely has temporal, mythological, Kabbalistic, and
tmderpinrlings. What is Kelley, or his :friend, trying to choose?
Thou maist (my Freind) say, what is this for lore?
I answere, such as auncient Physicke taught:
And though thou read a thousand Bookes before,
Yett in respect of this, they teach thee Naught:
Thou mayst likewise be blind, and call me Foole
Yett shall these Rules for ever praise their Schoole.
In Kelley's day, ''lore" not only old stories nor only the act
of teaching, but the doctrine that was taught is those stories, and
so refers us back to the previous seven sextets. If the :friend or
reader has fOrgotten that they are being directly addressed, Kelley
remirxis them, and says he is answering according to ''ancient
physick" or the ancient art or practice ofhealing, which the friend
:rmy never have heard ofbefure, no :rmtter how much he has
studied. Elias AslnmJe, as part of a long and sotrewhat cryptic
explanation ofhow the ')lhilosopher's stone" connects to
astronomy, picks out this line ofKelley's and says this "ancient
physick" is the Satre as Riply's "quintessential water."l
56
1
Taken one way, Kelley is the ''Foole;" unpacked, it asks "G.S."
to identny ltitmelf as the ''F '' the initiate, perhaps even the
''Golden Ass" of the third sextet. Now that ass initiated during a
midsmr eclipse might remind us of nothing so much as
Bottom!Peter Quince from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's
Dream, who is tmned into an ass and sleeps with the Queen of
the Faeries, Titania.
We've finally arrived at the last line. Let's pause fur a
and look at it again: ''Y ett shall these Rules fur ever praise their
SchooJe."
We can ass\llre these ''Rules" concern the ''Doctrine" :from the
sextet seven, which he can better learn by deeply studying the
theogenys and histories alluded to in sextet six, whi;h
tmderstandable by becoming aware of the process of creation as
alluded to in sextet five, and wderstanding cataly2ed by the
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philosopher's stone in sextet fuur, representing an alchemical
process which may make ''G.S." aware of the significance of
some sort of eclipse alluded to in sextet three, which as an author
he can make visible by the rrrultiple allusions in sextets one and
two.
By now the careful reader might even have the outlines ofhow to
extract a general doctrine ofhow to study the philosopher's stone
from this, though the "mean task" of trying to do so alone without
teachers is daunting enough to perhaps make one want to give up
:innnediately. But the person to whom this is addressed, ''G.S.," is
already ''Natures sower" with a will indistinguishable from the
harp strings of Apollo; in short, he's already a Bard of the
heavenly Muse; and as a Bard, can pluck those strings and start
the process in others.
That brings us to this essay's final question: what is the ''Schoole"
that these ''Rules," or maxims, correspondences, principles,
qualities, or even codes of discipline, praise? Usually the school
sets the rules, rather than the rules creating the school .. unless it
is a group that just by acting of its own nature behaves the same
way, like a school offish, or a group of people expk.lring the same
universal ideas. Remember, ''fishing" was then a slang term fur
alchemy. Alchemists, like "sophets," believed they were searching
fur universal principles or laws. The better one understood those
laws, the more one was aware of their membership in the
''School"
Kelley's lines, if they have a concrete English historical reference,
seem to stare Janus-like fromAshmole's 1652 vantage point:
backwards towards the Rosicrucian-influenced invisible college
and furwards towards the Royal Society ofLondon From
Kelley's 1589 vantage point, the backwards stare takes us
backwards to Sir Walter Raleigh's School of the Night, and
towards the fument that led to that "invisible college" and the best
ofEli2abethan and Jacobean drama. IfG.S. was Shakespeare,
that makes these middle years of transition even more interesting
than they already are, and the Shakespearean corpus the triple-
meed vessel most suited to understanding the transfurmations that
went on in that time period.
It would not be long--only a generation--befure alchemy was on
its way to being labeled a "pseudo-science," and its most
physically demonstrable tenets, stripped of any theology, would
become the physical sciences of physics, chemistry, astronomy,
geology, and geography. Mathematics, magic, and grammar, often
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
considered three and the sarre in the tmnadic alchemy ofKelley's
friend John Dee, would becmre, to m>st, two difrerent things.
ffiltorians have no difficuhy tracing the trembership of
the mid-seventeenth century ''invisib1e college" that gave birth to
the Royal Society, but why those particular great minds ca.me
together is not, on the surface record at least, well understood.
The Royal Society's fuce that looks backwards towards the
''Schoof' ofHerrres, ak:hemy, and magic, and that Hemxtic
system's comection to political intrigues, espionage, and a pre-
Inquisition alchemical fulk tradition markedly less masculine and
aristocratic, has been consistently downplayed, and ahmst never
re-comected back to the arts. For instance, the facsimile edition
of Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum used by this author corres
from a ''Sources of Science" series; none that I am aware of
include it as a sourcebook fur understanding theater, Ill.lCh less a
guide fur understanding sacred theater.
What if that with its muddied green language and
confusing network of signs and continued through the
height of Shakespearean drama, and Shakespeare hiln;elfwas,
hidden in plain site, its tmst public advocate? That what this
writer thinks did happen, and what I will be exploring in
''Shakespeare's Green Garland," this issue and next.
Index
References
Abraham, L 1998, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY.
Abraham, L 1998, ''Edward Kelly's Hieroglyph" in Emblems and
Alchemy, eds. A. Adams & S.J. Linden, Departrnmt ofFrench,
University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, pp. 95-108.
Aslnmle, E 1967, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, A reprint
of the London ed., 1652, with a new introd. by Allen G. Debus
edn, Johnson Reprint Corp, New York.
Aslnmle, E 1652, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum
Containing Severall Poetical/ Pieces of Our Famous English
Philosophers, who have written the hermetique mysteries in
their owne ancient language, Printed by J. Gristmnd fur N ath.
Brooke, London
Backhmd, J 2006, ''In the Footsteps ofEdward Kelley: Sorre
Manuscript Refurences in the Royal Library in Copenhagen
Concerning an Alchemical Circle Around John Dee and Edward
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
Kelley'' mJohn Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English
Renaissance Thought, ed. S. Chlcas, Springer Dordrecht, the
Nether lands, Dordrecht, the N etherJands.
Breiner, LA 1979, ''The Career of the Cockatrice", Isis, vol 70,
00. 1, pp. 30-47.
Bridges, V and Burns, T 2007, ''Olympic Spirits, the Cuh ofthe
Dark Goddess, & the Seal of Arreth" m The Consecrated Little
Book of Black Venus attributed to John Dee, ed. Burns, T. and
Tmner, N., Waning Moon Publications, Ltd., CoJd Springs, N.Y.
Earlier draft available: http:mwmt.org/v2n13/book.html
Burns, 1M 2008. ''Francis Gar1and, William Shakespeare, and
John Dee's green Janguage", Journal of the Western Mystery
Tradition 2, (15). Available:
http:/i\w.,w.jwmt.orglv2n15/garland .html
Bums, 1M, Moore., JA 2007, ''The Hieroglyphic Monad of John
Dee Theorerm I-XVII: A Guide to the Outer Mysteries", Journal
of the Western Mystery Tradition, vol2, no. 13. Available:
http:mwmt.org/v2n13/sign.html
Chaucer, G, Coghill, N 2003, The Canterbury Tales, Penguin
Books, London ; New York.
Dee, J, Bmns, T, Tmner, N 2007, The Consecrated Little Book
of Black Venus, Waning Moon Publications, Ltd., Co1d Springs,
NY.
Economm 1972, The Goddess Natura in Medieval Literature,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Fenton, E ed. 1998, John Dee's Diaries. Day Books,
Oxfordshire, UK.
GoJdschmidt, G 1938, Der Ursprung der Alchimie, CffiA-
Zeitschrift, Base\ Switzer1and.
HaD, J 1974, Dictionary of subjects and symbols in art. Harper
&Row, NY.
Kelley, E 2008. Concerning the philosopher's stone. Journal of
the WesternMysteryTradition2, (15). Available:
http:/i\w.,w.jwmt.orglv2n15/kpoem.html
Kelly, E& Waite, AE 1973, The Alchemical Writings of
Edward Kelly, Sarmel Weiser, NY.
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
Klein, A 1982 (German) (premce, trans, and Die
Monas-Hieroglyphe von John Dee aus London, Ansata-Verlag,
InterJaken, Switzerland.
OxfOrd University Press. Oxford English dictionary. in OxfOrd
University Press [database online]. Oxfurd, England, 2000,
AvailabJe from http://dictionary.oed.com/; Note: For
subscribers only; fuDow links to resource.
Porter, A 1988, Shakespeare's Mercutio: His History and
Drama, University ofN orth Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.
Shakespeare, W, B 2005, A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Shakespeare, W, B. Bloom, H 2006, The Tempest, Yale
University Press, New Haven, CT.
Szulakowska, U 2000, The Alchemy of Light: Geometry and
Optics in late Renaissance Alchemical Rlustration, Brill,
Leiden, Boston, MA.
Turner, N. Burns, T 2007, "A TranslationofTheorems I-XVII of
John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica", Journal of the Western
Mystery Tradition, vol2, no. 13. Available: Available:

Index
Notes
[1] Titles rarely have fuotnotes and scho1arly articles rarely have
dedications, but in the spirit of play, let endnote ''mnnber one" be
both: I'd like to thank the two "especiall good Fraters" who
suggested and helped tre through these "strange" interpretations,
fur friendship's sake.
[2] Burns, ''Francis Garland, William Shakespeare, and John
Dee's green language," available:
http://www.jwmt.org/v2n15/garland .html.
[3] One possibJe source may have beenAslumle's Rosicrucian
''father," William Backhouse, whose :father had cmmections to
both Dee and KeDey, See discussion in my other article this
issue, ibid.
[4] Backhmd 295-330.
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[5] Ibid., 314.
[6] For rmre <mcussion o f ~ , ibid.,or see my related article, op.
cit., ~ issue.
[7] Ibid.
[8] For instance, Kelley's use of"Adrop," seem; influenced by
George Ripley, whose "Adrop" has sirmlar multiple
correspondences. See RipleyinAslnrole, 135, 151. Kelley's use
of''Drines" matches that of Thomas Norton---see Norton in
Aslnrole, 54, 55,63-and of course, matches Kelley's own
Jonger exp1anation in The Philosopher's Stone. One of the rmre
cmious echoes is between Kelley's second line---'Two hidden;
but the rest to sight appeare"-and the second stama of a rarely
mentioned poem, D.D.W. Bedman's ''iFnigma Philosophicum."
See Bedman inAshrmle, 423.
[9] Backhmd op. cit.
[10] Abrnham, ''Edward Kelly's hieroglyph'' 100-106.
[11] Kelley op. cit. 117-118.
[12] For discussion of this from a purely literary perspective, see
George Econormu's The goddess Natura in medieval
literature.
[13] Kelly op. cit. 7. Edward Kelley's natre is spelled difrerently
the article text than in these footnotes and because of the tmre
recent convention of spelling his last l'l3.Ire ''Kelley," which
matches Ashrmle's spelling, as opposed to the cormmn spelling
used by Waite and many other twentieth centt.ny esotericists of
spelling his na.tre ''Kelly." Since I'm using Waite's edition of s o ~
ofKeiiey's work, when I reference him the endnotes reflect
Waite's spelling.
[14] Dee, trans Tmner and Burns, available:
http://www.jwmt.org/v2n13/partial.html; Tmner and Burns n
68-69.
[15] Gokischmilt 1961-1962, trans. Nancy Tmner.
[16] Tmner and Bwns op. cit. notes 68-69.
[17] Kelly op. cit. 20
[18] Ibid 7-16.
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[19] Ibid. 15.
[20] Dastin in Ashrmle, op. cit. 259.
[21] Bridges and Burns 128-131, 157-168; Weidner and Bridges
44-45; Klein 18-19, 38.
[22] Bridges and Burns 209-210 n 152-153.
[23] Ibid., aJso see Klein op. cit. 124-126, 130-132.
[24] Ibid. 157-168.
[25] Backhmd op. cit. 314.
[26] ''Colonna," Hypnerotomachia Poliphili.
[27] Kelly, op. cit. 118.
[28] An excellent overview ofMercury/Herrres as portrayed in
Renaissance emblem books can be fOund in chapter three of
Porter's Shakespeare's Mercutio.
[29] Fenton, 171, 174, 184.
[30] Kelly op. cit. 121.
[31] However, one other writer anthologized in Theatrum, Jolm
Dastin, uses similar language. See Dastin in AslnmJe, 258.
[32] Abraham, Dictionary, 53.
[33] Szulakowska 24-25.
[34] Ibid., especially chapter two, ''Georretry and Astrology in
Late Medieval and early Renaissance Alchemy."
[3 5] Ibid. 24
[36] Kelly op. cit. 33; available: http://www.sacred-
texts.com/alc/kellystn.htm
[3 7] While this may seem anaclnunisti; to m>dem esotericists
rmst fumiliar with the association because of its inclusion in
Go1den Dawn knowledge 1ectures, one shoukl be aware that the
sarre association ofVenus to the entirety of the Tree exists in
mmy earlier works ofKabba1ah, and m>st :fu.rmusly in Dee's
Hieroglyphic Monad.
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Concerning Ed. Kelley's Poem- Burns
[38] Breiner.
[39] Aslnmle op. cit.312.
[40] Ibid. 59-60.
[ 41] Kelly op. cit.120.
[42] NortoninAslnm1e op. cit. 54, 55, 63.
[43] OED.
[44] Bwns, 'lQarland," op.cit.
[45] Ibid.
[ 46] Fenton op. cit. 204.
[ 4 7] Curiously, Aslnmle infullil'l 1m readers that Chaucer was a
''Master'' of a1chemy, and says that is why he included the ''Canon
Yeoman's Tale" ftomThe Canterbury Tales in Theatrum. See
Aslnmle, op. cit. 467-470.
[48] Porter 69.
[ 49] Smlakowska op. cit.50-51.
[50] Kelly op. cit. 7.
[51] Abraham, Dictionary op. cit. 3.
[52] Hill, in Chambers's Cyclopredia;, as cited in OED, op. cit..
[53] Hall25.
[54] Abraham, Dictionary, op. cit., 8.
[55] OED, op. cit.
[56] Aslnmle, op. cit. 460-461.
Index
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