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Page 17
In October of this year, 1633, Lilly's wife died, and left him 'very
near to the value of one thousand pounds sterling'--all she had to
leave. He continued a widower 'a whole year,' which he, as that phrase
implies, held to be a long time in such bereavement--and followed his
studies in astrology very diligently. So diligently that he soon had
knowledge to impart to others, and he 'taught Sir George Knight
astrology, that part which concerns sickness, wherein he so profited
that in two or three months he would give a very good discovery of any
disease only by his figures.'
With a new wife, which he got the next year (1634), Lilly had �500
portion; but 'she was of the nature of Mars,' which is surely not a good
nature in a wife. In that same year he, with some 'other gentlemen,'
engaged in an adventure for hidden treasure: they 'played the hazel rod
round about the cloyster,' and digged, in the place indicated, six feet
deep, till they came to a coffin; but they did not open it, for which
they were afterward regretful, thinking that _it_ probably contained the
treasure. Suddenly, while they were at this work, a great wind arose,
'so high, so blustering, and loud,' that all were frightened, 'and knew
not what to think or do;' all save Lilly, who gave 'directions and
commands to dismiss the d�mons,' and then all became quiet again. These
doings Lilly did not approve, and says he 'could never again be induced
to join in such kind of work.' He engaged, however, in another
transaction of still worse character, which seems to have been even
more unpleasant to him; for he says: 'After that I became melancholy,
very much afflicted with the hypochondriac melancholy, growing lean and
spare, and every day worse; so that in the year 1635, my infirmity
continuing and my acquaintance increasing, I resolved to live in the
country, and in March and April, 1636, I removed my goods unto Hersham
(Horsham in Sussex, thirty-six miles from London), where I continued
until 1641, no notice being taken who or what I was:' and in this time
he burned some of his books, which treated of things he did not approve,
and which he disliked to practise; for this man really had a conscience
as good as the average, or even better: he was driven into solitude by
the reproaches of it--or, perhaps, by the scoldings of a wife who 'was
of the nature of Mars.'
Thus far we have followed Lilly's account of himself closely, using
often his own words, because they give a more correct idea of the man
than could be got from the words of another; but henceforth to the end,
we will skip much and be brief. This astrologer did not always rely on
his special art to discover things hidden, but used often quite ordinary
means; sometimes such as are common to officers of detective police. His
confessions of doings in that kind are candid enough, and we must say of
his 'History of his Life and Times' that it is, on the whole, a simple,
truthful statement of facts; not an apology for a life at all; for he
seldom attempts to excuse or justify his actions, but leaves a plain
record with the reader for good or evil.
A man, it is sometimes said, is to be judged by the company he keeps,
and we will therefore say a few words of this astrologer's friends. Of
men like William Pennington, of Muncaster, in Cumberland, 'of good
family and estate,' introduced to Lilly by David Ramsay, the king's
clockmaker, in 1634, who are otherwise unknown to us, we will say
nothing. But the reader surely knows something of Hugh Peters, the
Puritan preacher--who could do other things as well as preach: with him
Lilly had 'much conference and some private discourses,' and once in the
Christmas holidays, a time of leisure, Peters and the Lord Gray of Groby
invited him to Somerset House, and requested him to bring two of his
almanacs. At another time Peters took Lilly along with him into
Westminster Hall 'to hear the king tried.' But the most influential
friend, perhaps, was Sir Bulstrode Whitlocke, a man well known to
readers of English history as very prominent in the time of the
Commonwealth and Protectorate. He was high steward of Oxford, member of
the council of state, one of the keepers of the great seal, a man very
learned in the law, who made long discourses to Oliver Cromwell on the
matter of the kingship, and on other matters. He went to Sweden as
Cromwell's ambassador, and was one of the great men of that time, or one
of the considerable men. Sir Bulstrode, according to Ashmole, was
Lilly's patron; and indeed the great man did befriend him long, and help
him out of difficulties. The acquaintance began in this wise: Sir
Bulstrode being sick, Mrs. Lisle, 'wife to John Lisle,' afterward one of
the keepers of the great seal, came to Lilly, bringing a specimen of the
sick man. Whereupon the astrologer, having inspected the specimen, 'set
a figure,' and said, 'the sick for that time would recover, but by means
of a surfeit would dangerously relapse within one month; which he did,
by eating of trouts at Mr. Sands' house in Surrey.' Therefore, as there
could no longer be any doubt of Lilly's skill, he, at the time of Sir
Bulstrode's second sickness, was called to him daily; and though the
family physician said 'there was no hope of recovery,' the astrologer
said there was 'no danger of death,' and 'that he would be sufficiently
well in five or six weeks; and so he was.' This Mrs. Lisle, who brought
the specimen, being apparently one of Lilly's she friends, we will add
that she made herself remarkable by saying at the martyrdom of King
Charles I, in 1648, that 'her blood leaped within her to see the tyrant
fall.' For this, and for other things, the woman was finally beheaded;
it being impossible otherwise to stop her tongue; and I have no tear for
her.
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