Robert Smythe, is referred to in Cal. State Papers, Dom. Elis. 1547-80, p. 403; 1591-4, pp. 376, 422, 435, 588. I quote: 1594, Feb. 20. Instructions to Rob. Smith of Yarmouth, sent by the Queen to Lubec. He having received the Queen's reply to a letter from Roloff Peterson of Lubec, is to repair thither, deliver the letter, receive the three glass bodies, and bring them to her majesty. He is to ascertain from Peterson whether the materials therein were considered by Ouldfield to be brought to full perfection, and if anything is lacking, what it is. Also to recover any books or papers of Oldfield relating thereto, or other of his books which treat of alchemy; also a secret menstruum, without which the materials aforesaid can hardly be brought to perfection. All these things are to be brought to Her Majesty, in order to ascertain their value, and either detain them, or return them, on the consideration mentioned.— Ibid., p. 435. [She was to give £500 if she kept them.] Elizabeth's relations to alchemy are further touched on: Cal. State Papers, Addenda, Dom. Eliz. 1566-79, p. 47. The queen and her court evidently had faith. As is the usual luck in this craft, something happened to prevent the desired consummation. I add another citation from the Calendar of State Papers, which does not refer to the queen personally, but is of general interest. It may be added to by reference to the indexes of the separate volumes. I quote from the abstract there given : Going over to 1601, Dec. ?. Dan Doryn, Dutchman, to [Sec. Cecil?]. Emden last April on family business, I became intimate with Peter Lubrighte, a German, who showed me a powder which would turn silver and quicksilver into gold, and he did it before my face. I got some of the powder, came to England, stayed till Midsummer, thence backwards and forwards to Calais about family affairs. I showed Hans Ghammell of Dunkirk my powder, and he told the governor of Gravelines; they did it themselves, and asked if I could make the powder. I said not, but a friend of mine could; they offered me money to get my friend thither, which I promised to try to do, but have never been there since.-Dom. Eliz. 1601-3, p. 137. No statement of disbelief in the possibility of the operations seems to occur, from any of the numerous officials connected with these entries. In 1618 Sir Giles Mompesson (Massinger's Sir Giles Overreach in A New Way to pay old Debts) applied for a patent to make gold and silver lace with copper in a new 'alchymistical' way. Lord Bacon, as Chancellor of England, approved the granting of the patent1. This was eight years after the production of Jonson's Alchemist. We have seen why the abuses of alchemy maintained themselves so long, and played so large a part in life. The chief of these reasons has been seen to be the credulity of the people. This we have illustrated with especial reference to the half-century preceding Jonson's Alchemist, thereby partially anticipating our next section on the conditions in England which confronted Jonson in 1610. Before passing to this section let us stop a moment to consider some of the tricks of the alchemists. The tricks by which alchemical swindles were carried on are simple and of great age. Notwithstanding, they have been brought into play in London and New York within the last fifteen years, of which more anon. Chaucer states them as definitely as any later writer. Chaucer's canon and his London priest are eternal types of the confidence-man and the dupe. First, the apparent transformation to draw on the prey. The vessel being put upon the fire with quicksilver in it, the alchemist directs his dupe to pile coals carefully in a heap over it, the wonderful powder being first put in. Then, on pretense of helping to arrange the coals, the alchemical canon lays on the top a hollow beechen coal containing silver filings plugged in with wax. The fire melts the wax, and the silver filings drop into the crucible. In due time the crucible is put in a dish of water, cooled, and the silver drawn out by the dupe's own hand, to the great satisfaction of both parties. Then the canon, 'rote of alle cursednesse,' offers a second proof of his skill. The same process is gone through again, except that this time the canon put silver filings in a hollow cane stopped with wax, and pokes about the 'crosselet' (crucible) with this until the wax melts and the silver falls into the pot. Then to rivet the chains of the poor duped priest, the canon asks for a block of copper. This they melt and 1 Saturday Review, 8-15-1874, pp. 206-7. treat with powder as before. When it is cooled in a vessel of water, the canon, putting in his hand, slips a block of silver equal to the copper into the water and slyly draws away the copper1. The poor priest presently putting in his hand brings up the silver block. Away they go to the goldsmith and find that they have good silver. The priest, hot to possess the secret of the wonderful powder, pays £40 for it. The canon vanishes. It is not necessary to add that his friend the priest is permanently deprived of the joy of his presence. Jonson refers to these same tricks of cozening with a hollow coal, dust, scrapings. He also offers a variation: And this Doctor, Your footy, fmoakie-bearded compeere, he Will clofe you fo much gold, in a bolts-head, And, on a turne, conuay (i'the stead) another With fublim'd Mercurie, that shall burst i̇'the heate, It is in the ending. Subtle here is making the stone for Mammon. Mammon furnishes the money. Needless to say, his gold does not go into the melting-pot but into the purses of the swindlers. When it is time for the farce to end, the old trick of having the furnace burst, go up in fumo, is resorted to. The craftiness with which Mammon is made to believe in this is a happy stroke of Jonson's own. From the start Subtle has insisted on personal purity as a necessary qualification for having the stone. As the end comes on, Dol draws Mammon towards an intrigue. At the proper moment Subtle surprizes him, and while rebuking his sin and saying that the work has stood still for the last hour on that account, suddenly there is a crash and 'all is flowne in fumo. Subtle falls in a faint; Mammon goes away repentant, promising to send £100 to the poor in atone 1 Sometimes a crucible with a false bottom was used; sometimes the alleged powder of projection was a preparation of gold (as in the E. Pinter case). Generally, however, the adepts relied on sleight of hand, as in Chaucer, and conveyed the gold into the place where it was needed before the face of the dupe. • IV. 603 ff. ment for his sin, and hoping that he may be allowed to try it all over again. This ending is a stroke of genius, to so engineer the failure that the dupe is eager to repeat the process, and it is in perfect harmony with the writings of the alchemists. So much for the technique of the goldmaking swindle of long ago. Its Position in England in 1610. It has already been noted that alchemy was decidedly prominent in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Credulity was the law for 'lewd' and learned, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, as we have shown, but that alone cannot explain the prominence of alchemy in her reign and that of James I. It and its congeners, sorcery and quackery, were great in the land. Perhaps the great activity in the matter of witchcraft, beginning in 1603 with the accession of James I, stimulated all the allied trades. As a matter of fact the feeling against witchcraft had been deepening as Elizabeth's reign drew to a close, and pamphlets calling for punishment upon it had come in considerable numbers from the press. Then again the Rosicrucian movement-whatever that movement really was-first came to notice in 1605, and for some years excited much attention throughout Western Europe. Alchemy was a part of the faith of the Rosicrucians, but not the main thing. Chief of all, however, was the steadily growing interest in natural science, to which reference has already been made. The consciousness of this general feeling, no doubt shared by himself, coupled with an intellectual habit of mind that convinced him of the folly of alchemy, was a sufficient inducement for Jonson to attack alchemy. The pamphleteers of the preceding twenty years, Nashe, Greene, and Dekker, had exposed cony-catchers, pickpockets, and the professional criminal classes generally. They had attacked astrology, palmistry, physiognomy (metoposcopy), with an occasional reference to alchemy. Of the latter they say little and in general seem of uncertain mind about it. They know that imposture is daily practised in the name of both astrology and alchemy, yet they are not sure that those sciences are not true. Lyly in Gallathea, a comedy presented to the court (published 1592, acted earlier), had satirized both sciences in a slender but vigorously contemptuous underplot. There was a great opening for a play which should gather up all the threads of contemporary swindling along with alchemy. Jonson, intimate with the court, must have known much of Forman's relations with the ladies thereof, and was in position to expose all the tricks of the conjurers. The rise of conjurers and 'cunning men' of the type of Subtle is well described by Nashe in 1594. All his tricks but alchemy are exposed here: Shall I impart vnto you a rare secrecy how these great famous Coniurers and cunning men ascend by degrees to foretell secrets as they doo. First and formost they are men which haue had some little sprinkling of Grammer learning in their youth; or at least I will allowe them to haue been Surgeons or Apothecaries prentises, these I say hauing runne through their thrift at the elbowes, and riotouslie amongst harlots and make-shifts spent the annuitie of halfpennie ale that was left them, fall a beating their braynes how to botch vp an easie gainfull trade, & set a new nap on an old occupation. Hereupon presently they rake some dunghill for a few durtie boxes and plaisters, and of tosted cheese and candles ends, temper vp a fewe oyntments and sirrups which hauing done, farre North, or into some such rude simple countrey they get them, and set vp. Scarce one month haue they staid there, but what with their vaunting and prating, and speaking fustian in steede of Greeke, all the Shyres round about do ring with their fame: and then they begin to get them a Library of three or foure old rustie manuscript books, which they themselues nor anie els can read; and furnish their shops with a thousand quid pro quos, that would choake anie horse: besides, some wast trinkets in their chambers hung vp, which maye make the world halfe in iealouzie they can coniure. They will euermore talke doubtfully, as if there were more in them than they meant to make publique, or was appliable to euerie common mans capacitie: when God bee their rightfull Iudges, they vtter all that they know and a great deale more. To knit vp their knaueries in short (which in sooth is the hang-mans office, & nones els) hauing pickt vp theyr crummes thus pretely well in the Countrey, they drawe after a time a little neerer and neerer to London; and at length into London they filtch themselues priuely: but how? Not in the hart of the Cittie will they presume at first dash to hang out their |