Dryden, John, 1631-1700; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
'It happened on one Sunday 1632, as myself and a Justice of
Peace's clerk were, before service, discoursing of many things,
he chanced to say, that such a person was a great scholar, nay,
so learned, that he could make an almanack, which to me then
was strange: One speech begot another, till, at last, he said,
he could bring me acquainted with one Evans in
Gun-Powder-Alley, who had formerly lived in Staffordshire, that
was an excellent wise man, and studied the black art. The same
week after we went to see Mr. Evans. When we come to his house,
he having been drunk the night before, was upon his bed, if it
be lawful to call that a bed whereon he then lay; he roused up
himself, and, after some compliments, he was content to
instruct me in astrology. I attended his best opportunities for
seven or eight weeks, in which time I could set a figure
perfectly: Books he had not any, except Haly de judiciis
Astrorum, and Origanus's Ephemerides; so that as often as I
entered his house, I thought I was in the Wilderness. Now
something of the man: He was by birth a Welshman, a Master of
Arts, and in sacred orders; he had formerly had a cure of souls
in Staffordshire, but now was come to try his fortunes at
London, being in a manner enforced to fly for some offences
very scandalous committed by him in these parts where he had
lately lived; for he gave judgment upon things lost, the only
shame of astrology: He was the most saturnine person my eyes
ever beheld, either before I practised or since; of a middle
stature, broad forehead, beetle-browed, thick shoulders,
flat-nosed, full lips, down-looked, black curling stiff hair,
splay-footed; to give him his right, he had the most piercing
judgment naturally upon a figure of theft, and many other
questions, that I ever met withal; yet for money he would
willingly give contrary judgments, was much addicted to
debauchery, and then very abusive and quarrelsome, seldom
without a black eye, or one mischief or other: This is the same
Evans who made so many antimonial cups, upon the sale whereof
he principally subsisted; he understood Latin very well, the
Greek tongue not at all: He had some arts above, and beyond
astrology, for he was well versed in the nature of spirits, and
had many times used the circular way of invocating, as in the
time of our familiarity he told me.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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