The Funny Side of Physic: Or, The Mysteries of Medicine, Presenting the Humorous and Serious Sides of Medical Practice. An Exposé of Medical Humbugs, Quacks, and Charlatans in All Ages and All Countries.Crabtre, Addison Darre
History
The Funny Side of Physic: Or, The Mysteries of Medicine, Presenting the Humorous and Serious Sides of Medical Practice. An Exposé of Medical Humbugs, Quacks, and Charlatans in All Ages and All Countries.
Crabtre, Addison Darre
Medicine -- Anecdotes; Quacks and quackery
Dee enjoyed for a long time the confidence and patronage of Elizabeth. He
then resided in an elegant house at Mortlake, which was still standing in
1830, and was used for a female boarding school. "In two hundred years it
necessarily had undergone some repairs and alterations; yet portions of it
still exhibited the architecture of the sixteenth century.
"From the front windows might be seen the doctor's garden, still attached
to the house, down the central path of which the queen used to walk from
her carriage from the Shan road to consult the wily conjurer on affairs of
love and war.
"He was one of the few men of science who made use of his knowledge to
induce the vulgar to believe him a conjurer, and one possessing the power
to converse with spirits. Lilly's memoirs recorded many of his impostures,
and at one time the public mind was much agitated by his extravagances.
The mob more than once destroyed his house (before residing at Mortlake)
for being too familiar with their devil. He pretended to see spirits in a
stone, which is still preserved with his books and papers.... In his
spiritual visions Dee had a confederate in one Kelley, who, of course,
confirmed all his master's oracles. Both, however, in spite of their
spiritual friends, died miserably--Kelley by leaping from a window and
breaking his neck, and Dee in great poverty and wretchedness. The remains
of the impostor lie in Mortlake Church, without any memorial."
He unfortunately had survived his royal patroness.
Queen Mary had had Dee imprisoned for practising by enchantment against
her life; but her successor released him, and required him to name a lucky
day for her coronation.
"In view of this fact," asks the author of 'A Morning's Walk from London
to Kew,' "is it to be wondered at that a mere man, like tens of thousands
of other fanatics, persuaded himself that he was possessed of supernatural
powers?"
ANOTHER IMPOSTOR.--THE GREAT FIRE.
William Lilly followed in the wake of, and was even a more successful
impostor than the Reverend Dee. He was first known in London as a
book-keeper, whose master, dying, gave him the opportunity of marrying his
widow and her snug little fortune of one thousand pounds. The wife died in
a few years, and Lilly set up as an astrologer and fortune-teller.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account