William Lilly's History of His Life and Times, from the Year 1602 to 1681Lilly, William
Religion
William Lilly's History of His Life and Times, from the Year 1602 to 1681
Lilly, William
Astrologers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Astrology; Lilly, William, 1602-1681
natural parts, and would speak publickly upon any occasion very
rationally and to the purpose. I write this, that the world may know he
was no taylor, or myself of that or any other calling or profession: my
work was to go before my master to church; to attend my master when he
went abroad; to make clean his shoes; sweep the street; help to drive
bucks when he washed; fetch water in a tub from the Thames: I have
helped to carry eighteen tubs of water in one morning; weed the garden;
all manner of drudgeries I willingly performed; scrape trenchers, &c. If
I had any profession, it was of this nature: I should never have denied
being a taylor, had I been one; for there is no calling so base, which
by God's mercy may not afford a livelihood; and had not my master
entertained me, I would have been of a very mean profession ere I would
have returned into the country again; so here ends the actions of
eighteen years of my life.
My master married his second wife for her estate; she was competently
rich; she married him for considerations he performed not, (nocturnal
society) so that they lived very uncomfortably; she was about seventy
years of age, he sixty-six or more; yet never was any woman more jealous
of a husband than she; insomuch, that whensoever he went into London,
she was confident of his going to women; by those means my life was the
more uncomfortable, it being very difficult to please two such opposite
natures: however, as to the things of this world I had enough, and
endured their discontents with much sereneness. My mistress was very
curious to know of such as were then called cunning or wise men, whether
she should bury her husband? She frequently visited such persons, and
this occasion begot in me a little desire to learn something that way,
but wanting money to buy books, I laid aside these motions, and
endeavoured to please both master and mistress.
OF MY MISTRESS'S DEATH, AND OCCASION THEREOF BY MEANS OF A CANCER IN HER
BREAST.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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