1. 2. 3 Francklin. Francklin was an apothecary, and procured the poison for Mrs. Turner (see Amos, Great Oyer. p. 97). He was one of the three persons executed with Mrs. Turner. Arthur Wilson, in his Life of James I. (p. 70), describes him as ‘a swarthy, sallow, crooked-backt fellow, who was to be the Fountain whence these bitter waters came.’ See also Somer’s Tracts 2. 287. The poem already quoted furnishes a description of Francklin:
A man he was of stature meanly tall. His body’s lineaments were shaped, and all His limbs compacted well, and strongly knit. Nature’s kind hand no error made in it. His beard was ruddy hue, and from his head A wanton lock itself did down dispread Upon his back; to which while he did live Th’ ambiguous name of Elf-lock he did give. —Quoted in Amos. p. 50.
1. 2. 3 Fiske. ‘In this year 1633, I became acquainted with Nicholas Fiske, licentiate in physick, who was borne in Suffolk, near Framingham [Framlingham] Castle, of very good parentage.... He was a person very studious, laborious, and of good apprehension.... He was exquisitely skilful in the art of directions upon nativities, and had a good genius in performing judgment thereupon.... He died about the seventy-eighth year of his age, poor.’—Lilly, Hist., p. 42 f.
Fiske appears as La Fiske in Rollo, Duke of Normandy, and is also mentioned by Butler, Hudibr., Part 2, Cant. 3. 403:
And nigh an ancient obelisk Was rais’d by him, found out by Fisk.
1. 2. 3 Sauory. ‘And therefore, she fearing that her lord would seek some public or private revenge against her, by the advice of the before-mentioned Mrs. Turner, consulted and practised with Doctor Forman and Doctor Savory, two conjurers, about the poisoning of him.’—D’Ewes, Autobiog. 1. 88. 9.
He was employed after the sudden death of Dr. Forman. Wright (Sorcery and Magic, p. 228) says that the name is written Lavoire in some manuscripts. ‘Mrs. Turner also confessed, that Dr. Savories was used in succession, after Forman, and practised many sorceries upon the Earle of Essex his person.’—Spark, Narrative History, Somer’s Tracts 2. 333.
In the Calendar of State Papers the name of ‘Savery’ appears four times. Under date of Oct. 16, 1615, we find Dr. Savery examined on a charge of ‘spreading Popish Books.’ ‘Savery pretends to be a doctor, but is probably a conjurer.’ And again under the same date he is interrogated as to his relations with Mrs. Turner and Forman. Under Oct. 24 he replies to Coke. ‘Oct. ?’ we find Dr. Savery questioned as to his ‘predictions of troubles and alterations in Court.’ This is the last mention of him.
Just what connection Gresham and Savory had with the Overbury plot is a difficult matter to determine. Both are spoken of as following Forman immediately, and of neither is any successor mentioned except the actual poisoner, Franklin. It seems probable that Gresham was the first to be employed after Forman, and that his own speedy death led to the selection of Savory. How the latter managed to escape a more serious implication in the trial it is difficult to conceive.
1. 2. 6-9 christalls, ... characters. As in other fields, Jonson is well versed in magic lore. Lumps of crystal were one of the regular means of raising a demon. Bk. 15, Ch. 16 of Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, is entitled: ‘To make a spirit appear in a christall’, and Ch. 12 shows ‘How to enclose a spirit in a christall stone.’