[v.] Just above this relation some one has written, “you that rede this underwritten assure yourselfe that yt is a shamfull lye, for Talbot neither studied for any such thinge nor shewed himselfe dishonest in any thinge.” Dr. Dee has thus commented upon it:— “This is Mr. Talbot or that lerned man, his own writing in my boke, very unduely as he cam by it.” There are several other notices of Talbot erased, but whether by him or by the Doctor it is impossible to say, but most probably the former.
[x.] This work, although never entirely printed, created much sensation at the time, and was the cause of considerable controversy among the politicians as well as literati. The Memorial on this subject which Dee presented to the Privy Council has been printed by Hearne and others, but it is not generally known that the original manuscript of the actual treatise on the correction of the Calendar is still preserved in Ashmole’s library, No. 1789, and is the very book which Dee alludes to above. It is inscribed “to the Right Honorable and my singular good Lorde, the Lorde Burghley, Lorde Threasorer of Englande,” with the following verses:—
“Το ὁτι and το διοτι,
I shew the thing and reason why;
At large, in breif, in middle wise,
I humbly give a playne advise;
For want of tyme, the tyme untrew
Yf I have myst, commaund anew
Your honor may. So shall you see
That love of truth doth govern me.”
The work itself is entitled, “A playne Discourse and humble Advise for our Gratious Queene Elizabeth, her most Excellent Majestie to peruse and consider, as concerning the needful Reformation of the Vulgar Kalender for the civile yeres and daies accompting, or verifyeng, according to the tyme truely spent.”
[y.] “The year of our Lorde God 1583, the laste daye of Aprill, the Duke or Prince of Vascos in Polonia, came to London and was lodged at Winchester Howse.” —MS. Douce, 363, fol. 125. This account differs from Dee’s by a single day.
[z.] “Her Majestie being informed by the Right Honourable Earle of Leicester, that whereas the same day in the morning he had told me that his Honour and Lord Laskey would dine with me within two dayes after, I confessed sincerely unto him that I was not able to prepare them a convenient dinner, unless I should presently sell some of my plate or some of my pewter for it. Whereupon her Majestie sent unto me very royally within one hour after forty angels of gold from Sion, whether her Majestie was now come by water from Greenwich.” —Dr. Dee’s Compendious Memoriall, p. 511.
[aa.] He frequently speaks of Prince Albert Leski under the title of Illustrissimus.
[bb.] It is almost unnecessary to observe that these initials refer to Edward Kelly.
[cc.] That is, Thomas Kelley and John Carp.
[dd.] This refers to the earliest English translation of Euclid by Billingsley, which was published in 1570, with a long preface by Dr. Dee. Professor De Morgan is of opinion that the translation also was by Dee, or that Billingsley may have been only a pupil who worked immediately under his directions. The passage to which Dee alludes is as follows:— “a man to be curstly affrayed of his owne shadow; yea, so much to feare, that if you, being alone nere a certaine glasse, and proffer, with dagger or sword, to foyne at the glasse, you shall suddenly be moved to give backe (in maner) by reason of an image appearing in the ayre betwene you and the glasse with like hand, sword, or dagger, and with like quicknes, foyning at your very eye, likewise as you do at the glasse. Straunge this is to heare of, but more mervailous to behold then these my wordes cam signifie; and neverthelesse by demonstration opticall the order and cause therof is certified; even so, as the effect is consequent.” I refer the reader also to Mr. Barlow’s History of Optics in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana.