The portrait of Sir Christopher Myngs is now in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital. It is a half-length by Sir Peter Lely, and came from Windsor Castle, having been presented by George IV. in 1824.[119]
[ASTROLOGERS AND OTHERS.]
DR. PARTRIDGE, ASTROLOGER, PHYSICIAN TO HIS MAJESTY, ETC.
In the same age lived another noteworthy man, whose connection with the gentle craft was much more intimate, and, indeed, of almost life-long duration. This man was an astrologer, and blended with his study of the subtle influences of the stars over human affairs the study of medicine. What relation there is between these two things it were hard to tell; but certain it is, that for many years men who were not otherwise fools and knaves believed in this relation; and, combining the two “professions,” found very often that success in the one gave them a certain prestige in the other. A lucky hit in “casting the nativity” of a notable person, brought the “astrologer and physician” endless patients and no small fortune. Probably an appointment as physician to the king was due to no better cause; and, with such an appointment, of course the practitioner’s position was secure for life. This seems to have been pretty much the case with John Partridge, who is spoken of as a shoemaker in Covent Garden in 1680, and in 1682 is styled physician to His Majesty Charles II. Here is a case, then, of a cobbler who ventured ultra crepidam to some purpose, and who might very well have taken James Lackington’s motto for his own.[120] Partridge, it must be allowed, was a scholar of no mean attainments, whatever he may have been as a physician, and his scholarship was self-acquired. During his apprenticeship to a shoemaker he began the study of Latin with a copy of Lilye’s Grammar, Gouldman’s Dictionary, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and a Latin Bible. Having got a sufficient knowledge of Latin to read astrological works, he betook himself to the study of Greek and Hebrew. Then came physic, with the grand result of royal patronage. Partridge was a considerable author or editor, and the list of his works shows the strong bent of his mind toward the occult science. He published a “Hebrew Calendar” for 1678; “Vade Mecum,” 1679; “Ecclesilegia, an Almanac,” 1679; the same for 1680; “The King of France’s Nativity;“ ”A Discourse of Two Moons;“ ”Mercurius Cœlestis,” being an almanac for 1681; “Prodomus, a Discourse on the Conjunction of Saturn and Mars;“ ”The Black Life of John Gadbury,” in which a brother astrologer is roundly abused; and shown to be, as a matter of course, a rogue and impostor; and a “Translation of Hadrianus a Mynsicht’s Treasury of Physic,” 1682.
The inscription over Partridge’s tomb is in Latin, as becomes the memorial of so learned a man and so eminent a physician! The visitor to the churchyard of Mortlake in Surrey may still learn—if the great destroyer has dealt gently with the record—how
Johannes Partridge, Astrologus
et Medicinæ Doctor,
was born at East Sheen, in Surrey, on the 18th January, 1644, and died in London, 24th June, 1715; how he made medicine for two kings and one queen, Carolo scilicet Secundo, Willielmo Tertio, Reginæque Mariæ; and how the Dutch University of Leyden conferred on him the diploma Medicinæ Doctor.