But with the moon was more familiar
Than e'er was almanack well-willer;[1] 240
Her secrets understood so clear,
That some believ'd he had been there;
Knew when she was in fittest mood
For cutting corns, or letting blood;[2]
When for anointing scabs and itches, 245
Or to the bum applying leeches;
When sows and bitches may be spay'd.
And in what sign best cider's made;
Whether the wane be, or increase,
Best to set garlic, or sow pease; 250
Who first found out the man i' th' moon,[3]
That to the ancients was unknown;
How many dukes, and earls, and peers,
Are in the planetary spheres,
Their airy empire and command, 255
Their sev'ral strengths by sea and land;
- ↑ The almanack makers styled themselves well-willers to the mathematics, or philomaths.
- ↑ Respecting these, and other matters mentioned in the following lines, Lilly, and the old almanack makers, gave particular directions. Astrologers of all ages have regarded certain planetary aspects to be especially favourable to the operations of husbandry and physic, and the influence of the moon is still pretty generally recognised. See Tusser's Five hundred Points of Good Husbandry.
- ↑ There are and have been, in all countries and ages, different popular beliefs respecting the man in the moon. He is a stealer of firewood, according to Chaucer; according to others, a sabbath-breaker, or the man who was stoned for gathering sticks on the sabbath, whilst the Israelites were in the wilderness (see Numbers xv. 32). The Italian peasantry have for ages called him Cain, and as such he is alluded to in Dante, Paradiso II. (Wright's translation, page 309). See Daniel O'Rourck's Dream, in Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends, for a truly Hibernian representation of his love of solitude.
bert Laski, whom Mr Butler calls Lescus, visiting England, formed an acqaintance with Dee and Kelly, and when he left this country took them and their families with him into Poland. Next to Kelly, he was the greatest confidant of Dee in his secret transactions. They were entertained by the Emperor Rodolph II., to whom they disclosed some of their secrets, and showed the wonderful stone; and he, in return, treated them with great respect, knighted Kelly, but afterwards imprisoned him. Dee received some advantageous offers, it is said, from the king of France, the emperor of Muscovy, and several foreign princes, but he returned to England, and, after great vicissitudes, died in poverty at Mortlake, in the year 1608, aged 81.
