William Adams - Witch, Warlock, and Magician

A peripatetic , or walking philosopher. Observe the facetiousness in ‘Aristotle’s stamp .’ Aristotle was the founder of the Peripatetics.

Fabius Cunctator , or the Delayer, so called from the policy of delay which he opposed to the vigorous movements of Hannibal. One would suppose that the humour here, such as it is, would hardly be perceptible to a theatrical audience.

In the old German ‘Faustbuch,’ the title of ‘Prince of the North’ is given to Beelzebub.

Demogorgon , or Demiourgos – the creative principle of evil – figures largely in literature. He is first mentioned by Lactantius, in the fourth century; then by Boccaccio, Boiardo, Tasso (‘Gierusalemme Liberata’), and Ariosto (‘Orlando Furioso’). Marlowe speaks, in ‘Tamburlaine,’ of ‘Gorgon, prince of Hell.’ Spenser, in ‘The Faery Queen,’ refers to —

Milton, in ‘Paradise Lost,’ alludes to ‘the dreaded name of Demogorgon.’ Dryden says: ‘When the moon arises, and Demogorgon walks his round.’ And he is one of the dramatis personæ of Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’: ‘Demogorgon, a tremendous gloom… A mighty Darkness, filling the seat of power.’

Boasts. So in Peele’s ‘Edward I’: ‘As thou to England brought’st thy Scottish braves.’

This reiteration of the same final word, for the sake of emphasis, is found in Shakespeare.

A corner or college cap.

An allusion to the old legend that Brut, or Brutus, great-grandson of Æneas, founded New Troy (Troynovant), or London.

Probably the reference is to the sunflower.

The classic writers usually identify the hyacinth with Apollo.

The rose, that is, of the Virgin Queen – an English Diana – Elizabeth. In Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (Act iv., scene 1) we read of ‘Diana’s bud.’

‘Adeo viro præ credulo errore jam factus sui impos et mente captus, et Dæmones, quo arctius horrendis hisce Sacris adhærescent illius ambitioni vanæ summæ potestatis in Patria adipiscendæ spe et expectatione lene euntis illum non solius Poloniæ sed alterius quoque regni, id est primo Poloniæ, deinde alterius, viz. Moldaviæ Regem fore, et sub quo magnæ universi mundi mutationes incepturas esse, Judæos convertendos, et ab illo Saræmos et Ethnicos vexillo crucis superandos, facili ludificarentur.’ – Dr. Thomas Smith, ‘Vitæ Eruditissimorum ac Illustrium Virorum,’ London, 1707. ‘Vita Joannis Dee,’ p. 25.

He was suspected of coining false money, but Dr. Dee declares he was innocent. (June, 1583.)

‘The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee,’ edited by J. O. Halliwell (Phillipps) for the Camden Society, 1842.

This was Sir Edward Dyer, the friend of Spenser and Sidney, remembered by his poem ‘My Mind to me a Kingdom is.’

The ‘Monas Hieroglyphica.’

The celebrated navigator, whose heroic death is one of our worthiest traditions.

A warm and steady friend to Dr. Dee.

This Diary, written in a very small and illegible hand on the margins of old almanacs, was discovered by Mr. W. H. Black in the Ashmolean Library at Oxford.