[MR] Life (and Death) of an Alchemist

Garth Groff and Sally Sanford mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com
Wed Aug 1 03:17:39 PDT 2018


Noble Friends,

Today marks the 1555 birth of the Anglo-Irish alchemist, spirit medium,
forger, arch-charlatan and all-around colorful character Edward Kelly. In
addition to his boasts to make gold from base metals, Kelly claimed to
contact spirits and angels through his "shew-stone". Kelly was an associate
of John Dee, the infamous court astrologer and alchemist often employed by
Elizabeth I of England.

Kelly got into hot water with the Church authorities, and was nearly
chucked out a window in Prague (defenestration was a popular pastime in
that city). Emperor Rudolph II later clapped Kelly into prison when he
failed to produce gold as promised. Kelly died in 1597 or 1587 in an escape
attempt, or possibly poisoned himself.

Kelly, along with Dee, is a popular character in fiction and film.

You can read about Edward Kelly at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Kelley .

More about John Dee is found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆


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