The Alchemical Patronage of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley

some sadly abused talents‖ was an exaggerated and incomplete assessment. 82 Rather Kelley
demonstrated a ―thorough familiarity with the technical procedures of occultism‖. 83
However, while Evans noted Cecil‘s interest in Kelley, a thorough examination was not
within the bounds of his study. 84
The most thorough recent account of Kelley‘s alchemical activities is Michael
Wilding‘s article ‗A Biography of Edward Kelley, the English Alchemist and Associate of
Dr. John Dee‘ (2007). 85 Wilding utilised the majority of the available English language
manuscript evidence, along with the Czech evidence uncovered by Evans, to present a
largely accurate narrative of Kelley‘s time in the Holy Roman Empire. Wilding dispelled
some of the plethora of myths and misinterpretations that have surrounded Kelley since his
death. However, Wilding offered almost no analysis of Kelley‘s importance and only
provided a narrative of his travels and correspondence. When Wilding attempted to
explain Cecil‘s interest in Kelley he fell back to Strype‘s unlikely explanation of Kelley as an
informant. 86
Susan Bassnett has recently made a compelling argument for Edward Kelley being
the step-father of the prominent Latin poet, Elizabeth Weston. Bassnett argued that
previous historians have had a ―somewhat xenophobic interpretation that sees Rudolph
and the powerful Rozemberk [Rosenburg] as Kelley‘s gulls‖, while understating English
interest in the alchemist. 87 She recognised that ―Burghley at least took Kelley‘s scientific
claims seriously‖. 88 This, however, was the limit of her analysis of Kelley‘s relationship
with the English Court.
Glyn Parry‘s upcoming biography of John Dee, The Arch-Conjuror of England: John
Dee and Magic at the Courts of Renaissance Europe (forthcoming 2010) puts the episode into the
82 R. J. W. Evans, Rudolf II, pp. 225-26.
83 Ibid.
84 Ibid. p. 228.
85 Michael Wilding, ‗A Biography of Edward Kelly, the English Alchemist and Associate of Dr. John Dee‘, in
Stanton J. Linden, Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy and Renaissance Culture, New York, 2007, pp. 35-89.
86 Wilding, ‗A Biography of Edward Kelly‘, pp. 61-62.
87 Susan Bassnett, ‗Absent Presences: Edward Kelley‘s Family in the Writing of John Dee‘ in Stephen Clucas
(ed.), John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, Dordrecht, 2006, p. 287.
88 Ibid., p. 288.
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