Page 55 - Charnock alchemical letter
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with sitting for I came in at nine and now the clock in your chamber hath
smitten three and so I account that I have been here six hours.
And so you not mistrust but that there will be so much friendship found
whereby your book shall be presented unto the Queen majesty, as by
some worshipful retainer unto the court, whom you may request his
favour and aide, for the accomplishing of the same.
Master Charnock
I thank you for this your comfortable talk, as in guiding me on the way
towards the perfection of my book, and one day this week God willing I
will begin my Epistle anew, and this our confabulation shall follow, for I
have lodged in my memory the principal of all your questions. And so
the Queen majesty and her honourable council shall understand, that this
our confabulation was not feigned by me, but that the effect hereof at
large was most certainly talked friendly betwixt us two but not so
perfectly as I do mean to set it in order, or else I should have presented
her majesty with a larger Epistle.
The Oxford Man
Well, God be with you Master Charnock, and I pray God you may
accomplish well your desire. And remember your promise on Thursday
at ten o’clock, to meet me at Richard Payne’s at Coumbwyth, where we
will break our fast together, and from thence I will take my journey to
Oxford: God be with you.
Master Charnock
Now most mighty princess this my book being brought to some
perfection, I do most humbly desire your majesty to receive it into your
tuition trusting that your highness will esteem for the best, my good will
and loyal heart in the same, which when it is thoroughly perused by your
majesty, or by your honourable council, that then at your grace’s
commandment, this my copy may be put in print, and so shall I think
myself sufficiently rewarded. And if I may perceive by any means, or
learn hereafter, that your majesty doth favour this science, and think
therein a verity, it shall greatly encourage me, to set forth after one year
such two books of the science, one unto your highness, and the other
unto the lords of your most honourable council in general, as was never
set forth of the science unto this day to no prince, nor it to no princess
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