WEBVTT - Dee, John Dee: Codename 007? 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.400 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:15.800 partnership with I Heart Radio. He was a Cambridge educated 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.000 polly math and adviser to Queen Elizabeth the First, and 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.919 he also conversed with the angels. Welcome to Criminalia work 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.280 Today we'll be talking about the celebrated mathematician and alchemist 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:30.400 John Dee. I'm Maria tre Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:35.120 The influence of prophecy and astrology have an important place 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.320 in the fifteenth and sixteen centuries, so it was no 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.800 surprise that the ideas were important to King Henry the Seventh, 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.440 who ruled England from August until his death in April 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.879 of fifteen o nine. The importance of those things remained 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.920 strong through the Tutor period, which began the same year 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.480 Henry took the throne and came to an end in 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.880 sixteen o three. Not only was he fascinating by the occult, 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.600 that fascination continued through generations of his family. His son, 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.160 Henry the Eighth was obsessed with the practices, as was 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.320 Elizabeth the First. Henry the eighth daughter enter the man 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:19.280 named John D. John d. Is there anything he wasn't interested? 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.600 In let's start with his personal life. John D was 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.600 born in July to Rowland and Joanna D who were 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.959 of Welsh descent. Rowland was a tailor and a mercer. 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.280 A mercer was a merchant who dealt with fabrics, usually 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.400 expensive fabrics. And just in case we have any stitchers 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.600 in the crowd and your brain has made the connection 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.760 to the phrase mercer at cotton, which comes up in 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:47.600 descriptions of thread and occasional sewing textiles. Coincidental and unrelated. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.680 That is named for a process of treating fabrics so 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.560 they upticked die more readily, but it is named for 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.800 John Mercer, who invented it several hundred years after the 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.120 events were talking about today, which puts us in the 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.200 mid eighteen hundreds. And we could thank Holly for this 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:07.200 ditchery and sewing information. I immediately thought of mercerized cotton. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.600 I knew would didn't didn't want any confusion to be there. 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.280 So back to John D. John was married at least 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:18.800 twice and possibly three times. Here's what we've got. John's 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.320 first wife was Katherine Constable. The couple had no children. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.640 There may have been a second wife after Katherine, but 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.160 that is unclear. Again, if there was a marriage, there 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.920 were no children. John was we know, married to Jane Fromond. 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:36.760 Jane had been a lady in waiting to the Countess 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.600 of Lincoln. It suggested that Jane's connections could have helped 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:45.440 her new husband's career and his finances in his later years. Now, 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.120 also depending on what you read, John and Jane had 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:55.520 either one child or they had eight children, pretty wide margin. Uh. 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.480 In the scenario where the couple is described as having 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.560 one child, that child was a son named Arthur, and Arthur, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.639 like his father, was an alchemist who was also a 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.679 physician to King Charles the First of England, and is 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.920 are Michael the First of Russia. The version of the 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:14.760 story where they had eight children kind of falls out 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.880 like this. There were four boys and four girls, and 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.560 it's possible that at least two of their daughters died 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:26.280 of plague. Let's switch this focus to John's work. John 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.399 really was a genius. If you look at the word 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.079 Polly Math in the dictionary, you could possibly see a 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.000 picture of John d He was a person who was 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:38.680 genuinely curious about our world and what might be beyond 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.240 our world. So John, as you'll get to know was 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.720 was really quite a character, But we can't talk about 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.800 all the things about his life in this episode. He 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.040 was a force of nature, and our show just isn't 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.200 big enough to contain him. So if there's something about 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.440 his life that we skip over, we probably didn't want to. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:01.000 We know about De's education because he told us about it. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.880 In fifteen ninety two, he recounted how, at age fifteen, 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.040 he attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he wrote he 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:13.200 studied for at least eighteen hours a day. He received 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.600 his undergraduate degree in fifteen forty five and a master's 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.400 degree in fifteen forty eight, both from St John's. In 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.240 fifteen forty six, John was elected a fellow at the 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.440 newly founded Trinity College. He also spent time studying at 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.120 the University of Luven. Note that here we're talking about 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:35.560 old University of Luvin, not the newer Catholic University of Luven, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.680 which was established in eighteen thirty five, and it is 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:42.719 at university where John d met, in his words, some quote, 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:49.560 learned men. These learned men included mathematicians Gema Frisius, Gerardis Mercator, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.240 and Gaspar America. By fifteen fifty John was living in 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.159 and lecturing around Paris, and went on to work for 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.760 King Henry the second of France, as well as the 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:04.160 un Diversity of Paris. D's understanding of chemistry and physics 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.560 was extraordinary, and he's said to have used these skills 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.320 to produce some pretty impressive stage effects during his time 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.080 at Cambridge. Here's one great example of his mathematical antics. 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.440 He was involved in a production of Aristophanes's Athenian play 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.800 Packs or Peace, a comedy that was first staged in 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:31.279 four b C. D's contribution was this a giant mechanical 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.240 scarab beetle used as a prop to make it appears 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.080 though a character was flying through the air while riding 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.840 the insects back the performance, it was reviewed, was so 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.400 lifelike and astonishing to the audience that many believed d 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.960 must have conspired with the devil to make such a thing. 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.080 And these thoughts, well we quote him here and for 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.400 these and such like marvelous arts and feats naturally mathematically 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.000 and mechanically rock contrived, any student and modest Christian philosopher 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.120 be counted and called a conjuror. As a student at 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:09.360 Trinity College, he gained a reputation as a magician. We're 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.440 gonna take a break for a word from our sponsor, 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:13.720 and when we're back we will talk about the crime 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:25.599 of calculating. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about John 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:30.839 d astrologer to the royals. It is said that John 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:35.040 turned down a mathematical professorship at the University of Paris 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.680 in fifteen fifty one and another similar position at the 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.640 University of Oxford in fifteen fifty four, all in the 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.040 hope that he would be able to score an official 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:49.320 position with the Crown. And he did, and then he 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.960 got arrested. He was arrested and charged with the crime 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:57.080 of something called calculating. It was in reference to what 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.560 was considered an act of treason on his behalf, casting 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.840 horoscopes for Queen Mary and her younger sister Elizabeth, who 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.719 would go on to become Elizabeth the First. He was 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.280 then interrogated by the Star Chamber, which was an English 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.760 court that sat in the Palace of Westminster. He was 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.040 exonerated by the common law judges in that court, but 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.920 he later was examined by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:24.960 and infamous heretic hunter the outcome may not have been 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.360 exactly what you expect, though D. N. Bonner became friends 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.440 and that marked the end of any further investigation. Later 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.160 found among these books was one inscribed in Latin quote 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.160 the house of my singular friend, a reference to a 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.600 stay at Bonner's home. John d did work for the 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.200 royal family, and he became famously known as the conjuror 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.480 to Queen Elizabeth the First, but d was a just 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.680 astrologer to the royals. He had clients and students outside 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.120 of the royal family, including Francis Bacon, promoter of a 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.000 new idea called the scientific method, un to the astronomer 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.840 Thomas Diggs, who believed the universe to be infinite. Not 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.040 to be missed two is Dee's library, which is kind 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.000 of a character in and of itself. It was not 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.040 your ordinary home bookshelves, and it was known to have 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.440 contained as many as three thousand to four thousand books. 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.360 It became a hub a sort of scholarly network that 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:26.800 he often imagined expanding into an international research institute. Occultism 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:29.440 in these types of practices were actually pretty normal for 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.160 the period, and the occult sciences enjoyed a kind of 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:38.200 Renaissance in later Elizabethan England, as print and translation made ancient, Medieval, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:43.160 and earlier Renaissance texts available to would be English adepts, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:47.360 writes academic Paul S. Sever Dee didn't view any of 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.480 his study as heresy. He saw the practices as a 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:52.960 way to learn more about the world and the cosmos. 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:57.320 He spent much of his time on the ideas of alchemy, divination, 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.440 and hermetic philosophy, and he known for his accuracy in 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.160 what was at the time the newly emerging science of physics, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.680 and for his interest in exploration of chemical compounds. But 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.719 here is a problem. That d and his peers ran 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:18.480 into math made people suspicious. D was up against a 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:23.080 society that considered math disreputable. It was thought to be 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.480 in league with the practices of witchcraft and the dark arts. 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:31.120 You're manipulating the counting of things that is scary. Nicolas 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:35.400 Copernicus is the Revolutionibus, published in fifty three, for instance, 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:40.400 was scandalous because of its heliocentric theory of the solar system. 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.320 But the fact that he used mathematics to deduce the 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:48.080 things he couldn't directly see was also problematic. During the 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.440 Tutor period, math books were often destroyed, usually burned for 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.280 being and we're quoting conjuring books. A few decades after 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.960 D's death in sixteen fifty one, biograph for John Rawleigh 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:05.320 was accused of conjuring when he used basic geometry to 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:10.480 calculate the height of a steeple. So alchemy could and 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.400 was confused with witchery from time to time or often, 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.640 and at this time, as we've seen, such as with 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.840 Cornelia's Agrippa as well as Nostrodamus, when your work and 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:26.240 interests fall into what's considered to be beyond our physical world, 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.760 you begin to kind of tell the line between an 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.600 afternoon discussion about horoscopes in the queen's court to being 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.800 punished by death for heresy. In six hundred, just a 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:43.160 few years before John's death, astronomer Giordano Bruno was executed 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.520 because well, I mean, actually it depends on which historian 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:51.360 you ask, because this is debated. The Roman Inquisition condemned him, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:56.160 at least partly because of cosmology. Bruno argued there were 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.760 many worlds, and he was formally accused by the Church 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.040 not of heresy but of blasphemy thirteen times in ten 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:09.240 depositions by six witnesses. These out of world ideas lead 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:13.840 to his death. Eventually, John d left the Queen's service 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.960 to seek deeper knowledge of the occult and the supernatural. 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.560 In doing so, though, De aligned himself with individuals who 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.720 were or who were once considered to be con artists 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:31.240 and Charlatan's and frankly frauds. These gadgets and devices may 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.199 have seemed magical to the untrained eye, but they were 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.840 actually mathematical instruments. The children near his home in Mortlake 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:43.200 quote dreaded him because he was accounted a conjurer. But 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:48.400 you see, John was a conjurer. D closely studied codes 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:54.040 and cryptography discussed in Stenographia by the German abbot Johannes Trithemius, who, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:59.800 by the way, was suspected of diabolical wizardry. Steinographia described 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.560 the practice of concealing a message within another message or 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.800 a physical object, basically the art of encrypting messages, and 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.000 it's the book that turned d on the idea of 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:16.640 angelic communication. John spent years scrying for angels and spirits 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.120 with a man named Edward Kelly, who was an English 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:24.040 Renaissance occultist and self declared spirit medium. Scrying is a 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.800 form of divination that involves staring into a reflective surface, 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.200 such as a crystal ball or a mirror, or maybe water, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.880 and looking for visions of things to come in the future. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.360 John and Edward were seeking and we quote angelic conversation 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.080 d and Kelly claimed they've discovered an angelic language called 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.520 an opian and we're being taught the alphabet and words 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.600 by the angels themselves. So we have to talk about 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.280 this part because the story here takes a pretty big turn. 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.560 There is a version of John and Edward's story where 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.720 Edward claims the angels wanted the men to swap wives. 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:06.520 Depending on the version, this situation may have happened in Poland. Also, 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.440 depending on the version, they did swap wives and shortly 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.600 after parted ways. Some versions do, while others do not 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:16.839 claim that. In one of these journals, he writes, Kelly 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.800 may have fathered one of his sons. You know, regardless 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.840 of which adventure here that you choose, the two men 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.600 did part ways. We are going to take a break 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.360 here for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.160 we're going to talk about the idea that John D. 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:44.440 Was a spy. Welcome back to Criminalia. So is John 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.600 D a scientist or is he a sorcerer? Let's discuss. 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.240 John had set his more scientific and mathematical work aside 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.440 for the crystal ball and obsidian mirror. Upon returning home 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.120 to England, def that his home and that enormous and 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.719 enviable library we mentioned had both been broken into, pillaged 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:11.000 and vandalized. John did return to the Queen's service when 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.120 Elizabeth the First appointed him Warden of Manchester College in 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.720 fifteen ninety six, but he found himself out of royal 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.160 favor when the Queen was succeeded by James the First. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:25.600 The end of John's life was overwhelmed by poverty and isolation. 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.360 History has long said that he died at Mortlake in 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:31.720 December of sixteen o eight and was buried in the 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.120 Church of St Mary the Virgin, but over the years 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.720 new evidence has emerged that suggests that maybe his death 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.120 didn't happen that way. Perhaps instead his death actually took 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.480 place the following March in sixteen o nine, and that 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.560 instead of at Mortlake, rather it happened in the London 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:54.239 home of his friend probable fellow alchemist and possible executor 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.880 to his estate. John pontois pretty much everyone who has 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:03.600 tried has founded difficult to categorize John D. Is he 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.720 a scientist or a sorcerer. John was a fairly marginal 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.680 character for most of the twentieth century, and it wasn't 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.000 until the nineteen sixties and seventies that his story began 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:18.320 to re emerge, this time regarding the advances in astronomy 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:22.320 and philosophy that occurred during his lifetime. A new focus 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:27.440 was placed on these contributions to subjects including mathematics, geography, astronomy, 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.840 and navigation, and his magical investigations and occult leanings were 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.760 de emphasized. Many of his contemporaries would have tried to 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.160 pin him down as a philosopher or an astrologer, or 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.400 perhaps even a magician. All would have agreed on one thing, though, 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:49.360 John D was perhaps most of all a mathematician. In 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.760 his work The Mathematical Preface to the Elements of Geometry 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.880 of Euclid and Megara, published in fifteen seventy, D argued 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.640 that mathematics was an influence and an imported influence on 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.640 all other arts and sciences. This became one of John's 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:10.480 most widely and most frequently reprinted writings. And when it 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:16.240 comes to those writings and specifically that writing, let's quote Galileo, 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:21.320 The Book of Nature is written in the language of mathematics. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.080 You probably recognize Galileo as the famous Italian astronomer, physicist, 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.160 and engineer. And there's probably a few of the things 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.760 I could add that list as well. The two were contemporaries, 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.160 but D would have been nearly forty years old when 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:39.480 Galileo was born. Galileo's point here was complicated, but it 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.760 boils down to really this, No true science would be 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.920 called a science until it had become mathematical. Natural philosophy, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.560 which D had interest in studying, was the philosophical study 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:56.120 of nature and the physical universe. So the idea that 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.960 John's work was written in the language of mathematics was 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:04.560 really big, and German philosopher Emmanuel Kant backed up this 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:08.359 idea in the eighteenth century, saying, quote, there is only 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:13.360 that much genuine science in any science as it contains mathematics. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.240 To put it all into perspective, though definitions were still 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.520 pretty fluid at this point, and Kant applying the idea 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:25.879 that modern science must be mathematicized, denied that chemistry was 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:30.640 a science, so not all wisdom is universal to all 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.080 things right, it's a work in progress here, it was 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.800 agreed though that quote des work looks like mumbo jumbo 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:44.160 and mysticism. Yet it was mathematical, and that was what mattered. 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:50.040 During his lifetime, John was never rewarded for his intellectual achievements, 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.840 but his legend, his ideas and inventions, they live on 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:58.159 in so many ways in literature, comics, opera, songs, and 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:04.639 video games, and even James Bond. James Bond Bond, Yes, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:10.480 but first Prospero. John D and William Shakespeare were contemporaries, 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.040 and while no one can be sure if the two 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:17.320 men ever met each other, it's not unlikely that they 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.959 knew of each other. That's all speculative, though, However, scholars 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.560 are almost certain that Shakespeare used John as the model 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.600 for his character of Prospero, an alchemist who uses magical 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.080 powers to manipulate and intimidate in the play The Tempest. 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.360 The Tempest was probably written in sixteen ten or sixteen eleven, 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.480 so not long after John D's death, and it is 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.800 not just the character of Prospero that he inspired. He 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.800 was considered to have been the inspiration for Christopher Marlowe's 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.920 character Dr Faustus, as well as Ben Johnson's The Alchemist. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:56.080 And then there's D. John D. So we discovered a 0:18:56.160 --> 0:19:00.480 long history regarding John D as a spy, and it 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.119 all seems to have started when seventeenth century scientist Robert 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.560 Hook suggested that D was officially employed by Elizabeth the 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.119 First not for his abilities as an oracle, but that 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.160 he was really an undercover agent for the crown. Hook 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.760 argued that John traveled Europe as an academic, but his 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.240 real job was to gather information for the Queen. Hook 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.879 also defended John's conversations with the angels by explaining they 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.960 must have been encrypted intelligence messages sent from the Royal court. 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.440 We have actually no proof of anything that Hook said 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.159 about D in this capacity. It just seems to be 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:41.080 out there, sort of floating in the ether. In rumors 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.720 swirled that John had signed his name as double O 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.159 seven in his correspondence with Queen Elizabeth the First, and 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.720 the code was rumored to mean for the Queen's eyes only. 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.919 But again, there's nothing to see here other than rumors. 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.400 But I mean, actually there is one thing. It has 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.200 been said that d did actually sign memos to Elizabeth 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.919 with specific symbols two ohs like a pair of eyes, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.200 followed by a seven with its top drawn across back 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.600 of the os. It's much more likely, though, to be true, 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:17.280 that d advised the Queen's director of Intelligence, Francis Walsingham, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.639 on issues of national security as well as on establishing 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.119 a network of spies and codes, because remember, he was 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.560 competent with crying, with seeing what was to come. Much 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.119 more of a project manager than a field agent at 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:37.439 that point, Yes, very much so. So angel conversationalist or 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:42.720 not conjuror or mathematician. During the Scientific Revolution, that's the 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.400 specific period of scientific growth shortly after D's death, during 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:51.080 the sixteenth and seventeen centuries, these ideas and visions began 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.159 to be heard and taken seriously by a larger circle 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.160 of scientists. And with a quote from John himself, We're 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.280 gonna stroll over to the cauldron quote. Who does not 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:09.080 understand should either learn or be silent. So Holly, teach 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:16.120 us what's in the cauldron. Oh, surprises, surprises. I feel 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.520 like this is one of those drinks that is either 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.480 going to lose half of the listeners or um or 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:26.680 delight them, or maybe it'll be But in any case, 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:32.120 this is a drink that I call angel language, because 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.280 I was really obsessed with this idea of like, oh, yes, 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:39.880 we're we're talking to angels. They're teaching us alphabets and 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:46.520 also instructing us to do interesting things, and so I 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:48.760 just kept thinking about like what a what a strange 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.240 and sort of wonderful thing to be, like, oh, yeah, 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.840 I'm talking to angels. Later, I gotta I gonna have lunch, 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:55.480 but I have a meeting to the angels. I had 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.960 a meeting with the angels at five. I'm like, so 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.119 I wanted to come up is something that felt a 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:05.720 little angelic, and I noodled on it for a bit 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:08.600 and then I realized I wanted to do something with champagne. 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:14.040 And this one has some roots with the classic champagne 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.200 cocktail from the eighteen fifties, but with a twist that 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.360 kind of nods to John d The classic champagne cocktail, 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:22.040 which isn't what we're making here today, but I'll give 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.679 it to you in case. Is a sugar cube that 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.880 is then doused with angst a bitters and you drop 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:30.000 it in your glass before you pour the champagne, so 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.000 it sweetens it. Some people just use regular sugar, not 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:35.439 a sugar cube, and now some people would use simple syrup. 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.240 It's delightful. However, this one, I'm telling you it's a 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.119 little weird. But come with me, something very fun happens. 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.120 I highly recommend using a coupe for this one rather 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:50.119 than a fluted champagne glass because, uh, it helps with 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:54.000 a thing that I will describe. It does the thing 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.199 for you. You're gonna build this, like I said, in 0:22:57.280 --> 0:22:59.560 the glass, so it's not something you shake and then 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:01.600 pour in. You want to go ahead and build it 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.399 in the glass. So it's gonna start with a blourb 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:08.840 that's an official measurement. Um. I've seen it popping up 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:15.360 in cookbooks recently, like a spoonful of marshmallow cream. Well, 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:18.919 this is starting interestingly, I know, I told you, And 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:21.199 you're gonna toss that in your glass, and then on 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.919 top of that, you'll pour a half ounce of creme 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.960 de violette. If you don't like violet cordial, you could 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.840 use almost any other cordial here that you prefer, and 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:38.399 then an ounce of whipped cream or vanilla vodka whatever. 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:40.800 I had whipped cream vodka on hand, but vanilla vaca 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:44.080 would work just fine here. And then you're gonna top 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.960 all that with champagne. And so what happens is your 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:50.760 marshmallow fluff um or your marshmallow cream, whichever you've bought, 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:53.560 is going to start to break apart and dissolve a little, 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.880 and it makes these beautiful little cloud shapes in the glass. 0:23:57.920 --> 0:23:59.879 And it's got that kind of In my case, the 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.679 crammed a violette added a little pink hue, so it 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:06.000 looks almost like a pretty sunset, and it gets sweeter 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:07.679 as you drink it because more and more of the 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:11.240 marshmallow fluff has broken down, and it's just very beautiful. 0:24:11.280 --> 0:24:14.440 You could, even if you wanted to play John de 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:20.840 fun could say that you were reading the fluff clouds 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:23.960 as they break apart, like one would divine tea leaves 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:27.200 or something. There's no real thing going on there. It's 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:31.080 just delicious sugar breaking into pieces. But this is uh 0:24:31.720 --> 0:24:36.000 drink that tastes like candy and surely packs a wallop. 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:40.000 Like I described it, as I was work shopping it, 0:24:40.160 --> 0:24:42.000 I was tweeting a little about it, and I said 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:46.399 it was like being slapped around by kittens, so yummy, 0:24:46.440 --> 0:24:48.480 And you're like, oh, it's a very dessert e drink. 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:52.320 But because I mean you have vodka and a liquor 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:55.639 and champagne, the only thing that's not an alcohol in 0:24:55.680 --> 0:24:58.880 there is marshmallow flow, so I have to die you 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:02.600 Like I I grew up with marshmallow fluf fluff for Nutters, 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:07.800 where um, and I have this association with marshmallow fluff 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:10.960 and peanut butter, so like, I'm so glad that you've 0:25:11.000 --> 0:25:13.600 broken fluff out for me into a different world because 0:25:14.119 --> 0:25:16.440 I was never really a fan and a fluff for nutter, 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:19.840 but I have a fan and I'm not keeping your drink, 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:23.000 so I'd much rather have that. And I do like 0:25:23.200 --> 0:25:26.920 marshmallow flavored everything, so um yeah, I kind of wanted 0:25:26.960 --> 0:25:29.680 to do something that tasted a little like Angel food cake, 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:33.000 which it does, and it is light because of the champagne, 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:34.920 so it's kind of like an Angel food cake e 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:40.520 nod as well. Here's how you would do the mocktail 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:44.200 version of this. Marshmallow cream or marshmallow fluff obviously fine. 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:47.760 Instead of your cordial, you can just do a flavored syrup, 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:51.560 whatever variety you like. I wanted to do a rose syrup, 0:25:51.600 --> 0:25:54.840 but I'm trying not to be a predictable beast um. 0:25:55.240 --> 0:25:57.280 But also I mean, if you like a raspberry syrup, 0:25:57.400 --> 0:25:59.240