, who
formerly lived in Staffordshire, that was an excellent wise man, and
studied the black art. The same week (after) we went to see Mr. Evans.
When we came to his house, he, having been drunk the night before, was
upon his bed--if it be lawful to call that a bed whereon he lay.' 'He
was the most saturnine man my eyes ever beheld either before I practised
(astrology) or since: of middle stature, broad forehead, beetle browed,
thick shoulders, flat nosed, full lips, down looked, black, curling,
stiff hair, splay footed;' 'much addicted to debauchery, and then very
abusive and quarrelsome; seldom without a black eye, or one mischief or
another.' A very good description this, save that the shoulders of it
are between the brow and nose: not a handsome man, certainly; a kind of
white negro, we should say, and not the better for being white:
nevertheless men of high rank came to see him, and readers who have made
acquaintance with Sir Kenelm Digby will not be astonished to learn that
he was one of them. He came with Lord Bothwell, and 'desired Evans to
show them a spirit.' But 'after some time of invocation, Evans was taken
out of the room, and carried into the fields near Battersea causeway,
close to the Thames:' taken by the spirits, because the magician 'had
not at the time of invocation made any suffumigation;' for spirits must
always be treated gingerly. 'Sir Kenelm Digby and Lord Bothwell went
home without any harm;' which was better than they deserved.

Lilly, after many lessons given him by this Evans, was doubtful about
the black art, as he might well be; but, he says, 'being now very
meanly introduced, I applied myself to study those books I had obtained,
many times twelve or fifteen or eighteen hours a day and night: I was
curious to discover whether there was any verity in the art or not.
Astrology at this time, viz. 1633, was very rare in London; few
professing it that understood anything thereof.' Lilly gives us next
some account of the astrologers of his time; but the reader need form no
further acquaintance of this kind; acquaintance with Lilly, who was the
best of them, will be enough for him.

In October of this year, 1633, Lilly's wife died, and left him 'very
near to the value of one thousand pounds sterling'--all she had to
leave. He continued a widower 'a whole year,' which he, as that phrase
implies, held to be a long time in such bereavement--and followed his
studies in astrology very diligently. So