excepted) in study. At Cambridge he superintended the exhibition of a
Greek play of Aristophanes, among the machinery of which he introduced
an artificial scarabaeus, or beetle, which flew up to the palace of
Jupiter, with a man on his back, and a basket of provisions. The
ignorant and astonished spectators ascribed this feat to the arts of
the magician; and Dee, annoyed by these suspicions, found it expedient
to withdraw to the continent. Here he resided first at the university
of Louvaine, at which place, his acquaintance was courted by the dukes
of Mantua and Medina, and from thence proceeded to Paris, where he
gave lectures on Euclid with singular applause.

In 1551 he returned to England, and was received with distinction by
sir John Check, and introduced to secretary Cecil, and even to king
Edward, from whom he received a pension of one hundred crowns _per
annum_, which he speedily after exchanged for a small living in the
church. In the reign of queen Mary he was for some time kindly
treated; but afterwards came into great trouble, and even into danger
of his life. He entered into correspondence with several of the
servants of queen Elizabeth at Woodstock, and was charged with
practising against Mary's life by enchantments. Upon this accusation,
he was seized and confined; and, being after several examinations
discharged of the indictment, was turned over to bishop Bonner to see
if any heresy could be found in him. After a tedious persecution he
was set at liberty in 1555, and was so little subdued by what he had
suffered, that in the following year he presented a petition to the
queen, requesting her co-operation in a plan for preserving and
recovering certain monuments of classical antiquity.

The principal study of Dee however at this time lay in astrology; and
accordingly, upon the accession of Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, her chief