Dee was indefatigable in his search for the philosopher's stone. It was reported that he and Kelly had found a very large quantity of the elixir among the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. During their stay at Tribau Kelly made projection with one small grain of the powder upon an ounce and a quarter of mercury, and it produced nearly an ounce of gold. He also transmuted into gold a piece of metal cut out of a warming-pan, and sent it to Queen Elizabeth, together with a warming-pan having a hole, into which it exactly fitted (Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum, p. 481). Wood relates that Arthur Dee, who was about eight years old, played at quoits with pieces of gold made by projection, as the young Count Rosenberg did with pieces of silver.
As Kelly sometimes refused to act, Dee resolved to initiate his son Arthur in the use of the magic stone. After a great deal of prayer and preparation, the boy made his first experiment on 15 April 1587, but was unable to perceive anything. Kelly accordingly returned to his post, when Dee's old angelic friends immediately reappeared. The crowning part of the imposture was reached on 18 April, when Kelly represented the angels to say it was the divine pleasure that he and Dee should for the future have their wives in common. Dee was exceedingly distressed in mind, but yielded after fresh appeals to the spirits. In his own handwriting he has recorded ‘that on Sunday, the third of May, Ann. 1587 (by the new account), I, John Dee, Edward Kelley, and our two wives, covenanted with God, and subscribed the same, for indissoluble and inviolable unities, charity, and friendship keeping between us four; and all things between us to be common, as God by sundry means willed us to do’ (Casaubon, True and Faithfull Relation, pt. ii. p. 21*; Smith, Vita, p. 53).
Frequent and violent quarrels followed, which led to the final separation of the partners. On 4 Jan. 1588–9 Dee delivered up to Kelly the ‘powder, the bokes, the glas, and the bone, for the Lord Rosenberg,’ and on the 16th Kelly left Tribau for Prague. He and his dupe never met again, but they maintained a regular correspondence for some time.
On 10 Nov. 1588 Dee wrote a letter from Tribau to Queen Elizabeth, accepting a previous invitation to return (Ellis, Letters of Eminent Literary Men, p. 45). On 1 March (O.S.) 1588–9 he set out from Tribau on his way to England. On 9 April 1589 he arrived at Bremen, where he received a letter of compliment from the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, to whom in return he made a present of twelve Hungarian horses. Dee states that he was attended by a guard of horse, and, besides wagons for his goods, had three coaches for the use of his family; so that the whole cost of his removal from Tribau was no less than 796l. (Compendious Rehearsal, ch. ix.) On 2 Dec. he landed at Gravesend, and on the 19th was very favourably received by the queen at Richmond. On Christmas day he retired to his own house at Mortlake, and began to collect the scattered remains of his library and museum. He succeeded in regaining about three-fourths of his books. His whole loss by the depredations of the mob he estimated at under 400l.
His evil reputation as a sorcerer caused him to be shunned by all classes of society. The queen, however, held him in high esteem, and made him many promises of preferment. She promised him in 1580 a Christmas gift of 100l., but only half that amount came into his hands. On his return to England he had discovered that he was cut off from all receipt of rents from the rectories of Upton and Long Leadenham, while the large annual allowance promised to him from Bohemia remained unpaid. He appealed to his old friends to save him and his family from starvation, and from them, in the space of about three years, he received upwards of 500l., but he was obliged to raise 333l. more by pawning his plate and jewellery, and by borrowing sums of money at interest. On 9 Nov. 1592 he addressed to the queen a petition, in compliance with which Sir John Wolley, the queen's secretary for the Latin tongue, and Sir Thomas Gorges, gentleman of her majesty's wardrobe, went to Mortlake to examine his affairs. Dee exhibited a book entitled ‘A Compendious Rehearsal,’ containing an account of his life down to his last journey abroad, produced confirmatory documents, and named living witnesses. He desired a grant of the mastership of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, when Dr. Bennet, its then holder, should be raised to a bishopric. The queen ordered Lady Howard to comfort Mrs. Dee by a letter and present of a hundred marks, a promise that Dee should have the desired preferment upon a vacancy, and a pension of 200l. a year out of the revenues of the see of Oxford in the interval. In 1594 Dee made another unsuccessful attempt to obtain the deanery of Gloucester. He had an offer in December of the chancellorship of St. Paul's, and eventually obtained a grant of the wardenship of Manchester College. His patent passed the great seal on 25 May 1595. On 14 Feb. 1595–6 he arrived at Manchester with his
