Teresa Burns - Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition No. 16, Vol. 2. Vernal Equinox 2009

Last issue, two articles under the larger title William Shakespeare’s Green Garland explored the possibility that “Francis Garland,” a man who seems to barely exist outside of his presence in John Dee’s diary and angelic workings, but who according to Dee witnessed Edward Kelley’s grand transmutation,[1] could be a pseudonym for the man we now call William Shakespeare.

As the first of those articles noted, Dee refers to several “Garland” brothers in his diary—Francis, Edward, and Robert—and mentions a fourth “Garland,” Henry. None have ever been positively identified. No extant archival records show a payment to or letter from any of these men, yet they clearly are presented by Dee as acting as couriers. No civic record yet located lists their names. In fact, with only two or perhaps three significant exceptions which I mentioned in that essay, all of the references to a “Garland” connected to John Dee or Edward Kelley have as their source the writings of John Dee.

That article, “Francis Garland, William Shakespeare, and John Dee’s Green Language,” its timeline comparing Francis Garland’s activity to that of William Shakespeare, and a related analysis of a poem perhaps written by Edward Kelley to a “G.S.” who may have been “Gulielmus Shakespeare,” were all written to test out two clusters of hypotheses concerning John Dee, Edward Kelley, William Shakespeare, and Francis Garland.

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Tags: Alchemy, Hermeticism, John Dee

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