This is going off-topic from Dee, but "Fix here ..." somehow suggests Donne's "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" : the foot, the round shape, the word "fix" - and the whole context of farewell.
No tines in the Donne poem, alas, though lots of alchemy ...
The suggestion that "fix" means "stop" might draw some support from a
possibly parallel usage by Milton in a cryptic little poem (just 2 lines
long) he jotted on the back of a letter sent him by Henry Lawes, enclosing
his passport, before he embarked on his Italian journey in 1638:
Fix here ye overdated spheres
That wing the restless foot of time.
Such commentary as this mysterious little poem has provoked has tended to
focus on the meaning of "overdated" (which seems to be Milton's coinage,
whatever it means). I wonder if "tine" in "fix and tine the moon" might
mean "tie" in the sense "bind." This might seem far from alchemy, but
Milton refers to alchemical binding in PL 3.600-605, where alchemists "bind
/ Volatile Hermes" (the element mercury) and "call up unbound / In various
shapes old Proteus from the sea". If memory serves me right, alchemical
binding means the removing of air (a volatile element) from common mercury
to make "philosophic mercury"--a necessary step toward the making of the
elixir and philosopher's stone. I have no idea as to how or whether the
moon might be relevant to all this. Milton in PL is talking about the sun.
John Leonard
----- Original Message -----
From: "James C. Nohrnberg" <
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To: <
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Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: John Dee and Alan Moore
> All of the suggestions are good. The phrase, "fix and tine the moon"
> sounds Jonsonian, as kind of pseudo-scientific cant. Especially if the
> moon is the Virgin Queen Belphoebe/Cynthia, whose horoscope Dee could well
> have cast. For Dr. Dee did in fact fix the day--i.e., an ideally
> propitious one--for Elizabeth's coronation. Of course the attempt to
> e-fix the moon on the tines of an alchemical-astrological toasting-fork
> re-makes the point about Dee--a mathematician, astrologer, geographer,
> astronomer (I guess), medicine man, alchemist-ry student (alchemists "fix"
> metals in states that are nearer than normal to gold, and work with
> "tincting" to do this--the moon is not a metal, but it stands for silver,
> and thus for quick-silver or mercury, as the sun stands for gold and thus
> for sulphur). Burghley urged Dee to come home from the Continent and turn
> base metal into gold to pay for the expenses of England's taking on the
> Armada. I.e, Dee could hardly help being reputed a magician. Magicians,
> like Mutability, can molest and arrest the moon, or predict and produce
> eclipses (compare the powers of Job's curse or spell on the day and the
> night in 3:3-10).
>
> On Mon, 14 May 2007 10:10:56 -0600
> Katherine Eggert <
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>> Dear Charlie,
>>
>> There's a chance this might be astrological rather than alchemical. You
>> "fix" the moon (and the planets etc.) as part of doing an astrological
>> chart. If "tine" is not a misprint, it's pretty much a synonym for "fix"
>> (tine=enclose). An EEBO-TCP search of "fix" near "moon" gives you this
>> reference:
>>
>> Title: The five books of Mr. Manilius containing a system of the ancient
>> astronomy and astrology : together with the philosophy of the Stoicks
>> Author: Manilius, Marcus.
>> Publication Info: London : [s.n.], 1700.
>> For Instance,* grant it were thy great Concern
>> To know the 28 Planet's Twelfths; securely learn;
>> I'll shew the Method: As you count the Signs,
>>First mark that Sign's Degree where Phoebe shine
>> And views the new-born Child; that multiply
>> By Twelve: (because Twelve Signs adorn the Sky)
>> Observe the Product, and from thence assign
>> To those gay Stars where Phaebe's found to shine
>> Thrice ten Degrees: Then go in Order on,
>> Assigning Thirty till the Number's done;
>> And where the Number ends there fix the Moon: Page 78
>> That is her Twelfth. (p. 77)
>>
>> Dee did some famous astrological charts -- I seem to remember he did one
>> for Queen Elizabeth that she refused to see! -- so you could pay him to
>> learn how to do that, too.
>>
>> Best,
>> Katherine
>>
>>
>> Katherine Eggert
>> Associate Professor and Chair
>> Department of English
>> University of Colorado
>> 226 UCB
>> Boulder, CO 80309-0226
>> (303) 492-7382
>>
[log in to unmask]>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Charles Butler To:
[log in to unmask] Sent: Monday, May
>> 14, 2007 3:25 AM
>> Subject: Re: John Dee and Alan Moore
>>
>>
>> Thanks to Penny and Laurie. I've had a look at the Glasgow web site, and
>> at first glance it seems very possible that 'tine' may be a misprint (or
>> misreading) for 'tinge' or 'ting' - which would make sense in an
>> alchemical context, should one wish to create the Philosopher's Stone.
>> Which is the kind of thing people would pay money to Doctor Dee to learn
>> how to do, I guess! Charlie
>>
>> --
>> Website:
www.charlesbutler.co.uk>
>
[log in to unmask]> James Nohrnberg
> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
> Univ. of Virginia
> P.O Box 400121
> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
>
