You’d think that by this point in the book I’d have a stronger grip on all my characters.
On good days it’s almost like channeling. Edward Kelley’s con-artistry, Jane Dee’s frustration, and John Dee’s obsession all spring easily to mind at this point but Joanna Kelley eludes me.
Which is nonsensical because of all these historical figures I probably know the least about her and so have the most leave to make things up.
Dee didn’t have a strong opinion about her; Edward Kelley “loves her not, nay, I abhor her”; Jane Dee apparently took her side in arguments with Kelley. Charlotte Fell-Smith’s 1909 biography of Dee describes Joanna as “lively and docile” but Fell-Smith tended to speculate.
It’s not clear why Kelley married her – the “angels” ordered him to marry but didn’t specify a bride. Wooley suggests someone (who?) might have paid him marry her in order to legitimize children she had with an aristocratic lover; Bassnett argues she was the widow of a clerk named John Weston. It doesn’t seem she brought any status or money into the marriage. Only two things are clear: she was only 19 when she married Kelley and he didn’t like her.
Why would she marry someone like Kelley, a volatile man with few (legal) prospects who didn’t want to get married in the first place?
I’ve mixed bits and pieces from the scholarship for Joanna’s backstory, but even if I know how she got into the Dee/Kelley household I’m still not clear on how she manages once she’s there. Optimism and resilience would help her endure Kelley’s tempers. Smarts and adaptability wouldn’t hurt, given dangerous travel and domestic strife.
The idea of “Firefly”‘s cheerful engineer Kaylee Frye sprung to mind. A fictional sci-fi character may be an odd inspiration for an Elizabethan housewife but I can imagine that someone of Kaylee’s uncultured enthusiasm would charm everyone around her but get on grumpy Kelley’s last nerve.
My hardest plot challenge of all is why does Kelley hate her so? No one else seems to. I’m considering several possibilities (no spoilers) but even at this late stage I’ve not got this crucial factor ironed out yet.
Maybe it’s difficult for me because while I know fear, anger, and obsession, I’m not exactly a ray of sunshine.
Fortunately I’ve completed the day job certification that ate most of my time for the past couple of months and am eager to get back to editing. Hopefully I’ll get into the zone and she’ll evolve organically out of rewrites.
References:
Bassnett, Susan. 2006. “Absent Presences: Edward Kelley’s Family in the Writings of John Dee.” In John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought, 285–94. Dordrecht: Springer.
Wooley, Benjamin. 2001. The Queen’s Conjurer: The Science and Magic of Dr. John Dee, Advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. Henry Holt and Co.
A couple of ideas, although you might already have considered these. One possible reason for Kelley’s marriage to Joanna is that he had an existing (but undocumented) relationship with her late husband. Perhaps the ‘John Weston, clerk’ to whom Joanna was married is identical to the ‘John Weston, gent’ whose account of an ointment ‘to see spirrites in the ayere or ells where’ features in Folger MS V.b.26 (p. 142). Indeed, he might be the same ‘I. W.’ (or J. W.) whose name appears in other manuscripts in connection with the conjuration of spirits (‘An Experiment of one J. W. with the Spirits Birto, Agares, Bealpharos & Vassago’, for example). The Folger manuscript’s Weston mentions being in Douai, and one might speculate that he and Kelley were Catholics who met whilst attending the English College as seminarians. A promise to Weston, or possibly a desire to obtain his magical legacy, are possible motivations for Kelley’s marriage to Joanna.
As to his subsequent abhorrence for Joanna, this could simply have been a passing rage brought on by the circumstances obtaining at that time. Her departure from Mistress Freeman’s house might have been the provocation. The Freemans were prominent landowners in the area surrounding Blockley. It is of course here, several months earlier at Huets Cross near Northwick Hill, possibly on their land, that Kelley located the powder of projection, the scroll containing the locations of the Danish treasure, and a book of magic and alchemy. If Joanna had severed her relationship with the Freemans, this, combined with Kelley’s evident falling out with John Husey of Blockley, might have removed any prospect of returning to the area to carry out further investigation. Just a thought, and I don’t know whether it fits in with your narrative, but perhaps something to consider.
Hello there! Thank you for reading and commenting.
As soon as I found the name “Weston” associated with the Folger manuscript I started playing with the idea of setting up Joanna as the widow of another would be sorcerer/alchemist. I haven’t fully discarded the idea but do want to resist taking the story on TOO much of a tangent. An intriguing line of inquiry though, both for non-fiction researchers and novel writers alike.
If Kelley was as temperamental as he comes across in Dee’s diaries, he may well have just shot his mouth off in frustration as you suggest. I was unaware of the Freeman’s association with Blockley. Is it possible I missed it in the diaries? Or if you have another source, would you be willing to share?