“THE DUKE’S DEVIL”: A BRIEFE DESCRIPTION OF THE NOTORIOUS LIFE OF JOHN LAMBE, 1628, WITH TITLE PAGE ENGRAVING OF ASTROLOGER-MAGICIAN LAMBE’S DEATH BY A LONDON MOB

LAMBE, John. A Briefe Description of the Notorious Life of John Lambe otherwise called Doctor Lambe. Together with his Ignominious Death. Printed in Amsterdam [i.e. London: G. Miller], 1628. Slim quarto, 19th-century marbled boards rebacked; pp.(4), 21 (1).

First edition of this very rare account of the shadowy life and violent death of England’s infamous “dealer in the magical arts” John Lambe, whose notoriety as astrologer and as confidante to the Duke of Buckingham placed him at the center of deadly intrigue in the court of Charles I.

This remarkable contemporary work tells the story of John Lambe, a “man of infamous character, a dealer in magical arts, who lived by showing apparitions or selling the favours of the devil” (D’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature). Lambe’s “notorious” life and violent death stood at the center of intrigue in the courts of King James I and Charles I, for Lambe was the protégé of George Villiers, a favorite of James who made him the Duke of Buckingham, the first duke in England “since the execution of Norfolk in the reign of Elizabeth” (Schama II:60). Following Lambe’s imprisonment for the “execrable arts… [his] fame as an astrologer rapidly spread through London.” He was made the confidential aide of the Duke, who was seen as “the power behind the throne… [Increasingly as] the king’s blunders were blamed on the Duke, so the Duke’s influence was traced to Lambe, who was blamed in turn for every decision Buckingham made” (Bobrick, Fated Sky, 197-8).

Then “in June 1626 London was startled by a fearful storm of wind and rain, and a mist hung over the Thames, in which the superstitious discerned many mystical shapes. Lambe appeared on the river during the day, and to ‘his art of conjuring’ the meteorological disturbances were attributed… He was charged with employing magical charms to corrupt chaste women so that they might serve the duke’s pleasure” (DNB). “In an instigated attack of mob violence, a crowd of apprentices—calling Lambe ‘the duke’s devil’—beat him to death in a London street. Lambe’s orchestrated death was a warning to the Duke. After he was killed, it was said: ‘Let Charles and George do what they can, The Duke shall die like Doctor Lambe.’ In August 1628 a young naval officer…. took it upon himself to do the people’s will and stabbed the Duke to death at Portsmouth” (Bobrick, 197-8). Sir Walter Scott, in his Letters on Demonology (1830) would describe how Lambe was “pulled to pieces in the city of London by the enraged populace, and his maid-servant, 13 years afterwards, hanged as a witch at Salisbury.” “Lambe’s career is sketched in a very rare pamphlet, of which two copies are in the British Museum, entitled A Briefe Description of the Notorious Life of John Lambe… A woodcut on the title page represents the fatal scuffle in the streets” (DNB). With laid-in leaf with a woodcut titled: “‘John Lambe alias Dr. Lambe’ from a rare Wood cut in the Collection of Rob. Stearne Tighe, Esq.” tipped to card stock (measures 4-1/2 inches square). With engraved ornamental capital letter and headpieces. OCLC lists nine copies. STC 15177. Lowndes, 1301. Gilt armorial bookplate. Faint notation to blank flyleaf.

Interior generally fresh with light scattered foxing, slight margin dampstaining, flyleaf detaching but intact, light edge-wear to boards. An extremely good copy of this fascinating 17th-century account.