Briefest of Lives

Charles 6 Comments
Charles

 
 

Here is the entire brief life of Dr Richard Stokes:

Scholar to Sir William Oughtred for Mathematiques (Algebra). Made himself mad with it, but became sober again, but I feare like a crackt glasse. Became Roman Catholique. Married unhappily at Liège, dog and catt, etc. Became a sotte. Dyed in Newgate, prisoner for debt, April 1681.

John Aubrey, Brief Lives, 1693

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gloria mundi
11 years ago

Lives don’t come much briefer, yet less is more. How eloquent! How sad. “dog and catt etc.”

Evelyn
11 years ago

Numbskull.

Evelyn
11 years ago

Sotte=numbskull=Dr Stokes, not Gloria…

gloria mundi
11 years ago

Well thanks for the clarification, but the other meaning of “sotte” or “sot” is drunkard, isn’t it? So…I’ll get back to you on that when I’ve checked a few local opinions…

Evelyn
11 years ago

You’re right – witless, foolish, drunkard…

Ariadne
Ariadne
11 years ago

…but I feare lie a crackt glasse….

Ah yes. Wonderful.