Talisman Ch. 2: Dr. Forman's Discoverie

"Oh my lover! Oh sire thou art truly the most wonderful man in London town - nay in the kingdom."

Simon held Rose in his arms soothing her until it was she who said. "Oh, Sire, I have to go. My mistress will wonder where I am, and I have not completed the business she sent me about."

PART II

By nature, both Alice Blague and her maid Rose were both gossips and braggarts, neither woman being able to resist describing her experience with Doctor Simon Forman. Both women told her female friends and acquaintances that Simon had taken her to peaks of delight she had never imagined was achievable with a man.

In a baker's shop on Silver Street, the maid Rose, was overheard telling the baker's wife. "I tellest thou true good-wife, he has a knowing art with a woman's body, I never thought to find such artifice in a man. He knew just the best fashion in which to stir my nubbin, bringing to me transports of delight. So long did I tarry that my mistress didst make to box my ears."

"And did she?" asked the baker's wife eager for any tasty morsel of gossip.

"Nay. I said that I wouldst tell the Dean of her adventures."

The baker's wife clicked her tongue, and shook her head in disapproval.

The next day an unusual event occurred in the bakers shop. The baker's wife donned her cloak and left the apprentice, whom she usually called shiftless and lazy, to mind the shop. She made her way through the twisting alleys and narrow streets to Saint Botolphs. Although London had a large population, most Londoner's knew where everyone of note lived.

As she got near the Stone House she slowed her pace, she did not want to be seen hurrying to see Doctor Forman, whom she had not previously consulted. Simon's servant, Stephen ushered the baker's wife into the room that served not only as Simon's consulting room, but also his study. Simon rose from his desk greeting the woman with a sketched bow.

Once she had taken the seat he offered, the baker's wife looked around the room. The books and writing materials reassured her. Truly the doctor was a very well educated man; from the look of his library and his person she hazarded a guess that he would be renowned among his peers. An open door showed Simon's bedchamber. It was exactly as Mistress Blague's maid had described.

"I asked my good lady how may I be of service to her." A tone of exasperation had crept into Simon's voice.

"Yes, sir. A customer of mine, the maid of mistress Blague, told me of a wondrous treatment thee didst prescribe for her."

'Damn these wenches who cannot hold their tongues,' Simon thought. He was beginning to regret his dalliance with Alice Blague and her maid. The baker's wife was the fourth woman that day, who directly or indirectly had asked for the same treatment as he had administered to Alice Blague and her maid Rose.

"I cannot treat thee if I knowest not thy symptoms."

"Good doctor, if I may make free in my speech?" The woman waited for a nod to continue. "What ails me is not my sickness but my husband's. He is a good man who provides well for me, but he is afflicted by a spirit of lethargy, that on many occasions prevents him from discharging the duty that is surely every good wife's right. And when he does discharge this duty," she paused and looked about her as if to check no-one could overhear, "He leaves me with an itch that is quite unsatisfied."

"Good lady I have no physic for the symptoms you describe."

"Doctor Forman, I implore you to do something. Alice Blague's maid told me that you relieved her itch most wonderfully."

Even as the woman spoke, Simon could feel the figure on the Talisman tickle his chest, as it began to dance. "My dearest lady to relieve the itch you describe I must ask you to disrobe." Seeing the look of surprise and horror on the woman's face he added, "I can assure you that total nakedness is a part of the treatment, if thou wish thou may go and check with the maid." As she was not the first to call upon his services that day, Simon was exhausted and hoped against hope that the woman would decide to leave.

"Nay, Sir. I am here and I will do thy bidding."

Simon pointed towards the open doorway. "Let us retire to my chamber, where we may make sport and sate thy lustful itch."

At Simon's invitation the baker's wife was into the bedchamber and divesting herself of her clothing, faster than a long-dog after a hare. By the time Simon bolted the door, the woman stood shivering, her arms wrapped around her body to shield her unaccustomed nakedness.

"Pray, good lady, lower thine arms and disport to my eyes thy god given charms," Simon said as he began removing his shirt. When he was finished undressing, and stood naked but for the Talisman, he scrutinized the woman's ample body. He could see that she had certainly not stinted herself in sampling her husband's wares. Pendulous breasts drooped over a well-rounded belly, a belly that hung so as to shield her slit from sight. It was only when he laid her on the bed that he was afforded a view of her quim. Opening her legs he was surprised the labia were thin and mean, when compared with other women he had known. Her nubbin was not at all prominent, but instead was so small that at first Simon thought she did not have one.

It was with his sense of touch rather than sight that he confirmed its existence. Relieved, he gently tapped the minuscule organ, her reaction proving that despite its size it responded to the same stimuli as larger, more prominent nubbin. As he tapped, she sighed, her orifice glistening as her fluids flowed. Her vagina was dilating, then contracting, then dilating again before going into a cycle of powerful contractions.

Simon followed the dictates of his guide, the dancing figure. Every touch, every movement of his hand was as prescribed. As he pleasured the woman Simon made mental notes of what he did and the woman's reaction.

The Baker's wife knew now that Alice Blague's maid had not exaggerated her description of Simon's skills. His hands played her body with the expertise of a court musician playing a lute. Gently his hands glided, barely touching her, caressing some parts. The insistent light tapping of his finger against her nubbin, like the secret tap of a lover at the bedroom window. The firm palm massage milking her to an orgasm solely by stimulating her mons. When he touched her breasts he kneaded them in the manner that her husband worked the dough. Spikes of pleasant pain jabbed through her body when he took her nipples, rolling them between his forefinger and thumb. Her womb tingled with prickly heat. It seemed that the fluids he drew from her should be boiling, such was the fire within her.

She did not want what she was feeling to ever stop. She did not have the voice nor the words to convey what it was she felt, save the moments when fear swept in and her heart pounded as if it were an anvil being struck by the smith's hammer. When she closed her eyes, great arcs of lightning flashed in the darkness.

"Sire, I beg thou delay no more! Please enter me now sir!" He had lifted one of her heavy breasts, licking the sensitive underside. The tingling sensation was more than she could bear. "Sire! Desist from what thou dost to me or I shall surely die!" she screamed at Simon.

Drumming her fists on his shoulder blades, the nearest part of him to her, only resulted in him pulling his hands away from her body. "Sire! Please do something! Do not desist when I am in such great heat!"

Without warning Simon plunged three fingers into her dilated quim, observing the strength of her vaginal muscles convulsively clamping around them so tightly he felt a mild degree of pain. 'Such a wondrous and powerful organ,' Simon mused, withdrawing his fingers and kneeling between her legs.

For a big woman the baker's wife was amazingly agile. As Simon parted her labia and positioned his pizzle at the entrance of her vagina, she drew up her legs, clasping them around his waist. Holding him tightly she pulled him into her and using her legs she assumed control, dictating the speed and depths of his thrusts.

Each time he felt the pleasant discomfort that is a precursor to ejaculation, Simon would draw in his perineum muscle, effectively stoppering the ejaculation. Despite the state of her arousal prior to his entering her, she was not able to cum. As his pizzle slid into and out of her vagina, Simon knew if he lay down with her astride him, he could diddle her nubbin but he wanted to find a different solution. Clearing his mind he conjured-up his little dancer, and quickly enough an image appeared.

Hooking his arms behind her knees he pulled her legs up. She gasped when he forced her legs over until her feet touched the mattress each side of her head. He knew her quim would be spread, the labia parted like the wings of a butterfly. Instead of moving his hips in an up down motion he slid forward and back, his bristly pubic hair brushing across those sensitive areas he had exposed.

The pleasure he induced made her oblivious to the pain of having her body compressed into an unaccustomed position. Even when cramp made her thigh feel as if it was in the grip of a steel claw, she was enjoying the sensation too much to ask him to stop.

Then it happened. It was like an explosion. Her whole body heaved as a warm wet wave washed over her. When the doctor had made her cum with his hands she had thought it the peak of ecstasy, but this now far surpassed it. It took away her breath, she was sure that she felt her hammering heart pause and momentarily stop.

Simon was equally shocked when at the crucial moment she had let out a piercing scream, breaking his concentration and boiling the seed from his swollen testes. He had barely an instant to gasp for breath when the baker's wife was greedy to once again taste the sweet fruit of passion. No sooner had Simon lowered her legs and withdrawn his limp pizzle, than she moved about in the bed began to lick it. Pulling back the foreskin she lightly played her tongue over the velvety glans. Then with his testes cupped in her hand, she took the entire length of his pizzle into her mouth. She was undaunted when he had not become instantly hard.

Simon collapsed on his back and she lay curled up on the bed beside him, her head resting on his belly with his pizzle in her mouth. Gently she sucked until at last the faint stirrings became stronger. She gagged when Simon bucked his hips, driving his erect pizzle into her throat.

She looked puzzled when Simon pulled her head away from his rampant pizzle and said. "Kneel astride of me." Once straddling him she was no longer mystified. Taking hold of his pizzle, she lowered herself onto it.

"No stay upright," he said when she leaned towards him, assuming a position on all fours. As she moved herself so that her body was once more upright, she began moving up and down. Simon inserted a finger into her slick slit, massaging her nubbin, urging her to move faster and again she obeyed.

Her whole body appeared to be in motion. Her big breasts bounced off her stomach, rising so it seemed as if they would fly over her shoulders. This time he did not have to hold back for her. With a victorious shout she announced that she had achieved her goal before him. Simon had to grasp her bucking hips to prevent her leaping from his pizzle at the same time, arching his back to drive deeper into her. She had cum for a second time before he came.

Simon was not unhappy when soon after he had cum she pointed at the unshuttered window and said. "Oh doctor! The light it is fading I must return home."

"Yes, good lady. Make haste, as nightfall is nigh."

After dressing, the baker's wife ran her fingers through her hair. As she pulled her cloak about her she said to him. "May I consult with thee again?"

"If thee wishes it so. Dost thou desire my man Stephen to escort thee to thy shop?" Simon replied as he saw her through the door.

PART III

The baker's wife was not the last woman in search of sex who crossed the threshold of Doctor Simon Forman's home. When women gossiped, one of their favorite subjects was sex, those who knew him spoke of Simon's sexual prowess.

Regardless of rank and station his fame became known from the meanest hovels outside the city walls in Southwark to the court of Queen Elizabeth. Sir John Hawkins's wife consulted Simon just before her husband and Drake set out on what was to become their final, fatal voyages. During the same period Rose Davis, the poor wife of an ordinary sailor in one of Drake's ships also consulted him.

When women consulted him, they came not only to see a famous doctor, but also to see one of the foremost astrologers of the age. For from the time that he possessed the Talisman, his skills as a practitioner of both medicine and astrology underwent a miraculous improvement. His practice grew as his fame spread across the sexes.

Wealthy ship-owners consulted him about the fate of their ships, merchants about business ventures, clergy and courtiers about promotions. Old and young, rich and poor flocked to his door.

Soon he was able to afford the trappings of a gentleman, a horse and a sword for himself and a mount for his servant. He took to signing his letters Simon Forman gent, a major step, which was not taken lightly in those class-conscious times.

It would appear that the Talisman protected Simon from coming to any harm at the hands of jealous husbands. From his extensive records it is apparent that there was little secretive about his relationship with Avis Allen, who's husband Edward owned "The Ship" in Thames Street. Yet it is also a matter of record that not only did Edward consult Simon in a professional capacity but he also socialized with him. Alice Blague's husband, the Dean of Rochester, also consulted with Simon almost constantly posing questions about his prospects for advancement. The cleric also socialized with Simon.

By 1599, six years after he had received the Talisman, Simon was affluent enough to marry a woman who came from a landed family, the niece of a knight. However marriage did not stop Simon from carrying out his mission of teaching women how to appreciate the joys of sex.

Even a member of the all-powerful Cecil family, Lady Norris, a noted hypochondriac, consulted Simon. As also did Lady Frances Howard the wealthy nineteen-year-old widow of a City of London Alderman, who was to marry the Earl of Hertford and then upon his demise, King James VI/I's cousin the Duke of Lennox.

For a long time the only protection the Talisman appeared unable to give to Simon, was shielding him from the wrath of the Doctors and Barber Surgeons. Time after time despite his growing wealth and fame, or perhaps because of it, he was committed to prison.

Eventually in 1603 he gained some immunity when he was awarded a license to practice medicine from Cambridge University. This was awarded on the basis of 'long exercise and experience'. One of his sponsors was Thomas Grimston, physician to Queen Elizabeth and after her death to King James.

During the Plague years Shakespeare had penned his sonnet to the Dark Lady, who has been identified as Emilia Lannier, former mistress of the Lord Chancellor. Four years later in 1597 Simon, who was an inveterate theatergoer, brushed past the shadow of William Shakespeare. Emilia Lannier came to consult him about her husband's fate, much the same question as Lady Hawking and Rose Davis had posed. Simon never a man to miss an opportunity, took every chance to relieve Emilia's loneliness.

Despite both having married, Simon remained her friend and confidant. In 1609 she felt slighted when Shakespeare's Sonnets were published. As Simon was a remarkable character whose success can be ascribed to the Talisman, so Emilia was also notable. This one time courtesan and mistress who lived by using her sex, in 1611 underwent a fundamental change and published a volume of poetry "Salve Deus Rex Judaecorum". Some see this as a reply to the implied slanders of the Sonnets and others see this as the first feminist publication.

On Sunday the fourth of September 1611, Simon was seated at the table eating supper with his wife and son. Familiarity breeding contempt, whilst other women were overawed by Simon's powers his wife Anne was not. "Simon, tell me if thou has so much revealed when thou casts and scryes, dost thou also not know whether it will be the man or his good wife who wilt die first?"

"And if I knew Tronco wouldst thou really want to know?" Simon laughed for they had shared this conversation many times.

"Simon! Tell me no lies. Shall I bury you, or no?"

Even as she asked the question Simon felt the Talisman stir. The words tumbled out. "Oh, Tronco, thou wilt bury me, but thou wilt much repent it."

Anne did not seem to grasp the import of his words. "Yea how long first?"

The figure was dancing in front of his eyes, the words that passed his lips were not of his choosing. "I shall die ere Thursday night."

Simon took note of the warning, and put his affairs in order. In his will he left his papers and books to his friend Doctor Napier another practitioner of the occult arts. To his wife and son he left the not inconsiderable fortune of £12000.

Late on Tuesday afternoon Simon took a boat from the steps on the upriver side of London Bridge. "Take me to Putney." He instructed the waterman before huddling down into the stern seat of the boat. Usually Simon would have carried on a lively conversation with the boatman, but today he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. The cloak he kept wrapped around himself not only excluded the cold east wind, but also shut out the world. He knew that he was fallible, he had made predictions before that for various reasons had not come to fruition, he hoped he was wrong this time. But within himself he was sure that on Thursday he would meet his death.

Landing in Putney he made his way to the house where Emilia had her lodgings. "I am sorry sir but my mistress is not receiving any visitors." Her maid had said when he enquired if he might see her.

"Wench return to thy mistress and tell her 'tis Doctor Simon Forman who wishes to converse with her."

When the maid returned to the door she swung it open. "Sire, my mistress will see thee in her chamber."

"Simon pray be seated, the wench will bring us some wine." Emilia said to him with the easy familiarity of an old friend. It was only when the maid had brought the wine and had withdrawn from the chamber that Emelia asked the question she had wanted answered since Simon's unannounced arrival. "Well good sire what is it that brings thee to see me. In all the years of our acquaintance thou hast never once ventured to my door unbidden."

"I brought this for thee."

"Your Talisman, the familiar, the power through which thou dost thy work. Why thou hast always said twould be only in death that thou wouldst relinquish it."

"Fear not I am not yet a ghost, but 'ere the week is out I fear I shall be."

"Art thou ill?"

"Nay my fair lady naught of great import ails me, only the aches and pains one of my years must expect. But this Sunday last, as I jested with Tronco I received a premonition of my death, I assure thee that on Friday thou wilt hear news of my demise."

"Why dost thou bring to me this bequest? What of your other friends, should it not be in their safe keeping?"

"Emilia, I must hand this to someone who understands the power of this Talisman, and thou art the only one, apart from myself who has touched the medallion and has unprompted, discerned its inherent power."

"Simon, how do I use it? To what purpose am I meant to employ it?"

"Fair Emilia the answer to your questions I do not possess. For an answer you will have to consult with the Talisman." He said taking the medallion from his neck and holding out it to her.