Alchemy, Paracelsianism, and Shakespeare's The winter's tale / Martina Zamparo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zamparo, Martina, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Series:

Palgrave studies in literature, science, and medicine

Palgrave studies in literature, science and medicine

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Winter's tale.

Shakespeare, William.

Alchemy in literature.

Winter's tale (Shakespeare, William).

Physical Description:

xxi, 377 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2022]

Summary:

This book explores the role of alchemy, Paracelsianism, and Hermetic philosophy in one of Shakespeares last plays, The Winters Tale. A perusal of the vast literary and iconographic repertory of Renaissance alchemy reveals that this late play is imbued with topoi, myths, and emblematic imagery coming from coeval alchemical, Paracelsian, and Hermetic sources. All the major symbols of alchemy are present in Shakespeares play: the intertwined serpents of the caduceus, the chemical wedding, the filius philosophorum, and the so-called rex chymicus. This book also provides an in-depth survey of late Renaissance alchemy, Paracelsian medicine, and Hermetic culture in the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages. Importantly, it contends that The Winters Tale, in symbolically retracing the healing pattern of the rota alchemica and in emphasising the Hermetic principles of unity and concord, glorifies King Jamess conciliatory attitude.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction

The Alchemical and Hermetic Context

Early Modern Alchemy

Literature Review

pt. I "Emperors, kings and princes desired this science". Elizabethan and Jacobean England

2. Alchemy in Elizabethan England

"Then Indeed Shall You Lay a Trismegistus". Elizabethan Alchemists and Patrons

"The Vndeluding Alcumist". Alchemy and The Cult of Queen Elizabeth I

3. Alchemy and Paracelsianism at the Jacobean Court

"Invested of That Triplicity". King James's Daemonologie and Renaissance Hermeticism

"Hee Rules The Starres Above". Paracelsian Alchemy and Natural Magic at The Jacobean Court

pt. II The Alchemical Performance of The Winter's Tale. A Reading of the Play

4. Leontes's tale of winter

The Chemical King

"If You Can Bring Tincture". Leontes as Rex Chymicus

"A Sad Tale's Best for Winter". The Phase Of Nigredo

"It Is a Gallant Child". The Alchemical Parable of The Senex-Puer

"My Recreation ". The Healing of The King

5. Water and Time

"We Have Landed in III Time". Alchemical Dissolution

"In Fair Bohemia". The Phase of Albedo and the `Rebirth' of Perdita

"The Red Blood Reigns in the Winter's Pale". Saturn-Time

"In so Preposterous Estate". The Sheep-Shearing Festival

6. Art and Nature

Alchemy in The Art-Nature Debate

"An Art Which Does Mend Nature". Alchemical Art in The Winter's Tale

"What You do Still Betters What is Done". Perdita as the Philosophical Child

7. The Statue Scene

"Had He Himself Eternity and Could Put Breath into His Work". Giulio Romano's Breathing Statues

"Be Stone No More". Hermetic Statues

"The Statue is But Newly Fixed". Alchemical Fixatio

"We Shall Not Marry Till Thou Bidd'st us". Paulina as Lady Alchymia

pt. III Jacobean Politics and Religion in the Play

8. The Winter's Tale and James I

"From The Ends of Opposed Winds". King James and The Prisca Sapientia

"An Art Lawful as Eating". King James's Vivifying Magic

9. Conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9783031051661

3031051661

OCLC:

1310153469