Zamparo Alchemy, Paracelsianism, and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-031-05167-8
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 377 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Progress in Mathematics

This book explores the role of alchemy, Paracelsianism, and Hermetic philosophy in one of Shakespeare’s last plays,
The Winter’s Tale
. A perusal of the vast literary and iconographic repertory of Renaissance alchemy reveals that this late play is imbued with several
topoi
, myths, and emblematic symbols coming from coeval alchemical, Paracelsian, and Hermetic sources. It also discusses the alchemical significance of water and time in the play’s circular and regenerative pattern and the healing role of women. All the major symbols of alchemy are present in Shakespeare’s 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 Winter’s Tale
, in symbolically retracing the healing pattern of the
rotaalchemica
 and in emphasising the Hermetic principles of unity and concord, glorifies King James’s conciliatory attitude.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Zamparo, Martina

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- PART I. “Emperors, kings and princes desired this science”. Elizabethan and Jacobean England.- 2. Alchemy in Elizabethan England.- 3. Alchemy and Paracelsianism at the Jacobean Court.- PART II. The Alchemical Performance of
The Winter’s Tale
. A Reading of the Play.- 4. Leontes’s
tale of winter
.- 5. Water and Time.- 6. Art and Nature.- 7. The Statue Scene.- PART III. Jacobean Politics and Religion in the Play.- 8.
The Winter’s Tale
and James I.- 9. Conclusions.

Über Autor(innen)

Martina Zamparo
received her doctoral degree
cum laude
in linguistic and literary studies from the University of Udine, Italy. She has conducted part of her doctoral research at the Warburg Institute, University of London, UK, and has been an adjunct lecturer in English literature at the Universities of Trieste and Udine, Italy, where she has also worked as a postdoctoral fellow.