Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
For this reason alchemists were wooed by princes
1
and paupers alike,
even though their clients may have suspected that they were being de-
luded. In modern dress these promises remain universally attractive and
lucrative propositions, appearing closer to realization than ever before.
4.
Prototypes of the Alchemist in Literature
The simple medieval stereotypes of the alchemist, memorably represent-
ed in Chaucer's
The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale
(Chaucer
1957, pp. 473-98), were the deluded 'puffer' who wasted his life and
money in the pursuit of alchemy and the unscrupulous trickster who
defrauded others. Although these were later tempered by more benign
successors - the natural philosopher and the scientist - the recurrent
fictional image of the knowledge-seeker retains many of the character-
istics of the alchemist obsessed with the pursuit of dangerous or socially
unlawful knowledge. These characters, invariably male, still shroud their
research in secrecy and isolation. Likewise, the master narrative in which
they feature perpetuates the same concerns and repeats the same moral
strictures as were leveled against their predecessors.
The alchemist stereotype as we know it today results largely from an
amalgam of two fictional characters, so universally recognized and en-
during that they have become prototypes in their own right. Dr Faustus
and Victor Frankenstein have continued to provide the imagery, even the
iconography, for representations of both the alchemist and modern scien-
tists. The former figure provides the link between medieval superstition
and Renaissance aspirations to understand Nature, while the latter situ-
1
In 1583 the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II moved his court from Vienna to Pra-
gue, where it became a center for the discussion of the occult and its relation to medi-
cine, cosmology, and the production of gold. The search for the philosopher's stone
consumed Rudolph and much of Prague's nobility. The famed English astrologer/
wizard John Dee and his partner Edward Kelly spent five years together in Prague
(much of it financed by Rudolph) performing magic tricks alleged to foretell the fu-
ture. Kelly stayed on when Dee returned to England, claiming to have discovered the
coveted secret methods for turning lead into gold. Kelly gained a knighthood, but was
eventually imprisoned on charges of sorcery and heresy. Queen Elizabeth I of Eng-
land also encouraged alchemy in the hope of replenishing the royal coffers (French
1972).
