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OverviewThis 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. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Martina ZamparoPublisher: Springer International Publishing AG Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan Edition: 2022 ed. Weight: 0.521kg ISBN: 9783031051692ISBN 10: 3031051696 Pages: 377 Publication Date: 07 October 2023 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand ![]() We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Table of ContentsReviews“Zamparo’s study deserves recognition as an in-depth work on alchemy and, unusually, a single play. The book is meticulously researched with a wide variety of alchemical examples from both England and Europe, and is filled with an array of images which help to give a sense of the richness of alchemical literature. … This book is engaging, thoroughly researched, and is an important contribution to the field.” (Rachel White, The British Society for Literature and Science, bsls.ac.uk, December 7, 2023) “The author … is to be commended for demonstrating how deeply dyed a Shakespeare text can be in its pan-European, transhistorical intellectual milieu, in ways that would be invisible to most twenty-first century readers without a guide as learned and as well-written as this.” (M. L. Stapleton, Memoria di Shakespeare. A Journal of Shakespearean Studies, Issue 10, 2023) “Zamparo’s study deserves recognition as an in-depth work on alchemy and, unusually, a single play. The book is meticulously researched with a wide variety of alchemical examples from both England and Europe, and is filled with an array of images which help to give a sense of the richness of alchemical literature. … This book is engaging, thoroughly researched, and is an important contribution to the field.” (Rachel White, The British Society for Literature and Science, bsls.ac.uk, December 7, 2023) Author InformationMartina 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. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |