Shakespeare, Alchemy and the Creative Imagination: The Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint

272 Pages·2011·2.72 MB·English

by  Margaret Healy

SHAKESPEARE, ALCHEMY AND THE
CREATIVE IMAGINATION
Shakespeare’s Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint constitute a rich
tapestry of rhetorical play about Renaissance love in all its guises. A
significant strand of this is spiritual alchemy: working the ‘metal’ of
the mind through meditation on love, memory work and intense
imagination.Healydemonstrateshowthisprocessofanguishedsoul
work–construedasessentialtoinspiredpoeticmaking–iswoveninto
these poems, accounting for their most enigmatic imagery and
urgency of tone. The esoteric philosophy of late Renaissance
Neoplatonicalchemy,whichembracedbawdysexualsymbolismand
was highly fashionable in European intellectual circles, facilitated
Shakespeare’s poetry. Arguing that Shakespeare’s incorporation of
alchemicaltexturesthroughouthislateworksisindicativeofanartistic
stance promoting religioustoleration and unity, thisbook sets out a
crucial new framework for interpreting the 1609 poems, and trans-
formsourunderstandingofShakespeare’sart.
margaret healy isReader inEnglishandDirector oftheCentre
for Early Modern Studies at the University of Sussex. She teaches
manyaspectsofRenaissanceliterature,andisparticularlyinterestedin
the cultural history of the body and the interfaces among literature,
medicine, science and art. She is the author of Fictions of Disease in
Early Modern England: Bodies, Plagues and Politics (2001) and
Richard II (1998), and the co-editor of Renaissance Transformations:
The Making of English Writing 1500–1650 (2009). She edits the new
BritishMedicalJournal,MedicalHumanities.

SHAKESPEARE, ALCHEMY
AND THE CREATIVE
IMAGINATION
’
The Sonnets and A Lovers Complaint
MARGARET HEALY
cambridge university press
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CambridgeUniversityPress
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PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107004047
©MargaretHealy2011
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2011
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
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isbn978-1-107-00404-7Hardback
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Contents
Listofillustrations pagevi
Acknowledgements viii
Anoteonthetexts ix
Introduction 1
1 Alchemicalcontexts 14
2 Lovelyboy 57
57
PartILove,marriageandalchemicalprocreation
PartII‘Suttillnumbers’:‘conjunctio’byarithmetic,musicanddivine
77
geometry
3 Thedarkmistressandtheartofblackness 98
98
PartIInpraiseofblackness
PartIIWill’sdarkmistress 115
4 ALoversComplaintbyWilliamShake-speare 131
5 Innerlooking,alchemyandthecreativeimagination 157
PartITheinwardturn:doing‘mind’in‘character’ 157
PartIIThealchemical‘making’mind 174
6 Conclusion:Shakespeare’spoeticsofloveandreligious
toleration 195
Notes 211
Index 253
v
Illustrations
1 Titlepage,LeTableaudesrichesinventions,byFrançois
BeroaldedeVerville(Paris:MattieuGuillemut,1600).
©BritishLibrary.Shelfmark634k15. page40
2 Title-pageillustration,Esotericandexotericalchemy,
MichaelMaier,TripusAureus(Frankfurt,1618).©British
Library.Shelfmark1033k2. 42
3 IllustrationaccompanyingEmblemaXXI,‘Aroundtheman
andwomandrawaring...square...triangle’.Michael
Maier,AtalantaFugiens(Oppenheim:TheodordeBry,1618).
©BritishLibrary.Shelfmark1033k7. 44
4 EmblemaandEpigrammaIII,‘Gotothewomanwashing
sheets,anddolikewise’.MichaelMaier,AtalantaFugiens
(Oppenheim:TheodordeBry,1618).©BritishLibrary.
Shelfmark1033k7. 45
5 IllustrationaccompanyingEmblemaXXXIII,‘The
Hermaphroditeneedsfire’.MichaelMaier,AtalantaFugiens
(Oppenheim:TheodordeBry,1618).©BritishLibrary.
Shelfmark1033k7. 46
6 IllustrationaccompanyingEmblemaXXXIV,‘Heis
conceivedinthebathandbornintheair’.MichaelMaier,
AtalantaFugiens(Oppenheim:TheodordeBry,1618).
©BritishLibrary.Shelfmark1033k7. 47
7 RushtonTriangularLodge,viewfromthenorth-east.
CourtesyofEnglishHeritage. 78
vi
Listofillustrations vii
8(a) TheDrakeJewel,frontcameoview:ornategoldand
colouredenamel,rubies,diamonds,pearls,sardonyxand
cameoofamanandwomaninprofile.©Private
collection;loanedtoVictoriaandAlbertMuseum,
London. 107
8(b) TheDrakeJewel,backview:openedtoshowminiature
paintedinwatercolouronvellumofElizabethIanda
phoenixbyNicholasHilliard.©Privatecollection;loaned
toVictoriaandAlbertMuseum,London. 108
Acknowledgements
This project would certainly have been very much longer in coming to
fruition without the generous support of the Leverhulme Trust. I am
grateful to the Trust for granting me a Research Fellowship throughout
2008,enablingmetoresearchandwritethisbook.
IwouldliketothankMichaelSchoenfeldtforinvitingmetocontributea
chaptertotheBlackwellCompaniontoShakespeare’sSonnets(2007),which
encouragedmetotryoutsomeinitialideasthathaveformedthekernelof
this book. I would also like to acknowledge the valuable input of Helen
Hackett,TomHealy,MichaelSchoenfeldtandananonymousreader,who
read earlier versions of this book and provided important feedback.
Members of the London Shakespeare Seminar, particularly Eric Langley,
Russ McDonald and Susanne Scholz, have commented helpfully too. At
CambridgeUniversityPress,myeditor,SarahStanton,andtheproduction
team – notably Rebecca Taylor, Rosina Di Marzo and my copy-editor,
Caroline Drake – have been encouraging and supportive throughout the
process. Special thanks are certainly due to those students, postgraduates
andcolleaguesintheCentreforEarlyModernStudiesattheUniversityof
SussexwhoseenthusiasmfordiscussingRenaissanceliterature,alchemyand
the creative imagination has spurred me on, convincing me that I am not
alone in my preoccupations. I am indebted to Tynan for crucial insights
that have emerged during our stimulating walks, while the importance of
TomHealy’sconstantencouragement,warmthand sense ofhumourgoes
withoutsaying.
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