Darke Hierogliphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration

Description: Assesses literary references and allusions to alchemy as an aspect of the transition from the medieval to the modern age, focusing on works by Chaucer, Bacon, Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Milton, and Samuel Butler, but also considering a wide array of other works.; The chapter on Chaucer (pp. 37-62) identifies the aspects of CYPT that became "persistent motifs" in later satires of alchemy. Stanton argues that CYP and CYT are unified as a warning against false alchemy; they merit recognition as the "beginning of the tradition of literary alchemy."

Chaucer Subjects: Canon's Yeoman and His Tale.; Chaucer's Influence and later Allusion.