Browsing by Author "Lee, Brian"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The influence of alchemy and Rosicrucianism in William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The tempest, and Ben Jonson's The alchemist
    (1987) Jones, Mark Francis; Lee, Brian
    This thesis traces the influence of alchemy and its renaissance in the early seventeenth century as Rosicrucianism, in William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Tempest, and Ben Jonson's The Alchemist. Shakespeare's Final Plays are a dramatic experiment that ventures beyond realism, with a common symbolic pattern of loss and reconciliation that reflects the alchemical one of Man's Fall, self-transmutation and reconciliation with the divine spark within him. Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a crude first attempt in this genre, portraying Everyman's journey to perfection in Pericles's wanderings. The quest for Antiochus's Daughter represents the search for Man'soriginal purity of soul, which has, however, become corrupted and dominated by Man's lower nature, embodied in the incestuous King Antiochus. The prince's flight by sea indicates a process of self-transmutation: the loss of his fleet in a tempest symbolises the purification of his Soul from earthly desires, reflected in the laboratory refinement of base metals in fire (lightning) and water (sea). Pericles is able to unite with his refined Soul, incarnated in Thaisa: from their union the Philosopher's Stone or the Spirit, Marina, is born, who transmutes the base metals of men's natures by evoking the divine "seed of gold" within them, even in a degraded brothel. The Spiritr now grown to strength, is able to reunite the other component of Everyman, Body and Soul, the parents, who have completed their purification. The Tempest represents Shakespeare's complete mastery of his alchemical theme. The Alonso-Ferdinand pair embodies Everyman, the father or Soul having been seduced into evil, incarnate in Antonio, while the son, not yet king, is the divine spark within him. This seed of gold must be separated from the corrupted soul in the purifying alchemical tempest, so as to grow back to the Spirit, symbolised by his meeting and eventual marriage with Miranda. Alonso can only be reunited with his son after his purificatory wanderings about the island, in which he confronts his guilt embodied in a Harpy, who awakens his conscience and reminds him why he has lost his divine inner nature he sought for. Prospero represents the Spirit-Intellect of Everyman, tainted by the lower nature, evident in his desire for revenge, and embodied in Caliban. When the unfallen spiritual forces incarnate in Miranda win him over to compassion, he forgives his enemies and can meet the repentant Alonso, and return to earthly duties as the Everyman who has reclaimed his divine heritage. Ben Jonson's The Alchemist shows the debasement of alchemy by frauds who exploit those who, ignoring its spiritual aims, see it as a magical means to obtain gold. Alchemy becomes a symbol of the goldlust ruling London society, as opposed to the spiritual gold of wisdom sought by the true alchemist. The gulls caricature the goal of self-transmutation in their desire to transmute their mundane, lacklustre selves into "something rich and strange" through the Philosopher's Stone. Jor1sor1, deeply learned in alchemy, parodies many of its key concepts and motifs; the final perfection of Man and Nature, the consummation of the esoteric alchemical Opus, is distorted in false, exoteric alchemy hy the degradation and impoverishment of both frauds and gulls.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The Roman de la rose : textual, codicological and iconographical aspects of MS. Grey 4c12
    (2000) Ashley, Angela; Lee, Brian; Mcilwain, Margot
    This study involves an examination of one particular Old French illuminated secular manuscript, nanlely MS Grey 4 c 12, a fourteenth century copy of the poem Le Roman de la Rose. It attempts to understand the relationship between its illumination and the written text and to describe the unique features of its miniatures and marginalia, as well as including a codicological description of the manuscript.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    'The Slaves of Chance': Aspects of the Exposition of Change in Some of Shakepeare's Works and their Sources
    (1995) Peters, John Lionel; Lee, Brian
    Rather than the assertion of a pre-defined thesis, this study is an empirical investigation of the bearing that the exposition of change in some of Shakespeare's sources may have upon his work. The first chapter, devoted to the poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, points to the significance of the Time-Fortuna-Occasio topoi and of· genre conventions in Early Modern discourse on change; and seeks to identify some of the complexity in Shakespeare's use of them. An appendix to the chapter addresses the question of the inconsistency of discourse in the source-texts. In the remaining chapters a discussion of issues relating to the exposition of change in the source-texts precedes some consideration of the relevance of these issues to the plays themselves. Chapter Two is primarily, concerned with Edward Hall's Chronicle and the Henry VI plays, but also contains a broader discussion of Renaissance historiography that includes Samuel Daniel's The Civil ~ and the influence of Machiavelli. In Chapter Three a discussion of the preoccupation of Euphuistic fictions with the forces that bear upon youth (the opposing attractions of the Active and Contemplative lives, the assaults of Fortune) centres on Greene's Pandosto and Lodge's Rosalynde (the sources of The Winter's Tale and As You Like It) . In Chapter Four discussions of the Boethian element in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, the rhetoric of change in Lydgate's Troy Book, and the debt owed to both works by Brooke's pseudo-medieval Romeus and Juliet point to elements of subversion in Troilus and Cressida and Romeo and Juliet. In Chapter five readings of Hamlet and Macbeth are suggested by a reconsideration of their sources in relation to sixteenth century political and religious controversy. The Conclusion suggests a context in literary criticism within which the findings of the investigation may be placed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    A woman of letters : an examination of the character of Margaret Paston through a selective reading of Paston letters and papers of the fifteenth century
    (1993) Purvis, Rosemary; Lee, Brian
    The study examines the character of Margaret Paston through a selective reading of Paston Letters and Papers of the fifteenth century. Consideration is given to the problems posed by the letter form, to the identification of an authentic "voice" in the letters of a woman who was probably unable to write, and to the constraints of an incomplete historical record. Margaret is viewed by means of her own words and her relationships with her immediate and extended family, and in the light of the social and political circumstances of the time. It is concluded that by examining Margaret in this way, there is sufficient material in the epistolary record to make an assessment of her character.