Heavenly Alchemy - Alchemical influences in Shakespeare:

Heavenly Alchemy - Alchemical influences in Shakespeare:

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been called 'the golden age of religious hermeticism' (Jean Dagen), a period when alchemy was the greatest passion of the age, and when some of its most prestigious texts were printed. It was also the age of Shakespeare.

Alchemy was everywhere in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and it is not a question of whether Shakespeare was aware of it or not, but to what degree it permeated his thought and writings. In this talk Paul explores the significance of Hermeticism, neo-platonism and the ideas of Paracelsus in the intellectual world of Shakespeare's contemporaries; and more particularly, its influence on Shakespeare and his work. He will examine, the Tempest in detail, with reference to King Lear, and other plays and poems.

Part of the new live lectures series from Treadwell's.