The lure and romance of alchemy / by C.J.S. Thompson.

  • Charles Thompson
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The lure and romance of alchemy / by C.J.S. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    124/300 page 102
    ALCHEMY IN THE TIME OF JOHN GOWER AND GEOFFREY CHAUCER FROM the fourteenth to the sixteenth century the al¬ chemist played a part in the life of the English people, as is shown by the frequency with which he is introduced into the literature and plays of the period. Both John Gower and GeofFrey Chaucer allude to the decep¬ tions that were being practised in their time by the pseudo-al¬ chemists and to the pretentiousness of their claims. From the knowledge of the science they show in their works it is probable that they both had had some practical experience in the art. Ashmole, indeed, declares that Chaucer “knew the mystery” and was “ a judicious philosopher and is ranked among Hermetic Philosophers, and his master in this science was John Gower.” He says that the first acquaintance between them began at the Inner Temple, where “ Sir John studied the laws and whither Chaucer came to follow the like course of studies upon his re¬ turn out of France. They became great friends, and soon per¬ ceived the similitude of their manners and quickly joined in friendship and labours.” Gower appears to have believed in the doctrine of the ‘ three stones,’ vegetable, animal, and mineral. He thus alludes to the doctrines of alchemy in the Confessio Amantis: These olde philosophres wise By wey of kinde in sundry wise Three stones made through clergy. The firste if I shall specify, Was called vegetabilis. Of which the propre vertue is To mannes hele for to serve As for to kepe and to preserve
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