Using Alchemical Memory Techniques for the Interpretation of Literature: John Donne, George Herbert, and Richard Crashaw

This study examines the ways in which three seventeenth-century metaphysical poets, Donne, Herbert, and Crashaw, used mnemonic devices from Raymond Lull to express dissenting views of purgatory. Studying three alchemico-Lullian signs - the fiery sword, mercurial tears, and the bloody breast - Dr. Albrecht shows how these poets express purgatory as a place where the process of purification occurs and addressed this idea to both Calvinists and members of the Church of England. This book has thirty black and white photographs.