Eschatological alchemy in Henry Vaughan and Andrew Marvell

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the influence of eschatology on the alchemical imagery of Thomas Vaughan, Henry Vaughan and Andrew Marvell, who wrote their works in an apocalyptic period in mid-seventeenth-century England. In the works of the Vaughan brothers, the imagery of eschatological alchemy not only reflects the contemporary political situation of national crisis but also reveals their anti-Presbyterian belief that creatures other than mankind can be saved. Writing in the Presbyterian household of Lord Fairfax, Marvell employs the chiliastic and alchemical imagery in a much more distanced, nonpartisan way. He uses the image of vitrification to introduce the Fairfaxes’ daughter into “Upon Appleton House” to comfort his afflicted employer, and to encourage him to create his private golden age. By collecting circumstantial evidence, the paper further suggests the possibility that Fairfax’s poet took upon himself a positive responsibility for arranging the marriage between his old friend, George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham and his employer’s daughter, Mary.