A Canterbury Tale of Alchemy

FIGURE 63. Receive the gift of God under the sacred seal sayeth the Master Adept to the young alchemist (from Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 1652, from The Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, a collection in the Othmer Library, CHF). 

No less an expert than John Read suggested that Chaucer himself had first-hand experience of the joys and sorrows of a labourer in the fire. To 

back to The Canterbury Tales. The CYT Prologue sets the scene. The canon, a clergyman who, in this tale, is also an alchemist, is accompanied by his yeoman or assistant as they encounter a group of travelers on the road. The canon is dismissed by the group s host and the ash-darkened, poverty-stricken, indentured yeoman, who has been badly used by his master, tells a bitter and ironic tale of alchemical chicanery. The canon appears to be part puffer (earnest but misguided seeker of The Stone) and part charlatan. 

The canon has offered to transmute a Priest s quicksilver into precious silver metal using a mysterious powder of projection. In reality, he has placed an ounce of pure silver into a hole drilled in a lump of coal and sealed the hole with blackened wax. The yeoman describes the canon s bait for the priest  

That this quicksylver I wol mortifye Right in your syght anon withouten lye. 

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