Reviving the Latent Content of Alchemy in Othello

[Paul Ferguson]

"Othello's absence in discussions of alchemical references in Shakespeare's works is not surprising, given that the play makes no explicit mention of gold making or the philosopher's stone, the two ideas likely to be most readily associated with alchemy in the minds of a twenty-first century audience. Consequently, the alchemical import of the play's language, such as the lines of Brabantio's accusation that Othello corrupts and steals Desdemona by "spells and medicines bought of mountebanks," or fraudulent vendors of alchemical wares, is easily overlooked (1.3.61).1 While the reference may seem casual, it is part of a thematic pattern of inversions in alchemical allusion, or more specifically, reversals of the redemptive alchemical allusion in Renaissance literature and poetry."

Thesis by Sarita Clara Rich (Brigham Ypung)
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https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/view...ontext=etd