Alchemical Hands in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

Contents

1. Act 1: Scenes 1, 2, 3, 4
2. Act 2: Scenes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3. Act 3: Scenes 1, 2, 3, 4
4. Act 4: Scenes 1, 2
5. Act 5: Scenes 1, 2, 3

A room in Lovewit's house | Face, Subtle, Dol Common

Face, Subtle, and Dol quarrel over their shares in the alchemical confidence scheme they have been running from Lovewit's house while the master is away during the plague. Dol forces a truce. They review their upcoming marks.

Alchemical content: Establishes the con: Subtle plays the alchemist, Face the front man. References to the 'venter tripartite' (three-way venture). Subtle claims real alchemical knowledge while using it for fraud.

The same | Face, Subtle, Dapper

Dapper, a lawyer's clerk, arrives seeking a familiar spirit to help him win at gambling. Subtle casts a horoscope and promises Dapper an audience with the Queen of Fairy.

Alchemical content: Astrology and cunning-man practices adjacent to alchemy. The 'mercurial finger' reference. Subtle operates as an occult practitioner blending astrology, spirit conjuring, and alchemical mystique.

The same | Face, Subtle, Drugger

Abel Drugger, a tobacconist, consults Subtle about the best astrological arrangement for his new shop. Subtle prescribes a layout based on planetary influences.

Alchemical content: Astrological shop arrangement using planetary correspondences. Mercury's sign for the shop front. The blending of commercial astrology with alchemical authority.

The same | Face, Mammon, Surly

Sir Epicure Mammon arrives with Surly, who is skeptical. Mammon rhapsodizes about what he will do when the philosopher's stone is achieved. Surly voices doubt.

Alchemical content: Mammon's speeches are dense with alchemical reference: the stone, projection, the elixir, transmutation of metals. Surly names specific alchemical frauds and failed practitioners.

The same | Mammon, Surly

Mammon elaborates his fantasies of wealth, health, and power. Surly continues to mock but Mammon is unmoved.

Alchemical content: Extended catalogue of alchemical promises: the elixir of life, curing plague, restoring youth. Mammon's vision of 'the spirit of Sol' and dissolved pearl. The alchemical metals-planets correspondence underpins his imagery.

Subtle's laboratory | Subtle, Mammon, Surly, Face

Subtle shows Mammon and Surly the laboratory. He describes the alchemical process in technical detail. Mammon is entranced; Surly recognizes the jargon as empty.

Alchemical content: The most technically dense scene: calcination, projection, fixation, the work of the furnace. Subtle names specific alchemical authorities. The sulphur-mercury theory of metals. Philosophical mercury vs common mercury.

The same | Subtle, Mammon, Face

Subtle describes the philosopher's stone and its powers. Mammon grows more credulous. Face manages the schedule of gulls.

Alchemical content: The stone as triple promise: gold-making, universal medicine, long life. The alchemical stages: nigredo, albedo, rubedo implied. Subtle's language draws on real alchemical treatises.

The same | Subtle, Face, Ananias

Ananias, a deacon of the Puritans, arrives to check on a commission. He objects to pagan alchemical terminology. Subtle ejects him.

Alchemical content: Conflict between Puritan religion and alchemical language. Ananias objects to terms like 'chrysopoeia' and 'spagyrica' as heathen. Subtle defends the art's vocabulary and ancient lineage.

The same | Subtle, Mammon, Surly

Subtle delivers a lecture on the composition of metals, explaining the sulphur-mercury theory. Surly challenges him on specific claims.

Alchemical content: The generation of metals from sulphur and mercury underground. Materia liquida. Concorporation. The remote matter vs the proper matter of gold. This is Jonson's most sustained piece of alchemical exposition.

The same | Face, Subtle, Surly

Face and Subtle attempt to draw Surly into the scheme despite his skepticism.

Alchemical content: Surly names famous alchemical failures. References to alchemical literature: Geber, Arnold of Villanova. The distinction between true adepts and charlatans.

The same | Tribulation, Ananias

Tribulation Wholesome, the Puritan pastor, persuades the reluctant Ananias that dealing with alchemists is justified if it funds their cause.

Alchemical content: The moral economy of alchemy: can sinful means produce godly ends? The Puritans want Subtle to counterfeit Dutch currency using alchemical transmutation. Coining and projection conflated.

The same | Subtle, Tribulation, Ananias

Subtle negotiates with the Puritans over their commission for transmuted metal. He impresses them with alchemical jargon and exaggerated promises.

Alchemical content: Orphan's metals. The tin-copper-iron transmutation sequence. Subtle lists alchemical processes to overwhelm the Puritans: projection, multiplication, calcination. The stone as political tool.

The same | Face, Subtle, Surly (as a Spaniard)

Surly returns disguised as a Spanish count to expose the fraud from within.

Alchemical content: Minimal — this scene shifts to the dramatic mechanics of the con. The 'Spanish count' subplot is social rather than alchemical.

The same | Dol, Face, Dapper

Dol plays the Queen of Fairy for Dapper. He is blindfolded and robbed of his money as 'offerings'.

Alchemical content: Fairy lore overlapping with alchemical mystique. The con uses the same apparatus of secrecy and ritual that surrounds genuine alchemical practice.

The same | Face, Mammon, Subtle, Dol

Subtle stages a laboratory explosion to explain why the projection has failed. Mammon is told his sin (lusting after Dol) has ruined the work.

Alchemical content: The 'bolt's-head' (vessel) cracks. The work is 'overthrown'. In alchemical tradition, moral impurity of the operator was a standard explanation for failure — Jonson exploits this doctrine to make the con work. The furnace, retorts, and laboratory equipment are described in detail.

The same | Surly, Mammon, Face, Subtle

Surly reveals his true identity and tries to expose the fraud. But Face and Subtle turn the other gulls against him.

Alchemical content: Surly articulates the skeptical case against alchemy as a whole: it has never produced gold, its practitioners are all frauds or deluded. This represents the anti-alchemical position Jonson dramatizes throughout.

Outside the house | Lovewit, Neighbours

Lovewit returns from the country. The neighbours report strange goings-on. Face must scramble to cover his tracks.

Alchemical content: Minimal — the plot moves to resolution. The alchemical laboratory is being dismantled offstage.

Inside the house | Lovewit, Face

Face confesses to Lovewit and offers him Dame Pliant as a bride in exchange for pardon. Lovewit accepts.

Alchemical content: The alchemical apparatus is described as it is packed away: 'all the household stuff' of the laboratory. The material reality of alchemical fraud: furnaces, glasses, vessels.

The same | Lovewit, Face, Mammon, Surly, Tribulation, Ananias, Dapper, Drugger, Kastril

The gulls return demanding their money and goods. Lovewit denies everything. Face escapes punishment by serving his master. Subtle and Dol have fled.

Alchemical content: The final accounting of what the alchemical fraud has produced: nothing material, only lost money and humiliation. Jonson's moral: the stone was always a mirage. The play ends with Face's direct address to the audience about the 'pelf' (stolen goods).

About This Page

This is a structural guide, not a full text. Scene summaries focus on alchemical content. For the complete text, see the H.C. Hart edition (1903) in our source corpus, or consult a modern critical edition such as the Cambridge Ben Jonson or the Revels Plays edition.