Albrecht,Roberta J. — Using alchemical memory techniques for the interpretation of literature. John Donne, George Herbert, and Richard Crashaw.

Lewiston (N.Y.), [etc.], Edwin Mellen Press, [2008]. XVI,234 pp. 30 b./w. ills. Orig. hardcover (boards). 8vo. - Light shelfwear (one corner sl. dam.). Rare harcover edition. With a foreword by Helen B. Brooks. - 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.