The Circle [2]

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The Circle [2]

Poem 21

Original Source

Hester Pulter, Poems breathed forth by the nobel Hadassas, University of Leeds Library, Brotherton Collection, MS Lt q 32

Versions

  • Facsimile of manuscript: Photographs provided by University of Leeds, Brotherton Collection

  • Transcription of manuscript: By Leah Knight and Wendy Wall.
  • Elemental edition: By Leah Knight and Wendy Wall.
  • Amplified edition: By Elizabeth Scott-Baumann.

How to cite these versions

Conventions for these editions

The Pulter Project: Poet in the Making

  • Created by Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
  • Encoded by Katherine Poland, Matthew Taylor, Elizabeth Chou, and Emily Andrey, Northwestern University
  • Website designed by Sergei Kalugin, Northwestern University
  • IT project consultation by Josh Honn, Northwestern University
  • Project sponsored by Northwestern University, Brock University, and University of Leeds
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X (Close panel)Notes: Transcription

 Editorial note

In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Line number 7

 Physical note

“In” is written in H2; it is blotted and appears to have been written over two earlier letters.
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Transcription
Transcription
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
The Circle [2]
The Circle [2]
The Circle [2]
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
Today, recombinant DNA is imagined as a potential savior of humanity and hypothesized as a source of a future free from illness or even death. In Pulter’s day, another combinatory science, alchemy, had similar goals; here, the speaker mocks its practitioners for their faith in combinations of elements formed with the aim of preserving lives indefinitely. So much is futile, the speaker suggests, given that humanity was formed by God from elemental “dust,” and must circle back into that humble form—one utterly contrary to the gleaming glory sought by the prying, pandering alchemists portrayed here.
This poem appears in Pulter’s manuscript only a few pages after the first of four poems named “The Circle”: a figure which fascinated Pulter, as is evident in still more of her poems that are preoccupied with various forms of revolution (material, political, astronomical, and personal).


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In The Circle [1] [Poem 17], Pulter had depicted a cycle of despair and faith. In this, the second of four poems in Pulter’s manuscript entitled “The Circle”, she suggests that the circle of eternal life sought by alchemists becomes a vicious cycle. Those who should have put their faith in God rather than alchemy turn to dust, both the dust of alchemical reaction and that of their ancestor Adam. Like her predecessors John Donne and George Herbert, Pulter evokes quite specific alchemical terms, substances (mercury and sulphur) and processes (calcining) but she demonstrates the impotence of this art compared to true Christian faith. Many of the terms Pulter uses have both a technical meaning in alchemy and a broader metaphorical or spiritual sense, such as “refine” and “consume”. (On dust and spiritual alchemy, see Alchemy and Devotion in Curations).
Alchemists believed that the union of mercury and sulphur was central to creating the Philosopher’s Stone. Pulter imagines love potions (“philtres”) being used to bring together these chemicals, which were often imagined as male and female, and to generate their offspring or “posterity”. She argues, though, that instead of the Philosopher’s Stone, all that is created is dust, just as all things return to dust and oblivion. This poem also follows “The Circle [1]” (Poem 17) in using the rhyme pair story / glory, which hints at the poet’s ability to create an enduring account of a life (despite both poems’ overt focus on transience), a theme accentuated here by the sonnet-like fourteen-line form. Sonnets were often connected to ideas of memorialisation, with Shakespeare promising “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (Sonnet 55). This poem rejects the idea of any kind of eternal life except through God. The “urn” here is not a symbol of remembrance, but the physical burial vessel, in which our ashes will remain until the Day of Judgment when the dead will be reunited with their ancestors.
See Jayne Archer, “A ‘Perfect Circle‘? Alchemy in the Poetry of Hester Pulter,” Literature Compass, 2 (2005).


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
Those that ^ye hidden Chimick Art pfeſs
Those that the hidden
Gloss Note
alchemy
chemic art profess
Those that the hidden
Gloss Note
chemistry or, here, alchemy
chemic art profess
2
And vizet Nature in her Morning dreſs
And visit Nature in her
Gloss Note
informal attire
morning dress,
And visit Nature in her
Gloss Note
dressed for the day, informally
morning dress,
3
To Mercurie and Sulpher filterys give
To Mercury and Sulfur
Gloss Note
magic potions, especially aphrodisiacs
philters give
To
Gloss Note
substances with various mythical, symbolic and medicinal connotations, here evoked because they are prime elements in alchemical theory
mercury and sulphur
Gloss Note
potions or drugs, often supposed to cause love
philtres give
4
That they conſum’d with Love may live
That they,
Critical Note
The word “consumed” may signify “wasted,” as by disease, but may also refer to evaporation or burning, processes pertinent to the poem’s alchemical context. The phrase “consumed with love” was also used in Pulter’s time, as now, to indicate obsession.
consumed with love, may live
That they, consumed with love, may live
5
In their Posterytie and in them Shine
In their
Gloss Note
descendants
posterity, and in them shine,
In their
Gloss Note
descendant; here in the sense of the product or offspring of mercury and sulphur
posterity and in them shine
6
Though they their beeing unto them Reſign
Though they their being
Critical Note
Alchemists saw the combination of mercury and sulfur (often figured as a marriage—the “love” referred to here) as key to producing the philosopher’s stone, which could yield eternal life or turn all things to gold. In this passage, mercury and sulfur are personified as consuming an aphrodisiac which leads them to “resign” their individual lives (“their being”) for their “posterity,” which presumably “shine[s]” because it is gold.
unto them resign:
Though they their being unto them resign;
7
Glorying to Shine
Physical Note
“In” is written in H2; it is blotted and appears to have been written over two earlier letters.
in[In] Silver and in Gold
Glorying to shine
Critical Note
Gold (masculine Sol) and silver (feminine Luna) were understood to be the two chief components of the philosopher’s stone (Eardley).
in silver and in gold,
Glorying to shine in silver and in gold
8
Which ffretting vermill poyſon do thinfold
Which
Gloss Note
Corrosive or consuming (“fretting”) red crystalline mercuric sulphide (“vermeil”) enfolds Mercury and Sulfur (the “th’” [short for “them”] of “th’infold,” or envelop).
fretting vermeil poison do th’enfold,
Which
Gloss Note
gnawing, corroding
fretting
Gloss Note
bright red; vermilion was a pigment made from the reaction of sulphur and mercury
vermeil
Critical Note
vermilion was indeed toxic
poison
Physical Note
MS = do thinfold
doth enfold,
9
fforgetting quite that they were once Refind
Forgetting quite that they were once
Gloss Note
separated from something inferior (e.g. dross); freed from impurities, defects (chemical, moral); distilled; improved
refined.
Forgetting quite that they were once
Gloss Note
purified, pure
refined.
10
By time and ffate to dust are all Calcind
By time and fate to
Critical Note
original, formative physical elements; see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
dust are
Gloss Note
all beings
all
Gloss Note
burnt to ash or dust; purified or refined by consuming the grosser part
calcined,
By time and fate to dust are all
Critical Note
burned until reduced to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcined
11
lying obliviated in their Urn
Lying
Gloss Note
forgotten
obliviated in their urn
Lying
Gloss Note
forgotten, committed to oblivion
obliviated in their urn
12
Till they to their great Ancesters return
Till they to their
Critical Note
Pulter appears to refer to the biblical account of the process by which souls would be restored to their bodies in heaven at the Day of Judgment.
great ancestors return;
Till they to their great ancestors return.
13
Soe Man the Universe’s chiefest Glory
So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
14
His primitive’s Dust (Alas) doth end his Story.
Gloss Note
Humanity will end its “story,” or life, after taking on the form of its originary components (its “primitive’s dust”).
His primitive’s dust (alas) doth end his story.
His
Gloss Note
ancestor’s, i.e., Adam’s
primitive’s dust (alas) doth end his story.
horizontal straight line
X (Close panel)Notes: Elemental Edition

 Editorial note

The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

 Headnote

Today, recombinant DNA is imagined as a potential savior of humanity and hypothesized as a source of a future free from illness or even death. In Pulter’s day, another combinatory science, alchemy, had similar goals; here, the speaker mocks its practitioners for their faith in combinations of elements formed with the aim of preserving lives indefinitely. So much is futile, the speaker suggests, given that humanity was formed by God from elemental “dust,” and must circle back into that humble form—one utterly contrary to the gleaming glory sought by the prying, pandering alchemists portrayed here.
This poem appears in Pulter’s manuscript only a few pages after the first of four poems named “The Circle”: a figure which fascinated Pulter, as is evident in still more of her poems that are preoccupied with various forms of revolution (material, political, astronomical, and personal).
Line number 1

 Gloss note

alchemy
Line number 2

 Gloss note

informal attire
Line number 3

 Gloss note

magic potions, especially aphrodisiacs
Line number 4

 Critical note

The word “consumed” may signify “wasted,” as by disease, but may also refer to evaporation or burning, processes pertinent to the poem’s alchemical context. The phrase “consumed with love” was also used in Pulter’s time, as now, to indicate obsession.
Line number 5

 Gloss note

descendants
Line number 6

 Critical note

Alchemists saw the combination of mercury and sulfur (often figured as a marriage—the “love” referred to here) as key to producing the philosopher’s stone, which could yield eternal life or turn all things to gold. In this passage, mercury and sulfur are personified as consuming an aphrodisiac which leads them to “resign” their individual lives (“their being”) for their “posterity,” which presumably “shine[s]” because it is gold.
Line number 7

 Critical note

Gold (masculine Sol) and silver (feminine Luna) were understood to be the two chief components of the philosopher’s stone (Eardley).
Line number 8

 Gloss note

Corrosive or consuming (“fretting”) red crystalline mercuric sulphide (“vermeil”) enfolds Mercury and Sulfur (the “th’” [short for “them”] of “th’infold,” or envelop).
Line number 9

 Gloss note

separated from something inferior (e.g. dross); freed from impurities, defects (chemical, moral); distilled; improved
Line number 10

 Critical note

original, formative physical elements; see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Line number 10

 Gloss note

all beings
Line number 10

 Gloss note

burnt to ash or dust; purified or refined by consuming the grosser part
Line number 11

 Gloss note

forgotten
Line number 12

 Critical note

Pulter appears to refer to the biblical account of the process by which souls would be restored to their bodies in heaven at the Day of Judgment.
Line number 14

 Gloss note

Humanity will end its “story,” or life, after taking on the form of its originary components (its “primitive’s dust”).
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Elemental Edition
Elemental Edition
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
The Circle [2]
The Circle [2]
The Circle [2]
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
Today, recombinant DNA is imagined as a potential savior of humanity and hypothesized as a source of a future free from illness or even death. In Pulter’s day, another combinatory science, alchemy, had similar goals; here, the speaker mocks its practitioners for their faith in combinations of elements formed with the aim of preserving lives indefinitely. So much is futile, the speaker suggests, given that humanity was formed by God from elemental “dust,” and must circle back into that humble form—one utterly contrary to the gleaming glory sought by the prying, pandering alchemists portrayed here.
This poem appears in Pulter’s manuscript only a few pages after the first of four poems named “The Circle”: a figure which fascinated Pulter, as is evident in still more of her poems that are preoccupied with various forms of revolution (material, political, astronomical, and personal).


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
In The Circle [1] [Poem 17], Pulter had depicted a cycle of despair and faith. In this, the second of four poems in Pulter’s manuscript entitled “The Circle”, she suggests that the circle of eternal life sought by alchemists becomes a vicious cycle. Those who should have put their faith in God rather than alchemy turn to dust, both the dust of alchemical reaction and that of their ancestor Adam. Like her predecessors John Donne and George Herbert, Pulter evokes quite specific alchemical terms, substances (mercury and sulphur) and processes (calcining) but she demonstrates the impotence of this art compared to true Christian faith. Many of the terms Pulter uses have both a technical meaning in alchemy and a broader metaphorical or spiritual sense, such as “refine” and “consume”. (On dust and spiritual alchemy, see Alchemy and Devotion in Curations).
Alchemists believed that the union of mercury and sulphur was central to creating the Philosopher’s Stone. Pulter imagines love potions (“philtres”) being used to bring together these chemicals, which were often imagined as male and female, and to generate their offspring or “posterity”. She argues, though, that instead of the Philosopher’s Stone, all that is created is dust, just as all things return to dust and oblivion. This poem also follows “The Circle [1]” (Poem 17) in using the rhyme pair story / glory, which hints at the poet’s ability to create an enduring account of a life (despite both poems’ overt focus on transience), a theme accentuated here by the sonnet-like fourteen-line form. Sonnets were often connected to ideas of memorialisation, with Shakespeare promising “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (Sonnet 55). This poem rejects the idea of any kind of eternal life except through God. The “urn” here is not a symbol of remembrance, but the physical burial vessel, in which our ashes will remain until the Day of Judgment when the dead will be reunited with their ancestors.
See Jayne Archer, “A ‘Perfect Circle‘? Alchemy in the Poetry of Hester Pulter,” Literature Compass, 2 (2005).


— Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
Those that ^ye hidden Chimick Art pfeſs
Those that the hidden
Gloss Note
alchemy
chemic art profess
Those that the hidden
Gloss Note
chemistry or, here, alchemy
chemic art profess
2
And vizet Nature in her Morning dreſs
And visit Nature in her
Gloss Note
informal attire
morning dress,
And visit Nature in her
Gloss Note
dressed for the day, informally
morning dress,
3
To Mercurie and Sulpher filterys give
To Mercury and Sulfur
Gloss Note
magic potions, especially aphrodisiacs
philters give
To
Gloss Note
substances with various mythical, symbolic and medicinal connotations, here evoked because they are prime elements in alchemical theory
mercury and sulphur
Gloss Note
potions or drugs, often supposed to cause love
philtres give
4
That they conſum’d with Love may live
That they,
Critical Note
The word “consumed” may signify “wasted,” as by disease, but may also refer to evaporation or burning, processes pertinent to the poem’s alchemical context. The phrase “consumed with love” was also used in Pulter’s time, as now, to indicate obsession.
consumed with love, may live
That they, consumed with love, may live
5
In their Posterytie and in them Shine
In their
Gloss Note
descendants
posterity, and in them shine,
In their
Gloss Note
descendant; here in the sense of the product or offspring of mercury and sulphur
posterity and in them shine
6
Though they their beeing unto them Reſign
Though they their being
Critical Note
Alchemists saw the combination of mercury and sulfur (often figured as a marriage—the “love” referred to here) as key to producing the philosopher’s stone, which could yield eternal life or turn all things to gold. In this passage, mercury and sulfur are personified as consuming an aphrodisiac which leads them to “resign” their individual lives (“their being”) for their “posterity,” which presumably “shine[s]” because it is gold.
unto them resign:
Though they their being unto them resign;
7
Glorying to Shine
Physical Note
“In” is written in H2; it is blotted and appears to have been written over two earlier letters.
in[In] Silver and in Gold
Glorying to shine
Critical Note
Gold (masculine Sol) and silver (feminine Luna) were understood to be the two chief components of the philosopher’s stone (Eardley).
in silver and in gold,
Glorying to shine in silver and in gold
8
Which ffretting vermill poyſon do thinfold
Which
Gloss Note
Corrosive or consuming (“fretting”) red crystalline mercuric sulphide (“vermeil”) enfolds Mercury and Sulfur (the “th’” [short for “them”] of “th’infold,” or envelop).
fretting vermeil poison do th’enfold,
Which
Gloss Note
gnawing, corroding
fretting
Gloss Note
bright red; vermilion was a pigment made from the reaction of sulphur and mercury
vermeil
Critical Note
vermilion was indeed toxic
poison
Physical Note
MS = do thinfold
doth enfold,
9
fforgetting quite that they were once Refind
Forgetting quite that they were once
Gloss Note
separated from something inferior (e.g. dross); freed from impurities, defects (chemical, moral); distilled; improved
refined.
Forgetting quite that they were once
Gloss Note
purified, pure
refined.
10
By time and ffate to dust are all Calcind
By time and fate to
Critical Note
original, formative physical elements; see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
dust are
Gloss Note
all beings
all
Gloss Note
burnt to ash or dust; purified or refined by consuming the grosser part
calcined,
By time and fate to dust are all
Critical Note
burned until reduced to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcined
11
lying obliviated in their Urn
Lying
Gloss Note
forgotten
obliviated in their urn
Lying
Gloss Note
forgotten, committed to oblivion
obliviated in their urn
12
Till they to their great Ancesters return
Till they to their
Critical Note
Pulter appears to refer to the biblical account of the process by which souls would be restored to their bodies in heaven at the Day of Judgment.
great ancestors return;
Till they to their great ancestors return.
13
Soe Man the Universe’s chiefest Glory
So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
14
His primitive’s Dust (Alas) doth end his Story.
Gloss Note
Humanity will end its “story,” or life, after taking on the form of its originary components (its “primitive’s dust”).
His primitive’s dust (alas) doth end his story.
His
Gloss Note
ancestor’s, i.e., Adam’s
primitive’s dust (alas) doth end his story.
horizontal straight line
X (Close panel)Notes: Amplified Edition

 Editorial note

With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

 Headnote

In The Circle [1] [Poem 17], Pulter had depicted a cycle of despair and faith. In this, the second of four poems in Pulter’s manuscript entitled “The Circle”, she suggests that the circle of eternal life sought by alchemists becomes a vicious cycle. Those who should have put their faith in God rather than alchemy turn to dust, both the dust of alchemical reaction and that of their ancestor Adam. Like her predecessors John Donne and George Herbert, Pulter evokes quite specific alchemical terms, substances (mercury and sulphur) and processes (calcining) but she demonstrates the impotence of this art compared to true Christian faith. Many of the terms Pulter uses have both a technical meaning in alchemy and a broader metaphorical or spiritual sense, such as “refine” and “consume”. (On dust and spiritual alchemy, see Alchemy and Devotion in Curations).
Alchemists believed that the union of mercury and sulphur was central to creating the Philosopher’s Stone. Pulter imagines love potions (“philtres”) being used to bring together these chemicals, which were often imagined as male and female, and to generate their offspring or “posterity”. She argues, though, that instead of the Philosopher’s Stone, all that is created is dust, just as all things return to dust and oblivion. This poem also follows “The Circle [1]” (Poem 17) in using the rhyme pair story / glory, which hints at the poet’s ability to create an enduring account of a life (despite both poems’ overt focus on transience), a theme accentuated here by the sonnet-like fourteen-line form. Sonnets were often connected to ideas of memorialisation, with Shakespeare promising “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (Sonnet 55). This poem rejects the idea of any kind of eternal life except through God. The “urn” here is not a symbol of remembrance, but the physical burial vessel, in which our ashes will remain until the Day of Judgment when the dead will be reunited with their ancestors.
See Jayne Archer, “A ‘Perfect Circle‘? Alchemy in the Poetry of Hester Pulter,” Literature Compass, 2 (2005).
Line number 1

 Gloss note

chemistry or, here, alchemy
Line number 2

 Gloss note

dressed for the day, informally
Line number 3

 Gloss note

substances with various mythical, symbolic and medicinal connotations, here evoked because they are prime elements in alchemical theory
Line number 3

 Gloss note

potions or drugs, often supposed to cause love
Line number 5

 Gloss note

descendant; here in the sense of the product or offspring of mercury and sulphur
Line number 8

 Gloss note

gnawing, corroding
Line number 8

 Gloss note

bright red; vermilion was a pigment made from the reaction of sulphur and mercury
Line number 8

 Critical note

vermilion was indeed toxic
Line number 8

 Physical note

MS = do thinfold
Line number 9

 Gloss note

purified, pure
Line number 10

 Critical note

burned until reduced to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
Line number 11

 Gloss note

forgotten, committed to oblivion
Line number 14

 Gloss note

ancestor’s, i.e., Adam’s
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with any currently displayed witness.
X (Close panel)Amplified Edition
Amplified Edition
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
Facsimile Image Placeholder
The Circle [2]
The Circle [2]
The Circle [2]
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.

— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
Today, recombinant DNA is imagined as a potential savior of humanity and hypothesized as a source of a future free from illness or even death. In Pulter’s day, another combinatory science, alchemy, had similar goals; here, the speaker mocks its practitioners for their faith in combinations of elements formed with the aim of preserving lives indefinitely. So much is futile, the speaker suggests, given that humanity was formed by God from elemental “dust,” and must circle back into that humble form—one utterly contrary to the gleaming glory sought by the prying, pandering alchemists portrayed here.
This poem appears in Pulter’s manuscript only a few pages after the first of four poems named “The Circle”: a figure which fascinated Pulter, as is evident in still more of her poems that are preoccupied with various forms of revolution (material, political, astronomical, and personal).


— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
In The Circle [1] [Poem 17], Pulter had depicted a cycle of despair and faith. In this, the second of four poems in Pulter’s manuscript entitled “The Circle”, she suggests that the circle of eternal life sought by alchemists becomes a vicious cycle. Those who should have put their faith in God rather than alchemy turn to dust, both the dust of alchemical reaction and that of their ancestor Adam. Like her predecessors John Donne and George Herbert, Pulter evokes quite specific alchemical terms, substances (mercury and sulphur) and processes (calcining) but she demonstrates the impotence of this art compared to true Christian faith. Many of the terms Pulter uses have both a technical meaning in alchemy and a broader metaphorical or spiritual sense, such as “refine” and “consume”. (On dust and spiritual alchemy, see Alchemy and Devotion in Curations).
Alchemists believed that the union of mercury and sulphur was central to creating the Philosopher’s Stone. Pulter imagines love potions (“philtres”) being used to bring together these chemicals, which were often imagined as male and female, and to generate their offspring or “posterity”. She argues, though, that instead of the Philosopher’s Stone, all that is created is dust, just as all things return to dust and oblivion. This poem also follows “The Circle [1]” (Poem 17) in using the rhyme pair story / glory, which hints at the poet’s ability to create an enduring account of a life (despite both poems’ overt focus on transience), a theme accentuated here by the sonnet-like fourteen-line form. Sonnets were often connected to ideas of memorialisation, with Shakespeare promising “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (Sonnet 55). This poem rejects the idea of any kind of eternal life except through God. The “urn” here is not a symbol of remembrance, but the physical burial vessel, in which our ashes will remain until the Day of Judgment when the dead will be reunited with their ancestors.
See Jayne Archer, “A ‘Perfect Circle‘? Alchemy in the Poetry of Hester Pulter,” Literature Compass, 2 (2005).


— Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
1
Those that ^ye hidden Chimick Art pfeſs
Those that the hidden
Gloss Note
alchemy
chemic art profess
Those that the hidden
Gloss Note
chemistry or, here, alchemy
chemic art profess
2
And vizet Nature in her Morning dreſs
And visit Nature in her
Gloss Note
informal attire
morning dress,
And visit Nature in her
Gloss Note
dressed for the day, informally
morning dress,
3
To Mercurie and Sulpher filterys give
To Mercury and Sulfur
Gloss Note
magic potions, especially aphrodisiacs
philters give
To
Gloss Note
substances with various mythical, symbolic and medicinal connotations, here evoked because they are prime elements in alchemical theory
mercury and sulphur
Gloss Note
potions or drugs, often supposed to cause love
philtres give
4
That they conſum’d with Love may live
That they,
Critical Note
The word “consumed” may signify “wasted,” as by disease, but may also refer to evaporation or burning, processes pertinent to the poem’s alchemical context. The phrase “consumed with love” was also used in Pulter’s time, as now, to indicate obsession.
consumed with love, may live
That they, consumed with love, may live
5
In their Posterytie and in them Shine
In their
Gloss Note
descendants
posterity, and in them shine,
In their
Gloss Note
descendant; here in the sense of the product or offspring of mercury and sulphur
posterity and in them shine
6
Though they their beeing unto them Reſign
Though they their being
Critical Note
Alchemists saw the combination of mercury and sulfur (often figured as a marriage—the “love” referred to here) as key to producing the philosopher’s stone, which could yield eternal life or turn all things to gold. In this passage, mercury and sulfur are personified as consuming an aphrodisiac which leads them to “resign” their individual lives (“their being”) for their “posterity,” which presumably “shine[s]” because it is gold.
unto them resign:
Though they their being unto them resign;
7
Glorying to Shine
Physical Note
“In” is written in H2; it is blotted and appears to have been written over two earlier letters.
in[In] Silver and in Gold
Glorying to shine
Critical Note
Gold (masculine Sol) and silver (feminine Luna) were understood to be the two chief components of the philosopher’s stone (Eardley).
in silver and in gold,
Glorying to shine in silver and in gold
8
Which ffretting vermill poyſon do thinfold
Which
Gloss Note
Corrosive or consuming (“fretting”) red crystalline mercuric sulphide (“vermeil”) enfolds Mercury and Sulfur (the “th’” [short for “them”] of “th’infold,” or envelop).
fretting vermeil poison do th’enfold,
Which
Gloss Note
gnawing, corroding
fretting
Gloss Note
bright red; vermilion was a pigment made from the reaction of sulphur and mercury
vermeil
Critical Note
vermilion was indeed toxic
poison
Physical Note
MS = do thinfold
doth enfold,
9
fforgetting quite that they were once Refind
Forgetting quite that they were once
Gloss Note
separated from something inferior (e.g. dross); freed from impurities, defects (chemical, moral); distilled; improved
refined.
Forgetting quite that they were once
Gloss Note
purified, pure
refined.
10
By time and ffate to dust are all Calcind
By time and fate to
Critical Note
original, formative physical elements; see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
dust are
Gloss Note
all beings
all
Gloss Note
burnt to ash or dust; purified or refined by consuming the grosser part
calcined,
By time and fate to dust are all
Critical Note
burned until reduced to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
calcined
11
lying obliviated in their Urn
Lying
Gloss Note
forgotten
obliviated in their urn
Lying
Gloss Note
forgotten, committed to oblivion
obliviated in their urn
12
Till they to their great Ancesters return
Till they to their
Critical Note
Pulter appears to refer to the biblical account of the process by which souls would be restored to their bodies in heaven at the Day of Judgment.
great ancestors return;
Till they to their great ancestors return.
13
Soe Man the Universe’s chiefest Glory
So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
So man, the universe’s chiefest glory,
14
His primitive’s Dust (Alas) doth end his Story.
Gloss Note
Humanity will end its “story,” or life, after taking on the form of its originary components (its “primitive’s dust”).
His primitive’s dust (alas) doth end his story.
His
Gloss Note
ancestor’s, i.e., Adam’s
primitive’s dust (alas) doth end his story.
horizontal straight line
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Transcription

 Editorial note

In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Elemental Edition

 Editorial note

The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.
Amplified Edition

 Editorial note

With an undergraduate and graduate student audience in mind, this poem has been modernised in spelling and punctuation. Where modernisation would affect form, priority has been given to the integrity of the poem’s formal features (so, for instance, verb endings -est and -eth have been retained unmodernised; where the meter requires it, the verb ending -ed is accented, e.g., “Then shall thy blessèd influence”). Nouns have been capitalized only when there is clear personification. The notes provide information essential to understanding the poem, while the Headnote aims to stimulate readers’ own interpretations through suggesting literary or historical contexts, possible influences, comparable poems (by Pulter and by her predecessors and peers) and relevant critical arguments.
Elemental Edition

 Headnote

Today, recombinant DNA is imagined as a potential savior of humanity and hypothesized as a source of a future free from illness or even death. In Pulter’s day, another combinatory science, alchemy, had similar goals; here, the speaker mocks its practitioners for their faith in combinations of elements formed with the aim of preserving lives indefinitely. So much is futile, the speaker suggests, given that humanity was formed by God from elemental “dust,” and must circle back into that humble form—one utterly contrary to the gleaming glory sought by the prying, pandering alchemists portrayed here.
This poem appears in Pulter’s manuscript only a few pages after the first of four poems named “The Circle”: a figure which fascinated Pulter, as is evident in still more of her poems that are preoccupied with various forms of revolution (material, political, astronomical, and personal).
Amplified Edition

 Headnote

In The Circle [1] [Poem 17], Pulter had depicted a cycle of despair and faith. In this, the second of four poems in Pulter’s manuscript entitled “The Circle”, she suggests that the circle of eternal life sought by alchemists becomes a vicious cycle. Those who should have put their faith in God rather than alchemy turn to dust, both the dust of alchemical reaction and that of their ancestor Adam. Like her predecessors John Donne and George Herbert, Pulter evokes quite specific alchemical terms, substances (mercury and sulphur) and processes (calcining) but she demonstrates the impotence of this art compared to true Christian faith. Many of the terms Pulter uses have both a technical meaning in alchemy and a broader metaphorical or spiritual sense, such as “refine” and “consume”. (On dust and spiritual alchemy, see Alchemy and Devotion in Curations).
Alchemists believed that the union of mercury and sulphur was central to creating the Philosopher’s Stone. Pulter imagines love potions (“philtres”) being used to bring together these chemicals, which were often imagined as male and female, and to generate their offspring or “posterity”. She argues, though, that instead of the Philosopher’s Stone, all that is created is dust, just as all things return to dust and oblivion. This poem also follows “The Circle [1]” (Poem 17) in using the rhyme pair story / glory, which hints at the poet’s ability to create an enduring account of a life (despite both poems’ overt focus on transience), a theme accentuated here by the sonnet-like fourteen-line form. Sonnets were often connected to ideas of memorialisation, with Shakespeare promising “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments / Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme” (Sonnet 55). This poem rejects the idea of any kind of eternal life except through God. The “urn” here is not a symbol of remembrance, but the physical burial vessel, in which our ashes will remain until the Day of Judgment when the dead will be reunited with their ancestors.
See Jayne Archer, “A ‘Perfect Circle‘? Alchemy in the Poetry of Hester Pulter,” Literature Compass, 2 (2005).
Elemental Edition
Line number 1

 Gloss note

alchemy
Amplified Edition
Line number 1

 Gloss note

chemistry or, here, alchemy
Elemental Edition
Line number 2

 Gloss note

informal attire
Amplified Edition
Line number 2

 Gloss note

dressed for the day, informally
Elemental Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

magic potions, especially aphrodisiacs
Amplified Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

substances with various mythical, symbolic and medicinal connotations, here evoked because they are prime elements in alchemical theory
Amplified Edition
Line number 3

 Gloss note

potions or drugs, often supposed to cause love
Elemental Edition
Line number 4

 Critical note

The word “consumed” may signify “wasted,” as by disease, but may also refer to evaporation or burning, processes pertinent to the poem’s alchemical context. The phrase “consumed with love” was also used in Pulter’s time, as now, to indicate obsession.
Elemental Edition
Line number 5

 Gloss note

descendants
Amplified Edition
Line number 5

 Gloss note

descendant; here in the sense of the product or offspring of mercury and sulphur
Elemental Edition
Line number 6

 Critical note

Alchemists saw the combination of mercury and sulfur (often figured as a marriage—the “love” referred to here) as key to producing the philosopher’s stone, which could yield eternal life or turn all things to gold. In this passage, mercury and sulfur are personified as consuming an aphrodisiac which leads them to “resign” their individual lives (“their being”) for their “posterity,” which presumably “shine[s]” because it is gold.
Transcription
Line number 7

 Physical note

“In” is written in H2; it is blotted and appears to have been written over two earlier letters.
Elemental Edition
Line number 7

 Critical note

Gold (masculine Sol) and silver (feminine Luna) were understood to be the two chief components of the philosopher’s stone (Eardley).
Elemental Edition
Line number 8

 Gloss note

Corrosive or consuming (“fretting”) red crystalline mercuric sulphide (“vermeil”) enfolds Mercury and Sulfur (the “th’” [short for “them”] of “th’infold,” or envelop).
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Gloss note

gnawing, corroding
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Gloss note

bright red; vermilion was a pigment made from the reaction of sulphur and mercury
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Critical note

vermilion was indeed toxic
Amplified Edition
Line number 8

 Physical note

MS = do thinfold
Elemental Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

separated from something inferior (e.g. dross); freed from impurities, defects (chemical, moral); distilled; improved
Amplified Edition
Line number 9

 Gloss note

purified, pure
Elemental Edition
Line number 10

 Critical note

original, formative physical elements; see Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Elemental Edition
Line number 10

 Gloss note

all beings
Elemental Edition
Line number 10

 Gloss note

burnt to ash or dust; purified or refined by consuming the grosser part
Amplified Edition
Line number 10

 Critical note

burned until reduced to quicklime; in alchemy this was thought to produce the most refined form of a substance
Elemental Edition
Line number 11

 Gloss note

forgotten
Amplified Edition
Line number 11

 Gloss note

forgotten, committed to oblivion
Elemental Edition
Line number 12

 Critical note

Pulter appears to refer to the biblical account of the process by which souls would be restored to their bodies in heaven at the Day of Judgment.
Elemental Edition
Line number 14

 Gloss note

Humanity will end its “story,” or life, after taking on the form of its originary components (its “primitive’s dust”).
Amplified Edition
Line number 14

 Gloss note

ancestor’s, i.e., Adam’s
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