Alchemical Quintessence
by Victoria E. Burke
In line 5 of this poem, Pulter uses the alchemical term “quintessence” to refer to the purest form of a substance. Pulter is claiming that no liquid, including the quintessence of alcohol, can enliven her depressed spirit. Jane Cavendish, a royalist poet and Margaret Cavendish’s stepdaughter, wrote the poem below in which she claims that the presence of her sister Elizabeth Egerton, later Countess of Bridgewater, is the quintessence of cordial (a medicinal substance) to Jane while they both anxiously await their father’s return from exile during the civil war years.
Jane Cavendish, The Quinticens of Cordiall
- Sister
- Wer’t not for you, I knew not how to live,
- For what content I have, you doe mee give.
- In this my sadd mortification life,
- I deifyeinge you make good that strife
- Soe your presence is Balsum to my braine,
- And Gilberts water [a medical beverage], if then soe but name,
- My Lord’s retorn’d, & add here, you’l retayne
Source: Jane Cavendish, “The Quinticens of Cordiall,” in Early Modern Women’s Manuscript Poetry, ed. Marie-Louise Coolahan, gen. ed. Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 2005, p. 90.