This thesis is the first modern critical edition of La Complainte de Nature, a poem of alchemy written in middle French containing 1822 verses in the base manuscript. This work is divided in two parts: in the first, Nature presents her grievances to the alchemist so that he ceases his quest for the philosopher's stone by explaining to him that only she, Nature, can produce gold. In the second part, the alchemist promises to abandon his futile quest and to obey the laws of Nature. The accompanying text contains an introduction offering precisions about the author, the work, and its context; footnotes grouping together variants of two other manuscripts and of the first and last editions; and a general glossary containing specialized terms and some locutions, in addition to a table of proper nouns which will help to clarify some of the textual facts and to facilitate comprehension of the text.

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Inaug.-diss.--Breslau. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur-verzeichnis": p. [5-7].

Inaug.-diss.--Breslau. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur-verzeichnis": p. [5-7].

Architecture seeks to find harmony between pragmatics and poetics through phenomenological relationships of tectonics, placement, and culture. The choreography of these events, both physical and metaphysical,leads to a depth in the art of place making. The act of building in a certain way or attitude is read as aphorism – the statement imbedded in the physical existence of a construction is manifest in the way which its existence is made. We (civilization) make both out of physical need and desire,the question in art is whether our motive is purely physical or becomes spiritual. How is institution achieved? What defines place and how is it made? Does tradition bind us to the past or is it the freedom to inform the present and beyond ? / Master of Architecture

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 320-357). Also available in print.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-86).

Bibliography: pages 207-213. / This thesis traces the influence of alchemy and its renaissance in the early seventeenth century as Rosicrucianism, in William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Tempest, and Ben Jonson's The Alchemist. Shakespeare's Final Plays are a dramatic experiment that ventures beyond realism, with a common symbolic pattern of loss and reconciliation that reflects the alchemical one of Man's Fall, self-transmutation and reconciliation with the divine spark within him. Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a crude first attempt in this genre, portraying Everyman's journey to perfection in Pericles's wanderings. The quest for Antiochus's Daughter represents the search for Man'soriginal purity of soul, which has, however, become corrupted and dominated by Man's lower nature, embodied in the incestuous King Antiochus. The prince's flight by sea indicates a process of self-transmutation: the loss of his fleet in a tempest symbolises the purification of his Soul from earthly desires, reflected in the laboratory refinement of base metals in fire (lightning) and water (sea). Pericles is able to unite with his refined Soul, incarnated in Thaisa: from their union the Philosopher's Stone or the Spirit, Marina, is born, who transmutes the base metals of men's natures by evoking the divine "seed of gold" within them, even in a degraded brothel. The Spiritr now grown to strength, is able to reunite the other component of Everyman, Body and Soul, the parents, who have completed their purification. The Tempest represents Shakespeare's complete mastery of his alchemical theme. The Alonso-Ferdinand pair embodies Everyman, the father or Soul having been seduced into evil, incarnate in Antonio, while the son, not yet king, is the divine spark within him. This seed of gold must be separated from the corrupted soul in the purifying alchemical tempest, so as to grow back to the Spirit, symbolised by his meeting and eventual marriage with Miranda. Alonso can only be reunited with his son after his purificatory wanderings about the island, in which he confronts his guilt embodied in a Harpy, who awakens his conscience and reminds him why he has lost his divine inner nature he sought for. Prospero represents the Spirit-Intellect of Everyman, tainted by the lower nature, evident in his desire for revenge, and embodied in Caliban. When the unfallen spiritual forces incarnate in Miranda win him over to compassion, he forgives his enemies and can meet the repentant Alonso, and return to earthly duties as the Everyman who has reclaimed his divine heritage. Ben Jonson's The Alchemist shows the debasement of alchemy by frauds who exploit those who, ignoring its spiritual aims, see it as a magical means to obtain gold. Alchemy becomes a symbol of the goldlust ruling London society, as opposed to the spiritual gold of wisdom sought by the true alchemist. The gulls caricature the goal of self-transmutation in their desire to transmute their mundane, lacklustre selves into "something rich and strange" through the Philosopher's Stone. Jor1sor1, deeply learned in alchemy, parodies many of its key concepts and motifs; the final perfection of Man and Nature, the consummation of the esoteric alchemical Opus, is distorted in false, exoteric alchemy hy the degradation and impoverishment of both frauds and gulls.

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