For here, he doth not fear, who can apply : ベン・ジョンソン『錬金術師』におけるサイモン・フォーマン

Abstract

With an extensive manuscript research done independently by B. Traister and L. Kassell, we now have a clearer picture of Dr. Sinon Forman (1552-1611), a notorious astrological physician in London, caricatured as "Oracle Forman" in Ben Jonson's the Devil Is an Ass. In this paper, I will focus my attention to the Alchemist, first performed in 1610,to see how much there arein common between Subtle, a charlatan in the Alchemist, and real-life Sinon Forman, who was at the height of his reputation when Jonson wrote this comedy. Lurking behind John Dee and Edward Kelly, who were explicitly mentioned in this play but deceased at the time of the fist performance, Forman practiced the same kinds of natural magic and alchemy as those performed by Subtle and Face on the stage. Since Forman boasted a considerable cliental in Jacobean London, including one of the actors on the stage in 1610,Jonson's satire pointed to the credulity of Forman's potentional clients in the audience as well. In addition, by changing the historical date of the statutory prohibition of alchemy in 1403-1404 with the treason act in 1541,Jonson succeeded in linking radical puritans and papists with those alchemical charlatans.