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Heavenly Necromancers: The Magician in English Renaissance Drama

Heavenly Necromancers: The Magician in English Renaissance Drama Henuenly Necromancers: The Magician i n English Renaissance Drama. By BAKBAKA HOWARD TKAIS-I-EK. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1984. x + 196 p p . $21.00. Despite the Marlovian title, Barbara H . Traister’s book is a n unpreten- MICHAEL J. B. ALLEN tious study with some excellent things to say about a few major as well as several minor plays in the light of what is undeniably a fascinating theme. T h e weakest chapter is the first, in which Traister examines the literary and philosophical backgrounds of that theme. Her treatment of the literary background is cursory, and her understanding of the philosophical seems strangely weak. It is surprising, for instance, to find her writing of the “spiritus o r anima mundi” (and the two should not be equated): “This spirit in turn infused souls o r spirits into other parts of the creation, usually the planets and other heavenly bodies” (pp. 5-6). Anyone who has read D. P. Walker’s remarkable Spiritual and Demonic Magzcfrom Ficino to Campanella (1958)-and Traister cites it on a number of occasions-should recognize in these observations several errors, ones, moreover, that cannot be rectified by a solitary reference to Jowett’s rendering http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Modern Language Quarterly: A Journal of Literary History Duke University Press

Heavenly Necromancers: The Magician in English Renaissance Drama

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 1985 by University of Washington
ISSN
0026-7929
eISSN
1527-1943
DOI
10.1215/00267929-46-1-92
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Henuenly Necromancers: The Magician i n English Renaissance Drama. By BAKBAKA HOWARD TKAIS-I-EK. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1984. x + 196 p p . $21.00. Despite the Marlovian title, Barbara H . Traister’s book is a n unpreten- MICHAEL J. B. ALLEN tious study with some excellent things to say about a few major as well as several minor plays in the light of what is undeniably a fascinating theme. T h e weakest chapter is the first, in which Traister examines the literary and philosophical backgrounds of that theme. Her treatment of the literary background is cursory, and her understanding of the philosophical seems strangely weak. It is surprising, for instance, to find her writing of the “spiritus o r anima mundi” (and the two should not be equated): “This spirit in turn infused souls o r spirits into other parts of the creation, usually the planets and other heavenly bodies” (pp. 5-6). Anyone who has read D. P. Walker’s remarkable Spiritual and Demonic Magzcfrom Ficino to Campanella (1958)-and Traister cites it on a number of occasions-should recognize in these observations several errors, ones, moreover, that cannot be rectified by a solitary reference to Jowett’s rendering

Journal

Modern Language Quarterly: A Journal of Literary History – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1985

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