Reverse Transmutations: Broalde de Verville's Parody of Paracelsus in "Le Moyen de parvenir:" An Alchemical Language of Skepticism in the French Baroque

Author(s): Michael J. Giordano Source: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 88-137 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1262259 . Accessed: 30/05/2011 10:58
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de Vervilles Beroalde Transmutations: Reverse in Le Moyende parvenir: ofParacelsus Parody An Alchemical of Skepticism Language in theFrench Baroque*
by MICHAELJ. GIORDANO
This essay analyzes the skeptical ideas of one of the most notorious works of the French Baroque,Le Moyen de parvenir.Its author, Beroaldede Verville,describedhis anti-novel as "une was to provide his troubled age Satyre universelle,"and one of his noteworthyaccomplishments with a relativelycompleteand innovative skeptical language based on both esotericand exoteric alchemy. Conceiving of his text as a critical athanor, Beroalde conducts numerous experiments in transmutationthat would turn Paracelsus' conceptsinto a kind of prima materia. Out of this reversion to the primordial emergesa general critique of ideas and social institutions through the arcanum, the such alchemical notions as prime and ultimate matter, quintessence,astrosophy, Archeus,and the Cagastrum.

INTRODUCTION AND ALCHEMY BEROALDE,PARACELSUS,

eroalde de Verville, born in Paris in 1556, was a polymath and prolific writer of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who bequeathed to posterity an amazing variety of works. Collectively, they mark a pivotal moment in French history, when the humanist optimism of the early Renaissance was ceding to the ideological fractures and political upheavals of the Religious Wars. Beroalde'sbest known work, Le Moyen de parvenir, offers a valuable glimpse into the ideological ways in which contemporaries attempted to assimilate and resolve these tensions. Beroalde's father, Matthieu Brouard, was an erudite humanist who tutored Agrippa d'Aubigne, a prominent Huguenot leader and author of one No doubt Matthieu sparkedhis son's of France'sgreatestepics, Les Tragiques. curiosity to investigate the world with encyclopedic fervor, for Beroalde's production included mathematics, physics, heraldry,metaphysics, medicine, alchemy, faculty psychology, grammar, ethics, political theory, and a study
*I would like to offer my heartfelt gratitude to my colleague Arthur E Marotti who read the manuscript twice and offered patient and perceptive criticisms of earlierversions of this essay. I also thank Charles Stivale for his indispensable comments, and corrections and Lyndy Abraham for generously sharing her considerable knowledge ofalchemical sources. I would also like to express my debt to the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library for permitting me to consult Beroalde'sworks and to Kathleen Perryfor encouraging me to embark on this investigation. Finally, I very much appreciate the comments of the two anonymous readers whose care and concern resulted in a much-improved final product. Any errors or shortcomings are strictly my own responsibility. Renaissance 56 (2003): 88-137 Quarterly

r88]

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on breeding silk worms.1 Another indication of his versatility is that he wrote in a wide array of genres including philosophical poetry, treatises, dialogues, miscellanies, and romances. It is supposed that sometime before 1593 he converted to Catholicism, since in that year he became a canon of the Cathedral of Saint-Gatien in Tours, where he died in 1626. The eminent Frenchliteraryhistorian, Verdun L. Saulnier,called LeMoyendeparvenir,"un chef-d'oeuvredans l'artde conter ... [et] . . . un chef-d'oeuvrede la litterature baroque," and judged Beroalde to be among France's"plusgrands poetes."2 Given Beroalde'shistorical position, vast knowledge, and large corpus of writing, he merits close attention, because he is an insightful witness to an age when classical humanist confidence in regola,ordine, and misurawere being overtaken by pervasive and deep-seated skepticism. Like his contemporary Michel de Montaigne, Beroalde sees the world perpetually in flux, ceaselessly transforming, irreducibly diverse, and unfolding in contentious opposites.3 As demonstrated by Neil Kenny, an overarchingview of Beroalde'stotal production shows that the author, whose initial goal was to construct a selfcontained, vernacularencyclopedia, progressivelychallenged this project by a more questioning attitude characterizedby conjecture, heterogeneity, and plurivocal, open-ended dialogue.4For example, two works of this first period, Les Cognoissancesnecessaires(1583) and L'Ideede la republique (1584) are predicated on the "fondement stable"5of the circle of learning. Knowledge is conceptualized as a union of disciplines based on necessary links forming a continuous whole. Two works of the latter stage, Le Cabinet de Minerve (1596) and Le Palais des curieux (1612), self-reflexively challenge the quest that would tie together the macrocosm, the to capture "la forme interieure"6 microcosm, and the post-lapsarianworld. The Cabinet encourages disagreement among interlocutors and leavesfive dialogues unresolved, and the Palais revealsambivalence towardsallegoricalinterpretationand remains fascinated by the singularitethat defies natural laws.7
see Verville,2001. 1Thislastworkhas recentlybeen editedby Renaud;
2"a masterpiece of story-telling ... [and] ... a masterpiece of baroque literature"

(Saulnier,312). For the other biographicalpoints, see 213, 231, 236, 313-19. Saulnier had convertedto Catholicismbetween 1586-88 (228, 231). Forthe surmisesthat Beroalde in Saulnier's et al.,eds., 1987. 42. Someerrors dateof Beroalde's death,seeLocey, bibliography in Giordanoand Pallister. On Beroalde's life, see also Charles (313-19) havebeen corrected "Notice,"1970, i-lxii and Colletet, 17-40, in Locey,et al., eds., 1987. Royer's 3Jeanneret, 206, 233, 286-88.
4Kenny, 1989, 178-85. 5LIdee de la republique,fol. Aiv. is contained in Les Apprehensionsspirituelles. See Verville, 6Les Cognoissancesnecessaires 1583b, fol. Iv.

of this point in 1991, 145. 7Kenny,1989, 188-92 and his development

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Critics such as Bamforth and Kenny have underlined the centrality of alchemy to Beroalde'swriting, the latter observing that this field "is the most consistently prominent branch in Beroalde'sworks ... because . .. the quest for the philosopher'sstone constitutes a paradigmof the quest for knowledge in general."8 While Beroaldeprivilegesalchemy as a practicecommon to other he disciplines, nonetheless subjects it to the same severe criticisms leveled at his work as a whole. For instance, he endorses the alchemical project in the earlier Recherches de la pierrephilosophale(1583), but in the later Voyage des he makes the of modes alchemical (1610),9 princesfortunez quest paramount without the requirementthat scientialead to sapientia.Thus, Beroaldemoved from the encyclopedic project back to the decipherment of signs. The most devastating and dazzling of Beroalde's skeptical works is Le Moyendeparvenir.Its facetious intent immediately capturesour attention on the title page which, instead of indicating the date of publication, states: "Printed this year" (Imprime cette annee).10Probably published in 1616,11 this work was described by Beroalde himself as "une Satyre universelle"'12 a kind of Menippean satire in the tradition of Petronius and Rabelais that transforms its unremitting criticism into unbridled revelry. Its alchemical dimension owes a debt to Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (translatedby Beroalde)13 and the tenth-century Arabic work Turba Philosophorum.In Le Moyen de parvenir, a burlesque of the Platonic banquet, some 375 historical figures, ancient and modern, convene at a mock symposium to discuss "The Way to Succeed"- a sufficiently wide, popular,
8Bamforth, 1979, 110: "Alchemyfor Beroalde is nothing more or less than the expression of an attitude to knowledge itself." See also Kenny, 1991,66: "Forhim [Beroalde], as for many of his contemporaries, alchemy is philosophie itself, the very centre of the circle of learning, the point at which all branches are enchaines (as he states in his preface to Le Songe de Polyphile) . . . More specifically, Beroalde frequently stressesthat alchemy overlapswith other disciplines. It is halfway between metaphysics and physics .. .; it is physics being put into practice ... ; it enables physics to serve medicine; and it is a kind of mechanics. He claims that, along with theology, alchemy is one of the 'deux sciences dont on parle presque tousjours' (two sciences of which people always speak). This is a striking departure from what is considered in more orthodox thought to be the principal triad of sciences: the higher faculties of theology, law and medicine." On alchemical poetics in Beroalde'swork, see Zinguer, 1984, 6-15. 90n this work, see the perceptive analysis of Marquet. 'lAll references to Le Moyen de parvenir will be to the edition of Moreau and Tournon (Verville, 1984b). Unless otherwise indicated, references to page numbers will be to the transcription. Kenny, 1992, 22. 12Verville,1612, 461-62. '3The title of Beroalde's translation/interpretation is Le Tableau des riches inventions couvertes du voile desfeintes amoureuses,qui sont representees dans le Songede Poliphile, desvoilees des ombresdu songe et subtilement exposees par Beroalde (Paris, 1600).

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and subjective topic that allows the convivesto parody a multitude of cultural practices and abuses. Beroalde'stargets include smug and unreflective authority, egomania, religious corruption and persecution, the Church'sobsession with heresy, medical charlatanism, deceptive business practices, pedantry, fanaticism, rampant sex and sexual violence, exploitative taxation and incoherent laws, theological abstractions, and the naivete of political utopias. Bawdy and erudite, base and refined, ludic and lascivious, the disputatious interlocutors careen from topic to topic unrestrained by any rule of order in a seemingly pointless labyrinth of interrupted dialogue and bizarre,racy stories. Their aim is to revealwhat is advertisedon the works title page: "the reason for everything that has been, is and will be."14Sharply critical, this work subverts its own putative organization to such an extent that one commentator has described it as "the Self-Destructing Book."'5 Though bordering on the cynical, Le Moyen de parvenir nevertheless provided its turbulent times with a constructive skepticism that conserved a framework for understanding. This is the parody of alchemy that offered a relatively complete and innovative skeptical language for reconceptualizing the world. The importance of alchemical concepts to Le Moyen as a whole is given relief by a proclamation of one of the symposiasts named The Other (L'Autre):"Andherein lies the principal dignity of this work, filled with the intelligence of the philosopher'sstone: in it, everything is transmuted" (tout se transmue, 296).16 A critical parodist, Beroalde chose Paracelsusas a model because he shared the latter'sframe of reference, but a contrario. Paracelsus(1493-1541) and Beroalde de Verville (1556-1626), though more than a generation apart, are reciprocally illuminating figures in the history of philosophical alchemy. The first was the founder ofiatrochemistry (the study of chemistry in relation to pathology, physiology, and medicine), the second an encyclopedic writer who made alchemy central to his thought.17 While Paracelsus was a Renaissance figure known for his contributions to medicine and Hermetic alchemy, Beroalde emerged in the late Renaissance and early Baroque as a literary author, polymath, and critic of Renaissance ideals.18Moreover, both writers held medical titles and integrated alchemy into their medical reflections and practice. Beroalde apparently defended a thesis on medicine in Geneva and was granted the
raisonde tout ce qui a ete, est et sera." '4"la 15Bowen, 1982, 163. c'est ici la grande dignite de cet ouvrage, plein de l'intelligence de la pierre 16"Et (296). philosophale, pourceque tout se transmue" Paracelsus 17That launchediatrochemistry is explained 1982 by Pagelin his magisterial of alchemical sources citedbyBeroalde (1991, 67). study,349,366. Also,seeKenny's inventory et al., 283-85. 18Tournon,

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status of "doctor medicus" (doctor of medicine).19Paracelsuswas a military surgeon in the Venetian service and in 1527 became a municipal physician at Like Paracelsus,Beroalde thought that alchemy should be used in the Basel.20 service of iatrochemistry, and both considered the transmutation of metals per se to be of secondary importance.21In fact, at least one of Beoalde's contemporaries referredto him as a "celebremedecin" (celebrated physician).22 Similarly,both distrusted academic medicine in favor of personal experience and inveighed against charlatans and imposters.23Even though Paracelsus was more publicly demonstrative than Beroalde in denouncing what he took to be quacks and frauds, Beroalde adopts his bombastic and taunting voice in Le Moyendeparvenir for similar purposes. Both thinkers examined the relations between science, experience, and experiment in a pre-scientific period of changing paradigms,24 in which the search for medical and scientific knowledge could be considered akin to religious revelation, for it was an age when one could mix scrupulous empirical observation with Hermetic alchemy and natural magic.25 Like alchemists who hid their discoveries behind a veil of secrecy, Beroalde suffused Le Moyen de parvenir with a sibylline atmosphere that invites its readersto uncover secret codes. The quest for wisdom overlapswith Hermetic alchemy. Playing on this strategy,the narrator-authorannounces that "THIS BOOK IS THE CENTER OF ALL BOOKS," a kind of Bible which contains "the secret word that must be discovered."26The oracular
19Saulnier, 219.

20Pagel, 1982, 12-13, 19-22. 21On Beroalde, see Kenny, 1991, 68. Also Zinguer, 1993, 141. On Paracelsus,see Pagel, 1982, 267. On recent developments in Paracelsusscholarship, see Schott and Zinguer.
22This is mentioned by one of Beroalde's friends, Gabriel de Castaigne. See Bamforth, 1996, 51-52. Zinguer, 1993, 139, lists the "medecins" present at the fictional banquet in Le Moyen de parvenir. 23On Beroalde, see Ibid., 141. On Beroalde'scriticisms of charlatans, it is revealing to list de lapierrephilosophale, et du moyen qu'ilyfaut the main words of his 1583 work: Recherches tenir, si elle existe ou peut exister; avec une preface contre les souffleurs imposteurset sophistes, fols. 77-120 contained in LesApprehensions spirituelles.On Beroalde'spreference for personal experience, see Zinguer, 1993, 141. Also, Kenny, 1991, 218-29, gives an informative discussion of experience in relation to reason and authority. Paracelsus'rejection of academic medicine is well illustrated by his conflicts with officials in Basel, where he burned a volume of Avicenna - "the 'Canon' of academic medicine," according to Pagel, 1982, 20. On personal experience, see Ibid., 57. 24ForParacelsus, see Ibid., 50-51, 57. On Beroalde, see Kenny, 1991, 218-40.

25Seethe section entitled "Mysticism and Science" in Debus, 1978, 11-15. 26"CELIVRE EST LE CENTRE DE TOUS LES LIVRES Voila la parole secrete qui doit etre decouverte" (30).

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whose ambiguous, code itself is written by "ce grand Steganographique"27 the discourse masks certain polyvalent enigmas, unraveling of which will make us not only inheritors of science but also holy and wise. "It suffices for us to preach and for you to believe that all things created lie under these enigmas; and thus, the children of science, the sons of the sages, and the happy fortunate, predestined to find the Lanternof Discretion and the Lamp of Bliss, will finally raise the veil."28 In the Moyen, the Hermetic code intersects with the alchemical code that associates the search for knowledge with "la pierre philosophale" (the philosopher's stone, 296). After equating the text with the Grand Oeuvre, he begins a rite of initiation. A character named Father Rabelais becomes the symbol for transforming the labor of interpretation into an alchemical crucible. He is entrusted with setting up a tripod placed in the middle of a courtyardover a great fire with a cauldron on it filled with water into which he puts as many keys as he can find. Miming the sweaty diligence of the alchemist over his furnace, he stirs the keys to make them cook (29).
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Alchemy was thought to have a twofold nature, the exoteric side dealing with the purification of metals, and the esoteric dimension expressing mystical, philosophical, and theological beliefs. Often the two were inextricably mixed, since knowledge of one could bring understanding of the other. Exoteric alchemy endeavored to prepare a substance called the philosopher's stone, believed to have the power of transmuting base metals into silver or gold. The activity of transmutation was predicated on the Hermetic and Platonic belief that though matter may take many forms, it is fundamentally one. This prima materia, which could be conceived as a massainformisor a chaotic, amorphous substance, was the primordial matter underlying the process of perpetual change. Matter possessed certain qualities, the most basic of which (sulphur and mercury) were opposed to
27The preface to the Tableau des riches inventions (Verville, 1600) entitled "Recueil Best defined in steganographique," announces a mode of representation called steganographie. Le Voyage desprincesfortunez (Verville, 1610), it is a writing that covers (stegei) its object to invite the initiate to discover "the hidden splendors that appear ordinary but that are clear and manifest to the eye and intelligence which have received the light that can penetrate these titled indecipherable discourses not otherwise intelligible" (13). See the preamble in Le Voyage "Avisaux beaux esprits": "les magnificences occultes a l'apparence commune, mais claires et manifestes a l'oeil et a l'entendement qui a reSu la lumiere qui fait penetrer dans ces discours proprement impenetrables, au non autrement intelligibles." See also Tournon, 1987, 216. nous suffit de vous raconter, et a vous de croire que tout est fort bien cache sous ces 28"II enigmes, ainsi que le trouveront les enfants de la science, les fils des sages et heureux predestines a trouver la lanterne de discretion et la lampe de beatitude" (27).

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one another as active to passive, masculine to feminine, fixed to volatile.29 Through various procedures of refinement (sublimation, crystallization, distillation), the alchemist could effect a fusion of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum),from which a new substance emerged in an absolute state of perfection.30One such method advocated by Paracelsuswas called Spagyric Art, consisting of three steps: the division of natural bodies to separate out the heterogeneous and accidental portions (separatio), the purification of the substances so obtained (purificatio), and a recombination (cohobatio)or re-union of components that produces a homogeneous element.31Paracelsus preferredthe term separationto transmutation,32and called the culmination of the purification process "ultimatematter"where the substance existed "in its pure virtue, without admixture."33 Le Moyen deparvenir inverts the alchemical principles mentioned above by using the fictional character called Paracelse to parody the doctrines of the real Paracelsus.The most important distinction depends upon viewing Paracelsus as the "Archeus"whose role is to correct the imperfections of nature through the artifice of alchemy.34Paracelsus the Archeus not only sought to perfect nature but also to criticize and reform the alchemical tradition ofAristotle, Galen, and Avecinna35 by inventing a theoretical model for iatrochemistry.In this way, he could claim to transformprime matter into ultimate matter. However, Le Moyen de parvenir moves in precisely the opposite direction. It takes the ultimate matter of Paracelsusunderstood as his theoretical concepts and returns it to a more primitive state. That is, Beroalde dissociates Paracelsus' concepts from their formal, doctrinal context, and subjects them individually to his parodic criticism. In analogous ways, Beroaldeextends this de-theorizing and de-hypostatizing activity to the gamut of contemporary institutions with a view toward reconceptualizing the basic elements of knowledge traditionallybased on authority,reason, and experience. These parodic transmutations are a regression in Paracelsian
29Forgeneral knowledge concerning alchemy, see Holmyard and Hutin. Pernety is an indispensable source. 30SeeJung, 1968, 186, 282. 31 See The Book Concerningthe Tinctureof the Philosophers,Paracelsus, 1:19-30. See also Waite's "AShort Lexicon of Alchemy," 2:380-81. 32 Paracelsus, 1:160, Concerningthe Nature of Things. 33This is from Ibid., 1:90, ChirurgiaMagna, pt. 2. See Waite's note, 1:90. 34SeeIbid., 1:92, TheEconomyofMinerals. "The Archaeus is he who disposes everything according to a definite order, so that each comes to its ultimate matter, which at length man receives as a sort of artificial primal matter: that is, where Nature ends, there the Art of man begins, for Nature's ultimate matter is man's primordial matter." 35SeeIbid., 1:20, the Preface of The Book Concerningthe Tinctureof the Philosophers.

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terms, but a refinement in Beroalde'sironic, Heraclitean desire to return our focus on the primordial flux and irreducible mixture of the universe. Beroalde's alchemical inversions are directly related to Paracelsus' cosmology and anthropology. The Paracelsianprinciple of all generation is separation.36The MysteriumMagnum, an emanation from the Divinity, is the uncreated, incomprehensible, primordial matrix that generates the universe. Due to a falling away from the Divinity called the Cagastrum,there is a separation of primary matter from the MysteriumMagnum named the Iliasterwhich bearsthe vital forces of life, growth, and development. A second separatiooccurs, termed chaos, an agglomeration of matter comparable to a mass of compressed gas. As a result of a third division, three fundamental elements emerge: sulphur, sal, and mercurius, which are respectively the principles of substance, solidity, and power. This triaprima in turn gives way to the four classicalelements of Earth,Air, Water,and Fire. Paracelsusstresses that these elements derive their identity not from their materialcomposition but rather from the immanent soul-like force that directs bodies to assume certain qualities. It is through nature that cosmological structure and well being are maintained - an activity which is aided and perfected by the alchemical art of the Archeus.37 Chapter 35 of Le Moyen de parvenir calls attention to the concept of prima materiaby mentioning the word matiereat least six times in its opening section. To make precise Beroalde'sparody,we must first examine the various meanings Paracelsusgave to this concept.38First, the Swiss alchemist referred to seedor seminawhen describing prime matter bearing on individual objects at the point of their creation: "God created all things, something from nothing. This something is a seed; the seed contains the end of its predestination and office. And ... there is nothing that is created in its final form, but vulcanmust complete it... all things arecreatedasprime matterand after that the vulcan follows and turns them into ultimate matter through the art of alchemy."39 Paracelsusalso uses the term prime matter to denote any raw materialthat is transformed into a finished product for human consumption by a craftsman, artisan, or chemist.40
36Debus, 1977, 56. 37Schmidt, 71-98. 38Sainean gives the wrong impression about the speech of Paracelse in chapter 35 by characterizing it as "galimatias" (grandiloquent nonsense), 153. This has been an all too frequent errorby critics of Broalde who insufficiently analyze the object of his parody. In fact, the attentive readerwill see that while his speech may be grandiloquent, it is not nonsense. In this chapter, both Paracelsus'Hermetic/alchemical concepts and Beroalde's parody are quite accessible to diligent research.
39Quoted from Pagel, 1961, 118.

40Ibid., 123.

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Third, Paracelsus'concept of prime matter in relation to the world is succinctly defined by Walter Pagel:"PrimeMatter of the world is not matter, but spirit - in fact it is the word Fiat, the Logosof the Fourth Gospel, the Platonic archetypeand ideal pattern of the world that is to become a material
creation. "41

While Beroalde's reversed alchemy plays on all three senses of prima materia, it is the second and third meanings to which he refersin the opening dialogue of chapter 35. Here the matter under discussion is subject matter, for Le Bonhomme laments to Monsieur Scot (possibly Duns Scotus) that, in spite of this erudite symposium, there has been no improvement in the understanding of any problem. In Paracelsianterms, the learned interlocutors can neither find nor develop the seeds of knowledge. "Tis one of the evils of this age that if you would fain learn wisdom you'reobliged to suffer infinities of trouble before you set the wisdom machine a-going. For all the time we've been assembled here, we have got no deeper into matters than a pat of butter gets into a walnut shell."42 Continuing with the Paracelsiananalogy of prime matter, we can see that the symposiasts cannot progressfrom chaos to the more structured and efficacious powers of the fundamental elements. If Paracelsus,indicating his Platonic affiliations, considersprima materia to be informed by its archetype, then here Beroalde travestiesthe upward spiral of Platonic dialectic by leveling the various concepts of the learned interlocutors: "Herein this banquet, everything said is so good that all is equal, neither The better nor worse than another thing, either at one time or another."43 in in he which means an initial Beroalde's word "leveling" skepticism stage de-hierarchizesreceived concepts and mixes them irreducibly into composites of equal value. This leveling is in direct opposition to the highly articulated development of prime matter in Paracelsuswhere separation is construed as the greatest miracle in nature.44In his view, creation is a series of discrete levels, each demarcated by difference and distinction. Envisaged as a separation the prima materia from its divine origins (effected by the "Cagastrum"),45 its cosmological elements each with into the four divides subsequently
41Ibid., 122. 42"C'estun des malheurs du siecle, que si on veut apprendre quelque bien on aura infinie peine a se mettre en train: depuis le temps que nous sommes ici nous n'avons non plus su entrer en matiere qu'un coin de buerre en la fente d'un noyer" (95). 43"toutce qui est ici est si bon qu'il est tout egal, ni meilleur ni pire, tel en un temps qu'en l'autre" (95). 44Pagel, 1982, 91; Debus, 1977, 55-56. 45Ibid., 113.

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equivalent: fire becomes heaven, the "cage"of the firmament; air becomes empty, invisible space; water becomes liquid providing a "cage"for nymphs and wonders of the sea; and finally earth turns into a coagulum for growth and nourishment of its inhabitants.46 On the other hand, the alchemy of Beroalde'sparody sifts out and separatesParacelsus'notion ofprima materia from its formal, doctrinal context to conflate (subject) matter rather than to individuate it. If an alchemical term be wanting for the prima materia of Beroalde'swork, it may be called ingression where the various subject matters, because of their heterogeneity, resist separation and hierarchy.47 If the opening of chapter 35 functions like an intellectual returnto chaos, the next section that parodies Paracelsusbroaches fundamental questions on the social, ontological, and scientific basis of alchemy. The formlessness of subject matter in the dialogue becomes the equivalent of primordialmatter in the speech of"Paracelse."Rather than positive knowledge, these questions, if ever satisfactorilyanswered, provide elemental principles for understanding. When Paracelse launches a taunting, bombastic diatribe against what he considers incorrigible authorities, impostors, or simply the uninitiated public (that is, against nearly everyone save himself), he also broaches a lesson on prime matter: "Youknow, in spite of yourselves and whether you approve or not, that all the four elements of the world are composed from one primal matter."48 The first question posed by Beroalde'spersona relates to the ways that cultures reify concepts that make them appeartrue while they areactually ontological fictions. Paracelsus'overbearing, condescending attitude is aptly captured by the future tense of"saurez"and the sarcastic"en depit de vous." However, while Beroalde criticizes the hubris of the "roi des alquemistes" (183), he indirectly calls attention to Paracelsus'rhetoricalstrategydisplayed in his massive and influential writings: self-righteous conviction and Hermetic mysticism expressed by a technical lexicon. These qualities make the topic ofprima materiaan effective starting point for a story about origins. In fact, Beroalde makes Paracelseconscious of the rhetoric of "beginnings" when he says, "Justlook at how well I've begun with this fit and fine start."49 In book 5 of the Archidoxis,Paracelsusteaches:
46Ibid., 1982, 92. 47See Pernety: "Action par laquelle les matieres se melent de maniere a ne pouvoir plus etre separees" (220). (Action by which the matters mix in such a way as to no longer be able to be separated.) 48"Vous saurez, en depit de vous, que les quatre elements sont formes d'une meme matiere" (95).

comment de belleet bonne (95). 49"Regardez je commence grace"

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In the beginning,it must be remarked, concerningPrimalMatter,that it puts to which it is foreordained, forth its predestinations, entire,and from its first and its final end well-defined to exemplified.For as the seed gives of origin itselfthe entireherb,with renewalof all its forcesand consumptionof the old essence, so that the formersubstance,nature, and essence have no further thatwe arebornfromone seedlike so do we sayof the primalmatter, operation, to its growingnature.Accordingto somethinggrowingin the field according newyouth into a man,just the aforesaid example,the primalmatterintroduces as a new herbspringsforthfroma new seedin a new summeranda new year.50 A great deal of the rhetorical appeal of this myth of the origin and - its seminal bond with humanity and the teleology of prima materia coherence of cyclical renewal - is exposed by Beroalde'sparody. Beroalde pushes this overweening confidence into critical comedy when he facetiously has Paracelsehimself base the world of tricksters("le Monde Pipeur,"97) on these principles of alchemy. The French author takes direct aim at the presuppositions of such a priori constructions with a rhetorical retort that revealsthe reifying effects of transforming an abstractfiction into a concrete belief: drawnforth, Therefore [from]theseelementsunited,joined,gathered together, was simulated,and accomplished created,extracted, propounded,discovered, this balanced, built,established, constructed, adjusted completed, compounded, out of the fourelementsof deceit.(Donc, ces elementsunis, worldof tricksters tires,faits, extraits,proposes,trouves,animeset accomplis, joints, assembles, le Monde et accommode a ete construit, bati,etabli,compose,compile,balance elements de ces 97). piperie; Pipeurpar In this passage, alchemy is assimilated to the gamut of institutional practices that achieve their authority through the self-assurancetypical of Paracelsus' scientific discourse. In Beroalde'sparodic alchemy, the readeris made to see a memory storehouse, a toolbox of impressive concepts, a repertory of functions that have the capacity to be transformed into institutional power. The rhetorical figure of amplificatio5- the accumulated rhymes of past50Paracelsus, 2:39.

51 Though I use amplificatio here as a term of rhetoric a neighbor to accumulatio the word amplificatio is also part of the nomenclature of alchemy. Jung (1968,289) points out that this was the term used to refer to a special discourse that assisted alchemists in building a repertoryofworking concepts: "Everyoriginal alchemist built himself, as it were, a more or less individual edifice of ideas, consisting of the dicta of the philosophers and of miscellaneous analogies to the fundamental concepts of alchemy. Generally these analogies are taken from all over the place. Treatiseswere even written for the purpose of supplying the artist with analogymaking material. The method of alchemy, psychologically speaking, is one of boundless amplification." Beroalde's criticism of the analogies of teleology is thus another of his reverse transmutations, using amplification to undercut such strings of analogy. As we shall see, the abuse of analogy is one of Beroalde's prime targets of satire.

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participle endings (/i/ /e/, "bti, etabli," "compose, complie") - brings to light the artifice of manipulation. From another perspective, the syntax of this passage is the alchemical athanor capable of cooking up an infinity of functions and substances through the implied matrix titled: the elements have been transmuted.In the first part of the sentence leading up to the verb ("a ete construit"), one has the sense of fundamental elements just formed from prime matter leading to the second half where they are successfully transformed. This verb is passive because, in deception, agency is hidden and, in theory, the laboratory equipment is open to any use. In addition, any element in the first part of the sentence could be put in the second part, thereby indicating the arbitraryand malleable nature of manipulation and the fact that the world is more accuratelya series of ever-changing, evermixing fragments. This idea reflects the atomization of objetsin the Palais des curieux and the random dispersion of chapter titles in Le Moyen de parvenir.52In this brief passage, what is largely exposed through satirical syntax and word choice is the formal rhetoric that legitimates the technological claims of institutions and the concomitant rhetoric of completion typical of classicism. In addition, there are many subsidiary subversions such as the sense of unity ("unis"), the coherence of mutually related disciplines ("assembles"and "compiles"- law and jurisprudence), and the scientific mastery over reality ("extrait"= alchemy) that create the allure of teleological attainment. By satirizing the constellation of concepts surroundingprima materia, Beroalde moves the status of Hermetic alchemy from doctrine to questions, from the ultimate matter of Paracelsus'tenets to the primary matter of a fundamental interrogation of that system. Returning to Paracelse's speech, the readerwill see that the next mention of prime matter entails criticism of Paracelsus' concept of the Archeus: "Primarymatter is that with which the builders of the world have chosen to Here Beroalde is casting work, knowing what's most fit for their business."53 doubt upon the twin concepts of Vulcan and the Archeus whom Paracelsus areeightychapters 52There in thisworkcalledobjects on suchtopicsas medicine, or mathematics. The to bedistributed atrandom beans, without grammar, objects appear any directions on howto relate their discursive anddigressive allows thereader them; explicit style to rearrange thematic elements much liketherhetoric of Montaigne's Essais. A similar of play thematic isatwork inLe the111chapter drawn from titles, fragments Moyen deparvenirwhere the patrimony of knowledge or fromencyclopedic models(forexample, "Metaphrase,"
Palaisdes curieuxand Le Moyendeparvenir,see Conley, 83-107. On fragmentationand

andvariation in emblematic Ontherelations between theobjects of Le fragmentation writing.

"Theoreme," "Concile," "Parlement," "Contract," etc.), can be freely transposed like the

in emblematic variation seeRussell, 161-81. writing, 53"La matiere est celle dont les ouvriers dumonde sachant elire cequ'il premiere agissent, en fautpourleurs affaires" (95).

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portrays as "workmen"54 ultimately responsible for perpetuating and conserving the world. When Paracelsesarcasticallyrefers to "les ouvriers du monde," he is speaking in the context of mytho-Hermetic belief. In such works as the LiberMeteoror, Paracelsusnotes that there is a virtue calledVulcan that transfersthe power of the Iliaster (a general reserveof prime matter) to the matricesof objects for nourishment, growth, and preservation.55 The work of impressing the stamp of specificity on matter, transforming it into species and then to individuals, is carriedout by the Archeus. In addition, the Archeus continues Vulcan's work by perfecting things and directing them to their essential nature.56 So ramifiedis the Archeus'activity that it confers specificity on objects in ever-increasing levels of individuation.57 Thus, there is an Archeus in the mountains to cultivate the minerals, in human organs such as the heart to circulate blood, and finally an Archeus in each of the four
elements.58

When Beroalde has Paracelsenote that the workmen know how "elirece qu'il en faut pour leurs affaires,"the infinitive "elire"(to elect) pokes fun at the power and efficacy that Paracelsus attributes to the Archeus. This allencompassing control is shared by the alchemist and the physician who themselves become Archei by attempting to rectify the imperfections of nature and by curing illnesses. Through their art of"Magia Naturalis," and the alchemy of sublimating, distilling, and reverberating,they can convert primary to ultimate matter: "theArchaeus ... is he who disposes everything according to a definite order, so that each comes to its ultimate matter, which at length man receivesas a sort of artificialprimal matter:that is, where Nature ends, there the Art of man begins, for Nature's ultimate matter is man's primal matter."59The Archeus, whether conceived as nature or the alchemist, performs its task of perfecting each object by coordinating the correspondences or astral sympathies between the macrocosm and the microcosm. As such, it acts by what one might term emulative imitation, since as the "inner chemist," it brings the object in line with the sidereal virtues of its corresponding astrum.
Paracelsus to the Neo-platonictradition, seePagel,1960, 139: 540n thisconceptrelating The world is full of such sawworkingin the seminaan activeforce,the Archeus. "Paracelsus or beingsintermediate betweenmatterand spirit." 'workmen' see Paracelsus, 1:201-06. 55See Pagel,1982, 105. On the Iliaster,
56Pagel, 1982, 106.

betweenthe Archeusand the Vulcanexceptfor 57It is virtually impossibleto distinguish worksinsidethe bodywhilethe latterworksin Natureat large. the distinctionthatthe former 42. See Sherlock,
58Pagel, 1982, 107-08.

59See Paracelsus, 1:92, TheEconomy ofMinerals.

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The Archeus,however,can be subvertedby the Cagastrum.Though Beroaldedoes not use this word, the degreeto which the Archeus' work is reversedin Le Moyende parvenirmakes the Cagastrumthe theoretically alchemicalexplanationof disruption.Accordingto Pagel,the appropriate "stands for the splittingup of God'ssimplicityand unityinto the Cagastrum infinitemultitudeof beings,"a division"owingto the egotisticyearningof This process of separationand individual objects for independence."60 fromthe fallsof Adamand Lucifer.61 The Cagastrum resulted individuation is an inferiorformof the Iliaster and imitatesit to deflectthe Archeus' work of perfectingNature.Albert-MarieSchmidt notes that "The Cagastrum, which pursuing a clearly wordsMephistophelean goal- to use Goethe's of terrestrial not only wearsout andlimitsthe capacity to objectsto progress With but also and them. skill, maliciously apes perverted completion feigns it attempts, by particularfavor of the Divinity, to make everythingthat in the universe becomecagastric."62 remainsiliastric sees a "miracle" in sepaAt the sametime that Paracelsus optimistically he also contends that separation stems from a declivity ration (truphat),63 from the Divinity. This chute resulted in a breaking away from unity, and homogeneity- a splittingup into individuals that egotistisimplicity, in In for isolation. the of splitting nature, process callystruggle independence in spontaneous froma homogeneoussourceis observable where generation, a putrefyingelementgives rise to objectsquite differentfrom the original. From the viewpoint of traditionalalchemy,the Cagastrumis implicit in andslowgrowthof precious metalsaswellasin the search fora unithe rarity versalsolvent capableof dissolvingdeposits and restoringsimplicity and Schmidt aptly describesthe subversive purity.64 activityof the Cagastrum when he observes:"Forit [the Cagastrum],the world becomes a putrid, that one finds coarse,and transitory apingof objectsand events.Everything in it is at once struck with irrelevance, and inconsistency, potentialinanity."65 If it is the Archeusthat "directseverythingto its essential nature,"then
1960, 144, 149. 60Pagel, 61 Ibid., 1982, 91.
62"Le Cagastrum, qui poursuivant un propros nettement mephistophelique - pour employer le vocabulaire de Goethe - non seulement extenue la completude des objets terrestres,mais les contrefait malicieusement. I1s'efforce, avec une habilite pervertie, que tout ce qui, dans l'univers, par faveur speciale de la divinite, resteyliastrique devienne cagastrique" (74).

1982, 114. 63Pagel,

64See Koyre, 66.

lui [le Cagastrum] le monde devient une singerie putride, grossiere et transitoire. 65"Pour Tout ce qu'on y decouvre est frappe a la fois d'impertinence, d'inconsequence et d'inanite potentielle." See Schmidt, 74.

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Beroalde asks if the Archeus is not being constantly foiled by the Cagastrum. This is a complex judgment because the Cagastrum is the inferior form of the Iliaster,66 and while the Archeus and the Cagastrum are distinct entities, are they inextricably relatedto the Divinity. In LeMoyen deparvenir,one can the that say Cagastrumdisrupts the Archeus in three manners:the deceptions of the same, the confusion of mixture, and the interruption of actions and events. Since in Beroalde'sparody of Paracelsus,the Cagastric forces reverse the work of the Archeus, one can describe this as an inverted transmutation. In examining these three disruptions, we will proceed by comparing Le Moyen deparvenir as a text (as stories and discourses) with the roles of the Archeus and Cagastrum as established by alchemical philosophy. Beroalde's critical method is to use the alchemical model to advance his satire by revealing a world in the grip of Cagastric parody.
THE DECEPTIONS OF THE SAMEAND THE ILLUSIONOF REFINEMENT

The Cagastrum's first reverse transmutation turns the Archeus' work of emulative imitation into deception. Inasmuch as the Cagastrum is a falling away from the Divinity, it is (as Pagel describes it) "the fallacious phantom of the phenomenal world" falsely imitating its archetype.67By parodying and counterfeiting the emulative imitation of the Archeus, it insidiously makes a host for itself in the system of sympathetic correspondences. In feigning a role in the network of"similia,"68 the Cagastrum induces us to credulity, illusion, and duplicity. By placing emulative imitation at the heart of their work, by pursuing the "analogie" (98) of similitudes, the Paracelsian alchemists provide the most propitious cover for Cagastric duplicity. This is why the alchemists' spagyric art of purification becomes the model for abuses in the social domain. Like alchemy, each institution has a method of refinement which, though a deception, evokes a Cagastric impression of truth. Theology, medicine, jurisprudence, and commerce are the four institutions that pursue the alchemical illusion of producing in their respective practices refinements that make them appear dignified and authoritative. All these institutions profit by means of imitation and homogeneity. The theologians are singled out for being "abstractorsof ceremonies," especially those who, like the Calvinists, make very fine distinctions regarding the doctrinal significance of the Last Supper. Beroalde portrays
66Jung, 1967, 125 and n. 35: "The Cagastrum is an inferior or 'bad' form of the Yliastrum."

1960, 144. 67Pagel, 68Ibid.,1982, 52, 64.

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them as making the finest distinctions ("les plus subtiles," 96) between the "ceremonies"that renew the Last Supper through various liturgical practices and the "sujet" (subject) of these rituals which is the Eucharist itself accomplished once and for all in Christ's passion and death.69 Such impossibly pure abstractions resemble the hope of alchemists who seek to produce the quintessential purification of a substance, whether that consists of transmuting base metals into gold or discovering the proper arcanum for medical therapy. Aside from the doctrinal homogeneity they seek, the theologians are imitators in three senses. First, as a group, they only accept what corresponds to their opinion and become the "comptrollers of theology": "ces gabeleurs de theologie qui ne trouvent bon que ce qui cadre leur paillardeopinion."70Second, since they need to model evil from received sources, they are also "robbers"accused of "plundering from the Antichrist himself for the elements of an original doctrine put forth in the light of true religion."71Third, they are decried by Paracelseas "cette cabale," the select few whose esoteric dogmas only succeed in casting a sinister shadow over religious beliefs ("pourfaire une ombre mirlifique," 96). The other three professions are also parodied alchemically by the similar habit ofunreflective but profitable imitation. In fact, the syntax of Paracelse's speech creates indissociable conjunctions among these three groups whose textual interchangeability makes it difficult to distinguish one from the other. The jurists, who multiply commentaries, model themselves after the theologians ("en les imitant") by practicing the Spagyric Magistery. As this alchemical process involves squeezing and pressing to filter out impurities,72 it alludes to wine and therefore to the distinctions made in Eucharistic controversies, such as that between accident and substance. The chain of imitation, accidental or deliberate, continues. The wisest of the jurists have skirmished with medicine, itself an ambusher ("les plus sages ... ont escarmouche les embuches medicinales"), and have learned to improve human generation by producing a "pithy juice"73from the human body. Following the other professional abusers ("suivant comme les autres les belles abusoires de juridiction," 97), the jurists mix this "quintessentially" magnificent substance with other medical drugs that produce the perfectly
69SeeMoreau and Tournon, 96. 70"these comptrollers of theology who only find good in their debauched opinion" (96). 71 "lesvoleurs qui ont tire des certains elements d'une doctrine que l'Antechrist a inventee et supposee sous lumiere de religion" (96). 72"cette cabale avait ainsi pressure et fait issir un element generatif' (96).
73"1esuc du moelleux endroit" (97). Of course, one associates this image with Rabelais' "sustantificque mouelle" in the Prologue to Gargantua and the touter's appeal to alchemy. Beroalde'slanguage in the Parvenir,mixing the coarse and erudite, is like that of Rabelais, but the former's attitude in this work is much more skeptical.

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pure and ultimate essence of blessed extraction: "l'oeuvreparfait de benoite extraction" (97). As for the merchants, they have also "dignified their standing like the others" by passing their hands through and tasting this "brouet d'andouille." A contemporary lexicographer, Randle Cotgrave, defined andouille as "a link, or chitterling; a big hogges gut stuffed with small guts (and other intrailes) cut into small pieces, and seasoned with peper and salt."74Beroalde thereby refers to a chitterling or sausage broth, that merchants could sell as the perfect product ("lacinquieme essence necessaire") - an elixir, perhaps - provided they properly sift their ingredients and, like the alchemists, expend huge energies and take deadly risks.75 Beroalde'sskeptical parody pushes Cagastric parody to extremes when these four institutions, symbolizing the four elements, fuse together in an alchemical banquet of friendship in order to produce their particular "quintessence"- The World of Tricksters.Just as alchemical quintessence is defined as the fifth element that reconciles and harmonizes the other four warring elements,76so do the four groups of trickstersassemble and unite to produce their own azoth, better known as "le Monde Pipeur" (97): "And since by drinking and conversing, people join in amity - frequentation being the soldering of wills - it came to pass that all these four essences mixed and mingled just as the manipulators assembled . .. Therefore, from
these united elements . . . was formed the World of Tricksters."77 The word 74"ayant passeparleursmainset goutede ce brouetd'andouille. . . ont dignifieleuretat commeles autres" see Cotgrave's Dictionarie, (97). Forthe meaningof andouille, Eij. suivant les commentaires des rusessoporiferantes) l'etamine 75"et le (et contrepassant par scandale forfantesque,avec grands labeurs et risques, ont trouve la cinquieme essence in this dont il est tantfaitd'etatentreceuxquiveulentparvenir" necessaire, (97). The reference in Rabelais' to thealchemists' showsremarkable resemblance to a passage labors" passage "great Tiers Livre: "Plusgranden'estla joyedesAlchymistes, grandsoing quandapreslong travaulx, ilz voyentles metaulxtransmuez et despense, dedansleursfourneaulx" (422-23). In addition, in the title the alchemical frameof reference essence" alsorecalls Beroalde's use of "cinquieme is whereFrancois Rabelais' pseudonym,MaitreAlcofribas, pageof Gargantua anagrammatic Within the prologue de Quinte Essence." followedin appositionby the epithet"Abstracteur with the of this work,therearea numberof alchemical references and allusionsinterwoven suchas "fines remarks on occultmessages and mysteries (5), "unecelesteet speaker's drogues" plus impreciable drogue"(6), "alimentelabourea perfectionde nature"(7), the "doctrine famous absconce"(8), and "laperfectissime partie"(9). MaryFarrell arguesthat Rabelais' metaphorof reading,figured by a dog delectatingover bone marrow("lasustantificque mouelle"7), is a componentof the works alchemical dimension.See also McFarland.
76Abraham,75-76.

on sejointles unsauxautres, boireensemble ou deviser, 77"Et pourceque,parquelquefois la frequentation etantla souduredes volontes,il est advenuque toutesces quatreessencesse se sont assembles ... Donc, [de] ces elementsunis ... a sont meleesainsique les operateurs ete construit... le Monde Pipeur" (97).

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"soudure," meaning "soldering, welding, or brazing," brings together in sarcastic mode the alchemical union of metals, the inseparability of friendship, and the maximum fusion of occult correspondences. This is the duplicity forged by the Cagastrum that, by couching deception in similarity, deflects the Archeus' work of individuation. However, Beroalde's parody + pythagorique] unveils this subterfugeby calling it "themystigorical [mystique mixture of forces and powers,"78 thereby stating that imitation is in reality a fused mystification. by heterogeneity
INTERRUPTION

If the function of the Archeus is to determine the proper growth and development of objects, then in Beroalde the Cagastrum appearsconstantly to thwart this objective by discontinuity and rupture. In other words, the Cagastrum is a parodic device of narrativeself-reflexivity,which turns on its own discourse with non-sequiturs, sudden shifts of topics, cut-offs in dialogue, and deranging puns, all of which defer, detour, or derail narrative development and completion. On the other hand, interruptions and interferences are often "developed"in a single paragraphas if the demonic spirits ruled that in the Monde Pipeur continuity means the maintenance of non-continuity. This usually occurs in the stichomythic dialogues that begin chapters. The oft-heard interjection of the symposiasts, "Passonsoutre" (let's move to another subject) or "avantque passer outre" (before moving on) are the invisible stage directions prescribing paradoxical injunctions that are as disorienting as following the identity of the character named LAutre. Interruption is the consequence of Cagastric disorientation reflecting the separation of primary matter from the Mysterium Magnum creating separation and atomization. This is a process that devolves not only upon the world depicted in Le Moyen but upon the work's poetics. While narratology posits that discourse creates an order in which to deploy a story,79in Le Moyen de parvenir, the "order"itself is frequent disruption. For example, in chapter 91 entitled "Doctrine," a story on "Rabelais"is announced only to be suspended for three pages with the alchemical explanation: "And here is the great dignity and merit of this work- it'sstuffed so full with the spirit of the Philosopher's Stone that it transmutes, changes, and transforms everything it touches."80 While narratologypostulates that a sequence of events can be abstractedfrom
78"lemelange mystigorieux des forces et puissances" (97). On the fusion of mystiqueand pythagorique, see Sainean, 141. 79See Genette, 72. In her translation of Figures III, Lewin gives "story" for Genette's histoire and "narrative" for his recit (27). See also Prince, 1987, 21, 91. 80"Et c'est ici la grande dignite de cet ouvrage, plein de l'intelligence de la pierre philosophale, pource que tout se transmue" (296).

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a plot, order is jumbled in Le Moyen de parvenir by a confusing placement of chapters where the thirteenth is titled "Conclusion," the seventy-fifth "Chapitre,"and the last "Argument."Furthermore,the chronology of events is continually disturbed by such temporal contradictions as "I hold to these future sentences that have already been written."81Finally, the names of the approximately 375 interlocutors participating in the mock symposium, such as "Hermes"(69), "Thucydide" (194), "Luther"(274), seem randomly distributed, since what they say may or may not be based on their fictional continuity as fixed characters or on their usual historical or mythological significance. Just as events are interrupted and dashed, so also are our expectations of character consistency. Such irruptions in logical sequence, temporality, and identity are typical of the demonic Cagastrum rather than the teleologically oriented Archei that would perfect the potential essence of beings. We must bear in mind that, if one of Le Moyen de parvenir's key concepts is structured on alchemy ("tout se transmue"), then its transmutations are carried out to ensure not the development of ultimate matter but the reversion of elements to primordial heterogeneity.82
MELANGE

This point is related to the third work of the Cagastrum,which is to embroil the Archeus'work of purifying and simplifying by mixing and conflating. In theory, the aim of the Alchemist-Archeus is to expedite through alchemical means Nature's own process of transmuting base metals into silver and gold. Ultimately, the alchemist, using the philosopher's stone, separates and remixes elements to produce a highly refined quintessence. In Paracelsusthe quinta essentiais related to but not identical with the predestined element. The predestined element is the one among the four elements that achieves perfection in a given substance with respect to certain properties and functions as opposed to the other elemental components that remain suppressed. But the quintessence is not the material constituent of the predetermined element. Rather,it is "the soul of the object" lying within the predestined element that constitutes its center of power, for it enables the Thus, the goal of exoteric alchemy, predestined element to be in "actu."83 which may be imitated by esoteric alchemy, is to purify a substance while its processis one of repeated separation and mixture. In Le Moyendeparvenir,the Archeus'goal of producing a quintessence is constantly satirized because the reality that Beroalde confronts is an ever81"Etvoila comment je me tiens aussi a ces futures sentences qui sont ja ecrites" (131). 82Paracelsus,2:359, notes that the reversion of any substance towards its first matter is

calledCaleruthum.
83Pagel, 1982, 99-100.

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changing irreducible mixture. When Paracelse claims to have found "la cinquieme essence necessaire," his boast is mocked as hyperbolic selfadulation. If the Cagastrum disrupts analogy by exaggerating similarity, it can also perform a related service by heightening consciousness of the dissimilar. When Beroalde celebrates the fact that "tout se transmue," he is emphasizing a reality captured by alchemy but perverted by its quest to purify, refine, and produce a quintessence. The logic of parody is to reverse substance"(97) that is comically the logic of alchemy by projecting a "parfaite "refined" as a grotesque melange. For example, the particular elixir of deceptive merchants is called "ce brouet d'andouille" - both a "chitterling broth" and the figurative expression for something without value.84In short, LeMoyendeparvenirdepicts a world in which all is a constantly transforming conflation. This includes sacred and profane, the erudite and the vulgar, and the pure and impure, all of which are mixed in the third major referencethat Paracelsemakes to prime matter: I tell you, my children(mayI not callyou that, seeingthat I adoptyou in the within you) that the worldhas not bonds of scienceand engenderintelligence yet voided itselfand has not at all broughtforthany matter.Do you not know that humanmatteris only madeafterthe operationof repletion? Well,even so with the world. Just as the world is many times greaterthan the individual - when its bellyis full - and human,calledthe microcosm,so in proportion aftera lapseof due time, it voidsandexpelsmatterfromits cosmicrectum.I tell time to come, and you may then you that you must expectsuch a cataclysmic Youwill for its duration and futuredischarge. and determine yourselves judge indeed see, and I defy you, whetheryour prognosticationbe true and exact. things,it behooves ThoughI do not at allwantto speakaboutsuchcatastrophic me to warnthe whole worldfor fearof accidents.85 To show that Paracelsian theory itself is pervaded with terms connoting mixture which are irreducible to monadic quintessences, Beroalde focuses the reader's attention on the language of Paracelse's speech whose major trope is the conflation of the animate and inanimate. Paracelsus' master which clusters around the terms seed, metaphor is the notion of engendering
84SeeHuguet, s.v. brouetd'andouille, "Chose sans valeur." vous dirai, mes enfants (ainsi vous puis-je nommer, d'autant que je vous adopte par 85"Je science et vous engendre par intelligence) que le monde ne s'est pas encore vide, il n'a point fait de matiere. Savez-vous pas que la matiere se fait seulement apres l'operation de plenitude? Tout ainsi que le monde est beaucoup de fois plus grand que l'homme, qui est le petit monde, et le monde le grand animal corporel; aussi en proportion, quand il sera plein, et apres le temps et juste equivalence, ayant ete rempli rendra sa matiere. Attendez ce temps-la, he vous! qui jugez de sa duree et future dissipation; et la verrez au juste pronostic de l'ejection qu'il fera. Ce n'est pas de telle chose que je veux parler; mais il faut avertir le monde, de peur d'inconvenient"

(95-96).

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germ, father, mother, matrix, and children. When Paracelse refers to "mes enfants," he alludes to the Archeus' function of engendering knowledge in matter and humans.86Also, when he describes the macrocosm as "le grand animal corporeal,"he is turning Nicholas of Cusa'sconcepts87into the view that all creation is mystically animated. The main point is that Paracelsus' doctrine, materializing the spiritual and spiritualizing the material, deeply personifies the materialand vitalizes the inanimate. This notion is developed as a primordial birth. The "ejection"to which Paracelserefers is Paracelsus' explanation of how the germs or seeds of metals are created. Beroalde concentrates on the animistic, mystical side of Paracelsian doctrine that inanimate objects are somehow anthropomorphic. The Swiss alchemist contended that by means of an incessant and uniform motion, each element, according to its quality, is digested in the stomach of the earth ("a certain void place")88 and expelled, thereby casting the excess seeds into "the It is in the center of region of excrement, scoriae, fire, and formless chaos."89 this digestive site that the Archeus, "the servant of nature,"90 mixes the seeds and expels them to form new species and individuals. In a third move, Beroalde scrutinizes the philosophic paradoxesimplicit in the language that conflates the animate and inanimate. Nature produces seeds by voiding its plenitude ("rendra sa matiere,") and then this excrement ("ejection") becomes Nature'schildren and future life. In a grotesque exaggerationof this process, Beroalde then satirically mixes the religious and the scatological. When Paracelsealerts us that "il faut avertirle monde," and that the public should judge his "pronostic de l'ejection," he becomes a prophet/priest/ magician91using the imagery of the apocalypse to forewarn the world that it will inevitably fall into dissolution ("future dissipation"), or in the alchemical framework, cosmic waste. Concluding with a parodic coup de grace, Paracelsewarns in understated fashion that everyone should be aware of this occurrence "de peur d'inconvenient." Also susceptible to the critique of mixtion is the Paracelsianconcept of time. This topic, like the previous ones, is relatedto the various operations of matiere,but it is specifically directed to issues of temporality.As we have seen, the world will expel its seeds "apresle temps et juste equivalence" (95). What is "juste equivalence" and why is it parodied? In keeping with Paracelsus'
86Koyre,50-51. 87That each human being is a microcosm embracing in him/herself the intellectual and material spheres of reality is contained in Cusanus, 3,3. 88Paracelsus,1:290. 89Ibid. 90Ibid., 291.
91Debus, 1978, 12-13, 26-27.

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theory of correspondences, the microcosm imitates the macrocosm. That is, the virtues immanent in individuals areastraland thereforefollow the pattern of their cognate stars.Thus, there is a "preciseequivalence"between the astral body of a person as microcosm and the starsas macrocosm where the purpose of the former is modeled in the plan of the latter.Consistent with the theories of Plotinus and Proclus but opposed to the Peripatetics, Paracelsus has a qualitative notion of time in which the individual bearsan internal scientiaof form and function in consonance with the astra which enables it to direct itself towards its specific purpose. The climax of an individual'sdevelopment to perfection is called its "Monarchy,"such that the time of each being is entirely linked to its own seed, pace, and rhythm as configured by the astra.92 Rather than a measure of motion, time is construed as entirely qualitative phenomenon dependent upon the virtues of the object's inner knowledge.93 Thus, the theosophical concept of Paracelsian time posits the teleology of perfecting a quintessence whose guidance by the internal alchemist (the Archeus) leads its object to its culminating monarchy. When the narrator criticizes the world of tricksters, he calls it "un melange mystigorieux des forces et puissances."Paracelsianalchemy as well as its theosophy are determined by this mystical correspondence of sympathies and antipathies which underpin his concept of time. But Beroalde's word "melange"is aimed at parodying this notion and setting it against his own Heraclitean world. It is also a reflection of the implicit tensions between the Cagastrum and the Archeus. What features of Beroaldian time complicate those of Paracelsus?From an alchemical viewpoint, they cluster around the terms of mixtion, ingression, and complexion.94Our understanding of the complicated issues of time in Le Moyen deparvenir is considerably enhanced thanks to the work ofJanis Pallisterand Michel Renaud.95 Their observations can be extended to alchemy. While separatiois the key concept in Paracelsus, mixtion is the central one in Beroalde. That is, the work folds in on itself, develops its own internal dynamics, and makes time incoherent and disordered. For example, in the opening quatrain of LeMoyen deparvenir,we read in effect that the work we are about to read has not yet begun. Here the

92Theseconcepts of time as conceptualizedby Paracelsus are found in Pagel, 1960, 151-53.

93Pagel, 1982, 72-82. 94Pernety,312.

95Pallister, 1971, 52,63,65,73,79,80,81,92,97-101,104,107,118-19,127,

135. See

also Pallister, 1992,49-54, on Beroalde'sreferences to Spanish figures in Le Moyen deparvenir. See as well the section in Renaud, 1984, titled "L'Enfermement:L'Espaceet Le Temps," 46-67. On Beroalde's place in sixteenth-century French paratexts, see Losse, 45-46, 59-60.

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author-narrator is directly referring to the distinguished honoree of the symposium but indirectly invoking death as (at) the point of departure: If Madamehad survived me I might havebegunthis work. When Death wiped her bum with it, My heartgrewsoft as cheese.96 But in the coda of the last chapter (ironically titled "Argument")we are informed in effect that the work that we have just readhas not yet been written but it will be on some future occasion: "I will set out to make a fair volume wherein I will tell you the truth, completely contraryto the practiceof others, and in such a beautiful manner that I will publish it after my death."97 Even these temporal disruptions, however, have certain patterns in their conflation that contrast with Paracelsus'teleology of the astralMonarchy. That is, they emphasize complexion over the purification of an essence and complicate teleology by superposing contrary and incommensurable times. The first of these mixtures is time as eternal and time as transient. At the same time that there is a relativelystatic banquet scene, the stories told by the symposiasts are filled with arrivalsand departures.98 Also, simultaneous with the claim that the book is eternal is the Dance of Death that haunts its conclusion.99The dignitariesat the banquet are from nearly every historical period - a literary technique personifying the archetypalnature of their questions. Against this background is the sensation of time as evanescent and discontinuous, indicated by Le Bonhomme's complaint is that "allwe do is waste time."'00This sense of the transitoryis also indicated by the characterL'Autre who cautions, "Let'smove on. I alreadysense that this book is slipping out of our hands."101 The conflation of the eternal and the fugacious is not the same as the macromicro convergence because in Paracelsus,the microcosm is ruled by a comcet ouvrage. 96"Si m'eut survecu commence / Quandla Morts'en Madame / J'eusse le cul/ J'eus le coeur moucomme torcha (2). fromage" a faire unbeau livre oujevousdirai toutaurebords desautres, laverite 97ememettrai et d'une si belle, le ma mort" facon (357). queje publierai apres 98Pallister, 1971,127. of Deaththrough contemthelastchapter theauthor-narrator invokes theDance 99In of hisownfather: devoyage, dans thedeath "quand je revins je netrouvai pointd'eau plating leseau, encore moins enlaseille. IImourut, comme Macaber aDole,aladanse [sic]" (354-55). I found in thebucket from andnonein thepail.Hedied I returned nowater (When traveling, in of Death in themanner the Dance at Dole.) depicted 100"nous ne faisons (95). temps" queperdre nousechappe" outre. Jesensdeja (355). 0l'"Passons quece livre

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mon (astral)teleology,while in the Parvenir, there are as many "waysto attain"as therearehumanpossibilities unboundedby any singlemetaphysicalorder. is time experienced as The secondset of overlapping temporal patterns determinedand time registeredas self-determined.Touting Le Moyende parveniras being "theultimateend"of "thispresent,this past, this future," "02 the narrator declaimsthat the book is a "mouldof exemplary perfection." Also, the symposiumis a meetingthatis mandated ("mandement," 4) under threatof punishmentand death reminiscentof the severestreligioussancto necessary and tions such as the Inquisition(4). These references patterns with celebrations of liberte. forcedcompliancearenevertheless juxtaposed the symposium as an opportuOne of the interlocutors, Diogene, interprets is permitted here.We're all peers nity for equalsto speakfreely:"Everything and equals. Here, each one of us should think, do, and say all that one
One of the most highly paradoxical forms of liberte understood as can."103

"freespeech"is the licensegiven to each of the interlocutors constantlyto annul or derail with the that such one another result interrupt transgressions the self-defeating natureof of makingsense.Understanding the possibilities the speakerknown as Messire such utopian exercisesin directdemocracy, Gillesconcludes: "Liberty guidesour stepslike the smellthatleadsus to the
privy."104

The third set of mixed temporalphenomena is time experiencedas multifariousmutabilityand time as prolepticrepetition.We can examine these conflationsthroughthe namesof certaininterlocutors formedfrom indefinite pronouns. Heterogeneousmutability is seen in the speaker(s) A namedL'Autre thatAndreTournonhas termed"unealteriteabsolue."'05 it each bereft of nominal redounds itself time it antecedents, upon pronoun Since it can be associis usedand therefore constant difference. only signals ated with its individual instancesof discourse,the readertries to give it stabilityby its contexts, an act that only mimes in abymeits anonymous and ever-shifting are,like the alterity.However,such indefinitesas L'Autre as as much indicate Just otherness, inherentlyambiguous. they Cagastrum, Such indefinitesand other deicticscan they also designatethe archetypal. just as well be consideredarchetypalbecausethey function to repeatthe
'02"Recevezdonc ce present, ce passe, ce futur ... la fin finale et intelligible de tous ... ce beau petit abondant moule de perfection exemplaire" (31-32).
'03"Tout est permis ici. Nous sommes pair a compagnon. On doit faire et dire ici tout ce

qu'on peut et pense" (146). 104"la liberte nous sert de guide, comme la senteur pour aller au retrait"(70). '?5Inhis article on facetious language in the Parvenir, 1978, 142.

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present in the future. In this case, indefinites may be viewed as fulfilling the Moyen'sprediction that as a universal satire it is "la fin finale et intelligible de tous" (31). In other words, as Janis Pallister has pointed out, when such pronouns as "Quelqu'un" (Someone, 92), "Cettui-ci" (This One, 129), and "Le Premier Venu" (The First Comer, 352), are used, they in effect invite readers of tomorrow to assign them proper names based on the inevitable recurrence of egomania, folly, and self-destruction projected by the first or "prototypical" Moyen deparvenir.106 Deception, rupturing, and mixing mark the dominance of the Cagastrum over the Archeus, indicating Beroalde's criticism of the Paracelsianalchemical goal of perfecting a quintessence. Yet, this is not a rejection of alchemy as a frame of reference for understanding the world. Rather, it is a reversal of perspective in terms of philosophical alchemy. While Beroalde underlines that "tout se transmue," he also insists that what the world constantly "refines"is not the process of enhancing the virtues of an essence but rather the activity of producing ever-transforming heterogeneities. This is the very opposite of viewing humanity as the In Beroalde'sinverted order, quintessence of the whole "machinamundi."107 the Cagastrum becomes the new Archeus in the sense that reality is perceived as a disruption, complication, and dislocation of classical Renaissance goals. Such a deeply ambivalent concept as the Cagastrum is compatible with the skeptical ethos of Le Moyendeparvenir.With respect to the Divinity, the Cagastrum is a falling away from supernaturalheights, but with respect to the terrestrialworld, it inauguratesNature - a Nature characterized by the egotistical competition of individuals. This explains the stress that Beroalde places in the work on the transgressionof conventions, boundaries, and forms. Thus, philosophical alchemy provides Beroalde with a set of critical concepts to examine and assess the world. While he retains the motto "tout se transmue,"'08 he inverts Paracelsus' doctrine that the Archeus successfully counter-acts the Cagastrum. Rather, what the world transmutes, refines, and makes subtle is the disruption of the Archeus' goals to perfect essences.

Pallister'sobservation in Giordano, 1992, 51. 106See 107Pagel, 1960, 155, explains Paracelsus' Neoplatonic circle imagery, including the Iliaster, which the latter visualizes as a Globule. l08Technicallyspeaking, Paracelsus preferred the term "separation"to "transmutation." See Pagel, 1982, 272-73.

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2. THE ALCHEMICAL

PARODY OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

If one were to seek the lines along which Beroalde has organized chapter 35, one would find that, roughly speaking, the development of the symposiasts' dialogue and Paracelse'sspeech follow the course of a mock transmutation on a cosmic level. First there is the satire of prima materia, then of the Archeus' work of attempting to perfect it, and finally of the explosion of macrocosmic seed. Having predicted the dispersal of semina throughout the earth, he next recounts how it is made increasingly microcosmic by the deceptive refinements of the world's social institutions. Thus begins Beroalde's strategy of modeling on the Spagyric arts of alchemy his satire of the world's manipulative use of signs. At this point the readerobserves that criticism of alchemy becomes the vehicle for parodying society and culture. In theory, Spagyric Magistery can be used both for It consists in the division renewing the body and for transmuting metals.109 and resolution of substances and the separation of principles (forces) in order to filter out the heterogeneous and accidental portions and reunite the homogeneous ones.'10 In Beroalde'seyes, the abuse of exoteric and esoteric in society alchemy is the prototypical symbol for all types of "rarefactions" whose ingenuity in tricking the public has created "le Monde Pipeur." It is therefore deeply ironic that Beroalde makes Paracelse himself deliver a (96) who have brought "marvelsto the jeremiad against the "abstracteurs" infinite progress of the trickster universe.""'1The alchemical practice of extracting a quintessence from the four elements underpins the satire of four social groups that are occult trickstersin the art of deceptive transmutations. In this sense, they too have learned "le moyen de parvenir."Identified in the subsequent chapter ("Parlement"), they are "those who have been more cunning and who have recognized and discovered the four elements of trickeryextracted from substitute elixirs otherwise known as the Church, the Law, Medicine, and Business."'12 Each of these four "abstracteurs falsificateurs" (96) are excoriated throughout Le Moyendeparvenir,13 and by deprecating them in these terms, Beroalde invites the reader to think through their dubious practices in alchemical terms. The theologians come under attack for their adherence to
109Paracelsus, 1:28, The Tinctureof the Philosophers. 470. 0"Pernety, 1"l"merveilles au progres infini de l'univers pipeux" (97). ont ete plus subtils et ont reconnu les quatre elements de piperie extraits "2"Ceux qui ainsi de la supposition ecclesiastique, judiciaire, medicinale et trafiquante, ont tache a y entrer pour parvenir" (98-99). '3See Zinguer, 1979, 134-50.

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scholasticism or what Saulnier termed "ces fatras de distinctions" (this hotchpotch of distinctions).11 The notion of alchemical abstraction from the four elements also applies to the quadruple method of Biblical exegesis (historical, allegorical, anagogic, tropological) decried by such humanists as Just as alchemists wish to control their Lefevre, d'Etaples, and Erasmus.115 their esoteric authority by enshrouding practices in secret languages, so do these "comptrollers of theology" guard their power by approving only "what suits their debauched opinion" (96). This satire not only denounces vanity but also condemns both Catholics and Protestants for thinking in vicious circles. It rekindles Beroalde'slogical paradox in the Palais des curieux about the possibility of being subjectively convinced that one is objective.116 As noted earlier but in a different context, Beroalde singles out Calvinist theologians whom he links to the alchemical notions of separation and subtilite:'l7 "the most subtle are at La Rochelle because ... they are abstractors of ceremonies who like pseudo-philosophers fearlessly. . . separate accidents from substance."'18 The port city of La Rochelle in southwest France, the citadel of Calvinism in France,became known as the "Genevede l'Ouest." In 1573, the future Henri III (Duc d'Anjou), wishing to annihilate this center of religious and political dissent, laid siege to the city with the largest royal army ever assembled during the Religious Wars. In spite of hundreds of assaults, the defenders not only repulsed Henri's forces but also won a favorablearmistice and civic privileges that sustained its independence. When Beroalde calls the he is undoubtedly referringboth to Calvin and the Calvinists "abstracteurs" Rochelais theologians, because he opposes claims made on the basis of cleancut distinctions, purity of separation,and overly subtle reasoning. Behind the teachings of such Rochelais authors as Yves Rouspeau and Jean de L'Espine119 lie the pronouncements of Calvin himself which could possess all the analytical subtlety of scholastic logic. For example, in book 4 of the 1560 Institution,Calvin addressesthe distinctive featuresof the Last Supper by first stipulating the three components of any sacrament: (1) its signification, (2)
"4Saulnier, 298.
15See Renaudet, 515, 625.

Le Palais, Beroalde self-reflexively affirms that "je ne pense pas qu'il y ayt aucun I16In capable de me surpasseren la sagesse que je me propose" (151). (I don't think there's anyone capable of surpassing me in the wisdom that I propose to acquire). 17Pernety, Subtiliation: "Reduction de la matiere de l'oeuvre a ses principes," 476. (Reduction of the matter of the work to its principles). 118"les plus subtils sont a La Rochelle pource ... la sont les abstracteurs de ceremonies qu'ils separent bravement de leur sujet, comme entendus philosophes qui levent les accidents de leur substance" (96). ]19PughMeyer gives useful background information on these two writers, 96-100.

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its matter or substance, (3) its virtue or effect. With regardto the Supper, its signification is Christ's promise of salvation; its substance is his death and resurrection; and its virtue is redemption, sanctification, and ever-lasting life.120Rouspeau's highly popular Sept Dialogues, published in 1564, was written with a similar confidence in distinctions, and it could have provoked a skeptical thinker such as Beroalde to question how, in the Calvinist view, the faithful could be "members of his [Christ's] flesh" when at the same time, the body of Christ resides in heaven: "Saint Augustine testifies to this truth, saying, as long as there is Heaven the Lord will always be there on high; but also the truth of the Lord is also with us. For the body in which he rose from the dead must always be in a certain place: but his truth radiates
everywhere."121

Also writing on the Last Supper was the Rochelais Calvinist, Jean de l'Espine, whose Dialogue de la cene de nostreseigneur Iesus Christ,plus un Traicte du vraySacrifice& vraySacrificateur (1565) could have also awakened the question of how these theological distinctions could provoke such wicked wars. Rejecting the notion of transubstantiation, he maintained that the Eucharistwas essentially a spiritual and not corporeal consumption, because this nature of this sacrament is union with Christ through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. As Judith Pugh Meyer observes, De L'Espine, who gave eighteen argumentsin support of explaining why the Eucharistis not a bodily Here are his ninth and ten incorporation, "wasat pains" to prove his point.122 arguments respectively: Justas a glorious& spiritual bodydoesnot eat,so it cannotbe eatencorporally: Otherwise, it would be necessaryto avow that it could be digested in the stomach like the other meats, & that consequently it would be subject to which is againstthe condition of glorifiedbodies, which are not corruption: 123 only immortal,but also incorruptible. meatsspiritually, so canwe not eat, according to Justaswe do not eat corporeal this analogy, the spiritual ones corporally.124 It must be recalled that Beroalde'salchemical parody of the theologians is framed by an enigmatic reference to the geographical characteristicsof La Rochelle: "People have told me that the most subtle [abstractors]are at La
121

'20Calvin, 4:17, 1; Wendel, 329-55. Quoted from Pugh Meyer, 98. '22Ibid., 99.

123Quoted and translated from Ibid. 124Ibid. Many fine analyses of the various religious interpretations of words used by Christ at the Last Supper can be found in Anderson.

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Rochelle, because it's a maritime city."125This sentence smacks of the proverbial, but the obvious sources yield no intertext upon which Beroalde could have modeled this statement.126One has to study Beroalde'sparodic logic in conjunction with history. Like the process of separating, isolating, and refining an element for alchemical transformation, La Rochelle's distinct location and topography helped to crystallizeits rareprivilegeof civic independence. Kevin C. Robbins has described La Rochelle as "acity in a landscape of islands and frontiers."127 Bordered on the west by the swift currents of the Atlantic Ocean and the treacherouslittoral of rocks, bights, and shoals, on the north by salt marshes, on the east by a back country of thick forests, and in the south by a dry plain covered with vineyards, the town further reinforced its redoubtable position by a belt of massive fortifications. Also, the fierce individualism and selfrelianceof the Rochelais and the city'svibrant commerce brought about by its mercantilist spirit reaped great political and economic rewardsfrom Eleanor d'Aquitaine to Louis XI, and earned it virtual independence through its droit In the alchemical frame of reference,Beroaldeis taking up the de commune.128 role of the positivistic scientist providing the empirical evidence of geography to account for how such disparate elements properly sifted by political sublimations could result in the isolation of the rarestof products otherwise known as independence. However partial Beroalde may be to the power of personal experience and empirical evidence in explaining La Rochelle's selfdetermination, he simultaneously maintains his critical parody of any rarefactionwhich, in the case of this city, is the aspiration to autonomy. By the very mention of La Rochelle, Beroalde places the history of the city up to scrutiny to suggest that its aspirations to religious independence dragged it into the chaos of civil war and invited the rapaciousdesigns of monarchical This is another example, in the historical power to overturnits institutions.129 of transmutations. reverse context, the theologians have masteredhow philosophically Being "abstracteurs," to separate accidents from substance. When Beroalde has his narratornote that the Protestants accomplish this feat "without leaving behind any notice
125"On m'a dit que les plus subtils sont a La Rochelle, pource que c'est une ville maritime." (96). 126I have searched in Erasmus'Adagia, histories of La Rochelle, Sainean'ssocio-linguistic inventory of Beroalde's style and lexicon, and Huguet - all to no avail. 127Robbins,11. 28Vray,15-23.
129In 1628, Cardinal Richelieu ordered a siege of La Rochelle that starved the city into

defeat and killed at least 15,000 Rochelais. The Edict of Nantes, granted in 1598 by Henri IV, gave freedom of conscience and political and civic equality to the Huguenots, but it was revoked in 1685 under Louis XIV.

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of a scar"'30 he is also deriding Paracelsus' remedy known as mumia. 31In one is mumia considered a natural secretion of context of Hermetic medicine, the body that heals and cures wounds.132From another angle, it is thought to be a capacity of tissues that counteracts putrefaction and in this sense, it sustains life itself.133From the perspective of Hermetic alchemy, it is the One of the most macabre concepts pharmacological aspect of the Iliaster.'34 of Paracelsus'medical theosophy, mumia can be culled from the cadaversof those who have suffereda quick and violent death and transferredto the living This is the point that Beroalde parodies by without any noticeable trace.135 the use of the words "sans. . . cicatrice."Jung informs us that "Mumia was well known in the Middle Ages as a medicament, and it consisted of the pulverized parts of real Egyptian mummies, in which there was a flourishing trade."136Beroalde is again undercutting the occult side of Paracelsian alchemy by exposing the semiotic reason for its effectiveness. Mystical or superstitious ideas can gain credibility and acceptance by associating them with the concrete functions of the human body. Beroalde is emphasizing the need for empirical evidence that would support the existence of such an invisible balsam. Yet, the reader should not lose sight of the fact that the parody is aimed at both theology and Hermetic medicine. Just as mumia can be extracted and applied without a trace, so can the theologians cut up a concept with many fine distinctions yet still purport to leave religion intact. The second social group that Beroalde parodies is the medical tricksters, the main target of whom is Paracelsushimself. In chapter 34, the character named Celsus137playfully upbraids Paracelse for obscuring everything in-

130"sans qu'il y reste cicatrice qui ne soit apparente et manifeste" (96). 131Paracelsus describes mumiain different waysthatareculledbyWaite,1:131.It is "man himself," or a "balsam, which heals wounds" (Paramirum). Also, "the virtues of all herbs are found in mumia" (De OrigineMorborum). Finally we read this sentence: "Now, this is Mumia: if a man be deprived of life, then his flower bursts forth in potencies and natural arcana" (Ibid.). 132Schmidt,115: [Les plaies] se fermeraient grace a l'action d'un element cicatrisant que secreteraient leurs bords. (The wounds would close thanks to the action of a scarring element that their edges would secrete.) (1982) defines mumia: "'Balsam'in the sense of the natural healing power of the 133Pagel tissues counteracting putrefaction is called 'Mummy"' (101, n. 266). 34Jung, 1967, 134-36.
135Schmidt, 117.

'36Jung,1967, 134-35.
137The name "Celsus" bears a possible double reference. This might refer to the Roman

writer Cornelius Celsus, living during the reign of Tiberius, whose only surviving work is De Medicina. It is possible that Paracelsus derived his name from this authority to signify Celsus," though he was averseto the humanistic convention of taking names derived "surpassing

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cluding medicine: "Asin your medical studies, you make the quest for success a darkness deeper than your windy boasts."138If we turn to Paracelsus' Preparations In Alchemical Medicine, a compilation of an alchemical pharmacy, we encounter numerous pharmacological recipes written in the discourse of Hermetic medicine that are worthy of Celsus' criticisms. For example, TreatiseII opens with the following prescription: ConcerningBloodstone The virtues or chief arcanaof Bloodstone are for bloody ulcers, resolved of the matrix,lax dysentery, diarrhoea. menstrua, premature profluvia for BloodyUlcers Preparation Rx 3iij.of Bloodstone, and niij. each of lutumLephanteum (that is, clay from which small cucurbitsaremade), and of BolusArmenus.Make a bolus with dissolvedin vinegar: Reduceby the fourthgradeof reverbation; then traganth extractthe alkali.139 In referringto "arcana," Paracelsusinvokes a cluster of mystical concepts that Beroaldesatirizesunder the rubricof"le melange mystigorieux des forces et puissances"(97). Paracelsusheld that disease and health were determined or secret by astral forces and that the patient could be restored by "arcana" remedies. There is an invisible, celestial harmony between a person's inner astrum or star and a heavenly astrum. When this equilibrium breaks down, the physician must also be a maguswhose taskis to discoverthe correspondence between the star causing the disease and the drug possessing the virtue of the healing star. Thus, the physician must be an alchemist who knows how to preparethe arcanaso that he can combine his work with the maguswho brings into volatile condition the sidereal forces that effect the cure.140 Le Moyendeparvenirsubvertsthe notions of astraletiology and judicialasfacetiouslychallengethe readerto judge trologywhen BeroaldemakesParacelse whether he has oversteppedthe limits of reason:"I abhor the robberswho have plundered certain elements of an original doctrine invented by the Antichrist himself who have cast a sinistershadow over the light of true religion.You shall hear more of this by and by and shall judge whether or not I have exceededthe
from Latin or Greek. The name "Celsus" might also refer to the Greek philosopher of the second century celebrated for his attacks against Christianity and his advocacy of natural philosophy. See the Index Nominum in the transcription of Moreau and Tournon (Verville, 1984b, 377) as well as Zinguer's critical edition, Verville, 1985, 304.
138"Vousnous l'[le moyen de parvenir] obscurcirez tout comme vous avez fait la medecine, en vous vantant et n'y disant que des ventosites" (93). 2:208. '39Paracelsus,

'40See Ibid., 37-47, book 5 of the Archidoxis. See also Pagel, 1982, 70 and Schmidt, 69-122.

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In the phrase"ombremirlifique,"Beroaldeis parodyingnot limits of reason."'41 called Sciomancy,the only the notion of the arcanumbut also what Paracelsus Art of Shadows,which among other things could distinguishspiritsand sidereal It is precisely Beroalde'sattraction to the empirical epistemology of bodies.142 exoteric alchemy that explains his aversion to invisible sympathies and occult antipathies used to justify astralmedicine. By undercutting Pyrrhonicskepticism which mistrusts perception ("they even say that snow is not white"),'43 The Beroalde puts a premium on sense-experience evaluated by reason.144 schizoid method that seeks to make ocFrenchauthoralso travestiesParacelsus' cult causescorrespondwith the most minute empiricalobservations.He signals this criticism by lending his author-narratorand Paracelsethe voice of mad can advocatethe mysticism genius. In the same breath,the fictional Paracelsus of evidence of quintessenceand the overwhelming simple, personalobservation. Criticizing extreme skeptics and nervously defending his alchemicalconcepts, Paracelse says to the symposiasts: Anotherof their talesis that snow is not white ... that rainwets you not ... And they do not knowwhy cowslie down.- Ah Jan!deargoosepate,the point them fromsitting.- Well, I'll haveto be madeprevents is that the way they're on guardagainstyou, but if I do well, you'llsurelyjudgeme quitelearned.Isn't I will thatright? Did you not thinkto trapme overthatmatterof quintessence? see show it to so can both touch and it.'45 and will you you satisfyyou A third element (social group) of piperie transmuted by Beroalde's alchemicalparody is "lajurisprudence,"whose supreme refinement is glossing 141 elements d'une doctrine lesvoleurs descertains "Mais abondamment jehais quionttire faire uneombre ainventee etsupposee sous lumiere dereligion, l'Antechrist mirlifique. pour que de raison" etjugerez Vous saurez tantot (96). pointleslimites quec'est, queje ne passe semiotics ninth book of De Natura Rerum on the '42See fascinating ("signatures"), 1:185,171-94. Paracelsus, ilsdisent (97). 43"meme pasblanche" quela neigen'est in spiteof thesubjective of in thesenses is affirmed 144This trust andreason trajectory of knowledge. "extramissive" models latecareer and"ingurgitative" Beroalde's emphasizing hasnotedthatwithinBeroalde's career takenas SeeKenny, 1991,70, 235-36.Bamforth "to the desire to know" attached whole,the author "practical through greatimportance to the importance observation" and"personal (1979, 107-08).Alsorelated experiment" of LePalais des to personal is Mathieu-Castellani's Beroalde accorded 1995study experience of the in whichBeroalde "une nouvelle du new theorie curieux reve," (a theory developed 55. dream), les . . . et ... ne savent 45"me ilsdisent pasblanche paspourquoi quela neigen'est - AhJan! me c'est ne se asseoir. se couchent. boeufs Je bete, peuvent pource qu'ils grosse si bienquevousjugerez docte. Orca!n'est-il biendevous,et ferai quesuisassez pas garderai et la vous surla quinteessence? vrai? ne me voulez-vous Je voussatisferai, pasattraper montrerai audoigtet a l'oeil" (97-98).

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the law. The alchemical analogue for legal commentary is the art spagyrique emphasized as a method of fecund generation: "II y en a d'autres qui ont remarque comme cette cabale avait ainsi pressure et fait issir un element generatif perpetuellement en similitude, muni d'une fecondite future, et ont fait semblablement en les imitant. Par ainsi ils ont sublime... la In addition to the sexual connotations of this there jurisprudence."146 passage, is also an alchemical context. Paracelsus teaches that in sublimation, "the spiritual is raised from the corporal, subtilised, and the pure separated from the impure."147 Similarly,jurisprudence attempts to abstractfrom the corpus of patrimonial texts the essence of legality, whether that essence be the rationalefor a specific decision or the very criterion ofjuridical interpretation. Even before Montaigne lamented the proliferation of legal commentaries humanists epitomized by Bartolo of Sassoferratoand Baldo degli Ubaldi,148 had sought valiantly to sift out from the mass ofconsilia and glosses the basis of judicial hermeneutics. In the fifteenth century, Lorenzo Valla had believed that the corruption of parasiticalcommentaries could be purified by returning to ancient sources. In the sixteenth-century, Nicolas Bohier saw legal refinement in "l'opinion commune," Jacques Cujas in the Greek notion of synecheia,and Andrea Alciato in the jurist'sfidelity to the text itself. 149 The problem with attempting to sublimate one element from the mass of glosses is that the quintessential substance so produced only contaminates itself by generating even more imperfect complexions. The original sublimation only multiplies the residual dross from which it arose such that transmutation by elevation only neutralizes itself. To best understand Beroalde'ssatire, one must first sift it through Montaigne. The essayist, himself a jurist and critic of glosses, notes that commentaries are like children into a certain number of parts. The more they trying to cut up "quicksilver" and knead the more "it keeps dividing and scattering."150 Then he it," "press revertsto an organic image to describethe inevitable growth of commentaries: "Our opinions aregrafted upon one another. The first servesas a stock for the
146"There are others who have noticed how this cabalahad thus squeezedout and in similitude,providedwith a futurefecondity, extracteda generative elementperpetually and have done in similar fashion by imitating them. Thus, they have . . . sublimated (96). jurisprudence" De NaturaRerum, book 7, Paracelsus, 147See 1:152. refersto them as "Bartolus et Baldus." Frametranslation of Montaigne, '48Montaigne 1957, 817. Montaigne, 1962, 2:3:13, 518. These were the two greatfourteenth-century Italianjuristsof the commentary tradition. 1983: on Valla,165; Bohier,166; Cujas,181;Alciato, 179. '49Tournon, translation of Montaigne,1957, 816. Montaigne,1962, 2:3:13, 518: "Qui a '50Frame veu des enfansessayans de renger a certainnombreune massed'argent-vif: plus ils le pressent et pestrissent et s'estudient a leurloy,plus ils irritentla libertede ce genereux a le contraindre metal:il fuit a leurartet se va menuisantet esparpillant au delade tout compte."

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second, the second for the third. Thus we scale the ladder, step by step. And thence it happens that he who has mounted the highest has often more honor than merit; for he has only mounted one speck higher on the shoulders of the next last."'5' The organic image of infinite incremental growth dovetails with Beroalde'salchemical metaphor of"une fecondite future."In other words, he makes Paracelseuse allegorical language in which the terms of Hermetic alchemy also convey the satireof the jurists. But this is self-reflexiveparody,for allegory fall into just as the jurists must refine by adding, so does Paracelse's this the reader must out the same conundrum. Yet, paradox to discover play how Paracelse's analogizing provides the parodic code for the satire of jurisLet examine this point. us prudence. In Paracelsus' chain of correspondences, the sun of the macrocosm is imitated by the sun of the microcosm - the flames of the athanor - which is like the matrix of a womb in that it contains the four elements.'52Just as the sun gives life to the universe, so does the spagyricfire of alchemy produce the quintessential element. Consistent with the hylozoistic principle that all matter has life, Paracelsusfinds that each of the elements possesses "semina" or germ cells of every object in nature. In the process of transmutation, one will be superior to the others since it element, the "predestinedelement,"153 bears the forces, powers, and virtues that will inevitably generate the object's essence. Semination pervades every aspect of the universe. Super-elemental or astralbodies are the semina that communicate with elemental bodies; such seeds areenvisaged as the source of all substance, matter, form, and essence in nature. Thus, when Beroalde has "Paracelse" castigate the "cabale,"he is critiof the alchemist who repeats a similar the Swiss rampant analogizing cizing of esoteric But this process allegorization. allegory,in turn, provides the code for understanding the satirical basis of legal allegories. When we read that "thiscabale had thus pressurizedand extracted a generative element" (96),154 we now can see that Paracelseis referringto an alchemical extraction. Just as spagyric transmutations generate the quintessential "semina" of bodies, thereby imitating the solar athanor, so do the sublimations of jurisprudence generate proliferations of glosses. It is in this sense that both phenomena are endowed with "une fecondite future" (96) sure to reap only more confusion.
151Montaigne, 1957, 818. The French text reads, "nos opinions s'entent les unes sur les autres. La premiere sert de tige a la seconde, la seconde a la tierce. Nous eschellons ainsi de degre en degre. Et advient de la que le plus haut monte a souvent plus d'honneur que de merite; car il n'est monte que d'un grain sur les espaules du penultime" (Montaigne, 1962, 2:3:13,

521). '52Seethe De Transmutationibus Metallorum, Paracelsus, 1:284-85. '53Seebook 2 of the Archidoxis, Paracelsus, 2:10. Also see Pagel, 1982, 83, 98-100. 154"cette cabale avait ainsi pressure et fait issir un element generatif (96).

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This generative element is "perpetuellement en similitude" (96) because, for Paracelsus,the rationale for life forces is derived from the macro/micro analogy which itself is based on the theory of correspondences. In other words, the astralsemina constantly communicate with elemental bodies on every level whether in health or disease. Finally,Paracelsenotes that there are others ("d'autres")who have modeled themselves on the cabale: "IIy en a d'autres ... qui ont fait semblablement en les imitant" (96). Here Beroalde is parodying the seemingly pandemic spreadof Paracelsianalchemy in French society which in chapter 59 is specifically related to fashion and prestige: "Eversince he [Paracelsus]has published his treatises, he has so well hammered alchemy into our heads that everyone's dabbling in it. Even women and little children wear bellows at their belt."155 This alchemical level of parrefers to in the level which the endless series of ody simultaneously juridical commentators, seeking to gain public acclaim by improving the work of their predecessors, only exacerbatethe original complications. As Montaigne observes, "The hundredth commentator hands it on to his successor thornier and rougher than the first one had found it."156 The fourth social group satirized (or alchemically speaking, the fourth element of piperie) is the world of merchants, whose particular refinement is to elevate the value of products by bragging and boasting. Perfected through alchemical sifting ("contrepassantpar l'etamine," 97), the duplicity of bravado achieves a charlatan-like perfection satirized by Beroalde as scandalous braggadocio ("le scandale forfantesque,"97). The merchants are fascinated by a mock elixir termed "ce brouet d'andouille" (97). Since "ce" refersto its antecedents "lesmedicaments" and "l'oeuvreparfait,"it is indeed an elixir which in Paracelsus' Archidoxishas the power to conserve, preserve, and reanimate the spirit of life.157However, here Beroalde criticizes this claim by his inverted transmutations whose apex ("la cinquieme essence necessaire,"97) is actually a grotesque mixture. As we have alreadyseen, the locution "brouet d'andouille" can mean "a Yet, in Beroalde'sworld, it is also as a mock elixir thing without value."158 whose very taste puts the market into an amorous frenzy as if it were a potent love potion: "the merchants ... have fallen madly in love with their own
en la tete de a produitses oeuvresil a si bien mis l'alquemie qu'il [Paracelse] '55"depuis il n'ya pasmemeles demoiselles et lespetitsenfants toutle mondequechacuns'enveutmeler: (183). qui [ne] portentdes souffletsa leurceinture" The French text reads: "Lecentiesme commentaire le renvoye 817. 1957, 156Montaigne, a son suivant,plus espineuxet plus scabreux que le premierne l'avoittrouve"(Montaigne, 1962, 2:3:13, 519).
2:72-76. 157Paracelsus,

s.v. brouet d'andouille. '58Huguet,

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invention."'59The narratordescribesthe public's act of imbibing the brew in terms reminiscent of eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. As he reports, "havingpassedthroughtheir hands and tastedof thisgoodlychitterling This is broth,they were carried away by this invention" (97, italics mine).160 said to and Eve who to Adam command reverse of God's the them, exactly lest touch neither shall tree ... fruit of the not eat of the "Youshall it, you you
die" (Gen. 3:3).161 Yet, rarefying a worthless concoction is precisely the

merchants' art. They are the travestiedAdams of Paracelsuswho, instead of being humanity's wise physicians,162 are its clever imposters. The "brouet," miming the process of deception, is a jumble, but to give it the appearanceof it is an "andouille." Here Beoalde is also undercutting Paracelsus' body,163 observation that "primalmatter is conjoined in the matrix as in a bag, being While alchemical transmutation requires compounded into three parts."164 that the mixture of elements yield a homogeneous quality, the "brouet d'andouille," in addition to being a melange,is also an ingression of the other three "elements de piperie." The "ce"of"ce brouet" refers to its juridical, medical, theological antecedents in the previous sentence which had already been mixed. In this involution, the medical component had itself been transformed into a medulla, a marrowy pith, brought to alchemical by the jurists' erotic stimulation of the physicians' perfection ("chytifie")'65 mons pubis: "chatouillant le penil de la medecine." The seminal liquid so produced when the pith is perfected creates a play on the Hermetic-

159"les marchands ... ont forcene d'amour apres cette invention" (97). '6?"ayant passe par leurs mains et goute de ce brouet" (97).
161The Vulgate reads: "de fructu vero ligni quod est in / medio paradisi / praecepit nobis Deus ne come / deremus et ne tangeremus illud / ne forte moriamur" (1:149). 162See the eighth book of the Archidoxis, Paracelsus, 2:70. 163The function of salt in the triad of mercury, sulphur, and salt is to give body to the

object. Mercury instills spirit and sulphur soul. The sulphur mediates between body and spirit and joins the two other antagonistic elements. See Pagel, 1982, 267. 164De Mineralibus, Paracelsus, 1:244, see also 1:88, note. '65In Verville, 1984b, 97, Moreau and Tournon gloss this verb as follows: "(Orig. 'chytifre') se transforme en liquide (seminal, considere comme la quintessence des 'humeurs' organiques)," 1984, 97. It is impossible to appreciate Beroalde'sparody of alchemy or of any subject without taking into account the pervasiveness and functions of sexual imagery. Most useful in this regard is Bowen's recent study (2000) that hypothesizes Beroalde's targets to be the honnetete of humanist rhetoric and comportment that we see in Castiglione's Libro del Cortegiano.Also, she offers the more general suggestion that creative verbal copia of a sexual nature raises the question of whetherfaire (doing) is very much different from dire (saying). On the alchemical verb se chytifie, see 110.

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alchemical notion of"semina," which in Paracelsusis the soul-like impulses directing growth.166
3. THE PARODY OF PARACELSUS' VOICE

At this point in Le Moyen de parvenir, the readerarrivesat the Monarchy of mock alchemical aspiration that, in stylistic terms, has transmuted discourse from the macrocosmic explosion of the seeds of life to the development of ultimate matter in the microcosmic quintessence of"le Monde pipeur." In identifying itself with the very creation and growth of the universe, the voice of Paracelse comes to parody the aggrandizement of the ego not only in Paracelsusbut also in alchemy as a whole. In AlchemicalStudies, Jung has said that Paracelsus' with alchemy preoccupation exposedhim to an influencethatleft its markon his spiritual The innerdriving-force behindthe aspiradevelopment. tionsof alchemy wasa presumption whosedaemonicgrandeur on the one hand and psychicdangeron the other should not be underestimated. Much of the and which contrasts so with self-esteem, overbearing pride arrogant strangely the trulyChristian of comes from this Paracelsus, source.'67 humility Whether understood as the Archeus, the Homo Maximus, or the Primordial Man, such a Faustian figure is criticized by Beroalde in order to deflate the claims of power and control made by Paracelsus.The satire uses certain parodic voices that are impersonal to the extent that they mime archetypalroles of the alchemist, but personal to the degree that they deride the traits of Paracelsus' rhetoric. As we have alreadyseen, the most distinctive tone is the voice of the preacher-prophetspeaking before a public gathering. boisterous harangues,168 Capturing the taunting condescension of Paracelsus' the sarcasticexordium proclaims, "Youshall know, in spite of yourselves, that
166Verville, 1984b, chapter 36, continues the parody of social institutions based on alchemy and subjects the world of finances to criticism. Here Beroalde facetiously notes that the alchemical sages have found notable success in business and financial matters: "Et de fait ils l'ont trouvee: a savoir, es finances, ou se pratique, non par transpiration imperceptible ains par emplissement naturel, le plus saint, magnifique et commode secret d'amasser,"99. (And in fact, they have found it in the great secret of finances where one works to results, not by imperceptible transpirations but by the process of natural digestion - that is, by the most saintly, magnificent, and convenient means possible which is amassing money.) Also, see Tournon's semiotic study of Beroalde'sparody of Paracelsus (1984, 165-83). 167"Paracelsus As A Spiritual Phenomenon," 1967, 128.

168According to Pagel, 1982, the four stylistic traits of Paracelsus' behavior (which resemble those of Martin Luther) are coarse and boisterous language, the use of the vernacular, the crassrejection of learned predecessorsand authorities, and theatrical acts designed to appeal to students and the mob (40). Certainly, the first three are also stylistic characteristics of the author-narrator in Le Moyen de parvenir. Though Beroalde does not have a reputation

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the four elements are formed from one and the same matter"(95). This is not the playful abuse of Rabelaisbut the willfully aggressiveand tyrannicalassault on any differing opinion. Referring to a similar point, Jung says, Paracelsus has a "longing to get one's opponent down whatever the means."169 Imitating Paracelsus' self-righteous denunciation of charlatans, the prophet also admonishes "les abstracteursfalsificateurs"(96) whose most refined essences are brewed by the Calvinists at La Rochelle. Also, the prophet apocalyptically warns against ("il faut avertirle monde," 96) the showering of excrement that will fall on the world at the "ejection" of undigested seed filling Earth's stomach. Associating the prophet with the Magus' ability to read the signatures of the stars, Paracelsecharacterizesthis very discharge of cosmic waste as a prognostication: "and you will see by precise forecasting the ejection that it will make" (96). This mixing of the crude and the erudite, typical of how well Beroalde assimilated Paracelsus'discourse, had first been linked to the latter's theory of the signatures in the chapter's opening. Here the character named Le Bonhomme sadistically teases Scot (perhaps Duns Scotus, the Doctor subtilis) for just having gotten his nose flattened in an intellectual exchange with the heretic Uldric: "There you are Master Aside from this allusion Scot, with your nose as flat as a wild sow's."170 to accusations of heresy aimed at Paracelsus,this is an oblique referenceto his astrological semiotics in De Natura Rerumwhere it is said that "A flat nose indicates a malignant man, false, lustful, untruthful, inconstant."171This definition is not only a parody of the theory of signaturesbut, more generally, of the notion that like attracts like. The powers claimed by Paracelsus are enormous, but these are subtly contested by Beroalde's jumpy, dramatic monologue in which Paracelse's declamatory confidence is progressivelysubverted by his preoccupation with the loss of control. Characterizing the psychology of Paracelsus'expression, Jung has observed that "his style is violently rhetorical. He always seems to be speaking importunately into someone's ear - someone who listens forrabble-rousing, theParvenir isfilled withtheatrical themostfamiliar ofwhich techniques, is a mocktrialor assembly wheresomeimportant matter is decided. (On the theatrical
dimension of Le Moyen deparvenir, see Pallister, 1971, 178-79.) In chapter 35, the four social

then groupsconstitutingthe "MondePipeur" gathertogetherfirstto affirmtheirfriendship, on the "symboles" of theirfaith:"onse joint les uns aux autres,la frequentation to deliberate
etant la soudure des volontes, il est advenu que toutes ces quatre essences se sont melees ainsi

se sont assembles. Tellementque ces Messieurs ayantprisconseil,et etant que les operateurs assembles,ils ont fait un... symbole"(97). The social mix is also an alchemicalmelange is perfected likethe articles wherethe deceptive of faithin a religious conference. quintessence
169Jung,1967, 121.

170"Te voila camus,MonsieurScot!tu as le nez fait comme une truiegrueche" (94).

171See Paracelsus, 1:178.

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or against whosethickskineventhe bestarguments rebound."172 unwillingly, It is quite remarkablehow well Beroalde knows his subject and how he captures this senseof futileinsistence. It is important to review effectively both the omnipotence with which Paracelseidentifies himself and the rhetorical modesof marshaling dominance. As already seeshimselfas the Archeus who ensures the noted, Paracelsus of matter to materia. is and ultima He also the development prime growth and the alchemist-physician Magushavingswayoverthe arcana mastering essata173 the anatomia and preparing the life-conserving elixirsand balsams. Not only privyto gnosis and the cabala,Paracelsus claimsknowledgethat makeshim epistemologicalmasterof the Mysterium Magnumand of the 174 itself. But the and cracksin nature fissures forming Cagastricseparatio theseidentifications ironically attemptto shoreup growwiderin Paracelse's rhetoric when persuasion appears slipping. First, he registers shame ("honte") for the criticism that other have made of his theories.Then he moves to anticipateother "medecins" objectionsby adoptingjuridicalrhetoricthatwould preemptdisagreement. he thereby his listeners tojudgehis variouspronouncements, By challenging evokes a theater of justice that would not only vindicate him but also insistenceon bringingthe world to preempttheir skepticism.Paracelse's his side of the issue smacksof hypertrophic voluntarism.GiseleMathieutries to dominate Castellaniobservesthat in Baroquestyle, the addressor addresseesby semiotically pushing or coercing them into believing and audience assent.175 neverfailingto seekandsecure acceptinghis/hermessage, faithin the to have Paracelse With overbearing importunes public urgency, stomachwill his prediction,namely in the dubious claim that the earth's all of you! its seedand showerthe globewith fertilewaste:"Listen, discharge time to come, and then you mayjudge Youmust expectsuch a cataclysmic and determinefor yourselvesits durationand future discharge.You will be trueandexact."176 indeedsee,andI defyyou,whetherthe prognostication claim that his Next to stand accusedin this alchemicalcourt is Paracelse's
72Jung, 1967, 120. 173Paracelsus came to believe that each disease related to a locus where it occurs. This is the "anatomy"of diseases. See Pagel, 1982, 137-38. 174Let us not forget that Paracelsusalso claimed to be able to make an artificial man, the homunculus, and gives the alchemical formula in the first book of De Natura Rerum, 1:124. 175"le discours baroque veut faire croire, donner a croire, et il est toujours en quete de credibilite" (1992, 25). (Baroque discourse wants to make us believe, gives to be believed, and it is always in quest of credibility.) See also Dubois, who uses the term "hypertrophie du moi" (1973, 218) to characterize this aspect of Baroque psychology. ce temps-la, he vous! qui jugez de sa duree et future dissipation; et la verrez '76"Attendez au juste pronostic de l'ejection qu'il fera" (95-96).

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methods are completely rational: "You .. . shall judge whether or not I have exceeded the limits of reason" (96).177Seeking to substantiate this assertion and demonstrate his reasonable nature, he castigates the extreme skepticism of the Pyrrhonistswho contend that the sun is not hot nor the snow white. This is satiric because the negation of an absurdity is hardly proof of scientific rigor. Finally, in a most facetious manner, Beroalde has Paracelse's Paracelseseek justification for his notions based upon his authority as a docte - the very same academic authorization that Paracelsushad spent a lifetime denouncing.178Feeling that persuasion is slipping out of his grasp, Paracelse apprehensively distances himself from his audience, suspecting that his sermon on quintessence has gone awry: "But I see you'rewatching me closely to see if I'm as ignorant as those who say that the sun is not hot."179 Then, he concludes by hesitantly affirming a learnedness that he himself must finally put to question: "I'll have to be on guard with you, but if do well, you will surely judge me quite learned. Isn'tthat right?Did you not think to trap me over that matter of quintessence?"(98).180
4. DEBUNKING THROUGH PUTREFACTIO

Throughout Le Moyen de parvenir, Beroalde's parodic strategy has been to invert Paracelsus'alchemical doctrines by a number of reverse transmutations: the movement from ultimate matter to prime matter, from quintessence to mixture, from the invisible of Hermetic alchemy to the visible of social manipulation, and the predominance of the Cagastrum over the Archeus. How would one characterizeBeroalde'sdeflation of Paracelse's pride in alchemical terms? The answer is that it is a kind of putrefactio, a highly ambivalent process because it regenerates into the positive elements of writing. This is a point that requiresadditional explanation. In book 7 of Paracelsus'De Natura Rerum,putrefaction is a fourth type of transmutation consisting of digestion and circulation.'81 Just as, for Paracelsus, each organic object has its own stomach,182so are there textual sites of corruption, degeneration, and waste. Depending on one's interpretation of symbols, the readermay first see such a decline in the entropy of time
177"Vous saurez tantot que c'est, et jugerez que je ne passe point les limites de raison" (96).

soleiln'est (97). paschaud"

'78Pagel, 1982, 13, 20. 79"'Mais vous m'aguettez pourvoir si je seraiaussiignorantque ceux qui disent que le

Orca!N'est-il Ne mevoulez-vous surlaquinte essence?" (98). pasvrai? pasattraper

1:153. 181Paracelsus, 155-56. 1982, 82Pagel,

me garderai bien de vous, et ferai si bien que vous jugerez que je suis assez docte. 18"'Je

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("We'reonly wasting time") which is the paradoxical discharge of matter never usefully digested or assimilated to higher development. The second site is Earth'sdischarge of primary matter from its celestial rectum that will shower its inhabitants with semina. This is an ambivalent symbol not only because it moves from waste to seed, but also because, while it is an abasement of Paracelsus'concepts, it becomes the narrator'sprimary matter for skeptical parody.That is, it questions the deeply anthropomorphic nature of Paracelsus'animism. over-controlled discourse is the ParallelingBeroalde'ssatireof Paracelsus' implicit denigration of his egocentricity indicated in Paracelse's anxiety about both macrocosmic excrement and (96) "dissipation" meaning conceptual dispersion. Also, just before Paracelsebegins to question his own authority, there is an increase in scatological vocabulary used to attack the Pyrrhonists: "I wish such skeptics could prove to me that they would not have the most stinking bung-holes without perfuming them ... they even say... that turds are neither living matter nor dead."183 These are telling symbols of putrefaction because in connection with Pyrrhonism, they associate Paracelsuswith the French historical situation of socio-political deterioration and the degeneration of philosophical conviction brought about by the chaos of the religious wars.184 The use of putrefaction to comment on Paracelsus' overall change in this chapter from hubris to hesitation concludes with an oath that hurls curses of death at real and figurative vermin: "Death to rats and mice and damnation to wasps ... but let me bring my lesson to a close, my analogy will be perfect."185 As we can see, these last symbols of degeneration occur precisely where the speaker wishes to complete his "analogie." This is doubly significant. First, by tying the moment of completion to the stage of putrefaction, the imprecation suggests that for Beroalde, true Monarchy is a return to primary matter. Second, putrefaction is used pejoratively here to criticize analogy. manner Though these last sentences are perfectly consonant with Paracelse's of speaking, they are really uttered by the character named L'Autre.Why? While L'Autreimplies alterity, its usual sense is violated here, since, in this paragraph, L'Autre'svoice is virtually the same as that of Paracelse. On a
me pussentprouver 183"et je voudrais que tels [theradical skeptics] qu'ilsn'eussent point le troudu cul puant,sansqu'ony fleurat... meme ils disent ... que les etronsne sont vifs ni mords"(97). se presente 184See de conscience des individuset des groupes,la guerre Livet,121: "Crise ainsicommeunecrisede croissance desinstitutions, et dessocietesqui alimente deseconomies de facon diverseet continue le brasierdes passions religieuses."(Crisis of conscience of individuals and groups,waralso appears as a crisisof the growthof institutions,economies, and societiesthat in diversefashionsfeedsand sustainsthe live coalsof religious passions.) mon analogiesera aux rats,aux souriset aux guepes!... laissez-moi "85"Morts achever, (98). parfaite"

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symbolic level, this non-changing substitution is meant to underscore driveto see likenessin the otherand to accordanalogical Paracelse's thinking main target. the higheststatus.This is Beroalde's
5. BEROALDE'S RESISTANCE TO ANALOGY

THE DIFFERENTIN THE SAME

reverse that transmutation Takingthe workas a whole, the most significant makesof Paracelsus is to transform the doctrineof correspondence Beroalde into the practiceof critical parody.As mentioned above, the concept of correspondences is the notion of sympathetic attraction between the macrocosm and the microcosm that confers a mutual concordance of powersbetweenthe sun, the stars,and the planets,and the life of humans, works to discover animals,plants, and minerals.The alchemist-physician the arcanumor mysticalremedythat could tap the astralvirtue sharedby the heavensand the individualbody.Though Paracelsus neverresolvedthe tensionsbetweenindividual and astral he tendedto determinism, autonomy into see astraeverywhere, their orbits the of universe bringing phenomena - cosmological,philosophical,theological,and pharmacological.186 It is preciselythis rampaginganalogizing(given impulse by Paracelsus' newly created and the overwhelming wish to allegorize thatconstitute Astrosophy) intractable other. Beroalde's To a greatextent,the Cagastrum in a number is the adversary of analogy of ways: the reversion to primary matter, the conflations of times and and more substances,the randomdistributionand behaviorof characters, the of the world look like generally,making quintessence. salmagundis useof language However, equallyopposedto analogyis Berolade's systematic builton the alchemical motto "toutse transmue." While Paracelsian alchemy the in the same Beroalde uses to the stress different, emphasizes parody in the same.He focusesourattentionon his useof parody different to criticize - a practicecentralto the reductionof the world to allegoricalparallels that is to shed. virtually impossible steganographie to secretly This act of allegorizing encodeor decodethe most important tenetsof knowledgeis travestied in LeMoyendeparvenir, and it mercilessly that producesrichproblemscentralto Beroalde's poesis.One of the reasons so strongly criticizes Beroalde is that is there no not falsehood, steganographie eventhe most manifestnonsense,thatanalogical cannot 'rescue' allegorizing and 'redeem.'So how can reasonguardagainstreason's tendencyto resolve andredress the problems of correspondence? Beroalde's answer is throughthe In parodying rhetorical act of parody. his is to give steganographie, approach the appearance of revealing esotericknowledgeonly to disclosehis criticism
186Pagel,1982, 37, 50, 67, 288.

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of this mystification. His writing is a kind of counterfeiting similar to that of the Cagastrum, but done with the intent to unveil deception rather than to falsify. Beroalde undercuts Paracelsus' predominant impulse to uncover correspondences in every domain because, unlike the macro-micro chain of sympathies, reality is discontinuous, fragmented, and heterogeneous. Yet, neither steganographienor "analogie"can be avoided because Beroalde (1) wishes to conserve an alchemical frameof referenceto rely on its more tenable principles, and (2) knows that any act of understanding requires a second story to make sense of (to allegorize) a first. In other words, at the heart of Le Moyen de parvenir's parodic alchimie du verbe is the method of reversing vision by emphasizing the variegated in the similar. This approach to knowledge, based on burlesque, will not completely extirpate falsehood, but rather will provide another way of seeing the world and of identifying its constituents. There are two structures of any parody: the model being imitated and the criticism of that model. Since Beroalde is using alchemy to undercut cultural institutions, his model is fundamentally alchemical. This is the first story.The second is the criticism of that model which here consists of showing that doubtful alchemical practices can also be applied to dubious social practices. In that second story, there are bifurcating sub-stories exploded by unanticipated turns, disparate associations, and oracular ambiguities that confound the correspondencesbetween part and whole. On the positive side, this second story, because of its mix of apparently disordered and incommensurable parts, is like the prime matter of the MysteriumMagnum fusing in potential the countless multitude of virtual meanings. But unlike Paracelsianprime matter, this does not lead to predestined elements, but to perpetualtransmutationsand criticalproblems involuting their energiesback into the potential of prime matter. A passage rich in pertinence and possibilities is Beroalde'spoetic parody of jurisprudence (which overlaps with that of the theologians): "There are others of this kind who have noted that this cabala had pressurized and squeezed forth a certain generative power perpetually in similitude and supplied with future fecundity. In like manner and by imitation they have also When readers sublimated, eviscerated, and disemboweled jurisprudence."187 first come to Le Moyen de parvenir, they encounter an initial interference with correspondence that turns their search for Hermetic pass-keys (first story) into the discovery that such ciphers criticize the very alchemical cettecabale avait ainsi et faitissir comme 187"I y ena d'autres quiontremarque pressure
un element generatif perpetuellement en similitude, muni d'une frcondite future, et ont fait semblablement en les imitant; par ainsi ils ont sublime, effressure et hypocondrille la jurisprudence" (96). According to Sainean, 140, the verb hypocondrier,which Beroalde has altered, means etudier fond, to study through and through.

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initiation they are performing (second story). In the passageabove, the verbs "pressure" (pressurized) and "fait issir" (squeezed) refer to the spagyric method of alchemical extraction (first story), but the verbpressurer satirically connotes the physical torture of pressing, squeezing, and grinding down (second story). The second rupture from correspondence (eruptions of the second story) serves to create associations with alchemy so unexpected that they make the world strangely new. Based on the notion of spagyric purification and perfection, legal scholars attempt to abstract and summarize the essence of complicated cases in glosses and "consilia." But based on the Paracelsiannotion of perpetual germination, such abstractionswill multiply forever ("une fdcondite future"). This is parody of the jurists related to Paracelsus' reductive analogizing, but the parody of alchemy becomes more philosophic. While it exposes the desire to contain the universe in parallelisms, Beroalde sees desire as an ungraspableflight of mutations. This second clash with correspondences related to proliferation moves to a third phase that spawns a multitude of subjects from the parodic seeds that become ever more prolific. Thus, in spite of the mystical affinities and correspondences, there is a limitless generation of more and more disparate topics, each relatively atomized. Thus, the sublimations of legal scholars are like anatomical dissections whose hair-splitting distinctions slice up the body of law like the corpse of a human being: "they have sublimated, eviscerated, and disemboweled jurisprudence."'88 Even these institutional body parts cannot resist the drive to imitation so, in lascivious collusion, jurisprudence "tickles the mons pubis of medicine" thereby changing the notion of alchemical semina into the economic riches of rarefied sperm: "le suc du moelleux" (97). In this way, the "quintessence"is produced, and its retailers ("la supposition trafiquante," 99) take as many mortal risks in their hyperbolic advertisements as the alchemists incur in their labs of volatile chemicals where they hid alchemical secrets from violent thieves, avaricious Thus, the commercial tricksters have also princes, and religious censors.189 earned a respected place in society, and "with great labors and risks," [they] "have dignified their standing as the others" (97). The reversionto primary matter also means that within this style of everaccumulating, loose associations, a certain skepticism questions how the atomized substancesinteract. Is it reallythrough the ever-vigilantArchei?For example, the notion of trickstersimplies some personal, central agency where the four institutions willfully plan their deceit; on the other hand, the amity that leads to their assembly is dictated by the social law that "frequentation [is] the welding of wills" (97). Also, when the four groups assemble to concoct their quintessential "chitterlingbroth," they are called "operateurs,"
et hypocondrille la jurisprudence" 188"par ainsi,ils ont sublime,effressure (96).
89Holmyard, 16-17.

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indicating not only "con-artists"but quite literally "impersonal functions" gravitating toward mutual aggrandizement. Finally, Beroalde's style encourages the transmutation of topics by ingressions of questions that push self-reflexivity to self-destructive fusion. For instance, the violence of such images as "pressurized" and "disemboweled" not only connote Paracelsus' will to control, not only the societal hypertrophic and law and medicine, but also Le Moyen de injustices exploitations of parvenir's own paradoxically demonic action of opposing violence with interruption, rupture, and transgression.190These interferences with the reductive convergence of correspondences set in motion the different in the same where the disruptions of allegory within allegory lead to anamorphic19' variations of the text's prime matter: the multitude of mutating topics.192
CONCLUSION

Due to his historical experience of turbulent conflicts and changing paradigms, Beroalde became highly suspicious of classical rationalism and humanism, both implicit in his early encyclopedic projects. Le Moyen de parvenir marks a period in which he casts a skeptical gaze at the world. Given this viewpoint, critical alchemical parody must be seen not as mere laughter, but as an uncomfortably philosophic way of making sense of one's culture. Skeptical parody imitates to differentiate, seeking difference in the same in order to remain faithful to the warring tensions of meaning. From another angle, parody is critical mixture. It allows Beroalde to maintain and suspend the co-existence of opposed concepts as a skeptical alternative either to nihilism, on the one hand, or to dogma on the other. Even while exposing alchemy as a deception similar to that found in other
too is inevitably violent. In what I take to be a poetics of Paracelsianalchemy, 190Alchemy Braun observes, 208: "Naitre autrement,c'est faire advenir - faire advenir une nouvelle forme, une nouvelle qualite, une nouvelle puissance. Et si cela advient par le feu, cela advient par la violence. Le feu transforme en violentant; et c'est ainsi qu'il occupe ici une place centrale. II enflamme, brule, pour liberer." (To be born otherwiseis to make something come to pass to bring about a new form, a new quality, a new power. And if in this way something emerges by fire, then it occurs by violence. Fire transforms by doing violence; and for this reason it occupies a central place. It inflames, burns, in order to liberate.) Also related to the paradoxes of violence and liberation is Giordano, 1992. 191 In the last chapter of the Parvenir titled "Argument,"the character named Quelqu'un asks the reader to view the work as an anamorphosis: "Lisez ce volume de son vrai biais: il est fait comme ces peintures qui montrent d'un, et puis d'autre," 356. (Read this volume according to its true way of seeing the world; it's made like those pictures that look different with each new angle of vision.) 2In a comparison between Gohory's understanding of Colonna and that of Beroalde, Polizzi, 282, also stresses the opposition between mutability and resemblance as illustrated in Beroalde's translation-interpretation of Colonna's HypnerotomachiaPoliphili.

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social domains, he nevertheless retains its conceptual framework. Indeed, each of the four institutions burlesqued resembles alchemy by passing off something complex as something quintessentially refined: the physicians make their elixirs, the theologians their subtle distinctions, the lawyers their consiliaand abstractedsummaries of complex cases, and the merchants their false advertising ("ruses")properly sifted ("l'etamine")by trickery. Finally, Beroalde's parody is a constructive skepticism that renews ideological vision through reversalsof Paracelsus'teachings: transmutation predominates over the predestined element; mixture over the reduction to quintessence; experience, experiment, and empiricism over astrosophy, the questions of prime matter over the doctrine of ultimate matter; and the Cagastrum as the demonic energy that comes to trouble all the Archeus' designs. Maintaining the alchemical frame of reference even while critiquing it, Beroalde's parody is an instrument de connaissance forged from a deeply skeptical attitude. This point of view is related to but markedly different from the alchemical master narrative's union of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum) or marriage (gamonymus) of contrary elements. Rather than a marriageor union, Beroalde finds the world an antagonistic mixing. Working within the premises of Paracelsian ideology, but retaining his critical distance, Beroalde develops a parodic method that neither rejectsthe alchemical frame of reference altogether, nor jettisons one of the terms of a warring relation, nor subsumes contrary concepts into a higher synthesis. Rather, he conserves the contentious relations of terms to facilitate both his criticisms of alchemy and his adherence to certain of its principles. In such a method, neither the favored term, such as "mixture," nor the criticized term, such as "quintessence,"can be understood except in relation to its subversive other.
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY

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