Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Alchemist

This print suggests the working conditions of figures like Jonson's Alchemist. Though many were serious students of what we now call chemistry, there were many elements of public deception, and self-deception in such activities, as Jonson shows. Shakespeare's analogue in Prospero is treated far more sympathetically. 1558, Ink on paper, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, Germany. Picture and some data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia).