Bulls, furnaces, yoke, and vents

Meaning

II.4.33 interprets the fire-breathing bulls as furnaces. Their yoke represents regulation, while flaming eyes and throats correspond to openings or vents. These equations are supplied by the author; they should not be extended indiscriminately to every bull or flame in the work. The reported failure of eight out of nine vessels also belongs to the account and prevents the imagery from becoming an effortless success narrative. The vents are explained as moderating the fire and preventing its extinction or suffocation; the point is controlled action, not simply the presence of openings.

The dragon's defeat is read as fixing, while the field of Mars and the helmet-shaped Cabacet enter a dispute about the vessel. The author rejects an easy identification with a glass alembic in the cited interpretation. The reader can understand the argument about containment, regulation and failure without reconstructing the apparatus, its dimensions or its operation.