English Literature - Lecture 7/ 22.11.

2022

The Dream Vision

- Definition: A form of literature extremely popular in the Middle Ages. By
common convention the writer goes to sleep, in agreeable rural surroundings
and often on a May morning. He then beholds either real people or personified
abstractions involved in various activities.
- very often the vision is expressed as an allegory, i.e. a narrative, whether in
prose or verse, which works on two levels of meaning. Most often, the
characters represent concepts and the plot allegorizes an abstract thesis or
doctrine. The central device, in this case, is personification of abstract entities
such as virtues, vices, states of mind, modes of life, and types of character
- Examples:
1. Roman de la Rose/ The Romance of the Rose (13th century) by Guillaume de
Loris and Jean de Meun
2. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (1308-1321)

La Divina Commedia Divina Comedie

traducere de George Pruteanu

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita La mijlocul de drum al vieţii noastre
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, m-am fost găsit într-o pădure-adîncă:
ché la diritta via era smarrita. pierdusem drumul drept prin văi sihastre.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura Mi-e greu să povestesc de ea! Azi, încă,
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte gîndind la codru-acel, sălbatec foarte,
che nel pensier rinova la paura! simt groaza iar din suflet cum mănîncă.

Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte; Amar a fost, îngemănat cu moarte...
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai, Dar pîn’să spun de-a binelui aflare,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte. de alte lucruri voi vorbi în carte.

Io non so ben ridir com’i’ v’intrai, Nimic nu pot rosti despre intrare,
tant’era pien di sonno a quel punto căci totul era somn în jur şi-n mine
che la verace via abbandonai. cînd părăsisem limpedea cărare.
3. The Book of the Duchess by Geoffrey Chaucer (1369-1370)
- narrative poem
- written on the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, wife of John of
Gaunt
- eulogy and elegy
- octosyllabic couplets
“I wonder greatly, by this day’s light, For I have feeling now for nothing,
How I still live, for day and night But am, as it were, a dazed thing
The sleep I gain is well nigh naught, Ever on the point of dropping down
I have so many an idle thought, For sorrowful imagination
Simply through default of sleep, Always wholly grips my mind.
That, by my troth, I take no heed […]
Of anything that comes or goes, Lo, thus it was, this was my dream.
Nor anything do like or loath. I thought thus: that it was May,
All is of equal good to me, And in the dawning I lay…”
Joy or sorrow, whichever be, (translated by A. S. Kline)

4. The House of Fame by Geoffrey Chaucer (1379-1380)

- 3 parts & an abrupt ending
- octosyllabic couplets
- the comic tone predominates
- great mastery in writing the dialogue
“At this the eagle began to screech,
‘Let be,’ quoth he, ‘your fantasy;
Would you learn of the stars aught?’
‘Nay, for certain,’ quoth I: ‘naught.’
‘And why?’ ‘Because I am too old.’
‘If otherwise, I would have told,
You,’ quoth he, ‘the stars’ names, lo,
And all the heavenly signs and so
Which ones they are.’ ‘No mind,’ quoth I.
‘Yes, truly,’ quoth he, ‘know you why?” (Translated by A. S. Kline)
5. The Parliament of Fowls by Geoffrey Chaucer (?1382-1383)
- a poem in celebration of St. Valentine’s Day (an “occasional piece”)
- written in “rhyme royal” = a stanza form of seven decasyllabic lines
rhyming ababbcc and so called, in all probability, from its use by James I of
Scotland. Because Chaucer was the first to use it, in Complaint unto Pity it
is also known as the Chaucerian stanza.
“What can I say? Fowl of every kind
That in this world have feathers and stature,
Men might in that place assembled find
Before the noble goddess Nature,
And each of them took care, every creature,
With a good will, its own choice to make,
And, in accord, its bride or mate to take.” (Translated by A. S. Kline)

6. Piers Plowman by William Langland

- three versions: A (1360s), B (?1379), C (late 1380s)
- structure: Prologue and 22 passus (parts/ steps in the narrative)
- genre: a combination of satire, moral allegory and dream vision
- style: the hieratic and the demotic, the learned riddle and the popular joke
fall out in quick succession
- part of the ‘alliterative revival’ of the 14th century
-characters: Reason, Conscience, Holy Church, Peace, Lady Mede (Fee),
False, Flattery, Crime, the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Anger/ Wrath, Lust/
Lechery, Gluttony, Avarice/ Greed/ Cupidity, Sloth, Envy
“One summer season when the sun was still soft,
I set off like a sheep in a shaggy woolen smock,
The unholy habit of a wandering hermit,
And went seeking wonders in the wide, wide world.
And one morning in May on the Malvern Hills
I witnessed a wonder which I warrant was magic.
Quite weary with walking I wanted to rest
On a broad grassy bank beside a small brook.
As I lay down I leant and looked in the water,
Which babbled so sweetly I soon fell asleep.
And sleeping I saw the strangest of dreams”
(translated by Peter Sutton)