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Visual
COMMUNICATION
INSIGHTS AND STRATEGIES
Visual
COMMUNICATION
INSIGHTS AND STRATEGIES
JANIS TERUGGI PAGE
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

MARGARET DUFFY
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO
This edition first published 2022
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Names: Page, Janis Teruggi, author.| Duffy, Margaret, author.
Title: Visual communication: insights and strategies / Janis Teruggi Page,
University of Illinois, Chicago. Margaret Duffy,
University of Missouri, Columbia, USA
Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Blackwell, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020043378 (print) | LCCN 2020043379 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119226475 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119227298 (adobe pdf) | ISBN
9781119227304 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Visual communication. | Visual analytics.
Classification: LCC P93.5 .D86 2021 (print) | LCC P93.5 (ebook) | DDC
302.2/26–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043378
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043379

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Images: © Janet Trierweiler

Set in 10/12pt Ubuntu by Straive, Pondicherry, India

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Prefacexi Chapter 2: Visualizing
Acknowledgmentsxiii Ethics 23
About the Authors xiv Revealing Shortcuts and Missteps

PART ONE: Friend or Foe? Hero or Villain? 23

Understanding Visual Key Learning Objectives 24
Communication1 Chapter Overview 24
How Visuals Work: Ethical
Chapter 1: Making Sense Implications25
of Visual Culture 3 FOCUS: Images of Tragedy:
1000 Words or One Simple Picture? Afghan Victim 26
Foundations of Ethical
Pics or it didn’t happen 3
Thought 27
Key Learning Objectives 5
Visual Deception 30
Chapter Overview 5
To Tell the Truth . . . or Not 30
How Visuals Work 5
Visual Manipulation Issues 31
Photographic Truth? 5
FOCUS: Digital Manipulation 32
FOCUS: A Historical Perspective
Framing that Distorts Reality 33
on Visual Culture 6
Effects of Virtual Reality 35
Growing Importance of Visuals 7
Visual Metaphors and
Our Precarious Visual Culture 7
Ethics 35
Political Persuasion 7
Brand Mascots and
Digital Transformation of Visual
Celebrities35
Culture8
Favored Strategy in
Smartphones and Visual Culture 9
Advertisements 36
Multiple Meanings 10
Visual Appropriation 37
Polysemy10
Mashups and Remixes 38
FOCUS: Trump’s Hand Gestures 12
Homages38
Form and Content 14
Applying Ross’s Ethics 39
Decoding Visual Messages 15
Unintended Effects 39
Semiotics: Signs and Symbols 15
FOCUS: Rethinking Diversity
Visual Rhetoric 17
in Visual Narratives 40
FOCUS: Saving Big Bird 18
The Potter Box 41
What’s Ahead? 18
Chapter Summary 43
Chapter Summary 19
Key Terms 43
Key Terms 19
Practice Activities 44
Practice Activities 20
Note44
Note20
References44
References20

v
 Chapter 3: Ways of Seeing 47 PART TWO:
Visual Rhetoric Basic Ways of Seeing,
Interpreting, and
What’s in a Wink? 47
Creating 73
Key Learning Objectives 50
Chapter Overview 50 Chapter 4: Sign Language 75
Three Key Terms 50
Semiotics
What Is Theory? 50
Rhetorical Theory 51 The $20 Controversy 75
Methodology 51 Key Learning Objectives 78
FOCUS: Visual Rhetoric Chapter Overview 78
in Fake Facebook Semiotics: The Science of
Accounts51 Signs with Meanings 79
Visual Rhetoric 53 What Is a Sign? 79
Two Meanings of Visual Semiotic Knowledge Expands
Rhetoric 53 Visual Awareness 80
FOCUS: The Visual Rhetoric FOCUS: Perception =
of Quirky and Magical Interpretation 82
Images 56 Question “Common Sense” 83
Basics for Analyzing Visual FOCUS: The Semiotics of
Rhetoric 57 Cultural Appropriation 85
Durand’s Visual Rhetoric Meet the Semioticians 85
Matrix 58 Denotation and Connotation 86
FOCUS: Visual Rhetoric Icon, Index, and Symbol 86
Glossary 61 Social Semiotics Explores
The Different Lenses of Visual “What’s Going On?” 89
Rhetoric61 Signs Are All Around Us 89
Sign Language Marketing and Movies 90
(Semiotic Theory) 62 FOCUS: Semiotics in
This Means That Marketing 90
(Metaphor Theory) 63 News 91
FOCUS: Visual Rhetoric Advertising 91
in Activist Campaigns 64 FOCUS: Semiotics of Visual
Storytelling (Narrative Appropriation 92
Paradigm Theory) 66 Public Relations 93
Visual Voices (Symbolic Activist Art and Installations 93
Convergence Theory) 67 Doing Semiotic Analysis 94
FOCUS: Visual Rhetoric Analysis: Example Analysis 95
One Student’s Example 69 Applying Semiotic Analysis
Chapter Summary 70 in Your Work 97
Key Terms 70 Chapter Summary 98
Practice Activities 70 Key Terms 98
References71 Practice Activities 99
References99

vi Contents
Chapter 5: This Means People are Storytellers 132
That 102 Look Below the Surface 132
Narrative Paradigm Theory 134
Metaphor
Myths and Archetypes 136
Life is a Puzzle 102 FOCUS: Storytelling with Color 137
Key Learning Objectives 104 FOCUS: Character Archetypes 139
Chapter Overview 104 The Art and Science of Visuals 141
Metaphor: When This Stands Descriptive Content
for That 104 and Literal Form 141
FOCUS: Visual Metaphors Have FOCUS: Storytelling
Dramatic Effects on Your with Graphics and Typography 143
Own Creativity 105 Figurative Imagery 145
Metaphor is All Around Us 106 Narrative Criticism 147
Conceptual Metaphors 106 FOCUS: Ethical Implications
Types of Conceptual of Storytelling Through
Metaphors 108 Immersive Journalism 147
Metaphor’s Extended Family 110 Analyzing Narratives 148
Visual Metaphors 111 Example Analysis 149
FOCUS: Funny . . . and Applying NPT and Visual
Sometimes Creepy 113 Narrative Analysis in Your
FOCUS: Culture Clash: When Work 151
Visual Metaphors Can Misfire 116 Practice Activities 152
Visual Metaphor Lessons Chapter Summary 153
from the Media 118 Key Terms 153
Three Categories of Visual References154
Metaphors 118
FOCUS: Verizon’s “Better Chapter 7: Visual Voices 156
Matters” Campaign Fantasy Themes
Showcases Visual Metaphors 121
Pictures Can Speak
Visual Metaphor Criticism 122
Louder than Words  156
Example Analysis 123
Key Learning Objectives 157
Applying Visual Metaphor
Chapter Overview 158
Criticism in Your Work 124
Everyday Dramatizing: We’re
Chapter Summary 125
all Drama Queens and Kings 158
Key Terms 125
Symbolic Convergence Theory:
Practice Activities 126
A Merging of Imaginations 158
References127
Key Assumptions 159
Visual Images Make Emotional
Chapter 6: Storytelling 129 Connections162
Puppy Love 162
Visual Narratives
True Believers 162
Simple Stories 129 Activism 163
Key Learning Objectives 132 Master the Basic Concepts 165
Chapter Overview 132 Fantasy Theme Analysis 165

Contents vii
 FOCUS: Hands Up, Don’t Shoot: Photography in Society 192
The Power of Visual A History of Photographic
Protests 165 Influence 192
Applying FTA to Visual Strategic FOCUS: Culture Jamming
Communication171 Creates a Visual Battlefield 194
Research 171 Strategic Visual Communication 196
Public Relations: City Images The Power of Visuals in Advertising 196
and Political Campaigns 173 Historical Snapshots 196
FOCUS: Political Issue FOCUS: The Early Image Makers 197
Advertising 174 Visual Rhetoric in Advertising 199
Public Affairs: Questioning FOCUS: Color and Contrast 201
News Sources 175 The Contemporary Advertising
News Coverage: The Pope, Landscape 203
a Nobel Prize, and a Nice Social Media/Mobile Visual
Grown-Up 176 Messaging 203
Magazines: Voices from, E-mail Marketing with Visuals 204
and for, Teens 176 Outdoor and Ambient Visuals 204
FOCUS: Where to Find Symbolic Televisual Ads 206
Convergence? Nonprofit Product Placement 206
Fundraising Campaigns 177 Chapter Summary 209
How to Analyze and Create Key Terms 209
Visual Symbolic Messages 178 Practice Activities 209
Fantasy Theme Analysis 178 References210
Example of a Simple FTA
Analysis 179 Chapter 9: Public
Your First Fantasy Theme Relations 213
Analysis181 Fearless Girl 213
Applying Fantasy Theme Key Learning Objectives 215
Analysis181 Chapter Overview 215
Chapter Summary 183 A Brief History of PR: How
Key Terms 184 Visuals Defined It 215
Practice Activities 184 The Golden Age of Press
References 185 Agentry: Publicity Stunts 216
Historical Snapshot: Popular
Culture Images of the
PART THREE:
PR Practitioner 217
Using Visuals in
The Power of Visuals in the
Professional
Modern ERA of PR 218
Communication 187
Environmental Issues 218
Chapter 8: Advertising 189 Nonprofit and Activist PR 220
#FaceAnything 189 FOCUS: What Does Mental
Key Learning Objectives 191 Health Look Like? 221
Chapter Overview 191 Political Communication 223

viii Contents
 FOCUS: The Art of Making Critical Engagement with
a Political Ad Feel Like News Visuals 256
an Uplifting Movie 225 Morality Metaphors in News
Visual Rhetoric Strategies in PR Front Pages 256
Campaigns226 Visual Narratives in Editorial
Communicating CSR with Facts, Cartoons 257
Credibility, and Emotion 226 Visual Rhetoric of Political Satire 258
Visual Persuasion in Risk, Issue, Racist Visual Framing in
and Crisis Management 228 National Geographic 260
City Branding and Destination FOCUS: Magazines, Women,
Image-Making 229 and Sexuality 262
Chapter Summary 233 Chapter Summary 264
Key Terms 234 Key Terms 265
Practice Activities 234 Practice Activities 265
References234 References266

Chapter 10: Journalism 237 Chapter 11: Organizations 269

Refugee Border Crisis 237 1984 269
Key Learning Objectives 239 Key Learning Objectives 272
Chapter Overview 239 Chapter Overview 272
Photojournalism240 Visual Modes 273
Archived Visual Evidence 240 Four Major Areas 273
Photojournalists and Popular Understanding Organizations
Culture 241 as Cultures 274
FOCUS: The Seven Sisters Becoming a Culture Detective 277
and their Influence 243 Values and Visuals 278
Loss of Professional Photography 245 FOCUS: User-Generated Videos
Television 246 in the Workplace 279
News: Visual Society. Visual Visual Cues in Marketing
Anxiety247 and Promotion 279
The How and Why of News 247 Images Gone Wrong 280
FOCUS: Seeing the Refugee 248 Controversies and Crises 280
Digital Manipulation 249 The Power of Visuals in
FOCUS: Deepfakes Challenge Organizational Communication 282
Our Trust in Reality 251 Communicating
Ethical Dilemmas 252 Interpersonally: You’re
Digital Innovations and the Visual 282
Social Media 253 FOCUS: Hey, You! 282
Instagram 253 Communicating Using Digital
Social Media as Launch Pad 254 Media 283
Video’s Giant Wave 254 How to Use GIFs in the
Best Practices for News Sites 255 Workplace 284

Contents ix
 How To Put the Visual Edge FOCUS: La Peña: Intercultural
in Presentations 284 Understanding and Social
FOCUS: Using Visual Justice303
Systems to Drive Business Intercultural Communication
Results 286 in Nonprofit Organizations 304
Chapter Summary 288 Cultural Imagery and its
Key Terms 288 Ethical Implications 305
Practice Activities 289 Fair LGBTQ+ Reporting 306
References291 FOCUS: First Impartial LGBTQ+
Global News Service
Confronts Stereotypes 306
Chapter 12: Intercultural Honored and Misused
Communication 293 Cultural Symbols 308
Welcome to Middle Earth 293 Ads Lost in Translation 309
Key Learning Objectives 296 Deconstructing Intercultural
Chapter Overview 296 Imagery309
Ways of Looking at Intercultural Culture-Specific Public Relations 310
Communication and its Place FOCUS: Using Photography
in Mass Communication 296 to Build Intercultural Literacy 311
Intercultural Visual The Transcultural Greenspeak
Communication 297 of Greenpeace 312
FOCUS: The Founders: Hall Chapter Summary 315
and Hofstede 297 Key Terms 315
Corporate Intercultural Practice Activities 315
Communication 299 References316
Intercultural Communication
and the News 301 Index319

x Contents
Preface
How can we make sense of the myriad visual images surrounding us today? How can we
strategically use images with a clear understanding of their function and impact?
This book answers these questions by providing new “ways of seeing” visual repre-
sentations through different lenses and in different contexts. It then provides practical
guidance for creating purposeful and ethical visual communication.
The authors recognize the accelerating dominion of images in communication, soci-
ety, and culture. We human beings process images and video effortlessly and automati-
cally. Visuals carry an emotional and visceral punch that text can rarely, if ever, match. As
multinational marketers, social media influencers, and teenagers on TikTok know, visuals
create their own language, accessible to all, regardless of traditional textual barriers of
understanding such as education or language.
We’ve watched as entertainment and information have morphed into largely image-
based communication including advertising and brand messaging, organizational com-
munication, and individual creation and uploading of images, memes, and videos of all
kinds. As of this writing in early 2021, people are watching 5 billion YouTube vides every
day and Instagram has over one billion users worldwide. U.S. digital advertising expen-
ditures are projected to grow to 22.18 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 (https://www.statista.
com/statistics/256272/digital-video-advertising-spending-in-the-us/).
Most of us take the sphere of images for granted: it’s just the way the world is. Of
course, human beings have always created symbolic structures of meaning that shape
how we interpret and participate in social life. However, we also tend to treat these
image systems as natural phenomena. We conveniently forget that we ourselves
invented these structures of meaning and it’s important we understand their signifi-
cance and meaning in more thoughtful and nuanced ways.
For some years, we’ve been conducting research on images, moving and still, and
their various roles in society. We’ve studied and written about digital visual f­ olklore
in emails about President Obama, the widespread sharing of memes of football star
­Richard S­ herman, comedy television’s performance of vice presidential debates,
presidential ­candidates’ online visual storytelling, images of morality in political TV ads
and news coverage, sexual imagery in advertising, issues in visual persuasion ethics,
­photographic coverage of the Pope’s 2015 visit to Cuba, ethical implications of VR, AR,
and 360° technologies, and satiric images of Trump as spectacle in global magazines,
among other visual topics.

xi
 Inspired by our previous work, we wrote this book for students and scholars with the intent
of providing insights into the role of visuals in our dynamic social environment. Ralph Waldo
Emerson said, “We are symbols and we inhabit symbols” (The Poet, 1844). We hope this book
connects with a broad range of scholars and practitioners in the arts, humanities, social sci-
ences, engineering, technology, and neuroscience and serves as an invitation to future study.

xii Preface
Acknowledgments
Both authors made generous contributions in the research and writing of this book. As
this project has evolved through its various phases, there are many people to whom we
owe special thanks.
We would like to begin by thanking our academic colleagues in visual communication
for inspiring and challenging us to create this book and extend our theoretical, applied
approach to visual communication education to students in all preprofessional fields
that encounter visual phenomena.
Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers who offered clear critique, advice, and
suggestions based on their own teaching experiences in visual communication. We also
benefited greatly from our students who, through classroom engagement, provided
helpful feedback on lessons and exercises.
We want to acknowledge our colleagues and administrators at the University of
Illinois at Chicago, Department of Communication, and the Novak Leadership Institute
at Missouri School of Journalism for their support during the research and writing of
this book.
We also deeply appreciate the contributions from the professionals and academics
who shared insightful profiles in our chapters and who offered their suggestions and
ideas as we developed the outline of the book.
Drawing from years of study and practice in fine art, Janis is especially grateful for the
long-term mentoring in visual metaphors by Sr. Alyce Van Acker, O.P., of the Fine Line
Creative Arts Center, St. Charles, IL.
Finally, we would like to thank our spouses William Page and Daryl Moen for their
constant encouragement throughout our long process of shaping and perfecting each
chapter, resulting in a work we are truly proud of.

Acknowledgments xiii
 About the Authors
Janis Teruggi Page is a faculty member in the Department of Communication, Univer-
sity of Illinois at Chicago, and has been affiliated with the Strategic Public Relations Mas-
ter’s ­Program, George Washington University, for more than a decade. She has taught
visual communication courses throughout her academic career. As a Fulbright distin-
guished chair, in 2018 she researched intercultural visual communication and taught
visual literacy at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. An award-winning author,
her research includes “Images with Messages: A Semiotic Approach to Identifying and
Decoding Strategic Visual Communication,” published in the Routledge Handbook of
Strategic Communication (2015), and “Trump as Global Spectacle: The Visual Rhetoric of
Magazine Covers,” published in the Handbook of Visual Communication (2020). She is also
coauthor of the textbook Introduction to Public Relations: Strategic, Digital, and Socially
Responsible Communication (2019, 2021) with Lawrence J. Parnell. Prior to joining aca-
demia, she had a 20-year career as creative and marketing director for various US media
companies. A former student at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, she holds a PhD
from the Missouri School of Journalism with a secondary emphasis in art history.

Margaret Duffy is Professor of Strategic Communication and cofounder and executive

director of the Novak Leadership Institute. She led the effort to obtain a $21.6 m­ illion
gift to endow the Institute from David Novak, alumnus of the Missouri School of
Journalism advertising program. Mr. Novak is the retired CEO of YUM! Brands (Pizza Hut,
Taco Bell, and KFC) and credits his education in advertising as the catalyst for his leader-
ship success. Until 2016, Dr. Duffy chaired the Strategic Communication Faculty at the
Missouri School of Journalism. She also served as associate dean for graduate studies.
Dr. Duffy directed the Missouri School of Journalism’s Online Master’s Program from
2001 to 2016. An award-winning scholar, her research focuses on leadership, organiza-
tional communication, visual communication, and persuasion ethics. She coedited the
book Persuasion Ethics Today (2016) and cowrote Advertising Age: The Principles of Advertis-
ing and Marketing Communication at Work (2011), Dr. Duffy is a founding board member
of the Institute for Advertising Ethics and an inaugural fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds
Journalism Institute. In 2019, she received the University of Missouri Distinguished Fac-
ulty Award. She is a former marketing executive and earned her PhD from the Univer-
sity of Iowa. An author and consultant, Dr. Duffy conducts research and advises media
companies and brands around the world with clients as varied as Estée Lauder and
the US Army.

xiv About the Authors

PART ONE

Understanding
Visual
Communication
Chapter 1
Making Sense
of Visual Culture
1000 Words or One
Simple Picture?
“Pics or it didn’t happen.”

B
y 2015, this phrase had

morphed from a meme to a

catchphrase that seemed to be

everywhere. If a friend tweeted that

she’d been cliff diving in Acapulco,

you might respond with that phrase

suggesting that perhaps she was

being boastful without any evidence
to back it up (Whitehead, 2015).
Source: http://www.dpreview.com/­
forums/post/58791114. Reproduced
with permission of RetroClipArt/
Shutterstock.com.

Visual Communication: Insights and Strategies, First Edition. Janis Teruggi Page and Margaret Duffy.
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2022 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 If your gamer pal claimed to have reached level 60 in World of

Warcraft, you might demand some proof.

Other phrases call on our desire to tap into what Whitehead and others

have called “visual authority.” You’ve all heard that “seeing is believing”

and heard people say, “I’ll believe it when I see it with my own eyes.” And

consider the famous Chinese proverb, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Here’s the thing: it’s not Chinese, and it’s not a proverb. In fact, it was likely

the creation of ad man Fred Barnard1 in the 1920s. As William Safire (1996)

writes, Barnard, trying to increase his agency’s business selling ads on

railway cars, came up with the phrase. He had it translated into Chinese

characters with the caption “Chinese Proverb: One Picture is Worth Ten

Thousand Words” and it passed into popular culture as “one thousand

words.” Whether it is one thousand or ten, Barnard tapped into the notion

that most people find visual evidence more credible and interesting than

verbal or textual expression (Graber, 1990).

In entertainment, politics, interpersonal interactions, and at

work and at play, we’re all consuming, evaluating, and creating

visuals. Our culture is increasingly suffused with images aimed at

selling us something, persuading us, informing us, entertaining

us, and connecting us with others. Your skills and capabilities in

communicating effectively and critically evaluating what’s around

you are crucial to your personal and professional success and that is

what this book is about. In the following chapters, we’ll provide you

with the tools to become an ethical and effective communicator in

an era increasingly suffused with images of all kinds.

4 Visual Communication Insights and Strategies

Key Learning Objectives
1. Understand visual culture and its transformation in the digital age.
2. Explore the fluidity of visual meaning.
3. Identify ways to research and analyze visuals.

Chapter Overview
In this introductory chapter, you’ll explore five important issues relating to visuals in con-
temporary society. First, you’ll be introduced to how visuals work and how we interpret
them. Second, we’ll review the astounding growth of visuals and video in recent years and
how this trend is on a steep upward trajectory. Third, we examine the concept of visual
culture and how changing technology relates to that culture. Fourth, you’ll delve into how
individuals can draw different meanings from the same visuals or video artifacts and how
that process relates to social life and the meanings we take from our environment. Fifth,
we preview ways to analyze visuals. At the close of the chapter we offer two vignettes
illustrating how visuals work and provide an overview of the book as a whole.

HOW VISUALS WORK

LO1 Understand visual culture and its transformation in the digital age
Today almost every part of our lives is visual and visualized. We routinely use devices
to see, to capture experiences, and to communicate. As suggested by Tavin (2009), visual
culture is “a condition in which human experience is profoundly affected by images, new
technologies for looking, and various practices of seeing, showing, and picturing” (p. 3, 4).
We are now at a place of unlimited visual culture and thus how we understand media and
visual literacy has changed.

Photographic Truth?
Among the things that strike us about images and photographs in particular is how
they feel as if they are presenting us with a truth about reality. Sturken and Cartwright
(2009) call this the “myth of photographic truth” (p. 24) because it obscures the roles
of human beings who are creating the image. Those acts of creation include many
factors such as the choices the photographer makes about the scene, lighting, and
composition. Indeed, the photographer decides what subjects are worthy of their time
or attention.
Even with technologies that make it easy and inexpensive to capture images of all
kinds, the picture-taker must choose those subjects, whether they are powerful images
of war or funny pictures of grumpy cats. All of these will affect the tone of a photo and
thus the interpretations people take away from it. Even though we may know intellec-
tually that the photographer has chosen a certain subject at a certain time and framed
it a certain way, a photo still carries a sense of legitimacy. Put differently, it involves the
“legacy of objectivity that clings to the cameras and machines that produce images today”
­(Sturken and Cartwright, 2009, p. 18).

Making Sense of Visual Culture 5

 FOCUS: A Historical Perspective on
Visual Culture
Another way to understand visual culture is to look at it historically. This example
illustrates the role of perspective. When we compare medieval paintings
(1300–1500) to contemporary
paintings, we see remarkable
differences. People in today’s
societies are used to seeing two-
dimensional (flat surfaces) that
depict three-dimensional spaces
such as a road receding into
the distance. In medieval times,
Christianity was the primary
organizing principle of society and
artists presented religious and
historical images based on the
importance of those portrayed rather
than more realistic representations
(Willard n.d.). The world depicted
in the paintings was the domain
of God, not the lived experience
of people, as shown in this two-
dimensional artwork from 1295
depicting the Twelve Apostles Source: Art Collection 2/Alamy Stock Photo.
receiving inspiration from
the Holy Spirit:
In fact, it’s thought that
the highly religious yet
illiterate people in medieval
times would have found
3D representations to
be puzzling and even
heretical. The Renaissance
in the late fifteenth century
led to the emergence
of interest in science,
intellectual pursuits,
and the more realistic
depictions of the world.
With this societal change,
Source: GL Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.
artists began achieving
three-dimensional effects using a whole range of techniques including linear
perspectives, in which the “illusion that objects appear to grow smaller and
converge toward a ‘vanishing point’ at the horizon line” (Jirousek, 1995). This is
illustrated in Rembrandt’s 1632 painting, The Abduction of Europa:

6 Visual Communication Insights and Strategies

Growing Importance of Visuals
Increasingly, visuals dominate how we communicate and how we understand other
people, our society, and the culture in which we live. The line between the media we
consume and what we used to consider “real life” is largely erased. Media are our envi-
ronment as much as the physical spaces we inhabit. Old ways of belief are challenged
even more in a world built of visual communication. According to Anderson (1990), this
is resulting in an “unregulated marketplace of realities in which all manner of belief
­systems are offered for public consumption” (p. 6).
Groundbreaking journalist and social critic Walter Lippmann (1922) was likely the first
to apply the term “stereotype” referring to attitudes people acquire without specific
knowledge of an event or individual. People tend to quickly process visuals along the
lines of what they already believe or think and interpret them in terms of familiar cate-
gories (Graber, 1988). This may lead people to reflect less on the credibility and accuracy
of visual claims than those made in type.

Our Precarious Visual Culture

Today, something that looks like a photo may be an image that’s digitally produced,
altered, or enhanced. Many images are essentially fictions deliberately created to amuse,
to deceive, or to offer an artistic perspective. Many of these are shared and even go
viral. They range from silly fictions and jokes, such as fried chicken Oreos and a man
presumably holding an 87-pound cat, to manipulated photos attempting character
assassination, such as President Obama shown smoking and President George W. Bush
shown reading a book upside down (Hoaxes, 2015).
Some are memes shared by like-minded people. These images with text make fun of
public figures or celebrities and often call on well-known popular culture references and
icons. For example, during the Obama presidency, many forwarded email memes pic-
tured Obama through the lens of racial stereotyping portraying him as a witch doctor, an
animal, and even a pimp (Duffy et al., 2012).
For some people, such images are plausible and shareable and even if they don’t liter-
ally believe the message, they nonetheless appear to believe that the visual joke carries
an element of truth. The same message put into type likely would be patently offensive.
However, in a cartoon-like meme, senders and receivers of the image can claim that
“it’s just a joke.” For others, the images offer the opportunity to further manipulate or
mashup visuals and videos to create entirely new messages and meanings. People can
take photos and add stickers, filters, doodles, and text overlays. They can edit and crop
images, create collages and mashups. And, of course, they can and do share them.

Political Persuasion
Images created to intentionally mislead are increasingly part of the promotional strat-
egies for political candidates and their supporters. In pre-Internet times, visuals and
video, usually on television, played a major role in positioning candidates and their

Making Sense of Visual Culture 7

 opponents. Political consultants have frequently harnessed the power of the visual
because human beings are able to quickly interpret and process those messages.
Early on, researchers found that in news coverage and advertisements, visual ele-
ments overwhelmed verbal elements. In 1988, an ABC news correspondent, Richard
Threlkeld, voiced a spot that was aimed at discounting the claims of a George H.W. Bush
presidential ad called “Tank Ride.” The piece showed the visuals of the ad as the report-
er’s voiceover detailed the false claims it made. However, research revealed that people
who saw it tended to ignore the verbal statements and internalize the message of the
original ad. An intentional alteration of images in an ad from President George W. Bush’s
2004 campaign was digitally enhanced to add images of soldiers into a crowd he was
addressing. After criticism, the campaign withdrew the ad.
Another questionable use of images is found in a web video by the Democratic
National Campaign that used a dramatization of a man in a business suit pushing an
elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff as a way to attack Republican Congressman Paul
Ryan’s proposed plan for health care reform (Raposa, 2012). While no one was likely to
believe that Ryan’s plan would literally involve throwing old people from high places,
the powerful visuals coupled with a soundtrack of “America the Beautiful” nevertheless
sent a deceptive message about the possible effects of Ryan’s plan. As we examine many
media artifacts, we can see the power of visual metaphors – in this case, a policy change –
equated to a violent act against a helpless and vulnerable person.
Political persuasion has always drawn on popular culture and the conventions of films
and other audiovisual devices. You’ve probably noticed that negative political ads (NPAs)
tend to present opponents using dramatic conventions drawn from horror movies or crime
dramas because viewers find it easy to understand and connect with those conventions.
For example, often opponents will be portrayed accompanied by dark atmospheric visual
effects, unflattering images, and scary or ominous music. YouTube, Facebook, and scores
of other social networks provide low cost ways to distribute content beyond television
programming.

Digital Transformation of Visual Culture

Much research on digital visual content in the twenty-first century points to a tsunami
of images washing over words. WebDAM, a digital brand consulting firm and data sci-
ence company, reported that verbal intelligence is dropping while visual intelligence is
increasing (Morrison, 2015). Scores in the SAT reading exam hit an all-time low in 2016
(Kranse Institute, 2017) and three years later, with an increased number of student test-
takers in 2019, SAT reading scores again fell nationally. Research surfacing in many parts
of the world now cautions that essential “deep reading” processes may be under threat
as we move into digital-based modes of reading (Wolf, 2018): essentially “skimming” with
low engagement and retention.
But we’re incredible at remembering pictures, writes biologist John Medina (n.d.) in his
multimedia project Brain Rules. Three days after hearing information we may remember
10% of it but add a picture and memory increases to 65%. Thanks to the digital revolution,

8 Visual Communication Insights and Strategies

visuals have become a universal language. A whopping 82% of all Internet traffic globally
will be video by 2022, estimates Cisco (2019), up from 75% in 2017 – and virtual reality
(VR) and augmented reality (AR) will increase 12-fold globally between 2017 and 2022.
Instagram had one billion monthly active users in 2018 according to TechCrunch
(­Constine, 2018). That same year, the total number of photos shared in the platform’s
history was recorded at more than 50 billion. Dating apps like Tinder and Friendsy make
it easy (some say too easy) to exchange photos with others and find romance. When it
comes to the essential organizational website, research suggests that well-designed and
highly visual sites are more trustworthy than poorly designed sites (Harley, 2016).
Members of Generation Z, those born in 1996 and later, are even more visually ori-
ented than the much-discussed Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1985
(Williams, 2015). Research on Gen Z finds that 44% play video games daily and 72% visit
YouTube daily (Claveria, 2019). Advertisers and media companies are responding to shifts
toward the visual by redesigning their communication on big and small screens. On the
so-called “visual web,” brands and news organizations have moved to image-based con-
tent creation. The massive use of mobile is a major driver of these changes as smaller
screens are friendlier to visual content than textual.

Smartphones and Visual Culture

Smartphones have become so central to social life in many countries that the prospect
of losing one’s phone is more distressing than losing one’s car. Owning a certain type of
phone or wearable technology also communicates aspects of your interests, beliefs, and
priorities. Today, most people in most countries are swimming in media images or being
monitored by cameras in most public and private places. Signage and outdoor advertis-
ing are everywhere.
People are sending and receiving messages on screens of all types, large and
small. Smartphones and tablets capture both the mundane and extraordinary in
­digital photography and video. Individuals are creating their own reality shows in real
time, ­b roadcasting their activities to users who can favorite or save the videos for
later v­ iewing or redistribution. Some people post funny animal videos (Figure 1.1),
others create videos aimed at inspiring and motivating, and still others vlog with
beauty advice. Some of the myriad of postings are more instructional such as how to
install a garbage disposal, how to build and fly a homemade drone, and even how to
give an opossum a pedicure.
All these technologies and their diverse applications affect how we see others and
our environments, how we are seen and see ourselves. Some suggest that the visual
web is a phenomenon largely fueled by social media, smart phones with sophisticated
cameras, and apps that make it easy to create and share visual media (eMarketer, 2015).
Hubspot lists the 10 best user-generated content campaigns on Instagram, for example,
the UPS Store showcases a behind-the-scenes look at small business owners; online fur-
niture store Wayfair lets customers showcase the results of their online shopping sprees;
and Netflix lets fans promote their ­favorite shows and movies (Bernazzani, n.d.).

Making Sense of Visual Culture 9

 Figure 1.1 Smartphones and visual culture. Source: Supparsorn Wantarnagon/
Alamy Stock Photo.

MULTIPLE MEANINGS
LO2 Explore the fluidity of visual meaning.
For most of us, everyday communication seems effortless. We chat, text, and share
photos with our friends with an expectation of how the receivers of our message will
react. However, as you know, communication can easily go wrong. A friend’s mom,
­acting very concerned, recently asked her son what “LOL” meant on emails. He replied,
“laughing out loud. Why?” She said, “that explains a lot. I thought it was ‘lots of love’ and
I sent it in a message to someone whose pet had died.”
Similarly, that photo you shared thinking it was hilarious may or may not get the reac-
tion you expect. Intentionally or not, images and text point us to certain interpretations
of their meanings while downplaying other interpretations.

Polysemy
Different images, words, and even different fonts carry cultural meanings that may res-
onate or puzzle, anger or offend. These differences in meaning and interpretations
are called “polysemy,” quite literally “multiple meanings.” These multiple and shared
meanings shape our culture and how we understand our world. When most people

10 Visual Communication Insights and Strategies

hear the word “culture” they tend to think of fine arts, opera, or esoteric French films.
In this book, when we refer to visual culture, we’re talking about “the total way of life
of a people . . . the social legacy the individual acquires from his group” and “a way of
thinking, feeling, and believing” (Kluckhorn, 1973, in Geertz, p. 3).
Along the same lines, renowned scholar Raymond Williams (1958/1993) suggested in
his foundational essay that culture is ordinary. By that he meant that we should not think
of culture as simply artifacts or materials that people in a society make, whether they’re
smartphone photos, paintings, or Photoshopped memes. While these are part of culture
creation, cultures are also created in our actions and practices in everyday life, as we
­individually and collectively assign meaning and morality to what we do, say, and
communicate. Similarly, Clifford Geertz argued:
Believing, with Max Weber, that man [sic] is an animal suspended in webs of significance he
­himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not
an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning.
(Geertz, 1973)

This helps us think of our world not as something fixed, static, and “out there,” but
as ­something we are actively creating as we interact with each other, with media, and
face-to-face. The expectations and strictures of our cultures establish our identities and
our places in society and lead us to judge what is valued and what is deplored, and make
us e­ valuate what is worthy and unworthy. This doesn’t mean that there’s no “real” reality
out there, but it does mean that in social life and our interactions, we socially construct
the m ­ eanings of that reality.
In pre-Internet 1990, Walter Anderson wrote that in society, the “mass media make
it easy to create and disseminate new structures of reality” (p. 9). We as individuals now
don’t need special tools and training to alter and edit videos, photos, and images of all
kinds. Those with more skills can create entire worlds peopled by highly realistic images of
individuals and environments as seen in games like the Grand Theft Auto series and Mad-
den NFL. Some wearable technologies put the user “into” realistic 3D environments where
they can “walk” through rooms, “drive” on simulated roads, and “shop” virtual products.
Semioticians, people who study the science of signs and their meanings, argue
that all of the things human beings construct or create are “containers of meaning”
(Anderson, 1990, p. 21). Thus, everything we use and wear from the shoes we choose
to the ways we decorate our homes carries meaning both to the wearer/user and to
those around us. Anderson suggests, “all the T-shirts and jeans and sneakers . . . are not
only things but ideas” (p. 21) and they all may be studied as cultural facts and activities
(Eco, 1978). For example, someone wearing a T-shirt with the message “I hate T-shirts”
may be sending a message meant to be ironic or jokey. A man wearing a blue blazer and
khakis may be sending a message that “I’m a guy who knows what’s appropriate to wear
to work.” Or a small boy donning a straw hat, bandana, and strung-up tube toys may
be sending the message, “I’m a cowboy today” (Figure 1.2). In addition, memes, Photo-
shopped photos, social media photos, nine-second videos, and emojis carry, in their form
and content, ideas and values.

Making Sense of Visual Culture 11

 Because we’re
immersed in a world of
many messages or repre-
sentations, many of them
visual, we can see that
our social worlds are con-
stantly under construction
through our interactions
with images. Rose (2012)
uses the term “scopic
regime” and defines it as
“the ways in which both
what is seen and how it
is seen are culturally con-
structed” (p. 2). Visual cul-
ture is often criticized as
turning society and human
life into a spectacle and
that the move from analog
to digital culture not only
allows for endless replica-
tion, but itself is different
and worse than, say, tradi-
tional photography. Thus,
Rose concludes, “The mod-
ern connection between
seeing and true knowing
Figure 1.2 Everything we use and wear carries meaning.
has been broken” (p. 4).

FOCUS: Trump’s Hand Gestures

Some scholars attribute the success of Trump’s candidacy in the 2016 Republican
primary in part due to its value as comedic entertainment. One study, “The hands
of Donald Trump: Entertainment, gesture, spectacle” (Hall et al., 2016), analyzed the
populist candidate’s comedic performances during the Republican primaries. The
study proposed that in an era when style attracts more attention than content,
Trump took this characteristic to new heights. The authors concluded that Trump’s
unconventional political style, particularly his use of gesture to critique the political
system and caricature his opponents, created a visual spectacle. Through his
exaggerated depictions of the world crafted with his hands, he succeeded in

12 Visual Communication Insights and Strategies

 ignoring political correctness and disarming his adversaries – elemental to bringing
momentum to his campaign. Among Trump’s many hand gestures, the study notes
Trump’s use of the pistol hand, his signature gesture used on The Apprentice with
his catchphrase “You’re fired!” to fire unworthy contestants. When Trump used the
pistol hand, it conveyed arrogance, sovereign power, and commanding force – as
seen in the photo below:

Source: AP Images/Stuart Ramson.

The gesture is understood through its gun shape and its associated
swiftness and precision of striking down an unworthy opponent. Yet the
gesture is also playful: when Trump thrusts his hand forward to mimic the
firing of a gun, he brings a child’s pantomime of shooting to the firing of
an adult in an entrepreneurial battle or the dismissing of an opponent in a
political arena.

Media critic Stuart Hall (1997) writes that “culture is about shared meanings” and
“primarily, culture is concerned with the production and the exchange of mean-
ings . . . between the members of a culture or group” (p. 2). He suggests that people
who are in the same culture will tend to interpret the world in generally similar ways
while warning that things or actions cannot have stable meanings. Hall tells us that
meanings are produced in multiple ways: through personal interactions, through

Making Sense of Visual Culture 13

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
esquire beyond sea’39. This particular collar given to John Gower
was a comparatively cheap one, worth apparently only 26s. 8d.,
while the silver collar to be given to John Payne is valued at 56s. 8d.,
and a gold collar of SS for Henry himself costs no less than £26 8s.
11d. The fact that Gower wears a collar of SS on his tomb makes it
probable enough that he is the esquire mentioned in this document.
It will afterwards be seen that we cannot base any argument upon
the fact that the collar upon the effigy is now gilt, and apparently was
so also in Leland’s time.
25 Jan. 1397-8. A licence from the bishop of Winchester for
solemnizing the marriage between John Gower and Agnes
Groundolf, both parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene, Southwark,
without further publication of banns and in a place outside their
parish church, that is to say, in the oratory of the said John Gower,
within his lodging in the Priory of Saint Mary Overey in Southwark.
Dated at Highclere, 25 Jan. 139740. At this time then Gower was
living in the Priory of St. Mary Overey, and no doubt he continued to
do so until his death.
Finally, Aug. 15, 1408, the Will of John Gower, which was proved
Oct. 24 of the same year41. His death therefore may be presumed to
have taken place in October, 1408.
This will has been printed more than once, in Gough’s Sepulchral
Monuments, by Todd in his Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer and
in the Retrospective Review.
The testator bequeathes his soul to the Creator, and his body to be
buried in the church of the Canons of St. Mary Overes, in the place
specially appointed for this purpose (‘in loco ad hoc specialiter
deputato’). To the Prior of the said church he bequeathes 40s., to the
subprior 20s., to each Canon who is a priest 13s. 4d., and to each of
the other Canons 6s. 8d., that they may all severally pray for him the
more devoutly at his funeral. To the servants of the Priory 2s. or 1s.
each according to their position; to the church of St. Mary Magdalene
40s. for lights and ornaments, to the parish priest of that church 10s.,
‘vt oret et orari faciat pro me’; to the chief clerk of the same church 3s.
and to the sub-clerk 2s. To the following four parish churches of
Southwark, viz. St. Margaret’s, St. George’s, St. Olave’s, and St. Mary
 Magdalene’s near Bermondsey, 13s. 4d. each for ornaments and
lights, and to each parish priest or rector in charge of those churches
6s. 8d., ‘vt orent et orari pro me in suis parochiis faciant et procurent.’
To the master of the hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark 40s., to each
priest serving there 6s. 8d. for their prayers; to each sister professed
in the said hospital 3s. 4d., to each attendant on the sick 20d., and to
each sick person in the hospital 12d., and the same to the sisters
(where there are sisters), nurses and patients in the hospitals of St.
Anthony, Elsingspitell, Bedlem without Bishopsgate, and St.
Maryspitell near Westminster; to every house for lepers in the suburbs
of London 10s., to be distributed amongst the lepers, for their prayers:
to the Prior of Elsingspitell 40s., and to each Canon priest there 6s.
8d.
For the service of the altar in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, ‘in
qua corpus meum sepeliendum est,’ two vestments of silk, one of blue
and white baudkin and the other of white silk, also a large new missal
and a new chalice, all which are to be kept for ever for the service of
the said altar. Moreover to the Prior and Convent the testator leaves a
large book, ‘sumptibus meis nouiter compositum,’ called Martilogium,
on the understanding that the testator shall have a special mention of
himself recorded in it every day (‘sic quod in eodem specialem
memoriam scriptam secundum eorum promissa cotidie habere
debeo,’ not ‘debes,’ as printed).
He leaves to his wife Agnes, £100 of lawful money, also three
cups, one ‘cooperculum,’ two salt-cellars and twelve spoons of silver,
all the testator’s beds and chests, with the furniture of hall, pantry and
kitchen and all their vessels and utensils. One chalice and one
vestment are left to the altar of the oratory belonging to his apartments
(‘pro altare quod est infra oratorium hospicii mei’). He desires also that
his wife Agnes, if she survive him, shall have all rents due for his
manors of Southwell in the county of Northampton (?) and of Multoun
in the county of Suffolk, as he has more fully determined in certain
other writings given under his seal.
The executors of this will are to be as follows:—Agnes his wife,
Arnold Savage, knight, Roger, esquire, William Denne, Canon of the
king’s chapel, and John Burton, clerk. Dated in the Priory of St. Mary
Overes in Southwark, on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin,
mccccviii.

The will was proved, Oct. 24, 1408, at Lambeth before the
Archbishop of Canterbury (because the testator had property in more
than one diocese of the province of Canterbury), by Agnes the
testator’s wife, and administration of the property was granted to her
on Nov. 7 of the same year.
It may be observed with reference to this will that the testator
evidently stands already in the position of a considerable benefactor
to the Priory of St. Mary Overey, in virtue of which position he has his
apartments in the Priory and a place of honour assigned for his tomb
in the church. He must also have established by previous
arrangement the daily mass and the yearly obituary service which
Berthelette speaks of as still celebrated in his time. It is evident that
his benefactions were made chiefly in his life-time. There is some
slight difficulty as regards the manors which are mentioned in the
will. Multon in Suffolk we know already to have been in the poet’s
possession; but what is this ‘Southwell’? Certainly not the well-
known Southwell in Nottinghamshire, which cannot possibly have
been in the possession of a private person, belonging, as it did, to
the archiepiscopal see of York. Moreover, though ‘in Comitatu Nott.’
has been hitherto printed as the reading of the will, the manuscript
has not this, but either ‘Notth.’ or ‘North.,’ more probably the latter.
There were apparently other manors of Southwell or Suthwell in the
county of Nottingham, and a manor of Suwell in Northamptonshire,
but there seems to be no connexion with the name of Gower in the
case of any of these. It is possible, but not very readily to be
assumed, that the scribe who made the copy of the will in the
register carelessly wrote ‘Southwell in Com. North.’ (or ‘Com. Notth.’)
for ‘Feltwell in Com. Norff.,’ the name which is found coupled with
Multon in the other records42.
The one remaining record is the tomb in St. Saviour’s church.
This originally stood in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, on the
north side of the church, but in 1832, the nave and north aisle being
in ruins, the monument was removed to the south transept and
restored at the expense of Earl Gower. After the restoration of the
church this tomb was moved back to the north aisle in October 1894,
and was placed on the supposed site of the chapel of St. John the
Baptist, where it now stands43.
 In the course of nearly five centuries the tomb has undergone
many changes, and the present colouring and inscription are not
original. What we have now is a canopy of three arches over an altar
tomb, on which lies an effigy of the poet, habited in a long dark-
coloured gown, with a standing cape and buttoned down to his feet,
wearing a gold collar of SS, fastened in front with a device of a
chained swan between two portcullises. His head rests on a pile of
three folio volumes marked with the names of his three principal
works, Vox Clamantis, Speculum Meditantis, Confessio Amantis. He
has a rather round face with high cheek-bones, a moustache and a
slightly forked beard, hair long and curling upwards44, and round his
head a chaplet of four red roses at intervals upon a band45, with the
words ‘merci ihs46’ (repeated) in the intervals between the roses: the
hands are put together and raised in prayer: at the feet there is a lion
or mastiff lying. The upper ledge of the tomb has this inscription, ‘Hic
iacet I. Gower Arm. Angl. poeta celeberrimus ac huic sacro edificio
benefac. insignis. Vixit temporibus Edw. III et Ric. II et Henr. IV.’ In
front of the tomb there are seven arched niches. Against the wall at
the end of the recess, above the feet of the figure, a shield is
suspended bearing arms, argent, on a chevron azure three leopards’
faces or, crest a talbot (or lion) upon a chapeau. The wall behind the
tomb under the canopy is at present blank; the original painting of
female figures with scrolls has disappeared and has not been
renewed, nor has the inscription ‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c., been
replaced.
This tomb has attracted much attention, and descriptions of it
exist from early times. Leland’s account may be thus translated: ‘He
was honourably buried in London in the church of the Marian canons
on the bank of the Thames, and his wife also is buried in the same
place, but in a lower tomb. He has here an effigy adorned with a gold
chain and a chaplet of ivy interspersed with roses, the first marking
him as a knight and the second as a poet. The reason why he
established his place of burial here, was, I believe, as follows. A
large part of the suburb adjacent to London Bridge was burnt down
in the year 121247, in the reign of King John. The monastery of the
Marian canons was much damaged in this fire and was not fully
restored till the first year of Richard II. At that time Gower, moved by
the calamity, partly through his friends, who were numerous and
powerful, and partly at his own expense, repaired the church and
restored its ornaments, and the Marian canons even now
acknowledge the liberality of Gower towards them, though not to
such an extent as I declare it to have been. For this reason it was, in
my judgement, that he left his body for burial to the canons of this
house48.’ Berthelette in the Preface to his edition of the Confessio
Amantis, 1532, gives an interesting account of the tomb: ‘John
Gower prepared for his bones a resting-place in the monastery of St.
Mary Overes, where somewhat after the old fashion he lieth right
sumptuously buried, with a garland on his head in token that he in
his life days flourished freshly in literature and science. And the
same moniment, in remembrance of him erected, is on the North
side of the foresaid church, in the chapel of St. John, where he hath
of his own foundation a mass daily sung: and moreover he hath an
obit yearly done for him within the same church on the Friday after
the feast of the blessed pope St. Gregory.
‘Beside on the wall, whereas he lieth, there be painted three
virgins with crowns on their heads, one of the which is written
Charitie, and she holdeth this device in her hand,

En toy qui es fitz de dieu le pere49

Sauvé soit que gist souz cest piere.

‘The second is written Mercye, which holdeth in her hand this

device,

O bone Jesu, fait ta mercy

Al alme dont le corps gist icy50.

‘The third of them is written Pite, which holdeth in her hand this
device following,

Pur ta pité, Jesu, regarde,

Et met cest alme in sauve garde.
 ‘And thereby hangeth a table, wherein appeareth that who so
ever prayeth for the soul of John Gower, he shall, so oft as he so
doth, have a thousand and five hundred days of pardon.’
Stow, writing about 1598, says, ‘This church was again newly
rebuilt in the reign of Richard II and king Henry IV. John Gower, a
learned gentleman and a famous poet, but no knight, as some have
mistaken it, was then an especial benefactor to that work, and was
there buried in the north side of the said church, in the chapel of St.
John, where he founded a chantry. He lieth under a tomb of stone
with his image also of stone being over him. The hair of his head
brown, long to his shoulders but curling up, collar of esses of gold
about his neck; under his head,’ &c.51 The tomb is then further
described as by Berthelette, with addition of the epitaph in four Latin
hexameters, ‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c. (see p. 367 of this volume).
In the Annals of England (date about 1600) he again describes
the tomb, adding to his description of the painting of the three virgins
the important note, ‘All which is now washed out and the image
defaced by cutting off the nose and striking off the hands52,’ from
which it would appear that we cannot depend even upon the features
of the effigy which now exists, as original.
The figures of the virgins were repainted in the course of the
seventeenth century apparently, for in Hatton’s New View of London
(date 1708) they are described as appearing with ‘ducal coronets53.’
In Rawlinson’s Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (published
1719) the effigy is spoken of as having a ‘scarlet gown,’ the older
descriptions, e.g. Stow, giving it as ‘an habit of purple damasked,’
and it is said that there is upon the head ‘a chaplet or diadem of gold
about an inch broad, on which are set at equal distances four white
quaterfoyles.’54 The writer argues also that the chain should be of
silver rather than of gold55. The arms are said to be ‘supported by
two angels,’ and ‘underneath is this inscription, “Hic iacet Iohannes
Gower Armiger Anglorum poeta celeberrimus ac huic sacro Edificio
Benefactor insignis temporibus Edw. III et Ric. II. Armigeri scutum,”’
&c. The following remark is added: ‘Our author Mr. John Aubrey
gives us an inscription which he says he saw on a limb of this
monument, something different from the foregoing, and therefore not
unworthy a place here, viz.

Johannes Gower, Princeps

Poetarum Angliae, vixit
temporibus Edwardi tertii
et Richardi secundi.’

Later, in 1765, Tyler describes the gown as purple and the arms
as pendent by the dexter corner. The figures of women have ducal
coronets and scrolls of gold, and below them is the epitaph ‘Armigeri
scutum.’ Under the statue the inscription ‘Hic iacet,’ &c.56 The
monument, as here described, is engraved in Gough’s Sepulchral
Monuments (date 1796), where there is a full description of it57.
Blore, under whose direction the position of the monument was
changed, says in 1826 that the inscription on the ledge of the tomb
‘Hic iacet,’ &c., was then entirely gone.
Dollman says that there was a fire which injured the nave of the
church in the reign of Richard II, and that the windows of the nave
and aisles, which were finally removed in 1833, were of the time of
Richard II and Henry IV58. It is certain, however, that the church
remained long in an unfinished state during the period between 1207
(or 1212), the date of the early fire, and the latter part of the
fourteenth century. Dollman observes that the remains which may
have been contained in the tomb ‘disappeared when the tomb was
removed from the north aisle in 1832.’59 From what has been said it
will be perceived that the tomb has undergone a series of alterations
and renovations which have to some extent at least destroyed its
original character.
A word must be said finally about Prof. Morley’s theory that
Gower was in holy orders and held the living of Great Braxted in
Essex from 1390-7. This is founded on the fact that the parson of
Great Braxted for the period named was one John Gower, as
Professor Morley learns from Newcourt’s Repertorium Parochiale60.
The original record referred to by Newcourt is to be found in the
Registry of the diocese of London61, and is to the effect that on
February 23, 1390-1, the bishop of London admitted and instituted
John Gower, clerk, to the parochial church of Great Braksted, vacant
by the resignation of John Broun, the late rector, the said John
Gower having been duly presented by the king, who at this time was
patron of the living, the heir of the late earl of Pembroke being under
his wardship. Then later, under date March 31, 1397, there is record
of a new institution to the benefice, which is vacant by the
resignation of John Gower, late rector62.
Professor Morley thought that the expression ‘John Gower, clerk’
might indicate that the person referred to was in minor orders only,
some of the rectors inducted being called ‘priest’ (while others have
no title at all). He conceived that this John Gower held the rectory for
six or seven years without being admitted to priest’s orders at all,
and that he then resigned on his marriage63, and he found
confirmation of the theory that this was Gower the poet from the fact
that Great Braxted is near to Wigborough, where, as we have seen,
a person of this name, supposed by Professor Morley to be the poet,
had some claim to rent. We have already seen reason to think that
the John Gower who had a rent of £10 from Wigborough was not the
poet, and in any case it is evident that the fact could have nothing to
do with a presentation by the king five and twenty years afterwards
to the rectory of Great Braxted. As to resignation with a view to
marriage, it is very unlikely, if not altogether out of the question, that
a clergyman who had held an important rectory for six or seven
years should not only have been permitted to marry, but should have
had his marriage celebrated in the Priory of St. Mary Overy and with
the particular sanction of the bishop of Winchester. Add to this the
fact that John Gower the poet was undoubtedly ‘Esquire,’ being
called so not only on his tomb but also in the documents of 1382 and
1393, the latter belonging to the period when, according to this
theory, he was holding the living of Great Braxted. On the whole, the
‘minor orders’ theory must be dismissed as entirely baseless, and
the John Gower who was rector of Great Braxted must be set down
as another of the rather numerous persons of this name who were to
be found in Kent and Essex at this time. There is nothing in Gower’s
writings to suggest the idea that he was an ecclesiastic. He distinctly
calls himself a layman in the Mirour de l’Omme, and the expression
‘borel clerk’ in the Prologue of the Confessio Amantis must be taken
to mean the same thing. The language which in the Vox Clamantis
he uses about rectors who fail to perform the duties of their office,
makes it almost inconceivable that he should himself have held a
rectory without qualifying himself for the performance of the service
of the Church even by taking priest’s orders. Evidently Professor
Morley’s idea of the poet as an Essex rector must go the way of his
previous attempt to establish him as a country gentleman at Otford.
It is probable that he passed a considerable part of his literary life in
those lodgings within the Priory of St. Mary Overey which are
mentioned in his marriage licence and in his will64.
To the information which we derive from records must be added
that which is to be drawn from the poet’s own writings. From the
Speculum Meditantis we learn that in early life he composed love
poems, which he calls ‘fols ditz d’ amour’ (27340), and from two
other passages (ll. 8794 and 17649) we may perhaps assume that
he was already married at the time when this work was composed.
In the former, speaking of those who tell tales to husbands about
their wives’ misconduct, he says in effect, ‘I for my part declare (‘Je
di pour moi’) that I wish to hear no such tales of my wife:’ in the
second he speaks of those wives who dislike servants and other
persons simply because their husbands like them, and he adds, ‘I do
not say that mine does so’ (‘Ne di pas q’ensi fait la moie’). If the
inference be correct, his union with Agnes Groundolf in his old age
was a second marriage. We cannot come to any definite conclusion
from this poem about any profession or occupation which he may
have had besides literature. The statement of Leland that he
practised as a lawyer seems rather improbable, in view of the way in
which he here speaks of lawyers and their profession. Of all the
secular estates that of the law seems to him to be the worst (24085
ff.), and he condemns both advocates and judges in a more
unqualified manner than the members of any other calling.
Especially the suggestion of a special tax to be levied on lawyers’
gains (24337 ff.) is one that could hardly have come from one who
was himself a lawyer65.
Again the way in which he speaks of physicians (24301, 25621
ff.) seems almost equally to exclude him from the profession of
medicine.
Of all the various ranks of society which he reviews, that of which
he speaks with most respect is the estate of Merchants. He takes
pains to point out, both in this poem and in the Vox Clamantis, the
utility of their occupation, and the justice of their claim to reasonably
large profits on successful ventures in consideration of the risks they
run (Mirour, 25177 ff.; Vox Clam. Lib. v. Cap. xi, Heading). He makes
a special apology to the honest members of the class for exposing
the abuses to which the occupation is liable, pleading that to blame
the bad is in effect to praise the good (25213 ff., 25975 ff.), and he is
more careful here than elsewhere to point out the fact that honest
members of the class exist. He speaks of ‘our City,’ and has strong
feelings about the interests of the city of London, and about the
proceedings of a certain bad citizen who stirs up strife and aims at
giving privileges in trade to strangers (Mirour, 26380 ff.; cp. Vox
Clamantis, v. 835 ff.): moreover, the jealousy of Lombards which he
expresses has every appearance of being a prejudice connected
with rivalry in commerce (25429 ff.). He has a special enthusiasm
about the wool-trade, as a national concern of the first importance,
and he has very definite opinions about the abuses of the staple
(25360 ff.). At the same time there is no definite evidence that Gower
was a merchant, and his interest in trade and in the affairs of the city
of London may well have arisen from his residence in or near the city
and his personal acquaintance with merchants (cp. Mir. 25915 ff.).
His references to the dearness of labour and the unreasonable
demands of the labourer (24625 ff.) are what we might expect from a
man who had property in land; but again we have no sufficient
evidence that Gower was a land-owner in the ordinary sense of the
word, for, though he acquired the manors of Feltwell and Multon, he
did not reside upon either of them, but gave a lease of them at once.
He tells us that he is a man of simple tastes (26293 ff.), and we
know from the whole tone of his writings that he is a just and upright
man, who believes in the subordination of the various members of
society to one another, and who will not allow himself to be ruled in
his own household either by his wife or his servants. But, though a
thorough believer in the principle of gradation in human society, he
constantly emphasizes the equality of all men before God, and
refuses absolutely to admit the accident of birth as constituting any
claim to ‘gentilesce.’ The common descent of all from Adam is as
conclusive on this point for him as it was for John Ball. Considering
that his views on society are essentially the same as those of Wycliff,
and considering also his strong opinions about the corruption of the
Church and the misdeeds of the friars, it is curious to find how
strongly he denounces the Lollards in his later writings.
He has a just abhorrence of war, and draws a very clear
distinction between the debased chivalry of his own day and the true
ideal of knighthood. Above all he has a deep sense of religion, and is
very familiar with the Bible. He strongly believes in the moral
government of the world by Providence, and he feels sure, as others
of his age did also, that the final stage of corruption has almost
come. Whatever others may do, he at least intends to repent of his
sins and prepare himself to render a good account of his
stewardship. In both his French and his Latin work he shows himself
a fearless rebuker of evil, even in the highest places. The charge of
time-serving timidity has been sufficiently dealt with in the
Introduction to the English Works.
From the Vox Clamantis it is evident that the rising of the
Peasants produced a very powerful, indeed almost an
overwhelming, impression upon his mind. He describes the terror
inspired by it among those of his social standing in the most
impressive manner. The progress of his political development during
the reign of Richard II is clearly seen in his Latin works, with their
successive revisions. He began, it is evident, with full hope and
confidence that the youthful king would be a worthy representative of
his father the Black Prince, both in war and in peace. As time goes
on, and the boy develops into an ill-regulated young man, under evil
influences of various kinds, the poet begins to have doubts, and
these gradually increase until they amount to certainty, and rebuke
and denunciation take the place of the former favourable
anticipations. In the latest version of the Confessio Amantis, which
is, no doubt, contemporary with some of these changes in the text of
the Vox Clamantis, we see the author’s confidence transferred from
the king to his cousin, not as yet regarded as a successor to the
throne, but thought of as representing a fair ideal of chivalry and
honesty. Finally, in the Cronica Tripertita, he accepts the fall of
Richard as the fatal consequence of a course of evil government and
treachery, and rejoices in the prospect of a new order of things under
his predestined hero.
We see here the picture of one who is not devoted to a particular
party, but looks to what he conceives as the common good, deeply
impressed with the sense that things are out of joint, and hoping
against hope that a saviour of society may arise, either in the person
of the young king, or of his vigorous and chivalrous cousin. There is
no sign of any liking for John of Gaunt or of any attachment to the
Lancastrian party generally; but he is stirred to very genuine
indignation at the unfair treatment of men whom he regards as
honest patriots, such as Gloucester, the Arundels, and Cobham. He
himself was evidently a most patriotic Englishman, loving his country
and proud of its former greatness. For this we may refer especially to
Vox Clamantis, vii. 1289 ff., but the same feeling is visible also in
many other passages. He is a citizen of the world no doubt, but an
Englishman first, and he cares intensely for the prosperity of his
native land. Even when he writes in French it is for England’s sake,

‘O gentile Engleterre, a toi j’escrits.’

When he decides that the Confessio Amantis could no longer go

forth with Richard as its patron, it is to England that he dedicates his
poem, and for his country that he offers up the prayers which he can
no longer utter with sincerity on behalf of the worthless king (Conf.
Am. Prol. 24 and viii. 2987).
From the Confessio Amantis we learn the circumstances under
which that work was undertaken, owing in part at least to a
suggestion from the king himself, who, meeting Gower upon the
river, made him come into his own barge and conversed with him
familiarly on his literary projects, urging him apparently to the
composition of a poem in English, and perhaps suggesting Love as
the subject. We gather also that in the year 1390 the author
considered himself already an old man, and that he had then
suffered for some time from ill-health (Prol. 79*, viii. 3042*), and from
the Epistle to Archbishop Arundel prefixed later to the Vox
Clamantis, as well as from the Latin lines beginning ‘Henrici Regis’
(or ‘Henrici quarti’) we learn that he was blind during the last years of
his life, probably from the year 1400. We may reasonably suppose
that he was born about the year 1330, or possibly somewhat later.
From the Latin statement about his books we learn, what is tolerably
obvious from their tenour, that his chief aim in writing was edification,
while at the same time we gather from the opening of the first book
of the Confessio Amantis that he then despaired of effecting
anything by direct admonition, and preferred finally to mingle
amusement with instruction. The Latin lines at the end of this
volume, beginning ‘Dicunt scripture,’ express a principle which he
seems to have followed himself, namely that a man should give
away money for good purposes during his own life, rather than leave
such business to be attended to by his executors.
The literary side of his activity is sufficiently dealt with in the
introductions to his several works, and there also it is noted what
were the books with which he was acquainted. It is enough to say
here that he was a man of fairly wide general reading, and
thoroughly familiar with certain particular books, especially the Bible,
all the works of Ovid, and the Aurora of Peter de Riga.

THE LATIN WORKS.

Of the works which are included in the present volume the Vox
Clamantis is the most important. It is written in elegiac verse, more
or less after the model of Ovid, and consists of 10,265 lines,
arranged in seven books, of which the first, second and third have
separate prologues, and each is divided into a series of chapters
with prose headings. As to the date of composition, all that we can
say is that the work in its present form is later than the Peasants’
rising in the summer of 1381, and yet it was evidently composed
while the memory of that event was fresh, and also before the young
king had grown beyond boyhood. The advice to the king with regard
to fidelity in marriage need not be taken to have special reference to
the king’s actual marriage at the end of the year 1382, but perhaps it
is more natural to suppose that it was written after that event than
before.
The general plan of the author is to describe the condition of
society and of the various degrees of men, much as in the latter
portion of the Speculum Meditantis. This, however, is made
subordinate to the detailed account, given at the beginning, of the
Peasants’ rising, and that is in fact set down as the main subject of
the work in the Latin account of it given by the author: ‘Secundus
enim liber sermone Latino versibus exametri et pentametri
compositus tractat super illo mirabili euentu, qui in Anglia tempore
domini Regis Ricardi secundi anno regni sui quarto contigit, quando
seruiles rustici impetuose contra nobiles et ingenuos regni
insurrexerunt. Innocenciam tamen dicti domini Regis tunc minoris
etatis causa inde excusabilem pronuncians, culpas aliunde, ex
quibus et non a fortuna talia inter homines contingunt enormia,
euidencius declarat. Titulusque voluminis huius, cuius ordo septem
continet paginas, Vox Clamantis nominatur.’
So the statement of contents ran in its earlier form. Afterwards
the excuses made for the king on the ground of his youth were
withdrawn, and in the final form of the statement the events of the
Cronica Tripertita are brought into the reckoning, and the fall of
Richard seems to be represented as a moral consequence of the
earlier misfortunes of his reign.
Evidently what is quoted above is a very insufficient summary of
the Vox Clamantis, which in fact deals with the Peasants’ rising only
in its first book; and notwithstanding the fact that this event so much
overshadows the other subjects of the poem that the author in
describing his work afterwards treated it as the only theme, there is
some reason to question whether what we have is really the original
form of the poem, and even to conclude that the work may have
been originally composed altogether without this detailed narrative of
the insurrection. For this idea there is some manuscript authority. It
has not hitherto been noted that in one copy (MS. Laud 719) the Vox
Clamantis appears with the omission of the whole of the first book
after the Prologue and first chapter66. At the same time the text of
this manuscript seems to be complete in itself, and the books are
numbered in accordance with the omission, so that there are six
books only, our second book being numbered as the first67. There is
really something to be said for this arrangement, apart from the fact
that it occurs in a single manuscript. The first book, with its detailed
account of the Peasants’ revolt, though in itself the most interesting
part of the work, has certainly something of the character of an
insertion. The plan of the remainder seems to be independent of it,
though the date, June, 1381, which is found also in the Laud MS.,

‘Contigit vt quarto Ricardi regis in anno,

Dum clamat mensem Iunius esse suum,’

was doubtless intended to suggest that portentous event as the

occasion of the review of society which the work contains. The
prologue of the second book, which introduces the teachings of the
vision with an invocation of God’s assistance, an apology for the
deficiencies of the work, and an appeal to the goodwill of the reader,
and concludes with a first announcement of the name of the
succeeding poem, Vox Clamantis, would certainly be much more in
place at the beginning of the whole work than here, after more than
two thousand lines, and there is no difficulty in supposing that the
author may have introduced his account of the Peasants’ revolt as
an afterthought. The chief reason for hesitating to accept the Laud
MS. as representing an authentic form of the poem, lies in the fact
that the text of this MS. is rather closely related to that of another
copy, MS. Digby 138, which contains the first book in its usual place;
and it is perhaps more likely that the original archetype of these two
MSS. was one which included the first book, and that this was
omitted for some reason by the scribe of the Laud MS., than that the
copyist of the Digby MS. perceived the absence of this book and
supplied it from some other quarter.
 One other matter affecting our estimate of the style of the
composition generally has perhaps been sufficiently illustrated in the
Notes of this edition, that is to say, the extent to which the author
borrows in the Vox Clamantis from other writers. It is sufficiently
obvious to a casual reader that he has appropriated a good many
lines from Ovid, though the extent of this schoolboy plagiarism is
hardly to be realised without careful examination; but his very
extensive obligations to other writers have not hitherto been pointed
out. He repeatedly takes not lines or couplets only, but passages of
eight, ten or even twenty lines from the Aurora of Peter Riga, from
the poem of Alexander Neckam De Vita Monachorum, from the
Speculum Stultorum, or from the Pantheon, so that in many places
the composition is entirely made up of such borrowed matter
variously arranged and combined. This is evidently a thing to be
noted, because if the author, when describing (for example) the vices
of monasteries, is found to be merely quoting from Alexander
Neckam, we cannot attach much value to his account as a picture of
the manners of his own time. His knowledge of Ovid seems to have
been pretty complete, for he borrows from almost every section of
his works with the air of one who knows perfectly well where to turn
for what he wants; quite a large portion of Neckam’s poem is
appropriated without the smallest acknowledgement, and many long
passages are taken from the Aurora, with only one slight mention of
this source (iii. 1853). Most of the good Latin lines for which Gower
has got credit with critics are plagiarisms of this kind, and if
Professor Morley had realized to what extent the Vox Clamantis is a
compilation, he would hardly have estimated the work so highly as
he has done. The extracts from medieval authors are to some extent
tolerable, because they are usually given in a connected and
intelligible shape, but the perpetual borrowing of isolated lines or
couplets from Ovid, often without regard to their appropriateness or
their original meaning, often makes the style, of the first book
especially, nearly as bad as it can be. I have taken the pains to point
out a considerable number of plagiarisms, but it is certain that there
must be many instances which have escaped my notice. In his later
Latin verse the author is very much less dependent upon others, and
the Cronica Tripertita, from the nature of the subject, is necessarily
original.
Gower’s own style of versification in Latin is somewhat less
elegant than that of Alexander Neckam or Peter Riga, but it stands
upon much the same level of correctness. If we take into account the
fact that the Latin is not classical but medieval, and that certain
licences of prosody were regularly admitted by medieval writers of
Latin verse, we shall not find the performance very bad. Such
licences are, for example, the lengthening of a short syllable at the
caesura, the position of final short vowels before ‘st,’ ‘sp,’ ‘sc’ at the
beginning of the succeeding word, and the use of polysyllabic words,
or of two dissyllables, at the end of the hexameter, so that lines such
as these are not to be taken as irregular:

‘Omnis et inde gradus a presule sanctificatus;’

‘Quo minor est culpa, si cadat inde rea;’
‘Et quia preuisa sic vota facit, puto culpa;’
‘Si bene conseruet ordinis ipse statum.’

In any case it is certain that Gower expressed himself in Latin

with great facility and with tolerable correctness. He may have
imitated the style of Ovid ‘studiosius quam felicius,’ as Leland
observes, but the comparison with other Latin verse-writers of his
time sets his performance in a fairly favourable light.
Vox Clamantis. Analysis.

Prologus Libri Primi.

From the records of the past we derive examples; and though
credit be not commonly given to dreams, yet the writers of past time
instruct us otherwise. Daniel and Joseph were taught by visions, and
a man’s guardian angel often warns him in his sleep. Hence, as it
seems to me, my dreams should be recorded as signs of the times;
and what my vision was and at what time it came, ye may learn from
this book.
If ye desire to know the writer’s name, add to John the beginning
of Godfrey, the first letter of Wales and the word ter without its head.
But give no praise to the author, for I write not with a view to fame. I
shall write of strange things which my country has experienced, and
as my matter is woful, so also shall be my song. My pen is wet with
tears, and both my heart and my hand tremble; nor am I sufficient to
write all the troubles that belong to the time. I ask for indulgence
rather than praise: my will is good, though my powers fall short. I
pray that while I sing of those true visions which disturb my heart
with terror, he whose name I bear, to whom visions were revealed in
Patmos, may control my work.

Liber Primus.
Cap. I. It was in the fourth year of king Richard, when the month
was June: the moon had set and the morning-star had risen, when
from the West a strange light sprang, the dawn came from the region
of the setting sun and brought forth the day. The sun shone and all
the earth was bright; Phebus went forth in his glorious car, attended
by the four Seasons, Summer being nearest to him then and
honoured by all creatures. The meadows were bright with flowers
and the flocks sported in the fields, a perfect paradise of flowers and
fruits was there, with the songs of multitudinous birds. Such was the
day on which I wandered forth for my pleasure.
All things have an end, and at length that calm day had
completed its appointed hours; evening came and I lay down to rest.
The night came on, dark and gloomy as the day had been bright,
and sleep did not visit my eyes. My hair stood on end, my flesh and
my heart trembled and my senses were disturbed like water. I
reflected what the cause might be of my sudden terror, and my mind
wandered by various paths. The night went on, yet no sleep came,
and terror of a coming evil oppressed me. Thus I spent the hours of
darkness, not knowing what was approaching, seeing the past and
fearing for the future; but at length, towards dawn, sleep came upon
my weary eyes, and I began to dream.
Cap. II. Methought I went out upon a Tuesday to gather flowers,
and I saw people in bands going abroad over the fields. Suddenly
the curse of God fell like lightning upon them, and they were
changed into the forms of beasts, various bands into various forms.
 One band was changed into asses rebellious against the halter
and the burden, careering over the fields and demanding to be as
horses; and these had also horns in the middle of their foreheads,
which were stained with blood; they were swift as leopards in their
leap, and had tails like that of a lion, yet the stolid asinine mind was
in them still. I stood in terror and could advance no further.
Cap. III. With them came oxen, who refused any longer to be
subject to the yoke and who would no longer eat straw. These too
were in monstrous shape with feet like those of a bear and with the
tails of dragons; they breathed forth fire and smoke like the bulls of
Colchos. They devastated the fields and slew men: the plough, the
rake and the mattock lay idle. ‘Ah me!’ I said, ‘the cultivation of the
fields will cease and famine will come upon us.’
Cap. IV. A third band I saw transformed into swine, furious and
possessed by the devil. They followed one another, hog and hogling,
boar and little pig, the sow and her companion, and there was no
swine-herd to keep them away from the corn-fields. They wandered
where they would, and the pig ravaged like a wolf.
One boar there was, whom Kent produced, such as the whole
earth might not match. Flame came from his mouth and eyes, his
tusks were like those of an elephant; foam mixed with human blood
flowed over his flanks. He strikes down all those whom he meets and
none can prevail against him: no place except heaven is safe from
his rage. From the North comes another boar to meet him and to
plan destruction.
These boars were greater and more furious than that of Tegea or
that which Meleager hunted. They are not content with acorns for
their food or water for their drink; they devour rich food in the city and
drink good wine, so that they lie in drunkenness as dead. They
despise the pig-stye and defile kings’ palaces with their filth: their
grunting is like the roaring of a lion.
Cap. V. A fourth band was turned into dogs, who are not content
with the food from their master’s table, but range in search of better,
who do not hunt hares or stags, but bark at the heels of men. Here
are Cut and Cur from their wretched kennels, the sheep-dog and the
watch-dog, the baker’s, the butcher’s, and the miller’s dog. The one-
eyed is there and the three-legged dog limps behind barking. These
cannot be soothed by stroking, but bare their teeth in anger against
you. They tear all whom they meet, and the more they devour the
less they are satisfied. Cerberus in hell hears their howl, and
breaking away from his chains he joins himself to their company and
becomes their leader. More savage were these than the hounds
which tore Acteon or the beast which Diana sent to destroy the
Athenians. All trembled before them.
Cap. VI. Another band took the form of foxes and cats. They ran
about and searched every cavern and every hiding-place, and made
their way into secret chambers. There was venom in their bite. The
caves of the wood send forth the foxes, who rob by day without fear,
and have a treaty of peace with the dogs. The cats leave the barns
and cease to catch mice, and these do damage more than ever did
the mice of Ekron.
Cap. VII. A sixth took the form of domestic fowls, but they claimed
to be birds of prey. The cock had the beak and claws of a falcon, and
the goose soared up to the heaven. Suddenly the cock becomes a
carrion-crow and the goose a kite, and they prey upon the carcasses
of men. The cock crows horribly and the hen follows him and moves
him to evil. The goose which formerly frightened only children with its
hissing, now terrifies grown men and threatens to tear them to
pieces.
Owls join themselves to these and do by day the deeds of
darkness, sharpening their feathers with iron, in order that they may
slay men.
Cap. VIII. The dream continued, and I saw another band in the
form of flies and of frogs. These were like those that plagued Egypt:
the frogs came into houses and shed their poison everywhere; the
flies pursued with their stings all those of gentle blood, and nothing
could keep them out. Their prince Belzebub was the leader of the
host. The heat of the summer produced them suddenly in swarms:
the fly was more rapacious than the hawk and prouder than the