Wailing eloquence: Sleep and dreams in early modern English literature (John Milton, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, Ben Jonson)

This dissertation aims to present the great variety of ways in which sleep and dreaming are represented in poems written in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, and how its philosophical texts approach the matter of dream interpretation. It explores the literary and philosophical representations of sleep and dreaming in order to chart the changing relationships between body and mind that dreams inspire and fashion. Put simply, it argues that sleep and dreams reveal aspects of selfhood and subjectivity long overlooked by contemporary readers.; After an introduction that explores ancient and medieval theories of dreaming, Chapter 1, “The Sleepy Knights and Dreams of The Faerie Queene,” turns to Edmund Spenser in order to show that as evidence of selfhood, dreams raise challenges about responsibility (human and divine) for sleep and its consequences. In the critical history of the epic romance, dreams often arise as a suitable analogy or example of the work the poem demands of its interpreters, but this analogy creates unique challenges with respect to knighthood's values.; Chapter 2, “Residues of ‘Fancied Sight’ in English Renaissance Lyric,” explores the presence of accounts of dreams and sleep in English lyric poetry. Taking its starting point from Petrarch and Dante, it looks mainly at sonnet sequences and lyrics by Donne and Jonson. Chapter 3, a series of readings of dreams in Shakespeare and revenge tragedy, reads dreams and sleep as elements of plot and dramatic character that challenge our notion of agency in literature.; Chapter 4, “Wild Work: Milton's Poetics of Dream Interpretation,” argues for the relevance of mid-seventeenth century philosophy and oneirocriticism in understanding Eve's dream, the Lady in Comus, the companion poems, and the Son in Paradise Regained, among others. Both God and Satan use sleep and dreams to influence Adam and especially Eve, either towards “good” or disobedience. The Son's dream before the second temptation is a unique instance of a character dreaming scripture.; The conclusion, “Honorable Visions in Eighteenth-Century Poetry,” shows how preromantic poets like Mark Akenside and translators of Anacreon like Matthew Pilkington sought in dreams an opportunity to define literary history.