English Renaissance Dream Theory and Its Use in Shakespeare
THE RICE INSTITUTE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DREAM THEORY MID ITS USE IN SHAKESPEARE By COMPTON REES, JUNIOR A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS Houston, Texas April, 1958 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .............. 1-3 Chapter I Psychological Background: Imagination and Sleep ............................... 4-27 Chapter II Internal Natural Dreams 28-62 Chapter III External Natural Dreams ................. 63-74 Chapter IV Supernatural Dreams ...................... 75-94 Chapter V Shakespeare’s Use of Dreams 95-111 Bibliography 112-115 INTRODUCTION This study deals specifically with dream theories that are recorded in English books published before 1616, the year of Shakespeare1s death, with a few notable exceptions such as Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). Though this thesis does not pretend to include all available material on this subject during Shakespeare*s time, yet I have attempted to utilise all significant material found in the prose writings of selected doctors, theologians, translated Latin writers, recognised Shakespeare sources (Holinshed, Plutarch), and other prose writers of the time? in a few poets; and in representative dramatists. Though some sources were not originally written during the Elizabethan period, such as classical translations and early poetry, my criterion has been that, if the work was published in English and was thus currently available, it may be justifiably included in this study. Most of the source material is found in prose, since this A medium is more suited than are imaginative poetry anl drama y:/h to the expository discussions of dreams. The imaginative drama I speak of here includes Shakespeare, of course.
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