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Dreams in Early Modern England: Frameworks of Interpretation by Janine Rivière A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of PhD Graduate Department of History, University of Toronto. © Copyright by Janine Rivière (2013) Abstract Dreams in Early Modern England: Frameworks of Interpretation, PhD (2013), Janine Rivière, Graduate Department of History, University of Toronto. While dreams as visions have received much attention from historians, less work has been undertaken on understanding more commonly experienced dreams that occurred in sleep. In this dissertation I seek to begin redressing this neglect. Two overarching questions focus the dissertation: How did early modern English people understand their dreams? And did these understandings change in response to significant developments in English culture? To answer these questions I explore early modern English theories, beliefs and experiences of dreams through a close study of key medical, demonological, philosophical, spiritual, oneirocritic and private writings. I suggest that in the period 1550-1750 there were three principal frameworks used to understand dreams: (1) health of the body and mind, (2) prediction and (3) spirituality. These three frameworks coexisted, either reinforcing or contesting one another throughout the period. The framework of health saw dreams as natural products of the body and mind that revealed the overall health of the dreamer. In the model of prediction, dreams were deemed significant, yet encoded, clues to the future that required careful interpretation. Finally, in spiritual frameworks, dreams were conceived as sent by God, angels or the Devil. Since early modern English writings reveal a diversity of natural and supernatural theories about dreams that never really “declined,” a study of them also helps to complicate ideas about the “disenchantment of the world." Finally, I also suggest that early modern English writings on dreams reveal the perceived vulnerability of the dreamer to internal and external forces. Dreams were a locus where the boundaries between the human and divine, supernatural and natural, met and merged, making the individual vulnerable to a host of external and internal forces. ii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my doctoral committee, Jane Abray, Barbara Todd and Nicholas Terpstra. During my doctorate I have also benefited from the support and advice of Doris Bergen and Ken Mills at University of Toronto's Department of History. Since my dissertation was born of my earlier research on dreams, my thanks are also due to Sarah Ferber and Lyndal Roper for their intellectual mentorship during my Master of Philosophy at the University of Queensland. No dissertation emerges into the light of day without a vast number of proofreaders and I also wish to note here the many other readers. In particular, I would like to thank Shealah Stratton, Serge Rivière, Alexandra Guerson, Julie Gilmour, Wilson Bell and Dorothy Rivière. For their in-depth reading and constructive criticism, I also owe my sincere thanks to Ann Marie Plane and Alexandra Walsham. In addition, I would also like to recognize the intellectual and financial support I received from the School of Graduate Studies and History Department at the University of Toronto, as well as the National Humanities Center, Collegium Budapest, and the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Most especially, I have profoundly benefitted from the interdisciplinary workshops I was privileged to be part of, "The Vision Thing: Studying Divine Intervention," funded by the National Humanities Center and organised by the scholars William A. Christian Jr. and Gábor Klaniczay. These advanced workshops were invaluable in the early brainstorming of the dissertation and exposed me to the wonderful research of other young scholars also working on dreams and visions. Here, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the "Visioneers" for all their astute comments, vibrant conversations and collegiality. iii Additionally, I wish to thank my colleagues and friends, most especially: Heidi Diepstra, Shealah Stratton, Alexandra Guerson, Alan Bell, Kate Gibbons, Sarah Amato, Anna Hajkova, John Christopoulos, Stewart Nethery, Vanessa McCarthy and Julie Gilmour. Finally, for their enduring emotional and financial support throughout the PhD, I wish to dedicate this thesis to my parents, Dorothy and Serge Rivière, and to my sister, Natalie Rivière. Janine Rivière iv Table of Contents: Abstract ii Acknowledgments iii Table of Contents v Introduction 1 Chapter 1: "Seasons of Sleep:" Natural Dreams, Health and the Physiology of Sleep 26 in Early Modern England Chapter 2: Dream Divination and Thomas Hill's The moste pleasante arte of 64 the interpretacion of dreames Chapter 3: Spiritual Frameworks: Philip Goodwin's The mystery of dreames and 107 the Pastoral Care of the Soul Chapter 4: The Nightmare in Premodern England 157 Conclusion 205 Bibliography 215 v Introduction Being about Six Years of Age, I had a Dream, wherein it pleased God to shew me the Kingdom of Love, and the Kingdom of Darkness. I thought that God appeared to me and talked with me Face to Face, in a very friendly and loving manner. Not long after I had another Dream, wherein methought the Devil stood before me, and scourged me. Thomas Tryon, Some memoirs of the life of Mr. Tho. Tryon ... (1705).1 At the end of his life, Thomas Tryon (1634–1703), a self-educated hatter and writer, reflected on these two remarkable dreams from his childhood that “made so firm an impression on my Mind, as neither Time, nor the cares and business of this World, could obliterate.”2 Even after a successful career writing handbooks on husbandry, health and education, Tryon still remembered these early dreams. Inspired by these experiences, he published his own handbook, A treatise of dreams & visions (1689), in which he aimed to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of dreams.3 Tryon was not alone in recording and seriously contemplating his dreams. Numerous other early modern English men and women also recorded and discussed their dreams. Yet, how did early modern men and women understand dreams? As this dissertation will show, a diversity of ideas about dreams circulated in England during the early modern period. Discussions of dreams appear in numerous discourses and printed works, spanning fields from medicine to demonology and astrology to religion. Considerations of dreams appear in many of the works of the most prominent thinkers from the period. Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Browne, John Locke and David Hume all discussed dreams, albeit 1 Thomas Tryon, Some memoirs of the life of Mr. Tho. Tryon ... (London: Printed by T. Sowle, 1705), 8– 9. 2 Ibid. 3 Thomas Tryon, A treatise of dreams & visions ... (London: s.n., 1689), 8. 1 2 briefly, as part of their larger intellectual concerns.4 However, as I will demonstrate, in addition to Tryon, English authors Thomas Hill (1528–1572/6) and Philip Goodwin (d. 1667) published substantive treatises devoted entirely to understanding the origin, meaning and interpretation of dreams.5 These works took dreams as their sole focus and endeavoured to provide comprehensive understandings of dreams drawing from classical and contemporary medical, philosophical, theological and oneirocritical ideas. As well as these lengthy scholarly texts, short and cheap oneirocritic manuals or dreambooks also circulated throughout the period. Most were debased and abridged English editions of Artemidorus of Daldis’ Oneirocritica and popular medieval dreambooks, such as the Somnia Danielis.6 English dreambooks offered readers a brief interpretation of dreams according to specific dream-symbols that were organized thematically for easy reference. These dream-symbols were interpreted as clues to the dreamer’s future fortune. In the section of dreams of the loss of teeth, for example, one would find a brief interpretation that such a dream predicted the loss of friends. Examples of English dreambooks include Thomas Hill’s A little 4 Francis Bacon, Of the advancement and proficience of learning ... (London: Printed by Leon Lichfield for Rob Young & Ed Forrest, 1640), 434; Robert Burton, The anatomy of melancholy ... (Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1621), 99–101, 160; Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (London: Penguin, 1985), 344, 429; Thomas Browne, The Religio Medici and Other Writings (London: J.M. Dent, 1962), 83–86; John Locke, An Essay on Human Understanding (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964), 10, 133; David Hume, Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), 49. 5 Thomas Hill, The moste pleasuante arte of the interpretacion of dreames ... (London: Printed by Thomas Marshe, 1576); Tryon, Treatise of dreams & visions; Philip Goodwin, The mystery of dreames, historically discoursed ... (London: Printed by A.M. for Francis Tyton, 1658). 6 Artemidorus, The Interpretation of Dreams: Oneirocritica, trans. Robert J. White (Park Ridge, New Jersey: Noyes Classical Studies, 1975); S.R.F. Price, “The Future of Dreams: From Freud to Artemidorus,” Past and Present 113 (1986): 3–37; Artemidorus, The interpretation of dreams digested into five books by that ancient and excellent philosopher, Artemidorus (London: Printed for B.G. and S.K, 1690); Lawrence T. Martin, “The Earliest Versions of the Latin ‘Somniale Danielis’,” Manuscripta XXIII (1979): 131–141; Interpretiatiiones
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