ABSTRACT

Dreams have been significant in many different cultures, carrying messages about this world and others, posing problems about knowledge, truth, and what it means to be human. This thought-provoking collection of essays explores dreams and visions in early modern Europe, canvassing the place of the dream and dream-theory in texts and in social movements. In topics ranging from the dreams of animals to the visions of Elizabeth I, and from prophetic dreams to ghosts in political writing, this book asks what meanings early modern people found in dreams.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

Reading the Early Modern Dream

chapter 2|16 pages

Dreaming, Motion, Meaning

Oneiric Transport in Seventeenth-century Europe

chapter 3|13 pages

‘Onely Proper Unto Man’

Dreaming and Being Human

chapter 4|21 pages

Dream-visions of Elizabeth I

chapter 5|14 pages

Dreams, Prophecies and Politics

John Dee and the Elizabethan Court 1575-1585 1

chapter 6|15 pages

Dreaming the Dead

Ghosts and History in the Early Seventeenth Century

chapter 7|12 pages

‘Imaginarie in Manner: Reall in Matter’

Rachel Speght's Dreame and the Female Scholar-poet

chapter 8|16 pages

Dreaming Meanings

Some Early Modern Dream Thoughts

chapter 9|17 pages

‘I Saw No Angel’

Civil War Dreams and the History of Dreaming