ABSTRACT
This chapter does three things. First, it discusses the understanding of allegory that existed in classical Roman writing, and which was passed on to the medieval world. It then discusses Dante, and the allegorical writing of the Commedia, looking at this in three ways: first, through the idea of fourfold allegory, which proposes that there are four ways to interpret each text; second, through the idea that allegory acts as a ‘veil’, and third, through a figural reading of the text. After seeing how these different approaches offer three perspectives on Dante’s allegory, it turns, finally, to another medieval allegory, Piers Plowman, and speculates on the reasons for, and significance of, the medieval world thinking so much in allegorical terms.
