ABSTRACT
THE ETHICS OF DREAM NARRATION IN THOMAS NASHE'S THE TERRORS OF THE NIGHT
PERSIVEFORS
To twenty-first-century, post-Freudian readers at least, the idea that dreams are caused by an excess of bile would have a distinct ring of oddity. Even worse, the claim that dreams tell us how to behave properly because they are divine in their origin would probably give rise to suspicions of lunacy. In this respect, compared to our own time, the sixteenth century accommodated a much wider range of beliefs as to what dreams are and what their moral significance is. While dreams could be seen as divinely inspired, there were also claims that they were, as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet puts it, "begot of nothing but vain fantasy."
