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Middle English Poetry (PCMEP)

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A Metrical Treatise on Dreams

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About the text:
Text name: A Metrical Treatise on Dreams
Alternative names: Here commences a book of swevening That men metteth in sleeping; The Interpretation of Dreams; A Book of Dreaming
Content: A Metrical Treatise on Dreams is a collection of dream interpretations. It is a free translation of a Latin original ("Ase the Latyn seith y-wis" l. 218), similar to a class of texts as represented by the dream interpretetations in the 10th century Vienna Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Ms. 271. A short narrative introduction claims that the interpretations were made by David the prophet for the princes of the city of Babylon (ll. 1-13). Then the individual dream interpretations follow (ll. 14-313). The poem ends with a short epilogue; only God knows the true meaning of dreams (ll. 314-319).
Genre/subjects: interpretation of dreams, prognostication, treatise
Dialect of original composition: Unknown
The dialect of the original composition has not been discussed in great detail. It is not implausible that the dialect of the original and the West-Midlands scribal language may be comparable. On the other hand, there are a few spoiled rhymes that may suggest that the original and manuscript languages are distinct (e.g. deope : kepe ll. 101-2, seon : buen ll. 83-4).
Date of original composition: 1250-1330
The mid-fourteenth century date of the manuscript can serve as the terminus ante quem for the composition of the text. The poem cannot have been composed earlier than 1250, and was probably composed considerably later than that, because of numerous French loan words, many of which are attested only from the late thirteenth / early fourtheenth century on (e.g. cité l. 5, bataille l. 45, travail, l. 106, Feblesse, l. 239, trouble, l. 253, Joie l. 257, chalenge, l.269, raunsoun l. 269 purchasyng l. 299 etc.). There are even rhymes involving French loan words (e.g. hayl : travail, l. 105-6). On the other hand, there are a number of conservative linguistic features that make a fourteenth century point of origin relatively unlikely:
- generalising wh+so relativizers, whose 'whosoever' e.g. l. 225
- the conjunction other 'or', e.g. l. 35
- free relatives introduced by that, e.g. l. 87
- tho as a subordinator 'when', l. 5
- inflected to-infinitives in -ne, donne, 'to do' l. 220
- infinitives in -en, taken 'take', e.g. l. 223
The piece was therefore grouped into PCMEP period 2a (1250-1300).
Wells thought that the poem was "probably of 1250 or 1250-1275" (1916: 440).
Suggested date: 1285
PCMEP period: 2a (1250-1300)
Versification: two-line aa
"four-stress verses [...] all in couplets, except lines 177-216 which are on one rime" (Wells 1916: 440)
Index of ME Verse: 1196 (IMEV), 1196 (NIMEV)
Digital Index of ME Verse: 1961
Wells: 10.45
MEC HyperBibliography: Dream Bk.(1)


About the edition and manuscript base:
Edition: Wright, Thomas & Halliwell-Phillipps, James O. 1845. Reliquiae Antiquae. Volume 1. London: Smith. 261-268.
Manuscript used for edition: London, British Library, Harley 2253, ff. 119r-121r
Online manuscript description: British Library: Digitised Manuscripts
Manuscripts of the West Midlands (item 89)
eLALME
Manuscript dialect: West-Midlands
The scribe of the relevant part of the manuscript has been identified as a professional scribe working in Ludlow, in Southern Shropshire (Revard 1970).
The manuscript is also linked to the West-Midlands in other ways. The binding incorporates fragments of financial accounts of a West-Midlands family called Mortimer, who had their main seat at Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire. Further, it also includes extracts from the ordinal of Herefordshire Cathedral (Ker 1965: xxii).
Manuscript date: s. xiv-in, s. xiv-mid
The relevant section of the manuscript has been dated to the 1330s - 1340s (Ker 1965, Revard 1970).
Previously, the relevant part of the manuscript was dated somewhat earlier, to "c. 1310" (Wells 1916: 440) or "of the reign of Edward II" [1307-1327] (Wright & Halliwell-Phillipps 1845: 261).


About the file:
File name: M2a.TreatDreams
ID: TreatDreams,x.y.z: x=page, y=line, z=token
Line numbers are not provided in the edition but have been added to the IDs.
Word count: 1,736
Token count: 150
Line count: 319


Other:
General notes: The text does not seem to be considered a valuable piece of literature and has consequently received little attention from professional scholars. According to Wells (1916: 440), "the work has, of course, no poetical quality."
Remarks on parses: Accents have been removed from vowels (e.g. cité l. 5).
The line breaks follow the rhyming scheme as in Wright & Halliwell-Phillipps' (1845: 261-8) edition.
The dream interpretations (ll. 14-313) can be grouped into one of the following five construction types:
(1) Headed relative clause + interpretation.
Often the head noun is mon, but other heads are possible. Sometimes these are reduced relatives. The whole noun phrase is either tagged as a noun phrase adjunct ("as for those people who dream X, that means Y") or as a left dislocation if there is a resumptive element ("a man who dreams X, he will encounter Y")
ll. 13-36, 41-44, 47-50, 57-58, 61-62, 67-68, 73-74, 85-86, 91-94, 105-106, 111-112, 117-120, 159-160, 264-265
example: Mon that thuncheth he breketh armes, That y-wis bytokneth harmes. (ll. 17-18)
(2) Free relative clause without fronting + interpretation.
The free relative is usually introduced by whose 'whosoever.' The free relative is either a noun phrase adjunct ("whosoever dreams X, that means Y"), or a left-dislocation if there is a resumptive element ("whosoever dreams X, he will encounter Y.")
ll. 87-88, 113-114, 121-122, 125-130, 151-154, 163-166, 215-218, 268-271, 280-283, 298-303, 306-309
example: Whose foule sith is honde, He is fol of sunne ant shonde (ll. 151-152)
(3) Free relative clause with fronting + interpretation.
Various kinds of complements of the verbs 'dream' or 'see' in a free relative clause can occur outside of the relative clause. As before, the free relative can be a noun phrase adjunct ("X, whosoever dreams, that means Y") or a left-dislocation ("X, whosoever dreams, he will encounter Y"). The fronted complements can be direct objects, small clauses, non-finite clauses, or sub-constituents of small or non-finite clauses. The latter cases are particularly difficult to annotate. Where only the subject of a non-finite clause occurs inside the free relative, the fronted constituent is labeled VP (e.g. Eryen lond whose him syth, Travail for sothe that bith '(VP-2 Cultivate land) whosoever (IP-INF (NP-SBJ himself) (VP *ICH*-2)) sees, work, for truth, that is' ll. 185-186).
ll. 55-56, 89-90, 95-96, 123-124, 175-208, 211-214, 225-226, 229-230, 233-234, 237-254, 258-259, 262-263, 274-279, 284-289, 294-297
example: With suerd other knif whose is smyte, Of tuene he shal eft y-wyte. (ll. 89-90)
(4) Fronted non-finite clause + interpretation.
The fronted non-finite clause can be a subject ("To do X means Y"), a left-dislocation ("To do X, that means Y") or a non-finite adjunct ("To do X, he shall encounter Y").
ll. 37-40, 45-46, 51-54, 59-60, 63-66, 69-72, 81-84, 97-104, 107-110, 115-116, 169-170, 209-210, 219-224, 227-228, 231-232, 235-236, 255-257, 260-261, 266-267, 272-273, 290-293, 304-305, 312-313
example: Selver seon ant gold bryht, That is weder cler ant lyht (ll. 37-38)
(5) If-clause + interpretation.
The construction of the form, "If you dream X, then that means Y", is generally unproblematic.
ll. 75-80, 131-150, 155-158, 161-162, 167-168, 171-174
example: Ȝef thou hast on newe shon, Thou shalt joie underfon. (ll. 131-132)
Exceptions: ll. 310-311, an elaboration on ll. 308-310, do not fall into any of the categories above.
The following lines are exceptions to the general 2-line dream interpretations: ll. 215-218 form one token, not two, ll. 219-224 form one token, not three, ll. 237-239 form one token, not one and a half, which changes the onset of a new dream from an odd to an even line number, ll. 240-242 form one token, not one and a half, which changes the onset of a new dream back to the original pattern, ll. 255-257 are one token, not one and a half, so that dreams now begin with an even line number for good until the end of the poem, ll 274-277 form one token, not two, ll. 280-283 form one token, not two; ll. 306-309 form one token, not two.


References

Ker, Neil R. 1965. Facsimile of British Museum MS. Harley 2253. EETS o.s. 255. London: Oxford University Press.
Revard, Carter. 1970. 'Richard Hurd and MS Harley 2253.' Notes and Queries 224. 199-202.
Wells, John E. 1916. Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1400. New Haven, CT: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. (available online)
Wright, Thomas & Halliwell-Phillipps, James O. 1845. Reliquiae Antiquae. Volume 1. London: Smith. (available online)