『妖精の女王』第一巻における夢とエクスタシー

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  • Dream and Ecstasy in Book1 of The Faerie Qveene

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This paper aims at interpreting the Red Cross Knight’s dream and his ecstasy represented in Book 1 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Qveene (1590, 1596). Dream visions are often seen in epic poems. For example, there is Aeneas’s dream about Hector reporting to him the fall of Troy in Book 2 of the Aeneid (c.29-19B.C.) or Sir Godfrey’s dream in Book 14 of Gerusalemme Liberata (1581). According to Macrobius’s dream theory, these kinds of dreams are “oracular dreams.” The Red Cross Knight’s dream, being distinct from them, is an “apparition” caused by evil magic that depicts the seduction of a succubus. This dream leads the Red Cross Knight into a state of ecstasy. Etymologically speaking, ecstasy is the condition of being distracted from oneself. The Red Cross Knight is not only distracted from himself, but is also led astray from his virtuous path by the dream. Also, there are characters like the Sansfoy brothers appearing as doubles or mirror images of the Red Cross Knight in the poem, so we must inquire about the phenomena of double images. Except for the erotic dream that causes his deviation, there is an objective factor for his double images. Due to the dual quality of mirrors, the doubles, falsehoods and fantasies in Book 1 can be explained as images refracted from reality. The counterbalance between reality and false images forms the mirror world of the Faery land. Furthermore, since the word mirror implies miracle and wonder in an etymological sense, it is possible that Faery land is a land of wonder. Philosophically, Aristotelian wonder is connected with the desire to learn. Prince Arthur’s quest for Gloriana is the typical representation of a proper wonder experience, while the Red Cross Knight, after waking from his dream, becomes a voyeur excessively attached to visual sense. It is doubtful whether or not he has woken from the dream, for he still relies on his sense perceptions to perceive the world as he had in his dream, which is disconnected from reality. To this extent, the Red Cross Knight may have never woken from his dream before he visits the House of Holiness in canto 10.

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