"For þat þou lestez watz bot a rose": Elements of Courtly Dream-Vision in the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine and the Pearl-Maiden
| Title in English | "For ?at ?ou lestez watz bot a rose": Elements of Courtly Dream-Vision in the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine and the Pearl-Maiden |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Having appeared in France by the early thirteenth century, dream-vision quickly became one of the most prolific genres of European mediaeval poetry, inspiring some of the finest works of the period. Although two distinct forms of dream-vision existed – a courtly and a doctrinal one – both sub-genres were influenced by each other’s existence and techniques, and instances of thematic overlaps and interactions between the two are discernible. The present paper will discuss how elements of courtly dream-poetry penetrated two late fourteenth-century works of religious piety: the English Pearl and the Bohemian Life of St. Catherine. Although the main purpose of both poems is clearly a doctrinal one, the texts betray their respective authors’ common interest in secular poetic genres, whose language and formal devices they skilfully use to subvert them and fill them with a new, largely de-secularised, meaning. The paper will first determine what conventions of secular dream-visions the poems employ and what functions these assume in their new context. Points of similarity between the Pearl and the Life of St. Catherine will be stressed to illustrate the authors’ common strategies in conveying their spiritual message. As a next step, the presentation will try to establish a link between the two works in question, arguing that their unique combination of courtly and spiritual poetic traditions might not be purely incidental, but a result of the influence of common sources and similar conditions under which the poems were written. |