WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

6. “To Daniel his drem he tolde”: Latin Play and English Directness
In presenting writing as temporal deferral, Gower’s Vox clearly echoes the arguments put
forth by Jerome’s commentary and translation of the second chapter of Daniel. We would expect
that, in rendering the episode into English, Gower’s Confessio would use similar strategies to
convey meaning. Yet this is not the case:
Nabugodonosor slepte,
A swevene him tok, the which he kepte
Til on the morwe he was arise,
For he therof was sore agrise.
To Daniel his drem he tolde,
And preide him faire that he wolde
Arede what it tokne may,
And seide, Abedde wher I lay,
Me thoghte I syh upon a stage
Wher stod a wonder strange ymage. 190
Gower’s English re-telling of Nebuchadnezzar’s “visio” lacks the textual play that the episode
generates in the Vox and in Jerome’s reading of Daniel. It not only refuses to foreshadow the
dream’s contents by means of a detailed framing of events, but it also differs from the biblical
account in that it has Nebuchadnezzar remember and orally recite his dream, “the which he
kept,” to the prophet in exact detail of what “me thoghte I syh upon a stage.”
This subtle detail substantially changes the narrative’s meaning. It is the inability to
“keep” a vision through a personal speech and the necessity of setting it down as physical writing
that allows the Vox and the Book of Daniel to engage in poetic play. Both of these works use
allusiveness and foreshadowing to frame what should be a straight-forward allegory into a self-
reflection on the production of meaning. On the other hand, the Confessio immediately presents
the dream as a “strange ymage,” but by having the king narrate his dream as he saw it, the poem
does not make the understanding of the narrative’s meaning a question of concern.
190 Gower Confessio Prologue.595-604
112