The Audience Illuminated, or New Light Shed on the Dream Frame of Lydgate’s Temple of Glas

The Audience Illuminated, or New Light Shed on the Dream Frame ofLydgate's Temple ofGlas Judith M. Davidoff University ofMiami DSPITEJOHN LYDGATE'S longstanding at I gan gone, That I ne myzt noping, as I would, Abouten me considre and bihold The wondre hestres, the bri3tnes ofpe sonne. It seems clear that, after the darkness that had surrounded him before he fell asleep, neither perception nor understanding of "light" is possible for him. Not until the brightness is tempered by clouds can he look about (lines 30-34): ... at[te] last cenein skyes donne, Wi]:> wind ichaced, haue her cours iwent Tofore pe stremes ofTitan and iblent, So pat I myzt, wipin and withoute, Whereso I walk, biholden me aboute. These lines recall the pre-vision setting when "derk Diane. . . / Had hir 23 Lines 24-34,251-54,262-64,326-31,373-74,394-97,400-401,550-55,609-13, 705,715,815,838,1175,1208-11,1215-16,1285-87,1341-43,1355-61. 24 Norton-Smith Uohn Lydgate, p. 177),Pearsall Uohn Lydgate, p. 106),and Spearing (MedievalDream-Poetry, p. 173) all discuss lines 24-34 but do not connect thepassage to the language ofthe opening frame. 113 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER bemys vndir a mysty cloude" (lines 8-9). There the darkness reflected utter misery, but in the dream world "light" and its opposite seem symbiotic: light does indeed dispel darkness, but too much of it causes pain. If, however, one moderates the other, both light and dark can be used to advantage. By implication, the dreamer's unlit surroundings and his unrestrained grief before he fell asleep were obstacles to perception and happiness in much the same way as the unrelieved brightness of the temple ofglass hindered his eyesight in the dream world. Here at the beginning of thevision, then, thegroundworkis laid to link the pain ofthe dream frame with ways that pain might be eased. As the vision unfolds, use or withholding of the light-dark imagery directs the listener-reader's attention toward matters of thematic signifi­ cance. For example, when the dreamer makes his way to Venus's temple and describes its interior and the lovers there, light does not play a part. But when he sees the beautiful lady, the imagery recurs. As with the wondrously bright temple exterior, the image of the lady's brightness adds to an implication that will grow as the vision develops, namely, that, as long as the dreamer remains bereft of light, he will be cut off from the beauty that is inextricably connected with light. The lady, he tells us, outshines all just as the sun makes the stars seem dim or just as Lucifer has the power to "voide pe nntes sorow" (line 253). (The dream, ofcourse, is set in the daytime so the dreamer is really the only one who at that moment needs the night's sorrow voided, perhaps by her bright beauty.) In other words, the images associated with the lady contrast completely with the words the dreamer used to frame his vision. Further­ more, almost every time the light/dark imagery isapplied to her- whether by the dreamer, by Venus, or by the gentleman smitten with love for her­ she is characterized in terms oflight and shining beauty; nothing about her is dark or oppressive.25 Similarly, as critics have not recognized, when the light/dark constella­ tion of images is used to describe or address Venus, what is said seems at least as appropriate to the dreamer as to any ofthe principals in the vision. Note, for example, how the lady invokes Venus (lines 328-31): 25 There is one exception: in lines 373-74 we learn that she feels some "heuynes" because ofunrequited love. See note 27 below. 114 AUDIENCE ILLUMINATED "O blisful sterre, persant and ful ofli3t, Ofbemys gladsome, devoider ofderknes, Cheifrecounford after pe blak nyzt, To voide woful oute ofher heuynes." This, surely, is the goddess who should be invoked by a dreamer who suffers during a long, dark night both from "wo" (line 11) and from "heuines" (line 1). Furthermore, Venus's counsel to the young woman a few lines later...