It might be important to note that 16th-C demonology and faculty
psychology both take it for granted that demons can simply implant images
into the phantasy -- right into the mind's eye, as it were -- producing
both false dreams ("demonological dreams," in Robert Burton's phrase) and
things that we would take more as hallucinations. These writers were very,
very silent on how demons could so implant images in the imagination
(whereas following Aquinas they had a rather elaborate theory of how
demons could affect someones *mood*, by mechanistically pushing various
humors around, and so forth), but none as far as I know ever said that
demons would have to use ideational material that was already stored in
the memory to deceive human beings.

It seems to me that the demon gets a generic sort of wet dream from
Morpheus ("the fit false dream" in 43.9), but that he also asks Morpheus
to
send the dream for Archimago's "intent" ("He bids thee to him send for his
intent / A fit false dream, that can delude the sleepers sent") -- as if
Archimago still needs to mediate the dream that's going to come back from
the depths. And, indeed, it turns out in stanza 45 that just as Archimago
has to teach the spright who impersonates Una to "imitate that lady true,"
so does he have to teach the spright who comes back with the dream to
abuse RCs fantasy with false shows "privily," that is, using the image of
Una that makes the dream personally relevant to Redcrosse. That's not
much,
but in any case it doesn't *demand* that we read the images as coming from
RCs memory, as lustful or otherwise.


Best,
Genevieve Guenther


On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, James W. Broaddus wrote:

> Does Redcrosse's dream of "loues and lustfull play" (I.i.47.4) come from
> Morpheus supplied with those images or does Morpheus provide only a generic
> "fit false dreame" (i.43.9), i.e., not a true, prophetic dream? Does
> Archimago supply the images in toto or by schooling either the dream or the
> spright (46.5)--I can't tell which--how to change innocent images already in
> Redcrosse's memory into the lustful? Do those images, as lustful, come from
> Redcrosse's memory?
>
> Jim Broaddus
>