Penn State English professor Garrett Sullivan is co-curator of a current Folger Shakespeare Library exhibit, "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream," which explores the ethereal realm of sleeping and dreaming in Renaissance England, from the beliefs, rituals, and habits of sleepers to the role of dream interpreters and interpretations in public and private life. The exhibit is free to the public until May 30.
Located in Washington, D.C., the Folger Shakespeare Library is a world-renowned research center on Shakespeare and has the largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art. More exhibit information is at: http://www.folger.edu
Through a variety of printed, handwritten, and visual materials, including literary texts by Shakespeare, Milton, and others, the exhibit explores the vibrancy of early modern views of sleeping and dreaming. Nightclothes, gemstones, recipes and ingredients for curing nightmares and inducing sleep, and records of dreams about or by historical figures, provide a vivid glimpse of the various ways in which the Renaissance English prepared for sleep and sought to control and understand their dreams.
The New York Times called the exhibit "entrancing" with the review online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/arts/design/28libr.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=sleep%20exhibit%20Folger&st=cse
Sleeping and dreaming were topics of abiding fascination to the early modern English. Some viewed dreams as spiritual visions, the way God spoke to humans; others turned to them for evidence of the sinister actions of witches. Dreams were held to predict the future, or show what was occurring far away. Perhaps more surprisingly, sleep was also believed to reveal hidden truths. A person's physical, emotional or spiritual condition (if not all three at once) could be registered in details such as whether she slept on her side or back; at home or abroad; during the day or night; or with socks on or off.