Perhaps it is best to first locate The Dream textually and in time before responding to the poem. Contextualising the time may be the easiest of the two tasks. As we shall see, Newman was hesitant to locate his poems textually. [1] This is not a research paper, but much can be gained with a little patient effort. If you have read the About Newman page, some of what follows may make a little more sense.
Before me is a copy of Prayers, Verses and Devotions published by Ignatius Press in 1989. The Dream begins on page 691 and ends on page 725. It is composed of various stanza forms and metres set in seven sections. There are many voices articulating throughout the poem. They tell the tale of an old man's journey from life into a death that is the beginning of a fuller life. An angel rather than Virgil guides the pilgrim who, unlike Dante, does not return to this world.
If you follow the link in the sidebar to the Newman Reader site, you will discover a different pagination for the poem. It is the one that I will follow in these posts. The Reader pagination corresponds to the original work, Verses on Various Occasions. More specifically, it reproduces the 1903 edition. The first edition was published thirty-five years earlier in 1868 by Burns, Lamburt and Oates. The Dream of Gerontius was one of the poems in that original edition.
I'd like to make some observations about Verses on Various Occasions and what it might tell us. Before I do, it is important to note that The Dream of Gerontius was published in two parts in The Month magazine in 1865. Newman had almost too casually provided the poem at the request of the editor. The priest was diffident about whether it merited attention. He was never sure of the value of his efforts or his ability to write poetry on demand. [2]
Yet, attention it did receive. It may well have been the impetus for Newman pulling together his other verse work for publication a few years later. How fortunate we are that the editor asked. No wonder Newman saw himself as a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. We'll see how profoundly true that is shortly.
I'll close this post momentarily. It is getting a little long. We'll have to explore more of the context in the next post. However, I would like to make the observations that I mentioned above. Firstly, in the 1903 edition, we see that Newman completed the poem in January of 1865. This was a month before his 64th birthday. For his time, he was growing old. Death was obviously on his mind.
Secondly, we note that Newman dedicated his volume of poems to Edward Badeley on 21 December 1867. Badeley had been one of the peers who had worked with Newman in the Oxford Movement. He was also part of the team that defended Newman during his libel case. Additionally, Badeley would continue to provide Newman with legal advice as when Charles Kingsley, the Evangelical minister and author, libeled him. It was Badeley who endorsed Newman's initial "reflections". These were the foundation of Newman's full response to Kingsley in the form of Apologia pro vita sua. [3] This great apology has influenced many, including myself, for over a century and a half. [4] We are all in Badeley's debt.
With relevence for today, Badeley also argued that priest-penitent privilege was applicaple in English law. [5] He did this with regards, in part, to the infamous Constance Kent case. As a teenager, she had slaughtered her younger half-brother in her home. For the British middle-class of that time, the home was sacrosanct. Until then, in the minds of the public, evil resided elsewhere. Kent was also known as Ruth Emilie Kaye who emmigrated to Australia and worked as a nurse in Tasmania while living with her surviving brother. It was this case, perhaps more than any other, that propelled novelists to undertake the writing of detective fiction that so many of us now enjoy. [6]
Sadly, Edward Badeley died in March of 1868. He was sixty-four. In a future post, we'll see that Newman's poem has helped to prepare many people for their eventual deaths, including me.
| [1] | Gliebe, J. (1916) Dream of Gerontius. New York: Schwartz, Kirwin, Fauss. |
| [2] | See Newman's dedication of Verses of Various Occasions to Edward Badeley. |
| [3] | Ker, I. (2009) John Henry Newman: A biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (I have a copy signed by Ian at Newman College when he came to speak there!) |
| [4] | Bloomsbury republished Apologia pro vita sua in 2014 a hundred and fifty years after the first edition. |
| [5] | Badeley, E. (1865). The Privilege of Religious Confessions in English Courts of Justice Considered, in a Letter to a Friend. London: Butterworths. |
| [6] | Summerscale, K. (2008) The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House. London: Bloomsbury. |