A Dream

Many of the stories in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine use the motif of dreaming, but this tale by William Morris has by far the most complex narrative structure. Florence Boos argues that “A Dream” anticipates Morris’s The Earthly Paradise, both thematically and structurally.

“A Dream” shares many of its themes with other tales in the Magazine. It is set at some ambiguous moment in the past, and touches on the themes of heroism and mysticism prevalent in “A Story of the North” and “Gertha's Lovers”.

Dante Rossetti, who by March was regularly reading the Magazine, mentions this story in a letter to William Allingham, calling it “remarkable . . . in colour” (293).

First printed in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine , March, 1856.