[1]. For this method of commencing a poem with a dream, compare The Book of the Duchesse, Parl. of Foules, and The Romance of the Rose.
For discourses on dreams, compare the Nonne Preestes Tale, and the remarks of Pandarus in Troilus, v. 358-385. Chaucer here propounds several problems; first, what causes dreams (a question answered at some length in the Nonne Preestes Tale, B 4116); why some come true and some do not (discussed in the same, B 4161); and what are the various sorts of dreams (see note to l. 7 below).
There is another passage in Le Roman de la Rose, which bears some resemblance to the present passage. It begins at l. 18699:—
'Ne ne revoil dire des songes,
S'il sunt voirs, ou s'il sunt mençonges;
Se l'en les doit du tout eslire,
Ou s'il sunt du tout à despire:
Porquoi li uns sunt plus orribles,
Plus bel li autre et plus paisible,
Selonc lor apparicions