I cannot give such a detailed solution of the second scene of the dream,
out of regard for the censor. For at this point I put myself in the
place of a certain eminent gentleman of that revolutionary period, who
also had an adventure with an eagle, who is said to have suffered from
incontinence of the bowels, and the like; and I believe I _should not be
justified at this point in passing_ the censor, although it was an aulic
councillor (_aula_, _consilarius aulicus_) who told me the greater part
of these stories. The allusion to the suite of rooms in the dream
relates to the private car of his Excellency, into which I had
opportunity to look for a moment; but it signifies, as so often in
dreams, a woman (Frauenzimmer; German _Zimmer_—room is appended to
_Frauen_—woman, in order to imply a slight amount of contempt).[BL] In
the person of the housekeeper I give scant recognition to an intelligent
elderly lady for the entertainment and the many good stories which I
have enjoyed at her house.... The feature of the lamp goes back to
Grillparzer, who notes a charming experience of a similar nature, which
he afterwards made use of in “Hero and Leander” (the billows of the
ocean and of love—the Armada and the storm).[BM]
I must also forgo detailed analysis of the two remaining portions of the
dream; I shall select only those elements which lead to two childhood
scenes, for the sake of which alone I have taken up the dream. The
reader will guess that it is sexual matter which forces me to this
suppression; but he need not be content with this explanation. Many
things which must be treated as secrets in the presence of others are
not treated as such with one’s self, and here it is not a question of
considerations inducing me to hide the solution, but of motives of the
inner censor concealing the real content of the dream from myself. I may
say, then, that the analysis shows these three portions of the dream to
be impertinent boasting, the exuberance of an absurd grandiose idea
which has long since been suppressed in my waking life, which, however,
dares show itself in the manifest dream content by one or two
projections (_I seem clever to myself_), and which makes the arrogant
mood of the evening before the dream perfectly intelligible. It is
boasting, indeed, in all departments; thus the mention of Graz refers to
the phrase: What is the price of Graz? which we are fond of using when
we feel over-supplied with money. Whoever will recall Master Rabelais’s
unexcelled description of the “Life and Deeds of Gargantua and his Son
Pantagruel,” will be able to supply the boastful content intimated in
the first portion of the dream. The following belongs to the two
childhood scenes which have been promised. I had bought a new trunk for
this journey, whose colour, a brownish violet, appears in the dream
several times. (Violet-brown violets made of stiff material, next to a
thing which is called “girl-catcher”—the furniture in the governmental
chambers).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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