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Conclusion

At its heart The Assembly of Gods is about the accord of reason and sensuality. It is about the need to apply reason to the things we read, hear or see to realize their deeper meanings. And it is about the way that finding this accord in the interpretation of allegory can help bring order to reason and sensuality in the soul. But the poet is careful not to be explicit about the underlying meaning of his own poem, because to bring that meaning onto the surface would remove the need for the readers to apply their own reason and would undercut the moral of the poem. The poem provides instructions in the process of interpreting allegory and examples of the problems that ensue when people fail to see beyond the outer surface of a feigned fable. Then, for those who recognize the advice to look, the poet provides inconsistencies in the narrative of the poem as an invitation to draw back the veil, to find the accord of reason and sensuality in the allegory of the poem and, in the process, to create it in themselves.

The experiences of the narrator and Death exemplify this process during the dream within the poem, but after the dreamer awakes the poem shifts its attention to address the reader more directly. When the dreamer first wakes he thinks that what he has seen is all true, but then he realizes,

. . . hit was but a whew,
A dreme, a fantasy, & a thyng of nought.
To study theron I had nomore thought.
Tyll at the last I gan me bethynke
For what cause shewyd was thys vysyon. (2049-53)

The surface details of the dream are a fiction and by themselves they are of no lasting significance, but the narrator has learned the importance of looking beyond the surface. However, he also realizes that “hit longeth nat to [him]” to explain the underlying meaning of the dream. His comments are still on the surface of the poem. Instead he openly invites all who

“hit rede, here rad, or se,” to,
Take the of the best & let the worst be---
Try out the corne clene from the chaff
And then may ye say ye have a sure staff
To stande by at nede, yef ye woll hit holde
And walke by the way of Vertu hys loore. (2069-74)

These lines are a general invitation to the readers of this poem to bring their own reason to bear on the allegory of the poem in order to understand the deeper, real substance of all that has been presented. The narrator, like Doctrine, cannot provide the readers with the answer, but encourages them to look for the significance of the poem beyond its husk. And he connects the interpreting of the allegory with the ability to walk in the way of virtue.

The rest of the poem’s conclusion, like so much of what has gone before, brilliantly ties together the accord of reason and sensuality, death, judgement and allegory and does it in a way that appears on the surface to be a conventional concluding exhortation and blessing.*Compare for example Baker, Murphy and Hall 23, Langland A, XII ll. 101-112, White 77 and Assembly 94 (Triggs notes the conclusion of Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure). The poet warns again of the need to beware of trusting sensuality alone when he reminds the reader of,

. . . the Deuyll & the Flesshe
And also the Worlde, with hys glosyng chere,
Whyche oñ yow looketh euer newe & fresshe—
But he ys nat as he doth apere
Lok ye kepe yow ay out of hys daungere.
And so the vyctory shall ye obteyne,
Vyce fro yow exylyd & Vertew in yow reyne. (2080-86)

Victory and the “triumphall guerdouñ” (2087) at the last judgement are for those who learn to see through the deception of the World and follow virtue. For those who cannot overcome their “vycyous lyuyng” and their “owne foly” (2097), their “habitacion chaungeth/ Fro ioy to peyne & woo perpetuelly” (2094-95). The poem concludes with these lines,

Wherfore let vs pray to that Lord of Glory,
Whyle we in erthe bee, that he wyll yeue vs grace,
So vs here to guyde that we may haue a place,
Accordyng to oure regeneracion,
With heuynly spyrytes, hys name to magnyfy
Whyche downe descendyd for our redempcion,
Offryng hym sylf on the crosse to hys fadyr on hy.
Now benygne Ihesu, that borñ was of Mary,
All that to thys vysion haue yovyn her audyence,
Graunt eternall ioy aftyr thy last sentence.
Amen. (2098-07)

The poet brings together God and man, heaven and earth and alludes to the incarnation of Christ, all of which are reminders of the accord between reason and sensuality, and then asks that those who have given audience to the “vysion,” emphasizing the role of the senses, be granted eternal joy after their last “sentence.” The poet uses the word “sentence” here to refer to the judgement which will be pronounced at the end of this life, but also makes use of another meaning of the word which has reference to an interpretation or underlying meaning. Death and judgement lead to the “last sentence” that is pronounced on the soul and reason and sensuality must come together to expose the “verray sentence” of an allegory. In the use of this one word, the last word of the poem, the author draws all the themes of the poem into one final accord.

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Introduction

Chapter 1
a. Reason and Sensuality in Medieval Literature
b. Reason and Sensuality in The Assembly of Gods

Chapter 2
a. Reason, Sensuality and Allegory
b. Reason, Sensuality and Allegory in The Assembly of Gods

Chapter 3: Literary, Visual and Dramatic Allegories
a. Literary
b. Visual
c. Dramatic

Chapter 4: Death and the accord of Reason and Sensuality
a. The Allegory of Death
b. The Accord of Reason and Sensuality in Death

Conclusion

Appendix 1
a. The Poem
b. Authorship and Date
c. Manuscripts
d. Title

Appendix 2: Critical response to The Assembly of Gods

Works Cited

Conclusion

Contents