Did John Bunyan really dream the dream, or was it equiv to “In a land far far away …”

Question

Part 1

I'm referring to the story Pilgrim's Progress.

I believe it was written while John Bunyan was imprisoned.

The question is as follows:

Did he really literally dream this dream, and write it down, or was it a matter of "in a land far far away ... ?"

Part 2

(This is not posted as a separate question since I can't justify posting 2 separate 5-sentence long questions.)

Pilgrim's Progress is just filled with Bible verses everywhere (one of the things that impresses me most about the book.)

If this book was written while in prison for preaching -- how did Bunyan have access to a Bible in order to cite all these verses? Did he have them all memorized?

Answer 1

Part 1 I think could only be answered by speculation. Personally I would speculate it is simply creative story-telling, but that is just opinion.

For part 2; if we look at his earlier 1666 imprisonment, he is documented (see Wikipedia) as having:

two books, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the Bible, a violin he had made out of tin, a flute he'd made from a chair leg and a supply of pen and paper

So it seems clear that having a bible in jail (gaol) was no issue. Indeed, at this time it was compulsory to attend church (his crime was preaching without a license, as the C of E was aggressively controlling).

If anything, I would imagine a bible would be easily accessible, even in prison. Additionally, the writing was only started while in prison - it was only a 6 month imprisonment.