Selection and Subversion in Gower's Confessio Amantis.
- Author/Editor
- Edwards, A. S. G.
- Title
- Selection and Subversion in Gower's Confessio Amantis.
- Published
- Edwards, A. S. G.. "Selection and Subversion in Gower's Confessio Amantis." In Re-visioning Gower. Ed. Yeager, R.F.. Charlotte, NC: Pegasus Press, 1998, pp. 257-267.
- Review
- Edwards examines the nine MSS containing excerpts from CA, including three that have only very brief passages and six that contain one or more entire tales. This number of excerpts is much smaller than that for either Chaucer or Lydgate, and Edwards speculates that one reason may be the greater difficulty of detaching a passage from Gower's poem. Of the known excerpts, only one preserves a portion of the frame dialogue. Among the rest, the tales that are excerpted are placed in new contexts, sometimes according to discernible design: CUL Ee.2.15 includes most devotional pieces; Takamiya 32 is a collection of romance narratives; and CUL Ff.1.6 (the "Findern MS") shows a particular interest in stories about women. (One small correction: it appears from Edwards' tabulation of the excerpts on p. 267 that Takamiya 32 includes most of "Nebuchadnezzar's Punishment" in addition to "Nebuchadnezzar's Dream," and that the former should thus be included among the tales that are excerpted more than once on p. 259.) [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 18.1]
- Date
- 1998
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies
- Influence and Later Allusion