19 100 2176 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Schueler, Donald G Published Schueler, Donald G. "Gower's Characterization of Genius in the Confessio Amantis." Modern Language Quarterly 33 (1972), pp. 240-256. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Review Schueler argues that a proper understanding of the CA (including its literary merit) depends upon the allegorical function of Genius. Whereas many critics see Genius as hopelessly stuck between Christian morality and courtly love, Schueler suggests that he is not the spokesman for courtly love to begin with. The apparent contradiction between God and love is resolved once we recognize that Genius stands for natural procreation and works for a Venus who in turn serves Nature, the "handmaiden of God" (245). In the tradition Gower inherits from Jean de Meun and Alain of Lille, Genius interprets love from the perspective of Christian morality. This also explains the various apparent digressions in the CA: "the priest's most compelling purpose ... is to draw these parallels between the laws governing human passion and those governing other aspects of moral behavior" (248). Genius does not contradict himself, but "contradicts a set of scholarly preconceptions about what allegorical love poetry should be" (248). [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's Characterization of Genius in the Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Burnley takes up the question whether the medieval phrase "fine amor" is a proper substitute for "courtly love," given the controversial reception of the latter term after Gaston Paris popularized it in 1883. Burnley samples a wide range of medieval uses of "fine amor." References to Gower occur on pages 133, 135, 141, and 144-47. Burnley argues that in the MO Gower generally refers to "fine amor" in relation to Christian charity and fellow feeling. In Gower's Balades, on the other hand, the term "seems to refer to sexual love" (144). However, in keeping with the common medieval view that "fine amor" is love that is pure, refined, and loyal, the love of the Balades remains a "virtuous secular love" (145). The Middle English equivalent for Gower would be "honeste love" (147). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Burnley, J. D Published Burnley, J. D. "'Fine Amor': Its Meaning and Context." Review of English Studies 31.2 (1980), pp. 129-148. ISSN 0034-6551 Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Cinkante Balades Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Fine Amor': Its Meaning and Context Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1980 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Raymo provides a lengthy list of citations where Gower's VC borrows directly from Nigel de Longchamps' Speculum Stultorum (the story of an ass called Burnell who desires a longer tail). In the VC, Gower twice alludes expressly to the Speculum Stultorum. He also uses it as the source for the story of Adrian and Bardus in the CA. Gower seems to have been particularly interested in the exempla of the revengeful cock and of the unfortunate cows who were attacked by flies. However, most of Gower's borrowings have lost all relation to their original context. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Raymo, Robert R Published Raymo, Robert R. "Gower's Vox Clamantis and the Speculum Stultorum." Modern Language Notes 70.5 (1955), pp. 315-320. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's Vox Clamantis and the Speculum Stultorum Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Goolden discusses Antiochus's riddle about his incestuous relationship with his daughter. The riddle occurs in Shakespeare, in Gower, and in the medieval Latin prose romance "Apollonius of Tyre." Goolden suggests that the key to solving the riddle is to notice that the secret marriage between father and daughter creates complex "in-law" relationships. For instance, Antiochus becomes his "wife's son" because he is taking the place of the man who should be his son-in-law. Gower, according to Goolden, copies a slightly corrupted version of the riddle, but whether he is aware of its deeper meaning is unclear. Shakespeare changes the subject of the riddle from Antiochus to the daughter and renders the riddle more easily comprehensible. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Goolden, P Published Goolden, P. "Antiochus's Riddle in Gower and Shakespeare." Review of English Studies n.s. 6 (1955), pp. 245-251. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Antiochus's Riddle in Gower and Shakespeare Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Gilroy-Scott, Neil W Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Review In the two centuries after Gower's death, the poet's name is mentioned respectfully alongside that of Chaucer. However, Gower had not nearly the same popular appeal. There are three main reasons for this difference: Gower wrote two extended works in French and in Latin; he concerned himself greatly with the welfare of his country in his works; and he distributed copies of his works primarily to eminent men in church and state, thereby limiting their general dissemination. Initial references to Gower are brief, and most are influenced by Chaucer's allusion to "moral Gower" at the end of Troilus and Criseyde. From there Gilroy-Scott traces Gower's influence through the Scottish Chaucerians, Caxton, Skelton, Berthelet, Puttenham, Sir Philip Sidney, Robert Greene (at some length), and Shakespeare (in Pericles). Gower is generally praised for his morality (although some severe voices object to the lust of Venus) and commended for his compendious knowledge. Nevertheless, with the passage of time his rhymes are increasingly seen as "quaint" and by the time of Shakespeare he has become "an antique figure endowed with a measure of rustic wisdom" (47). Lacking popular appeal, Gower was eventually assigned to "the preserve of the scholar and antiquarian" (47). Based on the author's 1968 M.A. thesis, Birmingham University, "The Reputation of John Gower from 1400 to 1609." [CvD; rev. MA] Published Gilroy-Scott, Neil W. "John Gower's Reputation: Literary Allusions from the Early Fifteenth Century to the Time of 'Pericles'." Yearbook of English Studies 1 (1971), pp. 30-47. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource John Gower's Reputation: Literary Allusions from the Early Fifteenth Century to the Time of 'Pericles'. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Lewis traces the development of the courtly love tradition from France in the eleventh century to England in the sixteenth. The place of Gower in this history is assessed in chapter 5, where he is grouped with Thomas Usk. Lewis praises Gower for the strong "architectonics" (198) of the CA. The key to Gower's success is that he learned from Andreas Capellanus how courtly love had a moral code, and so could be combined fruitfully with a religious confession. Lewis also praises Gower for his plain style, even though it frequently descends to the prosaic. He notes Gower's tendency not to tell us what people think. Gower further focuses less on shapes and colours and more on movement and action. Yet Gower has a romantic element, which Lewis finds unusual for a medieval poet. Gower "excels in strange adventure, in the remote and the mysterious" (210). Lewis briefly discusses Gower's moral didacticism--which includes a surprising "element of iron in a poet elsewhere so gentle" (212)--before turning to the story of Amans in the frame narrative. Lewis notes the complex mingling of humour, pathos, devotion, and realism in the exchanges between Amans and Genius. What makes the story of Amans stand out is its ending. The death of love becomes a touching allegory for life in general. The final line to this section is both simple and perfect (221): "homward a softe pas I went." Still, the fact that Gower fails to end his poem here is emblematic of Gower's ability as an artist: "Gower has risen to great poetry, but he is not a great poet" (222). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Lewis, C. S Published Lewis, C. S. "The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition." Oxford: Clarendon, 1936 Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Clarendon, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1936 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Kuhl's article is primarily about the witnesses in the Cecily Champaign affair, but at the very end he makes a brief mention of John Gower. After suggesting that Chaucer may have owed his guardianship of the heirs of Edmund Staplegate in 1375 to Ralph Strode, Kuhl notes that John Gower too can be linked to Edmund Staplegate. According to the Calendar of Patent Rolls, in 1386 and 1387, "John Gower and Edmund Staplegate were among the purveyors of victuals at Dover Castle" (275). Kuhl suggests that this is Gower the poet, and on the basis of these connections he concludes that "Troilus and Criseyde was dedicated to two friends who were members of the King's faction" (276). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Kuhl, Ernest P Published Kuhl, Ernest P. "Some Friends of Chaucer." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 29.2 (1914), pp. 270-76. Gower Subject Biography of Gower Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Some Friends of Chaucer. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1914 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Hamilton agrees with Macaulay that earlier critics from Warton onward wrongly assumed that Book 7 of the CA is by and large a borrowing from the Secretum Secretorum (SS). However, he argues that Macaulay restricts Gower's indebtedness too much by only looking at the Latin original of the SS. According to Hamilton, Gower also uses a French translation by Jofroi de Watreford. This text was translated into English by James Yonge in 1422, and Hamilton shows how close Gower is to both by comparing the various versions of the tale of Cambyses. Yet, Gower sometimes uses multiple texts as sources. For example, the section of Book 7 that Peck's edition entitles "Triumph, Humility, and the Roman Emperors" borrows the name of the hostile people "Dorence," and the reference to the god Apollo from some collection of exempla, whereas he uses Jofroi for details such as the citation of his sources (333). Similarly, the description of the nobility of the lion (7.3387-99) is borrowed partially from Jofroi and partially from Brunetto Latini. Gower further relies on Jofroi for the information about the four complexions of man and for the story of Diogenes and Aristippus. Even Gower's biblical stories "were suggested in their due category to Gower by his French source" (15). At other times Gower and Jofroi share the same source, as in the moralization on Alexander (CA 3.2438-80), which ultimately stems from the Disciplina Clericalis of Petrus Alphonsus (338). Yet, in at least one respect Gower parts way with Jofroi. Gower does not agree that the scientific discourse of the original Latin SS lacks authority and is false (341). In fact, Gower uses other sources (like Brunetto Latini and Martianus Capella) to expand his discussion of the influence of the planets. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Hamilton, George L Published Hamilton, George L. ""Some Sources of the Seventh Book of Gower's Confessio Amantis."." Modern Philology 9.3 (1912), pp. 323-46. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "Some Sources of the Seventh Book of Gower's Confessio Amantis." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1912 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "The thesis examines the poetics and politics of 'olde bokes' (Legend of Good Women, G25) in selected works by Chaucer and Gower, paying particular attention to the way in which both writers appropriate their sources and the theories of history and political ideas informing these appropriations. It argues that Chaucer eschews metanarratives in his appropriations of the past and its writings, emphasizing the multiplicity of voices that are contained in written discourse across time. In contrast, Gower, while acknowledging the presence of multiple voices, appropriates the writings of the past in an attempt to arrive at a harmonized poetic voice of his own. These poetics of the past result in different politics of the present in both writers' work. While Gower's politics are generally nostalgic and conservative, Chaucer is apolitical and primarily interested in the processes of political discourse. In this respect, Gower is a writer who strives to make sense of history and tradition and formulate poignant political statements in the face of contemporary struggles, whereas Chaucer does not offer unambiguous statements, but rather creates a multi-facetted poetic voice that highlights the reasons why such statements are impossible to achieve in the face of discursive heterogeneity." [JGN 27.1] Author/Editor Author/Editor Urban, Malte Published Urban, Malte. "Poetics of the Past, Politics of the Present." Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 2005. Fully accessible via https://research.aber.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/poetics-of-the-past-politics-of-the-present/ (accessed April 6, 2026). Gower Subject Backgrounds and General Criticism Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Poetics of the Past, Politics of the Present. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "Many of us," Simpson opines, "are the living heirs of Protestant anxiety regarding work and waste. We find it difficult to recover the charisma of idleness of any kind, be it religious or aristocratic" (p. 259). From such sectarian social anxiety he is particularly exercised in the rescue of "Wasted, idle reading" (p. 260): "My larger claim is that late medieval, pre-Reformation textual practice in not driven by a need to define and expel cultural waste; on the contrary, idle reading is an essential part of a cultural economy. More specifically, "otium" and idle reading are an essential part of a psychic economy" (p. 260). Simpson chooses to analyze Book IV (devoted to Sloth) of the Confessio Amantis to make his case, "since Amans' literary education in that book looks like nothing so much as a plain waste of time idly frittered. The text as a whole, further, seems unworried about idling away in archives of old texts" (p. 261). Subjecting Book IV to a rigorous reading, Simpson follows Amans along a path that, he argues, illustrates how easily "a literary education" can "feed the psyche's capacity for delusive satisfactions" (p. 284). He concludes by noting that there are [punctuation sic] "various ways in which Gower recognises the value of otium: there are some states of soul that cannot be broached directly, and that require homeopathic therapy that pretends to feed pathological desire even as it begins the cure. And that homeopathic psychic treatment involves a cultural commitment to idle, apparently wasted reading: like many other Middle English works that recycle prior texts, the Confessio demonstrates no desire to define books and libraries as waste. It offers instead a model of recreative relaxedness among many books; books will respond creatively to big questions, but only if we allow them to do their own work on us . . . . The recycling of old texts in the Confessio is less a matter of humble obeisance to older, higher literary authority, and more a matter of understanding how texts and traditions are creatively recycled through the complex operations of idle reading" (p. 284). [RFY. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.1] Author/Editor Author/Editor Simpson, James Published Simpson, James. "Bonjour Paresse: Literary Waste and Recycling in Book 4 of Gower's 'Confessio Amantis'." Proceedings of the British Academy 151 (2007), pp. 257-84. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bonjour Paresse: Literary Waste and Recycling in Book 4 of Gower's 'Confessio Amantis'. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Lipton, Emma Published Lipton, Emma. "Affections of the Mind: The Politics of Sacramental Marriage in Late Medieval England." Notre Dame, Ind.: Notre Dame University Press, 2007 Gower Subject Traitié pour Essampler les Amants Marietz Review Lipton's thesis is that a "politicized negotiation of social and religious authority can be found in late medieval England where an emergent lay middle strata of society used the sacramental model of marriage to exploit contradictions within medieval theology and social hierarchy" (p. 1). From the twelfth century on. "the substance of the sacrament of marriage was the mutual love between the two members of the couple. This love in turn was both the sign and substance of God's Grace" (p. 2). Lipton thus sets out to trace "the unprecedented popularity of the sacramental model of marriage as a literary topic in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to its role as a contested category in the ideological conflicts between the laity and clergy, and between the members of the middle strata and the aristocracy." (p. 2). By way of example, she concentrates her study on four texts, devoting a chapter to each: Chaucer's "Franklin's Tale," the N-Town plays, the "Book of Margery Kempe," and the eighteen Anglo-French balades (which Lipton calls "ballads") comprising John Gower's "Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz." Lipton takes up Gower in chapter two. She sees both Gower and his "Traitié" fitting very neatly within her targeted concerns--Gower himself because he epitomizes what Sylvia Thrupp ("The Merchant Class of Medieval London") defined as the "middle strata" of society, "the lesser types of gentry, the merchant class, and perhaps also the more substantial semi-mercantile elements in London and other cities" (quoting Thrupp, p. 9), and the "Taitié" "because it is in this poem [sic] that Gower most thoroughly explores the sacramental model and . . . ties marriage not to the governance of the realm but to the values of his own social position" (p. 18). In the process he redefines masculine virtues as more properly domestic rather than military by demoting classical and chivalric heroes (e.g., Ulysses and Tristan are "domestic horrors"); relocates the onus for moral and sexual responsibility onto men, rather than women; and rescues virtuous marriage from the traditional misrepresentation of clerical misogynists by ranking it above chastity. Lipton indeed holds Gower's work in (what only can be described as refreshingly) high regard. She identifies as his chief concern in the "Traitié" establishing marriage as a mark of superior status, and claims rather ringingly that "in fact the ballads of the "Traitié" participate in a new social vision for the emergent upper middle strata of society and reveal the ideological roots of the public voice of Ricardian poetry in a new masculinized vision of privat life" (p. 18)--and rather intriguingly that "the valuation of private behavior over class status makes the depiction of marriage in the poem similar to the representation of manners in conduct literature: as a venue for the development of an ideology of social mobility" (p. 87). [RFY. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.1] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Affections of the Mind: The Politics of Sacramental Marriage in Late Medieval England. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Notre Dame University Press, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Hamilton begins by arguing that Gower's account of Hercules is "a dovetailing of phrases from the Latin and French versions of Barlaam [and Josaphat], the enlarged Roman de Troie [see Hamilton's 1905 article for this hypothetical source], and maybe, from the Historia Trojana" (496). He then adds that some details – in particular, the number of Hercules' "merveiles" – are borrowed from redaction J2 (not Macaulay's J3) of the Historia de Preliis of Archypresbyter Leo. Lastly, Gower's emphasis on the contrast between Hercules' ignominious death (borrowed from the first set of sources) and Hercules' great deeds (borrowed from the Historia de Preliis), may be indebted to a passage from Walter Map's Dissuasio Valerii ad Ruffinum Philosophum ne Uxorem Ducat where the fatal gift of Deianira becomes Hercules's thirteenth labour. Lastly, Gower's comments on "Fortitudo" are borrowed from the Poetarius of Albericus of London. Hamilton then provides a brief discussion of the concept of fortitude in Gower's works, before moving on to an examination of the sources of the story of Nectanabus in Book 6 of the CA. Here too the Historia de Preliis is used to supply additional information, such as the idea that Nectanabus was king of Egypt. Other sources or analogues Hamilton mentions include the Roman de la Rose, Brunetto Latini's Tresor, and the Anglo-Norman Roman de Toute Chevalerie of Thomas of Kent. Hamilton dedicates special attention to the source of Gower's reference to the pillars of Hercules. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Hamilton, George L Published Hamilton, George L. "Studies in the Sources of Gower. I. The Latin and French Versions of 'Barlaam and Josaphat,' and of the 'Legendary History of Alexander the Great.'." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 26 (1927), pp. 491-520. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Studies in the Sources of Gower. I. The Latin and French Versions of 'Barlaam and Josaphat,' and of the 'Legendary History of Alexander the Great.' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1927 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "This dissertation argues that late medieval English literature was often forced to define itself against and around the problem of flattery, a notion which was used to encapsulate a wide range of cultural and linguistic corruptions. Flattery presented itself both as a practice--an often necessary means of speaking to patrons and rulers--and as a discourse, a conventional set of complaints about the evils of flattery found in many political, religious, and literary texts. This study examines the intersections between these two modes, as poets and flatterers use warnings against flattery to legitimize its practice, and explores how flattery was used as a figure for usurpation, rhetoric, and interpretation. By examining key texts and contexts from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, I show that the rhetorical paradoxes of flattery were essential to the medieval understanding of selfhood and literary language. My first chapter examines the genre of advice manuals known as mirrors for princes, and shows how John Gower's Confessio Amantis reformulated their discourse of flattery into a literary language addressed to Richard II, who was widely criticized for his susceptibility to flatterers." Other chapters consider Langland's Piers Plowman and the anonymous Mum and the Sothsegger; Chaucer's Melibee, Merchant's Tale, and Nun's Priest's Tale; and Hoccleve's La Male Regle and The Regiment of Princes. Directed by Seth Lerer. Author/Editor Author/Editor Walling, Amanda Published Walling, Amanda. "Vicious praise: Flattery in late medieval English politics and poetry." PhD thesis, Stanford University, 2007. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Vicious praise: Flattery in late medieval English politics and poetry Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "My dissertation explores confession as a form or structure organizing four late-medieval texts: John Gower's Confessio Amantis, Geoffrey Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, The Book of Margery Kempe and Robert Henryson's Testament of Cresseid. I find that in these medieval texts confession functions as a discourse for producing truth and for constructing or inventing textualized bodies. Therefore, in part, I approach confession through the popular medieval analogy of a "the body" to "the book" and thereby consider how confession works to represent "truth" via the figure of a Christian body divided between inner and outer space. In each of the four texts I discuss, memorable bodies emerge as effects of confessional discourse: the senex amans in the Confessio ; the suffering women of the Legend ; the chaste body of Margery Kempe; and Cresseid's leprous body in the Testament. These problematic bodies all bear out the difficulties and frequent failures of confessional representation. Ultimately, during a period of institutional collapse and social, religious, and political upheaval, I demonstrate that desire ---for truth, renewal of faith, recuperation of the fallen body, stability, closure---underlies the need to confess." Directed by Elizabeth Scala and Marjorie Curry Woods. Author/Editor Author/Editor Meyer, Cathryn Marie Published Meyer, Cathryn Marie. "Producing the Middle English corpus: Confession and medieval bodies." PhD thesis, The University of Texas at Austin, 2006. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Producing the Middle English corpus: Confession and medieval bodies Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "The years surrounding the Rising of 1381 witnessed socio-cultural struggles suggesting to authors of the day the fallen-ness of England. That impression had significant effects on the community imagined by writers. As authors such as John Gower and William Langland represented the perceived moral and social decay, they communicated multiple images of the nation simultaneously. One facet is the "monstrous nation," in which a people is unified by its immoral predilection for self-destruction; the other facet is the "reformist nation," in which texts communicate an ideal image, rooted in the theory of the Three Estates. Religion, therefore, becomes a structuring principle in medieval "imagined communities." Chapter One analyzes Gower's use of Nebuchadnezzar's statue in the Vox Clamantis, which Gower reuses in the Confessio Amantis, reading it as an image of a monstrous body politic that shadows the ideal image of community. Gower's adopted role as prophet for the English locates this community within a specifically religious discourse that elevates the ideal image of the nation to one of chosenness by God." Other chapters: Thomas Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, Henry Knighton's Chronicon and other accounts of the Peasants' Revolt; the letters attributed to John Ball; and Piers Plowman. Directed by Karma Lochrie and Patricia C.Ingham. Author/Editor Author/Editor Marshall, David W Gower Subject Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Published Marshall, David W. "Monstrous England: Nation and reform, 1375--1385." PhD thesis, Indiana University, 2007. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Monstrous England: Nation and reform, 1375--1385 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "This dissertation investigates the reciprocal relationship between merchants and poets within late-medieval London's multilingual trade network. While modern scholars have tended to place them in different social spheres, merchants and poets shared a working knowledge of English, French and Latin, and I argue that they engaged in mutually informing types of textual production. Juxtaposing literary works by Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, Charles d'Orléans, and William Caxton with account books, civic documents, and bilingual phrasebooks, I identify points of contact between the city's mercantile and literary cultures. For example, poets imported merchant jargon from different languages into romance and lyric texts, and merchants incorporated poetic devices into their guild records and personal inventories. By examining the writings of literary figures alongside non-literary ones, I demonstrate how social spheres overlapped and shaped one another in the city. Most importantly, I contend that multilingual medieval writing plays a crucial role in English literary history. By approaching trilingual poets like Gower and even the most canonical of single-language authors like Chaucer as multilingual individuals with diverse influences, I reveal how the category of the secular, professional writer was articulated--perhaps even invented--in this period. Rather than identifying as French-speaking courtly lovers or as learned Latinate clerics, middling urbanites crafted hybrid personas that adapted traditions from many languages." A final chapter discusses The Book of Margery Kempe. Directed by David Wallace. Author/Editor Author/Editor Hsy, Jonathan Horng Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Published Hsy, Jonathan Horng. "Polyglot poetics: Merchants and literary production in London, 1300--1500." PhD thesis, The University of Pennsylvnia, 2007. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Polyglot poetics: Merchants and literary production in London, 1300--1500 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "This dissertation examines the national economic discussion spurred by the crises of war and plague in fourteenth-century England. Bringing disparate texts into alignment with each other, I show that documentary and poetic writings from this period imagine economic activity and make economic arguments in strikingly similar ways. . . . Reading documentary texts such as parliamentary petitions and statutes alongside literature, including well-known works by Chaucer, Gower, and Langland as well as a variety of anonymous political satire, I identify and track four key strategies used by the middle strata in national economic debate. My chapters examine holistic conceptions of the realm's wealth, evaluations of the role of intermediary officials in financial systems, and appeals to "reason" as an economic standard and to "common profit" as a model of economic collaboration. Relying on the techniques of literary close reading, but applying them to productive groupings of texts that have often been separated by disciplinarily-dictated generic or linguistic criteria, I stress the importance of national economic concerns for the social, political, and literary imaginary of this period." Author/Editor Author/Editor Bryant, Brantley L Gower Subject Backgrounds and General Criticism Published Bryant, Brantley L. "Common profit: Economic morality in English public political discourse, c. 1340--1406." Ph.D. dissertation. Columbia University, 2007. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Common profit: Economic morality in English public political discourse, c. 1340--1406 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream is indebted to Gower's version of the Pyramus and Thisbe story for the allusion to 1 Corinthians 2:9 in Bottom's speech as he awakens from his dream (MND 5.1.206-12; cf. CA 3.1417-28). Other possible similarities include the reference to a lion rather than a lioness (MND 5.1.217, CA 3.1398-1400; cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses. 4.96-97) and the lovers' conversation through a hole in the wall rather than a crack (MND 5.1.157, 198, CA 3.1370-71; cf. Met. 4.65-72). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Taylor, A. B Published Taylor, A. B. "John Gower and 'Pyramus and Thisbe'." Notes and Queries 54 (2007), pp. 282-83. Gower Subject Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower and 'Pyramus and Thisbe' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Sobecki, Sebastian I Published Sobecki, Sebastian I. "Educating Richard: Incest, Marriage, and (Political) Consent in Gower's 'Tale of Apollonius'." Anglia 125 (2007), pp. 205-16. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Review Gower's tale of Apollonius, Sobecki argues, forms part of the poet's artful attempt to offer advice to his king on the limits upon, and on the most effective way of exercising, his rule. The tale is preceded by a 200-line prologue that is concerned not so much with incest itself or with the "natural" taboo that prevents it as with "the legal discourse that has generated the incest prohibition. As Genius puts it at the end of his prologue, his concern will be 'lust' or lechery in relation to the law: 'Hou lust of love excedeth lawe, / It oghte for to be withdrawe" (CA, VIII.263-64)" (p. 209). Antiochus' offenses against his daughter are situated in "a place lying outside of the Christian restrictions on incest. . . . Measured against the yardstick of Genius' legalistic 'lust of love excedeth lawe", Antiochus is only partly guilty: he cannot be aware that he is offending canon law since he inhabits and gives birth to a pagan world of legend governed by natural law" (p. 210). His real offense is that he makes no attempt to marry his daughter, as in other similar tales, and his incest "is but a thematic device to demonstrate the efficacy of marriage as a cure for lechery. . . . [and that] it is legal discourse that regulates the definitional boundaries between lechery, incest, and marriage" (p. 211). Marriage also provides a metaphor for the relation between the ruler and his subjects. In the tale, Apollonius is not called "king" until after his marriage with Arcestrates' daughter. "It becomes clear that, like incest, Apollonius' political status is discursive, and the title of prince, which stands here for 'ruler, sovereign', is transformed by marriage into the king that he will become later" (p. 212). One important link between marriage and kingship is that both are based upon consent. Apollonius' abandonment of Tyre at the beginning of the tale takes place without "comun assent" (8.493), while his marriage at the end is sanctioned by the unanimous consent of a specially summoned parliament (8.1989-91). "This passage fuses two streams of assent or consensus, the political and the matrimonial one, in a final expression of marriage as a metaphor for harmonious polity" (p. 215). "Rather than viewing the tale as an expression of political cynicism or disillusionment," Sobecki concludes, "I propose to read Gower's legal interplay of incest, marriage, and kingship--fed through he catalyst of Apollonius--as an attempt to suggest to Richard that he should rule his realm in the same way in which he leads his marriage--with conjugal love" (p. 216). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Educating Richard: Incest, Marriage, and (Political) Consent in Gower's 'Tale of Apollonius' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Kinch, Ashby Published Kinch, Ashby. "'To thenke what was in hir wille': A Female Reading Context for the Findern Anthology." Neophilologus 91 (2007), pp. 729-44. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Manuscripts and Textual Studies Review The Findern MS (Cambridge University Library MS Ff.1.6), compiled in the last decades of the fifteenth century, is notable for bearing the signatures of several women, who may have been not just owners and readers but also scribes of at least some portions of the book, which was evidently compiled piecemeal over an extended period of time. For Kinch, the MS provides valuable evidence not just of the tastes of a provincial audience but also for the way in which it "illuminat[es] a literary subculture with demonstrable female participation" (p. 731). "Female reading interests" (p. 733) are discernible in the choice of texts, in the selection of portions of these texts, and in the juxtapositions of these selections within the book. Two of the three sections that Kinch examines most closely are the pairing of Gower's tales of Philomela and Rosiphelee and the juxtaposition of Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowls" with Gower's tale of "The Three Questions." In each case, her close readings of the texts themselves are complemented by the way in which each is "recontextualized in a manuscript compiled by women" (p. 740). In the first two tales, "The compilers . . . draw together two stories of female isolation and imprisonment (one involuntary, one self-imposed), and of female interiority (one a physical limitation, the other a will to self-reflection)" (p. 734) which "are both oddly illuminative reflections on the powers and limits--though mostly the limits--of female resistance" (p. 734). By preceding "Rosiphelee" with an excerpt from Amans' speech on his unsuccessful efforts to impress his lady, the compilers also set up a contrast between Tereus and Gower's "inoffensive dupe" (p. 734). "Of course, the two figures are not entirely oppositional: they strangely parallel one another in their persistence, and, again, in the way they impose themselves on the women they seek out. A reader of the court tradition might imagine that most men, though they profess the platitudes of courtly love like Amans, are really more like Tereus at heart; and the specific juxtaposition of these texts certainly facilitates this ironic reading" (p. 734). Both PF and "The Three Questions" "demonstrate intelligent female responses to authority" (p. 739). "The formel voices the positive response to the constraint to which Rosiphelee must submit: although forced to make a choice in love, the woman does exert a certain authority in retaining the prerogative on when and how to exercise that choice" (p. 740). Peronelle, on the other hand, "is shrewd, working on behalf of both her and her father's best interests, in many ways affirming the most positive aspects of the 'patriarchal bargain': if a woman can provide wisdom that advances the values of men between whom she is exchanged, then she validates the proper function of a patriarchal system, even as she benefits directly from the exchange. . . . Peronelle's eloquence implicitly attests to the importance of educating women as a vehicle for the social advancement of the family" (p. 740-41). The "marriage imperative" at work in these tales "no doubt resonated in direct ways" with the lives of the women who compiled this book (p. 742); "one also hopes," Kinch concludes, that "when some female reader . . . read that Rosphilee nestled under the shaw 'and ther sche stod al one stille/To thenke what was in hir wille," that this reader might have seen the potential for something different, an experience of reflexive self-awareness that we have come to identify as one the liberating powers of literature" (p. 743). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'To thenke what was in hir wille': A Female Reading Context for the Findern Anthology Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Amans refers to his struggles with Danger three times in CA, in 3.1537-68, in 5.6607-52, and in his final supplication, 8.2264-65, 2285-86. Though Amans does not actually label him as such, Kendall argues that his description of Danger's functions invoke the role of the chamberer or chamberlain, who as the servant closest to the lord or to the king could serve as advisor, clerk, treasurer, guard, or keeper of his seal (cf. CA 3.1556), as well as, very importantly, the controller of access; and that Amans' complaints echo the common charges of concentration of power, abuse of position, and denial of access, especially to the king's justice, that led to the execution of both Simon Burley and William Scrope. But Amans' complaints lack the authority of parliamentary attacks on the king's chamberlains since they are grounded in his personal interest rather than in "common profit," and they do more to reveal Amans' own narrowness of view and pursuit of personal desire than they do Danger's. In these very passages, in fact, Amans confesses his own self-interest and his duplicity, and the wildness and violence associated with Dangier in the Roman de la Rose is transferred to Amans himself (CA 3. 1518-23). Danger, by contrast, is presented as a more civilized as well as more powerful figure than Dangier, and in his unceasing vigilance, in his loyalty to his lady, and in his utter lack of self-interest, he is a model for an ideal servant. In that regard, he draws upon a different and more potent ideal of aristocratic behavior than Amans' courtoisie; his "impervious[ness] to bribery or eloquence" (p. 62) invokes memories of the Golden Age; and his immutability (8. 2269-65) offers a response to the mutability and division that Gower cites as the sources of both immorality and social disorder in the Prologue. In borrowing the figure of Danger from RR, Gower, has inverted it, and he has placed it on "the winning side" (p. 64). "Amans' adversary demeans his desire and symbolizes a force of social renewal latent in the great household" (p. 64). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Kendall, Elliott Published Kendall, Elliott. "Chamberlain Danger: The Social Meaning of Love Allegory in the Confessio Amantis." Medium Ævum 76 (2007), pp. 49-69. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chamberlain Danger: The Social Meaning of Love Allegory in the Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Higl, Andrew Published Higl, Andrew. "Printing Power: Selling Lydgate, Gower, and Chaucer." Essays in Medieval Studies 23 (2006), pp. 57-77. ISSN 1043-2213 Gower Subject Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Review At the center of this essay is a 6-page table (59-64) showing the chronology of the appearance of the major printed editions of the works of Gower, Lydgate, and Chaucer between 1477 and 1598. Alongside the three editions of CA (one by Caxton, two by Berthelette) stand 18 separate imprints of Lydgate and 19 of Chaucer, and Higl seeks to explain why Chaucer was regarded as a more marketable commodity than either of his near contemporaries. The monk Lydgate, Higl notes, fell increasingly out of fashion with the onset of the Reformation. He had diminished his own auctoritas, moreover, by placing himself below "Father Chaucer," and he was often identified merely as translator rather than as poet. Gower too was out of step with the Reformation: he expresses his strong opposition to Lollardy and schism, and Higl notes that the three editions of CA appeared either before the Act of Supremacy in 1534 or during the brief return to Catholicism under Mary. And though Gower is sometimes cited during this period for the quality of his English, as the author of major poems in three different languages, he did not contribute as Chaucer did to the advancement of the growth of English. "In an era dominated by humanist scholarship of classical Greek and Latin, English printers and editors needed to market English as worthwhile--something served by elevating the figure of Chaucer but not plausible with Gower" (p. 70). Chaucer was more marketable, finally, because his works were both more varied and more malleable. Fragmented and incomplete, unlike the single major monument that Gower left in English, they invited revision and expansion and allowed editors and printers to construct a Chaucer appropriate to the market demands of the time.] [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Printing Power: Selling Lydgate, Gower, and Chaucer Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Galloway's entrée into a journal dedicated to pedagogy is his premise that Middle English by its very nature presents 21st-century students with a variety of dilemmas concerning vocabulary and syntax that were shared by medieval writers in England, many of whom were fluent in at least three languages (Latin, French and English) and for whom the "vernacular" was a poly-lingual work-in-progress. Their lot was thus to write (just as our students now read) possessed of a "sense of the foreignness of the English they use" (p. 89). In a series of closely read passages (CA I.2041-47; I.2080-2103; II.1936-57; Piers Plowman C.9.209-18; St. Margaret ll.83-84) Galloway demonstrates the complexity of (especially) Gower's English syntax, alongside the general self-consciousness of Langland and the St. Margaret author about words in English. His points about Gower are particularly bracing: Gower's "use of any one of these languages [i.e., Latin, French, English] must take account of his fluency in the others" (p. 91); "Gower regularly handles [syntax] with a sophistication far greater than Chaucer or indeed most any (and perhaps simply any) Middle English poet" (p. 91). So are some of his questions, e.g., does "Gower [use] a style that is explicitly 'Old French' to indicate the chivalric value system he then proceeds to shred or to refine?" (p. 95). Most revolutionary of all, however, is Galloway's suggestion that perhaps those who fail to teach Gower's work because they believe him to be "morally predictable and, worse, stylistically flat" (p. 91) reveal primarily their own failure to recognize, let alone comprehend, the subtlety of what he wrote. [RFY. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Galloway, Andrew Published Galloway, Andrew. "Middle English as a Foreign Language, to 'Us' and 'Them' (Gower, Langland, and the Author of The Life of St. Margaret)." Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 14 (2007), pp. 89-102. Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Middle English as a Foreign Language, to 'Us' and 'Them' (Gower, Langland, and the Author of The Life of St. Margaret) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Cortijo Ocaña announced the discovery of a copy of the long-lost 15th-century Portuguese translation of CA by Robert Payn (on which the better known Castilian translation on Juan de Cuenca was based) in 1995, and he has released more details in several articles published since (see JGN 20.1). Here he provides the first published edition of a portion of the poem, the entirety of Book 6. He also provides a brief introduction, evidently addressed to a readership that knows little of CA, summarizing the book, reviewing the critical commentary upon it, listing its sources, and commenting upon the translation. Extremely faithful for the most part, Payn abbreviates some of the "closing formulas" that mark the ends of the sections marked as chapters in the translation; he expands some of the references to God and to the Virgin; and occasionally changes the order of words or phrases. Otherwise, the precision of the translation leads Cortijo to wonder whether the translator had really become so adept in Portuguese or had worked in collaboration with a native speaker. For the curious, here is an excerpt from the translation, the conclusion to the tale of Ulysses and Telegonus (6.1737-88), as Cortijo reprints it (p. 64): "E el, cheo de noio e de pesar, com grande tristura lhe contou todo o caso assy como el podia, e en como sua madre auya nome Çyrçes, a qual se enujaua a el muytas uezes encomẽdar. E disselhje toda a maneyra de sua bynda. Vllixes, sabendo que quãto lhe dizia que todo era uerdade, nõ enbargando o ssangue que del sahia, tomou[14rb]ho nos braços e, chorando, beyiouho muytas uezes, dizendo: 'Filho meu, esta ĩffortuna que me per ty agora aconteçeo, em quãto eu soo byuo, cõ boa uoontade pera ssenpre te perdoo'. Mandou entõ depressa pollo outro seu filho, o qual a sseu mandado sem mais deteença logo chegou. [vi 1752] Mas quãdo el byu seu padre jazer em ponto de morte, foysse dereito a Thellogonus, seu jrmãao, e quiserao matar, se sseu padre Vllixes nõ fora que antre elles fez paz e boa Concordia, mandando a Thellamacus, seu filho herdeiro, que a todo seu poder fezesse penssar de Thellagonus seu irmãao, ataa que de suas feridas fosse bem guarido, e que entom lhe desse terras de tanta rrenda per que onrradamente se podesse manteer. Thellemacus, ueendo a uõotade de sseu padre queianda era, disse que el staua prestes de conprir todo seu mandado. Assy que dhi en diante estes yrmãos anbos byuerõ de conssũu. E Ollixes [sic], seu padre, cuia ujda era, ia ẽ fim ffoy ueer o outro mũdo. "[vi 1768] Ues a que fym serue feytiçaria. Este rrey per ffeytiçaria conprio seu tallante; per feitiçarya foy começado todo seu mal, per ffeytiçaria scolheo el seu amor; per ffeytiçaria foy acabada sua uyda e seu filho foy geerado per ffeytiçaria, per a qual todo [14va] este mal foy obrado. E assy como el contra a naturalleza obrou bem, asy contra naturalleza ouue seu acabamento. Ca assaz contra naturaleza podemos dizer que foy quãdo o filho per suas mãaos matou seu padre. Porem para mentes que qualquer que guãaça seu amor per esta guisa todo seu prazer xe lhe torna depois ẽ noio. Ca eu acho em scripto en como esta arte em outro tenpo por guaançar amor foy outrossy usada, de que per algũa cronyca enperial se quiseres podes tomar enxenplo, a qual antre os homẽes ataa fym do mũdo por sẽpre ficara em memoria." [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] The article is available at <http://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu>. Author/Editor Author/Editor Cortijo Ocaña, Antonio Published Cortijo Ocaña, Antonio. "El libro VI de la Confessio Amantis." eHumanista 8 (2007), pp. 38-72. ISSN 1540 5877 Gower Subject Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource El libro VI de la Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In the preface to his Mirrour of Good Maners (his otherwise forgettable translation of Dominique Mancini's De Quattuor Virtutibus), Alexander Barclay explained his refusal to submit to his patron's wish that he instead translate Gower's Confessio Amantis by dismissing the poem, rather surprisingly, for its "wantonnes." Barrington takes another look at this passage, and she argues that Barclay was not so much concerned that the poem was either immoral or lascivious. He used "wanton" in a different sense, "undisciplined, ungoverned; not amenable to control, unmanageable, rebellious" (OED), referring more specifically to three characteristics of CA that Barclay catalogs in the explanation in the lines that follow: the inappropriateness of an old man posing as a young lover, of a priest speaking of anything but faith and virtue, and of the poem's attempt to mix "lust" with "lore" or "to express moral truths in tales of lust and desire" (p.19). All three of these Barrington labels as examples of "excessive performance and inappropriate role-playing" (p.196) and of "uncontained and excessive display, both linguistic and theatrical" (p.207), and she finds an analogy and model for Barclay's response to the poem in the reactions of Bishop John Fisher and Sir Thomas More to the excesses of display and performance in the 1520 convocation of the French and English kings and of their highest nobility known as the "Field of the Cloth of Gold," contrived by Cardinal Wolsey both to enact and to celebrate the peace between England and France, an event for which Barclay himself was enlisted in a minor role. Barclay's reaction to the convocation is not recorded, but much implicit criticism of the court is contained in his Eclogues. Barclay's reading of Gower, Barrrington suggests, points to "an equally skeptical reading of Henry VIII's court, with its increasing emphasis on transgressive pomp, ceremony, and role-playing" (p.207), and using Fisher's and More's views as an index of Barclay's, Barrington concludes that Barclay "sees in Gower's courtly satire the dangers inherent in the closed culture where all scripts are written by and performed for the monarch" (p.220). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Barrington, Candace Published Barrington, Candace. "'Misframed Fables': Barclay's Gower and the Wantonness of Performance." Mediaevalia 24 (2003), pp. 195-225. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Misframed Fables': Barclay's Gower and the Wantonness of Performance Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Allen, Elizabeth Published Allen, Elizabeth. "Newfangled Readers in Gower's 'Apollonius of Tyre'." Studies in the Age of Chaucer 29 (2007), pp. 419-64. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Review Allen titles the third of six sub-sections (or fourth of seven, if one chooses to count the unheaded initial four pages and a half) of her voluminously erudite essay "Repetition and the Wandering Cure"--an indicative agnomen appropriate, perhaps, to suggest a sense of the whole. Allen begins with a direct claim: "For Gower… 'Apollonius' thematizes incest in order to meditate on audience reception: incestuous desire, repeatedly encountered and avoided throughout the narrative, necessitates a series of interpretive acts that figure the relation between king and subject as a relation of mutual audience. The interpretive effort that bolsters monarchy while attending to the needs of its subjects requires imagination on the part of both monarch and subjects. I argue in this essay that incest in 'Apollonius' stages an exploration of such imaginative activity: a series of kings' daughters are figured as new audiences who reinterpret in order to reaffirm monarchial power" (p. 419). Building upon Freudian psychoanalytics and psychoanalytic criticism (Brooks, Fradenburg, Scanlon, Bullón-Fernández, Watt), Allen identifies these targeted/and or developed "new audiences"--the "newfangled readers" of her title--as two-fold but overlapping: everyone who, in the end (and via substantial imaginative maturation) "gets it," i.e., comes to full grips with Gower's process in "Apollonius" and seizes its meaning (pp. 460-62); and women, "a female audience reflective of the communal nature of reading among women in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England" (p. 458). Key in Allen's approach is the concept of transference. At its least level transference converts Amans' fictive (and imaginary) love-life to "the story of John Gower's temporal existence" (p. 463); at its more significant application transference becomes the means by which "'Apollonius' calls attention to its audience's involvement with the plot and hence, in the structure of relations between authority and subject." Thus for Allen the CA is not ultimately an exemplary work; rather, "far from modeling exactly how readers should conduct themselves, subjecting them to morals, the story mediates [sic] on how readers garner authority and make therapeutic contributions to meaning" (p. 463). And, one assumes, mutatis mutandis to kingship and community, although by the essay's conclusion the political dimension held out at its opening seems in danger of being overwhelmed, if not entirely displaced, by foci interior and personal. [RFY. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 27.2] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Newfangled Readers in Gower's 'Apollonius of Tyre' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review This thesis examines the legal aspects of the writings of the fourteenth-century poet John Gower, with particular attention paid to his Confessio Amantis. The first chapter discusses the generic similarities between the legal case and the exemplum and argues that Gower frequently uses the exemplum to analyze difficult legal questions. The three subsequent chapters elaborate on the types of legal problems that Gower broaches, ranging from questions of jurisdiction in international law (the legal status of emperor, pope and king) in chapter two, to the constitutional powers of the king in chapter three, to the legality of private vengeance in chapter four. In the process a number of other legal topics are also analyzed, such as key jurisprudential concepts (e.g., equity and the rigor iuris) and aspects of criminal law (particularly treason, felony, and malice aforethought). Whereas Gower's association with the law has traditionally been approached through biographical readings (the life records), this thesis attempts to broaden our understanding of the legal dimension of his literary writings. Author/Editor Author/Editor Van Dijk, Conrad J Published Van Dijk, Conrad J. "The Exemplum As Legal Case: John Gower and the Limits of the Law." PhD thesis, University of Western Ontario, 2007. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Exemplum As Legal Case: John Gower and the Limits of the Law. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Peck, Russell A. Published Peck, Russell A.. "Kingship and Common Profit in Gower's Confessio Amantis." Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1978 Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Confessio Amantis Review Russell Peck argues that in the political and social turmoil of the fourteenth century, Gower turns to classical stories to find certainty and perspective and to provide a kind of social commentary that is regenerative, not only for the common good, but also for the individual person. In fact, the individual and the state are two sides of the same coin and man is "a double entity, both social and individual" (xxi). As such, kingship is really a form of maturity, self-rule, and rationality. Gower's "notion of social structure is thus interwoven with his theory of ethics, psychology, and theology" (xxi). Peck suggests that these are some of the hallmarks of Gower's ideology and he traces these ideas in chronological fashion through the various books of the CA. Peck explains that the Prologue to the CA lays out several of Gower's major themes. Peck suggests that Gower operates with the Augustinian model of faculty psychology, which divides the mind into three faculties: Memory, Intellect, and Will. The will is the loving faculty, but through sin it often gets stuck in narcissism rather than true knowledge. It is this selfishness that causes social division, a theme that is portrayed in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Peck then surveys the various historical problems that Gower mentions – e.g., the Peasants' Revolt and the Papal Schism – and shows that for Gower the issue is always one of individual responsibility. Despite Gower's pessimistic picture of contemporary degeneration and his eventual disillusionment with Richard II, the Prologue ends with an optimistic note that common profit may yet be found through individual reform. Book I begins the Boethian journey of self-discovery. The mode of confession operates here as "a kind of psychoanalysis" (30). Instrumental in this process is Genius, whose origins Peck briefly traces, and whom Peck associates with the mental faculty "ingenium" (closely linked to the imagination). In Book I, Genius weaves his tales around the theme of community. For instance, the Tale of Florent ends in "the mutual respect of true community" (49). Amans is thus instructed to leave behind the narcissism of pride, the cupidity which keeps him from regaining his true kingship, and to seek out common profit instead. Book 2 is equally political, particularly when Gower discusses the sin of supplantation. Gower argues that the seeker after singular profit will lose all through poetic justice, whereas the seeker of common profit will be rewarded (66-67). Books 3 and 4 deal less with common profit, even though "the motif of kingship is considerably enlarged here" (79). Instead, Gower chooses to develop the story of Amans' infatuation. Peck notes that Genius does not always seem consistent here. Whereas at first Genius seems to suggest that the "sexual urge almost excuses many a crime" (85), in Book V he will strongly endorse virginity. According to Peck, this fits the structure of the CA which uses the device of argumentation to proceed by opposition and debate (86). Book 5 is the turning point in the poem. Genius becomes increasingly more reflective and sober. The reason is that the discourse on religions leaves him embarrassed about the cuckoldry of the gods and the lascivious nature of Venus. However, Peck also points out that Genius is ultimately a structural device rather than a psychologically rich character (105). The rest of the chapter on Book 5 looks at kingship and common profit in four tales: the Tale of Virgil's Mirror, the Tale of Medea and Jason, the Tale of Adrian and Bardus, and the Tale of Paris and Helen. In the second half of the CA, the focus shifts "from categories of sin to the general psychology of willfulness" (125). As a result, in Book 6 the focus is less on Drunkenness and Delicacy (species of Gluttony) and our attention is instead "turned to willful Amans' desires as he describes how besotted he is in love" (126). Within this scheme, then, sorcery and delicacy are forms of fantasy that allow the selfish will to disguise itself and to adapt reality to its own wishes (128). Book 7, structurally the most important book in the CA (140), is about the "governance of will by wit and reason" and is "an antidote to all the sins discussed in the poem" (125). Instead of a confession, we now get a sermon. The book defines man's role in a universe that the medieval humanist Gower describes as a kind of "cosmic community" (141). Book 8, according to Peck, is about the "rediscovery of right relationships" (161), about gaining perspective, and about the voyage home. Incest, the sin described in Book 8, is the crime of narcissism and immoderation, and stands in opposition to community and the golden mean. The Tale of Apollonius is a demonstration of how this sin can be overcome through the kind of kingship and self-governance that follows the five points of policy laid out in Book 7 (168-69). The tale provides a fitting ending for the CA, because Amans, like Apollonius is in exile and needs to recover his (spiritual) kingship. After Amans goes "Homward" (8.2967), Gower ends with a prayer for the state of England, an ending which "reminds us of Chaucer's Retraction or the conclusion to Troilus and Criseyde" (184) because of its movement to a larger community in which man can have faith. [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kingship and Common Profit in Gower's Confessio Amantis. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Southern Illinois UP, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Street generally argues that Gower is caught between his own age and the sentimentality of courtly love fashionable in France two centuries earlier (230). In the course of this argument, Street also comments on everything from Gower's politics to his style. After a brief discussion of Gower's disaffection with Richard II, Street describes the Prologue of the CA as idealistic, foggy, and vague. There are only brief moments – such as his criticism of the clergy – where Gower approaches "the close analysis and clear vision of Langland" (230). In addition, Gower's "modern" (232) quality is that he opposes fatalism and thinks independently. The latter quality is demonstrated by his habit of inserting odd digressions and morals into his tales. At the same time, Gower makes "heroic efforts to be consistent" (232); the CA is unified by Gower's critical reconstructive spirit and his honesty" (232). After these general comments, Street pursues her main theme: Gower's treatment of courtly love. Whereas Andreas Capellanus and Chrétien de Troyes treat love as "illicit and adulterous" (234), Gower prefers monogamy and Christian love. The most important figure in his allegory is "Daunger" and Gower never "idealises amorous abandonment" (235). Street increasingly compares Gower to Chaucer, and argues that Gower delights in sentimentality, manners, and abstract moralizing, whereas Chaucer specializes in realism, humour, and psychology (although Gower is the better sociologist). Street also briefly praises Gower's "In Praise of Peace" and describes Gower's style as smooth and graceful. Gower uses images primarily for clarity (rather than ornamentation) and his wisdom tends to the proverbial and the commonplace (239). Street illustrates these stylistic features by comparing Gower and Chaucer's versions of the story of Medea. She concludes with a brief description of the story of Petronella to show that while Gower is no match for Chaucer, he should nevertheless be appreciated for his "fine pathos . . . delicacy of sentiment . . . [and his] smooth verse" (241). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Street, Ethel Published Street, Ethel. "John Gower." London Mercury 24 (1931), pp. 230-242. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification In Praise of Peace Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1931 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Casson, Leslie F Published Casson, Leslie F. "Studies in the Diction of the Confessio Amantis." Englische Studien 69 (1934), pp. 184-207. Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Confessio Amantis Review Casson notes that the literary works of Chaucer and Gower are often viewed as "the consummation of a process of literary development which began when English was revived as a cultivated literary language after the Conquest" (184). However, especially in the philosophical or scholastic parts of the CA we find a great many Romance words, and in this respect Gower "is certainly a more daring innovator than Chaucer" (184). To demonstrate Gower's conscious artistry, Casson divides her article into three sections: use of uncompounded words (185-98), use of compound words (198-206), and use of hybrids (206-07). Casson distinguishes between aureate diction and Romance technical words used "in their original sense in a scientific context" (186). By showing the distribution of native and loan words in 10 passages from the CA, Casson shows that the greatest frequency of French and Latin loans occurs in technical and scientific passages (187-88). Casson further compares Gower's diction to the contemporary revival of the alliterative line, to the vocabulary of Old English poetry, and to English borrowings from Norse. The conclusion Casson draws from all of this is that Gower was "an innovator in language, seizing on the opportunities afforded him by changing methods of expression in the speech of his time, yet preserving, here and there, a quaint flavor of antiquity which harks back to some yet older day" (197-98). [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Studies in the Diction of the Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1934 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Bland considers Gower's artistic merits by looking at three stories: the tales of Ceix and Alceone (Book 4), Jason and Medea (Book 5), and Lucrece (Book 7). The first of these stories demonstrates Gower's skill in linking all scenes with natural transitions: "Gower is forced into using none of the clichés which Chaucer employs in linking the parts of his version" (286). Gower is also less melodramatic, avoids digressions, and prefers action over conversation and thought. At the same time, he includes some "delightful" (287) poetic touches, as when he describes the floor of Sleep's house as being strewn with dreams (287). The story of Jason and Medea further demonstrates Gower's "metrical skill" (287). His use of the caesura and enjambment results in lines that show "briskness and vigour" (287). Gower's "unadorned directness of style" (288) lacks Chaucer's "frequent brutal abruptness" (287) and demonstrates instead the clarity and polite speech of aristocratic society. Not only does Gower show "classical" (288) restraint where Chaucer has "tap-room vigour" (288), but Gower is also a romantic. He loves exotic and mysterious locations and he is deeply interested in Medea's magic. In describing the latter, Gower quickens the pace by introducing trochaic lines among the iambic ones. Lastly, the tale of Jason and Medea reveals Gower's mastery of the verse paragraph (288). In the next section, Bland compares Gower's tale of Lucrece with Shakespeare's version. Where Shakespeare's story is "a psychological study" (289), Gower focuses on action. Bland observes that "at the time when Gower wrote men were not in position to understand fully the nuances of character and of personal relationships, except under the guise of allegory" (289). Bland ends with some comments on the framework of the CA. Given courtly love's conventional emphasis on adulterous passion, it is inevitable that Book 8 is a kind of recantation. However, Gower becomes anti-climactic when he follows up his revelation of Amans's old age with a didactic prayer for the state of England. Gower's flaw, then, is that he is a good teller of stories, but lacks the "genius" and "intelligence to support a long poem" (290). He ranks second to Chaucer as "a master of a plain style" (290), despite the fact that he is often merely prosaic. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Bland, D. S Published Bland, D. S. "The Poetry of John Gower." English 6 (1948), pp. 286-290. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Poetry of John Gower Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1948 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In the Latin summary of Gower's three works – appended to the CA – Gower speaks of the obligation he feels to pass on the knowledge he has received as a gift from God. Cook suggests that Gower may be indebted here to the beginning of Dante's De Monarchia, where the same language of laboring for posterity with one's God-given talents is used. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Cook, Albert S Published Cook, Albert S. "Dante and Gower." Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 132 (1914), p. 395. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dante and Gower. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1914 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Hamilton agrees with the work of E. T. Granz and C. H. Wager, which suggests that there exists an intermediary text between Benoît de Saint-Maure's Roman de Troie and two later translations: Konrad von Würzburg's Trojanerkrieg and the Middle English Seege of Troye. The later redactions include five episodes that differ substantially from Benoît in arrangement and wording. Of these five, the story of the youth of Achilles is also recounted by Gower, and Hamilton's purpose is to show that Gower, like Konrad von Würzburg (Hamilton's primary model for comparison), also used an "enlarged Roman" (180). In particular, Hamilton argues that Gower's tales of "Achilles's youthful training under Chiron, his life at the court of Lycomedes, and his discovery by Ulysses, are told in enough detail to show a common source more extensive than the Achilleis [Achilliad] of Statius" (181-82). In the process of enumerating the similarities between Konrad and Gower's accounts, Hamilton also points out some differences. For instance, when Gower's Achilles is advised by his mother Thetis (the same name is used by Konrad) that he should disguise himself as a woman, he does so "without protest, and without knowing the occasion" (188). Hamilton concludes by arguing that it is unlikely that Gower ever had "a first hand acquaintance" (196) with the Achilliad. Since it was a rare volume in medieval libraries, and since Gower show little or no acquaintance with the Thebaid (196), it is unlikely that he read Statius directly. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Hamilton, George L Published Hamilton, George L. "Gower's Use of the Enlarged Roman de Troie." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 20.1 (1905), pp. 179-196. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's Use of the Enlarged Roman de Troie. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1905 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Gilbert's article examines the influence of the Secretum Secretorum (SS) on Book 7 of the CA (84-93) and on Hoccleve's Regement of Princes (93-98). Whereas Macaulay suggested that Gower is indebted to the SS only for "scattered fragments" (85), Gilbert argues not only for additional verbal parallels, but also suggests an important structural similarity. Just as Gower's division of philosophy into three parts is derived from Brunetto Latini, so Gower's five points of policy in the second half of Book 7 are likely based on some version of the SS that is no longer extant. In Gower's marginal Latin, two of the points are spoken of as policies "principum regiminis" or "ad principis regimen," and the SS was frequently referred to by the title De Regimine Principum (86). The point of policy that receives the most attention from Gilbert is Liberality, which Gower calls "largitas" in the Latin, following the SS rather than, for instance, the medieval translation of Aristotle's Ethics (used by Aquinas) where the term liberalitas is employed (88). After also dealing with passages from the sections on Justice, Pity, and Chastity, Gilbert concludes with some thoughts about which language Gower read the SS in. It seems likely that "Gower possessed the whole work in Latin" (93), although none of the extant versions accounts for all of Gower's borrowings. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Gilbert, Allan H Published Gilbert, Allan H. "Notes on the Influence of the Secretum Secretorum." Speculum 3.1 (1928), pp. 84-98. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Notes on the Influence of the Secretum Secretorum. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1928 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Daniels argues that Gower, like Chaucer, was likely indebted to the medieval rhetoricians. Gower's familiarity with the Poetria Nova of Geoffrey de Vinsauf is clear from two passages in the VC. Gower's syllabic play with the name Clemens (a "headless name" without the prefix "in") is likely modeled on Geoffrey's play on the name of Pope Innocent III. Similarly, a passage thirty lines earlier in the VC (3.925-26) about a shepherd's responsibility towards his sheep appears influenced by a similar word play in the Poetria Nova. Admittedly, in Book 8 of the CA Gower claims to have little knowledge of rhetoric, but Daniels shows that an earlier version of the same passage (3054-66*) includes two different rhetorical devices. Given Gower's knowledge of Geoffrey de Vinsauf, as well as the rhetorical portions of Brunetto Latini's Tresor, Gower's admission is likely ironic, and is in fact a rhetorical technique itself (disparagement or "diminutio"). The rest of the article aims to prove Gower's knowledge of rhetoric by a detailed listing of the rhetorical figures (see page 66 for the entire list) that occur in his poem "In Praise of Peace." However, Daniels concludes that while the poem includes "a considerable use of rhetorical ornament" (73), the "infrequent use of the tropes" (73) is noteworthy. The reason is that Gower eschews a "gravis stilus" (73) in favour of "simple and moving verses" in harmony with the theme of the poem, namely the humility of Christ. Daniels therefore concludes, "The rhetorical element in Gower is a measure of his artistry, and he employed rhetoric with taste and discrimination" (73). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Daniels, Robertson Balfour Published Daniels, Robertson Balfour. "Rhetoric in Gower's 'To King Henry the Fourth, in Praise of Peace'." Studies in Philology 32 (1935), pp. 62-73. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification In Praise of Peace Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rhetoric in Gower's 'To King Henry the Fourth, in Praise of Peace' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1935 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In the Spanish version of the CA, mention is made of a Portuguese translation by one Robert Paym, canon of Lisbon. Manley finds evidence that there was indeed a family of Payms in Lisbon in the latter part of the fourteenth century. He mentions two documents in the Archivo Nacional that tell us about a certain Tomalin Paym, who appears to have been in charge of queen Philippa's jewels. The Lancastrian connection (Philippa was John of Gaunt's daughter and brother to Henry) is further strengthened by the knowledge that the name of a John Payn - Paym is the Portuguese form of the English name Payne - crops up frequently in the accounts concerning Henry's expeditions to Prussia and the Holy Land. It is to John and Tomalin Payn (or Paym) that Robert is most likely related. Of the various candidates for Robert Paym, the likeliest may be a certain "Robert Payn, of Whitby, clerk" (470), who in 1390 was licensed to pass beyond the sea to the Roman court, where the Pope may have granted him a canonry in Lisbon. Manly admits that much of this must remain speculation. However, he suggests that it is not surprising that Gower's CA would be translated into Portuguese. Such a translation would be favorably received by Philippa and her husband, who were both "fond of books" (471). The CA had also been dedicated to Henry, from whom Gower had received a silver collar of SSS. Manly ends with an expression of hope that one day not only Gower's Portuguese CA may be found in a Portuguese collection, but also that one of Chaucer's works may be found among the "uncatalogued treasures" (472) of those collections. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Manly, John Matthews Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Published Manly, John Matthews. "On the Question of the Portuguese Translation of Gower's Confessio Amantis." Modern Philology 27.4 (1930), pp. 467-472. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1930 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource On the Question of the Portuguese Translation of Gower's Confessio Amantis. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Lowes argues that the fourth canto of Book 1 of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen – with its description of the progress of Pride and the other Deadly Sins – is extensively indebted to the description of the marriage of Pride and the World in Gower's MO. Most obviously, each sin rides on a symbolic animal, carries an appropriate object in its hand, and is associated with a specific malady (389). Lowes admits that there are differences in, for example, the sex of the sins, and the order in which they appear. Moreover, there are only four beasts that are used by both authors (and only 2 of those for the same sin), only three maladies that are common to both (and none is used for the same sin), and the actual objects that are carried are quite different. Despite this, Lowes demonstrates that there are numerous verbal parallels between the two texts. Spenser tends to move material around a great deal. For instance, he transfers the lion from Pride to Wrath because his Pride already rides in a chariot. Yet the description remains the same: Gower writes of a lion that will not go quietly for any amount of punishment ("pour nul chastiement"), and Spenser's lion is "loth for to be led" (qtd. on 400). Similarly, Spenser refers to Gluttony as a steward, and to Sloth as a chamberlain, phraseology that recalls lines 296-98 of the MO. Lowes admits that Spenser also uses other sources, but while the whole is a "composite" (415), the largest contribution is Gower's. Lowes further suggests that Spenser seems to have supplemented his many borrowings by turning to corresponding passages in the CA; the account of Avarice, for instance, is drawn almost equally from both sources (418-23). The result is that we find "bilingual scraps of Gower transmuted into pure, authentic Spenser" (423). Lowes further argues that other passages in the Faerie Queen (besides Book 1, Canto 4) are also influenced by Gower (438-47). Foremost among these are two descriptions of Envy in Book 4 (Canto 8), and Book 5 (Canto 12). Finally, Lowes rejects the possibility of a shared source for Gower and Spenser, and suggests that despite the survival of only one manuscript of the MO, the chance of Spenser's acquaintance with Gower's French works is not unlikely given the latter's "distinguished (and by no means undeserved) reputation as a poet not only in his own day, but in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as well" (449-50). It is specifically in "Gower's series of strikingly pictorial, arresting stanzas" that Spenser found "a mine of suggestive detail" (437). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Lowes, John Livingston Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Published Lowes, John Livingston. "Spenser and the Mirour de l'Omme." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 29.3 (1914), pp. 388-452. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1914 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Spenser and the Mirour de l'Omme. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review This brief article is a sequel to Knowlton's 1920 piece "The Allegorical Figure of Genius," published in "Classical Philology." In the sequel, Knowlton focuses on the characterization of Genius after the composition of the "De Planctu Naturae" by Alan of Lille. Knowlton argues that after "his establishment on a lofty plane by Alan of Lille, Genius steadily altered for the worse, either in power or in morality" (95). In Jean de Meun, Genius is already portrayed more cynically, although he retains his respectable authority. Gower, afterwards, "brought him back to sober consideration by associating him directly with human beings, and accordingly deprived him of the majestic aloofness of Alan's excommunicator; still, he did not leave him as Jean's half-grotesque, vigorous demigod" (89). Knowlton further points out that Gower's Genius acts inconsistently. While Genius professes to know little except Venus's service, he provides an extensive account of knowledge in Book 7 of the CA. He also denies the divinity of Venus in Book 5. After this short exposition of Gower's Genius, Knowlton investigates the late medieval French reception of Genius, with a particular focus on Jean Lemaire and Clément Marot. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Knowlton, E. C Published Knowlton, E. C. "Genius as an Allegorical Figure." Modern Language Notes 39.2 (1924), pp. 89-95. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Genius as an Allegorical Figure. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1924 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Flügel, Ewald Published Flügel, Ewald. "Gower's Mirour de l'Omme und Chaucer's Prolog." Anglia 24 (1901), pp. 437-508. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Review The epigraph to Flügel's article reads "Glosynge is a glorious thyng certeyn" (437), and Fluegel's critical method is to give extended glosses to various lines from the Prologue to Chaucer's CT. The primary purpose of these glosses is to provide analogues from quite a range of contemporary sources, Gower's MO and the VC being the foremost among them. Fluegel's discussion centers around a number of characters, namely the Knight (440-48), the Monk (448-60), the Friar (460-72), the Merchant (472-76), the Clerk (476-84), the Man of Law (484-96), the Physician (496-98), the Parson (498-503), the Plowman (503-04), the Summoner (505-07), and the Host (507-08). In general, Gower's satire is sharper and less sympathetic. For instance, Fluegel suggests that the MO's section on "chivalers," with its "scharfe kritik der gegenwärtigen zeit" (strong criticism of the present time) bears little resemblance to "dem freundlichen, lebensfrischen und sonnigen in Chaucer's prolog" (the pleasant, lively, and sunny [aspects] of Chaucer's Prologue; 440). Indeed, Fluegel generally describes the MO's style as similar to "die ölige, glatte monotonie der Confessio Amantis" (the slick and polished monotony of the CA; 427). The MO has a certain "farblosigkeit" (colourlessness; 437)and is characterized by a "melancholisch-pessimistischen tadelsfreude" (melancholy and pessimistic enjoyment of censure; 437). Simply put, Chaucer's Prologue is shorter, but its satire is better. Nevertheless, some of the descriptions of the estates are surprisingly similar in the MO and the CT. For instance, Augustine's comparison of clergy that dabble in secular matters to fish out of water is found both in Chaucer's description of the Monk and in Gower's discussion of "possessioners." In these sections, both authors also make reference to the Rule of St. Augustine (450). In places, Fluegel further notes the importance of the VC in relation to the CT. For instance, in the section on the Man of Law, Fluegel directs the reader to the first six chapters of book 6 of the VC (on the greed of judicial officials), which "womöglich den Mirrour noch an bitterkeit und zorn übertreffen" (possibly exceed the MO in bitterness and fury; 484). Yet it is still the MO that receives most attention, and Fluegel suggests that the MO's section on the law contains a new legal expression about "packing a jury"; the leader who corrupts the jury is called a "Tracier" (489). Fluegel provides little commentary on whether any direct lines of influence are discernable between Gower and Chaucer. In fact, at times he notes their stark difference. One of the last characters Fluegel discusses, the Plowman, presents a stark contrast to Gower's complaints about contemporary laborers, and shows much more similarity with the depiction of the Plowman in Wyclif and Langland (503-04). [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's Mirour de l'Omme und Chaucer's Prolog. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1901 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Bech analyzes Chaucer's Legend of Good Women (LGW) not only in relation to Gower's CA, but also in comparison with works by Ovid and Boccaccio, among others. The first section (314-65) thus catalogues the various sources for the LGW. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is the first major tale where Bech closely compares Gower and Chaucer. Chaucer's superiority is clear, for he copies Ovid faithfully and with rich psychological insight. Gower lacks an artistic eye for dialogue and monologue, and generally turns Ovid's "schöne miniaturbild" (320) into mere plot summary. Next, Bech turns to the story of Aeneas and Dido, which both authors tell in the contemporary language of chivalry and courtly love. Gower gives a very general account of this narrative, however, and his reference to King Menander (in Dido's letter) is a misreading of Ovid's phrase "vada Meandri" that Chaucer avoids (323-24). Bech further notes that while Gower makes no mention of Jason's adventure on Lemnos (as Chaucer does), he does relate the story of Jason and Medea at length. Bech argues that Chaucer and Gower use the same source (Benoît de Sainte-Maure) independently from one another (332). The story of Lucrece is also borrowed independently, although Bech suggests that at a crucial moment in the narrative (where Lucrece's relatives argue for forgiveness on the basis of other examples), both Gower and Chaucer turn to Livy rather than Ovid. Yet another tale where Chaucer and Gower do not borrow from one another is the story of Ariadne. Gower does not have Minos imprison Theseus and omits some of the latter's dramatic dialogue with Ariadne. Nevertheless, both writers elaborate on two points, namely the story of how Minos's son Androgeus was killed in Athens, and the defeat of the monster. Any parallels at this point may be explained by the possibility that they both used similar medieval manuscripts of Ovid, as well as by the fact that the means of killing the Minotaur may be influenced by the biblical narrative of the dragon in Daniel 14. Similar conclusions about Gower and Chaucer's independent story-telling are drawn about other narratives (including the story of Procne and Philomela and the story of Phyllis and Demophoon) before Bech turns in part 2 (365-71) to a more direct comparison between the CA and the LGW. Aside from the fact that both works use classical sources and have an "erotischen charakter" (365), Gower borrows much from Chaucer's Prologue to the LGW. Although Gower downplays Cupid's role, he too uses the deities of love (Cupid and Venus), sets his narrative in the month of May, and has Venus tells Amans to confess his love, just as Alceste tells Chaucer to write the LGW as an act of penitence. While it might be objected that the Romance of the Rose was the source for both authors, it seems improbable that two poets with such different poetic talents ("leute von so ganz verschiedener dichterischer begabung" 368) would borrow the same material. It seems more likely that, for instance, Gower's praise of Alceste is the result of Chaucer's "verherrlichung dieser frau" (368). When Gower tells the story of Alceste in Book 7, certain plot details suggest an acquaintance with the LGW. Bech indeed dates the CA later than the LGW, although when it comes to the legends themselves (rather than the prologue), Gower's only indebtedness may be his mention of the death of Cleopatra. When Gower mentions Cleopatra and Thisbe in Book 8 as members of the company of young lovers, he names them in the same sequence as their tales are related in the LGW, but this may be due to the fact that both women led similar lives: they both committed suicide and their lovers followed suit. Part 3 (371-82) of Bech's study focuses on the structure and plan of the LGW, although he includes some brief commentary on the Man of Law's Tale and its relation to the CA (376). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Bech, M Published Bech, M. "Quellen und Plan der Legende of Goode Women und ihr Verhältnis zur Confessio Amantis." Anglia 5 (1882), pp. 313-382. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Quellen und Plan der Legende of Goode Women und ihr Verhältnis zur Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1882 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Easton's monograph, in the series Philology, Literature and Archaeology, published by the University of Pennsylvania, consists of two parts: a list of suggested emendations (13-50) to the Reinhold Pauli edition of the CA (1857); and an introduction (1-11) explaining both the rationale behind these variant readings as well as the need for a new edition of the CA. As Easton reveals in the introduction, the manuscripts he has consulted are those available in the British Museum, and he gives a description of each from the Museum catalogue. Whereas Pauli confined himself primarily to B (Harl. 7184), Easton focuses on A and C (Harl. 3490 and Harl. 3869 respectively). Of particular interest to Easton are erroneous spellings and the writing of silent –e. Easton further proposes that the study of Gower's language should be carried out without reference to the works of Chaucer, particularly given the possibility of dialectal differences. Easton then asks whether there were "several recensions of the poem" (5), and whether the version dedicated to Henry IV should be followed as "the last word of the poet" (5). Easton refuses to accept a single answer, but does propose a more fluid notion of Gower's text. Given the frequent revisions in various manuscripts, "the poet wrote not merely two, but many copies of the book, or of parts of the book" (6). As a result, the editor should consider all the manuscripts as a kind of single recension from which he might draw the best readings. Easton's own readings (13-50) aim to correct the sense of Gower's diction (in relation to Pauli), and to fix grammatical problems, harsh constructions, odd stresses, and so forth. Easton ends his introduction with a brief explanation why he has not used the 1889 edition by Henry Morley (he critiques its expurgation of some narratives, and its uncritical correction of Pauli's text), as well as with a short comparison of Gower and Chaucer. While Gower "had nothing of the dramatic instinct of Chaucer" (11), his charm lies in the fact that, like a "gentleman" (11) he cannot hide himself behind his narrative, but always reveals his own thoughts openly and honestly. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Easton, Morton W Published Easton, Morton W. "Readings in Gower." Boston: Ginn, 1895 Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Confessio Amantis Manuscripts and Textual Studies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Readings in Gower Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Ginn, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1895 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In an earlier essay (in Chaucer Review 34 [2000]; see JGN 19.2), Duffell credited Chaucer with the invention of the iambic pentameter in English, but he noted Gower's use of the new meter in "In Praise of Peace," referring both to the influence of Italian models. He also mentioned Gower's experiments with a 10-syllable line in French in CB. This essay presents the results of a much closer collaborative examination of Gower's 10-syllable lines and credits Gower with an important role in the development of English metrics. Gower's interest in metrical experimentation, the authors argue, is demonstrated by the regularity of the octosyllables in both MO, in contrast to the looseness of his Anglo-Norman contemporaries, and CA, in which the "perfectly iambic" octosyllables (395), more regular than Chaucer's of the same period, mark Gower as "the first poet to employ the canonical iambic tetrameter in English" (396). Chaucer introduced the 10-syllable line in English in "Troilus and Criseyde," following his trip to Italy, and Gower's pentameters (in IPP and in Amans' petition to Venus in CA 8:2217-2300) come afterwards, but following his practice in the rest of CA, his pentameters are iambic, and they are "more regular than Chaucer's in both rhythm and syllable count" (394). The authors conclude that "we should ... regard the two poets as collaborators in a series of metrical experiments (involving verse in two languages), and acknowledge Gower as the first English poet to employ meters that were stress-syllabic in the strictest sense, regular in both syllable count and accentuation" (395-96). A large part of this essay consists of a classification of Gower's decasyllables into 8 types, 4 more common in French and 4 more common in Italian, based on the use and placement of the caesura. More interesting is the authors' establishment of the regularity of Gower's verse, because they offer some specific observations on how they assume that his verse should be recited. Final schwa, they note, is elided before all words beginning with a vowel or a diphthong, and also before all words beginning with the letter h, "whether of Romance or Germanic origin" (387). They also list a certain number of common words in which final schwa was not pronounced even when it stood before a consonant, and some others in which medial schwa appears regularly to be elided (387). They count only 12 lines in which a strong syllable falls on what should be a weak position, but 10 of these involve disyllabic prepositions, which because of their grammatically subordinate status probably did not receive prominent metrical stress on either syllable (391). Other apparent exceptions involve words of French origin which may have retained their original accentuation (392-93) and seven words of Germanic origin, which may represent genuine inversion but which also might also, the authors claim, have borne a stress on the second syllable. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 28.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Duffell, Martin J. Billy, Dominique Published Duffell, Martin J. and Billy, Dominique. "From Decasyllable to Pentameter: Gower's Contribution to English Metrics." Chaucer Review 38 (2004), pp. 383-400. ISSN 0009-2002 Gower Subject Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource From Decasyllable to Pentameter: Gower's Contribution to English Metrics. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Penn State University Press, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review As his title implies, Görbing provides a comparison between the ballad "The Marriage of Sir Gawain," Gower's Tale of Florent and Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale. Much of the article is taken up with an analysis of differences in plot development and characterization (particularly in terms of motivation for behaviour). The key difference among the three pieces lies the interpretation of the material (411). Thus, Gower at times obscures moments of comedy in his attempt to instill a moral, whereas Chaucer skillfully brings out the comedic potential of the story. In this, Chaucer is closer to the spirit of the folk tradition - if not always the details of the plot - and to the depictions of love in the "französischen Pastorelle" (413). The article ends with a brief consideration of the origins of the proverb "a woman will have her will" found with some variation in all three works (421-23). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Görbing, F Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Published Görbing, F. "Die Ballade 'The Marriage of Sir Gawain' in ihren Beziehungen zu Chaucers 'Wife of Bath's Tale' und Gowers Erzählung von Florent." Anglia 23 (1900), pp. 405-423. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1900 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Die Ballade 'The Marriage of Sir Gawain' in ihren Beziehungen zu Chaucers 'Wife of Bath's Tale' und Gowers Erzählung von Florent. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Gower figures prominently in sections 2-4 of Todd's work, as well as in his Introduction. Todd points out that he usually deals with Gower before Chaucer, not because he gives "precedence in respect to talents" (xxvi), but because of "chronological propriety" (xxvi); later writers generally considered Gower to have been the senior and, to some extent, prior writer. Section 2 provides a copy of Gower's will, along with a deed from 1346, witnessed by a John Gower (and to which another hand, at least a century later, added "Sr. John Gower the Poet"). In the Introduction (see especially xii-xxi), Todd argues that the poet's bequests in his will show his wealth and opulence. The will also suggests that Gower was nobly born, which he must have been if he was able to study in the Inns of Court. The deed in section 2 further demonstrates that he was of the House of Stitenham in Yorkshire. Section 3 provides an overview of the extant manuscripts of Gower's work, with descriptions of their contents and history. Special attention is given to the CB, from which a number of ballads are transcribed. Todd also suggests that the MO is no longer extant, and that prior critics have mistaken it for the Traitie (111). One additional Gower manuscript is mentioned amid the discussion of Chaucer's works (127). Section 4 of Todd's book includes the dedication and preface from Berthelet's 1532 edition of the CA; the Tale of the Caskets (from Book 5); a short selection from Book 6 (about gratification derived from the sense of hearing); and some commentary. In his comments, Todd compares The Tale of the Caskets to various analogues. He also argues that the selection from Book 6 shows Gower's skill as a poet (Todd compares him to Milton), and as a lover of romances. There are, finally, a few sporadic references to Gower in the rest of Todd's work (see, for instance, the discussion of Gower's contribution to the Flower and the Leaf debate (275-80). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Todd, Rev. Henry J Published Todd, Rev. Henry J. "Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer collected from authentic documents." London: Woodfall, 1810 Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Cinkante Balades Biography of Gower Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations Confessio Amantis Traitié pour Essampler les Amants Marietz Manuscripts and Textual Studies Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer collected from authentic documents Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Woodfall, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1810 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Nicolas argues against the opinion that the poet was a member of the Gower family of Stitenham, in Yorkshire, and suggests instead that Gower should be associated primarily with land holdings in Suffolk and Kent. Nicolas points to a 1373 deed relating to lands in Suffolk and to which the same arms and crest as the poet's are affixed. The John Gower of the deed is said to be lord of the manor of Kentwell (in Suffolk), feoffees of which resided in Kent. Since members of the feoffees' families were among the poet Gower's executors, it seems likely that he was connected with that county. Nicolas therefore carefully traces the history of the Gower family associated with the manor of Kentwell. He demonstrates that in 1333 the manor was granted to a Sir Robert Gower, who was likely the poet's uncle. Sir Robert had two daughters, Joan and Katherine, the former of whom granted the manor to a John Gower in 1368. Nicolas also connects the poet to the Septvans family in Kent (Gower was a feoffee of the manor of Aldyngton). All of this suggests that even though Gower was not a member the Yorkshire Gower family (who bore "radically distinct" (111) arms), he was still well born and possessed of considerable property. Nicolas speculates on whether he may have had children, and he traces the possible descent of Gower's family and relatives well into the fifteenth century. Lastly, Nicolas presents two new pieces of information about Gower, the one a 1382 indenture relating to the manors of Feltwell in Norfolk and Multon in Suffolk, and the other a record of Henry of Lancaster's gift of a collar to "un esquier John Gower" (117). The article also contains a copy of Gower's will, a description of Gower's tomb, excerpted from Blore's "Sepulchral Antiquities of Great Britain," and two references to his life in copies of the CA and the VC. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Nicolas, Sir Nicholas Harris. Published Nicolas, Sir Nicholas Harris. "John Gower, the Poet." Retrospective Review and Historical and Antiquarian Magazine 2 (1828), pp. 103-117. Gower Subject Biography of Gower Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower, the Poet Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1828 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Dwyer agrees with Elfreda Fowler that no single manual on the vices and virtues can account for all the contents of Gower's MO. However, he rejects "her judgment on the relative closeness of the Somme des Vices et Vertus and the Miroir du Monde to Gower's Mirour" (483). The existence of two passages in the MO that are borrowed from the Somme shows that the latter work is a closer analogue to Gower than the Miroir du Monde. The first passage is an extended treatment of fear ("Paour"), a subdivision of Humility (lines 11293-472 of the MO). The inclusion of certain verses from Helinand's Vers de la Mort in both texts proves the indebtedness to the Somme. The second shared characteristic is "the allegory involving the Beast of the Apocalypse" (497). Both the MO and the Somme offer a unique interpretation of the Beast's seven heads as the Seven Deadly Sins, a configuration that is unusual in the patristic and medieval tradition. On the other hand, while Gower preferred the Somme over the Miroir, he did generally employ an eclectic manner of composition. As proof of this tendency, Dwyer points to the VC, written in Cento, and to the tale of "Pyramus and Thisbe" in the CA, where Gower likely borrowed from, and adapted, multiple sources. There is therefore no need to posit a single parent source to explain Gower's eclectic borrowings in the MO, as Fowler does. Moreover, an eye must also be had for Gower's originality. He is both more rigid in his subdivisions of the virtues and vices, and more lax in his treatment of some of them (his narrow understanding of Temperance being but one example). Dwyer therefore concludes that one "should more reasonably suspect a rather free use of collections and florilegia on Gower's part than a plundering of a single source" (488). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Dwyer, J. B Published Dwyer, J. B. "Gower's Mirour and its French Sources: A Re-examination of Evidence." Studies in Philology 48 (1951), pp. 482-505. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's Mirour and its French Sources: A Re-examination of Evidence Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1951 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Fletcher sets himself a multi-pronged task here. He seeks to show 1) that the Dublin, Trinity College MS 244, comparatively little studied, evinces the same hand as that identified by Linne R. Mooney as "Chaucer's scribe," Adam Pynkhurst--or, alternatively, that a sort of "school" of scribes existed headed by Pynkhurst, all of whom practiced in Pynkhurst's shadow and in accord with his hand; 2) that Pynkhurst (or member or members of his "school") copied the Wyclifite prose tracts in Dublin, Trinity College MS 244; and that therefore 3) this manuscript "is not without its implications for the understanding of Chaucer's relation to the textual culture of late-fourteenth century religious radicalism" (p. 597). The argument is only tangentially related to Gower, in that (as Ian Doyle and Malcolm Parkes showed conclusively) the same scribe--Pynkhurst?--copied major manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis. The inferences are that if Chaucer knew Pynkhurst well enough to write "Adam Scriveyn" in mock reprimand, then Gower must have known him also, since the same hand shows up in a number of important manuscripts of CA; and this in turn "opens various possibilities" such as "a scribe actively providing the poet who employed him with reading material, as well as simply being the passive recipient of that poet's copying commissions . . . . Thus this milieu, that saw the copying of some of the major literary works of the late fourteenth century, would also now need to be seen as a possible context for some of that period's radical vernacular theology" (pg. 629). It should be noted that, for all that Fletcher attempts to stretch these suggestions to embrace Chaucer, he does not venture the same for Gower. [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society. JGN 28.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Fletcher, Alan J Published Fletcher, Alan J. "The Criteria for Scribal Attribution: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 244, Some Early Copies of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Canon of Adam Pynkhurst Manuscripts." Review of English Studies 58 (2007), pp. 597-632. ISSN 0034-6551 Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Manuscripts and Textual Studies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Criteria for Scribal Attribution: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 244, Some Early Copies of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Canon of Adam Pynkhurst Manuscripts. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Chapter 3, "The Element of Love in Gower's Works" (38-90), examines aspects of courtly love in Gower's works. Dodd opens with a brief description of the CB, which he divides into two sections: ballads 1-5 which represent the happiness of the accepted lover, and ballads 6-51, which are universal in character and treat the feelings of lovers in general, "whether the course of their love runs smooth or not" (39). After providing further subdivisions, Dodd observes that although the ballads are often rather lifeless and conventional, they demonstrate the poet's ability to rival his French contemporaries in expressing the ideas of courtly love with grace and elegance. The rest of the chapter focuses primarily on the CA. Dodd notes the variety of influences on the CA, including confessional manuals, dream visions, works of courtly love, and sermon exempla. This mixture is also evident in the treatment of love, which not only takes on an ecclesiastical character, but also has feudal aspects, something especially evident in all the references to the "court" of Venus and Cupid (see the quotations on 47-49). The power and fickleness of these deities of love are also extensively illustrated by Dodd, and the conventionality of their characterization is stressed throughout. Other conventional themes that are discussed are secrecy, the figure of the lady, unrequited love, the allegorical figure Danger, and the ennobling effects of love (54-62). The next portion of Dodd's chapter examines the Seven Deadly Sins to see whether Gower successfully synthesizes his theological concerns with the religion of love (62-75). Dodd feels that Gower generally creates a sense of harmony between the two systems. For instance, the vices of supplantation and slander are expressly forbidden in Andreas Capellanus's code of love. On the other hand, Dodd does find some moments of discord. When Genius condemns fear and forgetfulness on the part of the lover he departs from courtly conceptions. Likewise, his assertion that Love detests jealousy and his opposition to love-drunkenness is quite uncharacteristic of the tradition of courtly love. Lastly, the treatment of chastity in Book 7 and the condemnation of incest in Book 8 have "nothing to do with the lover's shrift" (74), but are rather tied to the affairs of church (incest) and state (the advice on chastity is offered to Richard II). Next, Dodd returns to the enumeration of courtly love conventions in the CA, including the description of the effects of love upon the feelings, and the rhetorical use of contradictions (something also evident in the minor poem "Carmen de variis in amore passionibus breviter compilatum"). The question Dodd ends with is whether there is anything in the CA which "lifts it above mere conventionality" (80). The answer, for Dodd, is in the affirmative, not only because Gower's exempla are well-told, but also because the characterization of the lover and the lady lacks all extravagance and idealization, and is instead sensible, homely, and treated with "practical common sense" (81). However, despite the sympathetic treatment of love (visible for instance in the tale of "Canace and Machaire"), Gower ultimately dissociates himself from courtly love, and in the Traitié even condemns it. Based on Dodd's "The Treatment of Love by Chaucer and Gower." Ph. D. Dissertation. Harvard University, 1911.[CvD; rev. MA] Author/Editor Author/Editor Dodd, William George Published Dodd, William George. "Courtly Love in Chaucer and Gower." Boston: Ginn, 1913 Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Minor Latin Poetry Cinkante Balades Confessio Amantis Traitié pour Essampler les Amants Marietz Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Courtly Love in Chaucer and Gower Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Ginn, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1913 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Burnley's book argues that for authors like Gower and Chaucer, "culture, whether courtly or scholastic, was international and multi-lingual; the linguistic boundaries which trouble modern critics did not constrain their consciousness, and the connotations and associations of the words they used extended into the literary traditions of French and Latin" (8). Gower's trilingual poetry, for example, shows that for Gower language was largely a question of stylistic register. In addition, Chaucer and Gower's audience must have been composed of educated men like civil servants and lawyers who would have had the linguistic competence to appreciate the rich philosophical and ethical complexity of their thought and language. After Burnley's introduction, Gower appears sporadically throughout the book, most prominently in chapters 1 ("The Tyrant") and 4 ("The Philosopher"). In the former, Burnley describes Gower's political convictions and his method of contrasting the "rex tyrannus" with the exemplary king. Burnley defends Gower against allegations of sycophancy and argues that Gower tended to dissolve real historical kings into exemplary figures in line with (for Gower) salient historical and rhetorical patterns. While Richard II was young, Gower saw himself as Aristotle advising Alexander, but he gradually came to envision himself more as Seneca restraining the madness of Nero. Burnley then describes how the Senecan tradition throughout the Middle Ages viewed tyranny as primarily a psychological problem, and thus signified by the presence of cruelty and anger and by the lack of reason and pity. In chapter 4, "The Philosopher," Burnley comes back to Gower, this time focusing on two tales that teach patience and stoicism, the tale of "The Patience of Socrates" and the tale of "Diogenes and Alexander." Burnley suggests that in the latter, "the names of the participants are inconsequential" (71), because Gower's main point is to create a conceptual opposition between the philosopher and the tyrant, and between reason and the will. Aside from these extended discussions of Gower's work, Burnley makes a number of other brief references to Gower. He mentions, for instance, that Gower views politics as well as the virtue of prudence as aspects of practical philosophy (45, 54-55); that Gower's term "Folhaste," used in relation to the stories of "Jupiter, Juno, and Tiresias" and "Pyramus and Thisbe," is a rare word in Middle English (47-48); that Gower frequently conflates pity and mercy and describes Christ's incarnation as an example of God's pity that extends beyond justice (139, 143); that Gower's story of the "Donation of Constantine" tackles the issue of the virtuous pagan; and that Gower understands "gentillesse" as a virtue consonant with courtesy and reasonable living (152). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Burnley, J. D Published Burnley, J. D. "Chaucer's Language and the Philosophers' Tradition." Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979 Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Cronica Tripertita Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chaucer's Language and the Philosophers' Tradition Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available D. S. Brewer, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1979 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In the Prologue to the CA, Gower relates Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the composite statue. Gower's account, however, differs from other Middle English sources, and indeed from the biblical Book of Daniel. In particular, Gower does not explicitly designate Belshazzar as the son of Nebuchadnezzar (although Regan notes that he does so in the MO), and he does not mention the Medes as conquerors of Babylon. The source that mostly closely approximates Gower's version is Boccaccio's De Casibus Illustrium Virorum, passages of which Gower may have memorized as part of his practice of writing "cento." Regan further surveys medieval interpretations of the world empires that are traditionally associated with the precious metals of the statue, and suggests that Gower's decision to associate silver only with the Persians, and not with the Medes, makes sense given his theme of gradual "division" during the course of history. If Gower had divided the Chaldean empire among the Medes and the Persians he would have damaged the climactic quality of his verse. Silver remains a noble metal and the end of the Chaldean empire occurs at a time when the world had only just begun to change for the worse. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Regan, Charles L Published Regan, Charles L. "John Gower and the Fall of Babylon: Confessio Amantis, Prol. ll. 670-86." English Language Notes 7.2 (1969), pp. 85-92. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower and the Fall of Babylon: Confessio Amantis, Prol. ll. 670-86 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1969 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Weiher argues that Gower and Chaucer write "Lucretia and Virginia stories that closely resemble one another" (7), despite the fact that they modify their classical sources in distinctive ways. In the former story, Gower's chief interest "lies in the sins of Aruns, not in the chastity or saintliness of Lucrece" (7-8). Most of Gower's alterations to this tale thus strengthen its similarity to the tale of "Virginia," where Apius Claudius's scheming is the central issue. Chaucer, by contrast, "adapts his classical sources in inverse fashion" (8). In each narrative he "uses the sinfulness of men to point up his real concern, the heroine's virtue" (9). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Weiher, Carol Published Weiher, Carol. "Chaucer's and Gower's Stories of Lucretia and Virginia." English Language Notes 14 (1976), pp. 7-9. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chaucer's and Gower's Stories of Lucretia and Virginia Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Knowlton sets out to trace the literary development of the figure Genius. After brief mention of early sources such as Claudian's Second Panegyric on the Consulship of Stilicho and Bernardus Silvester's De Mundi Universitate, Knowlton describes Genius's role in Alain of Lille, Jean de Meun, and John Gower. Whereas in Alain's De Planctu Naturae, Genius is Nature's "reverend secretary, a personage of statesman-like force" (384), in the Roman de la Rose "he has become an undignified and voluble confessor, amanuensis, and stump orator" (384). In Gower's CA, Genius continues to be associated with love affairs, but since Gower's chief aim is to tell stories, he "requires no great emphasis upon allegorical figures" (384). In the CA Genius therefore no longer retains the same conspicuous position as in Alain of Lille or Jean de Meun. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Knowlton, E. C Published Knowlton, E. C. "The Allegorical Figure Genius." Classical Philology 15.4 (1920), pp. 380-384. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Allegorical Figure Genius Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1920 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review The 1801 edition of Ellis's work, an expanded version of the one-volume edition of 1790 (which covered only poetry form the fifteenth to the seventeenth century), for the first time includes a chapter on Gower (pp. 169-98 of volume 1). The basic approach of this anthology is to provide brief sketches of the authors and short selections from their works. Gower is slotted in under the reign of Edward III. Ellis gives Gower's birth-date as approximately 1326 (see the table on p. xi), and suggests that he died in 1402. According to Ellis, little is known about Gower's life, except that he must have been well-born, and indeed well-off, if he could afford to study at the Inns of Court and contribute financially to the priory of St. Mary Overeys. Ellis believes that Gower's earliest compositions were his French ballads, and he quotes one as an example. A summary overview of the VC and MO follows, and the rest of the chapter focuses on the CA. Ellis argues that Gower's decision not to write in English until later in life is explained by the prominence of French at the court of Edward III. Much of Ellis's overview of the CA is borrowed from Thomas Warton (particularly the account of Gower's sources). Ellis adds some final observations, including a critique of Gower's adaptation of Ovid. According to Ellis, when we read Gower's retellings, "we feel a mixture of surprise and despair, at the perverse industry employed in removing every detail, on which the imagination had been accustomed to fasten. The author of the Metamorphosis was a poet, and at least sufficiently fond of ornament; Gower considers him as a mere annalist" (177). Ellis therefore considers that Gower's popularity "is, perhaps, not very likely to revive" (177-78), but he mentions some narratives worth reading and suggests that books 4 and 7 of the CA are useful as compendia of learning. As a specimen of Gower's writing, Ellis offers the tale of "Florent," not only because it provides an analogue to Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale, but also because "the story has considerable merit" (179). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Ellis, George Published Ellis, George. "Specimens of the Early English Poets, to which is prefixed an historical sketch of the rise and progress of the English Poetry and Language; in three volumes." London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1801 Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Biography of Gower Cinkante Balades Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Specimens of the Early English Poets, to which is prefixed an historical sketch of the rise and progress of the English Poetry and Language; in three volumes Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available W. Bulmer and Co., Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1801 Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Warton's chapter on Gower occurs on pp. 1-31 of volume 2 (1778) of his classic work. Warton opens with a broad assessment of Gower's achievement: "If Chaucer had not existed, the compositions of John Gower, the next poet in succession, would alone have been sufficient to rescue the reigns of Edward the third and Richard the second from the imputation of barbarism" (1). After mention of Gower's reform of the English language, and a description of his three great works, Warton dwells briefly on Gower's biography. In particular, he argues that Gower's piety is demonstrated by his contributions to the Priory of St. Mary Overeys. The rest of the chapter enumerates the probable sources of the CA, and describes each in some detail. Warton suggests that Gower's immediate model for the CA was likely the Romance of the Rose. Gower, however, lacks Jean de Meun's warmth of personification. He "seldom attempted to imitate the picturesque imageries, and expressive personifications, of that exquisite allegory" (4). Instead, Gower rationally enumerates the qualities of his personifications (Avarice, Neglicence, etc.), borrowing additional maxims and narratives from his "common-place book" (4). Warton further praises Gower for his scientific knowledge (in Book 4 of the CA) and suggests that "Gower very probably conducted his associate Chaucer into these profound mysteries" (5). Next, Warton turns his attention to Book 7, which he criticizes for its lack of ornamentation. Perhaps the only exception is the description of the chariot and crown of the sun, from which Warton quotes at some length. Warton notes Book 7's indebtedness to the Secreta Secretorum, but argues that Gower's most important source for the CA's exempla is Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon. Gower also used the latter's Speculum Regum and borrowed extensively from other comprehensive medieval chronicles. Three additional sources that Warton mentions are Guido della Collone, the Romance of Sir Lancelot, and the Gesta Romanorum. Gower's use of the Gesta is clear from a number of references to the old "gestes." One of the tales Gower borrows from the Gesta Romanorum is the tale of the "Two Coffers" (CA 5.2273-2390). Warton relates this tale and its source to a similar incident in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Given Gower's extensive knowledge of literature and science, Warton is amused to find him make some mistakes: "It is pleasant to observe the strange mistakes which Gower, a man of great learning, and the most general scholar of his age, has committed in this poem, concerning books which he never saw, his violent anachronisms, and misrepresentations of the most common facts and characters" (20). Warton takes issue, for instance, with the names Gower mentions as examples of the first authors and chroniclers (4.2407-12) and with his telling of the story of the "Jew and the Pagan" in Book 7. After a series of other brief references to biblical, classical and medieval sources, Warton tries to situate the CA in relation to the work of Chaucer. He suggests that the CA must have been written after Chaucer's TC, because reference is made to reading the story of Troilus (CA 4.2795). The CA must also have been written after the Floure and the Leafe, which Warton ascribes to Chaucer. Gower's imitation of this work is most evident in the tale of "Rosiphelee," in Book 4 of the CA, although Gower makes reference to this courtly debate elsewhere as well. Finally, Warton believes that Gower's "affection of appearing learned" (31) is typical of the early poets. By contrast, Chaucer is the exception to this rule. His "original feelings were too strong to be suppressed by books" and his "learning was overbalanced by genius" (31). Gower instead strove too hard to be a scholar. Among his lengthy but unpaginated "Emendations and Additions" included after page 463 in volume II, Warton describes the contents of the Trentham MS (which he refers to as "a thin oblong manuscript on vellum" found in "lord Gower's library" and, later, "lord Gower's manuscript"), with particular attention to the CB, which Warton approves of highly, commending them as "tender, pathetic, and poetical," perhaps superior to "any even among the French poets." He tells us they "place our old poet Gower in a more advantageous light than that in which he has hitherto been usually seen," suggesting that they "were probably written when Gower was a young man, about the year 1350." He prints samples of CB for the first time: 20, 34, 36, and 43. His discussion of the manuscript and the printing of the four balades are incorporated in subsequent editions of Warton's "History" as a continuation of his discussion of CA; also, numerous references to Gower's works (too many to tally easily) appear in Warton, often as analogues to or influence on works by others, particularly Chaucer. Subsequent editions and reprints of this influential study (under titles that vary slightly) include additional notes and emendations by editors and various contributors; most notable are Richard Price's edition of 1824, Richard Taylor's of 1840, and William Hazlitt's of 1871. [CvD; rev. MA] Author/Editor Author/Editor Warton, Thomas Published Warton, Thomas. "The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century." 3 vols. London: [Dodsley], 1774-1781. Variously expanded and reprinted. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Biography of Gower Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Cinkante Balades Manuscripts and Textual Studies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The History of English Poetry from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available London: [Dodsley], Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1774-1781 1778 (volume 2) Type The nature or genre of the resource Book PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In 1927, Karl Brunner recognized the CA as a source for Ben Jonson's "Volpone," an attribution disregarded by subsequent editors. Friedenreich believes that Brunner was right in pointing to a story from Book 5 of the CA where a greedy steward panders his wife to the king. In Volpone, too, sleeping with a young woman is proposed as a medical remedy, and a number of verbal parallels between the two accounts are quite striking. Other connections between the two works include references to avarice and jealousy, two themes of Gower's Book 5. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Friedenreich, Kenneth Published Friedenreich, Kenneth. "Volpone and the Confessio Amantis." South Central Bulletin 37 (1977), pp. 147-150. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Volpone and the Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review The MO, according to Olsson, "is more than an encyclopedia" (113). It is also a unified spiritual quest with a clear poetic structure, and it is this structure that Olsson aims to demonstrate. As a kind of penitential work, the MO teaches the sinner by what path he may come to a recognition of his Creator. This quest is symbolized by two stories that frame the work: the narrative of Adam's exile to a land of misery, and, at the end, the story of redemption through Christ and the Virgin. However, if the mood of the poem is devotional, why then does the middle section of the poem indulge in social complaint and estates satire? Olsson's answer is that the integrity of the poem rests on the fact that it provides a mirror of man's entire moral nature. More precisely, there are four mirrors that "gave Gower the moral coordinates for his poem" (116). These four perspectives are the cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. While three of the virtues attend to personal life, the second, justice, is concerned with man's relationship with his neighbor, and with society as a whole. Olsson further reviews the literary tradition of the virtues to demonstrate that they are invariably seen as "interdependent" (117). As the second part of the MO's Latin title (the Speculum Meditantis) indicates, it is the reader's duty to meditate on the mirrors before him and to cultivate a moral disposition that in turn leads to a virtuous life. After this general introduction, Olsson next turns to a detailed analysis of Gower's allegory in relation to the work of such writers as Cicero, Alain de Lille, and Brunetto Latini, as well as to such vernacular works as The Book of Vices and Virtues. In the process, Olsson discusses a variety of related issues, ranging from Gower's alterations to the conventional debate of Body and Soul, to the lack of a pitched battle between the vices and virtues in Gower's account. Other issues that are discussed include Gower's predominant use of the Old Testament for his exempla, the MO's general progress from general knowledge to knowledge of the self (a progression that explains how the virtue of justice provides a bridge between the initial "psychomachy" and the self-application of the final mirrors), and the nature of kingship. Olsson further suggests that whereas the first two mirrors (prudence and justice) provide the knowledge to judge the reader's "amour seculer," the last two (fortitude and temperance) "show the potential for appeal" (139) and are "ordered as pleas for His [God's] grace, and as gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts of strength and wisdom" (139). Finally, Olsson argues that the work that most closely approximates the form of the MO is the brief twelfth-century poem, Le Livre des Manières by Etienne de Fougères, and that in relation to other medieval moral books, the MO's achievement lies in finding "a congruence of poetical form, inner or moral perception, and the idea of the cardinal virtues" (148). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Olsson, Kurt O Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Published Olsson, Kurt O. "The Cardinal Virtues and the Structure of John Gower's Speculum Meditantis." Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 7 (1977), pp. 113-148. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource The Cardinal Virtues and the Structure of John Gower's Speculum Meditantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Beichner quotes Macaulay's opinion that Gower's practice of writing "cento" in the VC amounts to "schoolboy plagiarism" (quoted on 582). Beichner proposes to analyze the borrowings from one of the texts that Gower employs, the Aurora or Biblia versificata of Peter Riga, and he interprets them from a more positive perspective than Macaulay. According to Beichner, Gower must have used a manuscript of the first or unexpanded edition of the Aurora, because later additions to Riga's text do not figure at all in the VC. In terms of the content of his borrowings, Gower does not seem to have been particularly interested in the narrative sections of Riga's verse Bible, although he does borrow one such passage (VC 6.12), an excerpt of 28 lines that describes Balaam's plan for the defeat of the Israelites. Gower is mostly interested in Riga's moralizing passages, and Gower's originality lies in the new context that his own work provides. In fact, when one considers the VC as a whole then "one is overwhelmed by Gower's industry" (592). Gower carefully memorized passages as models of elegant writing from a variety of classical and medieval authors, of whom Riga is only one example. Beichner thus counters the accusation of plagiarism with the following conclusion: "I believe that he [Gower] felt he was honestly presenting his views on his own day even though he often expressed himself in words and criticisms borrowed from his predecessors" (593). An appendix to Beichner's essay provides a detailed catalogue of Gower's borrowings. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Beichner, Paul E Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Published Beichner, Paul E. "Gower's Use of Aurora in Vox Clamantis." Speculum 30.4 (1955), pp. 582-595. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1955 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Gower's Use of Aurora in Vox Clamantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review David suggests that throughout the CT Chaucer "is dramatizing the difficulties of a poet who writes for a small and opinionated audience" (219). In the Man of Law's fragment (Part 2 of CT), Chaucer responds to the sentiment that some of the early tales have too much of "solaas," and not enough of "sentence." The Man of Law embodies these kinds of critics, who are "well-meaning, but misinformed, pedantic, and dogmatic" (219). More precisely, the Man of Law "speaks for Gower" (220), something that is evident from the resemblances between them, namely "the legal training, the sententious manner, and, most important, the didactic aesthetic" (220). Of course, the Man of Law ceases to speak for Gower when he mentions the stories about incest in the CA, but here the joke is on the Man of Law, "who only makes himself seem ridiculously prudish in professing to be more moral than the moral Gower" (220). David further suggests that while the Man of Law makes his tale as dignified and moral as possible, he is generally a man of appearances only, who ultimately prefers respectability over morality. It is this attitude that exposes his essential shallowness and highlights the true nature of his poetics. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor David, Alfred Published David, Alfred. "The Man of Law vs. Chaucer: A Case in Poetics." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 82.2 (1967), pp. 217-225. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Man of Law vs. Chaucer: A Case in Poetics Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review The difficulty with Gower's Genius is his dual role as instructor of both love and virtue. How can Genius be a servant of Venus, and yet repudiate her in his role as orthodox priest? After a review of the criticism (highlighting studies by Knowlton, Lewis, Economou, and Schueler) Baker suggests the need for renewed study of Genius' allegorical meaning. Baker argues that Gower's Genius is "a complex and sophisticated assimilation of his two precursors in the literary tradition" (291) – namely Jean de Meun and Alain de Lille. In Alain de Lille, Genius does not simply embody the procreative (or, more broadly, generative) function, but is also a tutelary spirit who acts as a moral guide to mankind. This moral role (which Baker traces back to Bernardus Silvestris, Apuleius, and Martianus Capella), is subverted by Jean de Meun: "divorced from Raison, Natura and Genius become servants of Venus scelestis" (285). It is Gower, then, who seeks to reconcile the "dual priesthood" (286) of his sources. As "a priest of Venus, Gower's character is similar to Jean's; he is Genius as natural concupiscence, the amoral law of kinde" (287). But Gower's Genius also embodies reason, and Baker shows that the frequent distinction between "kinde" and "reson" in the CA mirrors Genius' dual role. In Book 3, for instance, we gradually see Genius assume his role as priest of reason and demonstrate the limitations of natural lust. For instance, in the tale of "Pyramus and Thisbe," Genius has Thisbe denounce the blindness of love. While early on, in the story of "Canace and Machaire," Genius may be "curiously sympathetic" (288) to the incest that comes about through "kinde," by the time of the story of "Orestes" Genius is willing to reverse his earlier position. Since Climestre's sin of homicide is incited by lust, Genius "teaches Amans that obeying the law of kinde can, paradoxically, lead to unkinde acts; through this tale the priest reveals the inadequacy of the natural law as a moral guide" (290). Gower thus "uses the dual priesthood of Genius to correct the unorthodox position enunciated by the false priest in Jean de Meun's poem and to restore to this figure the moral authority exercised by Alain's true priest" (290). Gower does not condemn all forms of love, for sexuality can be subject to reason. However, at a "psychomachic" (291) level, where the figure of Genius can be seen to represent some aspect of Amans' psychology, Genius is Amans' inner voice of reason, and not of love. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Baker, Denise N Published Baker, Denise N. "The Priesthood of Genius: A Study of the Medieval Tradition." Speculum 51 (1976), pp. 277-291. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Priesthood of Genius: A Study of the Medieval Tradition Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review While Gower "does nothing to call attention to his literary treatment of women in the Confessio" (239), it is clear that the work's sensitivity and compassion for the limitations of human nature is in part the result of "the almost total absence of negative female stereotypes and antifeminist propaganda in the Confessio" (239). Gower's positive treatment is especially evident in three narratives of women who are traditionally seen as "less than exemplary" (241), namely Xanthippe, Medea, and Anaxarathen. First of all, while the MO tells us only that Xanthippe was angry and contentious with her husband Socrates, the CA provides "some motivation for the wife's foul humor" (241). Gower also does not personify "Cheste" as a woman, and he removes the references to "clubbing or punishing of wives" (242). In context, then, the story serves as an example of a particular sin rather than as an accusation of women in general. Gower's Medea, inherited from Benoît de Sainte-Maure and Guido delle Colonne, has also been transformed. She does not dress up to impress Jason on his arrival (an action condemned by Guido), nor does she scheme with a duenna to seduce Jason in the duplicitous way Benoît describes it. However, while Gower is more sympathetic to young people as they fall in love, he does not idealize Medea's character: "While Medea is innocent and appealing when she first falls in love, something goes wrong with her as the story progresses. At the same time, the sincerity of Jason's initial love serves to emphasize his later weakness and treachery" (247). Since Gower's tale exemplifies "the abuse and misdirection of normal human sexuality" (248), the moral of the story is directed "at both men and women, eliminating antifeminist elements from the story" (248). Finally, in the tale of "Iphis and Araxarathen," the characters' social positions are reversed, and Araxarathen is now a maiden of lowly origins who is no longer described as haughty, and who has a legitimate reason for refusing the love of Iphis. In the end, "Gower's innovation is to divide the responsibility for the disaster [of Iphis' suicide] between the two characters, instead of reproducing a simplistic exemplum of female coldness" (250). Why did Gower alter his opinions of women from those expressed in the MO and the VC? The answer is that in the CA Gower changes his style from strict moral allegory and social satire to a "middel weie" between lust and lore, where his main subject is love, including its positive qualities. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Burke, Linda Barney Published Burke, Linda Barney. "Women in John Gower's Confessio Amantis." Mediaevalia 3 (1977), pp. 239-259. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Women in John Gower's Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Burke argues that the sources of the tale of "King, Wine, Woman, and Truth" in Book 7 of the CA have never been accurately identified, that Gower's artistry is evident in his additions to the tale, and that the story provides "a striking example of the sympathetic attitude toward women which pervades the Confessio as a whole" (3). While Macaulay was right about seeing 3 Esdras 3-4 as the source of the same story in the MO, the CA version is said to be borrowed from a "Cronique" (4). Burke suggests that Gower was actually influenced by four "Croniques" that tell the story (ranging from Josephus' Jewish Antiquities to Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Historiale). Details that demonstrate Gower's indebtedness to these texts include the different characterization of Darius and the changed sequence of replies to the central question of the tale. However, Gower also adds new insights. His sources include a rather "pejorative description of king, wine, and woman" that is vividly contrasted to "the overwhelming superiority of truth, which is virtually equated with God" (8). Gower does not remove these negative opinions, but "he interweaves the theme of possible beneficence" (8). The king, for instance, can wreak havoc with his great power, but he is also described "in medieval Christian terms as the divinely ordained ruler of society" (9). Similarly, the power of a woman can mollify a tyrant, even as it may corrupt a good king. Gower's treatment of Alceste in particular shows that "Gower is much more sympathetic to women than his sources" (14). The major difference, then, is that for Gower "all three worldly goods are powerful insofar as they conform with truth" (15). Even truth, however, has changed, for instead of equating truth with God, Gower "plays on the double meaning of 'trouthe' in Middle English" (14). Since one of these meanings is "fidelity," the CA teaches that by "practicing the virtue of truth on the personal and social levels, human beings may share in the indomitable power of the absolute truth" (14-15). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Burke, Linda Barney Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Published Burke, Linda Barney. "The Sources and Significance of the 'Tale of King, Wine, Woman, and Truth' in John Gower's Confessio Amantis." Greyfriar 21 (1980), pp. 3-15. ISSN 0533-2869 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1980 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource The Sources and Significance of the 'Tale of King, Wine, Woman, and Truth' in John Gower's Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In relation to criticism that views Gower as primarily a stern moralist and political commentator, Pearsall writes: "The current reappraisal of Gower is doing loyal service to Gower the man, but may be doing less service to Gower the English poet" (475). In describing Gower's narrative art, Pearsall focuses on the frame narrative and exempla of the CA, the excellence of Gower's verse having been observed sufficiently by C. S. Lewis. Pearsall views the CA Prologue as a recapitulation of the themes from the MO and the VC and as a transition to the subject of love, "which is, for all its blind instinctual nature, a unitive and not a divisive principle and in which therefore the reconciliation of division may be found" (476). Indeed, "Gower, despite the fiction of the lover's confession, is not providing instruction in the art of love, but using love as the bait for instruction in the art of living" (476). Part of Gower's artistic achievement lies in his humorous and sympathetic depiction of Amans. In Pearsall's assessment, the dramatic frame in which Amans plays an important part is less organic than that of Chaucer's CT, but less flawed than that of the LGW. The only count against the frame of the CA is the presence of some long digressive passages like the discourse on false and true religion and Book 7's excursion into politics, although Pearsall is ready to admit that these sections have "external validity" (477n8). As for Gower's stories, they depend on "the initial response of imaginative sympathy to the human condition" (478). Thus, Pearsall uses the story of "Constantine and Sylvester" to show how Gower's special achievement is to embody, in Constantine's soliloquy and in the description of his thoughts and feelings, the very substance (and not just the abstract truth) of human charity and pity. Gower's constant promotion of "humane Christian values" (478) is especially visible in his adaptation of Ovidian narratives, such as the tale of "Tereus, Procne, and Philomela." Gower mutes the horrors of Ovid's version in the interest of preserving "a plausible pattern of human behavior which will be susceptible of humane moral interpretation" (478). Gower treats Procne and Philomela with sympathy and develops their metarmorphoses "with great charm and tenderness" (479). The same is true for the transformation in the tale of "Ceix and Alceone," although in the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" Gower omits the metamorphosis, likely because he could not stomach "the image of Pyramus' blood spouting high to stain the mulberry" (480). In every story, then, Gower aims to describe a meaningful pattern of human action. He develops Thisbe's speech over Pyramus' body where she questions justice and divine providence. His Iphis takes time to explain his decision to commit suicide and Gower turns Ovid's emotionless Araxarathen into a woman who is stricken with remorse and behaves "like a lady" (481). Similarly, the story of "Canace and Machaire" produces "a sober and compassionate meditation" (481) on love and law. Gower skillfully postpones the exposure of Canace's child, so that she can have the baby with her as she writes her final letter. In fact, it is "women who draw forth Gower's largest humanity, and his most deeply effective expressions of that humanity" (481). The story of Lucrece, for example, is "perhaps his most perfect realization of womanliness" (481), and the tale of "Jason and Medea" explores Medea's love with great pathos. Gower's "success with these classical stories is due in part to his ruthlessness. He has no respect for antiquity nor for the rich resonance of its allusiveness, and no hesitation at all in re-embodying its narratives in the social and moral contexts he understands" (482-83). Only a few stories – such as those of "Orestes" and "Deianira" – refuse this recontextualization and sometimes Gower's moral betrays his own best understanding of the meaning of a particular narrative. Pearsall concludes his argument with some comparisons with Chaucer's CT that demonstrate that "Gower, by any but these, the very highest standards, is an uncommonly fine narrative poet" (484). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Pearsall, Derek Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Confessio Amantis Published Pearsall, Derek. "Gower's Narrative Art." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 81 (1966), pp. 475-484. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's Narrative Art Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1966 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review As the title of his article implies, Kittredge attempts to ascertain something of what Chaucer's literary circle of friends may have looked like. His starting point is Chaucer's reference in the LGW to the debate about the Flower and the Leaf. Kittredge notes that Gower (CA 8.2462-72) and Eustache Deschamps both mention this debate, and he subsequently expands on Chaucer's connection with the latter to argue for their mutual acquaintance with Sir Lewis Clifford, who in turn knew Sir John Clanvowe. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Kittredge, G. L Published Kittredge, G. L. "Chaucer and Some of His Friends." Modern Philology 1.1 (1903), pp. 1-18. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Biography of Gower Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chaucer and Some of His Friends Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1903 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Phelan argues that the existence of a concordance of the CA will have a major impact on the study of Gower, if used appropriately. He suggests that "there is a strain of the unconscious in the diction of the ancient masters which goes beyond rhetorical principles; and critics need now to proceed beyond the concordance to the construction of a personal literary thesaurus – an idiosyncratic arrangement of the words of an author's language based on the careful consideration of the frequency and kinds of association" (461). On the basis of psychological and structuralist principles, Phelan maintains that the words which recur most frequently within a narrative "must form a network of associations which define in an existential way the central theme of the story" (464). The test case for this theory is the story of Florent in Book 1 of the CA. By means of a series of tables and calculations, Phelan arrives at a number of "first-level words" (467) that separate Gower's version from Chaucer's, both thematically and plot-wise. Gower's key terms are "covenant," "strengthe, "trowthe" and "schape," each of which receives detailed explication. In their totality these words reveal that the underlying trajectory of the narrative is one that "describes the development of the animus or masculine psyche" (476). In the end, then, "the semantic structure parallels and embraces the mythic structure" (472). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Phelan, Walter S Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Language and Word Studies Confessio Amantis Published Phelan, Walter S. "Beyond the Concordance: Semantic and Mythic Structures in Gower's Tale of Florent." Neophilologus 61 (1977), pp. 461-79. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Beyond the Concordance: Semantic and Mythic Structures in Gower's Tale of Florent Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Middleton undertakes to describe the essential spirit of Ricardian Poetry. By means of a survey that includes Chaucer, Langland, Gower, Thomas Usk, and the Lollard Knights, Middleton suggests that the essential feature of this late-fourteenth century literature is its aim "to be a 'common voice' to serve the 'common good'" (95). This public poetry is not topical in nature, but is rather defined by "a constant relation of speaker to audience within an ideally conceived worldly community, a relation which has become the poetic subject" (95). This is a secular poetry, and "its central pieties are worldly felicity and peaceful, harmonious communal existence" (95). It "speaks for bourgeois moderation, a course between the rigorous absolutes of religious rule on the one hand, and, on the other, the rhetorical hyperboles and emotional vanities of the courtly style" (95). As a result, even the topic of love has a clearly public dimension. Thomas Usk, in his Testament of Love presents himself as "a vernacular philosopher of love," but his more immediate concern is with the trials of his public career. Gower's Testament of Love, the CA, is likewise written out of the understanding that love is above all "a communal and historical bond" (97) rather than a transcendental force or a merely erotic drive. The notion of public poetry also reveals the similarities between Gower and Langland. Both are "essentially 'one-poem' writers" (98) who revised their work to keep it socially current. In addition, their poetry addresses the entire community rather than a coterie or patron. Even when Gower writes to Richard II, the king "is not the main imagined audience, but an occasion for gathering and formulating what is on the common mind" (107). This understanding of audience may also have occasioned Gower's cancellation of his reference to Chaucer in the CA, for such a reference, while accessible to a coterie audience, would not suit the "commune" at large. The attempt to speak for all citizens, also evident in Gower's "In Praise of Peace," brings with it a unique style. Middleton calls it a "plain style" that is "socially and psychologically well suited to the presentation of lay morality and large experiential truths" (98). For instance, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales represents an attempt to let each pilgrim present his own experience of the world in his own speech, and so the narratorial "I" stretches itself "to the point of transparency" by occupying "the whole field of moral vision" (99). Another word that describes this plain style is "common," whether in its adjectival form (for instance, in the Ciceronian "common profit," or res publica) or as a noun (either to denote the commonwealth as a whole, or specifically the third estate, the commons). All of these forms demonstrate "its uniformly non-abstract, non-speculative cast" (101) as well as the fact that the word is hardly ever used in a pejorative sense. The style of public poetry is well suited to a vision of poetry as "a mediating activity" (101). Ricardian poets invariably seek out a "middle style" (101), between "ernest and game," and "sumwhat of lust, sumwhat of lore" (qtd on 101-02). For Gower this medial course implies "a perspective less exclusively detached and cosmic, more implicated in, and circumscribed by, the mortal world" (102). This perspective is evident in the character of Gower-as-Amans, which Middleton calls "an implicated speaking presence" (102). Moreover, the whole enterprise of telling old exempla presents "a 'middle weie' between past and future, between truth and our need for it" (102). In the Latin colophon to the CA this middle way is associated with a notion of labour, for Gower locates his enterprise "between work and leisure" ("inter labores et ocia"; qtd on 101). The view that poetic composition for the instruction of others is a fully legitimate way of doing one's share of the world's work lends surprising dignity to the otherwise fairly modest claims of poetry. Gower claims to speak for the "common vois" and what this voice seeks is above all peace and social harmony. This explains why Gower writes "In Praise of Peace," as well as why Amans opposes Genius' argument that war confers glory which wins love. In relation to Amans, Middleton suggests that we should not dismiss the figure of the persona (Chaucer-the-Pilgrim, Gower-the-lover, Will-the-truthseeker) as merely a fictive character and therefore dramatically circumscribed. Even though the persona might not precisely represent the opinions of the author, we should nevertheless take him "seriously" (108), for the suggestion he offers is that in this life we will never transcend worldly experience. As such, the persona represents a heroic effort to achieve a common vantage point, an effort that is finally not treated satirically (incidentally, here and in the Appendix Middleton interacts with John Peter's work on satire and complaint). Indeed, this reality of living experientially is demonstrated by the fact that the figures of instruction (Genius as well as Will's teachers) are "a remarkably inept lot and not especially well disposed to help the seeker" (110). The limits to knowledge and perfection in the here and now are also evident in the lack of poetic closure in Piers Plowman and the CA, for these works do not end "in world-transcendence, but in some form of return to the world" (111). In her own form of closure, Middleton leaves it for others to speculate as to the historical causes for the public poetry that flourished in Ricardian England. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Middleton, Anne Published Middleton, Anne. "The Idea of Public Poetry in the Reign of Richard II." Speculum 53 (1978), pp. 94-114. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations In Praise of Peace Style, Rhetoric, and Versification Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Idea of Public Poetry in the Reign of Richard II Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Genius introduces the story of Virginia in Book 7 of the CA with the words "rihtwisnesse and lecherie / Acorden noght in compaignie / With him that hath the lawe on honde" (7.5125-27). Hoffman suggests that Gower is here paraphrasing Ovid's Metamorphoses 2.846-47: "Non bene convenient nec in una sede morantur / Maiestas et amor" (Majesty and love do not get along well together, nor do they dwell in the same place) (qtd on 127). Ovid's point that erotic passion and majestic dignity are incompatible is made in connection with Jove's advances on Europa. Since Ovid's proverb was "perhaps more frequently quoted in the Middle Ages than any other lines of the famous 'Ovidius ethicus,'" Gower's conscious borrowing is "scarcely surprising" (128). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Hoffman, Richard L Published Hoffman, Richard L. "An Ovidian Allusion in Gower." American Notes and Queries 6 (1968), pp. 127-128. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource An Ovidian Allusion in Gower Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In Shakespeare's Pericles, the character Gower describes the incestuous relationship of Antiochus and his daughter as follows: "But custom what they did begin / Was with long use accounted no sin" (1. Cho. 29-30). By an examination of the word "custom" in Shakespeare's other works, Boni demonstrates that Gower's "custom" is used in the sense of "inurement or accustomation" (36). While Gower's lines (adapted from CA 8.345-46) are to some degree proverbial, they also fit well with Shakespeare's use of "custom" elsewhere. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Boni, John Published Boni, John. "Gower's 'Custom' in Pericles: Shakespeare's Hand?" American Notes and Queries 16 (1977), pp. 35-36. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's 'Custom' in Pericles: Shakespeare's Hand? Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Gower's description of the drunkard in Book 6 of the CA includes the detail that when the drunkard wakes up in the morning he says "Nou baillez ça the cuppe" (6.60). In the A-text of Piers Plowman we find a "striking correspondence: on waking, "the furste word that he [Glotoun] spac was 'wher is the cuppe?'" (102; qtd from Passus 5.213). The only difference is the insertion of the French words, which Gower, "like other Englishmen" (102), perhaps found suitable for a drunkard. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Regan, Charles L. Published Regan, Charles L. "John Gower, John Barleycorn, and William Langland." American Notes and Queries 16 (1978), p. 102. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower, John Barleycorn, and William Langland Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review John Milton, in the pamphlet "An Apology Against a Pamphlet Call'd A Modest Confutation of the Animadversions upon the Remonstrant against Smectymnuus" (1642), quotes a lengthy passage from Gower's story of "Constantine and Sylvester" (Book 2 of the CA) as proof that "great riches in the Church are the baits of pride & ambition" (101). In the process Milton also suggests that he will "allege a reputed divine authority, as ancient as Constantine" (101). Jochums argues from a survey of Milton's other prose works that this must be a reference to Sulpicius Severus, a patristic writer who made similar points about the effects of riches on the Church. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Jochums, Milford C Published Jochums, Milford C. "As Ancient as Constantine." Studies in English Literature 4.1 (1964), pp. 101-107. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource As Ancient as Constantine Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1964 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review If Chaucer describes the Man of Law as seeming wiser and busier than he really is, then we might also question whether his knowledge of literature is as great as he claims. The Man of Law is "a self-appointed literary critic" and his tendency to error is shown by his mention of seven or eight women about whom Chaucer did not write stories and by the omission of two stories that he did write. Either the Man of Law likes to exaggerate, or he has read only the Prologue to the LGW and "believes all the stories to have been written" (5). Similarly, the Man of Law's reference to the cruelty of Medea and the hanging of her children shows that he is "not actually familiar with the Medea myth at all" (6). As for the disparaging remarks about Gower, Sullivan suggests that a hypothetical parallel would be if Charles Dickens referred to Jane Austen's novels as being vulgar in content (6). In addition, the Man of Law's inclusion of the extra names "might be considered as the result of his confusing two works [the CA and the LGW] similar in subject matter" (6-7). The remarks about incest in relation to the stories of Canace and Apollonius show "the extremely broad comical effect of Chaucer's selfish humor in putting into the mouth of the Man of Law a speech condemning Gower's choice of material, and, after a blunt relation of the most obnoxious facts (which Gower had carefully avoided), an announcement that he is not going to tell such stories" (7). The humor lies "in the fact that the expansive Man of Law is making a blunder in accusing Chaucer's 'moral Gower' of immorality" (7). Nevertheless, Chaucer's removal of the complimentary reference to Chaucer from later recensions of the CA may indicate that he found Chaucer's humor "as being in bad taste" (8). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Sullivan, William L Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Published Sullivan, William L. "Chaucer's Man of Law as a Literary Critic." Modern Language Notes 68.1 (1953), pp. 1-8. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1953 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Chaucer's Man of Law as a Literary Critic Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Hamilton finds a number of parallels between the work of Gower and the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry. Gower describes the Peacock as a bird who exemplifies Stealth (CA 5.6498-6500) as well as Pride (MO 23449-60). Jacques de Vitry uses the same imagery of the Peacock who hides its "turpes pedes" under its "pulchras pennas" and is known for its "passum latronis." Likewise the Middle English Gesta Romanorum employs the expression "for the pecok goth like a thef." Other parallels with Jacques de Vitry include the story of Nero in Hell (MO 24469-80), the tale of "the Travelers and the Angel" in Book 2 of the CA, and the story of Jerome's chastisement for being a Ciceronian (MO 14670-76). The latter exemplum in Jacques de Vitry also introduces the story of Sella, from which Gower borrows a phrase of a distich in VC 4.1214. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Hamilton, George L Published Hamilton, George L. "Notes on Gower." Modern Language Notes 19.2 (1904), pp. 51-52. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Notes on Gower Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1904 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In all of Gower's work we witness the poet "repeatedly going through the same cycle: a ruler is responsible for the welfare of England and for its morality in civic, religious, and political life as exemplified in the individual citizen" (964). Gower's "most significant role" (953) is therefore to act as mentor for royalty, in particular for Richard II. To illustrate this point, Coffman examines three aspects of Gower's work: the 1381 Peasants Revolt; Gower's views of Lollardy; and Gower's final assessment of Richard's reign. The first of these, the 1381 Revolt, is treated in the VC, where Gower demonstrates that the wise king is responsible for the welfare of his land. The subject of Lollardy further suggests that Gower looked to the king to quell heresy. In "Carmen super multiplici viciorum pestilencia" he admonishes Richard in the final couplet to be like the husbandman ("Cultor") who watches and acts "lest the weeds of heresy stifle the harvest" (957-58). The third and longest section of Coffman's essay is a close reading of "O Deus Immense." Its value, Coffman argues, consists in "its quality as a mirror reflecting the mind of a middle-class conservative and through it interpreting in a comprehensive manner Gower's class in society and the Lancastrian attitude as found in contemporary records" (959). Gower's revision of the heading of the poem reveals that Gower increasingly saw himself in the role of "a judge rendering a decision [on Richard's reign] rather than that of an advisor telling a young ruler what to do" (960). Coffman shows that in "O Deus Immense," "practically every maxim, precept, or injunction applies with direct clarity to King Richard's reign" (962). Also noted are Gower's use of the second person to address his reader and make note of important precepts, as well as the reference to the Coronation Oath which signals the obligation of kings to rule justly. Coffman points out that the Coronation Oath was used by the Lancastrians in the 1399 deposition charges to indict Richard for ruling badly, and the essay ends with a comparison between the language of the poem and the phrasing of these thirty-three charges. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Coffman, George R Published Coffman, George R. "John Gower, Mentor for Royalty: Richard II." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 69 (1954), pp. 953-964. Gower Subject Vox Clamantis Minor Latin Poetry Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower, Mentor for Royalty: Richard II Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Gradon points out that Gower's Golden Age, described in the Prologue, already has "the whole hierarchical structure of the medieval state" (62), including the rule of law. To the modern reader, such references to justice may have "the air of being loose moral platitudes" (62), but Gradon argues in her essay that the opposite is the case. Of particular importance is Gower's usage of the word "ryhtwisnesse" and the terms "justice" and "equity." Gradon points out that in the MO 14195-98 Gower adopts the commonplace definition of Justice as rendering to each his due ("Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribunes," as Justinian's Institutes puts it). Medieval sources reveal that this definition was understood to refer in part to "the observance of pre-ordained hierarchical patterns" (64). As such, Justice meant obedience of superiors, fair-dealing to equals, and correction of inferiors. Even lawyers in the Middle Ages therefore understood the virtue of Justice to be a broader concept than merely a legal one, comprising instead a general idea of right conduct (and social relationships) that affects all human actions. Gradon next turns to Gower's notion of equity, which she compares to the maxim "Aequitas est justicia dulcore misericordiae temperate" ("Equity is justice tempered by the sweetness of mercy"; 66). Gradon shows that Gower opposes justice (or equity) to covetousness, a vice that is in turn remedied by love. The relevance of this to the CA is obvious, for the virtue of equity does not only apply to the state but also "enables a man to control himself by maintaining a balance between reason and will" (67). This also implies that "the theme which binds the whole poem together … is neither Empedoclean love nor yet the theme of caritas … rather the theme is equity or justice in its broad sense. That is to say, just as Gower requires righteousness, that is justice, for the right functioning of the state, so the Confessor requires righteousness of the lover; that is, self-examination and judgment, submission to the rule of reason and the right direction of the will" (70). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Gradon, Pamela Published Gradon, Pamela. "John Gower and the Concept of Righteousness." Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic-Literary Studies 8 (1977), pp. 61-71. ISSN 0287-1629 Gower Subject Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower and the Concept of Righteousness Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review The fourteenth century "possessed a strong sense of the past, a feeling for history and its bearing on the present" (401). What is unique to Chaucer and Gower is that although both "expressed the sentiment that the world had grown old, and while they both tended to cast the passing of time in moral terms, they also relied ultimately on personal sensibility to define the relationship between present and past" (403). Particularly the conclusion to the "Clerk's Tale" and the end of the CA provide moments where Chaucer and Gower "turn away from moralistic, clerical time and toward time as experience rooted in the psyche, what might be termed 'humanistic time'" (403). For Chaucer, the defining virtue of the Golden Age was constancy, precisely the virtue that Griselda embodies. It is the contemporary lack of constancy that the Clerk decries, and so his final lament compares the women of his time to debased coinage. Dean points out that it was ironically gold that caused the downfall of the Saturnian Golden Age. Griselda thus "embodies for the Clerk an ideal, to be invoked in poetry, whose virtue rebukes the present age of 'brassy' arrogance" (406). Gower's CA introduces the "world grown old" theme in its Prologue. Nebuchadnezzar's statue embodies in the shape of man as microcosm "the decline of virtue, specifically love or charity, in the macrocosm" (407). While the tone here is "disengaged and moralistic" (407), Gower also suggests, both in the Prologue and in Book 5's discussion of avarice, that the perfection of the Golden Age is located in man's psyche, in his innate sense of moderation or "mesure." The way back to the harmony of the past is through memory and poetry, a process symbolized by the poet Arion and put into practice through the stories of the CA. Gower makes Amans an emblem of division in love; like the senescent world, Amans is old and feeble. Amans's final encounter with Venus, a moment that is both "amusing and poignant" (411), allows the reader to experience time and its passing in a very personal fashion. In the end, for Chaucer and Gower it is not only that the quest for a clarification of the self leads to a recherche du temps perdu, but also that "the search for lost time leads to important insights about the self" (413). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Dean, James Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Published Dean, James. "Time Past and Time Present in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale and Gower's Confessio Amantis." English Literary History 44.3 (1977), pp. 401-418. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Time Past and Time Present in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale and Gower's Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In Book 4 of the VC, Gower admonishes the good monk "to preserve his traditionally simple, though hard and austere, way of life" (82). The passage represents "a characteristic plagiarism" (82) on Gower's part, for the lines are borrowed from an anonymous collection of penitential verses dating from the early thirteenth century. To show the indebtedness, Raymo quotes lines 495-506 and 511-14 of VC 4 alongside the original and italicizes the similarities. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Raymo, Robert R Published Raymo, Robert R. "Vox Clamantis, IV, 12." Modern Language Notes 71.2 (1956), pp. 82-83. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Vox Clamantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Vox Clamantis, IV, 12 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Clogan argues that in the CA Gower "transformed traditional themes of rebuke from complaint to satire" (218). The distinction between complaint and satire is taken from John Peter's 1956 study Complaint and Satire in Early English Literature. Peter "drew a basic distinction between complaint, which is said to be impersonal, conceptual, Christian, corrective, and unsophisticated and satire, which is identified as being personal, sophisticated, flexible, and only superficially corrective in aim" (218). Clogan criticizes this "vague classification" (219), not least because it suggests that the taste for satire virtually died out from the time of St. Jerome until the Renaissance. According to Clogan, Gower included many traditional themes of complaint in the CA – e.g., the attacks on the clergy, Lollards, and usurers – but they fit within "a larger scheme of satire" (219). Gower's satirical approach is seen in the confessional framework of the poem, which is a parody of the penitential manuals. Especially ironic is the figure of Genius, who is both the priest of Venus and has to teach the lesson of the Seven Deadly Sins. Clogan observes that "Genius signifies the only sin which the Lover does not confess" (220). Amans too is treated satirically. As a senex amans he "becomes the counterpart of Chaucer's January as he tries to possess his young wife" (220). Although Gower thus satirizes the penitential and courtly traditions, yet "his writings can also be labeled moral because their satirical view of the world ranges from ironic contrasts to a burlesque dignity" (221). Clogan further cautions "against placing too much significance on the political and social views since the Confessio is essentially concerned with the divine perspective in human affairs" (221). This perspective is evident in the great "web of contrasts which bind and unite the poem" (221), contrasts which ultimately depend on irony and satire for their effect. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Clogan, Paul M Published Clogan, Paul M. "From Complaint to Satire: The Art of the Confessio Amantis." Medievalia et Humanistica 4 (1973), pp. 217-222. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource From Complaint to Satire: The Art of the Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Scholars have been "universally puzzled by the half-line 'for though he striue' in the speech of Gower which opens the second act of Pericles" (91). Warren suggests that "for though" equates to Middle English "forthi" (accordingly, therefore)and fits with the archaic language of Gower's speech in the passage as a whole. After providing a catalogue of similar old-fashioned expressions, Warren ends by stating three remaining problems. These are the fact that the text reads "for though" rather than "for thy"; the irregular meter produced by the intrusion of "though" into the line; and the odd form of "strive," which has in at least one edition been emended to "strives." Warren claims that the form "strive" could be a form of the preterite for both Gower and Shakespeare, and thus cautions against emending the line, suggesting instead that all that is called for is the kind of careful explication that he has provided. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Warren, Michael J Published Warren, Michael J. "A Note on Pericles, Act II, Chorus 17-20." Shakespeare Quarterly 22.1 (1971), pp. 90-92. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Note on Pericles, Act II, Chorus 17-20 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Tatlock admits that Milton's allegory of Satan, Sin, and their son Death is based in the first place on the Epistle of James 1:15, and that the description of Sin has echoes of Hesiod, Virgil, Dante, Spenser, and Phineas Fletcher. However, the most curious parallel is to be found in Gower's MO, lines 235-37, where Sin and Death have seven daughters, the Deadly Sins. The Devil "sends all these beings abroad among men, just as Sin and Death follow Milton's Satan to this world" (240). The chance that Milton read the MO is "infinitesimal" (240), but the parallel hints that at least their sources are the same, and it suggests something of Milton's debt to medieval allegory, despite the fact that the Renaissance used allegory more for adornment than for the "bald" (240) exposition of intellectual ideas (as in Gower). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Tatlock, J. S. P Gower Subject Influence and Later Allusion Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Published Tatlock, J. S. P. "Milton's Sin and Death." Modern Language Notes 21.8 (1906), pp. 239-240. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1906 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Title A name given to the resource Milton's Sin and Death Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Bradley analyzes the influence of Gower's line "hebenus, that slepy tree" (CA 4.3017), itself borrowed from Ovid's Metamorphoses, on Marlowe and Shakespeare. In the Jew of Malta, Marlowe refers to the "juice of Hebon" as a deadly poison, likely because he remembered Gower's line out of context, and thought that the ebony tree had a narcotic juice. Shakespeare's "juice of Hebona" (in Hamlet) is influenced by a memory of Marlowe's line, although it appears that Shakespeare thought that "hebon" was the same as "henbane," considered a serious poison in the sixteenth century. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Bradley, Henry Published Bradley, Henry. "'Cursed Hebenon' (or 'Hebona')." Modern Language Review 15.1 (1920), pp. 85-87. Gower Subject Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Cursed Hebenon' (or 'Hebona') Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1920 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Callan compares Gower and Chaucer's telling of the tale of "Pyramus and Thisbe." He notes Gower's aptitude for didacticism, and adds, "Gower has a simple mind, unencumbered with subtleties, and it is one of the incidental pleasures of reading the Confessio Amantis to see what surprising lessons he can extract from the most unpromising material" (270). Gower on the whole translates his original closely, "but he is never the slave of it" (271). For instance, he expands the description of Polyphemus' envious emotions and alters Ovid's somewhat abstruse account of Medea's necromancy. Chaucer's adaptation of Ovid is more varied. His rendering of "The Legend of Lucretia" stays so "tediously close" (272) to Ovid that it lacks all spontaneity. On the other hand, when Chaucer works freely with his source he produces more "felicitous re-creations of individuals words and lines" (274) than Gower. In "Pyramus and Thisbe," for instance, Chaucer retains the detail that the walls of the town are made from baked tiles ("coctilibus" in Ovid), and he renders Thisbe's hiding from the lion with the unique verb "darketh" (Ovid has "obscurum"). Chaucer's lines tend to resonate with more powerful echoes, and so Callan concludes that "[d]espite the virtues of Gower's rendering which make it at a first reading more attractive than Chaucer's, there is a strength in the latter which brings us back to his passages more than once, when we are content to let Gower remain a pleasant memory" (276). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Callan, Norman Published Callan, Norman. "Thyn Owne Book: A Note on Chaucer, Gower and Ovid." Review of English Studies 22 (1946), pp. 269-281. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Thyn Owne Book: A Note on Chaucer, Gower and Ovid Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1946 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Bennett compares Gower's tale of "Ceix and Alceone" with its analogue in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 11) and with Caxton's 1480 translation of Ovid. Gower turns Juno's injunction to Iris (to visit the cave of Morpheus) into indirect speech, describes Iris's "velamina mille colorum" as a "Reyny Cope ... begon with colours of diverse hewe," and glosses "ebenus" as "that slepi tree." Caxton, three years before he would print the CA, makes the same changes in his retelling of Ovid, and even borrows the exact phrasing of these details from Gower. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Bennett, J. A. W Published Bennett, J. A. W. "Caxton and Gower." Modern Language Review 45.2 (1950), pp. 215-216. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Influence and Later Allusion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Caxton and Gower Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1950 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review On the occasion of the library of the University of North Carolina acquiring its millionth volume, a 1483 folio edition of Gower's CA printed by William Caxton, Wells writes a critical appreciation of both the poet and the printer. By Caxton's time Gower's fame was well established, as shown from the translation of his work into Spanish and Portuguese. Wells remarks on the range of Gower's reading "in the ancient and contemporary classics of his age" (9). Despite his extensive borrowing, Gower preserves a sense of order, not only by the achievement of a plain style, but also by making the image of the lover seeking his ideal representative of the good man "striving towards order" (9). The second half of Wells' piece provides an appraisal of Caxton's career. Wells suggests that Caxton's criteria for each book that he chose to print were that it was "1) long established in reputation or very popular, 2) well written, 3) instructive, and 4) if the subject permitted, delightful" (10). Wells ends with a brief description of Caxton's edition, including its marginalia and binding. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Wells, William Published Wells, William. "Gower and Caxton." South Atlantic Bulletin 27.1 (1961), pp. 9-10. Gower Subject Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations Confessio Amantis Manuscripts and Textual Studies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower and Caxton Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1961 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Legge, Dominica Published Legge, Dominica. "The Gracious Conqueror." Modern Language Notes 68.1 (1953), pp. 18-21. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Backgrounds and General Criticism Language and Word Studies Cronica Tripertita Review Legge examines references in various chronicles and petitions to Henry IV's claim to the throne of England. While Henry was said to be rightful king by election, inheritance, and conquest, the last claim seems particularly weak. However, Legge argues that "in the mouths of contemporaries the queer title 'conqueror' was not necessarily either ironical or vainly flattering, but something generally accepted" (18). The word "conqueror" was almost a synonym for "victor" and was usually applied to heroes; the word "conquest" had the meaning of "acquest" – property gained otherwise than by inheritance. While there was no such thing as a legal right of conquest, the case of William I provides proof that there was at least some precedent for the claim. Legge next considers the order in which the claims of conquest, inheritance, and election are presented in Gower's CrT and in Chaucer's "Complaint to His Purse." She notes that the gloss to the CrT puts the claim to conquest last, whereas the text itself places it first. The explanation is that the text itself (as well as Chaucer's lines) gives the claims in the order in which were presented, and treats them cumulatively, from the least to the most important. The gloss "does not need to take account of this" (20), and puts the shaky right of conquest last, and "softened by the addition of the words: 'sine sanguinis effusione'" (20). The latter phrase is explained by a passage in Froissart's chronicle that illustrates how Henry though of conquest as "the acquisition by peaceful means of an inheritance vacant through the misconduct and ineptitude of his predecessor" (20). In this context, the term "conqueror" can have a positive valence, one that associates Henry with the legend of Brutus the Trojan, who conquered Albion and created the empire of Britain (20-21). [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Gracious Conqueror Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1953 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Mainzer argues for Gower's usage of medieval texts of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Fasti, Heroides, and Ibis for many of the exempla in the CA. Much of the body of Mainzer's essay consists of a series of close comparisons between Gower's Ovidian tales and their equivalents in Ovid's Metamorphoses and various versions of the Ovide Moralisé. By means of verbal parallels and shared narrative details a picture emerges of extensive borrowing from the medieval adaptations of Ovid. In addition, Gower appears to get the names of Eolen (Hercules' love interest) and Arrons (Tarquin's son) from some thirteenth-century glossed manuscripts of the Fasti. Similarly, Gower's telling of the story of "Demophon and Phyllis" was likely influenced by medieval commentaries on the Heroides, even though he could have borrowed the same details from Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum. Lastly, Gower's knowledge of a glossed version of the Ibis may be established by his substitution of Dionysius in the place of Diomedes as the tyrant condemned in Book 7 for feeding human flesh to his horses. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Mainzer, Conrad Published Mainzer, Conrad. "John Gower's Use of the "Mediaeval Ovid" in Confessio Amantis." Medium Ævum 41 (1972), pp. 215-222. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower's Use of the "Mediaeval Ovid" in Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Mainzer, Conrad Published Mainzer, Conrad. "Albertano of Brescia's Liber Consolationis et Consilii as a Source-Book of Gower's Confessio Amantis." Medium Ævum 47 (1978), pp. 88-90. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Review Mainzer's note demonstrates that two series of aphoristic statements in the CA provide evidence of Gower's use of Albertano of Brescia's "Liber Consolationis et Consilii" (also the ultimate source of Chaucer's "Tale of Melibee"). The first series is found in Book 7 (lines 3149*-3167*) and consists of statements about Pity attributed to the apostle James, Cassiodorus (both in the second recension), and Constantine (in the third recension). The second series is found in Book 3 (glosses at lines 2220 and 2225) and figures aphorisms said to be from Seneca and "Apostolus" (St. Paul). [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Albertano of Brescia's Liber Consolationis et Consilii as a Source-Book of Gower's Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Henkin investigates the folkloric background to the story of "Aspidis the Serpent" told in Book 1 of the CA. The story tells of a snake whose forehead is studded with a carbuncle, and who protects itself against snake charmers by shutting its ears. Macaulay had noted that the story is based on Psalm 58 (and its interpretation by Augustine and Isidore of Seville), but Henkin asks where the detail of the carbuncle originates. He suggests a source in the folk and lapidary lore about the jewel "dracontides," a stone thought to be found in the brain of dragons. After a detailed survey of this myth, ranging from Socatus and Pliny to a variety of medieval lapidaries, Henkin notes that in two of the medieval texts on the subject, the Alphabetical Lapidary and its likely transcription in English, the Peterborough Lapidary, the dracontides is specifically identified as a carbuncle. It is thus apparent that the passage in Gower is "either a confusion or a conscious combining of two legends, one dealing with a snake in whose head is embedded a carbuncle, the other with a snake with a trick to nullify a charmer's incantations" (38). The possibility of an intentional conflation is strengthened by the dramatic function of the carbuncle in providing motivation for the conjurers' attempt to enchant the serpent. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Henkin, Leo J Published Henkin, Leo J. "The Carbuncle in the Adder's Head." Modern Language Notes 58.1 (1943), pp. 34-39. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Carbuncle in the Adder's Head Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1943 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review McCulloch traces the image of the dying swan singing its song through a number of literary texts. Her starting point is Ovid's description in the Fasti of the swan that sings "when the cruel shaft (penna) has pierced his snowy brow." The medieval "encyclopedist" Brunetto Latini, in his Li Livres dou Tresor, misinterprets the word "penna" to mean "feather" (rather than "feathered shaft" or arrow) and so suggests that when death is imminent, one of the feathers of the swan's head is implanted in its brain, whereupon the bird begins its sweet song. Gower makes the same error in the CA, where he compares Dido's suicide to the swan that "For sorwe a fethere into hire brain / Sche schof" (4.107-08). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor McCulloch, Florence Published McCulloch, Florence. "The Dying Swan – A Misunderstanding." Modern Language Notes 74 (1959), pp. 289-292. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Dying Swan – A Misunderstanding Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Stillwell explicates Gower's allusions to contemporary politics in the MO's section on kingship. Gower's opposition to taxing the clergy, for instance, makes sense in the light of recent events. When after a considerable truce the war with the French was renewed in 1369, the need to raise funds led to calls in the parliament of 1371 to tax the Church. Gower also expresses disapproval of Edward III's favourites, and particularly of his mistress, Alice Perrers. Stillwell demonstrates how the MO reworks the apocryphal story of "King, Wine, Woman and Truth" to castigate women who corrupt kings. Whereas in Book 7 of the CA the same story provides a more positive treatment of women (naturally, given the work's focus on courtly love), the MO only describes the woman who subjects the king to servitude. Stillwell next turns to the Chronicon Angliae, 1328-1388 to historicize Gower's commentary and provide a sketch of contemporary opinion on Alice Perrers and the Lancastrian party that supported her. Edward III is further compared negatively to Gower's King David. Whereas the good shepherd David removed the mangy sheep in his flock from the bad, Edward did nothing to halt the corruption of his court. Whereas David was a good harpist, Edward, in an image found in a contemporary sermon, allowed Alice Perrers to string a jarring melody. In fact, Gower suggests that if Edward wants to conquer the French then he should first fix the discord created by his bad harping at home (MO 22959-68). Gower's sympathies are thus with the Black Prince, with Peter de la Mare (imprisoned by the Gaunt-Perrers faction), and with the citizens of London (who opposed the Lancastrian party). Support for this view is found in the MO's mercantile and bourgeois bias. On the other hand, since Gower shows little direct partisanship, his criticism is invaluable for historians interested in making an ethical judgment of the main political figures of the 1370s. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Stillwell, Gardiner Published Stillwell, Gardiner. "John Gower and the Last Years of Edward III." Studies in Philology 45 (1948), pp. 454-471. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Backgrounds and General Criticism Biography of Gower Confessio Amantis Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower and the Last Years of Edward III Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1948 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Thorpe, Lewis Published Thorpe, Lewis. "A Source of the Confessio Amantis." Modern Language Review 43 (1948), pp. 175-181. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Review Thorpe finds an analogue for the Tale of the False Bachelor (from Book 2 of the CA) in the story "Annulus," a brief exemplum told by the Empress in the thirteenth-century romance Le Roman de Marques de Rome. The Marques is a sequel of sorts to The Seven Sages of Rome, a tale collection Gower and Chaucer both borrowed from. Most extant manuscripts of the Marques also include the Seven Sages, and so it seems quite likely that Gower drew upon it directly, and did not consult a shared parent source. Thorpe provides a detailed parallel transcription of tale and source and notes some striking similarities in phrasing. Notable differences, on the other hand, include the intended moralitas or frame, the fact that Gower's version goes on for another 67 lines (describing the Bachelor's punishment), and the greater preoccupation of the Marques with aspects of contemporary warfare. Despite these differences, Gower's general indebtedness is clearly evident. [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Source of the Confessio Amantis Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1948 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Heather surveys astrological references in a range of Middle English works, focusing particularly on beliefs about the planets. Gower's treatment of astrology is frequently sampled (especially 339-47), and Heather quotes lengthy passages from the CA, particularly Book 7. It is noted that Gower matches up the days of the week with the planets, and in turn connects the latter to the twelve signs of the zodiac (342) and to the fifteen stars (344-46). Also mentioned are isolated references to astrology in stories such as "Medea and Jason" and "Nectanabus." Heather's evaluation of Gower's contribution to astrology is summed up in relation to Chaucer's work on the same subject: "Gower was concerned in presenting to his countrymen what had previously been written on the subject, and may well have had a greater part in moulding their belief in such matters. Chaucer on the other hand wrote rather as one who was weighing the value of the beliefs as they existed in his day and makes no secret of his scepticism" (351). Other brief references to Gower's work in the remainder of the essay include: a discussion of how Book 4 of the CA relates the subject of alchemy to the planets; a comparison between Chaucer's "Canon Yeoman's Tale" and Gower's description in Book 5 of Greek and Chaldean religions and their basis in astrology; a discussion of Gower's beliefs about light and darkness; the quotation of some references to the moon in the CA that describe its phases and its influence upon the tides; and an overview of beliefs about eclipses and their causes. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Heather, P. J Published Heather, P. J. "The Seven Planets." Folklore 54 (1943), pp. 338-361. Gower Subject Backgrounds and General Criticism Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Seven Planets Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1943 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Harbert, Bruce Published Harbert, Bruce. "The Myth of Tereus in Ovid and Gower." Medium AEvum 41 (1972), pp. 208-214. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Review In the Tale of "Tereus, Procne, and Philomela," Gower "reshapes Ovid's material to his own ends, altering his depiction of character, and the setting and pace of the narrative" (208). He removes most of the horrific elements, as well as the "almost superhuman grandeur of his characters" (208), and stresses instead elements that his own audience could relate to. Some examples include the change from Philomela's cave to a prison, Procne's modern mourning customs, and the detailed picture of domestic affairs that illustrates "the idea of happy married love against which Tereus offends" (209). By making the story less exotic, Gower is able to draw our attention "towards the underlying moral and psychological realities which are his chief concern" (209). Gower's characterization is therefore also different. Procne becomes "a thoughtful, intelligent woman, not one to waste words, not malicious, but nonetheless firm of purpose" (210). Where Procne is practical, Philomela is philosophical. Philomela is also a weaker character than in Ovid and Gower intensifies the pathos of her rape. While the sisters have committed infanticide, "the greater fault is that of Tereus, whose violence began the evil succession of events" (212). Tereus is not a villain from the beginning (as in Ovid), but he eventually becomes a bestial tyrant, lacking in reason. Gower dwells on the metamorphoses of all three characters to sum up his earlier depiction of their inner thoughts and motivations: "Where Ovid had seen only superficial resemblances between the human characters and the birds into which they are transformed, Gower continues to look more deeply into their minds" (213). [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Myth of Tereus in Ovid and Gower Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Murphy disputes the existence of a medieval English rhetorical tradition. Despite the fact that the CA contains the "first known discussion of rhetoric in the English language" (402), Gower had little or no actual knowledge of the subject and borrowed his material quite blindly from Brunetto Latini's Li Livres dou Tresor. Murphy in particular critiques Robertson B. Daniels, "Rhetoric in Gower's 'To King Henry the Fourth, in Praise of Peace,'" for suggesting that Gower borrowed numerous rhetorical figures (colores) from rhetorical textbooks. According to Murphy, use of such figures can easily be explained by the abundant use of grammatical texts in English grammar schools. Murphy also disputes Daniel's argument that Gower's word-play on the term acephalus in VC 3.955-56 (an example of annominatio) shows a clear allusion to a passage in Geoffrey of Vinsauf. After listing similar puns in other works, he concludes: "It would seem that a parallel involving only one word will not suffice to prove Gower's reliance on the Poetria Nova" (407). As for Gower's discussion of rhetoric in Book 7 of the CA, Murphy argues that Gower's ignorance is illustrated by the fact that he does not even know that "Tullius" is the same person as "Cithero," or that the term "colour" has a technical meaning for the rhetorician. Gower derives almost all of his knowledge from the Tresor, the exception being the credit given to Aristotle for writing a work on rhetoric "when it seems apparent that Gower himself knew of no such book" (409). The latter detail is likely caused by the influence of the Secretum Secretorum. From the evidence of the Confessio, then, there is little evidence "that there was a viable rhetorical tradition in fourteenth-century England similar to that in France or Italy, which had given rise to vernacular treatises on rhetoric in the preceding century" (411). [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Murphy, James J Published Murphy, James J. "John Gower's Confessio Amantis and the First Discussion of Rhetoric in the English Language." Philological Quarterly 41 (1962), pp. 401-411. Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Style, Rhetoric, and Versification In Praise of Peace Vox Clamantis Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower's Confessio Amantis and the First Discussion of Rhetoric in the English Language Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1962 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Macaulay's edition of the CA notes a number of similarities between Gower's work and Boccaccio's De Genealogica Deorum and Dilts suggests some additional borrowings. These include the metamorphosis of Phillis into a "Notetre" (CA 4.867) and the reference to the island of "Chyo" (5.5413; "Chium" in Boccaccio) in the Tale of Theseus and Ariadne. While some of the similarities can be found in other sources, only the Genealogia contains all the parallels. It is likely, then, that Gower consulted the work during the composition of the CA. [CvD] Author/Editor Author/Editor Dilts, Dorothy A Published Dilts, Dorothy A. "John Gower and the De Genealogia Deorum." Modern Language Notes 57 (1942), pp. 23-25. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource John Gower and the De Genealogia Deorum Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1942 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Author/Editor Author/Editor Ames, Ruth Published Ames, Ruth. "The Source and Significance of The Jew and the Pagan." Medieval Studies 19 (1957), pp. 37-47. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Review Ames opens her essay with Thomas Warton's comment in his History of English Poetry that Gower must have borrowed his Tale of "the Jew and the Pagan" (Book 7 of the CA) "from some Christian legend, which was feigned, for a religious purpose, at the expense of all probability and propriety" (37). Ames suggests instead that the story, particularly popular from the Secreta Secretorum tradition, was originally a piece of pagan propaganda against Judaism. Ames' evidence for a pagan origin includes the tale's geography (even Gower's version is set in Egypt), the frequent identification of the Pagan as one of the (Persian) Magi, and the fact that Christians never charged the Jews or Judaism with an unethical code since they themselves were invested in the validity of the Mosaic law. Medieval authors therefore took up the story not necessarily as part of an anti-semitic agenda (although Ames does not deny some element of prejudice), but rather because of the non-religious meanings that might be ascribed to the story. For instance, James Yonge's prose translation of the Secreta (dating from 1422) employs the exemplum to illustrate his advice that a prince should not trust his enemy. As it turns out, the Jew is most like the Irish, whose treachery is well-known (45-46). Likewise, Gower's account tells us more about his politics than about his attitude to the Jews. After all, Moses is mentioned in Book 7 as one of the first lawgivers, and in Book 5 Gower praises the beliefs of the Jews in contrast to the worship of idols. Gower was thus more interested in making the point that mercy is greater than justice. In this he followed the Secreta, in which the Pagan was associated with Aristotle, who advised Alexander on the principles of kingship. The only medieval adaptation that Ames has difficulty explaining is John Bromyard's Summa Predicantium, where the Mosaic Law is simultaneously praised and condemned. Ames' conjecture about this troubling mixture is that "the friar nodded, and garbled half-recollected stories and sources" (45). Despite the opacity of Bromyard's motives, the general pattern Ames finds is that medieval Christians were less interested in the validity of Jewish law than in promoting an Aristotle who conformed to their own aims in writing mirrors for princes. [CvD] Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Source and Significance of The Jew and the Pagan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1957 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "The Ricardian poets have been seen in the past as rejecting their native tradition in favor of a more "sophisticated" continental mode. I contend, however, that Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower continue their English predecessors' themes of public duty and morality. Although by the fourteenth century Middle English romances had already begun to distance themselves from their French antecedents in terms of ethics and themes, the Ricardian romancers of London in the 1380s and 90s took this distancing a step further. Indeed, instead of embracing the literary themes of French romances, these tales explicitly reject the courtly values and ethics of continental literature and are thus in many ways a natural development of Middle English romance tradition. I argue that by both distancing themselves from the literature of the continent and addressing current socio-political issues, these works participated in a nation building project and formed the beginnings of an English national literature. As an expression of, and means for, this distinctive style of English romance, these texts all portray characters reading. While the progressive shift from oral, communal reading to silent, individual reading in the fourteenth century encouraged a multiplicity of interpretations, the danger inherent in critiquing the king and court constrained the poets to use allusion and allegory in referencing political concerns. I show that these two forces combine to cause an alteration in the very structure of narrative to create a reflexive and multilayered metafictional environment. By depicting failed acts of interpretation of French romances within the tales themselves, the Ricardian poets criticize the king's own predilection for French literature and create a sort of metafictional boot camp through which they train their readers in both what to read and how to interpret." Directed by Ann W. Astell. Author/Editor Author/Editor Gould, Mica Dawn Published Gould, Mica Dawn. "Reading the reader: Metafictional romance in Ricardian London." PhD thesis, Purdue University, 2006. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reading the reader: Metafictional romance in Ricardian London Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "This dissertation offers a history of sexual violence in late-medieval England by tracking the associative patterns that structure the experience and production of sexual violence in contexts as varied as the legal regulation of marriage and raptus, the erotics of hagiography, the ethicizing work of instructional treatises, and the gendering of political communities and ecstatic experience. In attending to this associative network, this project unsettles the weight of raptus, a medieval legal term that includes rape but also encompasses non-sexual abduction and consensual elopement, as the paradigmatic framework for a historical understanding of sexual violence. . . . Texts considered range from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries and include Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale and the Tale of Melibee, Gower's Tale of Florent, Margery Kempe's The Book of Margery Kempe, the anchoritic text Holy Maidenhood, Reginald Pecock's Folewer to the Donet, Richard Rolle's Form of Perfect Living and the Life of St. Elisabeth of Spalbeck." Directed by Mark Miller. Author/Editor Author/Editor Edwards, Suzanne M Published Edwards, Suzanne M. "Beyond raptus: Pedagogies and fantasies of sexual violence in late-medieval England." PhD thesis, The University of Chicago, 2006. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beyond raptus: Pedagogies and fantasies of sexual violence in late-medieval England Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review "[Late medieval literary] compilations did not necessarily achieve or even aim for a single meaning to the exclusion of others; indeed, the capacious forms of play---generic, intertextual, imitative---that gave them their literary appeal tended to multiply rather than delimit meaning. This compilational tension paralleled the difficulty of convoking a group of city-dwellers into a unified polity that could speak and act with a single voice; London compilations served in part as textual thought-experiments in the kinds of cultural and social models that could make coherent a polity's disparate interests and groups. "Early in the fourteenth century, Londoners like City Chamberlain Andrew Horn and the compiler of the Auchinleck manuscript tentatively explored imitation of courtly play as one way of laying claim to the cultural status that would help them resist royal attempts to disenfranchise them. The turbulence of Ricardian London, however, brought Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower to opposite conclusions about the relevance of such models: Chaucer's construction of the Canterbury Tales argues that chivalric performance had lost its viability in the face of Richard's pageantry-laden yet socially disruptive reign, while Gower's repackaging of earlier texts in a new compilation [Trentham mansucript] for Henry IV's accession proposes that courtly literary forms could regain their relevance under the rejuvenating aegis of the new Lancastrian dynasty." Directed by Anne Middleton. Author/Editor Author/Editor Bahr, Arthur William Published Bahr, Arthur William. "Convocational and compilational play in Medieval London literary culture." PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2006. Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Manuscripts and Textual Studies Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Convocational and compilational play in Medieval London literary culture Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Thesis NonPeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review In an earlier essay, "Politics and the French Language in England during the Hundred Years' War" (see JGN 20, no 1 (March 2001): 23-26), Yeager focused on the origin of MO, arguing that its opening and its choice of language indicated that it was intended to be read by a chivalric audience, more specifically by King Edward III and his French-speaking inner circle. In the present essay, Yeager focuses on the completion of the poem, which he believes occurred many years later, when Gower had become installed at St. Mary Overes priory in Southwark. Both the penitential tone of the final section of the poem – so different from everything that precedes – and the appeal to the intercession of the Virgin can be explained, Yeager suggests, by a shift in Gower's intended audience to the Austin canons of the priory, and Gower's residence there also explains his access to the sources, which he is not known to have used otherwise, for this section. There is obviously much that is speculative about this argument, of course, but Yeager has anticipated virtually every objection, and in doing so, he has added to the discussion of the relative status of the three languages current in England at the time by pointing out that French would have been in common use by the priory's residents. Also along the way, he adds some new material on the origins of MO, suggesting Henry of Lancaster's "Livre de Seyntz Medicines" as one of Gower's models, both for the form of his poem and for the idea that a moral work of this sort would appeal to a royal and aristocratic audience. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 26.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Yeager, R.F Published Yeager, R.F. "Gower's French Audience: The Mirour de l'Omme." Chaucer Review 41 (2006), pp. 111-37. ISSN 0009-2002 Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Biography of Gower Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower's French Audience: The Mirour de l'Omme Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Penn State University Press, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Peronelle's role in providing both the solution to the riddle and advice to the king on his own behavior in Gower's tale of "The Three Questions" is not unlike that which Chaucer attributes to such women as Prudence (in Melibee) and Alceste (LGW). It has its roots, Schieberle argues, in the role reserved for women as intercessors in contemporary ideology (as illustrated, for instance, in the historical examples of English queens pleading on behalf of the less powerful), which in turn has its roots in the model of Marian intercession, also invoked by Peronelle's humble conduct in the tale. Women were able to exercise such influence over their husbands and monarchs precisely because their "subordinate status allow[ed them] to challenge the king without threatening his ultimate authority" (93). "In Peronelle, Gower imagines the possibility that a woman could exercise power both privately and publicly" (95). As the daughter of one of the king's knights, however, not yet directly related to the king, Peronelle raises the threat of a woman acting independently, a problem that Gower resolves by the way in which he arranges for her to be married to the king, restoring the proper hierarchy of gender at the end. Peronelle is one of several examples of female counselors in CA, all of whom (unlike several of the males who appear in a similar position in the poem) are successful in their attempts to influence their kings. "Such a special status for women suggests strongly that Gower finds in the image of the woman advisor a compelling model for counsel in general" (92), a model that he himself imitates in his own efforts to offer non-threatening advice to his king. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 26.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Schieberle, Misty Published Schieberle, Misty. "'Thing which a man mai noght areche': Women and Counsel in Gower's Confessio Amantis." Chaucer Review 42 (2007), pp. 91-109. ISSN 0009-2002 Gower Subject Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations Confessio Amantis Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 'Thing which a man mai noght areche': Women and Counsel in Gower's Confessio Amantis Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Penn State University Press, Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gower Collection GowerType Customized Item type for items in the Gower Database Review Gilbert justifies her provocative juxtaposition of these two unrelated texts in this way: "Both aim to promote ethical action on the part of their audiences and use exemplary figures as central strategies in this enterprise. Both take as their subject-matter language, desire, law and taboo, and both express anxiety concerning the writer's own position in relation to these matters. More particularly, both draw a connection between a desired linguistic purity and a perverse masculine heterosexuality centring on the maternal body" (77-78). The comparison leads to a consideration of both similarities and differences in the two authors' deployment of their exempla and in the ways in which they associate sexual transgression with the breaking of linguistic norms. With reference to Gower, she finds the latter linkage in the final stanza of Traitié, in which the poet appears to apologize for his poor command of French. In one respect a typical modesty topos, intended to draw attention to exactly the achievement that he denies, Gower's statement is also a claim to be taken seriously as an Englishman, capable of producing a text that meets the highest standards of the "international courtly language" (85). "By declaring his own linguistic insecurity," furthermore, "the commoner Gower deferentially flatters [the] superior competence of his audience," the French-speaking English court. But he also betrays an unease about his treatment of his subject. He employs the metaphor of the "proper path" both with regard to linguistic correctness and, in an earlier passage, with regard to sexual mores. "The poet's concern for the purity of his language is thus shadowed by the uncomfortable suggestion that he parallels his exemplars in mistaking foldelit for droit amour, an error which would destroy the Traitié's didactic value. Anxiety about erotic deviancy (and perhaps even about the erotic as essentially deviant or as tending inevitably to deviancy) is coupled with a corresponding disquiet about linguistic deviation" (86). The parallels between Gower's project and Derrida's, however, suggest that by choosing to write in French, Gower consciously calls into question the naturalness of the norms that his text advocates. "Conceptual confusion appears to derive from Gower's inability when working in French to anchor the earthly as a morally valid sphere between the divine and the corrupt. This sphere and its value are therefore not asserted but questioned and explored. These (no less ethically serious) activities here rely on the representation of French as the language in which Gower acknowledges constitutive alienation, which Derrida claims is a necessary condition of ethical responsibility. The Traitié's ruin as a didactic project is, in a different light, the commencement of its poetic and ethical potential" (87). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 26.2] Author/Editor Author/Editor Gilbert, Jane Published Gilbert, Jane. "Men Behaving Badly: Linguistic Purity and Sexual Perversity in Derrida's Le Monolinguisme de l'autre and Gower's Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz." Romance Studies: A Journal of the University of Wales 24 (2006), pp. 77-99. ISSN 0263-9904 Gower Subject Language and Word Studies Traitié pour Essampler les Amants Marietz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Men Behaving Badly: Linguistic Purity and Sexual Perversity in Derrida's Le Monolinguisme de l'autre and Gower's Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006 Type The nature or genre of the resource Article PeerReviewed