Gower's "Herte-Thought": Thinking, Feeling, Healing.
- Author/Editor
- Salisbury, Eve.
- Title
- Gower's "Herte-Thought": Thinking, Feeling, Healing.
- Published
- Salisbury, Eve. "Gower's 'Herte-Thought': Thinking, Feeling, Healing." Accessus 7, no. 1 (2022): n.p.
- Review
- Salisbury's essay focuses on the debate of whether the brain or the heart functioned as the principal organ of the body for Gower and his works. She asserts, "This is the medical controversy that factors into Gower's use of 'herte-thoght' and his understanding of the effects of heart disease in bodies both individual and sociopolitical." Salisbury surveys the medical literature of the later Middle Ages, the medical philosophy of which she believes Gower was likely at least familiar, especially the Aristotelian idea of the heart's function in the body politic. Focusing on Book VII of the "Confessio Amantis," Salisbury shows how "Genius identifies the heart as the body's principal organ in its capacity to govern the other organs and their functions, most importantly the cognitive aspect of the brain he describes as 'reson.'" She focuses on Gower's use of "herte-thoght" or "herte's thoght" to demonstrate Gower's belief in the symbiotic relationship of emotion and cognition, which is how she sees the poem attempting to rectify Amans's own feelings and thoughts. Salisbury points to the "Tale of Diogenes and Alexander" in Book III, noting "In a tale designed to assuage Amans's inner turmoil and thwarted desire to acquire his lady's love, however, the story becomes a way to illustrate the presumptions of an insatiable conqueror and the devastating realities of imperial conquest." Salisbury provides a thorough close reading of the tale to support this conclusion before turning attention to a diagram of the heart-brain connection from Geraldus de Hardywyck's "Epitomata seu Reparationes totius philosophiae naturalis Aristotelis." She suggests this diagram creates "the impression of the [heart's] dominance," pointing out that in this diagram all of the other senses, too, are routed through the heart. Finally, addressing anger as heart disease, particularly in the "Mirour de l'Omme," Salisbury concludes, "anger is not a mere allegorical figure in this context, but rather a literal description of a disease with the potential to kill the body and damage the soul. If we extend the analogy offered by Henri de Mondeville in his surgical treatise cited earlier, these symptoms are as applicable to the body politic as surely as they are to individual human bodies." [JGS. Copyright. John Gower Society eJGN 41.2.]
- Date
- 2022
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Language and Word Studies
Backgrounds and General Criticism