Female Friendship in Late Medieval English Literature: Cultural Translation in Chaucer, Gower, and Malory.

Author/Editor
Elmes, Melissa Ridley.

Title
Female Friendship in Late Medieval English Literature: Cultural Translation in Chaucer, Gower, and Malory.

Published
Elmes, Melissa Ridley. "Female Friendship in Late Medieval English Literature: Cultural Translation in Chaucer, Gower, and Malory." In Karma Lochrie and Usha Vishnuvajjala, eds. Women's Friendship in Medieval Literature (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2022). Pp. 135–54.

Review
This article is not exclusively about Gower, but it asks important questions about how the shifting role of women in late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England is reflected in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and Thomas Malory. Elmes argues that there was "a profound cultural shift in women's visibility and significance" (136), and that these authors now had to address a female audience that could affect their literary reputation. She associates this need to address female readers primarily with a secular audience with an increasing interest in social rather than religious status (136), and notes that with this changing audience, poets engaging in translation or adaption would have had good reason to alter their often misogynist sources (137). In particular, the inclusion of sequences featuring female friendships represents for Elmes a significant way for these authors to update their adapted stories for this growing new audience, and break from a misogynist tradition. She looks closely at a number of adapted narratives by all three of her target authors. Elmes provides a detailed reading of the "Tale of Albinus and Rosemund" (Confessio Amantis I.2459-2680), adapted from Paul the Deacon's eighth-century "Historia Langobardorum." Her primary focus is the introduction of the character Glodeside, expanded from the source, where she appears merely as "dressing maid" (146). Elmes notes that Gower's version is vague about Glodeside's identity (a maid, not necessarily Rosemund's personal servant), thus emphasizing Rosemund's great trust in Glodeside, and their less hierarchal relationship. She suggests that their relationship is implied to be "long-term and close" (147). She also notes that because of Gower's contextualization of this story around Albinus' pride, the culpability for the women involved in his murder is reduced: "Gower does not comment on the women's actions being treacherous" (148), as does his source. (One might question, however, whether he really needs to, as nearly every character in the story meets their doom through their pride.) For Elmes, Gower like Chaucer or Malory adapted these stories in a way that would be less troubling to a female audience; she also notes that since none of these authors was actually writing for female patrons (148), these choices indicate a genuine cultural shift, and not just an obsequious author trying to please a patron. Her conclusions about how audiences had apparently changed by the late fourteenth century to expect to see women interact with each other and receive authorial sympathy are well-supported and open up important questions about the role of women in the literary audiences of the later Middle Ages. [RAL. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.1]

Date
2022

Gower Subjects
Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations