Rhetoric in John Gower's "Speculum Meditantis."

Author/Editor
Comtois, Cecile de la Providence.

Title
Rhetoric in John Gower's "Speculum Meditantis."

Published
Comtois, Cecile de la Providence. "Rhetoric in John Gower's 'Speculum Meditantis'." Ph.D. Dissertation. Fordham University, 1953. Dissertation Abstracts International 80.2. Full text available at ProQuest.

Review
Comtois begins by briefly surveying the medieval rhetorical tradition with which Gower was familiar before turning to a discussion of how Gower's work fits within the medieval "speculum" tradition finding innovation in Gower's use of French for the work, given the predominance of Latin in the "speculum" tradition. The remainder of the dissertation focuses upon Gower's use of the rhetorical tropes in the poem, especially amplification and abbreviation and other stylistic decisions indebted to rhetorical techniques. Comtois includes three appendices: one (supplementing Chapter 3) listing all lines where she sees examples of amplification and abbreviation, a second (supplementing Chapter 4) containing a list of "figures of words", and a third (also supplementing Chapter 4) listing indications in the poem of examples of "figures of thought." [BWG. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.1]

Date
1953

Gower Subjects
Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis)
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification