Gower's Kiste.
- Author/Editor
- Galloway, Andrew.
- Title
- Gower's Kiste.
- Published
- Galloway, Andrew. "Gower's Kiste." In John Gower in England and Iberia: Manuscripts, Influences, Reception. Ed. Ana Sáez-Hidalgo and R. F. Yeager. Publications of the John Gower Society X. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2014. Pp. 193-214.
- Review
- Galloway begins with a discussion of the circumstances surrounding Gower's acquisition of a foreign "chest" ("kiste") and documents associated with the acquisition. These suggest the importance of mercantilism to Gower's life and poetry and may be applied to the puzzle of how "Confessio Amantis" traveled to Iberia, physically and by translation. The prevailing view cites the role of John of Gaunt's daughters in the travels of the CA, through their marriages to the princes of Portugal and Castile. The intersection of 14th-c. mercantile and "noble culture" (197), however, provides an alternative avenue. In the CA, chests have their traditional iconographic association with covetousness. They also signify, however, "the creation and circulation of . . . human political commodities," such as "the voice and words of people of high value" (204), and a poet's "political self-commodification" (210). Gower develops this theme in Book V of the CA, on avarice, where the "Tale of Two Coffers" functions as an exemplum of the allure and risk of venture mercantilism. [MPK. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.2]
- Date
- 2014
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Biography of Gower