John Gower's "Confessio Amantis": The Virtues of Bad Texts
- Author/Editor
- Harris, Kate.
- Title
- John Gower's "Confessio Amantis": The Virtues of Bad Texts
- Published
- Harris, Kate. "John Gower's 'Confessio Amantis': The Virtues of Bad Texts." In Derek Pearsall, ed. Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England (York: York Medieval Press, 1983). Pp. 27-40.
- Review
- In varying levels of detail, Harris discusses six manuscripts that she terms "bad texts," that is, "texts appearing in the form of extracts," where "the intrusions of the medieval manuscript compiler or the editor (or both) are most obvious" (27-28): Princeton University Library Garrett 136 (early fifteenth century), Manchester, Chetham's Library A.7.38 (6696) (early sixteenth century), London, British Library Harley 7333, Oxford, Balliol College 354, New Haven, Beinecke Library Takamiya 32 (Richard Hill's commonplace book), and Cambridge, University Library Ee. ii. 15. She mentions incidentally Oxford, Bodleian Library Rawlinson D 82, Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College 176/97, Oxford, Trinity College D 29, and San Marino, Huntington Library HM 144 (the latter two she traces to the Augustinian priory at Bisham). In most of these, but not all, the tales have been cut free of the frame narrative, and in many cases retold in prose (32-33). The Balliol, Takamiya, and Cambridge Ee. ii. 15 manuscripts show many similarities, suggesting some form of common origin, "probably a series of extracts rather than a complete copy of Gower's poem" (34). The texts of those delivered in rhyme have been heavily edited, broadly reflecting, Harris opines, changes over time in preferred forms of rhyme (35-39). She concludes: "In so far as the intrusions of the medieval editors in Gower's poetry are made on purely aesthetic grounds they can be said to provide the earliest true criticism of the 'Confessio.' In this lies the chief virtue of bad texts. That they should also provide information on the history of poetics was a virtue hardly to be expected" (40). [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.2]
- Date
- 1983
- Gower Subjects
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Confessio Amantis