Gower's Slothful Aeneas in Batman's "Christall Glasse of Christian Reformation."
- Author/Editor
- Reid, Linday Ann.
- Title
- Gower's Slothful Aeneas in Batman's "Christall Glasse of Christian Reformation."
- Published
- Reid, Linday Ann. "Gower's Slothful Aeneas in Batman's 'Christall Glasse of Christian Reformation.'" Notes and Queries 61 (2014): 349-54.
- Review
- Batman, a fiercely partisan Protestant, published his "Christall Glasse" in 1569. Like the "Confessio Amantis," it is organized around the Seven Deadly Sins. Reid argues that "it is clear that [Batman] follows Gower's earlier tale [i.e., "Aeneas and Dido" in Book IV] by likewise positing Dido's unhappy end as the tragic consequence of Aeneas' 'sloth and forgetfulness' in love" (353). But Batman's choice is "peculiar," given that "the exemplum of slothful Aeneas, guilty essentially of violating courtly love conventions, does not comfortably fit" either of Batman's two expressed categories for Sloth--physical and moral; thus, we are left with the questions why would Batman have turned to (Catholic) Gower, and "what does it mean to press a recognizable Middle English 'exemplum in amoris causa' into the service of a new Protestant message?" (354). [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.2]
- Date
- 2014
- Gower Subjects
- Influence and Later Allusion
Confessio Amantis