"A Reuer--Brighter Þen Boþe the Sunne and Mone: The Use of Water in the Medieval Consideration of Urban Space.
- Author/Editor
- Rothauser, Britt C. L.
- Title
- "A Reuer--Brighter Þen Boþe the Sunne and Mone: The Use of Water in the Medieval Consideration of Urban Space.
- Published
- Rothauser, Britt C. L. "'A Reuer … Brighter Þen Boþe the Sunne and Mone': The Use of Water in the Medieval Consideration of Urban Space." In Albrecht Classen, ed. Urban Space in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. (Berlin: De Gruyter; 2009). Pp. 245-72.
- Review
- Rothauser synopsizes her essay as follows: "Medieval authors describe not only the presence of water near and in cities, but also the use of waters by the citizens. We see water being used primarily in three roles in these texts: 1) a defining element; 2) a protective barrier; and 3) a cleansing agent. In depictions of historical or fictitious earthly cities, we see water used in these functions individually, or perhaps dually, suggesting an important topos for water, but not a formulaic use of it. When all of these roles appear in one description, we find the perfection that exists in the celestial city of 'Pearl.' But when these roles are subverted, we see the apocalyptic nightmare of John Gower's London in 'Vox Clamantis.' It is through the author's manipulation of water in these three roles that we can see how medieval authors may express their concept of the urban space" (246). Rothauser considers a variety of medieval texts--including descriptions of London from William Fitz Stephen, the London "Letter-Books," and Lydgate's "Troy Book"--but Pearl (along with "St. Erkenwald") and VC (at times accompanied by "Mirour de l'Omme") are the texts she assesses most consistently, observing allegorical idealizations in "Pearl" and distortions or inversions of these ideals in Gower, but leaving what they reveal about ideas of urban space not sharply articulated. When discussing water as a "defining element" of urban depiction, she argues that in VC (and in MO) it "does not define the city itself, but rather Gower's preferred social hierarchy between city and country," so that, in the cities, water "much like the peasants . . . must be constrained" (257). Similarly, water offers no urban protection in VC, where the gates in the vision of London are breached and its walls destroyed by the "flood" of peasants (264). Moreover, the "normative function" of water as cleansing agent is inverted when the nurturing fountains of Gower's city are bloodied and rendered pestilent (269). At the end of Book 1, however, through a figurative version of water as the "baptismal medium" (270), Rothauser argues, social order is restored and the dreamer's apocalyptic vision approaches closure through "God's manipulation of water" (272). Here, and elsewhere in her argument, Rothauser discloses less about Gower's "concept of the urban space," her stated goal, than she does about his notions of the moral dimensions of social order. If the two are somehow inextricable or analogous, as they may well be, clarification of their relations would be helpful. [MA. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.2]
- Date
- 2009
- Gower Subjects
- Vox Clamantis
Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis)