Gower and the Epic Past.
- Author/Editor
- Wetherbee, Winthrop.
- Title
- Gower and the Epic Past.
- Published
- Wetherbee, Winthrop. "Gower and the Epic Past." 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. 165-79.
- Review
- Examines Gower's views of the ancient world and epic poetry in "Confessio Amantis," finding them complex and "in [their] implications remarkably bleak" (165). Benoît de Sainte-Maure's 12th-c. "Roman de Troie" was a major influence on Gower, by way of its content and its implied critique of ancient heroism. Gower adapts episodes from the "Roman" in the CA, such as the voyage of the Argonauts and the story of Jason and Medea. Whereas Genius's treatment of such material can be "myopic" (168)--for example, his muted criticism of Jason's betrayal of Medea--Gower himself displays "more sophisticated probing" (169). Genius valorizes chivalry and aggression in war and love, notably in the Tale of Aeneas and Dido in Book IV, a view that Gower qualifies. Like Benoît, Gower "shows markedly little interest in the classical gods and goddesses" (173). Genius, however, emphasizes Mars and his influence in stories of "epic-chivalric violence" (177), such as the "Tale of Ulysses and Telegonus." [MPK. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 42.2]
- Date
- 2014
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations