John Gower's Rhetoric: Classical Authority, Biblical Ethos, and Renaissance Receptions.

Author/Editor
Donavin, Georgiana.

Title
John Gower's Rhetoric: Classical Authority, Biblical Ethos, and Renaissance Receptions.

Published
Donavin, Georgiana. John Gower's Rhetoric: Classical Authority, Biblical Ethos, and Renaissance Receptions. Turnhout: Brepols, 2022.

Review
Unlike many, Donavin's title helpfully outlines her areas of concern, and argument. Rhetoric--figures, modes and impact of instruction of "artes dictaminis" especially--has ever been a primary focus, and here she brings her extensive knowledge to bear on Gower's work, devoting the first chapter to "Gower's 'Rhethorique'," chapter four to "Epistles and Rhetorical Experimentation, Part I: Contexts and Practices," and five to "Epistles and Rhetorical Experimentation, Part II: Music and Letters in the Trentham Manuscript." "Biblical ethos" takes two broad forms: 1) a back-and-forth identification of "John" in the "Vox Clamantis" and Amans/Gower in the "Confessio" variously with John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, primarily in chapter two ("My Name is John. Biblical Ethos and Apocalyptic Narrative"), although this remains a major source of interpretation throughout, particularly guiding her reading of the VC Book I ("Visio Anglie") and the denouement of CA Book VIII; and 2) a claim for Gower's "unusual" devotion to the Virgin, traced through the "Mirour de l'Omme" and the CA (chapter three: "'Virgo bona dicendi perita.' The Good Maiden Speaking Well," and chapter six, "The 'hortus conclusus' in Gower's Poems"). A "coda"--"Renaissance Receptions of Gower's 'Repetitio'"--brings a detailed look at Chicago, Newberry Library, MS 33.5 and Jonson's "English Grammar," complementing the final section of chapter three which offers remarks on the character Marina in Shakespeare's "Pericles," and fulfilling the title's promise of "Renaissance Receptions." [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 43.1]

Date
2022

Gower Subjects
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification
Mirour de l'Omme
Vox Clamantis
Confessio Amantis
Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Influence and Later Allusion