The Court of Richard II and Bohemian Culture: Literature and Art in the Age of Chaucer and the "Gawain" Poet.

Author/Editor
Thomas, Alfred.

Title
The Court of Richard II and Bohemian Culture: Literature and Art in the Age of Chaucer and the "Gawain" Poet.

Published
Thomas, Alfred. The Court of Richard II and Bohemian Culture: Literature and Art in the Age of Chaucer and the "Gawain" Poet. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2020.

Review
Thomas's primary focus is cultural--asserting a claim for the powerful influence of the Bohemian court on that of Richard II, brought about by his wife Anne--and unsurprisingly literature finds a central place in his discussion. Chaucer and the "Gawain"-Poet, per his title, occupy most of his interest (Langland is mentioned once, on p. 20), he devotes a portion of chapter 2 to Gower, denoting him, along with Richard Maidstone, "another Ricardian writer who appears to have partaken of [the] spirit of poet-patron familiarity" (44), based on the meeting of Richard and Gower on the Thames, described in Ricardian manuscripts of the "Confessio Amantis." Thomas recognizes the lack of evidence that this happened, but configures it as a "fiction of engagement," borrowing a term from Deborah McGrady. He largely follows the claim of Linda Burke ("Bohemian Gower"--see online Gower bibliography), that Queen Anne inspired the CA, and he goes on to assert independently that "Anne of Bohemia is probably the real-life inspiration for the two pivotal figures of Venus and Alceste in Gower's 'Confessio' and Chaucer's 'Legend'" (46). Anne's presence in the works of the two poets differs, however: for Chaucer, Anne/Alceste is "a mediatrix or intercessor between the contrite poet and the irate God of Love" while "Gower's Venus/Anne, by contrast, [is] the source of moral authority at a court riotously led by Youth (an allegorical designation for the youthful Richard II in the mid-1380s). In her role as the clear-sighted and realistic assessor of Gower as too old to be a member of her court of Love, Venus resembles Anne's role as the sensible and restraining consort of Richard's waywardness" and the rosary she gives Amans/Gower in Book VIII "recalls Anne's reputation as a pious queen" (47). No evidence is offered for any of this, nor for the claim (203) that "Poets like Chaucer and Gower who placed self-interest above factional loyalty were more likely to survive and prosper under the new regime [i.e., Henry IV] than those whose allegiance bound them to the old order." [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 43.1]

Date
2020

Gower Subjects
Backgrounds and General Criticism
Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations