Dreaming of Cicero in John Gower's "Cultor in Ecclesia."
- Author/Editor
- Weiskott, Eric.
- Title
- Dreaming of Cicero in John Gower's "Cultor in Ecclesia."
- Published
- Weiskott, Eric. "Dreaming of Cicero in John Gower's 'Cultor in Ecclesia'." ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews 36.4 (2023): 462–63.
- Review
- In this note, Weiskott's shows how Valerius Maximus's "De factis et dictis memorabilibus" 1.7.5 can be seen as a source for the ending of Gower's "Cultor in Ecclesia," adducing the poet's familiarity with "De factis" (based on Macaulay's notes to four passages in the "Confessio Amantis"), exploring bits of common language and imagery, citing the "popularity" of Valerius's work "in premodern European literary culture," and claiming that the "author of the surreal, classicizing, prophetic dream vision 'Visio Anglie' had every reason to be hunting around 'De factis dictis memorabilibus' 1.7, on dreams" (463). Acknowledging that the "borrowing is not an open-and-shut case" (462), Weiskott pushes his evidence further and suggests that "the Valerius passage accounts for the unreal, ethereal quality of the closing image of Gower's Cultor" (463). [MA. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 43.1]
- Date
- 2023
- Gower Subjects
- Minor Latin Poetry
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations