Literature and Class: From the Peasants' Revolt to the French Revolution.
- Author/Editor
- Hadfield, Andrew.
- Title
- Literature and Class: From the Peasants' Revolt to the French Revolution.
- Published
- Hadfield, Andrew. Literature and Class: From the Peasants' Revolt to the French Revolution. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021.
- Review
- In Chapter 2, Hadfield considers the "Visio Anglie" ("Vox Clamantis" Book I) together with "Piers Plowman" (essentially A-Text) and Chaucer's tales of the Knight, Miller, and Reeve, concentrating on the latter two. Not surprisingly, he concludes a discussion--which he recognizes is "designed for readers who are not specialists in medieval language" (109, n. 1)--this way: "While Langland opted for the peasants, Gower sided with the nobility. The urban-dwelling Chaucer would seem to have situated himself somewhere in between" (109). An historian, Hadfield is consequently concerned to present the social environments described in each selection. Gower, here, comes across as one who knows agriculture, as a Kentish landowner (106), and hence the nature of peasant labor. Indeed, his description of medieval three-estate structure, is somewhat nuanced. He represents Gower's anger at the revolting peasants as derived from a concern for social stability ("Throughout the poem Gower reminds his readers that one of the worst aspects of the rebellion is its attempt to subvert the proper social order" [106]), yet also calling attention to rather mournful lines (in Rigg's translation) on the appearance of abandoned, and hence unproductive, fields (106). On the other hand, "in making the case Gower was surely being conspicuously reactionary and deliberately eliding the distinction made in English law that separated the free and the unfree, asserting the need for a noble class to control society as in other European countries. Like Chaucer and Langland his class-based politics were not founded on an obvious external reality--at least, not one that currently existed--but an ideologically-driven ideal" (109). [RFY. Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 43.2]
- Date
- 2021
- Gower Subjects
- Vox Clamantis
Biography of Gower
Backgrounds and General Criticism