Cornix and May: Further Parallels in Gower and Chaucer.
- Author/Editor
- Sharp, David.
- Title
- Cornix and May: Further Parallels in Gower and Chaucer.
- Published
- Sharp, David. "Cornix and May: Further Parallels in Gower and Chaucer." American Notes and Queries 38.2 (2025): 166-68.
- Review
- Sharp cites one example of Chaucer borrowing from the "Tale of Cornix," CA V, 6183-84 and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales I. 1674, suggesting that "Chaucer and Gower's shared admiration of Guido's [delle Colonna] style may have been the impetus behind the crafting of a pair of syntactically comparable lines:
This maiden, which Cornix be name was hote (CA V, 6183–84)
That she, this mayden which that Mayus highte (CT IV, 1674)
From this Sharp opines that "Chaucer's adoption of Gower's wording and syntax is likely something more than a textual coincidence resulting from a shared influence . . . perhaps Chaucer's emulation is a twin gesture of homage and lighthearted parody" (167). He also cites instances of "fair fresh May" in the Book of the Duchess and the "Knight's Tale," pairing them with "faire, freisshe, lusti, mai" (CA, V, 6159), And every yeer this freisshe Maii" (CA IV, 1394), The faire freisshe floures springe" (II, 419), and "Was fair and freissh and tendre of age" (CA I, 779) [167]. He concludes that "since proof of literary relations between Gower and Chaucer is scarce, revisiting the common thematic and verbal parallels for evidence can be a rewarding low-risk endeavor. In the case of Cornix and May, the mutual use of common sources, stock vocabulary and rhetorical tactics reveal intentional and legitimate proof of literary relations between Chaucer and Gower" (168). [RFY Copyright. John Gower Society. eJGN 44.2
- Date
- 2025
- Gower Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Confessio Amantis