An Annotated Index to the Commentary on John Gower's Confessio Amantis.

Author/Editor
Nicholson, Peter

Title
An Annotated Index to the Commentary on John Gower's Confessio Amantis.

Published
Nicholson, Peter. "An Annotated Index to the Commentary on John Gower's Confessio Amantis." Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. (62). Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies, 1989

Review
This Annotated Index is in the form of notes and annotations to the text of Gower's poem, arranged in order by book and line number. Every significant reference to a particular passage or tale in the modern commentary on the poem is given an entry, and when there is more than a single comment on any passage, the entries are arranged chronologically. Each entry includes a brief summary. Thus it is possible to locate quickly all of the important commentary on a particular passage, and also to see how the commentary has developed over time; and though the summaries are necessarily brief, the Index will have many of the same uses as a variorum commentary or the notes to a fully annotated edition of the poem. Approximately 330 books and articles that have appeared since the publication of Macaulay's edition in 1900-1901 are indexed, plus 27 editions of excerpts or selections from the poem. Of these, more than 100 are listed in no other Gower bibliography, and thus the 'List of Works Cited' is the most complete available listing of the published criticism of the Confessio Amantis. The index is preceded by an introduction surveying general issues in the commentary on the poem during the twentieth century. The work is intended for the use of scholars who wish to have quick access to the most important and relevant criticism, but also for all readers of the Confessio, who must otherwise rely on the notes in Macaulay's by now antiquated edition. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 8.2]

Date
1989

Gower Subjects
Confessio Amantis
Bibliographies, Reports, and Reference