John Gower, John Barleycorn, and William Langland

Author/Editor
Regan, Charles L.

Title
John Gower, John Barleycorn, and William Langland

Published
Regan, Charles L. "John Gower, John Barleycorn, and William Langland." American Notes and Queries 16 (1978), p. 102.

Review
Gower's description of the drunkard in Book 6 of the CA includes the detail that when the drunkard wakes up in the morning he says "Nou baillez ça the cuppe" (6.60). In the A-text of Piers Plowman we find a "striking correspondence: on waking, "the furste word that he [Glotoun] spac was 'wher is the cuppe?'" (102; qtd from Passus 5.213). The only difference is the insertion of the French words, which Gower, "like other Englishmen" (102), perhaps found suitable for a drunkard. [CvD]

Date
1978

Gower Subjects
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Confessio Amantis