Studies in the Diction of the Confessio Amantis
- Author/Editor
- Casson, Leslie F
- Title
- Studies in the Diction of the Confessio Amantis
- Published
- Casson, Leslie F. "Studies in the Diction of the Confessio Amantis." Englische Studien 69 (1934), pp. 184-207.
- Review
- Casson notes that the literary works of Chaucer and Gower are often viewed as "the consummation of a process of literary development which began when English was revived as a cultivated literary language after the Conquest" (184). However, especially in the philosophical or scholastic parts of the CA we find a great many Romance words, and in this respect Gower "is certainly a more daring innovator than Chaucer" (184). To demonstrate Gower’s conscious artistry, Casson divides her article into three sections: use of uncompounded words (185-98), use of compound words (198-206), and use of hybrids (206-07). Casson distinguishes between aureate diction and Romance technical words used "in their original sense in a scientific context" (186). By showing the distribution of native and loan words in 10 passages from the CA, Casson shows that the greatest frequency of French and Latin loans occurs in technical and scientific passages (187-88). Casson further compares Gower’s diction to the contemporary revival of the alliterative line, to the vocabulary of Old English poetry, and to English borrowings from Norse. The conclusion Casson draws from all of this is that Gower was "an innovator in language, seizing on the opportunities afforded him by changing methods of expression in the speech of his time, yet preserving, here and there, a quaint flavor of antiquity which harks back to some yet older day" (197-98). [CvD]
- Date
- 1934
- Gower Subjects
- Language and Word Studies
- Confessio Amantis