Omnia Vincit Amor: An Interpretation of Gower's Cronica Tripertita
- Author/Editor
- Ito, Masayoshi
- Title
- Omnia Vincit Amor: An Interpretation of Gower's Cronica Tripertita
- Published
- Ito, Masayoshi. "Omnia Vincit Amor: An Interpretation of Gower's Cronica Tripertita." Studies in English Literature 49 (1972), pp. 3-15 [ISSN 0039-3649]. Reprinted in Ito's John Gower, The Medieval Poet (Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin, 1976), pp. 181-95.
- Review
- Ito argues that Gower constructs the CrT as an exemplum with a specific moral: omnia vincit amor (love conquers all). Gower borrows this maxim from Cassiodorus, and it not only occurs in the preface to the CrT, but also in all Gower's major texts. Ito traces the history of the phrase and suggests that Gower uses "amor" to mean both heavenly love and kingly pity. Ito further suggests that Gower may have been influenced by Cassiodorus' "Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita," not only because of its title, but also because of its depiction of Constantine, who for Gower was also a model of kingly pity. As an exemplum on "amor," then, the CrT has an "architectonic beauty" (12), for it treats (in order) justice, cruelty, and pity. Ito concludes with a discussion of additional rhetorical devices Gower employs. [CvD; rev. MA]
- Date
- 1972
- Gower Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
- Style, Rhetoric, and Versification
- Cronica Tripertita