El Clerc de John Gower y su polivalencia en Juan de Cuenca

Author/Editor
Alvar, Manuel

Title
El Clerc de John Gower y su polivalencia en Juan de Cuenca

Published
Alvar, Manuel. "El Clerc de John Gower y su polivalencia en Juan de Cuenca." In Hispanic Studies in Honor of Joseph H. Silverman. Ed. Ricapito, Joseph V.. Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, Series Homenajes (5). Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta, 1988, pp. 1-13.

Review
Alvar studies de Cuenca's rendering of Gower's "clerc" in his Spanish translation of CA of c. 1400. The translations de Cuenca chose for different contexts -- clérigo, desperta en toda sabiduría, filósofo, letrado, maestro, poeta, sabidor, sabio, valientes teólogos, each of which Alvar examines in some detail -- indicate both how far the English word had developed from its original meaning of "ecclesiastic" and also the care with which de Cuenca worked with his text. When Alvar concludes that Gower's "clerc" is "un intelectual laico" (p. 12), it is difficult to tell whether he means from Gower's or from de Cuenca's point of view. Perhaps both: he makes much of CA 3.1782 ("Ne prest, ne clerc, ne lord, ne knave"), in which Gower makes some sort of distinction between "prest" and "clerc," and in which de Cuenca rendered "clerc" as lego, "layman" (pp. 4-5). But he doesn't give a full consideration of Gower's use in context, nor does he tell us how de Cuenca handled the role of Genius, who is both "Clerk" and "prest" in 1.196 and 203. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 9.2]

Date
1988

Gower Subjects
Language and Word Studies
Confessio Amantis