Se-duction and Sovereign Power in Gower's Confessio Amantis Book V
- Author/Editor
- Boboc, Andreea
- Title
- Se-duction and Sovereign Power in Gower's Confessio Amantis Book V
- Published
- Boboc, Andreea. "Se-duction and Sovereign Power in Gower's Confessio Amantis Book V." In John Gower, Trilingual Poet: Language, Translation, and Tradition. Ed. Dutton, Elisabeth, and Hines, John and Yeager, R.F. Cambridge: Brewer, 2010, pp. 126-38.
- Review
- Boboc notes that in the Latin epigram that heads the section on Perjury in Book 5 of CA, Gower draws an equivalency between perjury and seduction. All three of the tales that follow – "Achilles and Deidamia," "Jason and Medea," and "Phrixus and Helle" – place less emphasis upon amatory seduction than upon the deception – what Boboc here labels "se-duction" – of kings, in Jason's case by his own cupidity. Boboc explores "se-duction" as a threat to the sovereign – different in nature from flattery – and to the rule of law that justifies his sovereignty, as the king is deceived into acting outside the law. Each tale, in a different respect, contains suggestive implications regarding the nature of truth and the rule of law during the troubled reign of Richard II.[PN. Copyright. The John Gower Society. JGN 30.1]
- Date
- 2010
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis