"Semper Venalis": Gower's Avaricious Lawyers.
- Author/Editor
- Meindl, Robert.
- Title
- "Semper Venalis": Gower's Avaricious Lawyers.
- Published
- Meindl, Robert. "Semper Venalis: Gower's Avaricious Lawyers." Accessus: A Journal of Premodern Literature and New Media 2.1 (2013): n.p.
- Review
- Meindl does a large service to Gower studies in this article, translating the first three chapters of the sixth book of the "Vox Clamantis," offering commentary that aims "to demonstrate the depth and extent of Gower's knowledge of the law and the way in which that knowledge deepens his text" (1). Meindl makes it clear that his point is not to suggest Gower himself was a lawyer; rather, he asserts that Gower clearly had "an extensive . . . knowledge of legal matters and the law in its several late fourteenth-century expressions . . . and is eager to use that knowledge in a wide variety of literary contexts, whether first-person commentary as in the 'Mirour de l'Omme' and 'Vox clamantis,' or exemplary narrative as in the 'Confessio amantis' (2). After providing the translations and commentaries on the first three chapters of Book VI of the VC, Meindl concludes that Gower is not critical of lawyers per se, but rather that "Gower sees the danger with the law originating in the sinful nature of the men who administer it and who through their avaricious misconduct seek to augment their worldly advantages by its improper appropriation and application" (59). Meindl reminds us that, for Gower, the law is ultimately derived from God. This belief drives Gower's exploration of avaricious lawyers (what Meindl translates as "shysters"), finding their conduct to be exceptionally reprehensible. Meindl concludes, "the poet will make clear that legal practitioners who subvert the law to their own avaricious purposes forfeit its protections and condemn themselves before the bar of final judgment" (60). [JGS. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.1]
- Date
- 2013
- Gower Subjects
- Vox Clamantis
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis)
Confessio Amantis
Biography of Gower