"Mescreantz,'"Schism, and the Plight of Constantinople: Evidence for Dating and Reading London, British Library, Additional MS 59495.

Author/Editor
Watt, David.

Title
"Mescreantz,'"Schism, and the Plight of Constantinople: Evidence for Dating and Reading London, British Library, Additional MS 59495.

Published
Watt, David. "'Mescreantz,' Schism, and the Plight of Constantinople: Evidence for Dating and Reading London, British Library, Additional MS 59495." In Martha Driver, Derek Pearsall, and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. Publications of the John Gower Society, no. 14. Rochester, NY: Brewer, 2020. Pp. 131-51.

Review
The value of Watt's essay for the study of Gower manuscripts lies in its suggestion that the "terminus ad quem" of London, British Library, Additional MS 59495 ("olim" the Trentham MS) should be extended to "at least late 1400 if not 1401" (151) and that much of the entire manuscript (which includes "Cinkante Balades" and several of Gower's Latin lyrics) "offers a meditation on the king's responsibility to address schism and heresy without excessive violence" (150), signaled by the emphasis on pity at the end of "In Praise of Peace" that "primes readers to look for [pity] throughout the rest" of the manuscript (146). Watt's dating of the manuscript relies on his claim that when Gower wrote the final stanza of "In Praise of Peace" he "had Manuel II in mind" (132), referring to Greek Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus who visited the English court in late 1400 to seek support for war against the Ottoman Turks. This plausible, although unprovable, claim depends upon Watt's extension of the MED definition of "mescreantz" (PP 268) to include not only pagans and infidels but also heretics and schismatics, and it leads to Watt's "argument . . . that Gower includes Manuel II"--Greek Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic--"among the 'other princes cristene all'" (PP 380) whom Gower enjoins to "Sette ek the rightful Pope upon his stalle" (PP 383), appealing for, as Watt puts it, an "end to the Great Schism as well as the Western Schism" (137). Watt supports his reading with analysis of the "final exemplum" of "In Praise of Peace," the tale of Emperor Constantine's conversion, an analysis based on Watt's "assumption that readers . . . would likely know the version of Constantine's conversion story that Gower tells" in Book II of "Confessio Amantis" and "chooses not to tell at all" (139) in "In Praise of Peace." Differences between the two versions, Watt tells us, "assert that mercy [pity] and piety are better than a bloodbath . . . . a particularly urgent argument at a time when the emperor [Manuel] himself had come to seek help in the wake of Nicopolis" (140) where crusaders had been routed. Watt contrasts Gower's aversion to crusade in the "Praise of Peace" version of the Constantine tale with the more bellicose views of Philippe de Mézières and those of Adam Usk, two writers Watt uses to clarify the context of Gower's views throughout his essay, which he closes with a survey of the theme of pity in the Trentham manuscript and a brief account of the English payment to Manuel II. [MA. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.2]

Date
2020

Gower Subjects
Manuscripts and Textual Studies
In Praise of Peace
Cinkante Ballade
Minor Latin Poetry
Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations