A Fourteenth-Century Anglo-Latin Ovidian: The 'Liber Exulis' in John Gower's 1381 'Visio Anglie' ('Vox Clamantis' I.1359-1592).
- Author/Editor
- Carlson, David R.
- Title
- A Fourteenth-Century Anglo-Latin Ovidian: The 'Liber Exulis' in John Gower's 1381 'Visio Anglie' ('Vox Clamantis' I.1359-1592).
- Published
- Carlson, David R. "A Fourteenth-Century Anglo-Latin Ovidian: The 'Liber Exulis' in John Gower's 1381 'Visio Anglie' ('Vox Clamantis' I.1359-1592)." Classica et Mediaevalia 61 (2010): 293-335.
- Review
- Carlson's essay is difficult to summarize. His own attempt, in his published abstract, reads as follows: "The English writer John Gower (d. 1408) fashioned parts of his Latin poem on the peasant revolt of 1381 out of materials taken from Ovid: topics from the post-relegation verse and 'Heroides' colour a long section shaped by the matter of Achaemenides from the 'Metamorphoses' and concluded with the matter of Carmentis from the 'Fasti'. The analysis establishes the quality of Gower's knowledge of the Ovidian corpus and his skill in deploying references to Ovid for his own literary-political purpose" (293). In essence, the article provides an extended set of footnotes to Book I of the VC. Carlson identifies line-by-line (and sometimes word-by-word) Gower's Ovidian borrowings from several works, most from "Tristia" and "Ex Ponto," and shows how he adapted them to suit his description of the Peasants' Revolt. Anyone studying, or even planning to read, the "Visio" would do well to begin with this essay. [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2010
- Gower Subjects
- Vox Clamatis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations