"To Hear an Old Man Sing": Apollonius, Pericles and the Age of Gower.
- Author/Editor
- Ladd, Roger A.
- Title
- "To Hear an Old Man Sing": Apollonius, Pericles and the Age of Gower.
- Published
- Ladd, Roger A. "'To Hear an Old Man Sing': Apollonius, Pericles and the Age of Gower." In Studies in the Age of Gower: A Festschrift in Honour of R. F. Yeager. Ed. Susannah Mary Chewning. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020. Pp. 189-200.
- Review
- Roger Ladd's essay reconsiders the use of Gower in Shakespeare's "Pericles" and "asks not only why the later playwright might have been interested in the Apollonius story, but also why Gower's version of it within the larger context of the ending of 'Confessio Amantis' might have been particularly relevant for adaptation into a play in the early seventeenth century" (190). Ladd begins with a careful review of the relevant evidence concerning Gower's age at the completion of the CA and then turns to "Pericles," arguing that whatever ambiguities exist about the accuracy of Gower's own self-depiction as an aged man, the play consistently uses Gower to give voice to strong oppositions between youth and age. Ladd concludes by arguing that the final chorus in "Pericles" functions in a way that is strikingly similar to Gower's self-revelation at the end of the CA: "the final chorus ultimately performs a similar function to the revelation of Gower's identity as Amans in 'Confessio'--both break a love-story framework to assert a degree of moral certainty--Gower-Amans' realization that he is too old for such things, and Gower the chorus' assertion that virtue and vice can be rewarded and punished appropriately" (199). This moral may fall short in the end, but the structural parallel provides some evidence of the depth of Shakespeare's engagement with Gower and his understanding of the place of the Apollonius tale within the CA as a whole. [EK. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2020
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Influence and Later Allusion