The Personal as Political. John Gower's "Cinkante balades" as English Response to the "Cent balades" of Christine de Pizan.

Author/Editor
Burke, Linda.

Title
The Personal as Political. John Gower's "Cinkante balades" as English Response to the "Cent balades" of Christine de Pizan.

Published
In Genèses et filiations dans l'oeuvre de Christine de Pizan, ed. Dominique Demartini and Claire le Ninan (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2021), pp. 171-84.

Review
As her title indicates, Burke argues that Gower's "Cinkante Balades" was written following a model established by Christine de Pizan in her "Cent Balades." "This discovery is important for Christine studies, as it affirms an example of her influence on the world stage beginning as early as 1398, when her 'Cent Balades' must have already been known to readers in France, as well as carried to England (in a manuscript that has not survived) by John Montague, Earl of Salisbury" (172). "For Gower studies," she states, "this discovery of filiation is a game-changer" (172). Her argument rests on two points: dates of 1398 for the "Cent Balades" (so that Salisbury could bring them with him from France to England) and 1399 for the "Cinkante Balades"; and that Christine's and Gower's works share a "common plan" (177)--"almost exactly the same blueprint" (178). She takes both works as inspired by love, and reads "Cinkante Balades" I-IV as "a personal tribute to their author's happy proposal of marriage and his joy at the acceptance of his bride" (182), finding in IIII* "anaphora that rings forth the constancy of joyful love" (183), relating it to the Song of Songs (184). She concludes, "Although Gower's collection in no way surpassed the youthful genius of Christine in her 'Cent balades,' he created a worthy tribute to her legacy of moral lyrics composed in many voices, but united in diversity by the theme of love" (184). [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 40.2.]

Date
2021

Gower Subjects
Cinkante Balades
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations