Between History and Prophecy: Ovidian Metamorphoses and the 1381 Revolt in Gower's "Visio Anglie."

Author/Editor
Ni, Yun.

Title
Between History and Prophecy: Ovidian Metamorphoses and the 1381 Revolt in Gower's "Visio Anglie."

Published
Chaucer Review 56 (2021): 33-53.

Review
This article makes a fairly complicated case for the relationship between the traditionalist ideologies of Gower and the 1381 rebels, focusing on Gower's use of Ovid in his description of the revolt. Starting from the observation of a "near-consensus that Gower's use of Ovidian myths and elegy disconnects Gower from the rebels" (34), Ni argues that Gower actually shares with the rebels and idealization of the past. She notes the apocalypticism implied by the rebels' reliance on the eschatological fantasy of the Domesday Book, and contrasts that to the more visionary apocalyptism of "Gower's narrative of metamorphosis" (37). This leads Ni to attribute to Gower "a flexible view of history that stood in stark contrast to the rebels' romanticization of the past" (38). By adapting Ovid, whom Gower associates with change, she shows how verse "can be made to suit different historical settings" (39). This malleable quality of poetry, which can be borrowed, adapted, and changed for different purposes, then contrasts to the way the rebels hoped to use the Domesday book as an inviolable record that "cannot be changed" (39). Ni goes on to examine the use of monstrous imagery from Ovid, such as the role of Hecuba, the Calydonian boar, or a storm at sea. With Hecuba, for example, Gower alludes to her transformation from a human form in "Metamorphosis" 13, with the transformations of the rebels in his vision; this potentially "changes the rebels into transformed victims and righteous avengers" (41). Ni does not argue that this potential sympathy with the rebels adds up to redemption for them, but that they might not have been completely in the wrong. Similarly, with the Calydonian boar, by associating the boar with Wat Tyler, "Ovid's layered allusions to the death of Hector enrich Gower's references to the murder of Wat Tyler" (42). This allusion then gives Tyler some heroic qualities, while still retaining the image of his ultimate defeat. Ni further argues that Gower's use of Ovid allows Gower to "acknowledge. . . the 'collective guilt' of society" (46), and contrast the "Edenic and the Apocalyptic" (47). Through Gower's use of the Phaeton story here, so that the image of the chariot ultimately bridges the gap between beginnings and endings. In the end, Ni argues that Gower is combining three methods: distancing himself from the rebels' use of the past, shifting perspectives to cycle through alternative visions of history to address "collective guilt" (53), and blurring the distinction between the Edenic and Apocalyptic to deny the possibility of returning to the past. He concludes that "These techniques cannot reveal their significance unless the rebels' tactic of "making Britain great again" is read against Gower's affirmation of historical flexibility" (53). Overall Ni offers a fairly complicated argument (to which this brief summary probably has not done justice), depending on close readings of the "Visio" against a portion of its Ovidian allusions. It treads a careful line by suggesting Gower's limited sympathy with the rebels, given that most readers see his position on the rebels as more negative, but makes a provocative case overall. Certainly any reader concerned with Gower's interaction with Ovid should find this interesting. [RAL. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 40.2.]

Date
2021

Gower Subjects
Vox Clamantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations