John Gower, The Medieval Poet.
- Author/Editor
- Itô, Masayoshi.
- Title
- John Gower, The Medieval Poet.
- Published
- Itô, Masayoshi. John Gower: The Medieval Poet. Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin, 1976. xiv; 309 pp.
- Review
- Itô divides his book into three parts, which, as he explained in personal correspondence, was reflective of "the 'trilogy' of trilingual Gower." The dustcover (a TO mappa mundi in deep red on a mauve background) he designed himself, in replication of the tripartite globe in London, British Library MS Cotton Tiberius A.iv, "and also suggesting the three continents . . . or the Three Estates." The jacket characterizes Itô's criticism overall: thoughtful, perceptive, attentive to small detail. The book, as he points out in the preface, "has not been written newly, but rather a collection [sic] of what I sporadically wrote during a score or more years of reading Gower. Therefore, there is some lack of thematic unity in it" (xii). Most of the individual chapters appeared prior to 1975 in Japanese journals. Part I, "On Gower's English Works," contains six essay/chapters: "The Sense of Correspondence in Confessio Amantis," "The Man of Law's Tale vs. Tale of Constance," "Chaucer and Gower as Story-tellers," "Three Versions of 'Apollonius of Tyre'," "Jason and Medea--A Story of Golden Love," and "Gower and Rime Royal." Part II, "On Gower's Non-English Works," contains four essay/chapters: "A Midsummer Nightmare--An Interpretation of Book I of Vox Clamantis," "On the English Translation (by E.W. Stockton) of Vox Clamantis," "Cinkante Balades: A Garland for a New King" [not previously published]. and "Omnia Vincit Amor--An Interpretation of Cronica Tripertita." Part III, "Gower and Rhetoric," contains five essay/chapters: "Paranomasia in Vox Clamantis," "Gower's Use of Rime Riche in Confessio Amantis," "Wordplay in Confessio Amantis," "Wordplay in Mirour de l'Omme" [not previously published], and "Gower's Knowledge of Poetria Nova." [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 41.1]
- Date
- 1976
- Gower Subjects
- Backgrounds and General Criticism