Gower's Cinkante Balades and French Court Lyrics.
- Author/Editor
- Cressman, Russell.
- Title
- Gower's Cinkante Balades and French Court Lyrics.
- Published
- Cressman, Russell. "Gower's Cinkante Balades and French Court Lyrics." Ph.D. Dissertation. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1983. 248 pp. Dissertation Abstracts International A44.04 (1983). Full text accessible at ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (restricted); accessed February 21, 2022.
- Review
- From Cressman's abstract: "Examination of the internal structure of John Gower's 'Cinkante Balades' shows their organization to be more complex than previously recognized. The ballades are arranged into nine groups identified by the possession of common themes and internal linking devices. The nine thematic groups are placed within framing ballades dedicating the sequence to Henry IV on his coronation in 1399. From mutual affection to angry separation, the successive thematic groups form a sequence representing the inadequacy of earthly love, 'fin amour,' within a courtly setting. This view is presented within a general philosophical survey of love in which 'fin amour' and 'vrai amour,' brotherly love, are subsumed within 'bon amour,' or divine love . . . . Analysis of the style, form, and larger structural patterns of the 'Balades' shows significant similarities with [French court] lyrics, especially those of Machaut and Froissart. However, the complex thematic arrangement and the philosophical overview of love to be found in the 'Cinkante Balades; are unapproached elsewhere in French or English poetry of the fourteenth century."
- Date
- 1983
- Gower Subjects
- Cinkante Balades
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Style, Rhetoric, and Versification