John Gower
born 1330?
died 1408, London?
medieval English poet in the tradition of
courtly love and moral allegory, whose
reputation once matched that of his contemporary
and friend Geoffrey Chaucer, and who strongly
influenced the writing of other poets of his
day. After the 16th century his popularity
waned, and interest in him did not revive until
the middle of the 20th century.
It is thought from Gower’s language that he
was of Kentish origin, though his family may
have come from Yorkshire, and he was clearly a
man of some wealth. Allusions in his poetry and
other documents, however, indicate that he knew
London well and was probably a court official.
At one point, he professed acquaintance with
Richard II, and in 1399 he was granted two pipes
(casks) of wine a year for life by Henry IV as a
reward for complimentary references in one of
his poems. In 1397, living as a layman in the
priory of St. Mary Overie, Southwark, London,
Gower married Agnes Groundolf, who survived him.
In 1400 Gower described himself as “senex et
cecus” (“old and blind”), and on Oct. 24, 1408,
his will was proved; he left bequests to the
Southwark priory, where he is buried.
Gower’s three major works are in French,
English, and Latin, and he also wrote a series
of French balades intended for the English
court. The Speculum meditantis, or Mirour de
l’omme, in French, is composed of 12-line
stanzas and opens impressively with a
description of the devil’s marriage to the seven
daughters of sin; continuing with the marriage
of reason and the seven virtues, it ends with a
searing examination of the sins of English
society just before the Peasants’ Revolt of
1381: the denunciatory tone is relieved at the
very end by a long hymn to the Virgin.
Gower’s major Latin poem, the Vox clamantis,
owes much to Ovid; it is essentially a homily,
being in part a criticism of the three estates
of society, in part a mirror for a prince, in
elegiac form. The poet’s political doctrines are
traditional, but he uses the Latin language with
fluency and elegance.
Gower’s English poems include In Praise of
Peace, in which he pleads urgently with the king
to avoid the horrors of war, but his greatest
English work is the Confessio amantis,
essentially a collection of exemplary tales of
love, whereby Venus’ priest, Genius, instructs
the poet, Amans, in the art of both courtly and
Christian love. The stories are chiefly adapted
from classical and medieval sources and are told
with a tenderness and the restrained narrative
art that constitute Gower’s main appeal today.
|
