Editing John Gower (section)

==Critical reception==
Gower's poetry has had a mixed critical reception. In the 16th century, he was generally regarded alongside Chaucer as the father of English poetry.<ref name=MacCA1>{{ cite book
 |title=The English Works of John Gower Vol I  | chapter=Introduction
 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/englishworksjoh01macagoog
 | author=Macaulay, G.C.  | year=1900 | publisher=Early English Text Society | author-link=George Campbell Macaulay
 }}</ref>{{rp|ix}}<ref>Robert R. Edwards, 'Gower’s reception, 1400–1700', in ''The Routledge Research Companion to John Gower'', ed. by Ana Saez-Hidalgo, Brian Gastle, and R. F. Yeager (London: Routledge, 2016), {{doi|10.4324/9781315613109}}, {{ISBN|9781315613109}}.</ref> In the 18th and 19th centuries, however, his reputation declined, largely on account of a perceived didacticism and dullness, along with the perception that Gower was a servile follower of the Lancastrian regime.<ref> 
{{ cite book
 | title=Hochon's Arrow:The Social Imagination of Fourteenth-Century Texts
 | author=Paul Strohm  | year=1992
 | publisher=Princeton University Press | isbn=978-0691015019
}} </ref><ref>Siân Echard, 'Introduction: Gower's Reputation', in ''A Companion to Gower'', ed. by Siân Echard (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004), pp. 1–22.</ref> Thus the American poet and critic [[James Russell Lowell]] claimed Gower "positively raised tediousness to the precision of science".<ref>{{ cite book
  | title=The Writings of James Russell Lowell: Literary essays
  | publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and Company
  |page=[https://archive.org/details/writingsjamesru04lowegoog/page/n331 329] | author=James Russell Lowell | isbn=978-1248665008 |year=1890
 | url=https://archive.org/details/writingsjamesru04lowegoog
| quote=James Russell Lowell gower.
  }}</ref>{{rp|329}} After publication of Macaulay's edition (1901) of the complete works,<ref name=MacCA1/> he has received more recognition, notably by [[C. S. Lewis]] (1936),<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition
 | author=C.S. Lewis | isbn=978-1107659438 | year=1936
| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Wickert (1953),<ref name=Wickert>{{ cite book
| title=Studies in John Gower | last1=Wickert | first1=Maria
 |translator=Robert J. Meindl |year=2016 | location=Tempe, Arizona
| publisher=Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies}} 
</ref> [[John Hurt Fisher|Fisher]] (1964),<ref name=FisherMP/> Yeager (1990)<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=John Gower's Poetic: The Search for a New Arion
| author=Robert F. Yeager | year=1990 | publisher=Boydell & Brewer
}}</ref> and [[Russell Peck (scholar)|Peck]] (2006).<ref>{{ cite web
 | title=Confessio Amantis, Volume 1: Introduction
 | author=Russell A. Peck  | year=2006 | publisher=Robbins Library Digital Projects
 | url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/peck-gower-confessio-amantis-volume-1-introduction
}}</ref> However, he has not obtained the same following or critical acceptance as Geoffrey Chaucer.