Editing John Gower

{{Short description|English writer and poet (c.1330–1408)}}
{{Other people|John Gower|John Gower (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}

[[File:John Gower world Vox Clamantis.jpg|thumb|300px|John Gower shooting the world, a sphere of earth, air, and water (from a manuscript of his works ca. 1400).
The text reads:<br>
Ad mundum mitto mea iacula dumque sagitto<br>
At ubi iustus erit nulla sagitta ferit<br>
Sed male viventes hos vulnero transgredientes<br>
Conscius ergo sibi se speculetur ibi (As I shoot I send at the world these my bolts<br>And where the just shall be no arrow may hit<br>But those living wicked lives, the transgressors I aim to harm<br>Thus may in this work those conscious amongst you observe themselves as they truly are)]]
'''John Gower''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|aʊ|.|ər}}; c. 1330 – October 1408) was an English poet, a contemporary of [[William Langland]] and the [[Pearl Poet]], and a personal friend of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sobecki|first=Sebastian|date=2017|title=A Southwark Tale: Gower, the 1381 Poll Tax, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/692620|journal=Speculum|language=en|volume=92|issue=3|pages=630–660|doi=10.1086/692620|issn=0038-7134|hdl=11370/ea54db6f-e701-4bc9-8dca-ad742056934f|hdl-access=free}}</ref>  He is remembered primarily for three major works—the ''[[Mirour de l'Omme]]'', ''[[Vox Clamantis]]'', and ''[[Confessio Amantis]]—''three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which are united by common moral and political themes.<ref name=DNBG/>

==Life==

Few details are known of Gower's early life. He was probably born into a family which held properties in Kent and [[Kentwell Hall|Suffolk]].<ref name="DNBG">Lee, Sidney (1890). "[[wikisource:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gower, John|Gower, John]]". In ''Dictionary of National Biography''. '''22'''. London. pp. 299-304.</ref>{{rp|299}} Stanley and Smith use a [[Confessio Amantis#Language|linguistic argument]] to conclude that "Gower’s formative years were spent partly in Kent and partly in Suffolk".<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=The English of Chaucer and his contemporaries
 | chapter=The Language of Gower | year=1988
 | first1=Michael | last1=Samuels  | author2=J.J.Smith
 | publisher=Aberdeen University Press  | isbn=978-0080364032
 }}</ref> Southern and Nicolas conclude that the Gower family of Kent and Suffolk cannot be related to the Yorkshire Gowers because their coats of arms are drastically different.<ref name=Southern>{{ cite book
 | title=The Retrospective Review, and Historical and Antiquarian Magazine, Volumes 1–2
 |year=1828 | publisher=Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy
 | editor1= Henry Southern, Esq M.A. | editor2=Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Esq
}}</ref>{{rp|111}} Macaulay<ref name=MacLatin/>{{rp|xxx-xxxiii}} and other critics have observed that he must have spent considerable time reading the [[Bible]], [[Ovid]], ''[[Secretum Secretorum]]'', [[Petrus Riga]], ''[[Alexander Neckam#Speculum Speculationum|Speculum Speculationum]]'', [[Valerius Maximus]], [[John of Salisbury]], and others.<ref>* {{ cite journal
 | title=Some Sources of the Seventh Book of Gower's "Confessio Amantis"
 | author=George L. Hamilton
 | journal=Modern Philology
 | volume=9| issue=3 (January 1912)  |pages= 323–346
 | publisher=University of Chicago Press
 | jstor=432439
| year=1912
 | doi=10.1086/386864
 | doi-access=free
 }}</ref>

He once met [[Richard II of England|Richard II]]. In the prologue of the first [[recension]] of the ''Confessio Amantis'', he tells how the king, chancing to meet him on the Thames (probably circa 1385), invited him aboard the royal barge, and that their conversation then resulted in a commission for the work that would become the ''Confessio Amantis''.<ref>{{ cite web
 | title=Confessio Amantis  | editor=Peck
 |url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/peck-gower-confessio-amantis-volume-1-prologue}} left note line 22</ref>  Later in life his allegiance switched to the future [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]], to whom later editions of the ''Confessio Amantis'' were dedicated.<ref>{{ cite web 
| title=John Gower, Richard II and Henry IV: A Poet and his Kings 
  | author=Grétar Rúnar Skúlason  | year=2012
 | url=http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/11084/27272/1/Gretar_Skulason_MA_Enska.pdf}}
</ref> Much of this is based on circumstantial rather than documentary evidence, and the history of revisions of the ''Confessio Amantis'', including the different dedications, is yet to be fully understood.

The source of Gower's income remains a mystery.<ref name=Carlson>{{ cite book
 | title=John Gower, Poetry and Propaganda in Fourteenth-century England
 | author=David Richard Carlson | pages=198–199
}}</ref>{{rp|198}}  He may have practised law in or around London.<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=John Gower and the Limits of the Law (Publications of the John Gower Society) 
 | author=Conrad van Dijk  | isbn=978-1843843504  |publisher=D.S.Brewer |year=2013}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sobecki|first=Sebastian|date=2017|title=A Southwark Tale: Gower, the 1381 Poll Tax, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/692620|journal=Speculum|language=en|volume=92|issue=3|pages=630–660|doi=10.1086/692620|issn=0038-7134|hdl=11370/ea54db6f-e701-4bc9-8dca-ad742056934f|hdl-access=free}}</ref> [[George Campbell Macaulay]] lists several [[real estate]] transactions to which Gower was a party.<ref name=MacLatin/>{{rp|xi}} Macaulay's Introduction to the French Works suggests that Gower may have been a dealer in wool.<ref name=French >{{ cite book
 | title=The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol 1 The French Works
 | editor=G.C. Macaulay   | chapter=Introduction |page=xiii
 | chapter-url=http://lollardsociety.org/pdfs/Gower_Works_vol1French.pdf
}}</ref>{{rp|xiii}} This is based on remarks from Mirour d l'Omme line 25360ff. From 1365 he received ten pounds' rent for the manor of Wygebergh in Essex.<ref name=Pauli>{{ cite book
 | title=Confessio Amantis of John Gower, Vol 1 | chapter=Life of John Gower
 | editor=Reinhold Pauli   |year=1857 | publisher=Bell and Daldy
 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MVQJAAAAQAAJ&q=%22john+gower%22+kentwell+cobham&pg=PR9
}}</ref>{{rp|xi}} From 1382 until death he received forty pounds per annum from selling [[Feltwell]] in Norfolk and [[Moulton, Suffolk|Moulton]] in Suffolk.<ref name=Southern/>{{rp|117}} In 1399 Henry IV granted him a pension, in the form of an annual allowance of two pipes (= 1 tun = 240 gallons) of Gascony wine. Carlson estimates the value of the two pipes as 3 to 4 pounds wholesale or 8 pounds retail.<ref name=Carlson/>{{rp|199}}

[[File:john.gower.southwark.london.arp.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The tomb of John Gower in [[Southwark Cathedral]]]]
Gower's friendship with [[Chaucer]] is also well documented.<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Gower, John |volume = 12 |last= Macaulay |first= George Campbell  |author-link= George Campbell Macaulay|pages=298-299 |short=1}}</ref> When Chaucer was sent as a diplomat to Italy in 1378, Gower was one of the men to whom he gave power of attorney over his affairs in England.<ref name=MacLatin >{{ cite book
 | title=The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol 4 The Latin Works
 | editor=G.C. Macaulay   | chapter=Introduction, Life of Gower |page=vii–xxx
 | chapter-url=http://lollardsociety.org/pdfs/Gower_Works_vol4Latin.pdf
}}</ref>{{rp|xv}} The two poets also paid one another compliments in their verse: Chaucer dedicated his ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' in part to "moral Gower", and Gower reciprocated by placing a speech in praise of Chaucer in the mouth of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] at the end of the ''Confessio Amantis'' (first recension VIII.2950-70).<ref>{{cite book
 | title=Testament of Love
 | author1=Thomas Usk |author2=John Leyerle |author3=Gary Wayne Shawver
 | publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2002  | page=3
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlimTh3MLgkC&q=%22Do+make+his+testament+of+love%22
 | isbn=9780802054715 }}</ref> The Introduction to [[The Man of Law's Tale|the Man of Law's Tale]] (lines 77–89) contains an apparent reference to Gower's tales of Canacee and Tyro Appolonius. Tyrwhitt (1822) believed that this offended Gower and led to the removal of Venus’ praise of Chaucer.<ref>{{ cite book 
 | title=The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer | editor=Thomas Tyrwhitt
 | chapter=Introductory Discourse to the Canterbury Tales | page=126 note 15
 | publisher=W. Pickering and R. and S. Prowett  | year=1822 | isbn=978-0848226244
 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=guo3AAAAYAAJ&q=Gower&pg=PA95
}}</ref>  Twentieth-century sources have more innocent reasons for the deletion.<ref name="MacCA1"/>{{rp|xxvi-xxviii}}<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Riverside Chaucer
  | author=Geoffrey Chaucer   | editor=Larry Dean Benson | page=856
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4DXD7Sk7WcC&q=Chaucer+Gower++man+at+Law+prologue&pg=PA856
 | isbn=9780199552092 | year=2008 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

At some point during the middle 1370s, he took up residence in rooms provided by the Priory of St Mary Overie (now [[Southwark Cathedral]]).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sobecki|first=Sebastian|date=2017|title=A Southwark Tale: Gower, the 1381 Poll Tax, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/692620|journal=Speculum|language=en|volume=92|issue=3|pages=630–660|doi=10.1086/692620|issn=0038-7134|hdl=11370/ea54db6f-e701-4bc9-8dca-ad742056934f|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp|59}}  In 1398, while living here, he married,<ref name=MacLatin />{{rp|xvii}}<ref>''Register of William of Wykman'' ii. f.299b.  not verified</ref> probably for the second time: his wife was Agnes Groundolf, who survived him.  In his last years, and possibly as early as 1400, he became blind.<ref name=DNBG />{{rp|300}}

After his death in 1408, Gower was interred in an ostentatious tomb in the Priory church (now [[Southwark Cathedral]]), where it remains today.

Macaulay provides much information and speculation about Gower. Some of his conclusions are inferences drawn from the trilingual writings of Gower. Where possible he draws upon legal records and other biographers.<ref name=MacLatin />

==Works==

Gower's verse is by turns religious, political, historical, and moral—though he has been narrowly defined as "moral Gower" ever since Chaucer graced him with the epithet.<ref name=Troilus>{{ cite book
 | title=Troilus and Criseyde
 | author=Geoffrey Chauucer | year=1380 
 | url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/257/257-h/257-h.htm
}}</ref>{{rp|line 1856}}  His primary mode is [[allegory]], although he shies away from sustained abstractions in favour of the plain style of the raconteur.

His earliest works were probably [[ballade (forme fixe)|ballade]]s in [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman French]], some of which may have later been included in his work the ''Cinkante Ballades''. The first work which has survived is in the same language, however: it is the ''Speculum Meditantis'', also known by the French title ''Mirour de l'Omme'', a poem of just under 30,000 lines, containing a dense exposition of religion and morality. According to Yeager "Gower's first intent to write a poem for the instructional betterment of king and court, at a moment when he had reason to believe advice about social reform might influence changes predictably to take place in an expanded jurisdiction, when the French and English peoples were consolidated under a single crown."<ref>{{ cite journal
 | title=Gower's French Audience: The Mirour de l'Omme
 | author=Robert F. Yeager | journal=The Chaucer Review | volume=41 | issue=2
 |year=2006
 | url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cr/summary/v041/41.2yeager.html
}}</ref>

Gower's second major work, the ''[[Vox Clamantis]]'', was written in Latin. 
The first book has an allegorical account of the [[Peasants' Revolt]]  which begins as an allegory, becomes quite specific and ends with an allusion to [[William Walworth]]’s suppression of the rebels.<ref name=MacLatin/>{{rp|xxxiv-xl}}   Gower takes the side of the aristocracy but the actions of Richard II are described by "the captain in vain endeavoured to direct the ship’s course".<ref name=MacLatin/>{{rp|xxxix}}Subsequent books decry the sins of various classes of the social order: priests, friars, knights, peasants, merchants, lawyers. The last two books give advice to King Richard II and express the poet's love for England.<ref name=MacLatin />{{rp|xxx-lvii}} As Gower admits,<ref>Vox Clamatis Prologos Libri Secunti</ref> much of ''Vox Clamantis'' was borrowed from other authors. [[George Campbell Macaulay|Macaulay]] refers to this as "schoolboy plagiarism"<ref name=MacLatin/>{{rp|xxxii}} Peter classifies ''Mirour'' and ''Vox'' as "complaint literature" in the vein of Langland.<ref>{{ cite journal
 | title=Reviewed Work: Complaint and Satire in Early English Literature by John Peter
 | author=Sears Jayne
 | journal=Modern Philology | volume=55
 | issue=3
 | year=1958  |pages=200–202
 | publisher=University of Chicago Press
 | jstor=434965
| doi=10.1086/389217
 }}</ref>

His third work is the ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'', a 30,000-line poem in octosyllabic [[Middle English|English]] couplets, which makes use of the structure of a Christian [[Confession (religion)|confession]] (presented allegorically as a confession of sins against Love) as a [[frame story|narrative frame]] within which a multitude of individual tales are told.{{rp|I.203–288}}  Like his previous works, the theme is very much morality, even where the stories themselves have a tendency to describe rather immoral behaviour.  One scholar asserts that ''Confessio Amantis'' "almost exclusively" made Gower's "poetic reputation."<ref>Grey, Douglas. "John Gower." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford UP, 2004.</ref>

Fisher views the three major works as "one continuous work" with ''In Praise of Peace'' as a capstone. There is "movement from the courtly tone of the ''Cinkante Balades'' to the moral and philosophical tone of the ''Traitie''." Leland<ref name=Leland>{{ cite book
 | title=Commentarii de Scriptoribus Brittannicis
 | author=John Leland  | year=1540 |language=la
}}</ref> (ca 1540)<ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp| Fisher translation 136}} states "that the three works were intended to present a systematic discourse upon the nature of man and society": <blockquote>They provide as organized and unified a view as we have of the social ideals on England upon the eve of the Renaissance. This view may be subsumed under the three broad headings: individual VIRTUE, legal JUSTICE, and the administrative responsibility of the KING. The works progress from the description of the origins of sin and the nature of the vices and virtues at the beginning of the ''Mirour de l'omme'', through consideration of social law and order in the discussion of the three estates in the ''Mirour'' and ''Vox Clamatis'', to a final synthesis of royal responsibiity of [[Empedoclean]] love in the ''Confessio Amantis''.<ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp| 136}}</blockquote>

In later years Gower published a number of minor works in all three languages: 
* the ''Cinkante Ballades'', a series of French ballades on romantic subjects. Yeager (2011) argues that these sonnets were composed throughout Gower's lifetime.<ref>{{Cite book
 | chapter=Cinkante Balades: Introduction
 | editor=R. F. Yeager  | publisher=Medieval Institute Publications
 | title=The French Balades   | year=2011
 | chapter-url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/yeager-gower-french-balades-cinkante-balades-introduction}}</ref>
* the English poem ''In Praise of Peace'' "is a political poem in which Gower, as a loyal subject of Henry IV, approves his coronation, admires him as the saviour of England, dilates on the evil of war and the blessing of peace, and finally begs him to display clemency and seek domestic peace"<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=John Gower, the medieval poet
 | author=Masayoshi Itô
 | publisher=Shinozaki Shorin  |year=1976 
 | url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/yeager-gower-minor-latin-works-livingston-in-praise-of-peace-introduction
}}</ref>{{rp|106}} Fisher argued that it was "Gower's last important poem. It sums up the final twenty years of both his literary career and his literary achievement."<ref name=FisherMP>{{ cite book
 |title=John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer |url=https://archive.org/details/johngowermoralph00fish |url-access=registration | isbn=978-0814701492
 | author=John H. Fisher  | year=1964 | publisher=New York University Press
}}</ref>{{rp|133}}
* short Latin works on various subjects with several poems addressed to the new [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]].  According to Yeager (2005) "his final metered thoughts were in Latin, the language that Gower, like most of his contemporaries, associated with timeless authority."<ref name=YeagerLatin>{{cite book
  | title=The Minor Latin Works with In Praise of Peace | chapter=Introduction
  | author=John Gower   | editor1=R. F. Yeager | editor2=Michael Livingston
 | publisher=Medieval Institute Publications   | year=2005
 | chapter-url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/yeager-gower-the-minor-latin-works-with-in-praise-of-peace
}}</ref>

Critics have speculated on which late work triggered the royal wine allowance mentioned in the Life section. Candidates are ''Cronica tripertita'',<ref name=Carlson/><ref>{{ cite book
 | title=A companion to Gower  | editor=Siân Echard | year=2004 | isbn=978-1843842446
 | chapter=Iohannes Gower, armiger, poeta: records and memorials of his life and death
 | author1=John Hines   | author2=Nathalie Cohen   | author3=Simon Roffey
| publisher=D.S. Brewer }}</ref>{{rp|26}} ''In Praise of Peace'',<ref name=FisherPinti>{{ cite book
 | title=Writing After Chaucer: Essential Readings in Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century
 | editor=Daniel Pinti  | year=1998  |isbn=978-0815326519
 | chapter=A Language Policy for Lancastrian England | author=John H. Fisher
| publisher=Psychology Press }}</ref>{{rp|85}}  ''O Recolende''<ref>Henry was crowned 13 October 1399. His grant to Gower was doubtless in recognition of the political support reflected in the ''Chronica Tripertita'' and other Latin poems. The ''Epistola brevi'' (aka ''O Recolende'') (Macaulay, 4:345) would appear to contain an acknowledgement of the grant (lines 19–21).<br />{{ cite journal
 | title=Calendar of Documents relating to the life of John Gower the Poet
 | author=John H Fisher 
 | journal=The Journal of English and Germanic Philology
 |issue=58#1  |year=1959  |pages=1–23
}}</ref> or an illustrated presentation copy of Confessio with dedication to Henry IV.<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300–1500
 | author=Clayton J. Drees   | year=2001  | isbn=978-0313305887 | page=198
 | publisher=Bloomsbury Academic | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jDfydG6ReAC&q=%22john+Gower%22+%22two+pipes%22&pg=PA198
}}</ref> According to Meyer-Lee "no known evidence relates the collar or grant [of wine] to his literary activity."<ref>{{ cite book
 | title=Poets and Power from Chaucer to Wyatt  | isbn=9780521863551
 | author=Robert J. Meyer-Lee  | year=2007 | publisher=Cambridge University Press
}}</ref>

==Prediction of the Peasants' Revolt==
When Wickert was attempting to date ''Vox Clamantis'' Books Two to Seven, she found two passages which predict the revolt. One is ''Mirour''{{rp|at=lines 26485-26496}} which uses the metaphor of the stinging nettle to predict the impending catastrophe. The second is the final couplet of ''Vox Clamantis'' Book Five Chapter 10.{{rp|at=line V.563-564}} This predicts trouble in a short time.<ref name=Wickert/>{{rp|18–19}} Gower's warnings and call for reform were ignored both before and after the events of 1381.<ref name=Wickert/>{{rp|51–52}}

==Chaucer influence==
Chaucer used octosyllabic lines in ''[[The House of Fame]]'' but eschewed [[Iamb (poetry)|iambic]] rhythm. He "left it to Gower to invent the iambic [[tetrameter]], and to later centuries of poets to solve the problems of its potential monotony; he himself merely polished the traditional Middle English short line."<ref name=Duffel>{{ cite book
 | title=A New History of English Metre | publisher=Legenda | year=2011
 | author= Martin J. Duffel  | isbn=978-1907975134
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAAOSblbBBoC&q=+gower&pg=PA84
}}</ref>{{rp|85}}

Fisher <ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp|207}} concludes that they were living near each other in the period 1376 to 1386. They influenced each other in several ways:
# They imported Italian models and learned "to count beats in such a way as to produce a regular number of syllables."<ref name=Duffel/>{{rp| 92}} This led via ''Mirour'' to the iambic tetrameter of ''Confessio'' and Chaucer's pentameter.
# After 1376 both poets turned from love poetry to more serious topics. For Gower this was the "moralistic social complaint in the ''Mirour d l'omme'' and ''Vox Clamatis'', while Chaucer wrestled more painfully in the ''[[House of Fame]]'' and ''[[Parliament of Fowls]]'' with the relation between the style and substance of courtly poetry and social satire."<ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp|208}}
# Gower "took the risk of composing in English only after Chaucer had achieved success and fame with ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]''."<ref name=Duffel/>{{rp| 92}}
#  Most of the individuals in the [[General Prologue]] are members of classes  criticized in ''Mirour'' and ''Vox Clamantis''. Chaucer has omitted the higher ranks of the secular and clerical hierarchies.  The language and the introduction of satire are the invention of Chaucer.<ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp| 251ff}}
# Gower is criticized in the Introduction to [[The Man of Law's Tale]]. Some commentators have interpreted these remarks to indicate a breach between the two poets. Fisher interprets them and along with the details of the Tale as a friendly competition between two poets.<ref name=FisherMP/>{{rp|292}}

==Manuscripts==
Sebastian Sobecki's discovery of the early provenance of the trilingual Trentham manuscript reveals Gower as a poet who was not afraid to give Henry IV stern political advice.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Sobecki Sebastian | year = 2015 | title = Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, ''In Praise of Peace'', and John Gower's Autograph Hand | doi = 10.1017/S0038713415002316 | journal = Speculum | volume = 90 | issue = 4| pages = 925–59 | s2cid = 161436764 | url = https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/en/publications/ecce-patet-tensus(534fae63-f48c-417a-8747-4d673e52131a).html }}</ref> Sobecki also claims to have identified Gower's autograph hand in two manuscripts.<ref>Sobecki. [https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0038713415002316 "Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, ''In Praise of Peace'', and John Gower's Autograph Hand."]</ref>

==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.

==List of works==
* ''[[Mirour de l'Omme]]'', or ''Speculum Hominis'', or ''Speculum Meditantis'' (French, c.1376–1379)
* ''[[Vox Clamantis]]'' (Latin, c.1377–1381)
* ''[[Confessio Amantis]]'' (English, c.1386–1393)
* ''Traité pour Essampler les Amants Marietz'' (French, 1397)
* ''Cinkante Balades'' (French, 1399–1400)
* ''[[Vox Clamantis#Chronica Tripertita|Cronica Tripertita]]'' (Latin, c.1400)
* ''In Praise of Peace'' (English, c.1400)

== See also ==
* ''[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]]'', a play co-written by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], based on a story from [[Confessio Amantis]] and featuring Gower as the Chorus
*  Characters named Gower appear in ''[[Henry IV Part II]]'' and ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'' but there is no reason to associate these characters with the poet.
* John Gower is the hero of ''A Burnable Book'' and ''The Invention of Fire'', first two of a 14th-century thriller series by [[Bruce Holsinger]].<ref>{{ cite news
 |title=To Kill a King | author=Sarah Dunant
|date=15 February 2014 |newspaper=New York Times }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{Refbegin|indent=y|colwidth=30em}}
* Arner, Lynn (2013) "Chaucer, Gower, and the Vernacular Rising: Poetry and the Problem of the Populace after 1381". Penn State UP.
* [[John Hurt Fisher|Fisher, John H.]] (1964) ''John Gower: Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer''. New York University Press. {{ISBN|978-0814701492}}
* [[George Campbell Macaulay|Macaulay, G. C.]] (1908) "John Gower," in Ward, A. W., and Waller, A. R., eds. ''The Cambridge History of English Literature'', vol. II. ''The End of the Middle Ages'', chapter VI. Cambridge University Press
* Echard, Siân (ed.) (2004) ''A Companion to Gower''. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer {{ISBN|978-1843842446}}
* {{cite journal|last=Sobecki|first=Sebastian|title=Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, ''In Praise of Peace'', and John Gower's Autograph Hand.|journal=[[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]]|volume=90|issue=4|year=2015|pages=925–959|doi=10.1017/S0038713415002316|s2cid=161436764|url=https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/en/publications/ecce-patet-tensus(534fae63-f48c-417a-8747-4d673e52131a).html}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Sobecki|first=Sebastian|date=2017|title=A Southwark Tale: Gower, the 1381 Poll Tax, and Chaucer'sThe Canterbury Tales|journal=Speculum|volume=92|issue=3|pages=630–660|doi=10.1086/692620|hdl=11370/ea54db6f-e701-4bc9-8dca-ad742056934f|url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/44079043/692620.pdf|hdl-access=free}}
* Urban, M. (ed.) (2009) ''John Gower, Manuscripts, Readers, Contexts'', Turnhout: Brepols {{ISBN|978-2-503-52470-2}}
* [[Diane Watt]] (2003) ''Amoral Gower''. University of Minnesota Press
* Yeager, R. F. (ed.) (2007) ''On John Gower: Essays at the Millennium''. (Studies in Medieval Culture, XLVI) Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, pp. x, 241
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Cite book|title=Historians on John Gower|publisher=D.S. Brewer|year=2019|isbn=9781843845379|location=Woodbridge|url=https://boydellandbrewer.com/historians-on-john-gower.html|editor-last=Rigby|editor-first=Stephen H|access-date=19 December 2019|archive-date=12 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212144732/https://boydellandbrewer.com/historians-on-john-gower.html|url-status=dead}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* [http://www.johngower.org The International John Gower Society]
* [http://gower.lib.utsa.edu/ John Gower Bibliography Online]
* [http://www.gowerproject.org The Gower Project]
* [http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0028/html/ms_1083_029.html MS 1083/29 Confessio amantis at OPenn]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=150| name=John Gower}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Gower}}
* [http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/gower.htm Luminarium: John Gower] Life, works, essays
* [http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/authors/gower/gow-ast.html Excerpt from ''Confessio Amantis''] – Harvard Chaucer Pages
* {{ cite web
  | title=Middle English Texts Series Texts Online
  | editor=Russell Peck
 | publisher=Robbins Library Digital Projects (University of Rochester)
 | url=http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text-online
}} texts of Gower and his contemporaries
* {{ cite book
 | title=Vol 1:The Complete Works of John Gower, The French Works
  | editor=G.C.Macaulay | year=1899
  | url=https://archive.org/details/completeworksofj01gowe
}}
* {{ cite book
 |title=Vol 2:The complete works of John Gower | editor=G.C.Macaulay | year=1899
 | url=https://archive.org/details/completeworksofj02goweuoft
}} first half of Confessio Amantis(to V.1970)
* {{ cite book
 |title=Vol 3:The complete works of John Gower  | editor=G.C.Macaulay | year=1899
 |url=https://archive.org/details/completeworksofj03goweuoft
}} second half of Confessio Amantis (from V.1970)
* {{ cite book
 | title=Vol 4: The Complete Works of John Gower,The Latin Works
 | editor=G.C. Macaulay   | year=1899
 | url=http://lollardsociety.org/pdfs/Gower_Works_vol4Latin.pdf
}}
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06685a.htm John Gower] at the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]]

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Medieval Latin-language poets]]
[[Category:14th-century English writers]]
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[[Category:Burials at Southwark Cathedral]]
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[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:15th-century English poets]]
[[Category:14th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:15th-century writers in Latin]]
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