Gower Delphi Collected Poetical Works of John Gower (Illustrated)

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78656-219-7
Verlag: Delphi Classics Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 76, 1205 Seiten

Reihe: Delphi Poets Series

The contemporary and personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet John Gower produced works in the tradition of courtly love and moral allegory. 'Confessio Amantis', Gower's greatest English poem, is 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 derive from classical and medieval sources and are told with a tender, restrained narrative style. The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature's finest poets, with superior formatting. This volume presents Gower's complete English works, with related illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Gower's life and works
* Concise introduction to Gower's life and poetry
* Images of how the poetry books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the poems
* Easily locate the poems you want to read
* Includes G. C. Macaulay's 1901 text of 'Confessio Amantis', with line numbers
* Macaulay's seminal biography - discover Gower's medieval world
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CONTENTS:
The Life and Poetry of John Gower
Brief Introduction: John Gower by Sidney Lee
Confessio Amantis
To King Henry IV: In Praise of Piece
The Biography
Life of Gower by G. C. Macaulay
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Autoren/Hrsg.

Gower, John

Leseproben

Brief Introduction: John Gower by Sidney Lee
From ‘Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 22’ JOHN GOWER (1325?–1408), poet, is loosely described by Caxton, who first printed his ‘Confessio Amantis’ in 1483, as ‘a squyer borne in Walys in the tyme of kyng Richard the second.’ The poet was certainly not a Welshman by birth, and, since in 1400 he described himself as ‘senex,’ it is probable he was born in the second or third decade of the fourteenth century. All the early writers insist on his good birth. Leland, in his ‘Commentarii’ (), connected him with the Gowers of Stittenham, Yorkshire, ancestors of the Leveson-Gowers, and he has been followed by Bale, Pits, Holinshed, and Todd. But the poet’s coat of arms and crest emblazoned on his tomb in Southwark differ altogether from the armorial bearings of the Gowers of Stittenham, and render the relationship impossible. The poet, moreover, rhymed his name with ‘power,’ while the Stittenham family have always pronounced their name as though it rhymed with ‘po-er’ or ‘pore.’ Weever’s assumption that the poet was closely connected with the family of Sir Robert Gower, a large landowner both in Suffolk and Kent, has been powerfully supported by Sir Harris Nicolas’s researches, and is probably correct. Sir Robert died in or before 1349, and was buried in the church of Brabourne, near Ashford, Kent, where there was at one time a brass to his memory, bearing the poet’s coat of arms. In 1333 Sir Robert had received from David, earl of Athol, the manor of Kentwell, Suffolk, with its appurtenances. This manor became the joint property of his two daughters after his death. The elder daughter, Katherine, died in 1366. The younger, Joan, was in 1368 married to a second husband, Thomas Syward, pewterer and citizen of London, and husband and wife were then joint owners of the Kentwell manor. On 28 June 1368 they granted it to John Gower, a near kinsman, who has been, with every probability, identified with the poet. By a deed executed at Otford, Kent, on Thursday, 30 Sept. 1373, John Gower made Kentwell over to Sir John Cobham, William Weston, Roger Ashburnham, Thomas Brokhill, and Thomas Preston, rector of Tunstall. The crest engraved on the seal attached to this deed is identical with that on the poet’s tomb. Henceforth the poet seems to have been closely associated with Kent. He wrote of the Kentish insurrection of 1381, with every sign of personal knowledge. On 1 Aug. 1382, in a charter which confirmed to him the manors of Feltwell, Norfolk, and Moulton, Suffolk (Rot. Claus. 6 Richard II, , No. 27 dorso), he is designated ‘esquier de Kent.’ On 6 Aug. following he parted with Feltwell and Moulton to Thomas Blakelake, parson of the church of St. Nicholas at Feltwell, on condition that 40l. was paid him annually in the conventual church of Westminster. Confirmation of this arrangement was made on 24 Oct. 1382 and 29 Feb. 1384. Documents dated 3 Feb. 1381 and 10 June 1385 assigned to Gower and one John Bowland, clerk, the rights of Isabella, daughter of Walter de Huntingfield, to certain lands and tenements at Throwley and Stalesfield, Kent. In 1365 a John Gower rented the manors of Wygeburgh (i.e. Wigborough), Essex, and Aldington, Kent. It is possible that this tenant was the poet. But it is extremely doubtful whether the John Gower, ‘clerk,’ who held the rectory of Great Braxted, Essex, from February 1390 to March 1397, is identical with the writer. Professor Morley accepts the identification without hesitation. But there is no other evidence to show that Gower, whose customary title was ‘esquier,’ was in holy orders. The probability is all the other way. The legends that represent Gower as educated at Oxford, and as entering the Inner Temple, have no historical basis. His works prove him to have been a man of wide reading, who probably travelled in France in early life, and in his later years he settled down as a well-to-do country gentleman, watching with some alarm the political and social movements of his time. He was known at court, but not apparently till well advanced in years. His chief poem, ‘Confessio Amantis,’ was written (according to his own account) at the request of Richard II, to whom it was first dedicated. But he transferred his dedication and his allegiance to the king’s rival, Henry of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV, about 1393–4, when ‘un esquier, John Gower,’ is mentioned among Henry’s retainers. In the opening years of Henry’s reign he proved himself an untiring panegyrist of his new sovereign. It is thus that he has gained for himself the reputation of a timid time-server, but the change of allegiance may well have been the result of conviction. On his tomb the poet’s effigy wears a collar of SS, to which is appended a swan, Henry’s badge (assumed after the death of Thomas of Gloucester in 1397). In his old age the poet married. At the time he was residing in the priory of St. Mary Overies, Southwark, to which he had proved a great benefactor. His apartments seem to have been in what was afterwards known as Montague Close, between the church of St. Mary Overies and the river (Rendle, Old Southwark, ). According to the register of William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, the name of Gower’s wife was Agnes Groundolf, and the marriage took place in his own private chapel, situated in the priory of St. Mary Overies, by license, dated 25 Jan. 1397, the celebrant being the chaplain of the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, Southwark. In 1400, after suffering much ill-health, he became blind. He was still residing in the priory of St. Mary Overies, Southwark, on 15 Aug. 1408, when he made his will, preserved at Lambeth. He bequeaths many legacies to the prior, sub-prior, canons, and servants of St. Mary Overies, and to the churches and hospitals of Southwark and the neighbourhood, including a leper hospital. He desires to be buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in St. Mary Overies priory, and leaves to that chapel two silk dresses for the priests, a new missal, and a new chalice. A book entitled ‘Martilogium’ (i.e. ‘Martyrologium’), which was recently copied at his expense, is left to the prior and convent. His wife Agnes receives 100l., much household furniture, and for her life the rents of the manors of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, and Moulton, Suffolk. His wife, Sir Arnold Savage, an esquire named Robert, William Denne, canon of the king’s chapel, and John Burton are his executors. The will was proved at Lambeth by Agnes Gower on 24 Oct., and administration of other property not specified in the will was granted on 7 Nov. Between 15 Aug. 1408 and 24 Oct., the dates respectively of the drawing and the proving of the will, Gower was buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in the north aisle of the nave of St. Mary Overies, commonly called St. Saviour’s, Southwark. A stone tomb is still extant there. Beneath a three-arched canopy lies an effigy of the poet. The head rests on three volumes, inscribed respectively with the names of his works, ‘Speculum Meditantis,’ ‘Vox Clamantis,’ and ‘Confessio Amantis.’ The hair falls in large curls on his shoulders, and is crowned with four roses, with which ivy was originally intertwined (Leland). A long, closely buttoned robe covers the whole body, including the feet, which rest upon a lion. A collar of SS, with Henry IV’s badge of the swan, is round the neck. Berthelet, in his edition of the ‘Confessio Amantis’ (1532), gives a description of three pictures (now obliterated) of Charity, Mercy, and Pity, painted against the wall, within the three upper arches. A shield on a side panel of the canopy gives the poet’s arms: ‘Argent on a chevron, azure, three leopards’ heads, or; crest, on a cap of maintenance, a talbot passant.’ The inscription preserved by Leland and Berthelet, ‘Hic jacet J. Gower, arm. Angl. poeta celeberrimus ac huic sacro edificio benefac. insignis. Vixit temporibus Ed. III et Ric. II’ has disappeared, together with a tablet granting 1,500 days’ pardon, ‘ab ecclesia rite concessos’ to all who prayed devoutly for the poet’s soul. The monument was repaired in 1615, 1764, and 1830. Prefixed to Caxton’s edition of the ‘Confessio Amantis’ (1483), and in many of the extant manuscripts of that and other of Gower’s writings, is a Latin preface describing Gower’s three chief works. This preface, of which the text is extant in two forms, has been attributed to Gower’s own pen. The works described are (1) the ‘Speculum Meditantis,’ (2) the ‘Vox Clamantis,’ and (3) the ‘Confessio Amantis.’ The first, the ‘Speculum Meditantis,’ assumed from its position to have been written earliest, was long thought to be lost. The manuscript was discovered in the Cambridge University Library by Mr. G. C. Macaulay and first printed in his edition of Gower’s works (1899). It is a French poem, treating of vices and virtues, and teaching by a right path the way whereby a transgressor should return to a knowledge of his Creator. Many short French poems by Gower are extant, and Warton wrongly imagined that the ‘Speculum Meditantis’ was identical with one of those. The second work, the ‘Vox Clamantis,’ is a Latin elegiac poem in seven books. It was begun in June 1381, but not completed till near the end of Richard II’s reign. The first book — a fourth of the whole — treats, in an allegory...