Confessio Amantis
by John Gower
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Originally published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1966.Tags
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This wonderful story is a must-read for anyone interested in medieval studies or literature.
Reprint. Orig. publ. New York : Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1966
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Best known as "moral Gower," as he is called by his friend Chaucer in the dedication of Troilus and Criseyde, Gower composed "balades" in the French fashion as well as three long poems, representing the trilingual status of the cultural and political elite of late fourteenth-century England. Mirour de l'Homme (Mirror of Man) (c.1376--78), a show more mammoth French poem of some 30,000 lines, deals with the seven deadly sins. Vox Clamantis (Voice of One Crying) (c.1379--81), in Latin, is a prophetic attack on contemporary political and social abuses in response to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Gower's lengthy and occasionally dreary Middle English poem Confessio Amantis (Lover's Confession) (1390), portions of which influenced Chaucer, is set as an allegorical confession of the poet-lover to Genius, the priest of Venus. In 34,000 lines, he retells several classical love stories illustrating cupidity and the other deadly sins. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Confessio Amantis
- Original publication date
- c.1390 (Gower's original) (Gower's original); 1968 (Russell A. Peck edition) (Russell A. Peck edition)
- People/Characters
- Amans; Apollonius of Tyre; Acteon; Medusa; Mundus; Paulina (show all 45); Florent, Gower's; Narcissus; Albinus; Nebuchadnezzar II; Deianeira; Nessus; Tiresias; Socrates; Phebus; Cornide; Diogenes; Pyramus; Thisbe; Orestes; Aeneas; Dido; Pygmalion; Demephon; Rosiphele; Ceix; Alceone; Iphis; Araxarthen; Vulcan; Venus; Achilles; Deidamia; Jason [Argonaut]; Medea; Adrian; Bardus; Theseus; Ariadne; Tereus; Hercules; Telegonus; Nectanebus; Lucretia (Lucrece); Tobias
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- PREFACE
In his own day Gower's reputation as a poet and moral spokesman was secure beyond doubt. He was even the first English poet to enjoy international recognition, his Confessio Amantis having been translated in... (show all)to both Spanish and Portuguese early in the fifteenth century.
INTRODUCTIONGower's Confessio Amantis is one of several Middle English poems which may be classified as poems of consolatin.
PROLOGUSOf hem that writen ous tofore
The bokes duelle, and we therfore
Ben tawht of that was write tho;
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 7
