Delphi Collected Poetical Works of John Gower (Illustrated)

By John Gower

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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• Language: English
• Publisher: Delphi Classics Ltd
• Release date: Dec 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786562197

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John Gower

(c.1330–1408)

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

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2017

Version 1

John Gower

By Delphi Classics, 2017

COPYRIGHT

John Gower - Delphi Poets Series

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 219 7

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The Life and Poetry of John Gower

Medieval map of Surrey — Gower’s possible birthplace. Few details are known of John Gower’s early life. He was probably born into a family that held properties in Kent and Suffolk.

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 which (Gower pretends) was revealed to him in a dream, of the insurrection of the serfs which broke out in Gower’s neighbourhood in Kent in May 1381. The poet describes the rebels under the names of animals, but the identification of the leaders is obvious, and in some places their names are given. He brings events down to the death of Wat Tyler. Fuller, in his ‘Church History’ (ii. 353–4), quotes in an English verse translation the description of the Kentish ‘rabble’ given by Gower, ‘prince of poets in his time.’ Although Gower has little sympathy with popular grievances, he ascribes the disturbances to the deterioration of contemporary society. In the second book he insists on the need of pure religious faith. In the third and fourth books he denounces the sins of the clergy of all ranks, and pleads for a reformation, although he disclaims in his ‘Confessio’ and elsewhere all sympathy with the Lollards. In the fifth book he shows the value of a virtuous and well-disciplined army, and deprecates the ignorant sensuality of the serf and the avarice of the merchant. The sixth book deals with the vices of the lawyers, and appeals directly to Richard II to select wise and honest councillors, and to avoid war, heavy taxation, and sensual indulgences. The seventh book recapitulates the poet’s dissatisfaction with the existing government and with the king, and entreats his countrymen to turn from wickedness.

The poem is dedicated to Archbishop Arundel, and Gower describes himself in the dedication as ‘senex et cæcus.’ The finest manuscript of the poem is in the library of All Souls’ College, Oxford, and from this manuscript the poem was printed for the first time by the Roxburghe Club, under the direction of H. O. Coxe, in 1850. Coxe collated the All Souls’ MS. with another in the Cottonian Collection, Tib. A. iv., and a third among the Digby MSS. at the Bodleian Library. Attached to all three, in continuation of the poem, is Gower’s ‘Chronica Tripartita,’ in three books of rhyming Latin hexameters, giving a hostile account of Richard II’s conduct of affairs from the appointment of the commissioners of regency, 19 Nov. 1386, till the king’s death, and the accession of Henry IV. Much eulogy is bestowed on the Swan (Thomas, duke of Gloucester), the Horse (Richard, earl of Arundel), and the Bear (Thomas, earl of Warwick). The second book describes the coup d’état of 1397, and the third book tells of Richard II’s abdication. Coxe printed the ‘Chronica Tripartita’ with the ‘Vox Clamantis.’ It is also printed in Wright’s ‘Political Poems,’ i. 417–54. The All Souls’ MS. and the Cottonian MS. conclude with ten short pieces, chiefly in Latin, bitterly inveighing against Richard II, or in praise of Henry IV. Two only of these pieces are printed by Coxe — one (in elegiacs) beginning ‘Quicquid homo scribat finem natura ministrat’ and a commendatory ‘carmen’ by one ‘Philippus.’ Four others, including a ‘Carmen super multiplici vitiorum pestilentia unde tempore Ricardi II partes nostræ specialius inficiebantur’ (dated 1396–7), in which Lollardism is denounced, appear in Wright’s ‘Political Poems,’ i. 346 et seq.

Gower’s ‘Confessio Amantis,’ his only English poem, is in about 30,000 eight-syllabled rhymed lines. It is extant in two versions, mainly differing at the beginning and end. In the earlier version the poem opens with a dedication to Richard II, and Chaucer is complimented in the closing lines. In the later version Henry of Lancaster takes Richard’s place, and Chaucer is not mentioned at all. In the dedication of the first version to Richard II, the poet relates that while rowing on the Thames he met the king’s barge, that the king invited him to an audience and bade him write ‘some newe thing,’ a direction of which the ‘Confessio’ was the result. The hopefulness with which Gower refers to Richard in these lines has suggested that they must have been composed before 1386, when Richard’s worthless character had become generally known, and Professor Hales has pointed out some apparent allusions in them to events happening between 1381 and 1383 (Athenæum, 24 Dec. 1881). In the revised version, from which Gower omits all mention of Richard II, he says that he wrote the poem ‘the yere sixtenthe of Kyng Richard’ (i.e. 1393), and dedicates it to ‘min owne lorde, which of Lancastre is Henry named.’ Thus the date of the earlier version may be conjecturally placed in 1383, that of the second in 1393.

The poem consists of a prologue and eight books. The prologue deals largely with the degradation of the clergy and of the people, which Gower reminds his readers it is in their own power to check. He concludes with a moralised interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which had already found a place at the close of the ‘Vox Clamantis.’ In book i. Gower represents a lover as appealing to Cupid and Venus to cure him of his sickness. Venus sends a confessor, Genius, to shrive him. The confessor arrives, and the dialogue between him and the lover occupies the rest of the poem. The confessor first asks the lover how he has used his five senses, and, in a number of stories chiefly derived from classical authors, warns him of the vices which the senses are prone to encourage. In the later books the confessor describes in turn the seven deadly sins, pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust, with their different ministers, and illustrates their ravages by a series of stories loosely strung together after the manner of Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron.’ The last and eighth book concludes with the confessor’s absolution of the lover. There are occasional digressions, as in the account of the rise of the mechanical arts in book iv., or of the religions of the ancient world in book v. In book vii. the general plan is interrupted by a summary of philosophical knowledge — of ‘theorique,’ ‘rhetorique,’ and ‘poetique’ — derived from the popular ‘Secretum Secretorum’ falsely attributed to Aristotle, and assumed to embody the instruction given by Aristotle to Alexander. Gower adds to this interpolation many stories illustrating the duties of kingship, with unfriendly allusions (in the later version) to Richard II.

Gower contrives to tell in all 112 different stories, and shows himself acquainted with much classical and mediæval literature. The sources of nearly all his stories have been traced. About twenty come from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses,’ three from Ovid’s ‘Heroides.’ Others are extracted from the Bible, the ‘Gesta Romanorum,’ Josephus, Valerius Maximus, Trogus Pompeius or Justin. The chronicles of Cassiodorus and Isidorus, Godfrey of Viterbo’s ‘Pantheon,’ Vincent de Beauvais’ ‘Speculum Historiale,’ the ‘Geste de Troy’ (in the prose of Dares Phrygius or the verse of Guido di Colonna), the romances of Alexander the Great and Sir Lancelot were also among his works of reference. Statius’s ‘Thebais’ supplied the story of the knight Capaneus (bk. ii.) Gower mentions Dante, and was clearly familiar with Boccaccio and Ovid’s ‘Ars Amandi.’ Scattered through the work are Latin rubrics and elegiacs. The latter, written in imitation of Boethius, are often notable for their bad prosody and loose grammar.

A very large number of manuscripts of the ‘Confessio’ are known. I. Of the earlier version, there are at Oxford three in the Bodleian Library (Laud. MS. 609; Bodl. 693; Selden, B. 11), and one in the library of Corpus Christi College (67). Three are in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 3490, Royal MS. 18, c. xxii. and Eg. MS. 1991, imperfect but very interesting). One is in the library of the Society of Antiquaries (MS. 134). II. Of the second version two manuscripts are in the Bodleian Library (Fairfax MS. 3 and Hatton, 51); a third at Wadham College, Oxford (13); a fourth at New College, Oxford (266), and a fifth and sixth at the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 7184, finely illuminated but mutilated, and 3869). There are many other manuscripts of the poem in private hands (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. xii, 207, 424, 4th Re). A manuscript belonging to the Duke of Sutherland — known as the Stafford MS. — adheres to the Lancastrian version, but with many additions, alterations, and omissions. Two hybrid manuscripts are known. A copy in the Bodleian Library (Bodl. MS. 294) has the dedication to Richard, but omits the verses to Chaucer. Another manuscript at New College (234) has the dedication to Henry, but includes the verses to Chaucer. A fine volume ‘Johannis Gower Poemata Anglica, Gallica, et Latina,’ in Trinity College, Cambridge, contains the ‘Confessio,’ but begins with the middle of book ii. (MS. R. 3, 2).

The first printed edition was issued by Caxton in 1483. It follows the second version. The colophon states that Caxton finished it ‘the 2 day of Septembre the fyrst yere of the regne of kyng Richard the thyrd the yere of our lord a thousand cccclxxxxiii’ (a misprint for 1483). Three copies are in the British Museum. A perfect exemplar sold at the sale of Lord Selsey’s library in 1872 for 670l. The next edition issued in 1532 from the press of ‘Thomas Berthelette, printer to the kinges grace.’ This is dedicated to Henry VIII, and follows Caxton’s text of the later version, while modernising the spelling. But in a preface addressed to the ‘reder’ Berthelette prints from a manuscript the earlier dedication to Richard II, and gives an account of Gower’s tomb and of his intimacy with Chaucer. A reprint of 1544 is mentioned by Chalmers and Blore. No such edition is known. Another edition by Berthelette appeared in 1554 with further modernisations of spelling. On 15 Jan. 1581–2 Sampson Awdeley’s interest in the copyright of the ‘Confessio’ was transferred, with that of many other books, to John Charlwood, but no edition of the period has been met with (Reg. of Stationers’ Company, 1570–86, Shakesp. Soc., 155). Chalmers printed the ‘Confessio’ in his ‘English Poets.’ In 1857 Professor Reinhold Pauli produced an edition in three admirably printed volumes. Berthelette’s edition of 1532 formed the basis of Pauli’s text, but it was collated throughout with Harleian MSS. 7184, 3869, and 3490, and with the Stafford MS. Professor Morley in 1888 reprinted, with a few obvious corrections, Pauli’s text in his Carisbrooke Library, omitting the story of Canace as unfit for popular reading. A thoroughly trustworthy text is still required.

An extract from the digression in book iv. on the mechanical arts dealing with the philosopher’s stone appears in Ashmole’s ‘Theatrum Chemicum,’ 1651, p–73. Ellis in his ‘Specimens of English Poetry,’ Todd in his ‘Illustrations of Chaucer and Gower,’ and A. J. Ellis in his ‘Early English Pronunciation,’ 1869, pt. ii. (Chaucer Soc.), have printed a few excerpts, with notes. Mr. Ellis has availed himself of the Society of Antiquaries MS. 134, which has not been consulted by other writers.

A very interesting manuscript volume, containing other poems by Gower, belongs to the Earl of Ellesmere. It was presented to Henry IV by the poet, and came into the possession of Lord Fairfax, who presented it to Sir Thomas Gower, an ancestor of its present owner, in 1666. It opens with an English poem, with Latin prologue and epilogue, entitled ‘Carmen de pacis commendatione in laudem Henrici quarti,’ which was printed in Urry’s edition of Chaucer (1721), p–3, and in Wright’s ‘Political Poems,’ ii. 4–15. Eleven short pieces in French or Latin verse also in praise of Henry IV follow, and are succeeded by ‘Cinkante Balades,’ the most interesting section of the manuscript. They deal with love in all its phases, and are the most poetical of all Gower’s productions. They are believed to be Gower’s earliest work. The volume concludes with a long French poem on the dignity of marriage, illustrated with stories after the fashion of the ‘Confessio.’ This was the poem which Warton mistook for the lost ‘Speculum Meditantis.’ Finally Gower, in an address ‘al universite de tout le monde,’ apologises as an Englishman for his French. The whole of this volume, from which extracts had been printed by Todd and Warton, was first printed, while it belonged to the Marquis of Stafford (excluding the opening poem), for the Roxburghe Club in 1818. A few of the pieces, notably the long poem on marriage, appear at the close of a few manuscripts of the ‘Confessio’ (cf. Bodl. MS. Fairfax, iii.; Harl. MS. 3869; MS. Trin. Coll. R. 3, 2). Herr Stengel reprinted (after collating various manuscripts) ‘John Gowers Minnesang und Ehezuchtbüchlein LXXII Anglo-Normannische Balladen,’ Marburg, 1886.

Chaucer first gave Gower the appropriate epithet of ‘moral.’ The two poets were personal friends. On 21 May 1378, when Chaucer went abroad on diplomatic service, he nominated John Gower and Richard Forrester his attorneys in his absence. At the end of his ‘Troylus and Cryseyde’ (written between 1372 and 1386) Chaucer writes: O moral Gower, this boke I directe To the, and to the philosophical Strode, To vouchensauf ther nede is to correcte, Of youre benignites and zeles goode. In book ii. of the ‘Confessio’ Gower seems to borrow from the same poem of Chaucer his story of Diomede’s supplanting Troilus with Cressida. In very few other instances do the poets cover the same ground. The story of Constance — Chaucer’s ‘Man of Lawes Tale’ — is also told by Gower in his ‘Confessio’ (bk. ii.); but the story appeared previously in Vincent de Beauvais’ ‘Speculum,’ Trivet’s ‘Annales,’ and elsewhere, and both poets probably obtained it independently from Trivet (cf. Trivet, ‘Life of Constance,’ ed. Brock, in Originals and Analogues, Chaucer Soc., parts i. and iii.) Tyrwhitt’s and Warton’s theory that Chaucer borrowed this story of Constance from Gower is disproved by later Chaucerian criticism, which assigns the ‘Man of Lawes Tale’ to a date anterior to the ‘Confessio.’ Similarly Chaucer’s ‘Manciple’s Tale’ of the tell-tale bird is told in the ‘Confessio,’ bk. iii., but both poets undoubtedly derived that story from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses,’ bk. ii. Gower’s ‘Tale of Florent’ in ‘Confessio,’ bk. i., is identical at most points with Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’s Tale.’ The story is a common one in all European languages, and was probably derived from a French romance independently accessible to either writer (cf. Originals and Analogues, Chaucer Soc., v. 437–525). Furthermore the tale of Phyllis and Demophon, which appears in the ‘Confessio’ as well as in Chaucer’s ‘Legend of Good Women,’ was probably derived by both writers from Ovid’s ‘Heroides,’ ep. ii. In a literary sense, the two poets were under little, if any, obligations to each other. In the earlier version of the ‘Confessio’ (dedicated to Richard II) Gower, at the close of his poem, makes Venus address Chaucer in highly complimentary verse. Venus calls Chaucer her disciple and poet, who filled the land in his youth with ditties and glad songs, and bids him in his old age write a ‘Testament of Love.’ The omission of these lines in the later or Lancastrian version of the ‘Confessio’ has been ascribed to Gower’s implied suggestion that Chaucer was too old to write of love — a criticism which the subsequent publication (about 1390) of the ‘Canterbury Tales’ deprived of point. There is, however, good reason for supposing that Chaucer and Gower quarrelled late in life, and that the suppression of the panegyric was due to a personal disagreement. In the prologue to the ‘Man of Lawes Tale’ Chaucer compliments himself on forbearing to write

Of thilke wicke ensample of Canace

That loued hir owne brother synfully

(Of all suche curséd stories I say fy),

Or elles of Tyro Apolloneus.

The stories of Canace and Apollonius— ‘unkinde abhominations’ Chaucer calls them in a later line — both figure in Gower’s ‘Confessio’ (bk. ii. and bk. viii.), and it is reasonable to infer that Chaucer’s censure was aimed at Gower. It is unsatisfactory to assume with Professor Skeat that Chaucer’s attack is directed against Ovid (Chaucer, Prioresses Tale, &c., ed. Skeat, ). Ovid certainly told the story of Canace in his ‘Metamorphoses,’ but had, of course, no hand in the tale of Apollonius. In the dedication of the second version of his ‘Confessio’ Gower writes that his wits are too small ‘To tellen every man his tale,’ which has been interpreted as a reference to the ‘Canterbury Tales,’ and to be the first reference extant. But the words are too colourless to admit of any inference as to the relations between the poets when they were written.

Gower’s profound inferiority to Chaucer in literary merit did not prevent their names being linked together for centuries as the two earliest poets of eminence in England. Thomas Hoccleve (1370–1454?) introduces into his ‘De Regimine Principum’ a lament for Gower and Chaucer, and calls Gower his master. Dunbar, in his ‘Lament for the Makaris,’ associates Chaucer, Gower, and the Monk of Bury [see Bury, Richard de] in the same verse. Skelton, in his ‘Boke of Philip Sparrow’ and his ‘Crowne of Laurell,’ writes that Gower’s ‘matter is worth gold,’ and that he ‘first garnished our English rude.’ Hawes, in his ‘Pastyme of Pleasure,’ writes of moral Gower, whose ‘sentencious dewe Adowne reflareth with fayre golden beames.’ William Bullein [q. v.], in his ‘Dialogue … against the Fever Pestilence,’ 1573, describes Gower and Chaucer sitting under Parnassus near the classical poets, and writes of ‘old morall Goore with pleasaunt penne in hande, commandyng honeste loue without luste, and pleasure without pride, holinesse in the cleargie without hypocrisie, no tyrannie in rulers, no falshoode in lawiers, no usurie in marchauntes, no rebellion in the commons and vnitie among kyngdoms.’ Foxe, in his ‘Actes and Monuments,’ gives Gower and Chaucer jointly much commendation, and contrasts their learning with the ignorance of the clergy of their day. Puttenham and Sir Philip Sidney treat Gower as Chaucer’s equal. ‘Greene’s Vision’ (c 1599), attributed to Robert Greene, mainly consists of a pretended disputation between Gower and Chaucer as to the moral value of Greene’s purely literary work. Chaucer praises it, and advises Greene to persevere. Gower urges him to renounce it for avowedly moral treatises, and Greene finally promises to follow Gower’s counsel. A fanciful account of Gower’s personal appearance is given in verse, and a long prose ‘Tale against Jelousie’ is put into his mouth (Greene, Works, ed. Grosart, xii. 209 sq.). Drayton, in his epistle of ‘Poets and Poesie,’ wisely notes ‘honest’ Gower’s inferiority to Chaucer, and Peacham mildly censures him as ‘poore and plaine.’ The play of ‘Pericles’ (1608?), in which Shakespeare had an uncertain share, is based on the story of ‘Apollonius the Prince of Tyr,’ which figures in the eighth book of Gower’s ‘Confessio,’ and which Gower avowedly derived from Godfrey of Viterbo’s ‘Pantheon.’ Although the same story was ‘gathered into English by Laurence Twine,’ for the most part independently of Gower, in 1576, the authors of ‘Pericles’ were well acquainted with Gower’s version. The prologue before each act of ‘Pericles’ is spoken by Gower, who opens the play with

To sing a song of old was sung,

From ashes ancient Gower is come.

Modern criticism has been unfavourable to Gower. ‘Gower has positively raised tediousness,’ writes Mr. J. R. Lowell with some asperity, ‘to the precision of a science. He is the undertaker of the fair mediæval legend. … Love, beauty, passion, nature, art, life, the natural and the theological virtues — there is nothing beyond his power to disenchant’ (My Study Windows, art. ‘Chaucer’). Hallam denies that Gower is ‘prosaic in the worst sense of the word.’ He undoubtedly lacks the poet’s inspiration, but he claims to be nothing more than a moralist, an enthusiastic student of classical and mediæval literature, keenly alive to the failings of his own age. His varied erudition, his employment in his writings of the English language, in spite of his facility in both French and Latin, his simplicity and directness as a story-teller who is no servile imitator of his authorities, give his ‘Confessio’ an historical interest which the ‘frozen levels’ of its verse with ‘the clocklike tick of its rhymes’ cannot destroy. In his French ‘balades’ Gower reached a higher poetic standard. He shows much metrical skill, and portrays love’s various phases with the poet’s tenderness and sympathy. The literary quality of ‘Vox Clamantis’ is not great. It is marred by false quantities and awkward constructions; but its high moral tone, and its notices of contemporary society, give it an important place in historical literature.

A beautiful miniature of Gower is in British Museum Egerton MS. 1991, f. 7 b. A poor imitation is in Royal MS. 18, c. xxii. f. 1.

[Warton’s Hist. Engl. Poetry; Professor H. Morley’s Engl. Writers, 1888, vol. iv.; Sir N. H. Nicolas’s notes in Retrospective Review, new ser. vol. ii.; A. J. Ellis’s Early English Pronunciation … including a re-arrangement of Prof. F. J. Child’s Memoirs on the Language of Chaucer and Gower, 1871, pt. iii. 726–39; Ellis’s Specimens of Early English Poets, i. 169–99; Originals and Analogues, Chaucer Soc. i. iii. and v.; Taylor’s St. Mary Overy, Southwark; Todd’s Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer; and the editions of Gower’s works mentioned above. The notices in Leland, Bale, Pits and Tanner are worth little.]

S. L. L.

Anonymous sixteenth century artist’s impression of Richard II

Henry of Bolingbroke (King Henry IV), flanked by the lords spiritual and temporal, claiming the throne in 1399. From a contemporary manuscript, British Library, Harleian Collection

Sixteenth century portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer. Gower’s friendship with Chaucer is well documented; 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.

A 1727 engraving of Gower

Confessio Amantis

OR, TALES OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Macaulay, Oxford Clarendon Press, 1901 edition

Confessio Amantis (The Lover’s Confession) is a 33,000-line poem, concerning a confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus, serving as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. The Index of Middle English Verse reveals that in the era before the printing press it was one of the most-often copied manuscripts (59 copies) along with Canterbury Tales (72 copies) and Piers Plowman (63 copies). It is usually considered a poem of consolation, a medieval form inspired by Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy and typified by works such as the Pearl poem.

Composition of the work was completed in 1390 and the prologue of the first recension recounts that it was commissioned by Richard II after a chance meeting with the royal barge on the River Thames; the epilogue dedicates the work to Richard and to Geoffrey Chaucer, as the disciple and poete of Venus. According to Macaulay, a second recension was issued in 1392, with several significant changes: most notably, references to Richard were removed, as well as the dedication to Chaucer, which were replaced with a new dedication to Henry of Lancaster, the future Henry IV. It has naturally been assumed that this reflects a shift in the poet’s loyalties, and indeed there are signs that Gower was more attached to Henry’s party from this period; but while he did attack Richard later in the decade, there is no evidence that these early changes indicate any hostility towards either Richard or Chaucer, and it has been argued that the revision process was not politically motivated at all, but begun rather due to Gower’s wish to redraft his work.

A third and final recension was published in 1393, retaining the dedication to Henry. While only a few manuscripts of this version survive, it has been taken as representing Gower’s final vision for the poem and is the best-known version, having served as the basis of all modern editions.

Gower’s previous works had been written in Anglo-Norman French and Latin. It is not certain why he chose to write his third long poem in English. The only reason Gower himself gives is that fewe men endite In oure englyssh (prol. 22–23). It has been suggested that it was the influence of Chaucer, who had in part dedicated Troilus and Criseyde to Gower, which persuaded him that the vernacular was a suitable language for poetry.

With the exception of a 74 line letter in Book VIII, Gower did not adopt the new pentameter with which Chaucer had been experimenting, and which was to become the standard metre for English rhyme. He retains instead the octosyllabic line that had previously been the standard form for English poetry, writing in couplets, rather than in the stanzas employed in previous works. Gower characterised his verse in the Confessio Amantis as the plain style. This decision has not always met with appreciation, the shorter lines being sometimes viewed as lending themselves to monotonous regularity, but Gower’s handling of the metre has been praised by many later commentators. One of the work’s most enthusiastic advocates was C. S. Lewis, who, though admitting it can be prosaic and dull in places, identifies a sweetness and freshness in the verse and praises its memorable precision and weight.

Confessio Amantis comprises a prologue and eight books, which are divided thematically. The narrative structure is overlaid on this in three levels: the external matter, the narrative frame, and the individual tales which make up the bulk of the work. The external matter comprises the prologue, which spills over briefly into the start of the first Book and an epilogue at the end of Book Eight. In the prologue Gower details at some length the numerous failings he identifies in the three estates — government, church and people — of his time. This section ends with an account of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, identifying the statue’s feet of iron mixed with clay with the medieval world that Gower perceives as hopelessly divided and in danger of imminent collapse. Many lines later, the Epilogue returns to these concerns, again addressing issues that Gower felt each estate should urgently attend to.

None of Gower’s tales are original. The source he relies on most is the Roman poet Ovid, whose Metamorphoses was ever a popular source of material. Other sources include the Bible and various other classical and medieval writers, including Valerius Maximus, Statius, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Guido delle Colonne, Godfrey of Viterbo, Brunetto Latini, Nicholas Trivet, the Romans des sept sages, the Vita Barlaam et Josaphat, and the Historia Alexandri Magni. The best-known tales are those that have analogues in other English writers, since these are often studied for comparison. These include the Apollonius, which served as a source for Shakespeare’s late play Pericles, and the tales shared with Chaucer, such as the tales of Constance (told by the Man of Law) and Florent (told by the Wife of Bath).

To his contemporaries, Gower’s work was generally as well known as the poetry of Chaucer. Caxton printed Gower’s work alongside Chaucer’s and he was an established part of the early canon of English literature. But it was Chaucer’s works that became the model for future poets, and the legacy of the Confessio Amantis has suffered as a result. It is hard to find works that reveal signs of direct influence: the only clear example is Shakespeare’s Pericles, where the influence is conscious borrowing: the use of Gower’s characteristic octosyllabic line for the character of Gower himself. The poem is nonetheless significant as one of the earliest poems written in a form of English that is clearly recognisable as a direct precursor to the modern standard language and for being one of a handful of works that established the foundations of literary prestige on which English literature is built.

The author and the Priest of Venice, from an MS of the Confessio Amantis, c. 1399

CONTENTS

Prologus

Incipit Liber Primus

Incipit Liber Secundus

Incipit Liber Tercius

Incipit Liber Quartus

Incipit Liber Quintus

Incipit Liber Sextus

Incipit Liber Septimus.

Incipit Liber Octavus

The original frontispiece of Macaulay’s celebrated 1901 edition

Prologus

Torpor, ebes sensus, scola parua labor minimusque

     Causant quo minimus ipse minora canam:

Qua tamen Engisti lingua canit Insula Bruti

     Anglica Carmente metra iuuante loquar.

Ossibus ergo carens que conterit ossa loquelis

     Absit, et interpres stet procul oro malus.

Of hem that writen ous tofore

The bokes duelle, and we therfore

Ben tawht of that was write tho:

Forthi good is that we also

In oure tyme among ous hiere

Do wryte of newe som matiere,

Essampled of these olde wyse

So that it myhte in such a wyse,

Whan we ben dede and elleswhere,

Beleve to the worldes eere   10

In tyme comende after this.

Bot for men sein, and soth it is,

That who that al of wisdom writ

It dulleth ofte a mannes wit

To him that schal it aldai rede,

For thilke cause, if that ye rede,

I wolde go the middel weie

And wryte a bok betwen the tweie,

Somwhat of lust, somewhat of lore,

That of the lasse or of the more   20

Som man mai lyke of that I wryte:

And for that fewe men endite

In oure englissh, I thenke make

A bok for Engelondes sake,

The yer sextenthe of kyng Richard.

What schal befalle hierafterward

God wot, for now upon this tyde

Men se the world on every syde

In sondry wyse so diversed,

That it welnyh stant al reversed,   30

As forto speke of tyme ago.

The cause whi it changeth so

It needeth nought to specifie,

The thing so open is at ije

That every man it mai beholde:

And natheles be daies olde,

Whan that the bokes weren levere,

Wrytinge was beloved evere

Of hem that weren vertuous;

For hier in erthe amonges ous,   40

If noman write hou that it stode,

The pris of hem that weren goode

Scholde, as who seith, a gret partie

Be lost: so for to magnifie

The worthi princes that tho were,

The bokes schewen hiere and there,

Wherof the world ensampled is;

And tho that deden thanne amis

Thurgh tirannie and crualte,

Right as thei stoden in degre,   50

So was the wrytinge of here werk.

Thus I, which am a burel clerk,

Purpose forto wryte a bok

After the world that whilom tok

Long tyme in olde daies passed:

Bot for men sein it is now lassed,

In worse plit than it was tho,

I thenke forto touche also

The world which neweth every dai,

So as I can, so as I mai.   60

Thogh I seknesse have upon honde

And longe have had, yit woll I fonde

To wryte and do my bisinesse,

That in som part, so as I gesse,

The wyse man mai ben avised.

For this prologe is so assised

That it to wisdom al belongeth:

What wysman that it underfongeth,

He schal drawe into remembrance

The fortune of this worldes chance,   70

The which noman in his persone

Mai knowe, bot the god al one.

Whan the prologe is so despended,

This bok schal afterward ben ended

Of love, which doth many a wonder

And many a wys man hath put under.

And in this wyse I thenke trete

Towardes hem that now be grete,

Betwen the vertu and the vice

Which longeth unto this office.   80

Bot for my wittes ben to smale

To tellen every man his tale,

This bok, upon amendment

To stonde at his commandement,

With whom myn herte is of accord,

I sende unto myn oghne lord,

Which of Lancastre is Henri named:

The hyhe god him hath proclamed

Ful of knyhthode and alle grace.

So woll I now this werk embrace   90

With hol trust and with hol believe;

God grante I mot it wel achieve.

If I schal drawe in to my mynde

The tyme passed, thanne I fynde

The world stod thanne in al his welthe:

Tho was the lif of man in helthe,

Tho was plente, tho was richesse,

Tho was the fortune of prouesse,

Tho was knyhthode in pris be name,

Wherof the wyde worldes fame   100

Write in Cronique is yit withholde;

Justice of lawe tho was holde,

The privilege of regalie

Was sauf, and al the baronie

Worschiped was in his astat;

The citees knewen no debat,

The poeple stod in obeissance

Under the reule of governance,

And pes, which ryhtwisnesse keste,

With charite tho stod in reste:   110

Of mannes herte the corage

Was schewed thanne in the visage;

The word was lich to the conceite

Withoute semblant of deceite:

Tho was ther unenvied love,

Tho was the vertu sett above

And vice was put under fote.

Now stant the crop under the rote,

The world is changed overal,

And therof most in special   120

That love is falle into discord.

And that I take to record

Of every lond for his partie

The comun vois, which mai noght lie;

Noght upon on, bot upon alle

It is that men now clepe and calle,

And sein the regnes ben divided,

In stede of love is hate guided,

The werre wol no pes purchace,

And lawe hath take hire double face,   130

So that justice out of the weie

With ryhtwisnesse is gon aweie:

And thus to loke on every halve,

Men sen the sor withoute salve,

Which al the world hath overtake.

Ther is no regne of alle outtake,

For every climat hath his diel

After the tornynge of the whiel,

Which blinde fortune overthroweth;

Wherof the certain noman knoweth:   140

The hevene wot what is to done,

Bot we that duelle under the mone

Stonde in this world upon a weer,

And namely bot the pouer

Of hem that ben the worldes guides

With good consail on alle sides

Be kept upriht in such a wyse,

That hate breke noght thassise

Of love, which is al the chief

To kepe a regne out of meschief.   150

For alle resoun wolde this,

That unto him which the heved is

The membres buxom scholden bowe,

And he scholde ek her trowthe allowe,

With al his herte and make hem chiere,

For good consail is good to hiere.

Althogh a man be wys himselve,

Yit is the wisdom more of tuelve;

And if thei stoden bothe in on,

To hope it were thanne anon   160

That god his grace wolde sende

To make of thilke werre an ende,

Which every day now groweth newe:

And that is gretly forto rewe

In special for Cristes sake,

Which wolde his oghne lif forsake

Among the men to yeve pes.

But now men tellen natheles

That love is fro the world departed,

So stant the pes unevene parted   170

With hem that liven now adaies.

Bot forto loke at alle assaies,

To him that wolde resoun seche

After the comun worldes speche

It is to wondre of thilke werre,

In which non wot who hath the werre;

For every lond himself deceyveth

And of desese his part receyveth,

And yet ne take men no kepe.

Bot thilke lord which al may kepe,   180

To whom no consail may ben hid,

Upon the world which is betid,

Amende that wherof men pleigne

With trewe hertes and with pleine,

And reconcile love ayeyn,

As he which is king sovereign

Of al the worldes governaunce,

And of his hyhe porveaunce

Afferme pes betwen the londes

And take her cause into hise hondes,   190

So that the world may stonde apppesed

And his godhede also be plesed.

To thenke upon the daies olde,

The lif of clerkes to beholde,

Men sein how that thei weren tho

Ensample and reule of alle tho

Whiche of wisdom the vertu soughten.

Unto the god ferst thei besoughten

As to the substaunce of her Scole,

That thei ne scholden noght befole   200

Her wit upon none erthly werkes,

Which were ayein thestat of clerkes,

And that thei myhten fle the vice

Which Simon hath in his office,

Wherof he takth the gold in honde.

For thilke tyme I understonde

The Lumbard made non eschange

The bisschopriches forto change,

Ne yet a lettre for to sende

For dignite ne for Provende,   210

Or cured or withoute cure.

The cherche keye in aventure

Of armes and of brygantaille

Stod nothing thanne upon bataille;

To fyhte or for to make cheste

It thoghte hem thanne noght honeste;

Bot of simplesce and pacience

Thei maden thanne no defence:

The Court of worldly regalie

To hem was thanne no baillie;   220

The vein honour was noght desired,

Which hath the proude herte fyred;

Humilite was tho withholde,

And Pride was a vice holde.

Of holy cherche the largesse

Yaf thanne and dede gret almesse

To povere men that hadden nede:

Thei were ek chaste in word and dede,

Wherof the poeple ensample tok;

Her lust was al upon the bok,   230

Or forto preche or forto preie,

To wisse men the ryhte weie

Of suche as stode of trowthe unliered.

Lo, thus was Petres barge stiered

Of hem that thilke tyme were,

And thus cam ferst to mannes Ere

The feith of Crist and alle goode

Thurgh hem that thanne weren goode

And sobre and chaste and large and wyse.

Bot now men sein is otherwise,   240

Simon the cause hath undertake,

The worldes swerd on honde is take;

And that is wonder natheles,

Whan Crist him self hath bode pes

And set it in his testament,

How now that holy cherche is went,

Of that here lawe positif

Hath set to make werre and strif

For worldes good, which may noght laste.

God wot the cause to the laste   250

Of every right and wrong also;

But whil the lawe is reuled so

That clerkes to the werre entende,

I not how that thei scholde amende

The woful world in othre thinges,

To make pes betwen the kynges

After the lawe of charite,

Which is the propre duete

Belongende unto the presthode.

Bot as it thenkth to the manhode,   260

The hevene is ferr, the world is nyh,

And veine gloire is ek so slyh,

Which coveitise hath now withholde,

That thei non other thing beholde,

Bot only that thei myhten winne.

And thus the werres thei beginne,

Wherof the holi cherche is taxed,

That in the point as it is axed

The disme goth to the bataille,

As thogh Crist myhte noght availe   270

To don hem riht be other weie.

In to the swerd the cherche keie

Is torned, and the holy bede

Into cursinge, and every stede

Which scholde stonde upon the feith

And to this cause an Ere leyth,

Astoned is of the querele.

That scholde be the worldes hele

Is now, men sein, the pestilence

Which hath exiled pacience   280

Fro the clergie in special:

And that is schewed overal,

In eny thing whan thei ben grieved.

Bot if Gregoire be believed,

As it is in the bokes write,

He doth ous somdel forto wite

The cause of thilke prelacie,

Wher god is noght of compaignie:

For every werk as it is founded

Schal stonde or elles be confounded;   290

Who that only for Cristes sake

Desireth cure forto take,

And noght for pride of thilke astat,

To bere a name of a prelat,

He schal be resoun do profit

In holy cherche upon the plit

That he hath set his conscience;

Bot in the worldes reverence

Ther ben of suche manie glade,

Whan thei to thilke astat ben made,   300

Noght for the merite of the charge,

Bot for thei wolde hemself descharge

Of poverte and become grete;

And thus for Pompe and for beyete

The Scribe and ek the Pharisee

Of Moises upon the See

In the chaiere on hyh ben set;

Wherof the feith is ofte let,

Which is betaken hem to kepe.

In Cristes cause alday thei slepe,   310

Bot of the world is noght foryete;

For wel is him that now may gete

Office in Court to ben honoured.

The stronge coffre hath al devoured

Under the keye of avarice

The tresor of the benefice,

Wherof the povere schulden clothe

And ete and drinke and house bothe;

The charite goth al unknowe,

For thei no grein of Pite sowe:   320

And slouthe kepeth the libraire

Which longeth to the Saintuaire;

To studie upon the worldes lore

Sufficeth now withoute more;

Delicacie his swete toth

Hath fostred so that it fordoth

Of abstinence al that ther is.

And forto loken over this,

If Ethna brenne in the clergie,

Al openly to mannes ije   330

At Avynoun thexperience

Therof hath yove an evidence,

Of that men sen hem so divided.

And yit the cause is noght decided;

Bot it is seid and evere schal,

Betwen tuo Stoles lyth the fal,

Whan that men wenen best to sitte:

In holy cherche of such a slitte

Is for to rewe un to ous alle;

God grante it mote wel befalle   340

Towardes him which hath the trowthe.

Bot ofte is sen that mochel slowthe,

Whan men ben drunken of the cuppe,

Doth mochel harm, whan fyr is uppe,

Bot if somwho the flamme stanche;

And so to speke upon this branche,

Which proud Envie hath mad to springe,

Of Scisme, causeth forto bringe

This newe Secte of Lollardie,

And also many an heresie   350

Among the clerkes in hemselve.

It were betre dike and delve

And stonde upon the ryhte feith,

Than knowe al that the bible seith

And erre as somme clerkes do.

Upon the hond to were a Schoo

And sette upon the fot a Glove

Acordeth noght to the behove

Of resonable mannes us:

If men behielden the vertus   360

That Crist in Erthe taghte here,

Thei scholden noght in such manere,

Among hem that ben holden wise,

The Papacie so desguise

Upon diverse eleccioun,

Which stant after thaffeccioun

Of sondry londes al aboute:

Bot whan god wole, it schal were oute,

For trowthe mot stonde ate laste.

Bot yet thei argumenten faste   370

Upon the Pope and his astat,

Wherof thei falle in gret debat;

This clerk seith yee, that other nay,

And thus thei dryve forth the day,

And ech of hem himself amendeth

Of worldes good, bot non entendeth

To that which comun profit were.

Thei sein that god is myhti there,

And schal ordeine what he wile,

Ther make thei non other skile   380

Where is the peril of the feith,

Bot every clerk his herte leith

To kepe his world in special,

And of the cause general,

Which unto holy cherche longeth,

Is non of hem that underfongeth

To schapen eny resistence:

And thus the riht hath no defence,

Bot ther I love, ther I holde.

Lo, thus tobroke is Cristes folde,   390

Wherof the flock withoute guide

Devoured is on every side,

In lacke of hem that ben unware

Schepherdes, whiche her wit beware

Upon the world in other halve.

The scharpe pricke in stede of salve

Thei usen now, wherof the hele

Thei hurte of that thei scholden hele;

And what Schep that is full of wulle

Upon his back, thei toose and pulle,   400

Whil ther is eny thing to pile:

And thogh ther be non other skile

Bot only for thei wolden wynne,

Thei leve noght, whan thei begynne,

Upon her acte to procede,

Which is no good schepherdes dede.

And upon this also men sein,

That fro the leese which is plein

Into the breres thei forcacche

Her Orf, for that thei wolden lacche   410

With such duresce, and so bereve

That schal upon the thornes leve

Of wulle, which the brere hath tore;

Wherof the Schep ben al totore

Of that the hierdes make hem lese.

Lo, how thei feignen chalk for chese,

For though thei speke and teche wel,

Thei don hemself therof no del:

For if the wolf come in the weie,

Her gostly Staf is thanne aweie,   420

Wherof thei scholde her flock defende;

Bot if the povere Schep offende

In eny thing, thogh it be lyte,

They ben al redy forto smyte;

And thus, how evere that thei tale,

The strokes falle upon the smale,

And upon othre that ben grete

Hem lacketh herte forto bete.

So that under the clerkes lawe

Men sen the Merel al mysdrawe,   430

I wol noght seie in general,

For ther ben somme in special

In whom that alle vertu duelleth,

And tho ben, as thapostel telleth,

That god of his eleccioun

Hath cleped to perfeccioun

In the manere as Aaron was:

Thei ben nothing in thilke cas

Of Simon, which the foldes gate

Hath lete, and goth in othergate,   440

Bot thei gon in the rihte weie.

Ther ben also somme, as men seie,

That folwen Simon ate hieles,

Whos carte goth upon the whieles

Of coveitise and worldes Pride,

And holy cherche goth beside,

Which scheweth outward a visage

Of that is noght in the corage.

For if men loke in holy cherche,

Betwen the word and that thei werche   450

Ther is a full gret difference:

Thei prechen ous in audience

That noman schal his soule empeire,

For al is bot a chirie feire

This worldes good, so as thei telle;

Also thei sein ther is an helle,

Which unto mannes sinne is due,

And bidden ous therfore eschue

That wikkid is, and do the goode.

Who that here wordes understode,   460

It thenkth thei wolden do the same;

Bot yet betwen ernest and game

Ful ofte it torneth other wise.

With holy tales thei devise

How meritoire is thilke dede

Of charite, to clothe and fede

The povere folk and forto parte

The worldes good, bot thei departe

Ne thenken noght fro that thei have.

Also thei sein, good is to save   470

With penance and with abstinence

Of chastite the continence;

Bot pleinly forto speke of that,

I not how thilke body fat,

Which thei with deynte metes kepe

And leyn it softe forto slepe,

Whan it hath elles al his wille,

With chastite schal stonde stille:

And natheles I can noght seie,

In aunter if that I misseye.   480

Touchende of this, how evere it stonde,

I here and wol noght understonde,

For therof have I noght to done:

Bot he that made ferst the Mone,

The hyhe god, of his goodnesse,

If ther be cause, he it redresce.

Bot what as eny man accuse,

This mai reson of trowthe excuse;

The vice of hem that ben ungoode

Is no reproef unto the goode:   490

For every man hise oghne werkes

Schal bere, and thus as of the clerkes

The goode men ben to comende,

And alle these othre god amende:

For thei ben to the worldes ije

The Mirour of ensamplerie,

To reulen and to taken hiede

Betwen the men and the godhiede.

Now forto speke of the comune,

It is to drede of that fortune   500

Which hath befalle in sondri londes:

Bot often for defalte of bondes

Al sodeinliche, er it be wist,

A Tonne, whanne his lye arist,

Tobrekth and renneth al aboute,

Which elles scholde noght gon oute;

And ek fulofte a litel Skar

Upon a Banke, er men be war,

Let in the Strem, which with gret peine,

If evere man it schal restreigne.   510

Wher lawe lacketh, errour groweth,

He is noght wys who that ne troweth,

For it hath proeved ofte er this;

And thus the comun clamour is

In every lond wher poeple dwelleth,

And eche in his compleignte telleth

How that the world is al miswent,

And ther upon his jugement

Yifth every man in sondry wise.

Bot what man wolde himself avise,   520

His conscience and noght misuse,

He may wel ate ferste excuse

His god, which evere stant in on:

In him ther is defalte non,

So moste it stonde upon ousselve

Nought only upon ten ne twelve,

Bot plenerliche upon ous alle,

For man is cause of that schal falle.

And natheles yet som men wryte

And sein that fortune is to wyte,   530

And som men holde oppinion

That it is constellacion,

Which causeth al that a man doth:

God wot of bothe which is soth.

The world as of his propre kynde

Was evere untrewe, and as the blynde

Improprelich he demeth fame,

He blameth that is noght to blame

And preiseth that is noght to preise:

Thus whan he schal the thinges peise,   540

Ther is deceipte in his balance,

And