Read Ebook: The complete works of John Gower volume 4 by Gower John Macaulay G C George Campbell Editor

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INTRODUCTION vii

EPISTOLA 1

VOX CLAMANTIS 3

CRONICA TRIPERTITA 314

REX CELI DEUS ETC. 343

H. AQUILE PULLUS ETC. 344

O RECOLENDE ETC. 345

CARMEN SUPER MULTIPLICI VICIORUM PESTILENCIA 346

TRACTATUS DE LUCIS SCRUTINIO 355

ECCE PATET TENSUS ETC. 358

EST AMOR ETC. 359

QUIA VNUSQUISQUE ETC. 360

ENEIDOS BUCOLIS ETC. 361

O DEUS IMMENSE ETC. 362

LAST POEMS 365

NOTES 369

GLOSSARY 421

INDEX TO THE NOTES 428

INTRODUCTION

LIFE OF GOWER.

To write anything like a biography of Gower, with the materials that exist, is an impossibility. Almost the only authentic records of him, apart from his writings, are his marriage-licence, his will, and his tomb in St. Saviour's Church; and it was this last which furnished most of the material out of which the early accounts of the poet were composed. A succession of writers from Leland down to Todd contribute hardly anything except guesswork, and this is copied by each from his predecessors with little or no pretence of criticism. Some of them, as Berthelette and Stow, describe from their own observation the tomb with its effigy and inscriptions, as it actually was in their time, and these descriptions supply us with positive information of some value, but the rest is almost entirely worthless.

A 'hard collection' it may be, but no harder than many others that have been made by biographers, and Leland's 'vir equestris ordinis' must certainly go the way of his other statements, being sufficiently refuted, as Stow remarks, by the 'Armiger' of Gower's epitaph. Leland in calling him a knight was probably misled by the gilt collar of SS upon his recumbent effigy, and Fuller afterwards, on the strength of the same decoration, fancifully revives the old theory that he was a judge, and is copied of course by succeeding writers. On the whole it may be doubted whether there is anything but guesswork in the statements made by Leland about our author, except so far as they are derived from his writings or from his tomb.

That John Gower the poet was of a Kentish family is proved by definite and positive evidence. The presumption raised by the fact that his English writings certainly have some traces of the Kentish dialect, is confirmed, first by the identity of the arms upon his tomb with those of Sir Robert Gower, who had a tomb in Brabourne Church in Kent, and with reference to whom Weever, writing in 1631, says, 'From this family John Gower the poet was descended,' secondly, by the fact that in the year 1382 a manor which we know to have been eventually in the possession of the poet was granted to John Gower, who is expressly called 'Esquier de Kent,' and thirdly, by the names of the executors of the poet's will, who are of Kentish families. It may be added that several other persons of the name of Gower are mentioned in the records of the time in connexion with the county of Kent. Referring only to cases in which the Christian name also is the same as that of the poet, we may note a John Gower among those complained of by the Earl of Arundel in 1377, as having broken his closes at High Rothing and elsewhere, fished in his fishery and assaulted his servants; John Gower mentioned in connexion with the parishes of Throwley and Stalesfield, Kent, in 1381-2; John Gower who was killed by Elias Taillour, apparently in 1385; John Gower who was appointed with others in 1386 to receive and distribute the stores at Dover Castle; none of whom can reasonably be identified with the poet. Therefore it cannot be truly said, as it is said by Pauli, that the surname Gower, or even the combination John Gower, is a very uncommon one in the records of the county of Kent.

They are as follows:--

Under date Feb. 15 of the same year it was reported that this would not be to the prejudice of the king, and accordingly on March 9 John Gower pays 53 shillings, which appears to be the annual value of the property, and is pardoned for the offence committed by acquiring it without licence.

The property remained in the king's hands till the year 1369, when an order was issued to the escheator of the county of Essex to put William Septvans in possession of his father's lands, which had been confiscated to the Crown, 'since two years and more have elapsed from the festival of St. Augustine, when he was twenty years old' . Presumably John Gower then entered into possession of the property which he had irregularly acquired in 1365, and possibly with this may be connected a payment by John Gower of ?20 at Michaelmas in the year 1368 to Richard de Ravensere, who seems to have been keeper of the hanaper in Chancery.

The mention of Multon in the will of John Gower the poet makes it practically certain that the above documents have to do with him.

Finally, Aug. 15, 1408, the Will of John Gower, which was proved Oct. 24 of the same year. His death therefore may be presumed to have taken place in October, 1408.

He leaves to his wife Agnes, ?100 of lawful money, also three cups, one 'cooperculum,' two salt-cellars and twelve spoons of silver, all the testator's beds and chests, with the furniture of hall, pantry and kitchen and all their vessels and utensils. One chalice and one vestment are left to the altar of the oratory belonging to his apartments . He desires also that his wife Agnes, if she survive him, shall have all rents due for his manors of Southwell in the county of Northampton and of Multoun in the county of Suffolk, as he has more fully determined in certain other writings given under his seal.

The executors of this will are to be as follows:--Agnes his wife, Arnold Savage, knight, Roger, esquire, William Denne, Canon of the king's chapel, and John Burton, clerk. Dated in the Priory of St. Mary Overes in Southwark, on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, Mccccviii.

The will was proved, Oct. 24, 1408, at Lambeth before the Archbishop of Canterbury , by Agnes the testator's wife, and administration of the property was granted to her on Nov. 7 of the same year.

It may be observed with reference to this will that the testator evidently stands already in the position of a considerable benefactor to the Priory of St. Mary Overey, in virtue of which position he has his apartments in the Priory and a place of honour assigned for his tomb in the church. He must also have established by previous arrangement the daily mass and the yearly obituary service which Berthelette speaks of as still celebrated in his time. It is evident that his benefactions were made chiefly in his life-time. There is some slight difficulty as regards the manors which are mentioned in the will. Multon in Suffolk we know already to have been in the poet's possession; but what is this 'Southwell'? Certainly not the well-known Southwell in Nottinghamshire, which cannot possibly have been in the possession of a private person, belonging, as it did, to the archiepiscopal see of York. Moreover, though 'in Comitatu Nott.' has been hitherto printed as the reading of the will, the manuscript has not this, but either 'Notth.' or 'North.,' more probably the latter. There were apparently other manors of Southwell or Suthwell in the county of Nottingham, and a manor of Suwell in Northamptonshire, but there seems to be no connexion with the name of Gower in the case of any of these. It is possible, but not very readily to be assumed, that the scribe who made the copy of the will in the register carelessly wrote 'Southwell in Com. North.' for 'Feltwell in Com. Norff.,' the name which is found coupled with Multon in the other records.

The one remaining record is the tomb in St. Saviour's church. This originally stood in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, on the north side of the church, but in 1832, the nave and north aisle being in ruins, the monument was removed to the south transept and restored at the expense of Earl Gower. After the restoration of the church this tomb was moved back to the north aisle in October 1894, and was placed on the supposed site of the chapel of St. John the Baptist, where it now stands.

'Beside on the wall, whereas he lieth, there be painted three virgins with crowns on their heads, one of the which is written Charitie, and she holdeth this device in her hand,

En toy qui es fitz de dieu le pere Sauv? soit que gist souz cest piere.

'The second is written Mercye, which holdeth in her hand this device,

O bone Jesu, fait ta mercy Al alme dont le corps gist icy.

'The third of them is written Pite, which holdeth in her hand this device following,

Pur ta pit?, Jesu, regarde, Et met cest alme in sauve garde.

'And thereby hangeth a table, wherein appeareth that who so ever prayeth for the soul of John Gower, he shall, so oft as he so doth, have a thousand and five hundred days of pardon.'

Johannes Gower, Princeps Poetarum Angliae, vixit temporibus Edwardi tertii et Richardi secundi.'

Again the way in which he speaks of physicians seems almost equally to exclude him from the profession of medicine.

He tells us that he is a man of simple tastes , and we know from the whole tone of his writings that he is a just and upright man, who believes in the subordination of the various members of society to one another, and who will not allow himself to be ruled in his own household either by his wife or his servants. But, though a thorough believer in the principle of gradation in human society, he constantly emphasizes the equality of all men before God, and refuses absolutely to admit the accident of birth as constituting any claim to 'gentilesce.' The common descent of all from Adam is as conclusive on this point for him as it was for John Ball. Considering that his views on society are essentially the same as those of Wycliff, and considering also his strong opinions about the corruption of the Church and the misdeeds of the friars, it is curious to find how strongly he denounces the Lollards in his later writings.

He has a just abhorrence of war, and draws a very clear distinction between the debased chivalry of his own day and the true ideal of knighthood. Above all he has a deep sense of religion, and is very familiar with the Bible. He strongly believes in the moral government of the world by Providence, and he feels sure, as others of his age did also, that the final stage of corruption has almost come. Whatever others may do, he at least intends to repent of his sins and prepare himself to render a good account of his stewardship. In both his French and his Latin work he shows himself a fearless rebuker of evil, even in the highest places. The charge of time-serving timidity has been sufficiently dealt with in the Introduction to the English Works.

'O gentile Engleterre, a toi j'escrits.'

THE LATIN WORKS.

'Contigit vt quarto Ricardi regis in anno, Dum clamat mensem Iunius esse suum,'

Gower's own style of versification in Latin is somewhat less elegant than that of Alexander Neckam or Peter Riga, but it stands upon much the same level of correctness. If we take into account the fact that the Latin is not classical but medieval, and that certain licences of prosody were regularly admitted by medieval writers of Latin verse, we shall not find the performance very bad. Such licences are, for example, the lengthening of a short syllable at the caesura, the position of final short vowels before 'st,' 'sp,' 'sc' at the beginning of the succeeding word, and the use of polysyllabic words, or of two dissyllables, at the end of the hexameter, so that lines such as these are not to be taken as irregular:

'Omnis et inde gradus a presule sanctificatus;' 'Quo minor est culpa, si cadat inde rea;' 'Et quia preuisa sic vota facit, puto culpa;' 'Si bene conseruet ordinis ipse statum.'

In any case it is certain that Gower expressed himself in Latin with great facility and with tolerable correctness. He may have imitated the style of Ovid 'studiosius quam felicius,' as Leland observes, but the comparison with other Latin verse-writers of his time sets his performance in a fairly favourable light.

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