John Gower

b.1330
John Gower
 Relatively little known about his personal life
 Landowner in Kent, later resided in
Southwark
 Wrote in three languages (Anglo-Norman,
English, and Latin)
 Contemporary of and had “close relations”
with Chaucer
 At Chaucer’s request, read Chaucer’s
Troilus and Criseyde for “correction”
Historical Context
 Born during the reign of Edward III but…
 Produced two of his three main works were
during reign of Richard II and Henry IV (the
dedication of the third revision of Confessio
was changed from Richard II to Henry IV)
 Writing during the Hundred Year’s War
 Alive during the establishment of the
Parliament of England
 Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
 Survived the recurring Black Death through
the latter half of the 14th and early 15th
centuries
Three Major Works
 Mirour de l’omme (Mirror of Man)
– Written in Anglo-Norman
– Addressed to upper class audience able
to read French and English
– Estate satire
– Around 30,000 lines
– Survives in fragments
Three Majors Works (cont.)
 Vox Clamantis (Voice of the Crier)
– Written in Latin
– Name of poem refers to saint for whom
Gower was named, John the Baptist
– Gower identified with John the Baptist as
the “the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness” and with the apocalyptic writer
of Revelation, John.
– Estate satire (addresses the peasantry for
their part in the Peasants’ Uprising of
1381)
Three Majors Works (cont.)
 Confessio Amantis (The Lover’s Confession)
– Written in English
– Divided into eight books
– Gower draws from many secular and classical
texts, but particularly Ovid
– Norton characterizes it as “moral discourse.”
John Gower

d.1408