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See also:GOWER, See also:JOHN (d. 1408) , See also:English poet, died at an advanced See also:age in 1408, so that he may be presumed to have been See also:born about 1330. He belonged to a See also:good Kentish See also:family, but the See also:suggestion of See also:Sir See also:Harris See also:Nicolas that the poet is to be identified with a John Gower who was at one See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time possessed of the See also:manor of Kentwell is open to serious objections. There is no See also:evidence that he ever lived as a See also:country See also:gentleman, but he was undoubtedly possessed of some See also:wealth, and we know that he was the owner of the manors of Feltwell in See also:Suffolk and See also:Moulton in See also:Norfolk. In a document of 1382 he is called an " Esquier de See also:Kent," and he was certainly not in See also:holy orders. That he was acquainted with See also:Chaucer we know, first because Chaucer in leaving See also:England for See also:Italy in 1378 appointed Gower and another to represent him in his See also:absence, secondly because Chaucer addressed his See also:Troilus and Criseide to Gower and See also:Strode (whom he addresses as " moral Gower " and " philosophical Strode ") for See also:criticism and correction, and thirdly because of the lines in the first edition of Gower's Confessio amantis, " And gret wel Chaucer whan ye mete," &c. There is no sufficient ground for the suggestion, based partly on the subsequent omission of these lines and partly on the humorous reference of Chaucer to Gower's Confessio amantis in the introduction to the See also:Man of See also:Law's See also:Tale, that the friendship was broken by a ovarrel. From his Latin poem
Vox clamantis we know that he was deeply and painfully interested in the peasants' rising of 1381; and by the alterations which the author made in successive revisions of this See also:work we can trace a gradually increasing sense of disappointment in the youthful See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king, whom he at first acquits of all responsibility for the See also:state of the See also:kingdom on See also:account of his See also:tender age. That he became personally known to the king we learn from his own statement in the first edition of the Confessio amantis, where he says that he met the king upon the See also:river, was invited to enter the royal See also:barge, and in the conversation which followed received the suggestion which led him to write his See also:principal English poem. At the same time we know, especially from the later revisions of the Confessio amantis, that he was a See also:great admirer of the king's brilliant. See also:cousin, See also:- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
Henry of See also:Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV., whom he came eventually to regard as a possible saviour of society from the misgovernment of See also:Richard II. We have a, See also:record that in 1393 he received a See also:collar from his favourite See also:political See also:hero, and it is to be observed that the effigy upon Gower's See also:tomb is wearing a collar of SS. with the See also:swan badge which was used by Henry.
The first edition of the Confessio amantis is dated 1390, and this contains, at least in some copies, a secondary See also:dedication to the then See also:earl of See also:Derby. The later See also:form, in which Henry became the See also:sole See also:object of the dedication, is of the See also:year 1393. Gower's political opinions are still more strongly expressed in the Cronica tripartita.
In 1398 he was married to See also:Agnes Groundolf, and from the See also:special See also:licence granted by the See also:bishop of See also:Winchester for the celebration of this See also:marriage in John Gower's private See also:oratory we gather that he was then living in lodgings assigned to him within the priory of St See also:Mary Overy, and perhaps also that he was too infirm to be married in the See also:parish See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
church. It is probable that this was not his first marriage, for there are indications in his See also:early See also:French poem that he had a wife at the time when that was written. His will is dated the 15th of See also:August 1408, and his See also:death took See also:place very soon after this. He had been See also:blind for some years before his death. A magnificent tomb with a recumbent effigy was erected over his See also:grave in the See also:chapel of St John the Baptist within the church of the priory, now St Saviour's, See also:Southwark, and this is still to be seen, though not quite in its See also:original state or place. From the inscription on the tomb, as well as from other indications, it appears that he was a considerable benefactor of the priory and contributed largely to the rebuilding of the church.
The effigy on Gower's tomb rests its See also:head upon a See also:pile of three See also:folio volumes entitled See also:Speculum meditantis, Vox clamantis and Confessio amantis. These are his three principal See also:works. The first of these was See also:long supposed to have perished, but a copy of it was discovered in the year 1895 under the See also:title Mirour de l'omme. It is a French poem of about 30,000 lines in twelve-See also:line stanzas, and under the form of an See also:allegory of the human soul describes the seven deadly sins and their opposing virtues, and then the various estates of man and the vices incident to each, concluding with a narrative of the See also:life of the Virgin Mary, and with praise of her as the means of reconciliation between See also:God and man. The work is extremely tedious for the most See also:part, but shows considerable command over the See also:language and a great facility in metrical expression.
Gower's next work was the Vox clamantis in Latin elegiac See also:verse, in which the author takes occasion from the peasants' insurrection of 1381 to See also:deal again with the faults of the various classes of society. In the earlier portion the insurrection itself is described in a rather vivid manner, though under the form of an allegory: the See also:remainder contains much the same material as we have already seen in that part of the French poem where the classes of society are described. Gower's Latin verse is very See also:fair, as judged by the See also:medieval See also:standard, but in this See also:book he has borrowed very freely from See also:Ovid, See also:Alexander See also:Neckam, See also:- PETER
- PETER (Lat. Petrus from Gr. irfpos, a rock, Ital. Pietro, Piero, Pier, Fr. Pierre, Span. Pedro, Ger. Peter, Russ. Petr)
- PETER (PEDRO)
- PETER, EPISTLES OF
- PETER, ST
Peter de See also:Riga and others.
Gower's See also:chief claim, however, to reputation as a poet rests upon his English work, the Confessio amantis, in which he displays in his native language a real See also:gift as a See also:story-See also:teller. Heis himself the See also:lover of his poem, in spite of his advancing years, and he makes his See also:confession to See also:Genius, the See also:priest of See also:Venus, under the usual headings supplied by the seven deadly sins. These with their several branches are successively described, and the nature of them illustrated by tales, which are directed to the See also:illustration both of the See also:general nature of the See also:sin, and of the particular form which it may take in a lover. Finally he receives at once his See also:absolution, and his dismissal from the service of Venus, for which his age renders him unfit. The See also:idea is ingenious, and there is often much quaintness of See also:fancy in the application of moral ideas to the relations of the lover and his See also:mistress. The tales are See also:drawn from very various See also:sources and are often extremely well told. The See also:metre is the See also:short See also:couplet, and it is extremely smooth and See also:regular. The great See also:fault of the Confessio amantis is the extent of its digressions, especially in the fifth and seventh books.
Gower also wrote in 1397 a short See also:series of French ballades on the virtue of the married state (Traitie pour essampler See also:les amantz maries), and after the See also:accession of Henry IV. he produced the Cronica tripartita, a See also:partisan account in Latin leonine hexameters of the events of the last twelve years of the reign of Richard II. About the same time he addressed an English poem in seven-line stanzas to Henry IV. (In Praise of See also:Peace), and dedicated to the king a series of French ballades (Cinkante Balades), which deal with the conventional topics of love, but are often - graceful and even poetical in expression. Several occasional Latin pieces also belong to the later years of his life.
On the whole Gower must be admitted to have had consider-able See also:literary See also:powers; and though not a man of genius, and by no means to be compared with Chaucer, yet he did good service in helping to establish the standard literary language, which at the end of the 14th See also:century took the place of the See also:Middle English dialects. The Confessio amantis was long regarded as a classic of the language, and Gower and Chaucer were often mentioned See also:side by side as the fathers of English See also:poetry.
A See also:complete edition of Gower's works in four volumes, edited by
G. C. See also:Macaulay, was published in 1899-1902, the first See also:volume containing the French works, the second and third the English, and the See also:fourth the Latin, with a See also:biography. Before this the Confessio amantis had been published in the following See also:editions: See also:Caxton (14483); Berthelette (1532 and 1554); See also:Chalmers, See also:British Poets (18ro); See also:Rein-hold See also:Pauli (1857); H. See also:Morley (1889, incomplete). The two series of French ballades and the Praise of Peace were printed for the See also:Roxburghe See also:Club in 1818, and the Vox clamantis and Cronica tripartita were edited by H. O. See also:Coxe for the Roxburghe Club in 185o. The Cronica tripartita, the Praise of Peace and some of the See also:minor Latin poems were printed in See also:Wright's Political Poems (Rolls series, 14). The Praise of Peace appeared in the early folio editions of Chaucer, and has been edited also by Dr See also:Skeat in his Chaucerian and other Pieces. Reference may be made to Todd's Illustrations of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer; the See also:article (by Sir
H. Nicolas) in the Retrospective See also:Review for 1828; Observations on the Language of Chaucer and Gower, by F. J. See also:Child; H. Morley's English Writers, iv.; Ten Brink's See also:History of Early English Literature, ii. ; and See also:Courthope's History of English Poetry, i. (G. C.
End of Article: GOWER, JOHN (d. 1408)
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