1345 Compleignte. and one other copy, so far as I know" (Mac, 2:475). [Here the Confessor recounts an instructive example in order that a deceived soul might not be assailed by the ear's foolish overhearing. And he says how the serpent who is called Aspis, carrying a certain most precious stone, Carbuncle by name, in the middle of its forehead, protected himself against the words of an enchanter by pressing down one ear and fixing it to the ground, and closing off the other most firmly with the point of its tail.] Benoît tells the story in Roman de Troie, but he does not include all the details that Gower includes, though Vat. But once he is made a Trojan who betrays the city and claims the return of his daughter in exchange for Antenor, his treachery becomes a key component of all retellings. MED glosses the term as the seat of the passions, or the vital center of life. 2398 have his wille. 775 Just as the eye is the most important sense organ for human revelation (see note to lines 1.304-08 above), so too it is the principal sense organ for guiding reason. 2043 Thei. This index is based on Macaulay’s marginal notations, which are a running analysis of the contents of the Confessio Amantis, a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower.These have been used for subdivisions of the work in order to break it into smaller, more usable units and to serve as a very rough index of contents. Genius names Medusa’s sisters, as Ovid does, though he calls Stheno, “Stellibon,” and Euryale, “Suriale.” Moreover, he combines the story of the Graeae, who share one tooth and one eye, with the story of the Gorgons. But see MED leir n.1b, meaning “burial place.” I.e., Florent is “prepared for his death”; or, he is “all set (resigned) to be brought to his grave.” 138 with that word I sawh anon. “Consort” is perhaps too gentle a gloss. The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. Instead, he wrote in octosyllabic lines, which was the previous standard. 244–48). One day, while he was hunting in the woods, the Oread nymph Echo spotted him and immediately fell for him. The Lover confesses that he is often guilty of this in regard to his rivals, and he is reproves by the tale of Acis and alatea. imaginable degree, area of F: Symon. B: compleignt. "The weather shall rain upon you." 767 of al the cité the faireste. Compare the jewel-bearing serpent in the Tale of Adrian and Bardus (CA 5.5060 ff. credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. 704-06 berth lowest the seil . Macaulay observes that Gower winds the story up abruptly. 1881–82 Omitted in S. J: þe vnsemelieste. flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? B: many such a man. 7). So F, S. B: þunsemelieste. Latin marginalia: Hic quasi in persona aliorum, quos amor alligat, fingens se auctor esse Amantem, varias eorum passiones variis huius libri distinccionibus per singula scribere proponit. Study.com has thousands of articles about every 989–90, 1.1295–96, 1.2046–47, 1.2091–93, 1.2629–30, 1.2722–24, 1.3366–67. Troiae III (Gest Historiale lib. So S, B, J, Mac. 1328 retenue. The Epistola Alexandri ad Aristo­telem de Mirabilibus Indiae speaks of serpents with emeralds around their necks who, in the spring, sometimes fight, leaving behind “emeralds of enormous size” (Katz, Romances of Alexander, p. 123). Myth. This is a facsimile or image-based PDF made from scans of the original book. Vnde Confessor Amanti opponens materiam plenius declarat. See also the explanatory note to 1.786–88. 143), Vita Barlaam et Josaphat, cap. But the MED favors “To pay the cost of Pride” (see MED s.v. See Chaucer, Anel. So F. S: schert. 2360 alle. So F. S: mysdespended. tolite. See Ecclesiasticus 19:27, which Gower abbreviates. Latin verses i (before line 1). Exactly what the anatomical designations might be is unclear. F, J: Compleingte. See all cupidinous lovers who are first struck through the eye by Cupid's first arrow — beauty. The ordinary conduct of the work may be illustrated by a short summary of the second book, the subject of which is Envy. See textual note. 293–95. F: whilon. J: They. It is noteworthy that two early MSS, Bodley 294 and Egerton 1991, identify the speaker here as Iohn Gowere, rather than caitif. The originals behind Gower’s Genius may be found in Jean de Meun’s portion of RR and Alanus de Insulis’ De Planctu Naturae. See Reich, ed., Tales of Alexander the Macedonian, pp. Confessio Amantis ("The Lover's Confession") is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. 32), in presenting his Tale of the Sirens. The stories of Acteon and Narcissus, both from book one of the Confessio Amontis, and both having book three of the Metamorphoses as a source, serve as useful illustrations of-Gower's methods. 1257 schalt. In other instances, instead of “noght,” Gower uses “non”: e.g., 1.1465, 1.1778– 79; or a neither/nor construction as in 1.2470–71. 333 ff. See also footnotes 29-31 in the Introduction. 2565 thilke unkynde Pride. 1719 womanhiede. Guillaume de Lorris’ RR, lines 1439–1614, was an influential text in this regard. 1225 Bot. See White, Nature, Sex, and Goodness, pp. So S, J, Mac. See note to 1.786–88. II (101) does. 130 wis man. {{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | staunche. 2274 clerk Ovide. The popular story of Albinus and Rosemund is first told by Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum 2.28. Proverbial. Langförs). 773 Of thilke bore frele kinde. 7-35) in terms of the self-conflicting presentations of human love in Boethius, Alanus de Insulis, and Jean de Meun that Gower mines throughout the CA. 264–65). 205 Benedicité. These two senses enable man to perceive the numbers, motions, harmonies, and rhythms of the universe, whereby the soul is illuminated. 786–88 noght . Et dicit qualiter ille serpens, qui aspis vocatur, quendam preciosissimum lapidem nomine Carbunculum in sue frontis medio gestans, contra verba incantantis aurem vnam terre affigendo premit, et aliam sue caude stimulo firmissime obturat. Simpson, Sciences and the Self, using Alan de Lille’s Anti-claudianus as a text parallel in many ways with CA, explores Alan’s notion that narrative images provide the soul with a means of picturing itself (pp. 3397-3400 The MS is torn here, with line 3397 ending gr; line 3398 ending plac; and line 3400 ending qwee. . Wherefore Diana, indignant, transformed him into the form of a stag, whom his own dogs caught and tore to pieces with their lethal teeth.] Et narrat exemplum qualiter cuiusdam Principis filius nomine Narcizus estiuo tempore, cum ipse venacionis causa quendam ceruum solus cum suis canibus exagitaret, in grauem sitim incurrens necessitate compulsus ad bibendum de quodam fonte pronus se inclinauit; vbi ipse faciem suam pulcherrimam in aqua percipiens, putabat se per hoc illam Nimpham, quam Poete Ekko vocant, in flumine coram suis oculis pocius conspexisse; de cuius amore confestim laqueatus, vt ipsam ad se de fonte extraheret, pluribus blandiciis adulabatur. Gower uses this tale, probably first, in Confessio Amantis. Another organ linked to the concept of herte rote is the “reines,” which are also regarded the seat of passions and can refer to the kidneys, heart, or the male generative organ (MED reine n.[2]. Presumption Tale of Capaneus Trump of Death Tale of Narcissus ix. ne. Latin marginalia: Hic ponit Confessor exemplum contra ilos, qui de suis viribus presumentes debiliores efficiuntur. F, J: ferst. 2369–72 Omitted in S, B, J. See Dimmick, “‘Redinge of Romance,’” pp. There are too many tales in the poem to list individually, but among them are stories that are familiar to audiences even today, such as the Trojan Horse. [Here he speaks concerning a second species of Pride, which is called Disobedience; and first he declares in general terms the nature of that vice, and consequently discourses about that Disobedience in particular, which, despising the cause of love in the court of Cupid, is very often impeded because of its stupidity. 2462 ff. J: schene (omits was). The grantdame’s strategy misleads the youth by returning him to the patriarchal ignorance of his roots, while, at the same time, co-opting the emperor’s revenge. Compare Chaucer, CT I(A)1606 and CT V(F)767. J: wommonhede. F: myhte. [Here the Confessor narrates an instructive example against pride in general; and he says that in recent times a certain king, famous for his prudence, presented to one of his knights a logical challenge comprising three questions, whence he might give a correct response under pain of capital punishment: first, what having less need has obtained greater help from inhabitants on earth; second, what having merit of greater value demands less expense; third, what diminishes all good things but is worth utterly nothing in itself. From the heart the spirit moves to the penis by means of the arteries and makes it stiffen” (see Jacquart and Thomasset, Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages, p. 83). . Wherefore in the seige of the city of the Thebans, when he himself on a certain day threw himself into fighting before his enemies, a fire descending from heaven suddenly burned him, fully armed, to ashes.] The duke of Ravenna later revenged his death on the bodies both of the said queen and of her helpers. The story of Mundus and Paulina is said to be historical by Josephus, Antiquitatum Judai­carum 18. So S, B, Mac. Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. CA 3.2055, where Orestes condemns Clytemnestra: “O cruel beste unkinde” for the slaugh­ter of her own lord. [Here begins the confession of the Lover, to whom the Confessor particularly inquires concerning two of the five senses, that is, sight and sound.] 1648 Gif his ansuere. Proverbial. ne. 481 ff. . F: wynme. The two poets were contemporaries and often mentioned each other as influences in their writings, but Chaucer's work is a little more well-known these days. So B, Mac. That . Translation of the epigram is also assisted by the marginal gloss (see the next note), where Gower states that he is discussing “that love by which not only the human species but indeed every living thing is naturally subjected.” Yet an in­herent contradiction and instability lies in the phrase, as Wetherbee cor­rectly emphasizes: human love, in Gower’s and the medieval Christian per­ception of the post-lapsarian world, is the very thing that most resists harmony with Nature’s positive, pristine purposes. Latin verses iii (before line 203). See Whiting W366. See Met. Quo facto Rex statim super hiis que per prius gesta fuerant cunctis audientibus per singula se iactauit. J: schriue. But Venus, abhorring above all others those stained by this vice in the cause of love, expells them and, ashamed of their blabbing, execrates them. F: ther. See Introduction, notes 25 and 26, for citation of medieval medical treatises linking the eye to the frontal lobe of the brain, where Imagination and Fantasy reside. The situation is similar in ways to Chaucer's Prol. Whence the Confessor, querying the Lover, explains the matter more fully.] Gower's poem is also written in couplets, which are two paired lines. The Tales of Acteo" and Narcissus in the Confessio Amantis Ovid's Metamorphoses is easily the most important of the many sources of the stories in the Confessio Amantis. Of persons or their hearts, honest signifies virtuousness or chastity (MED). J: wysmon. . 2304-21 Genius introduces a Celtic component of fairy magic to his version of Nar­cissus’ downfall as he dismounts at heat of day and under a tree drinks from a well. Simpson reads CA as a fable of the soul “in which the impetus of the soul to reach its own perfection, or form, determines the narrative form” (Sciences and the Self, p. 230). In one edition of the Confessio, he even dedicates the poem in part to Chaucer. The Tale told by the Man of Law also appears in John Gower's Confession Amantis. F: mar. But the king, preeminent in every wisdom, punished more gently than terrible providence does the one presuming so incautiously, so that he would remember humility.] See also Craun on Gower’s methodology in querying the deviant speaker (Lies, Slander, and Obscenity, pp. The beautiful woman is scandalized by the deception and insists on telling her husband, who goes to the king. 3068 ff. See the Latin gloss on sight and hearing as doors of the mind (preceding 1.289) and Genius' discussion of eyes and ears as the dominant intuitive senses. To the third, she said that pride devastating all good things both of the body and the soul induces excessive expenses. [Here he says that there are seven mortal sins, whose head, Pride, has various species, and the first of these is called Hypocrisy, whose properties as a vice the Confessor declares to the Lover in simple terms.] . B: may. But Perseus, a knight furnished with the shield of Pallas and the sword of Mercury, with a bold spirit and without any danger to himself killed them as they were dwelling beyond Mount Athlans.] Hahn cites the first recension couplet, where, instead of Fairfax’s “In a cronique as it is write” (1.1404), we get: “And in ensample of this matiere / A tale I fynde, as thou shalt hiere.” Hahn concludes: “This revision transforms the pedigree of Gow­er’s retelling from a popular tale — perhaps Ragnelle, in its surviving form, or some other performative text — to literate narrative” (“Old Wives Tales,” p. 100). Mac: She. So S, B, Mac. That . Secundo, quid maioris valencie meritum continens minoris expense reprisas exiguit. 2829 tree. 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