The Complete Works of John Gower, Volume 1 — John Gower
The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The complete works of John Gower, volume 1 The French works Author : John Gower Editor : G. C. Macaulay Release date : June 19, 2023 [eBook #70998] Language : English, French Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70998 Credits : Ted Garvin, Stephen Rowland, Krista Zaleski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF These typos were corrected: page 321 corrected “plu8” to “plus” page 379 corrected placement of hyphen and “r” from “ex sue crear cionis priuilegio supe-” to “ex sue crea- cionis priuilegio super” page 414 corrected “Twelth” to “Twelfth” line 11556 corrected "d ela" to "de la" Index corrected "tresepoentablement" to "tresespoentablement" All other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN GOWER G. C. MACAULAY * THE FRENCH WORKS The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg CAMB. UNIV. MS. ADD. 3035 (UPPER PORTION F. 149 ro ) The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN GOWER EDITED FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS WITH INTRODUCTIONS, NOTES, AND GLOSSARIES BY G. C. MACAULAY, M.A. FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE * THE FRENCH WORKS Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1899 Oxford PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY The Complete Works of John Gower, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg PREFACE The publication of this book may most conveniently be explained by a short account of the circumstances which brought it about. While engaged some years ago in studying the Chaucer manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, I incidentally turned my attention also to those of the Confessio Amantis . The unsatisfactory character of the existing editions of that poem was sufficiently well known, and it was generally recognized that the printed text could not safely be referred to by philologists, except so far as those small portions were concerned which happened to have been published from a good manuscript by Mr. A. J. Ellis in his Early English Pronunciation ; so that, in spite of the acknowledged importance of the book in the history of the development of standard literary English, it was practically useless for linguistic studies. I was struck by the excellence of the authorities for its text which existed at Oxford, and on further investigation I convinced myself that it was here that the much needed new edition could best be produced. Accordingly I submitted to the Delegates of the University Press a proposal to edit the Confessio Amantis , and this proposal they accepted on the condition that I would undertake to edit also the other works, chiefly in French and Latin, of the same author, expressly desiring that the Speculum Meditantis , which I had lately identified while searching the Cambridge libraries for copies of the Confessio Amantis , should be included in the publication. To this condition I assented with some hesitation, which was due partly to my feeling that the English text was the only one really needed, and partly to doubts about my own competence to edit the French. Considering, however, the extent to which the writings of this author in various languages illustrate one another, the help which is to be derived from the French works in dealing with the Romance element in the English not only of Gower, but also of Chaucer and other writers of the time, and the clearer view of the literary position of the Confessio Amantis which is gained by approaching it from the French side, I am now disposed to think that the Delegates were right in desiring a complete edition; and as for my own competence as an editor, I can only say that I have learnt much since I first undertook the work, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have avoided many errors into which I should once have fallen. For the faults that remain (I speak now of the contents of the present volume) I ask the indulgence of those who are more competent Romance scholars than myself, on the ground that it was clearly desirable under the circumstances that the French and the English should have the same editor. Moreover, I may fairly claim to have given faithful and intelligible texts, and if I have gone wrong in other respects, it has been chiefly because I have wished to carry out the principle of dealing with all difficulties fairly, rather than passing them over without notice. The English works will occupy the second and third volumes of this edition. From what has been said it will be understood that to publish a correct text of the Confessio Amantis has been throughout the main object. For this the materials are so excellent, though hitherto almost completely neglected, that we may with some confidence claim that the work is now presented almost exactly as it left the hand of the author, and that a higher degree of security has been attained about the details of form and orthography than is possible (for example) in regard to any part of the writings of Chaucer. It is evident, if this be so, that the text must have a considerable value for students of Middle English, and none the less because it is here accompanied by a complete glossary. Besides this, the meaning of the text has been made clear, where necessary, by explanation and illustration, and above all by improved punctuation, and the sources of the stories and the literary connexions of the work generally have been traced as far