Russell A. Peck

Confessio Amantis, the principal work in English by John Gower, friend of Chaucer, by whom he was influenced, has always been read as a conventional poem about the seven deadly sins. Here, paying particular attention to the poem’s language and style, Peck gives a brilliant new reinterpretation which not only illuminates the poem’s elegant beauty but provides a profound moral purpose as well. Gower’s Confessio, according to Peck, is a restatement of late fourteenth-cen­tury ideas of good and bad behavior, and is designed to illuminate and re­shape the minds and hearts of men. Peck sees the concepts of “kingship”—the governance of souls as well as king­doms—and “common profit”—the mutual enhancement of such king­doms—as the poem’s unifying ideas. Peck’s discussion further shows how the various tales hold together and support the poem’s loose plot and the poet’s strongly moral intention.

Kingship & Common Profit in Gower's Confessio Amantis

This volume makes accessible for students of the Middle Ages Middle English verses about heroic women from the Old Testament. Included are The Storie of Asneth, The Pistel of Swete Susan, The Story of Jephthah and his Daughter, and The Story of Judith. These poems exhibit the attitudes of Late Medieval England towards heroic women, and offer an unusually positive depiction of Judiasm. With extensive notes, glosses, and introductions, these verses are valuable to teachers and students of Middle English.

The Storie of Asneth, The Pistel of Swete Susan, The Story of Jephthah's Daughter, The Story of Judith

Heroic Women from the Old Testament in Middle English Verse

Robert F. Yeager

New essays on aspects of Gower's poetry, viewed through the lens of the self and beyond.

Russell A. Peck

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