John Gower (c1330-1408) was an almost exact contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland, and, like both of them, associated with the popularisation and acceptance of literature in English rather than Latin. Of his most important surviving work, however, each is written in a different language: `Mirour de l’Omme’ is in Middle French; `Vox Clamantis’ in Latin, and `Confessio Amantis’ in Middle English.
While it is not known precisely where Gower originated from, extensive research over the last 150 years has produced strong arguments to show that this must have been somewhere in Kent. W. Warwick produced a lengthy, early treatment on this in `Archaeologia Cantiana’, Volume 6, 1866. Referring to the claims made till then that the poet had been born in Yorkshire because of a well-established and well known family with a similar name there, he calls upon the research in the 17th century of Weever in his 1631 `Funeral Monuments. This august volume through looking at designs of memorials found links between Gower the writer’s coat of arms and that of a Sir John Gower buried in Brabourne Church, East Kent. This was supplemented by documentary evidence that the family had property in Kent, (as well as in Suffolk). These connections had been subsequently reinforced by the work of Sir Harris Nicholas who had penetrated heraldry even more deeply. Those interested can find the arguments from 85 to 87 at https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/006%20-%201866/006-03.pdf. The poet’s connection to Kent is finally made by more recently undertaken analysis of the language he used and its relationship to Kent dialect (see Michael Samuels and J.J.Smith, `The Language of Gower”. The English of Chaucer and his Contemporaries,’ Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen, 1988).
Gower is connected to Kent through more than simply heraldic images or language however. He had, on Warwick’s account, `a shrewd turn for business as well as poetry’ (90) and was linked to his own property in the country. In addition to being versatile in three languages, he was active in court politics and business. This was what might have brought him in contact originally with Chaucer, who also moved in such worlds (see entry for Geoffrey Chaucer). Warwick continues:
` This conclusion receives further support from the fact that Chaucer, a man of the world himself, and nearly all his life engaged in public business, selected his brother bard to act as one of his attorneys when, in May, 1378, Chaucer left England on a diplomatic mission to the Continent. This would argue a degree of intimacy between the two poets, which seems confirmed by the compliments they respectively paid each other. Chaucer dedicated his ‘ Troilus and Cresseyde ‘ to Gower and another friend.
” 0 moral Gower! this boke I direct
To thee and to the philosophical Strode.”’ (Ibid, 90).
This did not prevent the two in later life having what seems to have been a falling out, with parts of the `Man of Lawes Tale’ in `The Canterbury Tales’ referring obliquely to themes in Gower’s work in what has been interpreted by some as a slightly disparaging way (though there are dissenters to this view, citing more innocent reasons). In any case, Gower seems to have been tangled up in the complex politics around the turbulent reign of Richard the Second and its brutal ending. While the evidence is unclear, Gower changed the dedication of `Confession’ to Henry the Fourth on his ascension to the throne showing what some saw as unseemly haste and opportunism, despite the fact that the work had been inspired by a conversation with the previous King around 1385. It should be bourn in mind though that by this stage, he was an old man.
Gower’s work `Confessio Amantis’ (`The Lover’s Confession’ with the subtitle `The Seven Deadly Sins’) has a similar structure to Chaucer’s great assemblage of stories, and for a couple of centuries after his death he enjoyed a high standing. It is telling that today, however, that if he is known it is through his links to Chaucer. Warwick gives a severe judgement:
`The reputation of the poet is greater than his productions will sustain. Yet in his own day, and for more than a century afterwards, his popularity is said to have vied with that of Chaucer. For this there is of course a reason. Gower, though not a man of great and living genius, had a genius for the subordinate and mechanical parts of literature’ (Warwick, Ibid, 94).
Perhaps it is best to let Gower speak for himself. The full text of `Confessio’ is available in Project Gutenberg online. The opening goes thus:
Of hem that writen ous tofore
The bokes duelle, and we therfore
Ben tawht of that was write tho:
Forthi good is that we also
In oure tyme among ous hiere
Do wryte of newe som matiere,
Essampled of these olde wyse
So that it myhte in such a wyse,
Whan we ben dede and elleswhere,
Beleve to the worldes eere
In tyme comende after this.
Bot for men sein, and soth it is,
That who that al of wisdom writ
It dulleth ofte a mannes wit
To him that schal it aldai rede,
For thilke cause, if that ye rede,
I wolde go the middel weie
And wryte a bok betwen the tweie,
Somwhat of lust, somewhat of lore,
That of the lasse or of the more
Som man mai lyke of that I wryte:
And for that fewe men endite
In oure englissh, I thenke make
A bok for Engelondes sake,
The yer sextenthe of kyng Richard.
What schal befalle hierafterward
God wot, for now upon this tyde
Men se the world on every syde
In sondry wyse so diversed,
That it welnyh stant al reversed,
As forto speke of tyme ago.’ (www.gutenberg.org/files/266/266-h/266-h.htm, from ` THE WORKS OF JOHN GOWER, ed. Prof. G.C. Macauley.)
In old age, Gower seems to have gone blind. He lived, and died, in Southwark, where to this day a splendid tomb commemorates him. There, at least, he is well remembered.