The marginal Latin glosses, identified by a capital L in the left margin next to the text, are transcribed and translated in the notes and can be accessed by clicking on (see note) at the corresponding line.

1 This old rule that favors vice is useful nowadays, nor is the new order pleasing that teaches otherwise. Love long blind has not yet received its sight where devious Venus conceals the established path.

2 Love belongs to all the community; but let whoever carries out immoderate excesses not be considered a lover. Yet the chance by which Venus attracts hearts does not permit rational assessment of things made to measure.

3 Whoever desires what he cannot have, wastes his time; where "I'm able" is absent, "I want" lacks a cure. Winter, hairy with icy locks, is not equal to summer's work, when its heat has receded. Nature does not give to December what May has, nor can mud compare to flowers; and thus old men's lust does not flower in youthful compliance, as Venus herself demands. It would be appropriate, therefore, for those whom white old age touches to cultivate chaste bodies henceforth.

4 Spare I pray, O Christ, the people in order that they may rejoice; oppose England's sad declining, highest king, lest England should sadly go down. Correct each estate, acquit frail defendants. May this blessed place thereupon thrive, grateful [or pleasing] to God.

5 That is, Henry Bolingbroke, who ascended to the throne in 1400. Gower shifted his endorsement from Richard to Henry well before that time, at the latest by 1392. See Prologue, lines 24-92, and the note to Prologue, lines 22ff.

6 Whether the songs are "full of praise" for England, or England "full of praise" for Gower's poetry is grammatically ambiguous (laude repleta). For a similar grammatically possible, hyperbolic praise of Gower's poem, see the Latin verses after *2971, along with the note. That the verse here too allows that meaning by the same technique, along with metrical and other features of the Latin here, suggests either that Gower himself wrote these words of the "certain philosopher," or that a Latinist very much in his "school" of Latin poetry constructed them. The very existence of marginal glosses written by the author for his own work somewhat supports the former possibility. At the least, he had no modesty about including them.

Abbreviations: Anel.: Chaucer, Anelida and Arcite; BD: Chaucer, Book of the Duchess; CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; HF: Chaucer, House of Fame; LGW: Chaucer, Legend of Good Women; Mac: Macaulay (4 vol. Complete Works); MED: Middle English Dictionary; Met.: Ovid, Metamorphoses; MO: Gower, Mirour de l’Omme; MS(S): manuscript(s); OED: Oxford English Dictionary; PF: Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls; PL: Patrologia Latina; RR: Lorris and de Meun, Roman de la Rose; TC: Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; Tilley: Tilley, Dictionary of Proverbs in England; Vat. Myth.: Vatican Mythographer I, II, or III; VC: Gower, Vox Clamantis; Whiting: Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases. For manuscript abbreviations, see Textual Notes, below.

Notes to Latin verses i (before line 1). Line 1: confert. While unusual in other Latin writers, "is useful" is a regular sense of confert for Gower (e.g., in VC); as is also common in Gower's Latin (but more striking here), the object of verbs of pleasure and displeasure is omitted — "people at the present time" are implicitly those who find the rule of lechery useful, and the "new teaching" against it unpleasing. This grammatically understood object ("us") has been the implied target of much of the poem, in view from the first line on. Line 4: impositum. "Affixed" here translates impositum, which may mean the path was "imposed" either legitimately (like the proper order of a restrained life) or deceptively (compare "impostor"). "The impostured path" would be a possible although awkward rendition of the phrase.

1 ff. Macaulay imagines that Gower "had some embarrassment as regards the subject [incest] of his eighth book" (3:536). But contrast Scanlon's perceptive juxtaposing of medieval attitudes toward the topic with those of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (“Riddle of Incest,” pp. 93-112).

3 ff. Latin marginalia: Postquam ad instanciam Amantis confessi Confessor Genius super hiis que Aristotiles Regem Alexandrum edocuit, vna cum aliarum Cronicarum exemplis seriose tractauit, iam vltimo in isto octauo volumine ad confessionem in amoris causa regrediens tractare proponit super hoc, quod nonnulli primordia nature ad libitum voluptuose consequentes, nullo humane racionis arbitrio seu ecclesie legum imposicione a suis excessibus debite refrenantur. Vnde quatenus amorem concernit Amantis conscienciam pro finali sue confessionis materia Genius rimari conatur. [After the confessor Genius has discoursed at the urging of the confessing Lover about those things that Aristotle taught King Alexander along with instructive examples taken one by one from other chronicles, now finally in this eighth book he returns to confession in the debate of love. He proposes to discourse about that matter which some, voluptuously following at their will the initial order of nature, do not refrain from by any judgment of human reason or statute of ecclesiastical law. About this insofar as it pertains to love, as the final portion of his confession, Genius strives to probe the Lover's conscience.]

10 Bot Lucifer He putte aweie. Medieval popular histories of creation commonly begin with the fall of the angels, Lucifer being the brightest and second only to God. That fall makes way for the creation of humankind as replacement for the angelic failure. Compare the sequence of events in Cursor Mundi or in the mystery plays.

21-26 The N-Town plays place the fall of the angels on the fifth day of creation, followed by the creation of man on the sixth. Perhaps Gower has a similar scheme in mind as he speaks of the fall of Lucifer through deadly pride, then jumps to the sixth day and Adam's creation.

30–34 of the mannes progenie . . . The nombre of angles . . . to restore. That the numbers of creation, disrupted by the fallen angels, would be restored with the creation and redemption of mankind was commonplace in fourteenth-century thought. See, for example, Cursor Mundi, lines 514–16 (“Adam þer-for was wroght þan / Þe tent ordir for to fullfill, / Þat lucifer did for to spill” — ed. Morris, pp. 36–38); similarly in the York Cycle, at the end of the first play, “The Fall of the Angels,” Deus announces that his “after-warkes” (line 152) will make up for the lack caused by the fall; then, in the second play, “Creation,” that “syne þat þis world es ordand euyn”(line 29), Deus will begin creation to restore what has been lost. As a patristic source for the idea, see St. Augustine, Enchiridion, ch. 29, entitled: “The Restored Part of Humanity Shall, in Accordance with the Promises of God, Succeed to the Place Which the Rebellious Angels Lost.” Augustine is uncertain about what the exact number is but is confident that God has such a number in mind since he ordered all things in “measure, and number, and weight” (in Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 3.247). See also Augustine’s De civitate Dei Book 22, ch. 1.

48 Metodre. The reference is to Methodius, “in whose Revelationes it is written, ‘Sciendum namque est, exeuntes Adam et Evam de Paradiso virgines fuisse’ [For it should be known that Adam and Eve were virgins when they left Paradise], so that ‘Into the world’ in l.53 must mean from Paradise into the outer world” (Mac 2:536).

54 nature hem hath reclamed. The sexual drive of “nature” serves a positive function here. The issue of incest, soon to come, qualifies the regulation of desire. See the sinister consequences of Lot’s daughters following “nature” in 8.230 ff., or the circumstances of Antiochus, who acts “[w]ithoute insihte of conscience” in following his “likinge and concupiscence” (8.293–94).

62 ff. Methodius identifies the sisters of Cain and Abel as Calmana and Debora (Mac 2:536).

146 non schal wedden of his ken. On the history of Ecclesiastical Law regarding marriage of kin, see Donavin's discussion of the meaning of incest in the Middle Ages (Incest Narratives, pp. 9-19); and the sophisticated cultural psychoanalysis of incest in CA by Scanlon (“Riddle of Incest”).

147 Ne the seconde ne the thridde. On Gower's scheme of the traditional first three ages and Gower's fourth where papal law rules against marriage of immediate kin or those twice or three times removed, see Scanlon, “Riddle of Incest,” pp. 109–12.

158 ne yit religion. Macaulay notes: "The seduction of one who was a professed member of a religious order was usually accounted to be incest: cp. Mirour, lines 9085 ff. and line 175 below" (3:536).

163 what thing comth next to honde. See Olsson, “Love, Intimacy, and Gower,” pp. 93-95, on the cost of betrayal of intimacy at home. Olsson draws interesting parallels between Antiochus' incestuous behavior and Amans' shortsightedness in love. See also Peck, Kingship and Common Profit, p. 164.

201 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur contra illos, quos Venus sui desiderii feruore inflammans ita incestuosos efficit, vt neque propriis Sororibus parcunt. Et narrat exemplum, qualiter pro eo quod Gayus Caligula tres sorores suas virgines coitu illicito opressit, deus tanti sceleris peccatum impune non ferens ipsum non solum ab imperio set a vita iusticia vindice priuauit. Narrat eciam aliud exemplum super codem, qualiter Amon filius Dauid fatui amoris concupiscencia preuentus, sororem suam Thamar a sue virginitatis pudicicia inuitam deflorauit, propter quod et ipse a fratre suo Absolon postea interfectus, peccatum sue mortis precio inuitus redemit. [Here he speaks against those whom Venus has made so incestuously inflammed by the fervor of their desire that they do not spare even their own sisters. And he narrates an instructive example how, because Gaius Caligula assaulted his three virgin sisters in illicit coitus, God, not tolerating the sin of so great a crime to be unpunished, by just vindication not only deprived him of imperial rule, but of life. He narrates also another instructive example on the same matter, how Amon the son of David, overwhelmed by lust of senseless love, sexually violated his unwilling sister Tamar, deflowering the modesty of her virginity, on account of which he, later being killed by his brother Absolon, unwillingly, repaid his sin with the price of his life.]

202 Caligula. Gower's source is Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars 4.24. That Gower knew Suetonius directly is likely in that Chaucer cites "Swetonius" as source for his account of Nero in The Monk's Tale. Higden's Polychronicon, Bk. 4, ch. 7, also tells of Caligula's incest: he was "A swiþe wicked man. . . . he lay by his owne sustres, and gat a dou3ter on þat oon, and lay by þat oþer afterward, and at þe laste he exciled his sustres þat he hadde i-lay by" (Trevisa's translation, pp. 363-65). Neither Suetonius nor Higden attribute the cause of his death to incest, however. That seems to be Genius' insight.

214-19 Amon . . . Thamer . . . Absolon . . . his soster schent. The story of Amon's incestuous rape of Tamar and Absolon's jealous revenge may be found in 2 Kings [2 Samuel] 13.

224 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic narrat, qualiter Loth duas filias suas ipsis consen-cientibus carnali copula cognouit, duosque ex eis filios, scilicet Moab et Amon, progenuit quorum postea generacio praua et exasperans contra populum dei in terra saltim promissionis vario grauamine quam sepius insultabat. [Here he narrates how Lot experienced carnal copulation with his two daughters, with the consent of them both, and how he generated two sons from them, namely Moab and Amon, whose depraved and warlike lineage was later very often abusive against the people of God, at least in the Land of Promise, by means of various kinds of disruption.] The story of Lot's fellowship with his daughters is found in Genesis 19:30-38.

232 As in The Tale of Canacee and Machaire, nature impels the incestuous desire and, in birth, provides a release, but with disasterous progenie. See Kelly, Love and Marriage, pp. 140–41.

256 every man is othres lore. Proverbial. See Whiting M170.

263 excedeth lawe. Diane Watt suggests that although Amans claims he is not guilty of incest (8.184–89), in a sense he is guilty “insofar as he seems to be engaged in an oedipal struggle with his own incestuous parents: Venus and Cupid, the queen and king of love” (Amoral Gower, p. 128).

269 process. Gower thinks of history as a process (L. processus); that is, a pageant or play, staged on “middelerthe.” It is a narrative, a story that unfolds. See MED proces 3a, c, and f.

271 ff. The “Tale of Apollonius” was popular and appears in English before Gower in an Old English translation. See Archibald, Apollonius of Tyre, Appendix 1: “Latin and Vernacular Versions of HA to 1609,” pp. 182–216. Appendix 2 deals with “Medieval and Renaissance Allusions to the Story of Apollonius.” The tale occurs in Godfrey of Viterbo’s Pantheon, which Gower used frequently, though his version includes many details not to be found in Godfrey, or in the Latin Gesta Romanorum, cap. 153. The eleventh-century Latin prose version, Historia Apollonii Tyrii, a version which Godfrey used as his source, was most likely known by Gower as well. It includes details found in Gower which do not occur in Godfrey. See Macaulay’s useful discussion (3:536–38) and Singer’s edition and discussion of Apollonius von Tyrus in his edition of Godfrey of Viterbo’s Cronica. Shakespeare’s Pericles, in which “Gower” is the commentator, is based only in part on Gower’s version of the story. For critical discussion of the story see Dimmick, “‘Redinge of Romance,’” pp. 136–37; Donavin, Incest Narratives, pp. 64–86; Gallacher, Love, the Word, and Mercury, pp. 129–38; Goodall, “John Gower’s Apollonius of Tyre”; Olsen, “Betwene Ernest and Game,” pp. 71–86; Olsson, Structures of Conversion, pp. 215–25; Peck, Kingship and Common Profit, pp. 166–72; Robins, “Romance,” pp. 169–72; Scanlon, “Riddle of Incest,” pp. 112–27; Watt, Amoral Gower, pp. 127–48; and Yeager, John Gower’s Poetic, pp. 216–29. Because Macaulay’s notes on this tale are extensive and excellent I have cited them liberally, supplying translations of the Latin. See notes to lines 404 ff., 542 ff., 679, 767 ff., 866 ff., 1089 ff., 1184 ff., 1248, and 1349 ff.

272 ff. Latin marginalia :Hic loquitur adhuc contra incestuosos amantum coitus. Et narrat mirabile exemplum de magno Rege Antiocho, qui vxore mortua propriam filiam violauit: et quia filie Matrimonium penes alios impedire voluit, tale ab eo exiit edictum, quod si quis eam in vxorem peteret, nisi ipse prius quoddam problema questionis, quam ipse Rex proposuerat, veraciter solueret, capitali sentencia puniretur. Super quo veniens tandem discretus iuuenis princeps Tyri Appolinus questionem soluit; nec tamen filiam habere potuit, set Rex indignatus ipsum propter hoc in mortis odium recollegit. Vnde Appolinus a facie Regis fugiens, quamplura, prout inferius intitulantur, propter amorem pericla passus est. [Here he speaks moreover against the incestuous coitus of lovers. And he narrates a miraculous instructive example about the great king Antiochus, who after his wife had died violated his own daughter. And because he wanted to prevent the marriage of his daughter with any others, such an edict went forth from him, that if anyone should seek her as a wife, unless he first accurately solved a certain problem of a puzzle which the king himself had proposed, he would receive capital punishment. Whereupon a shrewd youth, Apollinus the ruler of Tyre, arriving, solved the puzzle. Yet he was not able to have the daughter; instead the king, indignant, conceived a mortal hatred against him because of this. Wherefore Apollonius, fleeing from the king's presence, suffered a great many dangers, as are described below.]

279-92 On shared beds and incest after the death of the mother, see Shaw, "The Role of the Shared Bed." Shaw cites various accounts in which mothers and sons and fathers and daughters share beds with disastrous results, albeit thinking, as Antiochus does, "that it was no sinne" (line 346).

280 deth, which no king mai withstonde. Proverbial. See Whiting D78, D101.

293-94 See note to line 54, above.

299 With strengthe. "By force." On rape as violence — violentus concubitus — see Hanawalt, "Whose Story Was This?" See also the note to line 347.

309-10 devoureth / His oghne fleissh. On incest as cannibalism see Donavin, Incest Narratives

312 This unkinde fare. See note to 1.2565 on indifference toward the rights of kinsmen as unkinde behavior.

347 sche dorste him nothing withseie. See Donavin, Incest Narratives, pp. 64-96, on the political effects of the incestuous rape of Antiochus’ daughter.

374 ff. Latin marginalia: De aduentu Appolini in Antiochiam, vbi ipse filiam Regis Antiochiin vxorem postulauit. [Concerning Apollonius' arrival at Antioch, where he requests to have as wife the daughter of King Antiochus.]

376–80 gret desir . . . hihe mod . . . hote blod . . . lusti knyht . . . musende on a nyht. Genius presents Apollonius’ willful behavior as a phenomenon of youth and nature rather than intemperate or sinful behavior.

402 Latin marginalia: Questio Regis Antiochi. [The puzzle of King Antiochus.]

404 Latin marginalia: Scelere vehor, materna carne vescor, quero patrem meum, matris mee virum, vxoris mee filium. [“I am conveyed by crime, I feed on maternal flesh, I seek my father, the husband of my mother, the son of my wife.”] On the gloss Macaulay observes: “The riddle as given in the Laud MS. is, ‘Scelere uehor. Materna carne uescor. Quero patrem meum matris mee uirum uxoris mee filiam, nec inuenio.’ Most copies have ‘fratrem meum’ for ‘patrem meum,’ but Gower agrees with the Laud MS. I do not attempt a solution of it beyond that of Apollonius, which is, ‘Quod dixisti scelere uehor, non es mentitus, ad te ipsum respice. Et quod dixisti materna carne uescor, filiam tuam intuere”’ (2:538). The riddle closely resembles riddles from ancient through late medieval times about the cyclical generation of water and ice, which invariably use an incestuous metaphor: e.g., “My mother bore me, and soon my mother is born from me; the daughter whom the mother bore has generated the mother.” See Galloway, “Rhetoric of Riddling” (n.b., riddle Ha 11 and analogues, p. 99 and note 108). The riddle in the story of Apollonius, of course, has a literal incestuous meaning, and thus is almost not a riddle at all. But the story presumes that an audience (including previous suitors) would first consider the riddle metaphorically like other ancient and medieval riddles.

405-14 Goolden, “Antiochus’s Riddle,” offers a detailed comparison of Gower's riddle with the Latin version. See entries in Nicholson (Annotated Index, pp. 503–04) for thumbnail summaries of critical discussions of the riddle, and, more recently, Watt (Amoral Gower, pp. 129–34).

418 ff. Latin marginalia: Responsio Appolini. [Apollonius' response.]

421 rehersed on and on. Gower regularly celebrates the individual who can reason well and think problems through step-by-step. Compare, especially, the rational behavior of Peronelle in the Tale of the Three Questions, Florent in his tale, Paulina and her husband in the Tale of Mundus and Paulina, the king in Trump of Death, and, ultimately, “John Gower,” as he once again exercises his reason.

428 ff. Latin marginalia: Indignacio Antiochi super responsione Appolini. [Antiochus' indignation over Apollonius' response.]

431 With slihe wordes and with felle. Contrast Antiochus’ thought process with that of Apollonius as Antiochus uses his reason to subvert truth.

440 ff. Latin marginalia: De recessu Appollini ab Antiochia. [Concerning Apollonius' retreat from Antioch.]

466 ff. Latin marginalia: De fuga Appolini per mare a Regno suo. [Concerning Apollonius' flight across the sea from his kingdom.]

496 ff. Latin marginalia: Nota qualiter Thaliartus Miles, vt Appolinum veneno intoxicaret, ab Antiocho in Tyrum missus, ipso ibidem non inuento Antiochiam rediit. [Note how Taliart the knight, sent by Antiochus to Tyre so that Apollonius might be sickened with poison, returned to Antioch when Apollonius was not found there.]

536 He stinte his wraththe and let him be. Macaulay notes Gower's variation from the source here, objecting that the change takes away Apollonius' motive for fleeing to Tarsus (3:538).

537 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus in portu Tharsis applicuit, vbi in hospicio cuiusdam magni viri nomine Strangulionis hospitatus est. [How Apollonius arrived at the port of Tharsis, where he was given hospitality in the household of a certain great man, Strangulio by name.]

542 ff. Macaulay (3:539) notes "In the original Apollonius meets 'Hellanicus' at once on landing, and is informed by him of the proscription. He makes an offer to Strangulio to sell his wheat at cost price to the citizens, if they will conceal his presence among them. The money which he receives as the price of the wheat is expended by him in public benefits to the state, and the citizens set up a statue of him standing in a two-horse chariot (biga), his right hand holding forth corn and his left foot resting upon a bushel measure."

571 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Hellicanus ciuis Tyri Tharsim veniens Appolinum de insidiis Antiochi premuniuit. [How Hellican, a citizen of Tyre, coming to Tharsis, forewarned Apollonius about the treacheries of Antiochus.]

585 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus portum Tharsis relinquens, cum ipse per mare nauigio securiorem quesiuit, superueniente tempestate nauis cum omnibus preter ipsum solum in eadem contentis iuxta Pentapolim periclitabatur. [How Apollonius, departing the port of Tharsis, sought a more secure harbor by passage across the sea, but his ship along with all those aboard it except for himself was endangered, when a tempest overtook them near Pentapolis.]

630 broghte him sauf upon a table. Earlier, Apollonius was a food supplier as he brought grain to Mittelene. Now he himself is served up as Fortune brings him ashore on a table (plank). The felicitous pun comments well on Dame Fortune’s movable feasts.

634 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus nudus super litus iactabatur, vbi quidam piscator ipsum suo collobio vestiens ad vrbem Pentapolim direxit. [How Apollonius was thrown naked onto the shore, where a certain fisherman, clothing him with his tunic, directed him to the city of Pentapolis.]

646 cam a fisshere in the weie. Just as the sea is a traditional sign of Fortune’s instability, so the fisherman figures as an agent who makes a living out of what Fortune provides. N.b. Shakespeare’s clever twist on this point in Gower’s story to have the fishermen dredge up a suit of “rusty armour” in which Pericles can joust (II.i.119).

666 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolino Pentapolim adueniente Iudus Gignasii per vrbem publice proclamatus est. [How when Apollonius arrived at Pentapolis a gymnastics game was publically proclaimed through the city.]

678 comun game. Gower omits references to the baths in the source (see Archibald, Apollonius of Tyre, pp. 74-75 and note to line 679 below) and substitutes a ball game of some sort that is played naked as was the Greek "custume and us (use)" (line 685). "Comun" implies popular, though in this admirable society the king Artestrathes observes the play and rewards the victor.

679 Macaulay observes: "The account in the original story is here considerably different. Gower did not understand the Greek customs. 'Et dum cogitaret unde uite peteret auxilium, uidit puerum nudum per plateam currentem, oleo unctum, precinctum sabana, ferentem ludos iuueniles ad gymnasium pertinentes, maxima uoce dicentem: Audite ciues, audite peregrini, liberi et ingenui, gymnasium patet. Apollonius hoc audito exuens se tribunario ingreditur lauacrum, utitur liquore palladio; et dum exercentes singulos intueretur, parem sibi querit et non inuenit. Subito Arcestrates rex totius illius regionis cum turba famulorum ingressus est: dumque cum suis ad pile lusum exerceretur, uolente deo miscuit se Apollonius regi, et dum currenti sustulit pilam, subtili uelocitate percussam ludenti regi remisit' &c. (f. 207 v^º). [And while he was pondering where he would find a means to survive, he saw running through the square a naked boy smeared with oil, wrapped with a towel, bearing equipment for a boys' gymnasium game, uttering in the loudest possible voice, "Hear ye, citizens, hear ye, visitors, freedmen and free-born: the gymnasium is open!" Hearing this, Apollonius, removing his cloak entered the bath, and used the liquid of Pallas [oil]; and while he observed each man exerting himself, he searched for someone equal to himself and found none. Suddenly Archistrates, the king of the entire region, entered along with his crowd of servants: and while he engaged in a game of ball with his men, by God's will Apollonius participated along with the king: he caught the ball while the king was running and sent the caught ball back with accurate swiftness to the king playing . . . . ] The story proceeds to say that the king, pleased with the skill of Apollonius in the game of ball, accepted his services at the bath, and was rubbed down by him in a very pleasing manner. The result was an invitation to supper. Gower agrees here with the Pantheon in making the king a spectator only" (3:539).

696 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus ludum gignasii vincens in aulam Regis ad cenam honorifice receptus est. [How Apollonius, winning the gymnastics game, was honorably received for a feast in the king's hall.]

720 beginne a middel bord. Beginne suggests that Apollonius is placed at the head of a second table.

729 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus in cena recumbens nichil comedit, set doloroso vultu, submisso capite, ingemiscebat; qui tandem a filia Regis confortatus cytharam plectens cunctis audientibus citharisando vltra modum complacuit. [How Apollonius, sitting down to the feast, ate nothing, but instead with a mournful face and lowered head began groaning; finally, being comforted by the king's daughter, he played a harp and pleased all those listening by his harping.]

767 ff. Macaulay observes (3:539): “In the original all applaud the performance of the king’s daughter except Apollonius, who being asked by the king why he alone kept silence, replied, ‘Bone rex, si permittis, dicam quod sentio: filia enim tua in artem musicam incidit, nam non didicit. Denique iube mihi tradi liram, et scies quod nescit’ (f. 208 v^o). [Good king, if you permit I will say what I feel: for your daughter has taken up the art of music but has not learned it. Command therefore that the lyre be handed to me, and you will learn what she does not.] Gower has toned this down to courtesy.”

768 mesure. Measure is a technical term in music borrowed from grammar to define the metrics of a line. See Boethius, De musica (Augustine's De musica makes a similar point), where measure is discussed in terms of mode, duration, accent, and metrical feet. MED gives "?melody" and "?harmony" as possible glosses, but such a reading is indeed questionable and misleading. If one thinks of melody as the sequence (the measuring) of a song in a particular mode then the term might apply (see line 783). But if the term were understood to mean a pleasing tune then the gloss would be quite inappropriate. Similarly, if "harmony" means ratio and proportions of intervals, then it might be a suitable gloss, but if "harmony" is taken to mean chord structures then the gloss would be wrong. See note to Prol.1056.

777 He takth the harpe. Playing the harp teaches "mesure" (8.773), that is, proportion, moderation, and harmony, all crucial virtues for good kingship. (See note to 8.768.) As a good king Apollonius not only embodies "measure," he teaches it to his people. Of all kingly practices, this brings him closest to the angelic state (see 8.781-83) best suited to good rule.

801 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus cum Rege pro filia sua erudienda retentus est. [How Apollonius was kept with the king in order to educate his daughter.]

808–11 preide unto hir fader . . . That sche myhte . . . His lore have. This is one of the earliest instances of the story of a nobleman in disguise who becomes the teacher of a young noblewoman whom he ultimately marries. In the Renaissance, where the education of noblewomen becomes an important factor in their commodification for desirable marriages, the trope becomes a prominent comic device. In Gower’s adaptation of The Pantheon the agency of the young woman is heightened as she falls in love with the stranger, chooses him as her tutor, and then insists upon him and no other as her mate. Shakespeare picks up on the idea in Pericles, but also, more in the vein of a Plautine comedy, in Taming of the Shrew, where it is the men who are suitors and the teacherly role is divided between Lucentio (for Latin studies) and Hortensio (for music) as they disguise themselves to court Bianca. See also the device in Comedy of Errors, Berowne in Love’s Labours Lost, and Gascoigne’s Supposes, as well as Ariosto’s I Suppositi. In Gower the girl’s eagerness is fulfilled, but at a terrible price, as Fortune “slays” her, then abandons her to years of service to Diana before returning her husband and daughter to her. Other later analogues of the prince in disguise as a philosopher/teacher may be seen in Pierre Marivaux’s play The Triumph of Love (1732) and in Gioacchino Rossini’s Barber of Seville (1816), which is based on a play by Beaumarchais (1775).

820 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter filia Regis Appolinum ornato apparatu vestiri fecit, et ipse ad puelle doctrinam in quampluribus familiariter intendebat: vnde placata puella in amorem Appolini exardescens infirmabatur. [How the king's daughter caused Appolonius to be outfitted with ornate trappings, and he sought in many friendly ways the teaching of the girl; whereupon the girl, pleased, burned and sickened with love of Apollonius.]

829 Of harpe, of citole, and of rote. The citole was a stringed instrument with a rounded belly and neck with frets that is plucked as one might play a banjo or mandolin. The rote was a stringed instrument of the violin class played with a mechanical wheel, like a hurdy gurdy. It also had frets which were measured with one hand while the other cranked the wheel. The instrument was held in the lap. See Sadie, New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments.

850 Of hire ymaginacion. Gower softens "the harshness that pervades much of the traditional account," allowing "Apollonius and his bride to be considerably more tender and emotional than they are in [the Latin source]" (Archibald, Apollonius of Tyre, p. 192). Gower's focus on the bride's imagination as she tenders her thoughts characterizes his kind treatment of women throughout the poem.

866 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter tres filii Principum filiam Regis singillatim in vxorem suis supplicacionibus postularunt. [How three sons of rulers in turn begged the king’s daughter to be their wife.] In the original this incident occurs when the king and Apollonius are together. The king has been approached by the three suitors, but tells them they cannot visit his daughter because she is sick from too much study. He asks each to write his name and the amount of money he is prepared to offer as dowry, and he asks Apollonius to carry these petitions to her. She reads them and asks: “‘Master Apollonius, are you not sorry that I am going to be married?’ Apollonius said: ‘No, I am delighted that now that I have taught you well and revealed a wealth of learning, by God’s favour you will also marry your heart’s desire.’ The girl said: ‘Master, if you loved me, you would certainly be sorry for your teaching’” (Archibald, Apollonius of Tyre, p. 133).

875–80 ech of hem do make a bille . . . And whan sche wiste hou that it stod . . . Thei scholden have ansuere. Artestrathes’ involvement of his daughter in the marriage decision stands in marked contrast to Antiochus’ proceedings. He makes sure that she has a detailed resumé of each suitor — his name, his parentage, his wealth, but also his oghne wille (line 876; i.e., his personal reasons for wanting her as his bride) — so that she might make an informed decision. Then when she does make her choice her father takes her concerns seriously. See note to lines 889 ff.

889 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter filia Regis omnibus aliis relictis Appolinum in maritum preelegit. [How the king's daughter chose Apollonius as husband, leaving all others behind.] In the original her letter has nothing of the suggestion in Gower's version of an agony of love that might lead to death. Instead, the letter is a forthright demand to control her own marriage even to her own economic disadvantage, a demand that does not even use conditional verbs: "volo coniugem naufragio patrimonio deceptum" [I want to marry the man who was cheated out of his patrimony by shipwreck]. Gower's version of her letter is full of conditional verbs: "Bot if I have Appolinus . . . I wol non other man abide . . . . if I of him faile . . . Ye schull for me be dowhterles" (8.898-903). In the original some modesty is recuperated by a slight riddle in her statement, which leads to a scene of discovery: the king does not know which man that is, and must then ask the other suitors if they have been shipwrecked, before asking Apollonius if he has discovered the shipwrecked man, upon which he answers, "Bone rex, si permittis, inueni" [Good king, if you allow, I have]. But in spite of this brief riddle and discovery not in Gower, generally her demand in the original shows a woman in late antiquity asserting personal will (volo) in defiance of economic concerns that usually governed marriage in such culture. In Gower's version there is no coy riddle about the identity of her beloved (Apollonius is mentioned outright in the note to the king), and there is no mention of the economic pressures on marriage. There is just her love, whose force is emphasized by the conditional verbs, and the careful efforts of her father to facilitate its realization.

914 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Rex et Regina in maritagium filie sue cum Appolino consencierunt. [How the king and queen consented to the marriage of their daughter with Apollonius.]

930 ff. Macaulay notes that no mention is made of the queen in the original. The king simply calls his friends together and arranges the marriage (3:540).

951 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus filie Regis nupsit, et prima nocte cum ea concubiens ipsam impregnauit. [How Apollonius married the king's daughter, and, sleeping with her on the first night, impregnated her.]

952-74 Macaulay notes that the description of the wedding originates with Gower (3:540).

975 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Ambaciatores a Tyro in quadam naui Pentapolim venientes mortem Regis Antiochi Appolino nunciarunt. [How ambassadors arriving from Tyre to Pentapolis in a certain ship announced to Apollonius the death of King Antiochus.]

1003 In the source Apollonius is named successor to Antiochus. Macaulay observes: "This was regarded by our author as an unnecessary complication" (3:540).

1020 nede he mot, that nede schal. Proverbial. Variant of Whiting N61. Compare Prol. 698 and 1.1714.

1020 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolino cum vxore sua impregnata a Pentapoli versus Tyrum nauigantibus, contigit vxorem, mortis articulo angustiatam, in naui filiam, que postea Thaisis vocabatur, parere. [How, when Apollonius with his pregnant wife was voyaging from Pentapolis toward Tyre, it happened that the wife, seized in the grip of death, gave birth in the ship to a daughter, who was later called Thaisis.]

1054 ff. Macaulay notes: "So far as the original can be understood, it seems to say that the birth of the child was brought about by the storm and that the appearance of death in the mother took place afterwards, owing to a coagulation of the blood caused by the return of fair weather" (3:540).

1059 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus vxoris sue mortem planxit. [How Apollonius lamented his wife's death.]

1059-83 Most of this section is original with Gower.

1089 ff. Macaulay speculates: "Apparently the meaning is that the sea will necessarily cast a dead body up on the shore, and therefore they must throw it out of the ship, otherwise the ship itself will be cast ashore with it. The Latin says only, 'nauis mortuum non suffert: iube ergo corpus in pelago mitti' (f. 211 v^º)" [a ship will not bear a corpse: therefore order the body to be tossed into the sea] (vol. 3, p. 540).

1098 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter suadentibus nautis corpus vxoris sue mortue in quadam Cista plumbo et ferro obtusa que circumligata Appolinus cum magno thesauro vna cum quadam littera sub eius capite scripta recludi et in mare proici fecit. [How, with the sailors persuading him, Apollonius caused his dead wife's body to be enclosed in a coffin hammered shut and wound round with lead and iron, and, with a great treasure along with a letter under her head, to be thrown into the sea.]

1122 ff. Latin marginalia: Copia littere Appolini capiti vxoris sue supposite. [Copy of Apollonius' letter deposited at his wife's head.]

1141 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualtier Appolinus, vxoris sue corpore in mare proiecto, Tyrum relinguqens cursum suun versus Tharsim nauigio dolens arripuit. [How Apollonius, when his wife's body was thrown into the sea, abandoning Tyre took his course toward Tharsis by sea-voyage, mourning.]

1151–1217 Along with lines 1833–66 cited by Bullough (Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, 1.10–11; 50–54) as a probable source for the discovery of the mother section of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors.

1151 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter corpus predicte defuncte super litus apud Ephesim quidam medicus nomine Cerymon cum aliquibus suis discipulis inuenit; quod in hospicium suum portans et extra cistam ponens, spiraculo vite in ea adhuc inuento, ipsam plene sanitati restituit. [How a doctor, Cerymon by name, along with some of his students, found the body of the dead woman on the shore at Ephesis; carrying it into his household and taking it out of the coffin, and finding a breath of life still in her, he restored her fully to health.]

1160 That God wol save mai noght spille. Proverbial. Variation of Whiting G276.

1172 Al that schal falle, falle schal. Proverbial. Variation of Whiting H105: “Hap what hap may.”

1184 ff. Macaulay notes (3:540-41): "In the original it is not Cerimon himself, but a young disciple of his, who discovers the signs of life and takes measures for restoring her. She has already been laid upon the pyre, and he by carefully lighting the four corners of it (cp. I. 1192) succeeds in liquefying the coagulated blood. Then he takes her in and warms her with wool steeped in hot oil."

1222 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter vxor Appolini sanata domum religionis peciit, vbi sacro velamine munita castam omni tempore se vouit. [How Apollonius' wife, healed, sought a religious establishment, where she vowed to be chaste for all time, fortified by holy scripture.]

1248 The daughter introduces a kind of Cinderella motif, where, as in the fairy tale, the "stepmother" would destroy the heir for the sake of her own daughter. Macaulay observes that the daughter is apparently Gower's invention, perhaps the result of his misreading of the original "adhibitis amicis filiam sibi adoptauit," that is, in the company of friends he adopted her as his daughter (3:541).

1272 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus Tharsim nauigans, filiam suam Thaisim Strangulioni et Dionisie vxori sue educandam commendauit; et deinde Tyrum adiit, vbi cum inestimabili gaudio a suis receptus est. [How Apollonius, voyaging to Tharsis, placed his daughter Thaisis with Strangulio and his wife Dionisia to be educated; and thereupon he returned to Tyre, where he was received with inestimable joy by his people.]

1295 Thaise. Tharsia in the source, bearing the name of the city. Macaulay notes that “the Laud MS regularly calls her Thasia,” which may be the link toward Thaise (3:541).

1324 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Thaysis vna cum Philotenna Strangulionis et Dionisie filia omnis sciencie et honestatis doctrina imbuta est: set Thaisis Philotennam precellens in odium mortale per inuidiam a Dionisia recollecta est. [How Thaisis along with Philotenna, daughter of Strangulio and Dionisia, was imbued with every doctrine of honorableness and science; but Thaisis, excelling over Philotenna, attracted Dionisia's mortal hatred, through envy.]

1349 ff. Macaulay observes: "Much is made in the original story of the death of this nurse and of the revelation which she made to Tharsia of her real parentage. Up to this time she had supposed herself to be the daughter of Strangulio. The nurse suspected some evil, and advised Tharsia, if her supposed parents dealt ill with her, to go and take hold of the statue of her father in the market-place and appeal to the citizens for help. After her death Tharsia visited her tomb by the sea-shore every day, 'et ibi manes parentum suorum inuocabat' [and there she would invoke the ancestral gods of her parents]. Here Theophilus lay in wait for her by order of Dionysiades" (3:541).

1373 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Dionisia Thaysim, vt occideretur, Theophilo seruo suo tradidit, qui cum noctanter longius ab vrbe ipsam prope litus maris interficere proposuerat, Pirate ibidem prope latitantes Thaisim de manu Carnificis eripuerunt, ipsamque vsque Ciuitatem Mitelenam ducentes, cuidam Leonino scortorum ibidem magistro vendiderunt. [How Dionisia sent Thaisis to her servant Theophilus to be killed. When he had sought to kill her at night along the shore very far from town, pirates hiding near there snatched Thaisis from the executioner's hand, and leading her up to the city Mitelene, they sold her to a certain Leonine, a manager of prostitutes there.]

1406 In havene sauf and whan thei be. “And when they were in safe haven.”

1423 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Leoninus Thaisim ad lupanar destinauit, vbi dei gracia preuenta ipsius virginitatem nullus violare potuit. [How Leonine sent Thaisis to a bordello, where by the intervening grace of God no one was able to violate her virginity.]

1451–52 this weie . . . mi weie. “The rhyme is saved from being an identical one by the adverbial use of ‘weie’ in the second line, ‘mi weie’ being equivalent to ‘aweie’” (Mac 3:542).

1477 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Thaisis a lupanari virgo liberata, inter sacras mulieres hospicium habens, sciencias quibus edocta fuit nobiles regni puellas ibidem edocebat. [How Thaisis, freed from the bordello as still a virgin, took hospitality among holy women and there taught the noble girls of the kingdom the sciences she had been taught.]

1480 Now comen tho that come wolde. Proverbial variant. See Tilley C529.

1498 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Theophilus ad Dionisiam mane rediens affirmauit se Thaisim occidisse; super quo Dionisia vna cum Strangulione marito suo dolorem in publico confingentes, exequias et sepulturam honorifice quantum ad extra subdola coniectacione fieri constituerunt. [How Theophilus, returning the following morning to Dionisia, affirmed that he had killed Thaisis, whereupon Dionisia, along with her husband Strangulio, publicly pretending to grieve, by treacherous contrivance caused funeral rites and a sepulcher to be made honorifically, as far as the outside world was concerned.]

1541 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus in regno suo apud Tyrum existens parliamentum fieri constituit. [How Apollonius, remaining in his kingdom at Tyre, convened a parliament.]

1560 unkinde. “Disloyal, ungrateful.” See note to 1.2565 on lack of loyalty to kin as unnatural (unkynde) behavior.

1567 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus post parliamentum Tharsim pro Thaise filia sua querenda adiit, qua ibidem non inventa abinde navigio recessit. [How Apollonius after the parliament departed for Tharsis to seek his daughter Thaisis; not finding her there, he retreated thence by sea-voyage.]

1590 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Nauis Appolini ventis agitata portum vrbis Mitelene in die quo festa Neptuni celebrare consueuerunt applicuit; set ipse pre dolore Thaysis filie sue, quam mortuam reputabat, in fundo nauis obscuro iacens lumen videre noluit. [How Apollonius' ship, tossed by waves, reached the port of the city Mitelene on the day when they were accustomed to celebrate Neptune's feast; but he, for sorrow over Thaisis his daughter whom he judged to be dead, threw himself in the dark hold of the ship and did not want to see the light.]

1614 hihe festes of Neptune. Gower provides a felicitous touch by setting the moment of Apollonius’ arrival at Mitelene at the sacred feast of Neptune. This is the peripeteia, the moment of reversal, the mysterious turning point of the plot. The sea, like Fortune, has seemed to be Apollonius’ enemy, having taken from him his ship, then his wife, and then leaving him drowning in the waves of his grief now that his daughter Thais is dead. But, like Fortune, Neptune has also been his friend, enabling him to escape the murderous Taliard, bringing him to safety at Pentapolim where he found his wife, then saving Thais from Theophilus’ knife and conveying her mysteriously straight to Mitelene. It also preserved Apollonius’ wife, conveying her to Ephesus. Now, through the mysterious sanctity of Neptune, the sea becomes the vehicle of his restoration — first of his lost daughter, then of his lost wife, then his kingdoms. Neptune repeatedly tests him but ultimately rewards him with all his domains.

1618 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Athenagoras vrbis Mitelene Princeps, nauim Appollini inuestigans, ipsum sic contristatum nichilque respondentem consolari satagebat. [How Athenagoras, the ruler of the city of Mitelene, searching Apollonius' ship, tried to console him, while he was sorrowing and answering nothing.]

1622 Athenagoras. Archibald observes: "Gower is alone in introducing Athenagoras for the first time only when Apollonius' ship arrives, thus omitting the auction and his shameful visit to the brothel" (Apollonius of Tyre, p. 70).

1652 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter precepto Principis, vt Appolinum consolaretur, Thaisis cum cithara sua ad ipsum in obscuro nauis, vbi jacebat, producta est. [How by order of the ruler, in order that Apollonius might be consoled, Thaisis, with her harp, was led to him where he was lying in the darkness of the ship.]

1670 ff. many a lay. Macaulay supplies an original example (vol. 3, p. 543): "Her song is given in the original; it is rather pretty, but very much corrupted in the manuscripts. It begins thus,
'Per sordes gradior, sed sordis conscia non sum,
Ut rosa in spinis nescit mucrone perire,' &c."
[I walk amidst corruption, but I am not conscious of corruption, / As a rose among thorns does not perish from their sharp points.]

1672-73 he no more than the wal . . . herde. Proverbial. See Whiting W26.

1681 ff. See Macaulay (3:543): "Several of her riddles are given in the original story and he succeeds in answering them all at once. One is this,
   'Longa feror uelox formose filia silue,
   Innumeris pariter comitum stipata cateruis:
   Curro uias multas, uestigia nulla relinquens.'
   [I am borne swiftly, long shapely daughter of the woods, / With an innumerable
   crowding horde of companions: / I run over many roads leaving no tracks.]
   The answer is 'Nauis' [Ship].
   She finally falls on his neck and embraces him, upon which he kicks her severely. She begins to lament, and incidentally lets him know her story. The suggestion contained in ll. 1702 ff., of the mysterious influence of kinship, is Gower's own, and we find the same idea in the tale of Constance, ii. 1381 ff.,
    'This child he loveth kindely,
    And yit he wot no cause why.' "

1700 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter, sicut deus destinauit, pater filiam inuentam recognouit. [How just as God had ordained, the father recognized the new-found daughter.]

1705–08 the fader ate laste / His herte upon this maide caste, / That he hire loveth kindely, / And yit he wiste nevere why. See Watt (Amoral Gower, pp. 138–40) on Gower’s adaptation of his sources to heighten the resemblances between Apollonius and Antiochus.

1748 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Athenagoras Appolinum de naui in hospicium honorifice recollegit, et Thaisim, patre consenciente, in vxorem duxit. [How Athenagoras took Apollonius from the ship honorably into his household and, with her father consenting, took Thaisis as wife.]

1777 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus vna cum filia et eius marito nauim ingredientes a Mitelena vsque Tharsim cursum proposuerunt. Set Appolinus in sompnis ammonitus versus Ephesim, vt ibidem in templo Diane sacrificaret, vela per mare diuertit. [How Apollonius, travelling along with his daughter and her husband, had set his course from Mitelene for Tharsis. But Apollonius, warned in dreams, diverted his sails across the sea toward Ephesis, so that he might offer sacrifice in the temple of Diana.]

1778 his sone tolde. Apollonius’ referring to Athenagoras here and hereafter (line 1823) simply as his sone bespeaks the sanctity of marriage in his piety. His sacrifice itself is given specific Christian overtones as he goes to shrift in his “holi contemplacioun” (line 1838) that leads to the “miracle” (line 1867) of his wife’s resurrection. The “hole felaschipe” (line 1886) then returns to Tyre, then Mitelene and the coronation of Thais and Athenagoras, before bringing the law to Tharse.

1793 To Ephesim. It is noteworthy that Apollonius, having decided to take vengeance upon Dionise and Strangulio (8.1777–82), would first visit Ephesus to do his sacrifice (line 1795). This giving precedence to piety over vengeance results in the recovery of his wife.

1833 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus Ephesim in templo Diane sacrificans, vxorem suam ibidem velatam inuenit; qua secum assumpta in Nauim, versus Tyrum regressus est. [How Apollonius at Ephesis, sacrificing in the temple of Diana, found his wife there under the veil; taking her with him on the ship, he returned toward Tyre.]

1887 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus vna cum vxore et filia sua Thyrum applicuit. [How Apollonius with his wife and daughter reached Tyre.]

1912 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus Athenagoram cum Thaise vxore sua super Tyrum coronari fecit. [How Apollonius caused Athenagoras along with Thaisis his wife to be crowned over Tyre.]

1928-29 Lewis singles out these lines for their "businesslike" poetry. They could come from a traveler, a ballad, or Homer (Allegory of Love, pp. 206-07).

1930 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Appolinus a Tyro per mare versus Tharsim iter arripiens vindictam contra Strangulionem et Dionisiam vxorem suam pro iniuria, quam ipsi Thaisi filie sue intulerunt, iudicialiter assecutus est. [How Apollonius, taking his path from Tyre across the sea toward Tharsis, prosecuted Strangulio and Dionisia his wife for the injury that they had inflicted on his daughter Thaisis.]

1963 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter Artestrate Pentapolim Rege mortuo, ipsi de regno Epistolas super hoc Appolino direxerunt: vnde Appolinus vna cum vxore sua ibidem aduenientes ad decus imperii cum magno gaudio coronati sunt. [How, after Artestrates, king at Pentapolis, had died, they sent from the kingdom letters about this to Apollonius; wherefore Apollonius and his wife arriving there are crowned with great joy, to the glory of the empire.]

1993–2002 “Gower’s ideas about marriage seem to come together here. A good marriage, based on the existence of honesty, compassion, fidelity, and joy in being together (evidenced by appropriate expressions of physical affection), is the proper end for virtuous lovers” (Rytting, “In Search of the Perfect Spouse,” p. 125).

1995-96 Honesteliche. See J. A. W. Bennett’s discussion of the fitting conclusion to the poem, “Gower’s ‘Honeste love.’” See also the concept as it is presented in CA 4.1455 ff. with its celebration of the “gentil herte” (4.1457).

2009 ff. Confessor ad Amantem. [The Confessor to the Lover.] See Simpson on Gower’s ideal philosopher-king as the reader of the poem who “a kingdom hath to justifie” (8.2112) (Sciences and the Self, p. 229).

2030 ff. Latin marginalia: Confessio Amantis vnde pro finali conclusione consilium Confessoris impetrat. [The Lover seeks the Confessor's counsel as a final conclusion.]

2039 Danger. A defense mechanism of the woman in the RR who perpetually thwarts the ardent lover with aloofness. Guillaume presents Dangier as somewhat gruff and crude but effective in warding off, up to a point at least, male aggression.

2040 moste fere. "Greatest fear," with an ironic pun on "closest companion." Although Gower usually spells "fiere" for "companion" (though not always), a homophonic pun seems likely.

2055 leng. The comparative form, i.e., "longer."

2063–64 Proverbial. See Whiting N49.

2068 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic super Amoris causa finita confessione, Confessor Genius Amanti ea que sibi salubrius expediunt, sano consilio finaliter iniungit. [Here, with the confession concerning the cause of love finished, Genius the Confessor finally adds to his salutary counsel those things which profit him still more salubriously.]

2086 Tak love where it mai noght faile. The line resonates with the sentiments at the end of Chaucer's TC, where the narrator, just prior to the dedication to Gower, advises "yonge, fresshe folkes" (5.1835) to turn their love to God who made humankind "after his ymage" (5.1839) and asserts, "What nedeth feynede loves for to seke?" (5.1848).

2102–03 fot which . . . sporneth . . . his heved hath overthrowe. Proverbial. See Whiting F466.

2130 love . . . that blind was evere. Proverbial. See Tilley L506. See also CA 8.2794.

2146–47 For I can do to thee no more / Bot teche thee the rihte weie. Genius informs Amans that he may attempt to teach, but only Amans can learn, and that must be the consequence of Amans’ own choice, Robins cites the passage as evidence that Genius, with all his exempla, can only suggest, and that otherwise “instruction by analogy is unpersuasive” (“Romance,” p. 172).

2151 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur de controuersia, que inter Confessorem et Amantem in fine confessionis versabatur. [Here he speaks about the debate which took place between the Confessor and the Lover at the end of the confession.]

2189–2209 Amans’ debate with Genius is perplexing in that it focuses the tension between reason and desire. Though Genius has consistently advocated moderation of desire he has, nonetheless, given Amans the opportunity to talk about — even indulge in — his fantasies. But now Genius puts an end to that game. Amans objects to Genius’ looking upon his passions as a game (line 2152) but his reason acknowledges that Genius is right. What is most perplexing is the discovery that both sides of the debate are occurring within him. He is the site of the debate.

2189 Tho was betwen mi prest and me. Here Gower shifts his narrative point of view from that of a dramatic dialogue to that of an onlooking narrator, albeit still in the first person. The shift in tone anticipates the Lover's new perspective which will enable him to disengage himself from his venial infatuation so that his love-wound might be healed. This beginning of a new objectivity is a crucial step toward the naming of "John Gower" in line 2321, which is further prelude toward his taking control of his life in full honesty.

2212–13 teres . . . In stede of enke. Gower’s graphics of the myopic behavior suit well the melodramatic pathos of his letter.

2217 ff. In his epistle Amans shifts into a rhyme royal stanza (the Chaucer stanza of TC, PF, and the religious tales of CT) as if to ennoble his sentiment. See Dean, "Gower, Chaucer, and Rhyme Royal," who sees these stanzas as Gower's most Chaucerian moment. Gower also uses the stanza in his French poems and "In Praise of Peace."

2218 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic tractat formam cuiusdam Supplicacionis, quam ex parte Amantis per manus Genii Sacerdotis sui Venus sibi porrectam acceptabat. [Here he describes the form of a supplication, which, offered on the part of the Lover by the hand of Genius her priest, Venus accepted.]

2224 ff. In his narcissism Amans imagines that all succeed in love except himself, a position often echoed by lovers in Chaucer (e.g., Aurelius' complaint to Apollo in The Franklin's Tale). As in PF, the problem seems to the lover to be one of Nature's doing, not his own. In constructing such debates both Chaucer and Gower draw upon sentiments expressed in Alanus de Insulis' De planctu naturae and Jean de Meun's RR, where Nature tires of hearing the lover's complaints and threatens to discipline his unruliness. See also line 2327, where Venus identifies his complaint not simply against her and Cupid, but against Nature also.

2230 bot I. A common trope. To the heartsore man, all creatures seem to have their mates but him. Compare the popular fourteenth-century song, “Fowles in the Frith,” where the birds and the fishes have their happy places but “I mon waxe wod” (Luria and Hoffman, Middle English Lyrics, #6, p. 7).

2234-35 and thus betwen the tweie / I stonde, and not if I schal live or deie. Gower echoes PF, where the dreamer knows not whether he floats or sinks (line 7) but like an iron between two magnets of equal power (lines 148-53) is trapped in a kind of error (line 156) he seems incapable of dealing with.

2238 ff. In this stanza Amans sees himself caught in a tale, a fictional circumstance like that of Pan in love. His ficticious comparison of himself with a wrestler, caught in a throw, again echoes PF, where Affrican compares the dreamer seeking to understand love to an observer at a wrestling match, who has opinions on the contest even though he "may nat stonde a pul" (line 164).

2264 Danger. See note to line 2039.

2275 Satorne. In some traditions the reign of Saturn is affiliated with peace and the golden age. But seldom is he benevolent to lovers, even though Venus was generated from his desire-inflamed testicles, after he was emasculated by Jupiter. The lovers in Chaucer's The Knight's Tale find him to be cold, dry, devious, and malicious; he takes delight in the ruination of hopes and fantasies — "My lookyng is the fader of pestilence" (see CT I[A]2454-69).

2301 I. N.b. the shift in first person from Amans the suppliant to the narrator as he returns to a more objective outside view of himself, Cupid, Venus, and “this prest which hihte Genius” (line 2306). Though technically he is still “Amans” (see the Latin speech marker to line 2301), he will forthwith identify himself as “John Gower” (line 2321). See note to line 2320.

2303 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic loquitur qualiter Venus, accepta Amantis Sup-plicacione, indilate ad singula respondit. [Here he tells how Venus, accepting the Lover's supplication, unhesitantly answers point by point.]

2320 what is mi name. Venus’ question, though “as it were halvinge a game” (line 2319), raises the fundamental identity concern of the protagonist: who exactly is he, caught up amidst his fantasies. His reply, “John Gower” (line 2321), functions as an epiphany that propels the poem’s conclusion, with its detailed steps toward anagnorisis.

2330 Venus observes that Nature's domain is sublunary, but within that realm (i.e., all places under the first sphere) she is powerful. Compare Chaucer's description of her in PF where she rules as "the vicaire of the almyghty Lord" and stimulates creaturely desire as she would "prike yow with plesaunce" (PF, lines 379-89).

2339 Agein Nature. See White on the naturalness of the elderly Amans, rather than the unnaturalness, as most have argued. "Gower does not seem to see the universe as a place considerately arranged so that the man of goodwill shall move reasonably smoothly towards salvation; rather he sees it as a battleground on which man in his weakness must face adversaries immensely superior to him and by no means wholeheartedly committed to his spiritual good" ("Naturalness of Amans' Love," 321).

2378 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic in exemplum contra quoscunque viros inveteratos amoris concupiscenciam affectantes loquitur Venus, huiusque Amantis Confessi supplicacionem quasi deridens, ipsum pro eo quod senex et debilis est, multis exhortacionibus insufficientem redarguit. [Here Venus tells an instructive example against whichever aged ones affect the lust of love, and, as if ridiculing the supplication of the Lover to Genius, she chastizes him as inadequate with many exhortations, because he is old and weak.] Other MSS offer a different Latin gloss, which translates: Here he narrates how Venus, indignantly examining the infirmity of the languishing lover, exhorted him as inadequate with very many examples, as for a cure, lest he should presume to try anything else in her court.

2379 Rageman. A dice game, the play of which apparently involved women and verses. See Macaulay's note (3:544-45).

2398 ff. I am Venus. On Venus' conflation of the vocabulary of rural labor, business, and sexuality to deal with her assessment of Amans' impotence as a lover of the world, see Sadlek, “John Gower’s Confessio Amantis,” especially pp. 157–58.

2412 'Min herte wolde and I ne may.' Proverbial. Not in Whiting or Tilley.

2428–32 “When the unmasking of his senile impotence provides an unexpected moment of closure, Amans’ sense of himself as a lover is belied. The logic of evaluating his life according to external goods breaks down under its own weight: such an external way of thinking is a ‘thing where thou miht non ende winne’ (8.2430), making Amans out to be, in Aristotle’s phrase, a chameleon and weakly supported” (Robins, “Romance,” p. 173). The allusion is to Nicomachean Ethics 1.100b6–7.

2435 The thing is torned into was. Fowler, History of English Literature sees in this line the culmination of "a moving, terrible vision, of life threatened by irresistable and irrational impulses," where "individual tales, . . . triumphs of refacimente, the art of stylish re-presentation, are brought to an end" (p. 12). See also Peck, Kingship and Common Profit, p. 178, and Zeeman, “Framing Narrative,” p. 230.

2439 Remembre wel hou thou art old. Zeeman (“Framing Narrative,” pp. 229-33) relates the presentation of "old age as antidote to erotic love" to the pseudo-Ovidian De Vetula, which circulated widely in England in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. See also Burrow, “Portrayal of Amans,” especially pp. 17–24; and Echard, “With Carmen’s Help,” p. 34: "It is not only 'Gower' who is unfit for love, nor is it only Genius who has failed to deal with Amans' dilemma — all of Genius' auctores have been part of the effort. None of these old men is, in the end, up to the task of dealing with human nature." The emphasis on the transformation of the lover in old age is strong in all recensions of the poem. Compare 8.*3070 and 8.2827-41. See Illustration 1, which picks up on the idea.

2442 ff. Latin marginalia: Qualiter super derisoria Veneris exhortacione con-tristatus Amans, quasi mortuus in terram corruit, vbi, vt sibi videbatur, Cupidinem cum innumera multitudine nuper Amantum variis turmis assistencium conspiciebat. [How, saddened over the derisory exhortation of Venus, the Lover fell down to the earth as if dead, where, as it seemed to him, he perceived Cupid with an innumerable multitude of recent lovers with assorted crowds of attendants.]

2450 And as I lay. Macaulay (3:545-46) compares the situation to the Prol. to LGW, but suggests that it was not Gower's practice to borrow directly from "contemporary poets of his own country" (3:546).

2470 Richard II's new queen was, of course, Anne of Bohemia; thus Bohemian fashions were the current rage.

2500 ff. believed. Macaulay translates which was believed / With bele Ysolde as "who was accepted as a lover by Belle Isolde" (2:546), suggesting the root of believed here to be lief (love) rather than leve (belief). In this section on the company of lovers, the lovers and their companions, as Gower presents them, are all defined by their commitments to love; thus, in the instance of traitors in love like Jason, Hercules, or even the "untrewe" Theseus who "ches" Phedra, all are defined by their last commitment, which becomes their final determination. The effect is not so much to suggest the triumph of love as its limitation. Venus confines with labels, a rather different process of enablement from Amans' recovery of his name "John Gower" and his subsequent release from Venus' constraints.

2501 ff. Latin marginalia: De nominibus illorum nuper Amantum, qui tunc Amanti spasmato, aliqui iuuenes, aliqui senes, apparuerunt. Senes autem precipue tam erga deum quam deam amoris pro sanitate Amantis recuperanda multiplicatis precibus misericorditer instabant. [Concerning the names of those lovers from not long ago, who then appeared, some young, some old, to the convulsed Lover. But the old ones, specifically, pityingly urged with many prayers both the God and the Goddess of love to restore the Lover's health.]

2526-27 Ector . . . Pantaselee. Hector is usually presented in Latin tradition as a model husband. But here he is committed to Venus' domain with Pantaselle presented as his beloved. Compare Cinkante Balades 43.2:9: "Unques Ector, q'ama Pantasilée."

2531-35 And Troilus . . . his parconner. On Gower's representation of Troilus and Criseyde, derived from Chaucer, see Meiszkowski, The Reputation of Criseyde, pp. 100-03.

2573 ff. Cleopatras. Compare Chaucer's presentation in LGW.

2582 Wo worthe alle slowe. The line is ambiguous: “Woe to the slain”; or “Woe to those who arrive late” (i.e., all slow). Thisbe has just impaled herself, but she also recognizes that she was late for the appointment.

2617-18 alle goode / With mariage. See Olsson, “Love, Intimacy, and Gower,” pp. 82-86, on the "Foure Wyves" and their domestic roles and virtues. Olsson stresses their freedom of choosing and its liberating effects within natural and social constraints.

2705 Merry tales of Aristotle and Socrates overwhelmed by love's "syllogism" were popular in scholastic satire of the later Middle Ages. See the Lay of Socrates, where a girl rides him around the college yard as a four-legged horse. That Aristotle is trapped in a “silogime” (line 2708) simply means that once the two premises (he and she) are in place, the conclusion is inevitable.

2712 concluded. "Determined," with an ironic pun on formal logic.

2718 Sortes. Macaulay notes: "It is impossible that this can be for 'Socrates,' with whose name Gower was quite well acquainted. Perhaps it stands for the well-known 'Sortes Sanctorum' (Virgilianae, &c.), personified here as a magician, and even figuring, in company with Virgil and the rest, as an elderly lover" (2:547). But Macaulay may be wrong. In Piers Plowman B.12.268 Socrates seems to be the one called by that name. The name appears for Socrates in Amoryus and Cleopes. See also Bacon, Communium naturalium, ed. Steele, p. 87, where Bacon, discussing Aristotle's Metaphysics VII on substantial gradation, refers to Socrates as "Sortis."

2749 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic tractat qualiter Cupido Amantis senectute confracti viscera perscrutans, ignita sue concupiscencie tela ab eo penitus extraxit, quem Venus postea absque calore percipiens, vacuum reliquit: et sic tandem prouisa Senectus, racionem inuocans, hominem interiorem per prius amore infatuatum mentis sanitati plenius restaurauit. [Here he describes how Cupid, searching through the bowels of the Lover, shattered by old age, extracted completely from him the burning darts of his lust; Venus, later perceiving him to be without heat, left him empty. And thus Old Age, finally glimpsed, invoked reason in him, and very fully restored to sanity of mind the inner man who had been previously infatuated by love.]

2810 byme. A common single syllable morpheme for by me.

2819 reins. The kidneys are the physiological seat of the passions. See Bartholomaeus, De renibus 5.43, which note that from the renes “springiþ þe humour semynal. So seiþ Varro. For veynez and marouõ sweten out a þynne humour into þe kideneiren [kidneys], and þat liquour is ofte resolued by hete of Venus, and renneth and comeþ and schediþ itself anon to the place of gendringe” (De proprietatibus rerum, 1.254).

2821-31 A wonder mirour . . . Wherinne anon myn hertes yhe / I caste . . .. See Schutz's excellent discussion of Gower's application of his mirroring technique to the conclusion of the poem as the Lover (now "John Gower") discovers within himself "a mirror of self-awareness" where Acteon found none and Narcissus only a distortion (“Absent and Present Images,” p. 121).

2837 Latin marginalia: Quod status hominis Mensibus anni equiperatur. [That the estate of man is equivalent to the months of the year.]

2857 erst was hete is thanne chele. Proverbial. See Whiting H552.

2880 So goth the fortune of my whiel. Venus herself becomes fortune-like, yet at the same time a spokesperson of "kinde," as she clarifies her relationship with Amans.

2897 Forget it thou, and so wol I. The tone here is reminiscent of the all-things-shall-pass mentality of Ecclesiastes. But, more than this, remembering and forgetting are key components of Boethian psychology, where we must remember what should not have been forgotten, but also to forget what should not have preoccupied us. That Genius links his acts of remembering and letting go with that of Amans heightens the interrelationship of the two at this last point in their bifurcation prior to Genius’ disappearance, along with Amans, as they are, in their reintegration in the single psyche of John Gower, to be forgotten.

2904 A peire of bedes blak as sable. A set of beads (not just two); a rosary (MED paire 2b). With the departure of Genius, and then Venus herself as she disappears “al sodeinly, / Enclosid in a sterred sky” (lines 2941–42), “John Gower” is left in repose with his prayer beads and his thoughts.

2907 Por reposer. See Olsson’s discussion of “home, intimacy, and repose” (“Love, Intimacy, and Gower,” pp. 86 ff.), and of Gower’s unusual “retraction” (p. 90) as he explores the uncertainty of ever finding “perfect repose in the ‘house of this world’” (p. 91).

2908 John Gower. Chandler (“Memory and Unity”) sees this line as the culmination to the remembering/unity motif. See also Peck, Kingship and Common Profit, pp. 179–82; and Strohm, “Note on Gower’s Personas.” Strohm uses Donaldson’s notion of the three persons of Chaucer’s pilgrim to explain Gower’s staging of his threefold persona: “The substitution of John Gower for ‘Sone’ and Amans . . . marks a station on the way to lucidity and reunion of Amans with the broader perspective of the Poet” (p. 297). But Simpson puts the matter most shrewdly: “In a wonderful irony, which is itself Ovidian, the person who will finally be won over in the Confessio is not the lady, but Amans himself” (Sciences and the Self, p. 217).

2909 ate laste cast. MED cast n.1b: “at (one’s) last throw, with (one’s) back to the wall,” citing this line.

2926–27 thi bokes . . . / Whiche. Macaulay (3:547) sees a reference here to Gower’s earlier moral treatises (MO and VC), in which case the effect is akin to Chaucer’s Retraction as “Gower” is told to put aside his frivolous love complaint to adhere to his more serious literary efforts. (Chaucer had retracted his dream visions, TC, love poems, and those Canterbury Tales “that sownen into synne” (X[I]1085), but thanked God for his translation of Boece, saints’ lives, homilies, and devotional works.) But thi bokes might also allude to Gower’s library in general — these old books that still dwell among us and from which we are taught (see Prol.1–3), in which case the sense of 8.2927 would be “[Of] which you have written for many years.” See Mustanoja, Middle English Syntax, p. 197n2, where whiche hearkens back to “an old inflected genitive” comparable to “the non-periphrastic dative which (instead of to which, ‘to whom’).” If this is the sense (it is the certainly the one I prefer), then we might see a different parallel with Chaucer than the Retraction; namely, the conclusion to the F Prologue of LGW, where Alceste and Cupid send Geoffrey back to his books with instructions to study them and write of virtuous wives. Here Venus, with Genius at her side, sends “Gower” back to his books where “vertu moral” dwells. Compare this attitude toward the pedagogical value of old books in Gower with the proposition on Chaucer’s PF where old books are compared to “the olde feldes” from which “cometh al this newe corn” (lines 22–25). My point is not to suggest that one poet borrows from the other, but rather to demonstrate diverse uses of rhetorical formulas, particularly for conclusion, that an educated late fourteenth-century cohort of readers delight in and play with in like ways. See also the notes to 8.3106–37, 8.3138 ff., 8.3165–67, and the Explicit.

2938 From this point on, Fairfax 3 is copied in a new hand. The new scribe uses slightly different orthography. Particularly noticeable is y for the pronoun I, and i or y for e in inflections

2940 ff. Adieu, for y mot fro thee wende. In the first recension of CA, based here on MS Bodley 902, lines *2941–*57 dedicate the poem to Gower’s friend Geoffrey Chaucer, then continue to the end, with acknowledgment once again of the commission by King Richard and prayers on behalf of Richard. Although the second ending, with its emphasis on good kingship and the sending forth of Gower’s English poem for the instruction of human kind accompanied by prayers for England’s sake, is essentially different from the first recension, sev­eral lines of the earlier conclusion remain essentially intact. Compare *2962 / 2942, *2969–70 / 2969–70 (now inverted), *2971–85 / 2971–85, *3061–63 / 3109–11, *3065–66 / 3115–16, *3067–68 / 3121–22, *3087–3106 / 3151–64, *3111–14 / 3169–72.

*2955 his testament of love. Middleton suggests an allusion honoring Thomas Usk's Testament of Love through a "fictively-displaced injunction to 'Chaucer'" “Thomas Usk’s ‘Perdurable Letters,’” p. 101; see also p. 88n35). Usk was part of a coterie of writers who had celebrated the joy of literature in his addresses to Chaucer — "a jeu d'esprit, sheer self-delighting self-display: 'Thou hast delighted me in making'" (p. 100). Upon his brutal execution by the Lords Appellant, Middleton suggests that Usk's literary achievements could not, for fear of reprisal, be acknowledged directly — thus the compliment through their mutual friend Chaucer. If Middleton is right, the dropping of these lines from the Lancastrian version of Confessio in 1392, the version of the Fairfax 3 manuscript, may reflect more a political expedience regarding Usk than some breech of friendship between Gower and Chaucer, as some have argued. Henry of Lancaster was one of the Appellants.

*2965 Hoom fro the wode. The return home from the wood is a typical romance/dream vision conclusion as the narrator reenters his former estate, perhaps somewhat enlightened by all that has occurred. His prayers and "hole entente" (lines *2966-67) are signs of hope.

*Notes to Latin verses iv (before line *2971). Line 2: The arms of England are three lions passants guardants, which in heraldry are also known as leopards. Normally, the plural of “scepters” would be a poetic form for “sovereignty”; but here too there is a specific heraldic referent. The scepters of countries over which a king claimed entitlement (England, Ireland, and France, for a fourteenth-century English king) were sometimes represented as part of the royal arms; the Wilton Diptych, a portable, folding altar whose subject is Richard II amidst the Virgin, Christ, saints, and angels, and which was probably commissioned for the king, shows on its exterior right wing a single crowned lion (“leopard”) astride the royal banner and arms of England and France. Gower’s heraldic praise of Richard here is matched by his condemnation of Richard elsewhere later. In Gower’s Latin work, the Tripartite Chronicle, finished after Richard had been deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, Gower punningly states that Richard was “a hare and not a leopard” (lepus est et non leopardus — III.160).
Line 4: What has been “made perpetual” (perpetuata) may, grammatically, be either the songs (by their being sung), or England (by its being sung about). The ambiguity has been retained in the translation. 

2973 Latin marginalia: Hic in anno quartodecimo Regis Ricardi orat pro statu regni, quod a diu diuisum nimia aduersitate periclitabatur. [Here in the fourteenth year of King Richard he prays for the estate of the kingdom, which is in danger because of long-held division from excessive adversity.] The date here would be 1390. Some MSS present the marginal gloss in the Prologue, at line 21.

*2973ff. Latin marginalia: A Latin gloss appears here in the margin: Hic in fine libri honorificos que virtuosos illustrissimi Principis domini sui Regis Anglie Ricardi secundi mores, sicut dignum est, laude commendabili describens, pro eiusdem status salubri conseruacione cunctipotentem deuocius exorat. [Here at the end of the book he very devoutly entreats the Almighty in prayer, de­scribing with commendable praise, as is appropriate the honorific and vir­tuous qualities of the most illustrious ruler his lord king of England, Rich­ard the Second, on behalf of the safe preservation of his estate.] The praise seems carefully aimed at the estate rather than the person of the king.

3080–3105 For if a kyng wol justifie . . . and be memorial. This passage, so different from the matter of the first recension’s conclusion, sets Gower’s political position centrally within the ethos of moral responsibility of people in powerful positions. Compare 8.2109–20. On Gower’s later thoughts on the interconnectedness of personal piety and political action, see Peck, “Politics and Psychology of Governance in Gower,” pp. 218–38. On Gower’s interest in kingship rather than a specific king as part of an “educative dialogue with a courtly audience,” see Staley, Languages of Power, pp. 25–40.

*3087 Whan game is beste, is best to leve. A "quit-while-ahead" proverb akin to "when the game is best yt ys time to rest." See Whiting G26.

3106–37 And now to speke as in final. Gower announces his conclusion several times, somewhat like a classical music composition with suspended cadences and other concluding trickery. In this leave-taking he makes use of humility tropes of the sort that Chaucer mocks in the Prologue to the Franklin’s Tale. Here, while writing “in Englesch . . . betwene ernest and game” (lines 3108–09), Gower hopes that “lered men” will not scorn him “for lak of curiosité” or “eloquence” (3114–15) or skills in “rethoriqe” (3117) that “Tullius” (3119) would require him “to peinte” (3118). His words are “rude” and “pleyn” (3122), partly because he is old, “feble and impotent” (3127), but in the “symplesse of my poverte” he “Desireth for to do plesance / To hem under whos governance / I hope siker to abide” (3134–37). Compare Chaucer, CT V(F)715–27. It is not possible to know which of the two writers wrote first; probably the two passages were written at about the same time. Whether Chaucer is mocking Gower as well as the Franklin, or whether Gower looks on the Franklin as an admirable gentleman, or whether the two writers are simply drawing upon the same conventions but in different ways is anyone’s guess.

3108 ff. Latin marginalia: Hic in fine recapitulat super hoc quod in principio libri primi promisit se in amoris causa specialius tractaturum. Concludit enim quod omnis amoris delectacio extra caritatem nichil est. Qui autem manet in caritate, in deo manet. [Here at the end he recapitulates what in the beginning of the first book he promised he would particularly treat in the cause of love. For he concludes that all pleasure of love beyond charity is nothing. "Who remains in love, he remains in God."] The reference is to 1 John 4:16.

3114 curiosité. See Echard, “With Carmen’s Help,” pp. 27-29, on the interconnectedness of curiosity in the English and Latin verses.

3138 ff. now uppon my laste tide. Gower announces his conclusion once again (see notes to 8.2926–27, 3106–37, and 8.3165–67), but this one is, in truth, the last (except for the Explicit). The effect is like that of a musical composition with variations on a conclusion as one cadence follows another for a cumulative ornamental effect. Each utilizes rhetorical conventions for conclusion. In this instance see note to 8.3165–67.

3140-61 See White on Gower's use of juxtaposition to create uncertainty in the poem. The shift here from earthly love to Christian charity underscores the sense of failure in the poem as Amans is obliterated in a "rueful pessimism about the possibilities of living a life that fulfills our desire to enjoy the world as well as our obligation to live with our eyes focused on heaven" ("Division and Failure," p. 615).

3165–67 Such love . . . Such love . . . Such love . . . Here compare the use of anaphora for a conclusive effect with the Epilogue to Chaucer’s TC 5.1828–32: “Swich fin hath . . . Swich fin hath . . . Swich fin hath . . . Swich fin hath . . . Swich fin hath.”

Explicit. Line 6: Vade liber purus. Gower’s farewell to his book ties in with a long-established classical tradition. See Tatlock, “Epilog of Chaucer’s Troilus,” which cites examples from Ovid, Tristia 1.1.1; Martial, Epigrams 1.3.70, 3.4.5; Statius, Silvae 4.4; and the Greek Anthology 12.208; as well as vernacular examples in Provençal and Old French lyrics, Dante, Petrarch, and, especially, Boccaccio, whose Teseida 12.84, Filostrato 9.1, Fiammetta 9, and the endings of Corbaccio, Filocolo, and De Casibus Virorum Illustrum all served as sources for Chaucer and other English writers. Tatlock makes no mention of Gower’s Explicit. Neither does Schoeck in his “‘Go Little Book,’” or Andrews in his “Go Little Book,” who, after discussion of TC 5.1786, proceeds to note examples from Hoccleve, Caxton, James I (in Kingis Quair), Hawes, and other later writers. But it is important to note that Gower’s commissioning of his book is not to kiss the steps of “Virgile, Ovide, Omer, Lucan, and Stace,” as in TC 5.1792 but rather to make its way to Henry of Lancaster, count of Derby, whose political influence, Gower opines, might help to establish a reign of peace and repose.
 

Abbreviations: A: Bodleian Library MS Bodley 902 (SC 27573), fols. 2r–183r; B: Bodleian Library MS Bodley 294 (SC 2449), fols. 1r–197r; C: Corpus Christi College, Oxford MS 67, fols. 1r–209r; F: Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 3 (SC 3883; copy text for this edition), fols. 2r–186r; J: St. John’s College, Cambridge MS B.12 (34), fols. 1r–214r; Mac: G. C. Macaulay; S: Stafford, now Ellesmere 26, fols. 1r–169v; T: Trinity College, Cambridge MS R.3.2 (581), fols. 1r–147v.

1–336 Omitted in S (lost leaves).

3 ff. Latin marginalia: line 1: Postquam ad. So Mac. F: Postquam ad ad (second ad repeated after line break).

201 ff. Latin marginalia: line 7: pudicicia. So Mac. F: pudicia (loss of letters by eye-skip).

237 grete. So F, B, J. A, C, Mac: gret.

416 avised of. F: auised of of.

466 ff. Latin marginalia: mare. So Mac. F omits at line break.

535 He. So S, B, J, Mac. F: His.

975 spousailes. So S, B, Mac. F: spousales. J: sposailes.

1024 lenger. So S, B, J, Mac. F: lengerr.

1029 schipe. So F, S, J. B, Mac: schip.

1039 thei. So F, S. B, Mac: they.

1047 here. So S, A, C, Mac. F, J: hire. B: her.

1055 delivered. So S, J, B, Mac. F: deliiled.

1069 I. So S, B, J, Mac. F: it.

1088 take. So F, S, B, J. Mac: tak.

1110 sich. So B, J, Mac. F, S: such. sich is found nowhere else in F, but I have fol­lowed B, J, and Mac for the sake of rhyme.

1177 thei. So S, B, J, Mac. F: þe.

1212 Wher. So F, S, B, J. Mac: Where.

1252 Omitted in B.

1498 ff. Latin marginalia: line 3: confingentes. So Mac. F: configentes (macron omitted or no longer visible).

1575 Thei. So F, S, J. B, Mac: They.

1650 were. So F, S, B, J. Mac: weren.

1687 madd man. So S, Mac. F: madd mad man. B: mad man. J: mad mon.

1890 thei. So F, S, J. B, Mac: they.

1999 as it is write. So F. S, B, J, Mac: his lif was write.

2106 so befalle. So B, J, Mac. F: so be befalle. Eyeskip from previous line.

2367–68 Omitted in S.

2369–70 Lines altered in S: Noght al as þou desire woldest / Bot so as þou be resoun scholdest.

2371–76 Omitted in S.

2462 sih. So S, Mac. F, J: syh. The line is omitted in B.

2481 soon. So F. Mac silently emends to soun from S, B, J, which improves the sense but not the rhyme.

2938–3146 A new hand picks up the copying of the poem in F.

2938–66 Written over an erasure in F.

2946 here. B, Mac: hire.

*2960 word. So J, Mac. A: world, as in other first recension MSS.

2970 live. So S, B, Mac. F: lieve.

2989 live. So S, B, Mac. F: lieve. I have followed Mac’s emendation, though lieve is certainly possible, especially if the religious rather than the social implication is being emphasized. See also note to line 2970.

2994 worldes. So B, Mac. F: wordles. S: worldis.

3037 marchandie. So B, Mac. F: machandie. S: merchandie.

3094 wite it. So S, B, Mac. F: wite ?t.

3108 ff. Latin marginalia: line 1: libri primi. So Mac. F omits primi.

3147–end Another new hand picks up the copying of the poem in F.