Confessio Amantis, with Latin addenda

London, s.xv, first quarter

Contents

1

(fols 1ra–205vb) Confessio Amantis Prol. 1–VIII.3114*end

Prologue (fol. 1ra); Book I (fol. 8ra); Book II (fol. 29rb); Book III (fol. 51rb); Book IV (fol. 68va); Book V (fol. 91rb); Book VI (fol. 138ra); Book VII (fol. 152va); Book VIII (fol. 186vb).

Text: collated by Macaulay (sigil R): Ic. ‘A very fair MS of its class, and almost absolutely typical’, though with some ‘distinctively revised readings’ (Macaulay [ed.], Works, II.cxlviii). The omission at fol. 170vb of VII.2889–2916 (the story of Cambyses), noted by Macaulay, may be due to the scribe’s tendency to use the marginal Latin glosses in his exemplar as a guide, his eye straying to the next piece of English after the gloss that caught his eye. For the omission of I.161, where ‘Iohn Gowere’ is named, see the description of Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 693.

For further information about the following Latin and French addenda that Gower caused to be added to MSS of the Confessio, see Appendix III.

2

(fol. 205vb) ‘Explicit iste liber’

3

(fol. 206ra) ‘Quam cinxere freta’

4

(fol. 206ra–rb) ‘Quia vnusquisque’

Illustration

On fol. 1ra there is a miniature in the eight-line initial O of the English text, portraying the Lover kneeling before the confessor Genius. The O is blue, the inside background has red scrollwork with green grass below; the Lover, left, with short haircut and red cloak, kneels to Genius, right, with blue hood and with blue hem of gown protruding beneath white cloak, left hand pointing, right hand on shoulder of Lover.