Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T07:34:18.134Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - The Love of Kings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2014

Matthew W. Irvin
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Chair of the Medieval Studies Program at Sewanee
Get access

Summary

Over the course of Books IV and V, Genius has had to “modefie” his approach to include the discourses of gentilesse, labor, and religion. However, even Genius' “schame,” the exposure of Venus and Cupid as incestuous, licentious, unreasonable, and opposed to the order of divine justice, does not produce a radical or immediate break in the poem for either Genius or Amans. For instance, in the “Tale of Babio and Croceus,” Genius still speaks positively of “Cupides art” (V.4803), and explains how “Cupide and Venus eke/ A medicine for the seke/ Ordeigne” (V.4827), so that the young and lovely Viola can enjoy generous Croceus rather than miserly Babio. But this does not mean there has been no change at all. Neither Venus nor Cupid is mentioned by Genius between the discourse on religion and the “Tale of Babio and Croceus” some 3000 lines later. However, the Latin verses continue to mention them, drawing on the Latin term for Covoitise, Cupiditas, itself the topic of Latin verses of V.iii. The cupidinous lover desires to have Venus all to himself (V.iii.4) through perjury; the “amans” seeks women as the “cupidus” seeks fields (V.iv.3); and “cupido non dat sua dona Cupido” (Cupid does not give gifts to the cupidinous; V.vi.3). Therefore, between the mentions in the vernacular, the pejorative analogy between avarice and the gods of love has persisted, but only for the Latinate reader, prompting guidance on the Genius' analogizing.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Poetic Voices of John Gower
Politics and Personae in the Confessio Amantis
, pp. 227 - 276
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Love of Kings
  • Matthew W. Irvin, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Chair of the Medieval Studies Program at Sewanee
  • Book: The Poetic Voices of John Gower
  • Online publication: 05 March 2014
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Love of Kings
  • Matthew W. Irvin, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Chair of the Medieval Studies Program at Sewanee
  • Book: The Poetic Voices of John Gower
  • Online publication: 05 March 2014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Love of Kings
  • Matthew W. Irvin, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Chair of the Medieval Studies Program at Sewanee
  • Book: The Poetic Voices of John Gower
  • Online publication: 05 March 2014
Available formats
×