リ INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. I.-LIFE OF JOHN GOWER. HE materials for a biography of John Gower the poet are fcanty, and quite infufficient for a sketch of his perfonal history; and his writings contain very few of thofe allufions to himself which are fo frequently met with in fimilar works. The date of his birth is unknown, and within feventy years of his death his descent and the place of his birth feem to have been entirely forgotten. Caxton, who in 1483 printed the first edition of the Confeffio Amantis, ftyles him, Johan Gower Squyer borne in Walys in the tyme of kyng richard the fecond; Gower being the name of a family of fome repute, refident in a diftrict of South Wales called Gowerland, which occurs occafionally in the public records of the poet's day; but beyond Caxton's affertion, no proof that he was a native of the principality is known to exift. We have no direct evidence Henry le Gower, the well known bishop of St. David's, died in 1347. Thomas Gower, Burgenfis ville de Havreford in Suthwallia, occurs on Rot. Pat. 18 Ric. II. p. 1. memb. 22. b |