Confessio Amantis of John Gower, Volume 1

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Bell and Daldy, 1857 - Christian ethics

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Page 263 - Gower (CA ed. Pauli, i. 263) says : — ' Senec witnesseth openly How that envie properly Is of the court the comun wenche.' Note that parteth in 1. 359 means 'departeth.' 361. ' Whoever goes away, at any rate she will not be wanting.
Page 140 - Thy veingloire and thy folie With grete peines to chaftie. And of the vois thou herdeft fpeke, Which bad the bowes for to breke And hewe and felle down the tre, That word belongeth unto the.
Page 8 - ... that men now clepe and calle And sain, that regnes ben devided, In stede of love is hate guided, The werre wol no pees purchace, And lawe hath take her double face, So that justice out of the wey With rightwisnesse is gone awey. And thus to loke on every halve, Men sene the sore without salve, Whiche al the worlde hath overtake. Ther is no regne of alle out take, For every climat hath his dele After the torninge of the whele, Which blinde fortune overthroweth, Wherof the certain no man knoweth,...
Page 3 - And so befell, as I came nigh, Out of my bote, whan he me sigh, He bad me come into his barge. And whan I was with him at large, Amonges other thinges said, He hath this charge upon me laid And bad me do my besinesse, That to his highe worthynesse Some newe thing I shulde boke, That he himself it mighte loke After the forme of my writing.
Page 220 - So harde, that he wende wele To pafle. But the blinde whele, Which torneth ofte er men be ware, Thilke ice, which that the horfmen bare, To-brake, fo that a great partie Was dreint of the chivalrie, The rerewarde it toke aweie, Came none of hem to londe drey. Paulus this worthy knight Romain By his afpie it herde fain, And hafteth him all that he may, So that upon that other day He came, where he this hoft behelde, And that was in a large felde, Where the banners ben difplaied.
Page xxxiii - Venus appears to him, and, after having heard his prayer, appoints her priest called Genius, like the mystagogue in the picture of Cebes, to hear the lover's confession. This is the frame of the whole work, which is a singular mixture of classical notions, principally borrowed from Ovid's Ars Amandi, and of the purely medieval idea, that as a good Catholic the unfortunate lover must state his distress to a father confessor.
Page xxviii - Baptist, seems to have been adopted from the general clamor and cry then abroad in the country. The greater bulk of the work, the date of which its editor is inclined to fix between 1382 and 1384, is rather a moral than an historical essay; but the first book describes the insurrection of Wat Tyler in an allegorical disguise; the poet having a dream, DII the llth of June, 1381, in which men assume the "hape of animals.
Page 140 - ... herdeft fpeke, Which bad the bowes for to breke And hewe and felle down the tre, That word belongeth unto the. Thy regne fhall be overthrowe, And thou defpuiled for a throwe. But that the roote fhulde ftonde, By that thou fhalt wel underftonde, There fhall abide of thy regne A time ayein whan thou mall regne. And eke of that thou herdeft faie To take a mannes hert aweie And fette there a beftiall, So that he lich an oxe fhall Pafture, and that he be bereined By times feven and fore peined, Till...
Page xix - And moreover he hath an obite yerelv, done for hym within the same churche, on Fridaie after the feaste of the blessed pope Saynte Gregorie. " Beside on the wall where he lieth, there be peinted three virgins, with crownes on their heades, one of the...
Page xxxiii - The poem opens by introducing the author himself, in the character of an unhappy lover In despair, smitten by Cupid's arrow. Venus appears to him, and, after having heard his prayer, appoints her priest called Genius, like the mystagogue in the Picture of Cebes, to hear the lover's confession. This is the frame of the whole work, which is a singular mixture of classical notions, principally borrowed from Ovid's Ars...

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