To vouchsafe there need is to correct Of your benignities and zeales good." The epithet moral is applied very properly to the general character of Gower's writings; and it may be remarked, that Chaucer's defire that Gower should correct whatever was needed, shows that he confidered him a competent judge in matters of poetry. As if in answer to this compliment, Gower makes Venus fay in fome copies of the Confeffio Amantis : "And grete well Chaucer, whan ye mete, For in the floures of his youth, Above all other I am most holde. So that my court it may recorde."† Nevertheless it has been fuggefted that their friendship was afterwards interrupted, and the following reafons *Aldine edition, 1845, v. 172. + See the prefent edition, Vol. I. p. 374. Tyrwhitt, Introductory Difcourfe to the Canterbury Tales, § 14. Todd, Illuftrations, p. xxvii; and Godwin, Life of Chaucer, II. p. i. et feq. have been adduced in fupport of the conjecture. Chaucer declaims in the Prologue to the Man of Lawes Tale* against fuch dreadful and lewd tales" unkinde abhominations"-as he calls them, as thofe of Canace and Appollinus of Tyre, which are undoubtedly amongst the best stories told in the Confeffio Amantis. Tyrwhitt first fufpected this to be a direct attack by Chaucer on Gower, with whom Godwin imagines he must have quarrelled. However, it has not efcaped Tyrwhitt, that the Man of Lawes Tale and that of the Wife of Bath are either directly borrowed from Gower, or have been taken by both poets from one common fource. It is therefore highly improbable, that Chaucer, fpeaking in the perfon of the Man of Law, really intended to express in such a ftrange manner his difrefpect for a friend, who like himself had attained to an advanced age. Another fuppofition for the disturbance of their friendship has arifen from the complimentary verses on Chaucer, which only appear in the loyal edition addreffed to king Richard II, having been omitted in a number of copies of the Confeffio Amantis, dedicated to Henry of Lancaster. But this may be thus accounted for. The verfes occur at the end of the poem, and the Lancaster copy which appeared in 1392-3, at a time when Chaucer was in trouble with the exifting government, terminates altogether differently;† it is therefore not unlikely, that Gower, timid and obsequious by nature, had some reason for not mentioning his friend in the edition deftined for the acceptance and perufal of Henry. The omiffion may show selfish feeling on the part of Gower; but it certainly does not prove that their friendship was interrupted. In the 17th year of Richard II. 1393-4, Henry of Lancaster presented "un efquier John Gower," "perhaps" + Nicolas, Life of Chaucer, p. 50. • Aldine edition, II. 135. one of that prince's retainers, with a collar. The poet is represented on his tomb with a collar of SS, to which a fwan, Henry's badge, is appended; but, as that badge is believed not to have been affumed by Henry until after the demife of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, in September 1397, the fwan may have been given to Gower at a fubfequent period.* It does not seem too much to prefume, that the collar was prefented to the poet as a direct acknowledgment of the dedication of his work, which, as has already been mentioned, was addreffed in the previous year to Henry earl of Derby. In the year 1400, about the time when Chaucer died, Gower, who in the dedication to the Confeffio Amantis had previously complained of fickness,+became blind from old age, and in the year following was obliged to give up writing, as appears from fome Latin verses, which are found in feveral MSS. Feeling the approach of death, he abandoned to others writing about the things of this world, and made preparations for a pious end.§ Nicolas, in Retrofp. Rev. p. 117, from a record in the Duchy of Lancaster Office. + Though I fikenesse have upon honde, vol. 1. p. 4, 5. Printed in Thynne's edition of Chaucer, 1532. fo. 377., b. and, with some variation, in Balades and other Poems of John Gower, Roxburghe Club, 1818. It has the following Epigraph: "Explicit carmen de pacis commendatione, quod ad laudem et memoriam fereniffimi principis domini regis Henrici quarti fuis humilis orator Johannes Gower compofuit." "Henrici quarti primus regni fuit annus, and in MSS. of Vox Clamantis :- "Henrici regis annus fuit ille fecundus, See Retr. Rev. p. 116. § Ibid. "Vana tamen mundi mundo fcribenda reliqui A circumftantial will was executed by him on the day of the Affumption of the holy Virgin, the 15th August 1408 in the Priory of St. Mary Overy's, the motherchurch of Southwark. By it he bequeaths to the Prior, the Sub-prior, the Canons and the fervants of the faid convent liberal donations varying from £1 to 1 fhilling each; he makes fimilar gifts to the church of St. Mary Magdalen and the four parish churches in Southwark,-St. Margaret's, St. George's, St. Olave's, and St. Mary Magdalen's near Bermondsey-for lamps, garments, and prayers for his foul; and he leaves other fums to the masters and inmates of the Hospitals of St. Thomas the Martyr in Southwark, St. Thomas Elfingspital, Bedlam, Bishopsgate without, and St. Mary's, Westminster. He defires that his body shall be buried in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in St. Mary Overy's, and he bequeaths as a perpetual gift for the altar in the faid chapel two coftly filken priest's dreffes, a large new miffal, and a new chalice. The Prior and Convent are alfo to preserve in memory of him a large book entitled Martilogium (Martyrologium), which had recently been written out at his own expense. He next leaves a hundred pounds to his wife Agnes, who is not mentioned in any other document. She is likewise to retain three cups, one coverlet, two faltcellers and twelve spoons of filver, and to have all his beds and chests with all the appurtenances of hall, pantry, and kitchen, a chalice and garment for the altar of their private chapel, and for the time fhe furvives her husband the full enjoyment of all rents due to him from the leafe of his two manors, Southwell in Nottingham, and Multon in Suffolk. He appoints his faid wife; Sir Arnold Savage, knight; an efquire Robert; William Denne, canon of the king's chapel; and John Burton, clerk; his executors. The will was proved by Agnes Gower at Lambeth before Archbishop Thomas Arundel on the 24th of October; and the adminiftration of the property not specified therein was granted to her on the 7th of November following. Confequently the poet must have died between the 15th of August and 24th of October in that year. * Several fubjects connected with this document must remain undecided. A fearch made for the poet's title to the manor of Southwell in Nottingham has been unfuccefsful. No mention is made of his property in Kent, Effex, and Norfolk, and there is no clause whatever referring to a fon and heir. It is afferted by Sir Harris Nicolas "that fuch an omiffion renders it unlikely that he had iffue, but it is not conclufive. It is manifeft from the probate, that he had other property than that spoken of in his will, and if he had only one fon, or if he had female issue only, he or they would have fucceeded to it; hence it was not requifite, that he should specially provide for them by legacies." The research of the fame diftinguished genealogift has connected, as the probable defcendants of the poet, fuch perfons of the name of Gower as occur in Kent and Surrey during the fifteenth century.§ Another important record concerning Gower is preserved on his tomb and monument still extant in St. Mary Overy's, now St. Saviour's Southwark, of which Blore || has given a good engraving and the following description: "The monument of John Gower is in the Chapel of St. John,¶ in the north aisle of the nave of St. Mary Overy's, * Johannis Gower nuper defuncti, see Teftament, Todd, Illuftrations, p. 87. Blore, Sepulchral Antiquities, and Nicolas, Retr. Rev. p. 103. + Retr. Rev. p. 111. Pro eo, quod idem defunctus nonnulla bona optinuit in diverfis diocefibus noftri Cantuarienfis provincie. See pedigree, Retr. Rev. p. 114. The monumental remains of noble and eminent perfons comprising the Sepulchral Antiquities of Great Britain, 1826. The chapel of St. John has long fince disappeared; the tomb stood |