The three chief works of Gower are noteworthy, for they illustrate the unstable state of contemporary English literature. His first poem, _Speculum Meditantis_, is written in French, and for a long time was lost, being discovered as late as 1895; the second, _Vox Clamantis_, is composed in Latin; and the third, _Confessio Amantis_, is written in English, at the King’s command according to Gower himself. In this last poem we have the conventional allegorical setting, with the disquisition of the seven deadly sins, illustrated by many anecdotes. These anecdotes reveal Gower’s capacity as a story-teller. He has a diffuse and watery style of narrative, but occasionally he is brisk and competent. The meter is the octosyllabic couplet, of great smoothness and fluency. =3. John Barbour (1316–95)= is the first of the Scottish poets to claim our attention. He was born in Aberdeenshire, and studied both at Oxford and Paris. His great work is _The Brus_ (1375), a lengthy poem of twenty books and thirteen thousand lines. The work is really a history of Scotland from the death of Alexander III (1286) till the death of Bruce and the burial of his heart (1332). The heroic theme is the rise of Bruce, and the central incident of the poem is the battle of Bannockburn. The poem, often rudely but pithily expressed, contains much absurd legend and a good deal of inaccuracy, but it is no mean beginning to the long series of Scottish heroic poems. The spirited beginning is often quoted: A! fredome is a nobill thing! Fredome mayss man to haiif liking! Fredome all solace to man giffis; He levys at ess that frely levys! A noble hart may haiff nane ess, Na ellys nocht that may him pless, Gyffe fredome failzhe: for fre liking Is zharnyt[27] our all othir thing. Na he, that ay hass levyt fre, May nocht knaw weill the propyrte, The angyr, na the wrechyt dome, That is couplyt to foule thyrldome. PROSE-WRITERS =1. Sir John Mandeville= is the English form of the name of =Jehan de Mandeville=, who compiled and published a French book of travels between 1357 and 1371. This French work was very popular, and it was translated into several languages, including English. The English version has a preface, in which it is stated that the author was a Sir John Mandeville, a knight, born at St. Albans, who crossed the sea in 1322 and traveled in many strange regions. Much of the personal narrative is invention; nowadays the very existence of Sir John is denied. The real author of the book is said to be =Jehan de Bourgogne=, who died at Liège in 1372.