The complete works of John Gower, volume 2 : $b The English worksGower, John
General
The complete works of John Gower, volume 2 : $b The English works
Gower, John
Poetry
This is a very large and magnificent volume, written on fine
parchment, doubtless for some distinguished person. The text,
however, is late and not very good. It is almost certain that
it is derived ultimately from the Keswick MS. The evidence of
this is as follows: (1) Mistakes made in that MS. are nearly
regularly reproduced in H₃. Some instances have been referred
to in the account of K: we may add here that where K omits
the Latin summaries in a part of the seventh book, e.g. vii.
1641-1884, 1917-2765, H₃ does the same, and where variants
apparently from the AM group appear in K, as iii. 778, 906,
921, 1732, they are found also in H₃. (2) The inequality which
is to be observed in the text of H₃, some parts being much
less correct than others, corresponds in the main with the
difference of hands in K. Thus we find that a great crop of
error springs up in H₃ from the point where the third hand
of K begins, the preceding portion of the text being very
fairly correct, and so to some extent elsewhere. For example,
in v. 917-1017 (a part written in K by the first hand) there
are about eight metrical faults in a hundred lines, while in
vi. 183-283 (written in K by the third hand), there are at
least twenty-five. (3) In a certain part of the third book
H₃ suddenly ceases to follow the third recension text, and
almost regularly gives the readings of the ERCLB₂ group. This
appears first in iii. 1088 and ceases to be the case after iii.
1686, thus remarkably corresponding with the gap caused in K
by the loss of three leaves after iii. 1086. It is difficult
not to believe that this very marked change was caused by the
following of another MS. in a place where K was defective.
The spelling of H₃ is rather late: there is no use of _þ_, and
_y_ is used for _ȝ_ in ‘ye,’ ‘yiue,’ &c.
Magd. MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXF. 213 (Bern. Cat. i. 2. 2354). _Confessio
Amantis_ with ‘Explicit’ (six lines) and Table of Contents in English
(on two fly-leaves at the beginning and one at the end). Parchment,
ff. 180 + 3 (as above), 18¾ × 13¼ in., in quires of 8 with
catchwords: written in double column of 48 lines in a large hand of the
middle fifteenth cent, something like that of H₃. Table of contents
and columns 2, 3, 4 of f. 2 in a different hand. Latin summaries in
text (red). Fine coloured letters with floreated half borders at the
beginning of each book, and some neat drawing in connexion with the
scrolls of the catchwords.
The book has lost one leaf after f. 22 (ii. 409-586) and eight after f.
88 (v. 701-2163). On f. 155 v^o the MS. omits vii. 2519-2695 without
loss of leaf or blank.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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