The complete works of John Gower, volume 4 : $b The Latin worksGower, John
General
The complete works of John Gower, volume 4 : $b The Latin works
Gower, John
Poetry
The most noticeable fact about the text of this MS. is one to
which no attention has hitherto been called, viz. the omission
of the whole history of the Peasants’ Revolt. After Lib. i. cap.
i. the whole of the remainder of the first book (nearly 2,000
lines) is omitted without any note of deficiency, and we pass on
to the Prologue of Lib. ii, not so named here, but standing as
the second chapter of Lib. i. (the chapters not being numbered
however in this MS.). After what we commonly call the second book
follows the heading of the Prologue of Lib. iii, but without any
indication that a new book is begun. Lib. iv. is marked by the
rubricator as ‘liber iii^{us},’ Lib. v. as ‘liber iiii^{us},’ and
so on to the end, making six books instead of seven; but there
are traces of another numbering, apparently by the scribe who
wrote the text, according to which Lib. v. was reckoned as ‘liber
iii^{us},’ Lib. iv. as ‘liber iiii^{us},’ and Lib. vii. as ‘liber
v^{us}.’ It has been already observed that there is internal
evidence to show that this arrangement in five (or six) books may
have been the original form of the text of the _Vox Clamantis_.
At the same time it must be noted that this form is given by no
other MS. except the Lincoln book, which is certainly copied from
L, and that the nature of the connexion between L and D seems
to indicate that these two MSS. are ultimately derived from the
same source. This connexion, established by a complete collation
of the two MSS., extends apparently throughout the whole of the
text of L. We have, for example, in both, i. Prol. 27, laudes,
58 Huius ergo, ii. 94 et ibi, 312 causat, 614 Ingenuitque, iii.
4 mundus, 296 ei, 407 amor (_for_ maior), 536 Hec, 750 timidus,
758 curremus, 882 iuris, 1026 Nil, 1223 mundus, 1228 bona, 1491
egras, 1584 racio, 1655 Inde vola, 1777 ibi, 1868 timet, 1906
seruet, 2075, 2080 qui, iv. 52 vrbe, 99 tegit, and so on. The
common source was not an immediate one, for words omitted by D
with a blank or ‘deficit’ as iii. 641, vii. 487 are found in L,
and the words ‘nescit,’ ‘deus,’ which are omitted with a blank
left in L at iii. 1574 and vi. 349 are found in D. If we suppose
a common source, we must assume either that the first book was
found in it entire and deliberately omitted, with alteration of
the numbering of the books, by the copyist of the MS. from which
L is more immediately derived, or that it was not found, and that
the copyist of the original of D supplied it from another source.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account