Venus' owne clerk : Chaucer's debt to the Confessio amantis / / B.W. Lindeboom.

• Superior document: Costerus, new ser., 167
• Author: Lindeboom, B. W.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Series: Costerus ; new ser., v. 167.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (486 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Venus’ Owne Clerk: Chaucer’s Debt to the “Confessio Amantis” will appeal to all those who value a bit of integration of Chaucer and Gower studies. It develops the unusual theme that the Canterbury Tales were signally influenced by John Gower’s Confessio Amantis , resulting in a set-up which is entirely different from the one announced in the General Prologue . Lindeboom seeks to show that this results from Gower’s call, at the end of his first redaction of the Confessio , for a work similar to his – a testament of love . Much of the argument centres upon the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner, who are shown to follow Gower’s lead by both engaging in confessing to all the Seven Deadly Sins while preaching a typically fourteenth-century sermon at the same time. While not beyond speculation at times, the author offers his readers a well-documented and tantalizing glimpse of Chaucer turning away from his original concept for the Canterbury Tales and realigning them along lines far closer to Gower.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Chaucer’s Changing Design of the Canterbury Tales -- Towards Composing a Testament of Love -- The Sergeant and Man of Law as Gower -- The Testament of Love -- Confession, Sin and the Wife of Bath -- The Pardoner’s Confession of Sin -- The Wife of Bath’s Sermon -- The Pardoner’s Double Sermon -- Conclusion -- Reference.