Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/306

 marriage took place in his own private chapel, situated in the priory of St. Mary Overies, by license, dated 25 Jan. 1397, the celebrant being the chaplain of the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, Southwark. In 1400, after suffering much ill-health, he became blind. He was still residing in the priory of St. Mary Overies, Southwark, on 15 Aug. 1408, when he made his will, preserved at Lambeth. He bequeaths many legacies to the prior, sub-prior, canons, and servants of St. Mary Overies, and to the churches and hospitals of Southwark and the neighbourhood, including a leper hospital. He desires to be buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in St. Mary Overies priory, and leaves to that chapel two silk dresses for the priests, a new missal, and a new chalice. A book entitled ‘Martilogium’ (i.e. ‘Martyrologium’), which was recently copied at his expense, is left to the prior and convent. His wife Agnes receives 100l., much household furniture, and for her life the rents of the manors of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, and Moulton, Suffolk. His wife, Sir Arnold Savage, an esquire named Robert, William Denne, canon of the king's chapel, and John Burton are his executors. The will was proved at Lambeth by Agnes Gower on 24 Oct., and administration of other property not specified in the will was granted on 7 Nov. Between 15 Aug. 1408 and 24 Oct., the dates respectively of the drawing and the proving of the will, Gower was buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, in the north aisle of the nave of St. Mary Overies, commonly called St. Saviour's, Southwark. A stone tomb is still extant there. Beneath a three-arched canopy lies an effigy of the poet. The head rests on three volumes, inscribed respectively with the names of his works, ‘Speculum Meditantis,’ ‘Vox Clamantis,’ and ‘Confessio Amantis.’ The hair falls in large curls on his shoulders, and is crowned with four roses, with which ivy was originally intertwined. A long, closely buttoned robe covers the whole body, including the feet, which rest upon a lion. A collar of SS, with Henry IV's badge of the swan, is round the neck. Berthelet, in his edition of the ‘Confessio Amantis’ (1532), gives a description of three pictures (now obliterated) of Charity, Mercy, and Pity, painted against the wall, within the three upper arches. A shield on a side panel of the canopy gives the poet's arms: ‘Argent on a chevron, azure, three leopards' heads, or; crest, on a cap of maintenance, a talbot passant.’ The inscription preserved by Leland and Berthelet, ‘Hic jacet J. Gower, arm. Angl. poeta celeberrimus ac huic sacro edificio benefac. insignis. Vixit temporibus Ed. III et Ric. II’ has disappeared, together with a tablet granting 1,500 days' pardon, ‘ab ecclesia rite concessos’ to all who prayed devoutly for the poet's soul. The monument was repaired in 1615, 1764, and 1830.

Prefixed to Caxton's edition of the ‘Confessio Amantis’ (1483), and in many of the extant manuscripts of that and other of Gower's writings, is a Latin preface describing Gower's three chief works. This preface, of which the text is extant in two forms, has been attributed to Gower's own pen. The works described are (1) the ‘Speculum Meditantis,’ (2) the ‘Vox Clamantis,’ and (3) the ‘Confessio Amantis.’ The first, the ‘Speculum Meditantis,’ assumed from its position to have been written earliest, was long thought to be lost. The manuscript was discovered in the Cambridge University Library by Mr. G. C. Macaulay and first printed in his edition of Gower's works (1899). It is a French poem, treating of vices and virtues, and teaching by a right path the way whereby a transgressor should return to a knowledge of his Creator. Many short French poems by Gower are extant, and Warton wrongly imagined that the ‘Speculum Meditantis’ was identical with one of those.

The second work, the ‘Vox Clamantis,’ is a Latin elegiac poem in seven books. It was begun in June 1381, but not completed till near the end of Richard II's reign. The first book—a fourth of the whole—treats, in an allegory which (Gower pretends) was revealed to him in a dream, of the insurrection of the serfs which broke out in Gower's neighbourhood in Kent in May 1381. The poet describes the rebels under the names of animals, but the identification of the leaders is obvious, and in some places their names are given. He brings events down to the death of Wat Tyler. Fuller, in his ‘Church History’ (ii. 353–4), quotes in an English verse translation the description of the Kentish ‘rabble’ given by Gower, ‘prince of poets in his time.’ Although Gower has little sympathy with popular grievances, he ascribes the disturbances to the deterioration of contemporary society. In the second book he insists on the need of pure religious faith. In the third and fourth books he denounces the sins of the clergy of all ranks, and pleads for a reformation, although he disclaims in his ‘Confessio’ and elsewhere all sympathy with the Lollards. In the fifth book he shows the value of a virtuous and well-disciplined army, and deprecates the ignorant sensuality of the serf and the avarice of the merchant. The sixth book deals with the vices of the lawyers, and appeals directly to Richard II