of the secular clergy."]]> Assesses Gower's virtues and achievements as a narrative poet rather than as a moralist in "Confessio Amantis," occasionally comparing and contrasting his techniques and accounts with analogous ones by Chaucer. Considers the frame of LGW to be inferior to Gower's in the "Confessio," which "released" Gower's narrative potential, much as the frame of CT did for Chaucer. Prefers Gower's accounts of Thisbe, Lucrece, and Philomela to those in LGW, but gauges Gower's tale of Florent, though successful, to be less sophisticated than WBT.
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