Venus' Owne Clerk: Chaucer's Debt to the Confessio Amantis

Description: Chaucer reconceptualized CT in response to a challenge levied in Gower's "Confessio Amantis." Shaping the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner to embody the Seven Deadly Sins, Chaucer responded to Gower's taxonomy in the "Confessio" and, in doing so, revamped his plan for the Canterbury fiction. We see in MLPT Chaucer's intention to pursue a "Gower-oriented direction"--writing a "testament of love"; and the shift from Sergeant of Law to Man of Law affirms Gower's influence. Under pressure of this influence, Chaucer reassigned tales to the Man of Law and the Wife of Bath, developed the Pardoner to "outvoice" Gower's anticlerical criticism, and resolved to make the Parson "act as confessor" to the pilgrims. Responding to gibes in the "Confessio," Chaucer wrote parts of CT "to put Gower in his place." The volume considers the relationship between the poets, the relative dates of their works (including LGW and parts of CT), and the thematic imprint of Gower on CT.

Chaucer Subjects: Canterbury Tales--General.; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.; Legend of Good Women.