Gower, Lydgate, and Incest.

Published: Russell A. Peck and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower: Others and the Self (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2017), pp. 156-82.

Description: Argues that "alone of the three ‘fathers of English poesy [Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate],' Gower openly grapples with an acute awareness of the cultural centrality of a concept that extends from a betrayal of love's intimacy to social, political, and even poetic, dysfunction." Concludes that "Gower's exploration of incest posed a problem that Chaucer felt impelled to address, and that Lydgate felt impelled to try to solve." In exploring the divergences between Gower and Chaucer, regards Gower's examination of incest as "fuller and more searching," and Chaucer's treatment--as addressed in MLH, MLT, and ClT--as falling on the side of "dominant repression."

Chaucer Subjects: Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Man of Law and His Tale
Clerk and His Tale