THE GOWER MANUSCRIPTS: SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

George Macaulay's century-old model for John Gower's revisions of Confessio Amantis persists among scholars despite many problems. Macaulay argued that Gower issued three separate recensions of Confessio in response to Gower's phases of disenchantment with Richard II and enchantment with the future Henry IV, from 1390 to 1393. This argument depends upon a miniscule number of variants and glosses offered in evidence, and manuscript witnesses that contradict the model directly. Similar problems entangle the variants on Richard in Vox Clamantis. Instead, the evidence of textual variants, marginalia, and layout indicate Lancastrian producers first issued versions dedicated to Henry, then created manuscripts of Confessio as artifacts of the earlier Ricardian period. Elaborate Latin marginalia in Cronica Tripertita and Traitie, and the Epistle to Othea of Christine de Pizan, parallel those in Confessio. These works, more firmly dated circa 1400, also argue for the first public issue of Confessio around that time.