Tea at Trianon: John Gower, Poet

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 1, 2016

John Gower, Poet

From English Historical Fiction Authors:

There are few solid details of John Gower's background and early life. He may have been born in Yorkshire, his family may have held property in Kent, Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Nothing is known of his education, although it has been speculated that he was trained in law. Gower himself held properties in Suffolk and Kent, where he seems to have resided until taking up residence in the priory of St. Mary Overie in Southwark, London, around 1377.

A very sketchy back ground, for a man with so monumental a tomb.

What we do know is that John Gower was a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer, a contemporary of William Langland, and a gifted writer in his own right as an exceptional trilingual poet. He wrote in English, French and Latin. He gained an international reputation when some of his works were also translated into Portuguese and later into Spanish. His works contained moral and political themes as well as discussions of the power of love. They were highly praised by his peers.

John Gower's most important writings are these:

Speculum Hominis: a poem, first written in French, on the fall of man and the effect of sin in the world.

Vox Clamantis:, any essay with also deals with sin, particularly criticising the corruption inherent in society. This is an important piece of writing because it provides a contemporary view of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Here is an appropriate illustration from his work of Gower firing arrows at the world.

(Read more.)