ENGL 320 British Literary Traditions
Borders and Boundaries: Human/Animal/Monster?
John Gower, “The Tale of Philomene and Tereus”
Sept 28
John Gower (c. 1330-1408)
A friend of Chaucer?
John Gower, “The Tale of Philomene and Tereus”
Confessio Amantis [The Lover’s Confession]
• 8 books; 80 + “moral” stories
• Structured around the Se7en Deadly Sins and a model
of penitence. Book 5 is about the sin of avarice. In
our tale, rape is a form of greed.
• Amans [the Lover] confesses himself to Genius, the
priest of Venus, the goddess of love
• But Genius’s “moral” tales are mostly drawn from
Ovid’s poetry of erotic love
• Poem offers a model of sexual governance analogous
to political governance
Questions
1. To what extent is the tale on women’s
side?
2.What do we make of
the sisters’ “culinary
vengeance” (Dinshaw)?
British Library, MS Egerton 1991, fol. 7v
John Gower, Confessio Amantis
[The Lover’s Confession].
The Lover kneeling before the
Confessor, Genius (the priest of
Venus, the goddess of love).
Early fifteenth-century English
manuscript.
British Library MS Harley 3869,
fol.18.
Ovid, Metamorphoses (6.426-676)
Philomela is kidnapped and then raped by Tereus. He keeps her
in a “ramshackle building... [with] stone blocks around her
cottage” to guard against her escape. He holds her tongue with
a pincer and cuts it off with a sword. The severed tongue
writhes like a snake on the ground. Philomela lives a year in
silence, weaving her story on her loom. She gives the cloth to
an old woman, who understood Philomela’s trouble and gives
the cloth to the queen, Procne, who is outraged. Procne rescues
her sister and kills her son Itys. The sisters cook Itys and feed
him to Tereus. They confront him with Itys’ head and he
chases after them for vengeance. The women pray and the
gods turn the three of them into birds. Philomela becomes a
nightingale, Tereus a hoopoe, and Procne a swallow.
To what extent is the tale on women’s side?
Genius critiques the notion that rape … is
fundamentally a crime against men [because
women are men’s property] …Genius goes to some
lengths to reinstate women as the real victims of
rape, and to counter the misogyny so common in
this sort of narrative. … The moral … is that rape,
which is both a crime and a sexual sin, inverts the
“natural” order of things because it disrupts rather
than reinforces gender categories. (Watt 91)
Pierpont Morgan, MS M.126 fol. 122r (c. 1470)
“Tereus’s own unnatural and consuming passion is
countered by infanticide … and cannibalism, a form
of unnatural consumption.” (Watt 92)
Bot thus his owene flessh and blood
Himself devoureth again kinde,
360
As he that was tofore unkinde.
And thanne, er that he were arise,
For that he scholde ben agrise, [horrified]
To schewen him the child was ded,
This Philomene took the heed
365
Between two dishes, and al wrothe
Tho comen forth the sustres bothe,
And setten it upon the bord.
How much do we see the point of view of the victim?
sche was of to litel myht
Defense again so rude a knight
To make, whanne he was so wood [mad]
That he no reson understood,
95
Bot hield hire under in such wise
That sche ne myhte noght arise,
Bot lay oppressed and disesed
As if a goshawk hadde sesed
A brid, which dorste noght for fere
Remue: and thus this tyrant there [escape]
Beraft hire such thing as men sayn
Mai neveremor be yolde again,
[restored]
And that was the virginitee.
“rape threatens the stable identity of not only the
aggressor but also the victim.’ (Watt 94)
And he thanne as a lyon wod
With his unhappy handes stronge 140
Hire caughte be the tresses longe,
With whiche he bond ther bothe hire armes That was a fieble deed of armes And to the grounde anon hire caste,
And out he clippeth also faste
145
Hire tonge with a paire of sheres.
So what with blood and what with teres
Out of hire ye and of hir mouth,
He made hire faire face uncouth. [unfamiliar]
References
Dinshaw, Carolyn. “Rivalry, Rape, and Manhood:
Gower and Chaucer.” Chaucer and Gower. Ed. R.F.
Yeager. Victoria, BC: U of Victoria P, 1991. 130-52.
Echard, Siân, ed. A Companion to Gower. London:
Boydell & Brewer, 2004.
Fisher, John. John Gower: Moral Philosopher and
Friend of Chaucer. New York UP, 1964.
Watt, Diane. Amoral Gower. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 2003.
Yeager, R.F. John Gower’s Poetic: The Search for a
New Arion. Rochester, NY: Brewer, 1990.