Confessio Amantis (“Confession of the Lover”) is a 33,000-line poem written by medieval English poet John Gower , which uses a confession made by the Chaplain of Venus, framed in a collection of short poems. The introductory part of the poem was compiled at the request of the English king Richard II . Confessio Amantis is on the list of the greatest works of English literature of the XIV century along with the works of Joffrey Chaucer, Langland, and Pearl-poet.
Confessio Amantis belongs to the genre of comforting poems, which are a medieval form of inspiration by Boethius philosophy. Despite this, it is usually studied along with other examples of poems of the European Middle Ages, such as Boccaccio Decameron, and, in particular, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, with which Confessio Amantis has much in common.
Content
- 1 Contents
- 2 Editions
- 3 Literature
- 4 References
Contents
Book 1
- The Legend of Actaeon (I.330-388)
- The Legend of Medusa (I.389-462)
- Snakes of Aspida (I.463-480)
- Sirens (I.481-530)
- The Legend of Minus and Pauline (I.761-1076)
- Trojan horse (I.1077-1230)
- The Legend of Florence (I.1407-1882)
- The Legend of Capaneus (I.1980-2020)
- Trump of Death (I.2021-2253)
- The Legend of Narcissus (I.2275-2366)
- The Legend of Albina and Rosmund (I.2459-2647)
- The Punishment of Nebuchadnezzar (I.2785-3042)
- The Legend of the Three Questions (I.3067-3402)
Book 2
- The Legend of Acis and Gelethea (II.97-200)
- The Legend of the Wanderers and the Angel (II.291-372)
- The Legend of Constance (II.587-1612)
- The Legend of Demetrius and Perseus (II.1613-1860)
- The Legend of Hercules (II.2145-2307)
- The Legend of Goethe and Amfritron (II.2459-2500)
- The Legend of One Bachelor (II.2501-2781)
- The Legend of the Father Boniface (II.2803-3040)
- The Legend of Constantine and Sylvester
Editions
- Macaulay, GC, ed (1901). The Works of John Gower. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Peck, Russell A., ed (2000, 2003, 2005). Confessio Amantis. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications.
Literature
- Nicholson, Peter, ed (1991). Gower's Confessio Amantis: A Critical Anthology, Bury St. Edmunds: DS Brewer.
- Nicholson, Peter (2005). Love and Ethics in Gower's Confessio Amantis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Links
- Amantis on Archive.org
- Confessio Amantis in the Gutenberg project .
- Confessio Amantis from Harvard University
- Part 1 of the Confessio Amantis (includes Prologue, Book 1 and Book 8); Part 2 (Books 2-4) and 3 (Books 5-7) access to the Complete Catalog of TEAMS texts
- Reinhold Pauli 1857 Edition