The French Balades

John Gower

ISBN 10: 1580441556 / ISBN 13: 9781580441551

Published by Medieval Institute Publications, US, 2011

About this Item

John Gower is distinct among medieval English poets in composing extensively in all three of late medieval England's major languages: Middle English, Latin, and Anglo-Norman French. Moreover, Gower is unique in Western medieval poetry and music as the only native Englishman proven to have composed Anglo-French poems in the "fixed forms" genres of the balade, rondeau, and virelai, the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. This edition presents both sets of Gower's late fourteenth-century balades in their original Anglo-French verse alongside modern English translations: Traitié selonc les auctours pour essampler les amantz marietz, or "Treatise Following the Authorities as an Example for Married Lovers," a staunch defense of married love comprising eighteen balades in rhyme royal; and his Cinkante Balades, or "Fifty Balades," Gower's title for a sequence of fifty-four balades addressing themes of loyalty, temptation, separation, and reconciliation in love.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781580441551

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The French Balades
• Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications, US
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580441556
• ISBN 13: 9781580441551
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Gower's imaginative French poetry is now available in a new edition with facing page translation, annotations, and introduction. Gower's Traitié employs the French poetic form of balade, typically used for courtly verses, to avow instead the virtues of loving marriage, characteristic of Gower's signature moralizing. His Cinkante Balades confront the tradition of the French Livre de Cent Balades, by describing the feelings of a young man towards his lady, but eventually offering a praise of love insofar as it is subject to reason and morality. Together the two works offer an excellent introduction to the Anglo-Norman works of Gower and are perfect for classroom use.

About the Author

R. F. Yeager is Professor of English at University of West Florida. He specializes in Old English, Middle English, medieval European literature and historical linguistics.