John Gower's Rhetoric: Classical Authority, Biblical Ethos, and Renaissance Receptions

2023 Brepols hardcover edition. Light reading wear else very good condition. From the cover: This is the first book-length study in decades to offer in-depth readings of a variety of late medieval poems across Gower’s trilingual corpus. Identifying Gower’s rhetorical cornerstones in Aristotelian pathos, the theology of the Word, and the execution of a plain style, it provides fresh interpretations of poems in Latin, French, and Middle English that arise from an enhanced understanding of Gower’s literary methods. It explores the classical and medieval rhetorical traditions that informed Gower’s craft, the biblical personae through which the poet achieved his rhetorical aims, and the Renaissance publishers and authors who valued and imitated his strategies for composition. Gower adapted his rhetorical theory from the principles of Aristotelian texts, Augustinian theology, exemplars of Ciceronian style, and the dictates of various artes poetriae; from the latter, John of Garland’s Parisiana Poetria is especially important for outlining practices of Marian rhetoric. Modelling virtuous female speakers on the Virgin and prophetic narrators on John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, Gower gave extra-scriptural voice to members of the extended Holy Family and in so doing, achieved unimpeachable expressions inside classically informed structures of discourse. The epistolary structure, proceeding from Ciceronian rhetoric and the artes dictaminis, is one among Gower’s favoured rhetorical forms for projecting singular voices. His straightforward, reiterative style in Middle English and his virginal speakers compelled Renaissance publisher Thomas Berthelette and celebrated authors Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare to praise Gower’s rhetoric in prefaces and imitate it on the stage. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1 Gower's 'Rethorique' 'Rethorique' among the disciplines Aristotelian Rethorique The Word Cicero and the plain style Conclusion Chapter 2 My name is John. Biblical ethos and apocalyptic narrative 'John' speaking All in the holy family: Two Johns and the Virgin in the Mirour de l'Omme A more political 'John' in a much-revised Vox Clamantis 'John' opens and closes the Apocalypse book 'John' steps down in the Confessio Amantis Conclusion Chapter 3 Virgo bona dicendi perita. The good maiden speaking well Medieval Marian rhetoric Engendering Marian rhetoric in the Mirour de l'Omme The Virgo bona dicendi perita in the Confessio Amantis Marina, Shakespeare's Virgo bona dicendi perita Conclusion Chapter 4 Epistles and rhetorical experimentation, Part I. Contexts and practices Ovid and letters Advice to regents Dedicatory epistles Conclusion Chapter 5 Epistles and rhetorical experimentation, Part II. Music and letters in the Trentham Manuscript The Trentham Manuscript 'Rex Celi Deus' The Cinkante Balades Conclusion Appendix: Primary text translations Chapter 6 The hortus conclusus in Gower's poems Mary, garden of language 'John' and Stella Maris Petitioning Venus / Seeking Mary Embodying Marian reason in the Cinkante Balades Prophecy fulfilled in the Mirour de l'Omme Conclusion Coda Renaissance receptions of Gowerian repetitio Chicago, Newberry Library, MS 33.5 Latinity and repetition in Ben Jonson's English Grammar Conclusion Bibliography Index.…