"Ecce patet tensus": The Trentham Manuscript, "In Praise of Peace," and John Gower's Autograph Hand.
- Author/Editor
- Sobecki, Sebastian.
- Title
- "Ecce patet tensus": The Trentham Manuscript, "In Praise of Peace," and John Gower's Autograph Hand.
- Published
- Sobecki, Sebastian. "'Ecce patet tensus': The Trentham Manuscript, 'In Praise of Peace,' and John Gower's Autograph Hand." Speculum 90 (2015): 925-59.
- Review
- Sobecki's essay addresses three major claims: 1) that the "Trentham Manuscript" (now properly London, British Library MS Additional 59495), commonly thought to have been a gift to Henry IV, instead remained very likely in Gower's possession until his death, and thereafter in St. Mary Overeys Priory until the Priory's surrender ca. 1541, during the Dissolution; 2) that "In Praise of Peace" was begun as a poem for Richard II supporting peace with France, and finished as a poem for Henry, urging the same--a purpose that governed the inclusion of the Traitié pour les amantz marietz balades and Ecce patet tensus as well, all of which concern "marriage," but not of people, rather of nations; 3) that the final two Latin poems ("Ecce patet tensus" and "Henrici quarti primus," so titled in Sobecki's article, elsewhere and more commonly "Quicquid homo scribat," or occasionally In fine"), copied in a hand identified by Malcolm Parkes as "Scribe 10," are in fact the work of Gower himself, as therefore is also the latter portion of BL MS Cotton Tiberius A.IV, which exhibits the same hand. [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 36.1]
- Date
- 2015
- Gower Subjects
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies
In Praise of Peace
Minor Latin Poetry