«Betwene Ernest and Game»

This study of the "Confessio Amantis" by the fourteenth-century poet John Gower uses linguistic and structuralist techniques to assess aspects of the literary artistry of a great but neglected poem. It posits that Dante's "Vita Nuova" is an analogue that helps us understand the structure of the "Confessio" and that the "Confessio" is carefully ordered to promote love, both "amor" and "caritas." The book discusses puns and "rimes" "equivoques" as aspects of Gower's literary artistry and residual elements of oral tradition in the Tale of Appolinus of Tyre. It concludes with a reconsideration of the relationship of the narrative materials shared by Gower and his contemporary Chaucer with a view to correcting biases concerning the relative merits of the two poets."