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APPENDIX: ENEIDOS BUCOLIS


Appendix: Eneidos bucolis
Edited and Translated by R. F. Yeager
Originally Published in John Gower: The Minor Latin Works with In Praise of Peace
Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2005



Macaulay printed Eneidos bucolis among Gower's Latin works, between Quia unusquisque and O deus immense, even as he surmised their author to have been "Ralph Strode, whom Chaucer couples with Gower in the last stanza of Troilus with the epithet 'philosophical,' and of whom we know by tradition that he wrote elegiac verse" (4.419). Precisely why Macaulay chose to hold out Gower's own authorship through this inclusion, without comment, in the text, only to reverse himself in the notes, is a small mystery. If, however, the unusual editorial maneuver indicates ambivalence on Macaulay's part as to Gower's hand in the poem, he is not alone. There is a case to be made that Eneidos bucolis, which appears in five manuscripts (including two that Gower may have overseen in production, S and F), could indeed be Gower's own effort. Its form is elegiac couplets, of which he was a master; nor would it be the first or only time that he adopted a "philosophical" detachment to comment on himself in the third person. The chapter headings in VC (e.g., "In huius opusculi principio intendit compositor" ["In the beginning of this little work the author intends"]), the address/prayer prefacing the dedication of S to Archbishop Arundel (e.g., "Hanc Epistolam subscriptam corde deuoto misit senex et cecus Iohannes Gower" ["This Epistle, written with a devoted heart, the old and blind John Gower has sent"]) come to mind; and, although their level of invention is less than creating an alterego to praise one's own achievement, the Latin note at CA I.60 ff., "fingens se auctor esse Amantem" ["the author feigning to be the Lover"], strikes closer. Amans, it has long been recognized, both is, and is not, the "John Gower" he eventually claims to be at CA VIII.2908. If Eneidos bucolis is by Gower, it presents an advance on his demonstrated fictive self-fashioning, but not an inconceivable one; and it would tell us much about how he wished to situate himself memoria in aeterna.

On the other hand, if it is, in fact, by someone else, its quintuple presence in manuscripts of his work may indicate how well Gower thought Eneidos bucolis caught his likeness.

The text here is from S, collated with C, H, G, and F. The form is elegiac distichs.



Eneidos bucolis

Carmen, quod quidam Philosophus in memoriam Iohannis Gower super consum-
macione suorum trium librorum forma subsequenti composuit, et eidem gratanter
transmisit.		 Aeneid Bucolics

A poem, which in remembrance of John Gower a certain philosopher composed
in the following form and happily sent to the same man, to commemorate the
completion of his three books.



(see note)





5




10




15

 Eneidos, Bucolis, que Georgica metra perhennis
   Virgilio laudis serta dedere scolis;
Hiis tribus ille libris prefertur honore poetis,
   Romaque precipuis laudibus instat eis.
Gower, sicque tuis tribus est dotata libellis
   Anglia, morigeris quo tua scripta seris.
Illeque Latinis tantum sua metra loquelis
   Scripsit, ut Italicis sint recolenda notis;
Te tua set trinis tria scribere carmina linguis
   Constat, ut inde viris sit scola lata magis:
Gallica lingua prius, Latina secunda, set ortus
   Lingua tui pocius Anglica complet opus.
Ille quidem vanis Romanas obstupet aures,
   Ludit et in studiis musa pagana suis;
Set tua Cristicolis fulget scriptura renatis,
   Quo tibi celicolis laus sit habenda locis.
 The meters of the Aeneid, Bucolics, and Georgics, woven together
   By Virgil, have given matter of perennial praise to the schools.
On account of these three books he is preferred in honor over all poets,
   And Rome bestows upon them its chief praises.
Thus, too, O Gower, with your three little books is England endowed,
   Where you accommodate your writings to serious things.
He wrote his poems only in the Latin tongue,
   So that they might be appreciated by the famous Italian worthies.
But it is clear that you wrote your three poems in three languages,
   So that broader schooling might be given to men.
First the French tongue, Latin second, then at last English,
   The speech of your birth, completes the work.
He indeed astounded the ears of the Romans with vanities,
   And the pagan Muse played in his studies.
But your writing glows for reborn Christians,
   Whereby praise will be given you in heavenly places.
 (see note)



(see note)













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