John Gower

“ Thus men say, believing that Fortune can overthrow the decrees of God, but in fact she is nothing, fate is nothing, chance has nothing to do with the affairs of men. Each one makes for himself his own lot: if the will is good, good fortune follows, if evil, it makes the fortune bad. Virtue will lead you to the summit of the wheel, and vice will bring you and your fortune down to the bottom.
Cap. V. God has said that the man who obeys his commands shall prosper in wealth and peace: the very elements are subject to the righteous man. ”

“ XVI. Answer, thou sinful man, what will thy pride do for thee then, thy envy, thy anger, thy sloth, thy gluttony, thy lechery, or thy avarice? All the glory of this world perishes and passes away.
Cap. XVII. Everything passes away, wealth, honour, beauty, power, learning, and pleasure. Our flesh grows old as a garment and we perish. He is happy and a true king who rules himself, he is a slave (though called a king) who is subject to his own vices. Our life is so short and death comes so soon, that we ought all to prepare for our journey hence. ”

“ V. O ye who sell justice for gain, learn what end awaits you. The higher you rise, the greater will be your fall: the more wealth you gather, the greater will be your misery. O thou judge who seekest after wealth, why dost thou attend to all things else and neglect thyself? Thou wilt gain the world, but lose heaven. All worldly power comes to an end, and so, be sure, will thine. ”

“ Whatever comes to pass in the world, whether it be good or evil, we are the cause of it.
Prologus Libri Tercii.
Since good and bad fortune are due to the merits and demerits of men, I shall examine the various conditions of men and find out where the fault lies. I shall utter not so much my own words as the common report of others, and it must be remembered that he who finds fault with the bad is in effect praising the good. May God assist me to carry out my task! My abilities are small, and I do not affect high themes, but I speak of the evils which the common voice of humanity bewails. ”

“ Two rules of this order I will set forth, which are almost everywhere received. The first is that what the flesh desires, that you may have; and the second that whatever the flesh shrinks from, that you should avoid. So the new order of Burnel is thought better than those of Benedict or Bernard.
Thus, if bad times come, I shall hold that the error of the Clergy is the cause. The body is nothing without the spirit: we have darkness instead of light, death instead of life, and the flock is scattered abroad without a shepherd. ”

“ III. Fortune, hear what men say of thee, that thou hast a double face, and goest by double paths, that nothing in thee is stable or secure. No gifts may keep thee faithful, thou art lighter than the dead leaves which fly before the wind: now thou art bright and fair, now dark and lowering; thy love is more treacherous than that of a harlot, the prosperity which thou givest is very near to disaster.
Cap. IV. Fortune gives no honey without gall, she changes like the sphere of the moon. Her wheel is ever turning, and no tears or prayers will move her. ”

“ We see here the picture of one who is not devoted to a particular party, but looks to what he conceives as the common good, deeply impressed with the sense that things are out of joint, and hoping against hope that a saviour of society may arise, either in the person of the young king, or of his vigorous and chivalrous cousin. There is no sign of any liking for John of Gaunt or of any attachment to the Lancastrian party generally; but he is stirred to very genuine indignation at the unfair treatment of men whom he regards as honest patriots, such as Gloucester, the Arundels, and Cobham. ”

“ XXI. Then I returned thanks to God for having preserved me upon the sea and from the jaws of Scylla. The rustic goes back to his labours, but in his heart there remains hatred of his lords; therefore let us be forewarned and provide against future evils. As for me, God has set me free from the danger, and for this I thank him; and I would that my country, preserved from destruction, might render due thanks to God. While the memory of these things is fresh in me, I will write that which I experienced in my sleep, that waking slumber which brought to me no mere vision but a dream of reality. ”

“ A law is nothing without people, or people without a king, or a king without good counsel. 69 Complaints are everywhere heard now of the injustice of the high court, and the limbs suffer because the head is diseased. The king is an undisciplined youth, who neglects all good habits, and chooses unworthy companions, by whose influence he is made worse. At the same time older men give way to him for gain and pervert the justice of the king’s court. None can tell what the end will be: I can only mourn over these evils and offer my counsel to the youthful king. ”

“ It is an evil thing when one of low condition is exalted to the highest place in the city. The evil man is a common scourge; but though he be mounted on high, he shall fall and perish.
Cap. XVI. The man whose tongue is unrestrained is as a pestilence among the people. The tongue causes strife and many evils; it breaks through every guard and devours like a flame. None can say how many evils the tongue of the talkative man brings about in the city: it causes discord and hatred instead of peace and love; and where peace and love are not, there God is not. ”

“ Of these some labour for true law and justice, and these I praise; but most practise an art under the name of law which perverts justice. The advocate will plead the cause of any man who pays him, and compels his rich neighbours to give him gifts, for fear that evil should befall them. He has a thousand ways of making his gains; the great and powerful break through his snares, but the weak and defenceless are caught in them. ”

“ Death comes when we least expect it, and takes away our wealth and strength, nor can any man redeem himself with gold, or move with gifts the Judge who judges all things justly.
Cap. XVIII. Death is common to all, but to the good it is a cause of joy, to the evil of sorrow. The good will pass by means of death to a place of perfect peace and perfect joy, such as cannot be described or imagined.
Cap. XIX. The evil-doer has a twofold death, the death of the body and the death of the soul. No words can tell the torment of that second death, which is eternal. ”

“ The citizen who thus plagues his fellows should be put to death or banished: it is expedient that one should die, lest the whole people should perish.
Thou ruler of the city, labour to bring about harmony and peace, and above all deal prudently. Great consequences often follow from small things, and the fire which seems to be extinguished may blaze up again. Justice and peace, which formerly reigned, must be restored, so that the ruin which overtook Rome and Athens may be averted from our city. ”

“ To write anything like a biography of Gower, with the materials that exist, is an impossibility. Almost the only authentic records of him, apart from his writings, are his marriage-licence, his will, and his tomb in St. Saviour’s Church; and it was this last which furnished most of the material out of which the early accounts of the poet were composed. A succession of writers from Leland down to Todd contribute hardly anything except guesswork, and this is copied by each from his predecessors with little or no pretence of criticism. ”

“ XIX. All things change and die, the gems that were bright are now dimmed, the Church herself has lost her virtue, and the Synagogue becomes the spouse of Christ. The good men of old have passed away, and the bad of old live again. ”

“ The name of the book is Vox Clamantis, because it is the utterance of a fresh sorrow.
Liber Secundus.
Cap. I. Tears shall be the ink with which I write. All is vanity except the love of God, and man has cause for lamentation from his birth.
Yet if any people in the world could be happy, God granted this boon to us; we were blessed above all other nations. Now our former glory is extinguished and our prosperity is destroyed. ”

“ One boar there was, whom Kent produced, such as the whole earth might not match. Flame came from his mouth and eyes, his tusks were like those of an elephant; foam mixed with human blood flowed over his flanks. He strikes down all those whom he meets and none can prevail against him: no place except heaven is safe from his rage. ”

“ Christ is a lover of peace and his ministers must not appeal to the sword, but must keep the command, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Let Christ himself lay claim to what is his. Pride is the root of all evil. ”

“ He deserves to have Leah, not Rachel, as his bride. Those who follow wars for the sake of the spoils are like vultures that prey upon the corpses of the dead. Alas, in these days gold is preferred to honour and the world to God. ”

“ A king is above all others; he should endeavour to overcome and rise above himself. If thou art above the laws, live the more justly. Be gentle in thy acts, for thy wrath is death. Endeavour to practise virtue in thy youth and to avoid evil communications.
Cap. IX. Avoid false friends and those who stir up war for the sake of their own profit. Resist those who will tempt thee to evil, O king. [Pg lii] Take vengeance on wrong, and let justice be done without fear or favour. ”

“ The laws of marriage are no longer kept in these days, chaste love is all but unknown, and adultery everywhere prevails. Women have no modesty, no chastity, and no patience: vice blooms and flourishes, while the flower of virtue is trodden under foot. ”

“ Let him who feels himself in fault amend his ways, and he who feels himself free from fault may pass untouched. I accuse no man; let each examine his own conscience.
The world is neither evil nor good: each man may make of it what [Pg lvii] he will by his own life. 71But this I say, that sin committed and not purged by repentance receives at length its due reward.
The conclusion of the Vox Clamantis, as altered from the first version, is doubtless intended as a fitting form of introduction for the Cronica Tripertita, which comes in as an appendix added in later years. ”

“ VIII. Man is a microcosm or lesser world, and according as he does ill or well, the greater world is good or bad. Man ought therefore to aim at high things, and not to submit himself to the rule of sin.
Cap. IX. When death comes, when the throat is dry and the face bloodless, when the eyes are fixed and the tongue silent, when the pulse beats no more and the feet can no longer move, what then will the proud man say? The body in which he prided himself is now food for worms, his strength is less than that of a fly, and his beauty is turned into loathing. ”

“ X. The teaching and the writings of the clergy are in favour of peace and love, and when I wondered why they waged wars, one answered me in the person of the supreme pontiff and said: ‘Rule on earth is given to us by divine decree and it pleases us to enjoy all the good things of this world. Our way is different from that of Christ and his apostles; we set up the cross as a sign of hatred and vengeance, we put to death those who will not acknowledge our rule ”

“ They administer to us the sacraments during our lives, they give us burial when we are dead, they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. So much the worse is it when they are ignorant and bad; the distinction between the good and the bad priest is like that between the dove and the raven sent out of the ark.
Cap. XXVIII. The young scholars who are being trained for the priesthood are in these days too often indolent and vicious. If they are so in youth, they will hardly be good in their later age. ”

“ They are not content with acorns for their food or water for their drink; they devour rich food in the city and drink good wine, so that they lie in drunkenness as dead. They despise the pig-stye and defile kings’ palaces with their filth: their grunting is like the roaring of a lion. ”

“ The progress of his political development during the reign of Richard II is clearly seen in his Latin works, with their successive revisions. He began, it is evident, with full hope and confidence that the youthful king would be a worthy representative of his father the Black Prince, both in war and in peace. As time goes on, and the boy develops into an ill-regulated young man, under evil influences of various kinds, the poet begins to have doubts, and these gradually increase until they amount to certainty, and rebuke and denunciation take the place of the former favourable anticipations. ”

“ VI. The good woman is one whose praise is above all things. The bad is a subtle snare for the destruction of men. She paints her face and uses every art to deceive. The world is treacherous, but woman is more treacherous still. ”