The Minor Latin Works: with In Praise of Peace (Middle English Texts) - Softcover

The Minor Latin Works, edited and translated by R. F. Yeager
In Praise of Peace, edited by Michael Livingston

"That John Gower's minor Latin poems should be among the last of his works to be translated into his native English in a way is apt, since they seem to have been among the last poetry he wrote. . . . Gower's achievement in writing substantially in all three primary languages of his time - Anglo-French, English, and Latin - was a source of pride to others and, undoubtedly, to him too: into the final years of his life he continued to produce poetry in all three languages. . . . Certainly there is reason to know these poems for the light they shed on the intense partisanship and events of great moment surrounding the usurpation 1399-1400. . . . It was during these parlous times that Gower composed most of the poems included here. . . . All are important documents historically; but they are also poems admirable equally for their skill and craft." -- from Yeager's Introduction.

"In Praise of Peace [is] in the same position as the shorter Latin works edited and translated in this volume: ignored, neglected, reduced, or relegated to the dusty realm of footnotes. But there is far more at work in this complex poem, as Gower's verse deftly weaves in and out of the historical, political, social, and religious contexts and controversies of its day . . . The literal refashioning of lines, which even extends to Gower's Latin works, corresponds to the general recapitulation of his career themes in this poem, and reveals various levels at which Gower's revisionary process unfolds. . . . The tone of . . . In Praise of Peace is, if not triumphant, determinedly optimistic. In this light, we might view the poem as a coda to Gower's long career, restating and reinvigorating his famously moral principles about just rule of self and society." -- from Livingston's Introduction

Contents

Minor Latin Works 
1. De lucis scrutinio [An Examination of the Light]
2. Carmen super multiplici viciorum pestilencia [A Poem on the Manifold Plague of Vices]
3. Est amor [Love Is]
4. O deus immense [O Boundless God]
5. Quia unusquisque [Because Each One]
6. Ecce patet tensus [Lo, the Taut Bow]
7. Rex celi deus [King of Heaven]
8. O recolende [O Venerable]
9. H. aquile pullus [H. Son of the Eagle]
10. Quicquid homo scribat (In fine) [To Whatever a Man Writes]
11. Presul ouile regis [Prelate]
12. Unanimes esse qui secula [To Be of One Mind He Who the Ages]
13. Cultor in ecclesia [The Husbandman in the Church]
14. Dicunt scripture [They Say in Scripture]
15. Orate pro anima (Armigeri scutum) [Pray for the Soul]

Appendix 1: Eneidos Buccolis [Aeneid Bucolics]

In Praise of Peace 

*Each work includes an introduction and notes.