Chaucer, Gower, and Barbarian History: “The Man of Law’s Tale” and the Prologue to Gower’s Confessio Amantis
Nicholas Birns
This chapter argues that both Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower looked to barbarian history as a source for narrative mirror their own times. Gower’s sweeping prologue the Confessio Amantis uses biblical prophecy of four empires in book Daniel historian Otto Freising portray complex tableau where Roman Empire , fourth Daniel’s realms, is indefinitively extended, but also subject diminution decay. The concludes by comparing how explores post-Carolingian Lombard emperors Chaucer’s sourcing an earlier era, Paul Deacon, constructing Mediterranean “The Man Law’s Tale,” whose extends from Eastern princesses Anglo-Saxon converts.
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