The French Balades by John Gower
John Gower is distinct among medieval English poets in composing extensively in all three of late medieval England’s major languages: Middle English, Latin, and Anglo-Norman French. Moreover, Gower is unique in Western medieval poetry and music as the only native Englishman proven to have composed Anglo-French poems in the “fixed forms” genres of the balade, rondeau, and virelai, the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. This edition presents both sets of Gower’s late fourteenth-century balades in their original Anglo-French verse alongside modern English translations: Traitié selonc les auctours pour essampler les amantz marietz, or “Treatise Following the Authorities as an Example for Married Lovers,” a staunch defense of married love comprising eighteen balades in rhyme royal; and his Cinkante Balades, or “Fifty Balades,” Gower’s title for a sequence of fifty-four balades addressing themes of loyalty, temptation, separation, and reconciliation in love.
R. F. Yeager is Professor of English at University of West Florida. He specializes in Old English, Middle English, medieval European literature and historical linguistics.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781580441551 |
| ISBN 10 | 1580441556 |
| Title | The French Balades |
| Author | John Gower |
| Series | Teams Middle English Texts Series |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Medieval Institute Publications |
| Year published | 2011-05-01 |
| Number of pages | 196 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |