Narrative and moral consequence in London poetry, 1375-1400

Chaucer, Gower, and Clanvowe, the three first English poets to take up the conventions of dits amoureux, also composed religious pastoralia – unlike any fourteenth-century composer of dits amoureux on the continent. This has not been addressed by scholars due to a hesitation to approach these poets as religious writers and a lack of synthesis between approaches informed by French poetry and by ecclesiastical writing. It is significant because dits amoureux and pastoralia make contradictory demands regarding narrative and moral consequence. Narrative in dits amoureux is a study in distortion; dits amoureux carefully frame narrative, so that any moral consequence of this exploration is arrested. Pastoralia present existence as a narrative space heading to its ending in the last judgement, and base their moral imperative on consequence.

Clanvowe died before resolving the implications of this. For most of his career, Gower attempted to develop a mode of moral poetry grounded in satire and pastoralia, using the conventions of dits amoureux as a foil; where he combined these traditions, Chaucer carefully separated poetry and religious writing. In the late 1380s, however, Chaucer and Gower’s work converged in the Confessio amantis and the Canterbury Tales. These poems employ the framing techniques of dits amoureux to create a form of moral play. Despite this reconciliation, Chaucer and Gower situate moral play differently in relation to their other works: Gower integrates the Confessio with a repertoire that includes his satirical and devotional writings, while Chaucer presents the relationship between poetry and morality as a problem to which no lasting resolution is available.

Much critical work in the recent ‘religious turn’ tends to pursue ‘a reading’ of these poets’ work in relation to their religiosity; this thesis suggests that their poetry might emerge through or despite their religiosity, in a process of creative tension.