QUICQUID HOMO SCRIBAT, Etc. (p. [365])
Of the three forms given here we must suppose that of the Trentham MS. to be the earliest. It is decidedly shorter than the others, it has no prose heading, and it names the first year of Henry IV in such a manner that we may probably assign it to that year. The poet’s eyesight had then failed to such an extent that it was difficult for him any longer to write; but complete blindness probably had not yet come on, and he does not yet use the word ‘cecus.’ Of the other two forms it is probable that that given by S is the later, if only because the precise date is omitted and the very diffuse heading restrained within reasonable limits. S, it is true, ends with this piece, while CHG have the later pieces; but these were probably added as they were composed, and the All Souls book may have been presented to archbishop Arundel before the last poems were written.
This concluding piece is written in S in the same hand as the Epistola at the beginning of the book, the heading apparently over the writing of another hand, some parts as ‘dicitur,’ l. 2, ‘tripertita—tempore,’ 2, 3, being obviously over erasure. The original hand remains for ‘est qualiter ab illa Cronica que,’ ‘in Anglia—rerum,’ ‘varia carmina—quia.’
ORATE PRO ANIMA Etc. (p. [367])
I have no doubt that this exhortation was set down by Gower himself, who had probably arranged before his death for the promised indulgence, following the principle laid down in the last poem of the collection, of being his own executor in such matters. The verses ‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c., which are appended in the Glasgow MS. were originally upon his tomb, and they have every appearance of being his own composition: cp. p. 352, ll. 217 ff. Berthelette after describing the tomb says, ‘And there by hongeth a table, wherin appereth that who so euer praith for the soule of John Gower, he shall, so oft as he so dothe, haue a thousande and fyue hundred dayes of pardon.’
PRESUL, OUILE REGIS, Etc. (p. [368])
This is evidently addressed to archbishop Arundel. The comet referred to is no doubt that of March, 1402. The evils complained of are the conspiracies against the king, and we are told by the chroniclers that the appearance of this comet in the north was taken as a presage of the troubles in Wales and in Northumberland: cp. Walsingham, ii. 248. Adam of Usk, who saw it when on the Continent, says it was visible by day as well as by night, and that it probably prefigured the death of the duke of Milan, whose arms were also seen in the sky (p. 73).
DICUNT SCRIPTURE Etc. (p. [368])
5. The neglect complained of is of prayers for the soul of the departed. Gower seems to have followed his own precept and made arrangements for some of the prayers in his lifetime, though others are provided for by his will. Berthelette in his preface to the Confessio Amantis (1532) speaks of Gower’s place of burial as having been prepared by himself in the church of St. Mary Overes, ‘where he hath of his owne foundation a masse dayly songe. And more ouer he hath an obyte yerely done for hym within the same churche, on fryday after the feaste of the blessed pope saynte Gregory.’ St. Gregory’s day is March 12.