Cap. XXIII. Each one of the various degrees of society has departed from its true virtue, and the deadly vices have rule over the whole. Prelates are worldly, priests unchaste, scholars lazy, monks envious and self-indulgent, knights are evil livers, merchants defraud, peasants are disobedient and proud. The enticements of the world have overcome them all.
Cap. XXIV. I love all the realms of Christendom, but most of all I love this land in which I was born. From other lands I stand apart and am not involved in their calamities; but this country of mine, which brought me up from childhood and in which I dwell, cannot suffer evil without affecting me: by its burdens I am weighed down; if it stands, I stand, if it falls, I fall. Therefore it is that I bewail its present divisions.
One thing above all things is needful, and that is justice, with which is associated peace. If in other lands the sins of the flesh prevail, yet there they are to some extent compensated; for there justice prevails and all are equal before the law. Among us, however, not only is there carnal vice, but justice is absent; so that a terrible vengeance is being prepared for us by God.
We, who have always been favoured by fortune, are now brought low; this land, which was once reputed so wealthy, is now poor both in virtue and in possessions; my country, which was so strong, is made feeble by unjust judgements; she who was so fertile, is now sown with salt; she who had Fame for her sister, is now infamous, all her praise is taken away and her glory is departed. Her lords are sunk in sloth, her clergy is dissolute, her cities full of discord, her laws oppressive and without justice, her people discontented.
O land barren of virtue, where is thy past fortune? omens appear which presage thy fate, and all point to thee as an example. It is not by fortune or by chance that this comes about, but by our sins; and the grace of God even now may be found by repentance. I pray that God may show us his mercy and accept our tears. We know that thou, O God, art alone to be worshipped, that thou art the ruler of all things, and not fortune. Show pity therefore, O God!
Cap. XXV. Such were the verses which came to me by inspiration in my sleep. It is not I who speak them, but the common voice of all. Let him who feels himself in fault amend his ways, and he who feels himself free from fault may pass untouched. I accuse no man; let each examine his own conscience.
The world is neither evil nor good: each man may make of it what he will by his own life. [71]But this I say, that sin committed and not purged by repentance receives at length its due reward.
The conclusion of the Vox Clamantis, as altered from the first version, is doubtless intended as a fitting form of introduction for the Cronica Tripertita, which comes in as an appendix added in later years. It will be noted as regards the prose which forms a transition to this, that Gower has in the end brought himself to think that the misfortunes of the earlier part of Richard’s reign were intended as a special warning to the youthful king, whom he formerly relieved from responsibility on account of his tender age, and that the tyranny of his later time sprang naturally out of his disregard of this preliminary chastisement. This change of view is also to be traced in the successive forms assumed by the paragraph relating to the Vox Clamantis in the author’s account of his books (‘Quia vnusquisque,’ &c.).
Of the contents of the Cronica Tripertita it is unnecessary that more should be said than is contained in the Notes to this edition. Of the remaining pieces the Carmen super multiplici Viciorum Pestilencia is dated by the author as belonging to the twentieth year of Richard II. The Tractatus de Lucis Scrutinio is probably somewhat later, and the poem ‘O deus immense,’ &c., is said in one of the titles prefixed to have been composed near the end of Richard’s reign. Besides these there is a group of Latin poems referring to the accession of Henry IV, ‘Rex celi, deus,’ &c. adapted from the Vox Clamantis, ‘H. aquile pullus,’ and ‘O recolende, bone,’ with several short occasional pieces belonging to the last years of the author’s life. One of these has reference to his blindness and to the end of his activity as an author which was caused by it, and in connexion with this we have also the epistle to Archbishop Arundel prefixed to the All Souls MS. of the Vox Clamantis and other Latin poems, and apparently meant to accompany the presentation of this particular copy. To Arundel also is addressed the short piece referring to the comet of March 1402, and finally we have the lines in which allusion is made to the short-comings of executors. It is probable also that the four lines which afterwards appeared upon the poet’s tomb, ‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c., and which are given by the Glasgow MS., were written by Gower himself.
Some reference ought perhaps to be made in conclusion to the list of Gower’s works given by Bale and copied by others, with a view to the question whether he was acquainted with any works of Gower which are not known to us. In his Scriptorum Illustrium Catalogus, p. 524 (ed. 1559) he says that Gower wrote