To pitè for to be servaunt,
Of al the worldes remenaunt
He is worthy to ben a lord.'
But the particular story about the 'yonge children' to which Gower here alludes is given at length in the Conf. Amantis, bk. ii. vol. i. pp. 266-77. Very briefly, it comes to this. Constantine, while still a heathen, was afflicted with leprosy. The physicians said he could only be healed by bathing in the blood of young children. On due reflection, he preferred to retain his leprosy; whereupon, he was directed in a vision to apply to pope Silvester, who converted him and baptised him; and he was cured of his leprosy when immersed in the baptismal font. The whole city followed the emperor's example, and was converted to Christianity. This explains ll. 354-5:—'so that the dear ones, (converted) from being the hateful ones who had formerly been at enmity with Christ,' &c.
363. For debated, MS. T. has deleated, for delated, i.e. deferred; see Dilate in the New E. Dict.
380. 'these other Christian princes'; viz. in particular, Charles VI, king of France, and Robert III, king of Scotland.
393. These interesting lines tell us that blindness befell the poet in the first year of Henry IV (Sept. 30, 1399—Sept. 29, 1400); and we gather that the present poem was meant to be his last. As a matter of fact, he wrote a still later couplet in the following words:—
'Henrici regis annus fuit ille secundus
Scribere dum cesso, sum quia cecus ego.'
These lines occur in MSS. of his Vox Clamantis; see Morley, Eng. Writers, iv. 157. Notwithstanding his infirmity, Gower survived till the autumn of 1408; and was interred, as is well known, in the church of St. Mary Overies—now St. Saviour's—in Southwark, towards the rebuilding of which he had liberally contributed.