128 [oure]] oþer MS.
154 [bataile]] baitale MS.
198 [chargid]] chargen MS.
202 [not so]] repeated MS.
228 [of]] & MS.
275 [þan]] of MS.
XII JOHN GOWER D. 1408.
John Gower, a Londoner himself, came of a good Kentish family. Chaucer must have known him well, for he chose him as his attorney when leaving for the Continent in 1378, and, with the dedication of Troilus and Criseyde, labelled him for ever as 'moral Gower'. Gower's marriage with Agnes Groundolf, probably a second marriage, is recorded in 1398. Blindness came on him a few years later. His will, dated August 15, 1408, was proved on October 24, 1408, so that his death must fall between those two points. By his own wish he was buried in St. Saviour's, Southwark, the church of the canons of St. Mary Overy, to whom he was a liberal benefactor.
On his tomb in St. Saviour's Church, Gower is shown with his head resting on three great volumes, representing his principal works—the Speculum Meditantis, the Vox Clamantis, and the Confessio Amantis.