Introduction

Summary

The poet John Gower has long been associated with the law. From John Leland's speculation in the sixteenth century that Gower and Chaucer met at the Inns of Court, to John Fisher's more robust argument in the twentieth that Gower “had some sort of legal connection,” the association has gradually hardened into something closer to fact. The biographical detail fits nicely with the legal texture of Gower's works. Yet the connection between the biography and Gower's poetry is a troubled one, and while I will review some of the difficulties involved in the first part of this introduction, my own argument will focus more on the presence of law in Gower's works. In fact, the gaps in the biography may help us appreciate the ways in which Gower takes a more distanced view of the law, first of all by exploring the generic similarities between the exemplum and the legal case, and secondly by focusing on jurisprudential questions that test the limits of the law.

Gower's Black Eye

John Fisher, who did most to demonstrate Gower's possible involvement in the law, seemed ambivalent about whether the biographical evidence truly mattered. Part of the problem is that the most prominent legal case Gower was involved in casts a shadow on Gower's “moral” character. This is the notorious “Septvauns Affair.”4 In September 1364, a certain William de Septvauns, a ward of the Crown, claimed in escheat proceedings that he was of age and so in a position to make use of his properties.