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PERICLES – John Gower’s Confessio Amantis

Book VIII of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis (1393) provided Shakespeare with the main source of the late play Pericles.

Incipit Liber Octavus

Que favet ad vicium vetus hec modo regula confert,

Nec novus e contra qui docet ordo placet.

Cecus amor dudum nondum sua lumina cepit,

Quo Venus impositum devia fallit iter.

The myhti god, which unbegunne

Stant of himself and hath begunne

Alle othre thinges at his wille,

The hevene him liste to fulfille

Of alle joie, where as he

Sit inthronized in his See,

And hath hise Angles him to serve,

Suche as him liketh to preserve,

So that thei mowe noght forsueie:

Bot Lucifer he putte aweie, 10

With al the route apostazied

Of hem that ben to him allied,

Whiche out of hevene into the helle

From Angles into fendes felle;

Wher that ther is no joie of lyht,

Bot more derk than eny nyht

The peine schal ben endeles;

And yit of fyres natheles

Ther is plente, bot thei ben blake,

Wherof no syhte mai be take. 20

Thus whan the thinges ben befalle,

That Luciferes court was falle

Wher dedly Pride hem hath conveied,

Anon forthwith it was pourveied

Thurgh him which alle thinges may;

He made Adam the sexte day

In Paradis, and to his make

Him liketh Eve also to make,

And bad hem cresce and multiplie.

For of the mannes Progenie, 30

Which of the womman schal be bore,

The nombre of Angles which was lore,

Whan thei out fro the blisse felle,

He thoghte to restore, and felle

In hevene thilke holy place

Which stod tho voide upon his grace.

Bot as it is wel wiste and knowe,

Adam and Eve bot a throwe,

So as it scholde of hem betyde,

In Paradis at thilke tyde 40

Ne duelten, and the cause why,

Write in the bok of Genesi,

As who seith, alle men have herd,

Hou Raphael the fyri swerd

In honde tok and drof hem oute,

To gete here lyves fode aboute

Upon this wofull Erthe hiere.

Metodre seith to this matiere,

As he be revelacion

It hadde upon avision, 50

Hou that Adam and Eve also

Virgines comen bothe tuo

Into the world and were aschamed,

Til that nature hem hath reclamed

To love, and tauht hem thilke lore,

That ferst thei keste, and overmore

Thei don that is to kinde due,

Wherof thei hadden fair issue.

A Sone was the ferste of alle,

And Chain be name thei him calle; 60

Abel was after the secounde,

And in the geste as it is founde,

Nature so the cause ladde,

Tuo douhtres ek Dame Eve hadde,

The ferste cleped Calmana

Was, and that other Delbora.

Thus was mankinde to beginne;

Forthi that time it was no Sinne

The Soster forto take hire brother,

Whan that ther was of chois non other: 70

To Chain was Calmana betake,

And Delboram hath Abel take,

In whom was gete natheles

Of worldes folk the ferste encres.

Men sein that nede hath no lawe,

And so it was be thilke dawe

And laste into the Secounde Age,

Til that the grete water rage,

Of Noeh which was seid the flod,

The world, which thanne in Senne stod, 80

Hath dreint, outake lyves Eyhte.

Tho was mankinde of litel weyhte;

Sem, Cham, Japhet, of these thre,

That ben the Sones of Noe5,

The world of mannes nacion

Into multiplicacion

Was tho restored newe ayein

So ferforth, as the bokes sein,

That of hem thre and here issue

Ther was so large a retenue, 90

Of naciouns seventy and tuo;

In sondri place ech on of tho

The wyde world have enhabited.

Bot as nature hem hath excited,

Thei token thanne litel hiede,

The brother of the Sosterhiede

To wedde wyves, til it cam

Into the time of Habraham.

Whan the thridde Age was begunne,

The nede tho was overrunne, 100

For ther was poeple ynouh in londe:

Thanne ate ferste it cam to honde,

That Sosterhode of mariage

Was torned into cousinage,

So that after the rihte lyne

The Cousin weddeth the cousine.

For Habraham, er that he deide,

This charge upon his servant leide,

To him and in this wise spak,

That he his Sone Isaa5c 110

Do wedde for no worldes good,

Bot only to his oghne blod:

Wherof this Servant, as he