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Educating Richard: Incest, Marriage, and (Political) Consent in Gower's “Tale of Apollonius”

Published/Copyright: February 3, 2009
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Anglia
From the journal Volume 125 Issue 2

Abstract

Gower's treatment of the incest motif in the “Tale of Apollonius” in Book VIII of the Confessio Amantis is embedded into the poet's discussion of kingship, which, like incest, emerges as being subject to legal discourses. Read politically, the portrayal of Apollonius would appear to sustain a host of often discordant voices, many of which articulate the text's desire to represent Richard II: there is the ideal monarch, the flawed ruler, and the maturing hero. A balanced reading favours Apollonius as a narrative device oscillating between the functions of giving advice to a prince and issuing “constructive criticism” to a tyrant. The antidote to bad kingship and incest is administered in the form of good governance and marriage, two concepts that were undergoing radical reform at the time, namely the introduction of consent as their foundation. I will argue, therefore, that the successful integration of political and marital consent as a condition for good rule lies at the heart of Gower's advice to the inexperienced monarch.

Published Online: 2009-02-03
Published in Print: 2007-September

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Imagery of Light in Old English Poetry: Traditions and Appropriations
  2. Educating Richard: Incest, Marriage, and (Political) Consent in Gower's “Tale of Apollonius”
  3. Sidrak and Bokkus: An Early Modern Reader Response
  4. History on the Margins: Shakespeare's Forgery in The Landgrave of Hessen … (1596) by Edward Monings in the Early Printed Books Collection of the Warsaw University Library
  5. The Graphic She: Text and Image in Rider Haggard's Imperial Romance
  6. “I want a hero …” – Deconstructions of the Hero in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century British and Irish Fiction
  7. Beowulf Again? Of Course!
  8. Beiträge zur Anglistik in der Wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 1955–1990: Chancen für die Fachgeschichte
  9. Michael Hoey, Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language
  10. Thomas Herbst, David Heath, Ian F. Roe & Dieter Götz, with the assistance of Michael Klotz, A Valency Dictionary of English: A Corpus-based Analysis of the Complementation Patterns of English Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives
  11. The Celtic Roots of English, ed. Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola & Heli Pitkänen; The Celtic Englishes III, ed. Hildegard L. C. Tristram
  12. Christine Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon: Parallels and Analogues
  13. Robert Allen Rouse, The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England in Middle English Romance
  14. Susan M. Fitzmaurice, The Familiar Letter in Early Modern English: A Pragmatic Approach
  15. Inter- und Transkulturelle Studien: Theoretische Grundlagen und interdisziplinäre Praxis, ed. Heinz Antor
  16. Susanne Rupp, Die Macht der Lieder: Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zur Performativität weltlicher Vokalmusik der Tudorzeit; Performances of the Sacred in Late Medieval and Early Modern England, ed. Tobias Döring & Susanne Rupp
  17. John Barrell, The Spirit of Despotism: Invasions of Privacy in the 1790s
  18. Heinrich F. Plett, Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture
  19. Tobias Döring, Performances of Mourning in Shakespearean Theatre and Early Modern Culture
  20. Kanadische Literaturgeschichte, ed. Konrad Groß, Wolfgang Klooß & Reingard M. Nischik
  21. Jane Dowson & Alice Entwistle, A History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry
  22. British Romanticism and Italian Literature: Translating, Reviewing, Rewriting, ed. Laura Bandiera & Diego Sagila; Deirdre Coleman, Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery
  23. Ulrich Pallua, Eurocentrism, Racism, Colonialism in the Victorian and Edwardian Age: Changing Images of Africa(ns) in Scientific and Literary Texts
  24. Susanne Bach, Theatralität und Authentizität zwischen Viktorianismus und Moderne: Romane von Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde und Wilkie Collins
  25. Medien des kollektiven Gedächtnisses: Konstruktivität – Historizität – Kulturspezifität, ed. Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning
  26. Peter Childs, Jean Jacques Weber & Patrick Williams, Post-Colonial Theory and Literatures
  27. Dunja Mohr, Worlds Apart? Dualism and Transgression in Contemporary Female Dystopias
  28. Fotis Jannidis, Figur und Person: Beitrag zu einer historischen Narratologie
  29. Eingegangene Schriften
https://doi.org/10.1515/ANGL.2007.205

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Imagery of Light in Old English Poetry: Traditions and Appropriations
  2. Educating Richard: Incest, Marriage, and (Political) Consent in Gower's “Tale of Apollonius”
  3. Sidrak and Bokkus: An Early Modern Reader Response
  4. History on the Margins: Shakespeare's Forgery in The Landgrave of Hessen … (1596) by Edward Monings in the Early Printed Books Collection of the Warsaw University Library
  5. The Graphic She: Text and Image in Rider Haggard's Imperial Romance
  6. “I want a hero …” – Deconstructions of the Hero in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century British and Irish Fiction
  7. Beowulf Again? Of Course!
  8. Beiträge zur Anglistik in der Wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 1955–1990: Chancen für die Fachgeschichte
  9. Michael Hoey, Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language
  10. Thomas Herbst, David Heath, Ian F. Roe & Dieter Götz, with the assistance of Michael Klotz, A Valency Dictionary of English: A Corpus-based Analysis of the Complementation Patterns of English Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives
  11. The Celtic Roots of English, ed. Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola & Heli Pitkänen; The Celtic Englishes III, ed. Hildegard L. C. Tristram
  12. Christine Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon: Parallels and Analogues
  13. Robert Allen Rouse, The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England in Middle English Romance
  14. Susan M. Fitzmaurice, The Familiar Letter in Early Modern English: A Pragmatic Approach
  15. Inter- und Transkulturelle Studien: Theoretische Grundlagen und interdisziplinäre Praxis, ed. Heinz Antor
  16. Susanne Rupp, Die Macht der Lieder: Kulturwissenschaftliche Studien zur Performativität weltlicher Vokalmusik der Tudorzeit; Performances of the Sacred in Late Medieval and Early Modern England, ed. Tobias Döring & Susanne Rupp
  17. John Barrell, The Spirit of Despotism: Invasions of Privacy in the 1790s
  18. Heinrich F. Plett, Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture
  19. Tobias Döring, Performances of Mourning in Shakespearean Theatre and Early Modern Culture
  20. Kanadische Literaturgeschichte, ed. Konrad Groß, Wolfgang Klooß & Reingard M. Nischik
  21. Jane Dowson & Alice Entwistle, A History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry
  22. British Romanticism and Italian Literature: Translating, Reviewing, Rewriting, ed. Laura Bandiera & Diego Sagila; Deirdre Coleman, Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery
  23. Ulrich Pallua, Eurocentrism, Racism, Colonialism in the Victorian and Edwardian Age: Changing Images of Africa(ns) in Scientific and Literary Texts
  24. Susanne Bach, Theatralität und Authentizität zwischen Viktorianismus und Moderne: Romane von Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde und Wilkie Collins
  25. Medien des kollektiven Gedächtnisses: Konstruktivität – Historizität – Kulturspezifität, ed. Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nünning
  26. Peter Childs, Jean Jacques Weber & Patrick Williams, Post-Colonial Theory and Literatures
  27. Dunja Mohr, Worlds Apart? Dualism and Transgression in Contemporary Female Dystopias
  28. Fotis Jannidis, Figur und Person: Beitrag zu einer historischen Narratologie
  29. Eingegangene Schriften
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