New essays on aspects of Gower's poetry, viewed through the lens of the self and beyond.The topics of "selfhood" and "otherness" lie at the heart of these new assessments of John Gower's poetry. The first part of the book, on knowing the self and others, focuses on cognition, brain functions, imagination, and the internal and external factors that affect one's sense of being, from sensation and inner emotive effects within body parts to cosmic perspectives, morality, and theology as voiced by language and storytelling. The second, on the essence of strangers, explores the interconnections of sensation and aesthetics; it also considers kinds of social dysfunction, whether through racial or gender conflict, or religious and political warfare.The final part of the booklooks at social ethics and ethical poets, reassessing two of Gower's perpetual concerns: honest government and honest craft. It considers Gower as a constitutional thinker, whether in terms of law, judicial corruption, or a society of businessmen who would rewrite ethics in terms of business models. It concludes with an examination of the Confessio in the culture of Portugal and Spain. Russell Peck is the John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester: R. F. Yeager is Professor of English at the University of West Florida. Contributors: Stephanie L. Batkie, Helen Cooper, Brian W. Gastle, Matthew Giancarlo, Matthew W. Irvin, Yoshiko Kobayashi, Robert J. Meindl, Peter Nicholson, Maura Nolan, Gabrielle Parkin, Russell A. Peck, Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Larry Scanlon, Karla Taylor, Kim Zarins, R.F. Yeager,

Introduction - Robert F. Yeager and Russell PeckThe Materiality of Cognition in Reading, Staging, and Regulation of Brain and Heart Activities in Gower's Confessio Amantis - Russell PeckThe Sound of My Voice: Aurality and Credible Faith in the Vox Clamantis - Stephanie L. Batkie"Noght withoute peine": Chastity, Complaint, and Lucrece's Vox Clamantis - Matthew W. IrvinReading Faces in Gower and Chaucer - Karla TaylorGower and Mortality: The Ends of Storytelling - Helen CooperSensation and the Plain Style in John Gower's Confessio Amantis - Maura NolanViolence without Warning: Sympathetic Villains and Gower's Crafting of Ovidian Narrative - Kim ZarinsGower, Lydgate, and Incest - Larry ScanlonGower's Jews - Robert F. YeagerLetters of Old Age: The Advocacy of Peace in the Works of John Gower and Philippe de Mézières - Yoshiko KobayashiGower's Governmentality: Revisiting John Gower as a Constitutional Thinker and Regiminal Writer - Matthew GiancarloGower's Speculum Iudicis: Judicial Corruption in Book VI of the Vox Clamantis - Robert J. Meindl"The lucre of marchandie": Poet, Patron, and Payment in Gower's Confessio Amantis - Brian GastleHidden Matter in John Gower's Confessio Amantis - Gabrielle ParkinWriting the Cinkante Balades - Peter NicholsonGower in Early Modern Spanish Libraries: The Missing Link - Ana Saez-HidalgoBibliography