FURTHER READING
Davenport, W. A. Chaucer: Complaint and Narrative. Cam-
bridge: D.S. Brewer, 1988.
Yeager, R. F. “Chaucer’s ‘To His Purse’: Begging, or Begging
Off?” Viator 36 (2005): 373–414.
Michael W. George
CONCEIT A conceit is a complex, extended
poetic metaphor comparing disparate objects or ideas.
Adapted from the Italian concetto, or “concept,” the
term was fi rst used in the early Renaissance to describe
a particularly imaginative turn of wit. This is a con-
scious elaborate and lengthy poetic comparison of two
dissimilar images—particularly one that draws on
extensive knowledge of philosophy and the sciences as
a basis for its rhetorical power. PETRARCH is credited
with defi ning the conceit.
The Petrarchan conceit was used in love poetry to
express either the physical characteristics of the speak-
er’s mistress or the tortured nature of the relationship
between the speaker and his beloved. For example, SIR
THOMAS WYATT, in “WHOSO LIST TO HUNT,” compares
his beloved to a fl eet-footed deer—one wearing a dia-
mond-encrusted collar engraved with the words noli
me tangere (do not touch me), “for Caesar’s I am.. .” (l.
13). Wyatt uses this conceit to express his bitterness at
the paradoxical situation: He has grown weary of pur-
suing an unattainable woman, yet he has insisted on
joining the chase, even though her emotional and
physical remoteness has been clear for all to see. A
comparison between a woman and a deer is not
unusual, but the collar and its message add an unex-
pected complexity to the comparison.
See also SONNET.
J. A. White
CONFESSIO AMANTIS (THE LOVER’S
CONFESSION) JOHN GOWER (1390–1393) JOHN
GOWER fi rst dedicated this massive English poem to King
Richard II in 1390, but he published it again at least
twice, in somewhat revised forms, by June 1393. An
unusually large number of manuscript copies survive
(48, excluding fragments), mostly from the 15th century.
Many are of a very high quality and have illustrations.
Comprising well over 33,000 lines in English octo-
syllabic COUPLETs, the Confessio Amantis (The Lover’s
Confession) begins with a prologue that refl ects on the
value of books for preserving the memory of great peo-
ple and announces Gower’s intention to adopt a “mid-
del weie” and write “Somwhat of lust, somewhat of
lore” (l. 17, 19)—that is, he will write both for pleasure
and for profi t. In earlier versions of the poem, the ded-
ication to Richard II follows next. Gower goes on to
lament the vices of contemporary society, according to
the conventions of medieval estates SATIRE, a send-up
of the THREE ESTATES, which he had used earlier in his
Mirour de l’Omme and Vox Clamantis. Next, he identi-
fi es social division as the cause of human suffering,
basing his argument on the Babylonian king Nebu-
chadnezzar’s dream. The prologue concludes with a
plea for “An other such as Arion” (l. 1054), the mytho-
logical fi gure whose music could tame wild beasts and
end human strife.
The poem itself is divided into eight books. Book 1
begins with an admission of defeat: Since the poet can-
not resolve all the world’s problems, he announces that
he will change course and write about something less
“strange”—namely, love. Gower describes love in a
series of commonplaces, which betray the male per-
spective that dominates the poem. Love is experienced
by every species and is lawless: No man can rule him-
self in love—rather, it rules him. Because love is blind
and acts according to chance and not reason, there can
be no certainty in love, “And thus fulofte men beginne,
/ That if thei wisten what it mente, / Thei wolde change
al here entente” (1.58–60).
The narrator says that he will illustrate this princi-
ple using his own experience as an example, and when
he transforms himself from a moralist into the lover,
“Amans,” the narrative that frames the vast bulk of the
poem begins. Walking through the woods one day in
May, the lover comes across a level clearing, and there
he calls upon Cupid and Venus to complain that they
have shown him no “pite” in his suit toward his lady.
The deities appear. Cupid strikes the lover in the heart
with a fi ery arrow and departs, but Venus gives him
audience. When the lover pleads for relief of his suf-
fering on the basis that he is her faithful servant, Venus
frowns and accuses him of “faiterie”—that is, false122 CONCEIT