Venus' Owne Clerk: Chaucer's Debt to the "Confessio Amantis" will appeal to all those who value a bit of integration of Chaucer and Gower studies. It develops the unusual theme that the Canterbury Tales were signally influenced by John Gower's Confessio Amantis, resulting in a set-up which is entirely different from the one announced in the General Prologue. Lindeboom seeks to show that this results from Gower's call, at the end of his first redaction of the Confessio, for a work similar to his - a testament of love. Much of the argument centres upon the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner, who...