My Pilgrimage

Yesterday I visited the tomb of the light of my studies, the heart of my dissertation, John Gower. It was a particularly fitting day to undertake the journey, because I had just found some outstanding manuscript material on Gower in the morning -- so much that I worked right on through lunch, which is very unlike me. Yes, I'm supposed to be looking at Chaucer manuscripts, but this manuscript happened to have both "my boys" in it, along with an excellent selection of advice to princes texts. It's my new favorite manuscript (don't tell it that I consider that to exclude illuminated ones so that I can still maintain another "favorite manuscript" in California). But I digress. . . .

In the evening, I visited the former St. Mary Overey's Priory, now Southwark Cathedral. Gower's tomb completely blows away Chaucer's, which is little more than a slab. It's very colorful, and has an effigy of him, with a lion at his feet, and the Lancastrian arms on the wall near his feet. I stood on a bench to get a picture of his face. I also cheesed it up for some pictures of me and Gower. He's in there, you know. Probably not lying on copies of his books, as his effigy is, but he's in there. He to whom I can turn when all things seem academically stressful, and new ideas abound, or it's just plain fun. I didn't kneel and do the "I'm not worthy" gesture, but I did have a good long gaze at the tomb. It was certainly the "Nerd" highlight of my trip. A sort of pilgrimage (Chaucer will certainly be mad at me, but I visited him first, albeit years ago before I knew who Gower was. He must understand that, surely! And we've had that falling out of late. . . though I still read his blog: houseoffame.blogspot.com).

Now, to tube it back to the BL and get me some MSS, BSL!*


*Per Chaucer's blog, that's "By Seinte Loy!"