The Heathen Merchants
(NLC, 1-49; CA, II, 587-625)
Marcela B. Gamallo

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In the Confessio Amantis Gower retains the most important facts present in his source, Trevet’s Of the Noble Lady Constance; however, he transforms the tale by adding some details, omitting others, postponing the reporting of information, and altering certain facts.  In this essay I will analyze the beginning of each story to show how Gower changes the original story and to explain his possible intentions for doing so.  In the first 49 lines, Trevet tells us in 490 words the background information the reader needs to understand the story:

Maurice is the eighteen year-old grandson of Emperor Tiberius and the son of Constance, Tiberius’s only daughter, and Alla, the second Saxon king of Northumbria.  Maurice is also said to be from Cappadocia because he was reared in the court of the Roman Senator Tarquinius, who came from that place.  In a flashback to the past we are told about Constance’s vast education.  One day, merchants come to her father’s court from the Saracen land.  Constance, who is thirteen years old, goes to see their merchandise and to learn about their land.  When she understands that they are heathens, she preaches them the Christian faith and has them baptized when they assent to the new faith.  When the Saracens return to their country they are questioned by their families and neighbors and even brought to the sultan’s court, accused of having forsaken their previous beliefs.  They successfully defend their newly acquired faith and praise Constance.  After hearing their praise, the sultan decides to marry the maiden.  He sends the same Christians and a heathen emir to the emperor with gifts and the promise of peace and an alliance between Christians and Saracens if Constance marries him.  Tiberius first consults with Pope John III and with the Roman Senators, and then sends letters to the sultan saying he will agree to the marriage only if the sultan denies his idols and false beliefs and receives baptism and the Christian religion. The messengers return to the sultan praising Constance, Tiberius, and the court.  The heathen emir agrees to become a Christian if the sultan consents.

Gower shortens Trevet’s opening scene and retells the story in 223 words:

Tiberie Constantine reigns in Rome.  He has a wife and a daughter called Constance, who is very faithful. When the heathen merchants come to Rome to sell their merchandise, Constance goes to see their goods.  She buys their products and preaches the Christian faith to them.  They convert and receive their baptism.  On their return, the sultan asks them about their new faith.  When he hears them praise Constance for her beauty and grace, he decides to marry her.

If we compare the two versions, we can see that they share the same basic information concerning facts and characters.  Gower, however, makes changes that have an important impact on the overall effect of the story.  He puts the events of the story in chronological order, omits mention of Alla, Maurice, and other characters from the opening section, reduces the importance of the heathens and the sultan’s reasons for marrying Constance, and presents Constance differently by simplifying her character, omitting her educational background, and emphasizing her faith.

The first major change worth mentioning is Gower’s decision to tell the story chronologically.  Gower omits the frame concerning Maurice and centers his tale immediately on Constance.  In Trevet’s version, the reader saw the name Maurice in the opening paragraph but had to wait for his name to be mentioned again and his story to be completed.  In Gower’s version, in contrast, the reader knows from the beginning that he is about to listen to the story of a woman called Constance who is “ful of feith” (CA, II, 598) and whose “goode name” (CA, II, 596) is widely known.  Thus, postponing the mention of Constance’s progeny makes the tale more linear and easier to understand for the reader.

Gower also omits some of the characters present in Trevet’s story and reduces the importance of others.  One of the most interesting changes he makes is to postpone the introduction of Allee and Moris.  He also greatly reduces the role of the heathens.  Of course, not presenting Allee and his son at the very beginning goes along with his decision to tell the tale chronologically. Gower not only postpones their first appearance in the text, but also reduces their roles.  Whereas in Trevet, Alla was presented as a major character and Maurice was allowed to frame the story, in Gower, both Allee and Moris seem to be instrumental only in developing the story line.  Apart from reducing the part Allee and Moris play in the opening of the story, Gower also reduces the heathens’ role.  In Trevet, the heathens went to Rome, then back to the sultan’s country, returned to Rome with a heathen emir, and went back to the Saracen land with Tiberius’s letters and the emir’s report.  Moreover, their families and neighbors questioned the merchants about their new faith, and they were even brought before the sultan for him to judge them.  Not finding anything wrong with their report, the sultan did not punish them.  On the contrary, he became interested in marrying the maiden that converted them.  In Gower’s version, however, the heathens’ second trip to Rome and the heathen emir are omitted altogether.  The newly converted heathens are questioned only by the sultan, who readily decides to marry Constance.  A further reduction occurs when Gower deals with the reasons the sultan falls in love with Constance.  While the sultan in both versions decides to marry Constance based on the heathens’ report and on their praise, Gower limits the heathens’ praise to only two features that describe Constance: her beauty and her grace.  Thus, in Gower, the sultan is apparently satisfied with his future wife’s simple description.  Perhaps the sultan finds these two attributes representative of what he desires to find in the woman who will accompany him during his life.  In Trevet, however, the heathens described Constance as having a “haut et noble sen et sapience, et de grant et merveillous beaute et genterise et noblesce de sanc” [“high and noble mind and wisdom, great beauty, gentility and noble linage”] (NLC, 31-32).  No doubt the sultan was amazed by this highly qualified woman and decided to marry her.  Yet, neither grace nor faith was directly attributed to her.

How does Gower deal with the depiction of Constance?  Interestingly, Gower makes major changes in the main character.  He chooses not to assign her a specific age and he does not mention her educational background.  While Trevet mentioned that Constance was a thirteen year-old girl, Gower does not mention her age.  The reader is free to assign her whatever age seems appropriate for her to behave as she does and to perform the activities she carries out.  Gower’s Constance seems to be more realistic in the sense that a woman who is able to go to town to buy goods is more likely to be able to relate to heathen merchants on an equal basis than a girl of thirteen years of age.  Even though Trevet made the merchants go to Tiberius’s court so that Constance could see their goods and learn about their land, it is difficult to believe that a girl at such a tender age could communicate in such a persuasive way with foreign adult men.

Another major omission in Gower’s tale is Constance’s educational background. While Constance had an impressively vast knowledge of different subjects in Trevet, Gower greatly reduces that knowledge in his tale.  In Trevet’s version, Constance was taught the Christian faith and the seven sciences, which are logic, physics, morals, astronomy, geometry, music, and optics.  She was also taught various languages.  Gower, in contrast, deprives Constance of such a comprehensive education to the extent that he does not even mention her knowledge of different languages.  After all, Trevet’s Constance never used her vast knowledge, except perhaps her awareness of different languages to interact with the Old Saxons and the Spaniards.

Gower attributes to Constance only beauty, goodness, and grace.  In fact, Gower seems to endow Constance only with the features she needs to carry out her mission.  Gower emphasizes her faith rather than her knowledge, which in turn makes Constance a more consistent character.  Gower makes his Constance more believable from the very beginning by commenting on her “feith” (CA, II, 598) in the first lines and by not mentioning her age at all.  Her way of converting the heathens is also more credible since she goes to their territory and interacts with them commercially.  While she buys their goods, she talks in such a persuasive way that they are actually “buying” her discourse. How to perform business transactions is all these merchants know, and Constance apparently uses their market strategies to achieve her goal and convert them to her Christian faith.  Constance does not only have them baptized, but also “alle here false goddess weyven” (CA, II, 610).  Gower’s highlighting of this piece of information makes Constance’s understanding of faith more complete, since one cannot be baptized without renouncing other beliefs that are not compatible with the Christian faith.  Interestingly, the word “faith” was mentioned four times in Trevet’s opening scene, while Gower mentions it five times in his more limited opening scene and reinforces Constance’s spiritual gifts by also endowing her with “grace.”  Gower mentions that Constance is “ful of feith” (CA, II, 598); she teaches “Cristes feith” (CA, II, 607) to the heathens who, once they are “of the feith certain” (CA, II, 611), they their “ferste feith forsake” (CA, II, 615) and undertake “the rihte feith to kepe and holde” (CA, II, 617-18).  Clearly, Gower wants to make faith an important attribute of Constance, who will be helped and strengthened by her faith in God in the trying situations she is to face.  Furthermore, Gower will later show how God’s grace will always protect and assist Constance.

Gower has to make decisions on what to leave out when writing a shorter version of the original tale.  While the most important changes and omissions are mentioned above, some minor changes are also significant in the overall rendition of the tale.  For example, the setting is slightly different.  Trevet’s story was not set in a specific place.  The reader simply received a time clause: “taunt come il governa la court et les provinces de l’empire souz l’emperour Justin” [“when he (Tiberius) governed the court and provinces of the empire under the Emperor Justin”] (NLC, 10-11).  Gower’s tale is clearly set in Rome.  Gower omits some minor characters such as Emperor Justin and Tarquinus, while postponing, as I showed above, the introduction of more important ones such as Moris and Allee.  Gower also presents Tiberie slightly differently.  He describes him as being a “worthi kniht” (CA, II, 587) while postponing revealing that he is also the emperor.  This change may serve the purpose of highlighting Constance’s noble character, since she is the daughter of a worthy man.  Gower seems to emphasize Tiberie’s noble character instead of his rank.  Another minor change is that Gower does not mention that his story is an old Saxon chronicle.  Gower solves the communication problem Constance may have encountered when living with the Saxons by not mentioning what language she spoke with them.  Of course, since Gower’s Constance is endowed with “grace” (CA, II, 622), the reader can always find an easy answer as to how Constance overcomes all kinds of difficulties.  Being protected by God, she does not fear trying situations.

Gower’s changes have a positive effect.  His alterations and omissions make the story clearer and more focused.  We can easily center our attention on Constance instead of becoming distracted by the presence of many characters who will play a part later in the text or who will not appear again.  Most importantly, Gower, by emphasizing Constance’s faith and grace rather than her vast education, makes Constance a more spiritual character who submits herself to God’s will and trusts in his power rather than in her own intellectual capacities.

Originally Posted: April 4, 2006