ABSTRACT
John Gower left two very different collections of ballades in French, the Cinkante Balades and the Traitie pour essampler les amantz marietz. As a collection of ballades, neither has a precise model, and the differences between them are themselves evidence of Gower's experimentation with the form. The one notable exception is Ardis Butterfield's close and subtle reading of ballade in comparison to a poem using the same metaphorical language by Machaut, in which she demonstrates both Gower's deep familiarity with contemporary lyric and the sophistication of his choice of language. Most who have written about Gower's ballades have followed Macaulay's example in assuming a single male and a single female throughout, especially in the long second section as marked off by the glosses; and it is a small step from assuming the same two speakers to seeing, as Hagman does, the entire sequence as constituting a single narrative or plot.
