6 - Sensation and the Plain Style in John Gower's Confessio Amantis

Summary

Great simplicity is only won by an intense moment or by years of intelligent effort, or by both. It represents one of the most arduous conquests of the human spirit: the triumph of feeling and thought over the natural sin of language.

T. S. Eliot, “The Post-Georgians”

As Saint Augustine suggests in his discussion of style in De doctrina Christiani, the world is full of humble things that can signify divinity and arouse the affect of Christian readers. In chapter 18, as part of his discussion of the three levels of style, he cites Matthew 10:42: “And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you he shall not lose his reward.” Augustine's attention is drawn to the “cup of cold water” as a commonplace image that illustrates the way in which Christianity elevates the humble:

Unless of course we think that because a cup of cold water is a trivial and valueless thing the Lord is saying something trivial and valueless when he declares that the person who gives a cup to one of his disciples will not lose his reward? Or that when a teacher in church bases a sermon on this he should consider himself to be speaking of something small, and so speak not in the intermediate or the grand style, but the restrained style? Is it not true that on one occasion when I happened to be speaking on this before a congregation and God by his presence enabled me to speak suitable words, there somehow arose from that cold water a flame to fire the cold hearts of men to perform works of mercy in the hope of heavenly reward?

When a preacher chooses this text from Matthew, he does not calibrate his style of speech according to the humbleness of the object in question, the cup of water. Rather, the presence of God exalts the humble object and demands “eloquence” and “power” in speech.