Sir Gowther
Encyclopedia
Sir Gowther is a relatively short Middle English
tail-rhyme romance in twelve-line stanzas, found in two manuscripts, each dating to the mid- or late-fifteenth century. The poem tells a story that has been variously defined as a secular hagiography
, a Breton lai
and a romance
, and perhaps "complies to a variety of possibilities." An adaptation of the story of Robert the Devil
, the story follows the fortunes of Sir Gowther from birth to death, from his childhood as the son of a fiend, his wicked early life, through contrition and a penance imposed by the Pope involving him in a lowly and humiliating position in society, and to his eventual rise, via divine miracles, as a martial hero and ultimately to virtual canonization
. But despite this saintly end, "like many other lays and romances, Sir Gowther derives much of its inspiration from a rich and vastly underappreciated folk tradition."
Both instances of this Middle English
romance are composed in twelve-line, tail-rhyme stanzas, like many other Middle English romances, such as Ipomadon
, Emaré
, Sir Launfal
and Octavian
, each verse rhyming aabccbddbeeb. The copy in National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1 is 756 lines long.
The Duke of Austria is childless and threatens his wife with divorce if she does not quickly conceive. She is in an orchard one morning when a person she believes to be her husband arrives and they make love beneath the trees. However, she has been the victim of the utmost deception. She has been deceived in much the same way that the Duchess of Tintagel
is deceived when King Uther Pendragon
, cast into the likeness of her husband by Merlin
, father’s King Arthur
upon her in the Vulgate Merlin
. Like the wife of Sir Orfeo
, she is accosted by a fay in an orchard. The anonymous author of Sir Gowther has already told us: "I searched high and low for a Breton lay and have brought out of this marvellous region the following tale:
The child the lady now carries in her womb is Merlin’s half-brother, we are told. But he is a fiendish child. As a baby, her sends numerous wet-nurses to their graves and tears off his mother’s nipple on the only occasion she dares to suckle him! As he grows to be a youth, hunting becomes his favourite pastime, but as he nears adulthood he prefers to roam the land with a huge sword, terrorising everybody and in particular the religious orders. He rapes with relish and then burns a convent of nuns to death. His father is so sickened by his son’s behaviour that he dies of shame.
Sir Gowther is now duke. But when he has his fiendish parentage thrown at him in accusation one day, he runs to his mother to find out if it is true. At the point of his sword, she admits to everything and, in a sudden change of heart, Sir Gowther resolves to travel to Rome to receive absolution for his sins from the Pope.
Sir Gowther receives an audience with the Pope and is given the penance that he may not speak and that whatever he swallows must first have been in the mouth of a dog. The curious, possible implications of this are almost corroborated when, having been kept alive for a few days by a greyhound, he dashes into the palace of the Emperor of Germany (the Holy Roman Empire
), hides beneath a table and the emperor’s steward comes towards him brandishing a stick. However, he is soon adopted by the court as Hob their fool and eats beneath the tables with the dogs in the evening.
The Emperor of Germany has a daughter who is mute, but this does not stop a sultan
coming to claim her hand in marriage. The emperor refuses and a dreadful war begins. On three successive days, Sir Gowther, as Hob the fool, prays to God that he might be given arms to help defend the emperor’s lands from the heathen hoards. And three times, he is rewarded by the magical appearance of a horse and armour outside his small room. For three days in succession, he sallies out with the emperor’s army and fights invincibly, first as a black knight, then as a red knight and finally, on the third day, as a white knight, even managing to cut off the sultan’s head during the final day’s fighting. Like the Anglo-Norman
romance hero Ipomedon
, he fights in differently-coloured arms every day and nobody knows who these knights are who have conducted themselves so magnificently on the field of combat. The emperor’s daughter, however, knows the truth.
But victory comes at a price. Following the sultan’s death, on seeing Sir Gowther wounded on the final day of battle, the emperor’s daughter, in her anguish, falls from her tower. The Pope
is summoned to bury her. But as the funeral is about to start, she awakens from her bier and tells the assembled gathering that God has forgiven Sir Gowther all his sins. He may speak again, and so can she.
Following this miracle, the two are married and, when her father dies, Sir Gowther becomes Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
. He builds an abbey and attaches to it a convent
, in which nuns can pray for the souls of the poor nuns he once burnt alive in their church. When Sir Gowther dies, many miracles are witnessed around his tomb.
, a story probably taken from legend. Influences may also be found in the saintly Legend of Gregorius and the Life of Saint Alexius
. At one time, it was believed to have arisen in Normandy, but further studies have concluded that the fairy tale
elements point to their being no historical inspiration, and that the tale first arose in Italy.
The visit of an other-worldly creature in an orchard, promising a marvelous child, parallels the legends of St. Anne and the birth of the Virgin Mary so closely that there would appear to be influence, especially as these are the closest parallels to be found.
Unsurprisingly, resonances exist in other Breton lais, in particular the twelfth- or thirteenth-century lai Tydorel, which may itself derive from Robert de Diable
, The Middle English
Breton lai Sir Orfeo
also sees the heroine accosted by an Otherworldly
figure in an orchard and the Middle English Breton lai Sir Degaré has the hero conceived when his mother is raped in a forest by an Otherworldly knight. The heroine of the Middle English Breton lai Emaré
has to suffer a new life in reduced circumstances before gaining acknowledgement of her previous rank.
The late-twelfth century Anglo-Norman romance Ipomedon
has the hero fight as an unknown knight on three successive days of a tournament, first as a white knight, then as a red knight and finally as a black knight, in a reversal of an otherwise identical sequence later used by the anonymous author of Sir Gowther. Indeed, the tournament where the hero fights in disguise and claims to have been busy is a fairy tale
commonplace (such as in The Golden Crab
or The Magician's Horse
, or in Little Johnny Sheep-Dung
and The Hairy Man
, where it is actual battle), and from there passed into romance.
. Not only does the emperor’s mute daughter come back to life to inform him that he is now one of God’s children, but further miracles are later seen to occur beside his tomb; although it is only in the British Library Royal MS that Sir Gowther is actually identified with Saint Guthlac
, who wore animal skins and lived in a barrow
, and for whom King Æthelbald of Mercia founded Croyland Abbey
in Lincolnshire
, England in the eighth century.
The poem in the British Library version ends: Explicit Vita Sancti.
, supernatural encounters in an orchard, the significant involvement of animals and episodes of disguise, may derive ultimately from a European pagan tradition preserved in the Breton lai.
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
tail-rhyme romance in twelve-line stanzas, found in two manuscripts, each dating to the mid- or late-fifteenth century. The poem tells a story that has been variously defined as a secular hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, a Breton lai
Breton lai
A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short , rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs...
and a romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, and perhaps "complies to a variety of possibilities." An adaptation of the story of Robert the Devil
Robert the Devil
Robert the Devil is a legend of medieval origin. Robert is the devil's own child, for his mother, despairing of heaven's aid in order to obtain a son, has addressed herself to the devil...
, the story follows the fortunes of Sir Gowther from birth to death, from his childhood as the son of a fiend, his wicked early life, through contrition and a penance imposed by the Pope involving him in a lowly and humiliating position in society, and to his eventual rise, via divine miracles, as a martial hero and ultimately to virtual canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
. But despite this saintly end, "like many other lays and romances, Sir Gowther derives much of its inspiration from a rich and vastly underappreciated folk tradition."
Manuscripts
The story of Sir Gowther is found in two manuscripts: British Library Royal MS 17.B.43 and National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1. Both of these manuscripts date from the mid- to late-fifteenth century. The romance itself was probably composed in around 1400.Both instances of this Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
romance are composed in twelve-line, tail-rhyme stanzas, like many other Middle English romances, such as Ipomadon
Ipomadon
A tale of the Old French romance hero Ipomedon in Middle English survives in three separate versions, a long poem Ipomadon composed in tail-rhyme verse, possibly in the last decade of the fourteenth century, a shorter poem The Lyfe of Ipomydon, dating to the fifteenth century and a prose version,...
, Emaré
Emaré
Emaré is a middle English Breton lai, a form of Mediaeval Romance poem, told in 1035 lines. The author of Emaré is unknown and exists in only one manuscript, the Cotton Caligula A. ii, which contains ten metrical narratives. Emaré seems to date from the late fourteenth century, possibly written in...
, Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
and Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
, each verse rhyming aabccbddbeeb. The copy in National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1 is 756 lines long.
Plot
(This summary is based upon the copy of Sir Gowther found in National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1.)The Duke of Austria is childless and threatens his wife with divorce if she does not quickly conceive. She is in an orchard one morning when a person she believes to be her husband arrives and they make love beneath the trees. However, she has been the victim of the utmost deception. She has been deceived in much the same way that the Duchess of Tintagel
Tintagel
Tintagel is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The population of the parish is 1,820 people, and the area of the parish is ....
is deceived when King Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon is a legendary king of sub-Roman Britain and the father of King Arthur.A few minor references to Uther appear in Old Welsh poems, but his biography was first written down by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae , and Geoffrey's account of the character was used in...
, cast into the likeness of her husband by Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
, father’s King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
upon her in the Vulgate Merlin
Lancelot-Grail
The Lancelot–Grail, also known as the Prose Lancelot, the Vulgate Cycle, or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is a major source of Arthurian legend written in French. It is a series of five prose volumes that tell the story of the quest for the Holy Grail and the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere...
. Like the wife of Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem, retelling the story of Orpheus as a king rescuing his wife from the fairy king.-History and Manuscripts:...
, she is accosted by a fay in an orchard. The anonymous author of Sir Gowther has already told us: "I searched high and low for a Breton lay and have brought out of this marvellous region the following tale:
- A law of Breyten long y soghht,
- And owt ther of a tale ybroghht,
- That lufly is to tell."
The child the lady now carries in her womb is Merlin’s half-brother, we are told. But he is a fiendish child. As a baby, her sends numerous wet-nurses to their graves and tears off his mother’s nipple on the only occasion she dares to suckle him! As he grows to be a youth, hunting becomes his favourite pastime, but as he nears adulthood he prefers to roam the land with a huge sword, terrorising everybody and in particular the religious orders. He rapes with relish and then burns a convent of nuns to death. His father is so sickened by his son’s behaviour that he dies of shame.
Sir Gowther is now duke. But when he has his fiendish parentage thrown at him in accusation one day, he runs to his mother to find out if it is true. At the point of his sword, she admits to everything and, in a sudden change of heart, Sir Gowther resolves to travel to Rome to receive absolution for his sins from the Pope.
Sir Gowther receives an audience with the Pope and is given the penance that he may not speak and that whatever he swallows must first have been in the mouth of a dog. The curious, possible implications of this are almost corroborated when, having been kept alive for a few days by a greyhound, he dashes into the palace of the Emperor of Germany (the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
), hides beneath a table and the emperor’s steward comes towards him brandishing a stick. However, he is soon adopted by the court as Hob their fool and eats beneath the tables with the dogs in the evening.
The Emperor of Germany has a daughter who is mute, but this does not stop a sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
coming to claim her hand in marriage. The emperor refuses and a dreadful war begins. On three successive days, Sir Gowther, as Hob the fool, prays to God that he might be given arms to help defend the emperor’s lands from the heathen hoards. And three times, he is rewarded by the magical appearance of a horse and armour outside his small room. For three days in succession, he sallies out with the emperor’s army and fights invincibly, first as a black knight, then as a red knight and finally, on the third day, as a white knight, even managing to cut off the sultan’s head during the final day’s fighting. Like the Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
romance hero Ipomedon
Ipomadon
A tale of the Old French romance hero Ipomedon in Middle English survives in three separate versions, a long poem Ipomadon composed in tail-rhyme verse, possibly in the last decade of the fourteenth century, a shorter poem The Lyfe of Ipomydon, dating to the fifteenth century and a prose version,...
, he fights in differently-coloured arms every day and nobody knows who these knights are who have conducted themselves so magnificently on the field of combat. The emperor’s daughter, however, knows the truth.
But victory comes at a price. Following the sultan’s death, on seeing Sir Gowther wounded on the final day of battle, the emperor’s daughter, in her anguish, falls from her tower. The Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
is summoned to bury her. But as the funeral is about to start, she awakens from her bier and tells the assembled gathering that God has forgiven Sir Gowther all his sins. He may speak again, and so can she.
Following this miracle, the two are married and, when her father dies, Sir Gowther becomes Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
. He builds an abbey and attaches to it a convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
, in which nuns can pray for the souls of the poor nuns he once burnt alive in their church. When Sir Gowther dies, many miracles are witnessed around his tomb.
Legends
The most widely-cited source for Sir Gowther is a late-twelfth or early-thirteenth century romance of a fictitious Norman duke named Robert de DiableRobert the Devil
Robert the Devil is a legend of medieval origin. Robert is the devil's own child, for his mother, despairing of heaven's aid in order to obtain a son, has addressed herself to the devil...
, a story probably taken from legend. Influences may also be found in the saintly Legend of Gregorius and the Life of Saint Alexius
Alexius of Rome
Saint Alexius or Alexis of Rome or Alexis von Edessa was an Eastern saint whose veneration was later transplanted to Rome, a process facilitated by the fact that, according to the earlier Syriac legend that a "Man of God" of Edessa, Mesopotamia who during the episcopate of Bishop Rabbula lived by...
. At one time, it was believed to have arisen in Normandy, but further studies have concluded that the fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
elements point to their being no historical inspiration, and that the tale first arose in Italy.
The visit of an other-worldly creature in an orchard, promising a marvelous child, parallels the legends of St. Anne and the birth of the Virgin Mary so closely that there would appear to be influence, especially as these are the closest parallels to be found.
Unsurprisingly, resonances exist in other Breton lais, in particular the twelfth- or thirteenth-century lai Tydorel, which may itself derive from Robert de Diable
Robert the Devil
Robert the Devil is a legend of medieval origin. Robert is the devil's own child, for his mother, despairing of heaven's aid in order to obtain a son, has addressed herself to the devil...
, The Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
Breton lai Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem, retelling the story of Orpheus as a king rescuing his wife from the fairy king.-History and Manuscripts:...
also sees the heroine accosted by an Otherworldly
Otherworld
Otherworld, or the Celtic Otherworld, is a concept in Celtic mythology that refers to the home of the deities or spirits, or a realm of the dead.Otherworld may also refer to:In film and television:...
figure in an orchard and the Middle English Breton lai Sir Degaré has the hero conceived when his mother is raped in a forest by an Otherworldly knight. The heroine of the Middle English Breton lai Emaré
Emaré
Emaré is a middle English Breton lai, a form of Mediaeval Romance poem, told in 1035 lines. The author of Emaré is unknown and exists in only one manuscript, the Cotton Caligula A. ii, which contains ten metrical narratives. Emaré seems to date from the late fourteenth century, possibly written in...
has to suffer a new life in reduced circumstances before gaining acknowledgement of her previous rank.
The late-twelfth century Anglo-Norman romance Ipomedon
Ipomadon
A tale of the Old French romance hero Ipomedon in Middle English survives in three separate versions, a long poem Ipomadon composed in tail-rhyme verse, possibly in the last decade of the fourteenth century, a shorter poem The Lyfe of Ipomydon, dating to the fifteenth century and a prose version,...
has the hero fight as an unknown knight on three successive days of a tournament, first as a white knight, then as a red knight and finally as a black knight, in a reversal of an otherwise identical sequence later used by the anonymous author of Sir Gowther. Indeed, the tournament where the hero fights in disguise and claims to have been busy is a fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
commonplace (such as in The Golden Crab
The Golden Crab
The Golden Crab is a Greek fairy tale collected as "Prinz Krebs" by Bernhard Schmidt in his Griechische Märchen, Sagen and Volkslieder. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.Georgios A...
or The Magician's Horse
The Magician's Horse
The Magician's Horse is a Greek fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.-Synopsis:A king's three sons went hunting, and the youngest got lost. He came to a great hall and ate there. Then he found an old man, who asked him who he was. He told how he had become lost and offered...
, or in Little Johnny Sheep-Dung
Little Johnny Sheep-Dung
Little Alex Sheep-Dung is a French fairy tale collected by Achille Millien and Paul Delarue.-Synopsis:A good-for-nothing boy once begged a sheepskin from butchers; it was so filthy he came to be called "Little Johnny Sheep-Dung". One day, he met a bourgeois on a horse, who hired him on the...
and The Hairy Man
The Hairy Man
The Hairy Man is a Russian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.-Synopsis:Two ricks of a king's rapeseed fields are found burned every night. Finally, a shepherd with dogs keeps watch, and catches the "hairy man" who is responsible. The king puts him in a cage...
, where it is actual battle), and from there passed into romance.
Two manuscript versions
The two manuscript versions, although telling the same story, do so with different emphasis and perhaps with different intention.Social story
The version of Sir Gowther in British Library Royal MS 17.B.43 was "probably intended for a more cultured and refined audience" and although it is the version that explicitly identifies Sir Gowther with a saint at the conclusion, may concern itself also with the aristocratic trauma of a dynasty in distress, first by childlessness, then by an 'heir from hell', a son who inherits something of the egocentric arrogance of his forebears. This is resolved in the tale by Sir Gowther descending to be amongst the lowest of the low, eating beneath the table with the dogs; and when at last his fortunes rise again, in the saddle of the white knight, "we are told: 'Rode he not with brag nor bost'", as though this may be significant to the author’s intention. The romance may therefore address "deep-seated anxieties in medieval society about breeding and dynasty." The devilish aspect of pride illustrated in the fifteenth century manuscript illustration at the top of this article may reflect this.Saint’s life
The version of Sir Gowther in National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1 is told in "a more vigorous and decidedly more explicit manner", like a hagiography. It is in this version alone that the burning of the nuns in their own church is referred to and the ultimate forgiveness of Sir Gowther’s heinous crimes by God, through penance and contrition, carry him onwards almost to beatificationBeatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
. Not only does the emperor’s mute daughter come back to life to inform him that he is now one of God’s children, but further miracles are later seen to occur beside his tomb; although it is only in the British Library Royal MS that Sir Gowther is actually identified with Saint Guthlac
Saint Guthlac
Saint Guthlac of Crowland was a Christian saint from Lincolnshire in England. He is particularly venerated in the Fens of eastern England.-Life:...
, who wore animal skins and lived in a barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
, and for whom King Æthelbald of Mercia founded Croyland Abbey
Croyland Abbey
Crowland Abbey is a Church of England parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine abbey church, in Crowland in the English county of Lincolnshire.-History:...
in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, England in the eighth century.
The poem in the British Library version ends: Explicit Vita Sancti.
Breton lai
Breton elements in the story of Sir Gowther, including references to Arthurian legend in the form of MerlinMerlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
, supernatural encounters in an orchard, the significant involvement of animals and episodes of disguise, may derive ultimately from a European pagan tradition preserved in the Breton lai.
External links
- Sir Gowther. Introduction and Middle English text. TEAMS.
- Sir Gowther from National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.3.1. Modern English prose translation
- Sexuality, Love, and Loyalty: Sir Gowther as Secular Romance