John Gower's work first appeared in print in the late fifteenth
century, when
William Caxton produced an edition of Gower's "Confessio Amantis" (you
can see two pages from the book, above). As Caxton puts it:
"This book is intituled confessio amantis, that is to saye in englysshe
the confessyon of the louer maad and compyled by Iohan Gower
squyer...Enprynted at westmestre: By me willyam Caxton, 1483."
The figure of the archer and globe (above right) also appears as the
frontispiece in many manuscripts of Gower's
Vox Clamantis.
In the above manuscript, the image appears below four lines of Latin
verse (translated into English here): "I throw my darts and shoot my
arrows at the world, but where there is a righteous man, no arrow
strikes. But I wound those who live wickedly. Therefore, let him who
recognizes himself there look to himself." Although the symbolism of
the globe is unclear, some believe the divisions of the globe
symbolize the three estates (nobility, clergy, and peasantry); in this
context, the archer represents the poet, whose satire takes aim at all
walks of society. This image is from British Library MS Cotton Tiberius
A.IV, fol. 9.