Abstract
IN an earlier note, published in Notes and Queries for March 2001 (ccxlvi, 14–15), I pointed to similarities between John Gower's ‘Tale of Three Questions’ in Confessio Amantis, Book I, and the story-line of the Child ballad ‘King John and the Bishop’. The present note names another folktale that could have figured in the background of Gower's story. His tale appears to be an intermingling of ‘King John’ with a related traditional tale, one that employs a girl (not a man, as in ‘King John’) as the riddle-solver, ‘The Clever Peasant Girl’.1 In ‘King John’ (Child's version A) a simple shepherd successfully answers riddles the king has posed. The shepherd thereby impresses the king, who rewards him for his ingenious solutions, granting him a stipend. In Gower's story, on the other hand, it is a slip of a girl, aged fourteen, who solves the riddles at issue. By doing so, she extricates her father from a difficulty involving the king. For her apt and probing answers she is rewarded by the king's proposal of marriage, a proposal which she cleverly ensures he will honour.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callSimilar Papers
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
