John Gower
Gower plays a narrator for this play, coming on before and between scenes to retell the action of previous scenes, and to instigate "dumb shows," where some action of the play is pantomimed to advance the action of the play. He also gives the epilogue at the end of the play, pulling together the threads. John Gower is also the name of a fourteenth-century English poet, whose story of Apollonius of Tyre in the eighth book of his Confessio Amantis served as an important source for this play.read more