3 pre- to post-romance: issues of definition & evolution of the genre

I'd like to ask you to have a look at the Latin version of the story alongside the Old English one, if only to supply the part of the plot that hasn't been preserved in the latter.

forum: Can you see any points of contact in terms of thematic concerns, plot patterns etc. between Apollonius and the texts we have read so far? Is there a way they could be read as a similar type of a story, not to say genre? Pick just one aspect for commentary in the forum.

session: We will compare our findings in the above matters and continue with noting the major differences.
              Overall, the Old English version is an almost literal translation of the Latin - unlike the versions by Gower or Shakespeare.
Yet, it does depart from its source in a handful of significant instances.
              In preparation for a comparative inquiry into what happens with the story in the changing cultural environment, I'd like to ask you to mentally note these down and try to think what could have motivated the changes.

forum:
I would like to ask you to compare the selected passages from Gower's version of the Apollonius tale with their counterpart in the Latin Historia Apollonii and see how they are transformed.
We have noted the aspects in which the Latin narrative resonates with some dominant plot patterns of romance, and we'll be discussing those that make it potentially unpromising as "romance material". Does Gower make any steps towards a "romancing" of his material (expand on the observations you have made on the previous "assignment")?
session:
We will continue the debate with what I would call "cultural translation" >
I have asked you to take note of the admittedly marginal changes the Old English translator makes in his rendering of the Latin narrative. Gower adapts the story in a much more radical fashion.
I'd like to ask you to note such instances, whether they concern the representation of specific incidents, the characterization of the protagonist(s) or the portrayal of the social context.
Look for points of contact with the texts we have read previously (= the chivalric romance).
Don't try to cover everything: choose what you consider most important / conspicuous / of special interest to you and comment on that.

For the purposes of the forum, I would like to ask you just for brief initial impressions concerning the combination of the "commentary on the state of the world" in the Prologue and the traditional dream vision frame opening. How do they fit together?

In the 2nd part of the session debate on Gower we will focus on what I would call "patterning for a specific message"> 
I'd like to ask you to look at how Gower organizes his account, through recurrent motifs, highlighted themes and narratorial comment, to endow it with specific (moral?) significance.
Next, we will connect our observations on Gower's reshaping of the tale for a specific message with the framework in which he places the tale.

I don't provide a text this time - you can use a printed critical edition of the play available from the library or the following online edition, the only one I was able to locate containing textual notes and commentary:
https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/doc/Per_M/complete/index.html. The notes open on double-click.
Since the text of the play is badly preserved, with a number of inconsistencies and problematic readings, such apparatus is absolutely necessary to make sense of the text.

I'd like to ask you to skim through the whole play to see how the story is reorganized. With Gower making an appearance as the chorus, the derivation of the plot (and, to an extent, of its meaning) from his version of the tale is beyond doubt; yet the play introduces further modifications.

forum: look at how the tale is organized through recurrent motifs, highlighted themes and narratorial comment by Gower as chorus, and to what effect? Would you say that the chorus Gower steers the story similarly to the way it is managed in Confessio Amantis? Do you see this "steering" as in keeping / in tension with what the plot shows?

session: We will look in greater detail at the following passages: I.i-ii; II. - entire; III. prologue, i; and V. - entire; i.e. more or less the dramatic rendering of incidents selected for the previous reading (Gower).
They should provide sufficient ground for exploring the thematic structuring of the tale as suggested above, plus for the exploration of the possible motivations for and effects of the modifications in the plot and characterization which the play introduces. Beyond that, we will discuss your perceptions of the most radical "cultural relocation" (= romancing?) of the tale so far: how does it fit and what does it do in the play as a whole?