The English poet John Lydgate (ca. 1370-1449) ranks as one of the most prolific, versatile writers of the Middle Ages. Little is known of John Lydgate's life. He was a professed disciple of Geoffrey Chaucer, and for many years his fame rivaled...

When John Lydgate died in the middle of the fifteenth century, he had long been the most important and most sought-after poet of his time. Geoffrey Chaucer had died in 1400, John Gower in 1408, and the only poet of his own generation with whom he can...

John Lydgate: Poetry, Culture, and Lancastrian England, ed. Larry Scanlon and James Simpson (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006). vi + 314 pp. ISBN 0-268-04115-6, $65.00 (hard covers); ISBN 0-268-04116-4, $30.00 (p/b). This impressive and significant collection (the first such...

John Lydgate's Siege of Thebes has received increasing attention in recent years: scholars have debated its date of composition (probably in 1421), its conception as an additional 'Canterbury Tale', and, above all, its structure and precise significance.(1) The poem was certainly popular with...

In the following essay, Ebin argues that Lydgate developed a new critical language to describe his craft, that his view of poetry differs substantially from that of his English predecessors, and that his language points to the beginnings of a new English poetic.

In the following essay, Spearing examines the nature of Lydgate's attitude towards and indebtedness to his great contemporary Geoffrey Chaucer in The Siege of Thebes and goes on to identify the shortcomings and merits of the work.

In the following essay, Ayers argues that morality is at the heart of Lydgate's purpose in Siege of Thebes.