BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pearsall, Derek. John Lydgate (1371-1449): A Bio-Bibliography. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria, 1997, 95 p.

Aims to provide a reassessment of Lydgate as a poet important for his place in the literary and political culture of his day; includes a detailed extensive biography, describes manuscripts of the major works and other medieval documents relating to Lydgate, and lists the most important secondary sources.

BIOGRAPHIES

Pearsall, Derek A. John Lydgate. London: Routledge, 1970, 312 p.

The most important critical biography of the poet, which examines all of his major works.

Schirmer, W. F. John Lydgate: A Study in the Culture of the Fifteenth Century. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961, 303 p.

Translation of a 1952 German study that examines Lydgate's life and works in the context of the political events of his day.

CRITICISM

Ambrisco, Alan S. and Strohm, Paul. “Succession and Sovereignty in Lydgate's Prologue to The Troy Book.” The Chaucer Review: A Journal of Medieval Studies and Literary Criticism 30, no. 1 (1995): 40-57.

Discusses the treatment of royal succession in the prologue of The Troy Book.

Benson, C. David. “The Ancient World of John Lydgate's Troy Book.” American Benedictine Review 24 (1973): 299-312.

Maintains that Lydgate developed a genuine historical perspective in his version of the tale of Troy.

Bowers, John M. “The Tale of Beryn and The Siege of Thebes: Alternative Ideas of The Canterbury Tales.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer: The Yearbook of the New Chaucer Society 7 (1985): 23-50.

Investigates the alternative “ideas” of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales arrived at by Lydgate and the anonymous Beryn poet. Maintains that these “ideas” represent editorial decisions and critical responses to the tales.

Cornell, Christine. “‘Purtreture’ and ‘Holsom Stories’: John Lydgate's Accommodation of Image and Text in Three Religious Lyrics.” Florilegium: Papers on Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 10 (1988-1991): 167-78.

Maintains that Lydgate shows a definite appreciation for the effectiveness of visual images using examples from three of his meditative lyrics.

Crockett, Bryan. “Venus Unveiled: Lydgate's Temple of Glas and the Religion of Love.” In New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems, edited by David Chamberlain, pp. 67-93. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1993.

Traces the critical response to Temple of Glas and argues for an ironic reading of the poem.

Davidoff, Judith M. “The Audience Illuminated, or New Light Shed on the Dream Frame of Lydgate's Temple of Glas.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer: The Yearbook of the New Chaucer Society 5 (1983): 103-25.

Discusses the narrative frame, light-dark imagery, and treatment of the dream vision in Temple of Glas.

Ebin, Lois. John Lydgate. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985, 163 p.

Reconsiders the nature of Lydgate's poetry and attempts to illustrate reasons for the poet's popularity with his contemporaries.

Hascall, Dudley L. “The Prosody of John Lydgate.” Language and Style: An International Journal 3, no. 2 (Spring 1970): 122-46.

Provides a detailed study of Lydgate's use of meter.

Lampe, David. “Lydgate's Laughter: ‘Horse, Goose, and Sheep’ as Social Satire.” Annuale Mediaevale 15 (1974): 150-58.

Discussion of Lydgate's poem “Horse, Goose, and Sheep” which stresses its humor and originality.

Norton-Smith, John. Introduction to Poems by John Lydgate, edited by John Norton-Smith, pp. ix-xii. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.

Provides an overview of Lydgate's works and a critical assessment of his style.

Parry, P. H. “On the Continuity of English Civic Pageantry: A Study of John Lydgate and the Tudor Pageant.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 15 (1979): 222-36.

Examines Lydgate's works which focus on English civic pageantry; argues that the pastime remained essentially unchanged between 1400 and 1600.

Patterson, Lee. “Making Identities in Fifteenth Century England: Henry V and John Lydgate.” In New Historical Literary Study: Essays on Reproducing Texts, Representing History, edited by Jeffrey N. Cox and Larry J. Reynolds, pp. 69-107. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Claims that Lydgate's Host in the Siege of Thebes is an allegorical representation of Henry V.

Pearsall, Derek. “Chaucer and Lydgate.” Chaucer Traditions: Studies in Honour of Derek Brewer, edited by Ruth Morse and Barry Windeatt, pp. 39-53. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Argues that Lydgate “medievalized” Chaucer by imitating him in ways that were acceptable to the official taste of fifteenth-century England.

Renoir, Alain. The Poetry of John Lydgate. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967, 172 p.

Examines Lydgate's major poems and argues that his poetry anticipates the Renaissance.

Schlauch, Margaret. “Stylistic Attributes of John Lydgate's Prose.” In To Honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, 11 October 1966, Volume III, pp. 1757-68. The Hague: Mouton, 1967.

Examines specific techniques which Lydgate used in his prose and offers a general assessment of his style.

Simpson, James. “‘Dysemol Daies and Fatal Houres’: Lydgate's Destruction of Thebes and Chaucer's Knight's Tale.” In The Long Fifteenth Century: Essays for Douglas Gray, edited by Helen Cooper and Sally Mapstone, pp. 15-33. Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1997.

Argues that the Siege of Thebes is more complex that previous critics have allowed, and that Lydgate in fact extends Chaucer's moral engagement with history.

Torti, Anna. “From ‘History’ to ‘Tragedy’: The Story of Troilus and Criseyde in Lydgate's Troy Book.” The European Tragedy of Troilus, edited by Piero Boitani, pp. 171-97. Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1989.

Compares Lydgate's treatment of the story of Troilus and Cressida with those of Geoffrey Chaucer and Robert Henryson.

Additional coverage of Lydgate's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: British Writers, Vol. 1; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 146; Reference Guide to English Literature, Edition 2.