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Chaucer’s Imitators and Successors

Thomas Hoccleve (1368?-1450?) wasborninLondon& became a secretary at the age of 18, remaining on this position for 25 years. He created a poem about his youth La Male Regle[Bad Behaviour] (1406), a mock-penitential poem that gives some interesting glimpses of dissipation in his youth. As he couldn’t receive the church parish he got married and in 1424received a lifetime position of a scribe in a Sazweek parish of London. HecalledhimselfaChaucer’sdiscipleanddedicatedhispoemThe Regement of Princes tohim, perhaps he even knew Chaucer personally. WhatiscommoninHoccleve’s&Chaucer’spoetryisdefinitelymetricpeculiarities – the stanza, light humour. Hoccleve’spoemLetter of Cupid, (ab.1402) isbasedonFrenchpoemby Christine de Pizan, as well as Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women, proclaiming the cult of Virgin Mary.The most prominent poetic political treatise by Hoccleve was hisThe Regement of Princes, (1411-1412, 5463 verses). It was based on Latin moralizing treatise of the13th c. by GvidodelleColonne. ThetreatisewasdedicatedtoprinceofWales, futureHenry V. One of the last poetic works by Hoccleve was his The Art of Death[Arsmoriendi], written as a dialogue between the dying author & his disciple. Hoccleve was also the author of a number of poetic ballads.

John Lydgate (1370?-1450?)was Hoccleve’s contemporary, originating from Suffolk,aBenedicteanmonk, serving for some time at the royal court. After returning from France he served as a priest somewhere in Essex. Hewastheauthorofshortlyricalpoems, fables, satires, epistles, ballads, etc. Lydgate was a friend of Chaucer’s family, mainly he was friend with Chaucer’s son Thomas and an admirer of Chaucer’s work. Amongthemostfamousofhisworks, whichexposedvicesofhiscontemporarysocietywereasatireThe Deserts of Theevish Millers & Bakersin which he mocked atthieves andfrauds- millers andbakerswho deserved beingplaced at a pillory, a balladThe Ballad of Jack Haredetails about atall man, an idler, a glutton and drunkardwhorobbed his master all the time, reveled in a pub and played dice with money, gained from horse fodder sale, and slept instead of working;a satireA Ballad wherin the Author Enumerateth Many Sorts of Fools, and Feigneth a Couvent of Fraternity of 63 Such, which was a description of an imaginery order/brethren/monastery of fools. ItsfounderwasafolkloredemonMarcolf (sometimescalledSaturn) who was also a hero of medieval tales or “dialogues”about Solomon &Marcolf; it gives quite a concise characteristics of Fools of 63 types, each 1 finishing in different refrain –a curse for a Fool. HisThe Death Dance (1425) was aFrenchverse translation.

There is a special group of Lydgate’s early satires against women. Ballad on the Forked Head-Dresses of Ladies[A Ditty of Women's Horns]wasdirected at the 15th c. fashionable high femaleheadwear in France & England. He argues that it is more applicable for wild animals to wear horns than for fair ladies. A Satirical Description of His Ladyisevensharper, depictingacertainportlybeautyin uncomplimentary details & immodestcomparisons. Anotherstrikinganti-clericalsatireabout “female spite” was created by him inAdvice to an Old Gentleman Who Wished for a Young Wife; it was totally based on The CT, however, Lydgate is far more mysoginist than Chaucer in this work.



Lydgatealsowrotemanyreligiousworks – hymns, prayers, legends paraphrases andhagiography. His last work was SecretaSecretorum or Secrets of Old Philosophers, rhymed extracts from a pseudo-Aristotelian treatise. ItwasfinishedposthumouslybyhisdiscipleBenedict Burgh (ab.1413-1483), who probably created some of the works attributed to Lydgate.The themes of all his more ambitious poems can be traced to Chaucerian sources. Still Lydgate’s 3 most important works are: The Troy Book; The Siege of Thebes; The Falls of Princes. The Troy-book, undertaken at the command of Henry V, then Prince of Wales, dates from 1412-1420& is thoroughly a translation fromLatin“The Troy Story” written in 1287 Guido delleColonne, which was in its turn based on Benoir de Saint-Maure’sFrenchRoman de Troi (ab. 1160). Thoughatranslation, theTroystorywastreatedbyLydgateinthemannerofthetime, with notes of knighthood criticism, criticism of higher classes, their adherence to etiquette, outer form, careless, merry existence, vain and empty. It was written in melodic “heroic couplets”.

The Siege of Thebesis directly based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale. Lydgateplannedthispoem (4716 “heroic couplets”) as a supplementary to The CT. The general prologue tells readers that he met Chaucerian pilgrims in Canterbury andHarry Bailey offered him to join. HehadtotellhisstoryonthewaybacktoLondon, likethe knight did on the way there. TheplotisbasedonThebaidbyStatiusviatheFrenchproseparaphrase Le Roman de Thèbesof the 13thñ.;another source for this work would be Boccaccio. Lydgate’sstoryoftheThebes’ siegeturnedouttobequitelong, dryishanddull; with mistakes in rhythm and style. His characters are toosimilar in character. He’stooinclinedforrepetitions - syntactic parallelisms, which is the special feature of his The Falls of Princes (36316 verses), ordered by the Duke Humphrey of Glosterbetween 1430-1438. It was based on Boccaccio’s De Casibusvirorumillustrium(1355-1360); though he translated from its French prose translation. It was written in Chaucerian stanza and was influenced by English history of the time. Thoughtreatingthegreatwarriorsandrulerswithreverenceadoptedfromtheoriginal, Lydgateprefersphilosophersand all who love their homeland & are strong of mind. TheFallofPrincesis 1 oftheIEnglishworksofthe 15thñ. thatcorrespondtohumanisticideology; trueardor forancient world, ancient heroism, e.g. he’s sympathetic for obvioussuicides of the past: Iocasta, Lucrece, Dido, etc. notwithstanding the church ethics.

 


Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1105


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