Among the followers of Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342/43 – 1400), the greatest poet of the English Middle Ages, is John Lydgate (c. 1370 – c. 1451), a monk in the Benedictine abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. He was born in the village of Lydgate, Suffolk, was well-learned, visited Paris, wrote in many genres and became a most prolific author: it is believed, that he has written about 145 thousand lines. Some works were attributed to him, but later his authorship of them was denied. Contemporaries believed him to be the most talented of Chaucer’s followers.
Lydgate lived in the times of the Hundred Years War, and this had to be reflected in his works. During his life, England achieved its greatest success in this war and then lost it.
Among the most significant of Lydgate’s works is ‘Troy Book’, which is a translation, or, to be exact, a retelling of ‘Historia destructionis Troiae’ (‘History of the destruction of Troy’) of an Italian author Guido delle Colonne. Lydgate’s book was written between 1412 and 1420 on the commission of Henry, Prince of Wales, who became King of England Henry V (reigned in 1413 – 1422) and one of the English heroes of the Hundred Years War: he won the battle of Agincourt 25 October 1415, in 1420 achieved the conclusion of the Peace of Troyes, according to which England and France, though remaining two separate states, were to be ruled by English kings of Lancaster dynasty, married the daughter of the French king and died having the status of the heir to the French throne; his father-in-law, the mentally ill King of France Charles VI (ruled in 1380 – 1422), outlived him for almost two months. King Henry is the character of the poem ‘The Siege of Harfleur and the Battle of Agincourt, 1415’, first published c. 1530 with no author’s name. John Lydgate is often recognized as the author of this poem (it will be most correct to say that it is
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attributed to him), which, though obtaining a poetic license, demonstrates the cruelty of medieval war. The character of the King of England is expectedly depicted here as complex: the king is sometimes attentive to his councillors, sometimes hazardous, sometimes cruel, sometimes pious and merciful. The author expresses his sympathy to the king, praising his piety, bravery and devotion to his motherland. Lydgate wrote both verses on courtly love and unkind satire against women, but in honour of Our Lady, he created verses that praise Her as the Lady of the author’s heart on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day. In this work, other women worthy of respect or just of interest, whom a poet of the epoch had to know, are also named, but Our Lady excelles them all. This work is addressed to Henry V’s widow, Catherine de Valois (1401 – 1437), daughter of French king Charles VI, a renowned beauty whose fate was not the easiest, and who might have become Queen of both England and France, had Henry V lived a bit longer. Later Queen Mother Catherine married a Welshman Owen Tudor, and they became ancestors of the famous English royal dynasty, the Tudors (1485 – 1603). In ‘A Praise of Peace’, where each stanza ends with the word ‘peace’, the author persuades his readers of the value of peace with the help of numerous Biblical and partly Graeco-Roman associations.
Belonging to the history of world literature and being the mirror of their author’s time, the works of John Lydgate may also serve the joining of times, even though the distance between those times may be a large one.
With best regards,
the translator
àäðåñà: https://www.poetryclub.com.ua/getpoem.php?id=1037358
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äàòà íàäõîäæåííÿ 09.04.2025
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