MacCracken, Henry Noble, ed.; Sherwood, Merriam, ed., Minor Poems of John Lydgate (Early English Text Society Extra Series 107 and Original Series 192)
Text name(s): Minor Poems of John Lydgate
Number of pages of primary source text: 1223
Author(s):
Dates: 1400 - 1449
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- English - Middle English
Translation:
- Original language included.
Translation Comments:
Geopolitical Region(s):
- England
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Literature - Verse
- Sermons
Subject Headings:
- Literature - Comedy / Satire
- Literature - Devotional
- Piety
- Political Thought
- War - Chivalry
Apparatus:
- Index
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
These volumes represent an attempt to determine what works attributed to Lydgate were actually written by him. Volume I (ES 107) is a collection of 69 religious poems. Volume II (OS 192) includes secular poems, categorized as courtly love, satirical poems, narrative poems, political poems, didactic poems, and homilies with proverbial refrains. They are printed in Middle English. Manuscript variations are noted in the footnotes. Marginal glosses summarize the poems in modern English.
Introduction Summary:
The introduction (in Vol. I) discusses the common features of Lydgate’s poetry—rhyme, meter, style, and his personality, to create criteria to determine whether a poem was by Lydgate or not. It then lists all poems attributed to Lydgate, categorized as genuine or spurius, and their manuscript sources, as well as brief notes on modern editions, scholarly reception, and subject matter. The introduction includes an index to the canon, where the peoms are sorted by title instead of by authorship.
Cataloger: MK
