John Lydgate Books

This impressive and significant collection (the first such on the `angel-mouthed' poet so revered by the fifteenth century) situates itself at the forefront of the current whirlwind rehabilitation of the Monk of Bury that was kick-started so decisively by David Lawton in his 1987 essay `Dullness and the Fifteenth Century'. *John Lydgate: Poetry, Culture, and Lancastrian England* is certainly timely: four book-length studies appeared on the poet in the three decades after the publication of the first (in German) in 1952, yet the last twelve months alone have seen the publication of another three. And whereas critical discussion of Lydgate's work has traditionally been distracted by sterile debates about literary merit, these refreshing essays, free from such tendencies, fix our attention squarely on the poems themselves.

Individual poems (notably the *Fall of Princes* John Lydgate's Fall of Princes: Narrative Tragedy in Its Literary and Political Contexts (Oxford English Monographs), the *Temple of Glas*, the autobiographical *Testament*, and `The Churl and the Bird') receive extended consideration. Attention is given to Lydgate's various voices: his civic poetry, mummings, and royal entries (C. David Benson and Maura B. Nolan) and hagiographical verse (Fiona Somerset and Ruth Nisse) are sensitively explored. However, as its subtitle suggests, the linking theme of the collection is the issue of Lydgate's compliancy with the unstable Lancastrian dynasty. The degree to which the Monk was subservient laureate and naïve propagandist or, instead, politically astute and subversive commentator is revisited by several contributors, but none probes the complex relationships between political power and textual culture more convincingly than Robert J. Meyer-Lee and Scott-Morgan Straker.

Although codicological work would have strengthened this collection and certain arguments can feel a touch strained, these essays (all but one of which here appear for the first time) are as valuable as they are judicious: blinking in the unfamiliar glare of the centre-stage, Lydgate is now being brought from the shadow of Chaucer and dyspeptic Reformation stereotypes before an audience that is at last prepared to read him on his own terms.

As a fan of Middle English, it can be difficult to find texts and know they are in fact in Middle English and not translated. In _The Siege of Thebes_, you'll find a well put together text in its natural state.

Chaucerians will enjoy Lydgate's extension of _The Canterbury Tales_ and find the Host depicted with a reasonable amount of vigor and ribald humor. The story is filled with drama, adventure, and Middle Ages convention, which makes for an interesting read and an excellent comparison to other noteworthy writers of the 14th and 15th centuries. As Middle English texts go, this one is quite easy to follow and is perhaps even one of the "easiest" texts available.

The notes are efficient though often obvious. However, that means it is accessible to the beginner Middle English reader and not just the advanced reader. I recommend reading the intro after reading the text, since it is ponderous and will make more sense following an intricate reading of the actual poem. In all, this is a worthwhile Middle English text and an asset to any reader's collection.

This is certain to become a much consulted and frequently cited work. Wheatley's study of the manuscript tradition of the Latin Aesop of a twelfth-century poet known as "Walter of England," or (better) as the "Anonymus Neveleti," leads him to a number of important new insights into the use of the genre in later medieval vernacular English and Scots literature. The analysis offered here of Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale is destined to be a classic, providing richly suggestive readings of elements hitherto thought merely arbitrary or idiosyncratic. Less interesting, if still competent, are Wheatley's discussions of Lydgate and Henryson. Even those benighted scholars in fields other than English will find much inspiration here, and any literary historian who has not read this book should hasten to make good the omission.