Poets and Power from Chaucer to Wyatt

This study sheds light on the relationships between poets and political power.

Robert J. Meyer-Lee (Author)

9780521117067, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 July 2009

316 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'Meyer-Lee's reinvestment in the idea of literary tradition gives him a strong story to tell, and he tells it crisply and effectively in this admirable study.' Notes and Queries

In the early fifteenth century, English poets responded to a changed climate of patronage, instituted by Henry IV and successor monarchs, by inventing a new tradition of public and elite poetry. Following Chaucer and others, Hoccleve and Lydgate brought to English verse a style and subject matter writing about their King, nation, and themselves, and their innovations influenced a continuous line of poets running through and beyond Wyatt. A crucial aspect of this tradition is its development of ideas and practices associated with the role of poet laureate. Robert J. Meyer-Lee examines the nature and significance of this tradition as it developed from the fourteenth century to Tudor times, tracing its evolution from one author to the next. This study illuminates the relationships between poets and political power and makes plain the tremendous impact this verse has had on the shape of English literary culture.

Acknowledgements
Notes on citations
Introduction: laureates and beggars
Part I. Backgrounds: 1. Laureate poetics
Part II. The First Lancastrian Poets: 2. John Lydgate: the invention of the English laureate
3. Thomas Hoccleve: beggar laureate
Part III. From Lancaster to Early Tudor: 4. Lydgateanism
5. The trace of Lydgate: Stephen Hawes, Alexander Barclay, and John Skelton
Epilogue: Sir Thomas Wyatt: anti-laureate
Notes
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]