Saturday, September 19, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

Courtly and Scots Poetry

Courtly and Scots poetry of the fifteenth century, preserving a northern literary register alongside English popular song.

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

Texts

Hoccleve's Minor PoemsThe collected shorter poems of Thomas Hoccleve — including the Complaint and Dialogue on his own mental breakdown, La Male Regle, the Letter of Cupid, and balades to Chaucer's patrons — from both surviving EETS editions, ed. F. J. Furnivall (Extra Series 61, 1892) and Sir Israel Gollancz (Extra Series 73, 1925).Lydgate's Siege of ThebesLydgate's ~4,700-line Theban epic, framed as a new Canterbury Tale told by the monk of Bury on the pilgrims' road home — the fullest medieval homage to Chaucer's unfinished work.Lydgate's Troy Book — Part ILydgate's Troy Book, Part I — the Prologue and Books I–II of Lancastrian England's official verse history of Troy (c. 1412–20), ed. Henry Bergen (EETS Extra Series 97, 1906).Lydgate's Troy Book — Part IIBook III of Lydgate's Troy Book (1412-20), the poem's longest and central book — the pitched battles before Troy and the death of Hector — ed. Henry Bergen from the best manuscripts, with Furnivall's side-notes (EETS Extra Series 103, 1908).Lydgate's Troy Book — Part IIIBooks IV and V of Lydgate's verse history of the fall of Troy, completing the text, in Henry Bergen's edition for the Early English Text Society.The Minor Poems of John Lydgate — Part IMacCracken's 1911 EETS edition of Lydgate's religious poems, sixty-nine devotional works in Middle English verse, with his canon-establishing introduction to Lydgate's whole poetic output.The Regement of PrincesHoccleve's Regement of Princes (1411), a mirror for the future Henry V famous for its candid autobiographical prologue and its portrait of Chaucer, with fourteen of Hoccleve's minor religious poems, ed. F. J. Furnivall (EETS Extra Series 72, 1897).The Tale of BerynA 15th-century continuation of the Canterbury Tales in which the pilgrims reach Canterbury, the Pardoner is fleeced by a tapster at the inn, and the merchant tells the tale of Beryn on the road home.Works of King James I of ScotlandThe Kingis Quair and other poems by a captive king — a dream-vision of love composed during eighteen years of English imprisonment.