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Downloaded on 2017-02-12T08:18:26Z Reading Lydgate's Troy Book: Patronage, Politics, and History In View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Cork Open Research Archive Title Reading Lydgate's Troy Book: patronage, politics, and history in Lancastrian England Author(s) Fawsitt, Diana Publication date 2014 Original citation Fawsitt, D. 2014. Reading Lydgate's Troy Book: patronage, politics, and history in Lancastrian England. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2014, Diana Fawsitt. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Embargo information No embargo required Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/2121 from Downloaded on 2017-02-12T08:18:26Z Reading Lydgate's Troy Book: Patronage, Politics, and History in Lancastrian England. Diana Fawsitt, B.A., M.A. Presented for PHD Degree National University of Ireland, Cork. School of English, University College Cork. November, 2014. Head of School Prof. Claire Connolly Supervisors Dr. Andrew King Dr. Kenneth Rooney Dr. Margaret Connolly Supervisor: Dr. Kenneth Rooney. Diana Fawsitt CONTENTS Declaration . ii Abstract . iii Dedication . v Acknowledgements . vi Abbreviations . vii INTRODUCTION . 1 CHAPTER ONE Translating and Contrasting the Historia and the Troy Book . 16 CHAPTER TWO The Appropriation of Chaucer's Legacy, and its Impact on Lydgate and His Troy Book . 45 CHAPTER THREE Humanism, Myth, and Lydgate's Application of Antiquity to Fifteenth-Century Ideals of Religious Ethos . 80 CHAPTER FOUR Women: In Defence of Lydgate . 114 CHAPTER FIVE A Trojan Mirror for a Lancastrian King: The Troy Book as a Speculum for Henry V. 162 CHAPTER SIX Human Relationships and the Seven Deadly Sins within the Troy Book . 192 CONCLUSION . 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 234 i. DECLARATION I declare that this thesis, Reading Lydgate's Troy Book: Patronage, Politics, and History in Lancastrian England, is my own work, and is not being submitted for any other degree in University College Cork, or elsewhere. _______________________ Diana Fawsitt 97810673 ii. Abstract This thesis, Reading Lydgate's Troy Book: Patronage, Politics and History in Lancastrian England, discusses the relationship between John Lydgate as a court poet to his patron Henry V. I contend that the Troy Book is explored as a vehicle to propagate the idea that the House of Lancaster is the legitimate successor to King Richard II in order to smooth over the usurpation of 1399. Paul Strohm's England's Empty Throne was a key influence to the approach of this thesis' topic, not only politically, but with Chaucer's death there was also a gap in literature as well. Moreover I argue that although Chaucer had a definitive impact on Lydgate's writing, and Lydgate is able to manipulate this influence for his own ambitions. In order to enhance his own fame, Lydgate works to promote Chaucer's canon so that as Chaucer's successor, he will inherit more prestige. The Trojan war is seen in context with Henry V's participation in the Hundred Years War against France, and the Troy Book text in places can be applied contextually to political events. In his work Lydgate presents characters that are vulnerable to human failings, and their assorted, complicated relationships. These are characters that are closer to the audience's active, contemporary experience rather than of a lustreless antiquity. Lydgate modernises the Troy Book to reflect and enhance his Lancastrian society, and the thesis gives a contextual view of Lydgate's writing of the Troy Book. Lydgate writes for a larger, and more varied target audience than his thirteenth-century source, Guido delle Colonne. Lydgate always considers his audience when writing, and there is a deliberation on the female characters of the Troy Book which promulgates the iii. theory that Lydgate takes a proactive and empathetic interest in women's roles in society. Furthermore Lydgate has never really been accepted as a humanist, and I look at Lydgate's work from a different angle; he is a self-germinating humanist. Lydgate revives antiquity to educate his fifteenth-century audience, and his ambition is to create a memorial for his patron in the vernacular, and enhance his own fame as a poet separate from Chaucer's shadow. iv. Dedication To Donovan, Fawsitts, Nan Conner, and Absentees v. Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank my supervisors Dr. Andrew King who has withstood the ravages of my inactivity for long periods of time, and whose unfailing support and patience has helped me to render this thesis, and Dr. Ken Rooney for his excellent guidance and encouragement. Also I would like to thank Dr. Margaret Connolly for introducing me to the Troy Book, and Sergi Manier for taking time to discuss translation theory with me. I am grateful to the many members of staff at University College Cork, past and present, who were extremely encouraging to me especially Dr. Kalene Kenefick, Dr. Carrie Griffin, Dr. Orla Murphy, Dr. Mary Kelly, and also my friend, the late Billy Williams. I would like to thank my siblings, their spouses and offspring, and my friends for their curiosity in my subject which has often shaped the route of discussion in my thesis; my late parents, Sean and Patience, who facilitated the opportunity for my study, and my husband Pat Donovan whose faith and persistence contributed immensely towards this thesis' completion. vi. Abbreviations BK Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate, et al., eds. The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 233. Tempe: Ottawa UP, 2001. Bloom Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. London: Oxford UP, 1973. CND De Weever, Jacqueline. Chaucer Name Dictionary. New York: Garland, 1996. Complaint Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse Consolation Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy. Trans. V.E. Watts. London: Folio, 1998. CT Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Gardner Gardner, John. The Poetry of Chaucer. London: Southern Illinois UP, 1978. GP General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales. MA Wheatley, Edward. Mastering Aesop: Medieval Education, Chaucer, and His Followers. Gainesville: Florida UP, 2000. Meek Colonne, Guido delle. Historia Destructionis Troiae. Trans. Mary Elizabeth Meek. London: Indiana UP, 1974. NPT Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Nun's Priest's Tale. OBM Cannon, John, and Ralph Griffiths. The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. PardT Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Pardoner's Tale Radice Radice, Betty, ed. Who's Who in the Ancient World. London: Penguin, 1971. RC Benson, Larry D., ed. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Oxford UP, 1987. RES The Review of English Studies. Schirmer Schirmer, Walter F. John Lydgate: A Study in the Culture of the XVth Century. Trans. Ann E. Keep. London: Methuen, 1961. ST Lydgate, John. The Siege of Thebes. TB Lydgate, John. Lydgate's Troy Book. T&C Chaucer, Geoffrey. Troilus And Criseyde. Vernacular Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn, Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor and Ruth Evans, eds. The Idea of The Vernacular. Exeter: Exeter UP, 1999. WWA Lydgate, John. "On the Wretchedness of Worldly Affairs." vii. Introduction The basis of my study is John Lydgate's Troy Book which was written between 1412 and 1420.1 The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between John Lydgate, his king, and the court audience, and the politics of translation: an adaptation of a revered Latin work to one that would earn praise in the English vernacular. In order to understand the Troy Book's objectives several factors are taken in to consideration: the contextual influences on translation; Lydgate's creative portrayal of men and women, their relationships and presentation of their consequences in the Troy Book. His presentation of religion and myth will be discussed, and I also contest the theory that Lydgate lacks humanist tendencies. What must also be observed is the effect that Chaucer's canon played in shaping and developing Lydgate's own ideas of rhetoric. The Troy Book contains over 30,000 lines, and is an amplified translation of Guido delle Colonne's prose Latin Historia Destructionis Troiae which was completed in 1287. Guido's Historia declares itself based on texts that purport to be eyewitness accounts of the Trojan War, but these two witnesses, Dares the Phrygian and Dictys the Crete, were fraudulent sources - they were believed to be at the Trojan siege, but were fictional characters. Furthermore Guido similarly misleads his reader because the Historia is a "Latin prose paraphrase . of the Roman de Troie . by Benoit de Sainte-Maure", which is "a French romance in octosyllabic couplets written more than a hundred years earlier".2 Therefore the Troy Book is a hybrid compilation of several sources as well as 1 The edition of Lydgate's Troy Book that is used was edited by Henry Bergen in 1906, and reprinted by the Early English Texts Society. Henry Bergen states: "The text of this edition is based on the Brit. Mus. MS. Cotton, Augustus A. iv. (C). collated with the Brit. Mus. MS. Arundel 99 (A) and the Bodleian MSS. Digby 232 (D 2) and Digby 230 (D 1)." Lydgate, Lydgate's Troy Book, ix. 2 Meek, xi. 1 Lydgate's additional material which permeates the text. John Lydgate was born circa 1370 "in the village of Lydgate, near Newmarket . and his family was probably of peasant stock", but his literary talents allowed him to become an important poet linked to the royal household.3 When he was fifteen years old he became a novice in the Benedictine abbey of Bury St Edmunds, and was finally ordained in 1397. Walter Schirmer in his book, John Lydgate: A Study in the Culture of the XVth Century, believes that Lydgate was probably better suited to a secular than to an ecclesiastical career from Lydgate's confessions in his Testament: "What I was bodyn, I cowde wel disobeye" (Test.
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