The Illustrations of Lydgate's Troy Book: the Visual Revitalization of a Literary Tradition in the Fifteenth-Century England Tammy Y
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2015 The Illustrations of Lydgate's Troy Book: The Visual Revitalization of a Literary Tradition in the Fifteenth-Century England Tammy Y. Whitehead Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF LYDGATE’S TROY BOOK: THE VISUAL REVITALIZATION OF A LITERARY TRADITION IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND By TAMMY Y. WHITEHEAD A Dissertation submitted to the Program of Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Tammy Y. Whitehead defended this dissertation on April 16, 2015. The members of the supervisory committee were: David F. Johnson Professor Direction Dissertation Jack Freiberg University Representative David Gants Committee Member Svetla Slaveva-Griffin Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE – TROJAN NARRATIVES ..............................................................................14 CHAPTER TWO – TROJAN LEGEND IN ENGLAND .............................................................49 CHAPTER THREE – TROJAN IMAGES ....................................................................................86 CHAPTER FOUR – MS. ROYAL 18. D. II & MS. RYLANDS ENGLISH I ...........................117 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................155 APPENDIX A - IMAGES ...........................................................................................................163 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................166 Biographical Sketch .....................................................................................................................178 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure One – King Enthroned, (c) The British Library Board, Royal 18. D. II f6 ......................163 Figure Two – Wheel of Fortune, (c) The British Library Board, Royal 18. D. II f30v ...............164 Figure Three – Greek Tents Overthrown, (c) The British Library Board, Royal 18. D. II f82v .164 Figure Four – Priam (c) The British Library Board, Royal 18. D. II f93 ....................................165 Figure Five – Calchas, (c) The British Library Board, Royal 18. D. II f74 ................................165 iv ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the ways in which John Lydgate’s Troy Book, both the textual and visual narratives, functioned in fifteenth-century England. As Henry V sought to legitimate his claim to the throne usurped by his father, he capitalized on the burgeoning sense of an English national identity by patronizing literature in the English vernacular as a means to glorify both nation and language. In an age in which genealogical claims were the most important indicator of a person’s right to rule, Henry exploited the Trojan origin myth, which had circulated in England and other European communities since the early Middle Ages, not only to glorify England as an inheritor of Rome’s imperial mission and to solidify the Lancastrian claim, but also to help solidify and renew the English claim to the French throne. The Troy Book was immensely popular in the fifteenth-century and was reproduced in at least twenty-three manuscripts, including fragments. Eight of these manuscripts received illustrations, and a basic visual program can be detected in each of them. However, two of these manuscripts are exceptional for the inclusion of illustrations beyond this basic program – London, British Library, MS Royal 18 d. ii (c. 1455-62) and Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS English 1 (c. late 1440s). Because the manuscripts were produced at different points in the fifteenth century, a careful examination of the images in light of contemporary historical events helps establish the patron’s views and ambitions that may have helped shape the pictorial narrative. I will argue that the anomalous images in the Royal manuscript must be read in light of both the recently failed war with France and the current civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster and that these images represent aristocratic anxieties and desires for peace. This argument will culminate in an examination of the images in the Rylands manuscript, the most sumptuous of the Troy Book manuscripts, which includes sixty-nine miniatures. It was v commissioned slightly earlier than the Royal manuscript during the waning fortunes of the Hundred Years War and conforms most closely to the purposes of the original text: to glorify Trojan origins and England by identifying Henry V with Hector, to act as a manual for chivalry and proper war practices, to emphasize the role of fortune in worldly events, and to provide moral instruction to both the aristocracy and the nobility. vi INTRODUCTION This dissertation examines the ways in which John Lydgate’s Troy Book, both the textual and visual narratives, functioned in fifteenth-century England. As Henry V (1413-1422) sought to legitimate his claim to the throne usurped by his father, he capitalized on the burgeoning sense of an English national identity by patronizing literature in the English vernacular as a means to glorify both nation and language during the early fifteenth century. In an age in which genealogical claims were the most important indicator of a person’s right to rule, Henry, as Prince of Wales commissioned Lydgate’s Troy Book in 1412, in order to exploit the Trojan origin myth, which had circulated in England and other European communities since the early Middle Ages, not only to glorify England as an inheritor of Rome’s imperial mission and to solidify the Lancastrian claim, but also to help solidify and renew the English claim to the French throne. The Troy Book was immensely popular in the fifteenth-century and was reproduced in at least twenty-three manuscripts, including fragments. Eight of these manuscripts received illustrations, and a basic visual program can be detected in each of them. However, two of these manuscripts are exceptional for the inclusion of illustrations beyond this basic program – London, British Library, MS Royal 18 d. ii (c. 1455-62) and Manchester, John Rylands Library, MS English 1 (c. late 1440s). Because the manuscripts were produced at different points in the fifteenth century, a careful examination of the images in light of contemporary historical events helps establish the manuscript patron’s views and ambitions that may have helped shape the pictorial narrative. I will argue that the anomalous images in the Royal manuscript must be read in light of both the recently failed war with France (1337-1453) and the current civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster (1455-1485) and that these images represent 1 aristocratic anxieties and desires for peace. This argument will culminate in an examination of the images in the Rylands manuscript, the most sumptuous of the Troy Book manuscripts, which includes sixty-nine miniatures. It was commissioned slightly earlier than the Royal manuscript during the waning fortunes of the Hundred Years War and conforms most closely to the purposes of the original text: to glorify Trojan origins and England by identifying Henry V with Hector, to act as a manual for chivalry and proper war practices, to emphasize the role of fortune in worldly events, and to provide moral instruction to both the aristocracy and the nobility. The Troy Legend in Medieval Europe: In order to legitimize conquests in the Mediterranean, Roman historians had traced the founding of cities in Italy and the ancestry of the nobility to Trojan heroes long before Virgil cemented the relationship between Augustus and Aeneas and propagated the divine right of Rome’s imperial project.1 Richard Waswo argues “their purpose was to provide a newly powerful nation with a glorious lineage and an ancient past, establishing Rome’s claims to independent prestige in the Hellenic world.”2 During the imperial period, this practice continued, and the divine ancestry of the emperor tracing backward to Aeneas became a litmus test for legitimacy. The fall of the Roman Empire did nothing to change this sensibility, and those who conquered the lands and aspired to reunite the empire under their rule replicated this tradition of imperial ideology by appropriating the Trojan myth and creating an uninterrupted genealogical relationship to Aeneas. Thus, in his sixth-century History of the Goths, Cassiodorus attempted to 1 Waswo, R. “The History that Literature Makes,” New Literary History 19 (Spring 1988): 549, identifies fifth- century Greek poet Hellicanus of Lesbos as the earliest surviving reference of the relationship between Troy and Rome. See also Margaret R. Scherer, The Legends of Troy in