Description
Book SynopsisRobert J. Meyer-Lee examines the tradition of Laureate verse as it develops from the fourteenth century to Tudor times. This study sheds light on the relationships between poets and political power and reveals the importance of this verse for the course of English literary history.
Trade Review'Well written and consistently argued, it is literary history of the first order.' The Medieval Review
'Robert J. Meyer-Lee's book is a useful survey of English poetry from Hoccleve to Skelton, with Chaucer and Wyatt as bookends. … It would serve as a useful initiation for students to some meta-literary topics and to much fifteenth-century literature.' Daniel Wakelin, Lecturer in English and a Fellow in English at Christ's College, Cambridge
'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
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; 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.
