15th Century Literature

John Skelton, Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Skelton.jpg#/media/File:John_Skelton.jpg

Although England underwent a stage of constant political strife during 15th century period, it was simultaneously, though gradually and slowly, achieving the heights of national greatness. William Caxton brought printing press to England which made it possible for a book or an idea to reach the whole nation. Schools and universities were established in place of the old monasteries. The wave of Renaissance in Europe reached England bringing with it the Greek ideas and culture. Reformation, on the other hand, brought about the much needed spiritual freedom. However, the literary output of the age is very thin both in quality and quantity. It is assumed that the upheavals of the age, caused partially by the political conflicts and partially by the advent of Renaissance accompanied with the Reformation, prevented the literary development. Critics often describe the significance of the age calling it an age of preparation. As William J. Long states:

The stirring life of the Renaissance had first to be lived before it could express itself in the new literature of the Elizabethan period.”

The period following the death of Chaucer (15th century) witnessed no major literary output. Though Chaucer had number of follower both in England and Scotland to carry forward Chaucerian legacy, they were mostly blunt imitators. They understood Chaucer’s tricks of the trade but lacked the genius to make any fine use of them. Chaucer’s followers from England are often referred to as “English Chaucerian”.

ENGLISH CHAUCERIAN

The term “English Chaucerian” is used to refer to some 15th and 16th century English poets who admired the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer and tried to imitate him. They used Chaucerian diction, style and poetic forms in their poetry but were poor imitators of Chaucer’s art. Under English Chaucerian which included the poets like John Lydgate, Thomas Hoccleve (Occleve), Stephen Hawes, Alexander Barclay and John Skelton, English poetry did not undergo much development. They were genuine admirers of Chaucer’s art but lacked the ingenuity to take that art to further heights.

A) John Lydgate

John Lydgate wrote in abundance and has left behind 1,40,000 lines. He was a well-read prolific composer. He was fundamentally a translator and compiler. His longest poems are The Story of Thebes and Troy Book. His most interesting work is London Lack Penny, an agreeable and lively account of the woes (misery) of poor men in London Street. The poem highlights the “omnipotence” of money. He admired Chaucer’s rhyme royal form but his poetry cannot be compared with those of Chaucer’s. His poems lacked concentrated humour.

B) Thomas Hoccleve (Occleve)

Thomas Hoccleve was a contemporary of Chaucer and was principally a satirist. His first work Letter of Cupid (1402) was a translation and adaptation of the popular French poet Christine de Pisan’s Epistre au Dieu d’ Amours (1399). Letter of Cupid was one of his most popular works. It is a courtly poem written in the manner of lines of the Roman de la Rose.

His next poem was La Mâle Rêgle (The Male Regimen) 1406; a partly autobiographical poem. It is a satire against poverty. Hoccleve complains of the hardships of his life, many of which, he confesses, were brought by his own choices. In A Dialogue with a Friend, he harshly satirizes women. He also satirizes the neglect and greed of the clergy. In his most important work, The Regiment of Princes, he satirizes fashion in dress. In the opening lines, the Beggar denounces poor men wearing costly garments to coordinate with the trending fashion. Consisting of advice to the future King Henry V, then the Prince of Wales, regarding the proper conduct of a monarch, this poem was Hoccleve’s most successful work.

His meter, usually rhyme royal or couplet, was generally loose and irregular. He admits in his poems that he lacked the skills and genius of his master, Chaucer:

Father Chaucer fine would have me taught,

But I was dull, and learned light or nought.”

C) Stephen Hawes

Stephen Hawes was a poet and courtier. He was known for his sharp memory and could easily narrate the works of most of the English poets, especially the poems of John Lydgate, whom he called his master. His most popular work was The Passetyme of Pleasure, a long allegorical poem. It talks about the Knight Graunde Amoure’s education and pilgrimage. It was written in rhyme (rime) royal with about 5800 lines. The poem is divided into forty-five chapters.

His other work was The Example of Vertu, another allegorical poem, mostly written in the seven-line Chaucerian stanza with some parts in decasyllabic couplets. It is divided into 14 chapters. He may be called a Chaucerian for his style but not his content. His allegorical methods appears to be of the crudest kind. He continues the defects of 15th century poets— confused meter, bizarre diction and mindless construction— the defects that did not disappear until English poetry came in contact with Italian masters as well as the Greek and Roman Classics.

D) Alexander Barclay

Alexander Barclay was a priest born in Scotland who migrated to England very early. He studied in Oxford and probably also in Cambridge. His most well-known work is Ship of Fools (1509), an adaptation of a popular German satire, Das Narrenschiff by Sebastian Brant. In this work, Barclay reviews every kind of folly with which human life is plagued. The book appears to be a collection of moral discussions on vices and failings. The author identifies many examples of follies, including the corrupt judge, the drunkard and the untrained physician. Barclay adapted Brant’s story to his own view of English society. Barclay is the first to write formal “eclogues” in English filled with entertaining pictures of rural life.

E) John Skelton

John Skelton was the most original English Chaucerian. He was a learned humanist. He was a satirist similar to William Langland. He was brutal and course. In his Book of Colin Clout, he severely satirizes clergy. Skelton was the only English Chaucerian whose satires made him more prominent than his contemporaries. Although, Skelton was a coarse and rude satirist, yet he could introduce some grace in his poetry. His Book of Philip Sparrow is an exquisite graceful poem on a girl whose pet bird has been killed by a cat.

Skelton started as an imitative poet, but he deliberately renounced the use of heroic verse, as suitable for his subject matter. He was a pioneer in suggesting new forms, who broke up with the old conventions of verse. He infused life and vigour into English poetry at a time when it was much needed. However, his poetry lacked beauty and vitality.

Thus, we find that the English Chaucerians lacked the genius of their master, Chaucer and emerged as mere imitators of his technique. It can be said that there was a steep decline in the standard of English poetry in the hands of Chaucer’s English successors. Only in Skelton do we find a poet of some originality and genius worthy to be the successor of Chaucer.

SCOTTISH CHAUCERIAN

It is strange that Chaucer’s greatest disciples were Scots and not Englishmen. While Lydgate and Hoccleve tried in vain to reproduce the spirit of Chaucer, King James I, Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas and Sir David Lindsay— were Scottish Chaucerians, as they are called—successfully reproduced much of Chaucerian spirit in their works. Recent critics have discovered that Chaucer’s influence on these poets was not as much as generally considered. They also relied on other sources for inspiration other than Chaucer.

A) King James I of Scotland

King James I was a Stuart King, a highly cultured man widely accepted as the author of the long vernacular poem The Kingis Quair (The King’s Book). During his 13-year reign as the King of Scotland, he established the first strong monarchy in about a century.

He was taken as a prisoner by the English when he was eleven. He was kept in captivity for nineteen years in the Tower of London, but was given good education. During his captivity he fell in love at first sight with Lady Jane Beaufort, niece to Henry V, to whom he was later married in 1424. This love is expressed with emotion and fervour in his The Kingis Quair. The poem is marked for its imagination and tender feeling. There is a spontaneous outburst of purest lyrical poetry alongwith artless simplicity and directness. E. W. Edmunds praises the poem in these words:

It is a pleasing poem in rhyme royal. It is often fantastic and of course imitative and artificial in its setting, but it deserves to be read for its felicitous (appropriate) natural touches, and for its veins of deep and sincere feeling.”

B) Robert Henryson

Robert Henryson was a significant poet of 15th century Scotland. Alongwith Gavin Douglas and William Dunbar, Henryson is one of Scotland’s major medieval ‘Makars’ or poetic ‘makers’. He is regarded as the finest of early fabulists in Britain and he appears among the dead poets in William Dunbar’s Lament for the Makaris, which was printed about 1508.

The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian is Henryson’s longest work containing more than 400 seven-line stanzas. It is a version of 13 ‘Aesop-fables’ mainly based on John Lydgate and William Caxton. The poems are known for their freshness of narrative, sly humour and Scottish imagery. Henryson’s animal characterization is also very remarkable.

The Testament of Cresseid is another of Henryson’s major works. Written as a “complaint”, it is a narrative poem in 86 stanzas in which Henryson completes the story of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. As a strict moralist, Henryson considers that Chaucer was more kind-hearted towards faithless Criseyde. So, he makes her pay for her faithlessness and infidelity. The poem accounts a grim and tragic rejection of the faithless heroine by her lover Diomede and her decline into prostitution. Contrary to Chaucer’s poem, it ends with Cresseid’s death. Henryson rearranges fate to suit his purposes— his Troilus lives, rather than dies, while his Cresseid dies due to her infidelity.

Henryson’s shorter poems include Orpheus and Eurydice based on Boethius, written in the mood and style similar to his “Testament”; a pastourelle, “Robene and Makyne” written in traditional French genre using the speech and humour of Scottish peasantry; and some fine moral narratives and meditations.

C) William Dunbar

Dunbar is one of the greatest names in Scottish poetry, and is often referred to as the “Chaucer of Scotland.” Sometimes, he is called the “Burns” of the 15th century because of his passion for beauty, native humour and force of expression. He has left behind a great amount of works on varied themes, which presents him as an amorist, a moralist and a satirist.

Dunbar’s The Golden Targe is a major allegorical poem which is a courtly dream-vision that celebrates the victory of love over reason. The Thrissil and the Rois is a prothalamium (marriage song) by him celebrating the marriage of James IV and Margaret Tudor.

Dunbar’s greatest and most well-known work is an elegant Lament for the Makaris dedicated to the distinguished writers of the past. The book mentions the poets like Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower and John Lydgate. Written in ballad form, the poem is, indeed, a meditation on serious moral and religious issues. The book establishes “death” as a great leveller and highlights the transience of human nature.

Dunbar has also written a number of biting satires. His Tidings from the Sessions is an attack on the law courts. In his Satire on Edinburgh, he satirizes the dirty conditions of the city. His The Visitation of Saint Francis is another satire that criticizes the churchmen. In his The Two Mary Women, he ridicules the drinking habit of women. This work reminds us of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath.

D) Gavin Douglas (or Gawin Douglas)

Gavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, poet and translator best known for his translation of complete Aeneid into Scot, the English of the lowlands of Scotland. He was the most scholarly of Scottish Chaucerian, but also the least vigorous. Four of the 15th century works are attributed to him which educate us about his moral earnestness and his command over difficult metrical forms. The first one is a long poem called Conscience. He also wrote two moral allegories—The Palice of Honour and King Hart. His greatest achievement is his Eneados, a full and faithful translation of Virgil’s Aeneid into vernacular English, “Scot”.

The Palice of Honour is a dream allegory in quest of an answer to the question—“Where does true honour lie?” The dream shows a way to approach the heavenly ideal, ascending from a chaotic and infernal beginning. King Hart describes vigorously and graphically the progress of “Hart,” the human soul from a youthful enslavement of pleasure through consciousness, aging and death. Aeneid (or Eneados) is his last literary work, but the first direct translation of the whole Aeneid to be made in Britain.

Though Douglas’ work stands on the threshold of Renaissance humanism, he is often considered belonging to the Chaucerian school, having a general medieval outlook.

E) Sir David Lindsay

Lindsay was a Scottish poet and courtier. He is last of the “Scottish Chaucerian”. We don’t have much information about his life, but it can be confidently said that he was associated to the Scottish royal court for most of his life.

Squyer Meldrum, one of his best poems, is an interesting fusion of romance and realism. Lindsay’s most popular work was A Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, a morality play. It is the only fully preserved Scottish morality play, which boldly interpreted the major religious and political problems of the age. He also wrote The Dream of Schir David Lyndesay, the most Chaucerian of Lindsay’s poems. His Monarchy is a serious poem presenting an overview of world history, beginning with “Genesis” and ending with the fifth empire. He also wrote a poetic biography of a Squire, History and Testament of Squire Meldrum. Even though Lindsay lacked poetic genius, he had a great sense of humour. His verse is easy and sparkling.

Scottish Chaucerians kept alive the poetic tradition of Geoffrey Chaucer and in their works, we find the best of the poetic thought of the 15th century. Both the English as well as Scottish followers of Chaucer were inspired by his poetry and tried to reproduce the Chaucerian spirit in their works, but it is the individuality of the Scottish Chaucerians that saved them from the fate that befell their neighbours.

Here is a brief introduction to the historical background of the 15th century.

If you are looking forward to prepare for UGC NET/JRF, you may find this article useful.

Here is a detailed list of topics you need to cover for your NET preparation.

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