LYDGATE, JOHN. — Benedictine monk, born in 1370, died in 1451. He was a prolific and prolix author.
He paraphrased Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium in his principal work, The fall of princes, a poem in “rime royale” (a stanza of seven decasyllabic lines, already adopted by Chaucer and perhaps derived from the French chant royal). Other works of his are The story of Thebes and The Troy book, derived from Guido delle Colonne and containing a eulogy of Chaucer. At the wish of Enrico V he wrote a Life of our Lady. L.’s works are of informative and edifying interest, but show little originality.
BIBL.: F. J. Snell, The age of Chaucer, London 1901, passim; The Cambridge bibliography of English lit., I, Cambridge 1940, pp. 250–52. Augusto Guidi