A black monk in the rose garden : Lydgate and the dit amoureux tradition.

This thesis explores connections between the courtly poetry of John Lydgate, monk of Bury, and works which belong to the French tradition of the dit amoureux. A theoretical framework has been adopted for this study which insists upon the need to historicise Lydgate's dits; these were occasional poems. Linked to this historicisation is an acknowledgement of the important relationships in late-medieval literature between ideology and genre and between ethics and politics. A study of the genre of the dits amoureux in the fourteenth century reveals poems which are didactic and courtly; they also frequently refer to specific historic referents. No courtly commission has hitherto been sought for Lydgate's dits amoureux. The suggestion that Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV, features in both the Complaynt of the Black Knight and the Temple of Glas positions these poems amongst Lydgate's earliest extant works. The Complaynt may refer to Bolingbroke's exile in France; the Temple may have been written to celebrate his marriage to Joan of Navarre. I conclude that the Complaynt exploits the tradition of the French dit amoureux to use the allegory of an unhappy courtly lover to express political and androcentric concerns. I propose a multiplicity of readings for the Temple. It depicts a 'marriage' in Venus' temple of love, produces an implicit critique of courtly language and courtly love and teaches the importance of gaining popular support through eloquent speech in the public forum. The last of these 'readings' reveals what is probably Lydgate's most important contribution to the tradition of the dit amoureux. The monk of Bury emerges from this study as a highly-skilled and self-conscious court poet, acutely aware of literary tradition and conventions and of their potential relationship to ethics and politics.