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.