This collection of fourteen original essays by leading authorities offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the significant authors and important aspects of fifteenth-century English poetry.

This collection of fourteen original essays by leading authorities offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the significant authors and important aspects of fifteenth-century English poetry.

This collection of seventeen original essays by leading authorities offers, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of the significant authors and important aspects of fifteenth-century English poetry. The major poets of thecentury, John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve, receive detailed analysis, alongside perhaps lesser-known authors: John Capgrave, Osbern Bokenham, Peter Idley, George Ashby and John Audelay. In addition, several essays examine genres and topics, including romance, popular, historical and scientific poetry, and translations from the classics. Other chapters investigate the crucial contexts for approaching poetry of this period: manuscript circulation, patronageand the influence of Chaucer.

Julia Boffey is Professor of Medieval Studies at Queen Mary, University of London; A.S.G. Edwards is Professor of Medieval Manuscripts at the University of Kent.

Contributors: Anthony Bale, Julia Boffey, A.S.G. Edwards, Susanna Fein, Alfred Hiatt, Simon Horobin, Sarah James, Andrew King, Sheila Lindenbaum, Joanna Martin, Carol Meale, Robert Meyer-Lee, Ad Putter, John Scattergood, Anke Timmermann, DanielWakelin, David Watt.

Introduction - Julia Boffey and A S G Edwards
The Patronage of Poetry - Carol Meale
Forms of Circulation - Simon Horobin
Thomas Hoccleve - Sheila Lindenbaum
Thomas Hoccleve'sRegiment of Princes - David Watt
John Lydgate's Major Poems - Robert J Meyer-Lee
John Lydgate's Religious Poetry - Anthony Bale
John Lydgate's Shorter Secular Poems - Joanna Martin
John Capgrave and Osbern Bokenham: Verse Saints' Lives - Sarah James
Peter Idley and George Ashby - John Scattergood
John Audelay and James Ryman - Susanna Fein
Fifteenth-Century Chaucerian Visions - Ad Putter
Historical and Political Verse - Alfred Hiatt
Classical and Humanist Translations - Daniel Wakelin
Romance - Andrew King
Scientific and Encyclopaedic Verse - Anke Timmermann
Popular Verse Tales - Julia Boffey
Beyond the Fifteenth Century - A S G Edwards