Frederick John Snell

“ That he was capable of better work than is suggested by his average accomplishment is shown by two allegorical poems—the Complaint of the Black Knight and the Temple of Glass (once attributed to Hawes) . In these he reveals himself as a not unworthy successor of Chaucer, and the pity of it is that he should have squandered his powers in a futile attempt to create an entire literature. For a couple of centuries Lydgate’s reputation equalled, if it did not surpass, that of his master. ”

“ Lydgate’s most doughty and learned apologist is Dr Schick, whose preface to the Temple of Glass embodies practically all that is known or conjectured concerning this author, including the chronological order of his works. With the exception of the Damage and Destruction in Realms—an account of Julius Caesar, his wars and his death—they are all in verse and extremely multifarious—narrative, devotional hagiological, philosophical and scientific, allegorical and moral, historical, satirical and occasional. ”

“ This “traditional biography” prolongs his life to the year 1461, but it is quite improbable that he lived many years after 1446, when Abbot Curteys died and John Baret, treasurer of Bury, signed an extant receipt for a pension which he shared with Lydgate, and which continued to be paid till 1449. If it be true, as Bishop Alcock of Ely affirms, that Lydgate wrote a poem on the loss of France and Gascony, it seems necessary to suppose that he lived two years longer, and thus indications point to the year 1451, or thereabouts, as the date of his death. ”