I am reading this immediately after Book of the Duchess, so I guess it’s inevitable that there will be some crossover between the two. The most immediate difference from that poem, although they begin almost identically, is that the narrator of this poem isn’t in a dream. He is also suffering from a “sekenes” that… Continue reading Lydgate, Compleynte of a Lovers Lyfe
Tag: lydgate
Chaucer, Book of the Duchess
My interest in “Book of the Duchess” is chiefly on this passage, the narrator’s description of his feeling, which comes in the first few lines of the poem: Al is ylyche good to me — Joye or sorowe, wherso hyt be — For I have felynge in nothyng, But as yt were a mased thyng,… Continue reading Chaucer, Book of the Duchess
Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy
I’m unsure how to begin to write about something that is essentially a collection of lists and attributions. Anatomy of Melancholy begins with a series of portraits of the different kinds of melancholy, as well as little poems about them: hypochondria, mania, and lovesickness all make an appearance. Mania (characterized as violent and insane) has… Continue reading Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy
Lydgate, “The Fifteen Joys and Sorrows of Mary”
This poem appears in a volume titled “The Minor Poems of John Lydgate”, and it is indeed minor (about 12 pages). I know next to nothing about Lydgate, but learned that he was a prodigious poet and friends with Chaucer’s son, Thomas. I’m reading Book of the Duchess in a few months and think I… Continue reading Lydgate, “The Fifteen Joys and Sorrows of Mary”
