‘A Marriage Litigation in the Church Court’: Lydgate’s Adaptation of Chaucer’s Literary Value in The Temple of Glass

In this essay, I give an alternative reading of Chaucerian resonances that fill Lydgate’s The Temple of Glass by analyzing the poem’s allusions to the House of Fame. I argue that Lydgate, as a poet who was well read in Chaucer and considered as his most prolific imitator, comprehended the experimentations of his ‘maister’. Taking into account Meyer-Lee’s study on the House of Fame, which explores Chaucer’s efforts to transform the value of the literary field of late medieval English poetry to better suit his then transitional social position, I assert that by borrowing details of setting, time and place from House of Fame, Lydgate implies his use of the framework set up by Chaucer to adopt his alteration of literary value. In doing so, Lydgate emulates Chaucer’s idea of the literary as an autonomous discourse, which would fundamentally allow him to write courtly productions even from his rather peculiar position as a monk. An analysis of the relations between Lydgate’s poetry and his position as a monk sheds light on his imitation in The Temple of Glass of Chaucer’s attempt to create a poetry that projected him as an authentic poet in connection with both the literary field of the court and his socioeconomic position.

Origins and Introductions

The chapter compares different uses of the legend of Troy as a ‘Trojan preface’ to historical and literary texts in medieval England, Wales, and Ireland. Typically used to introduce narratives of nationalist significance, the ‘Trojan preface’ forms a distinctive genre that functioned to establish or confirm myths of national origin. The work of early historians such as Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth provides examples of the uses of Troy to construct a particular kind of English identity. In Welsh and Irish texts, the Trojan legend was inserted as a chronological milestone which aligned the ethnic histories of Wales (or Britain) and Ireland with world events. The legacy of Rome was another source of English identity which worked to exclude the early British people and their descendants, the Welsh. Rome was also an important point of reference for the Welsh and Irish, who established their claim to ancient lineage through literary references to Britain under the Romans and through adaptations of Latin epic. The ambiguity of Troy, represented by Aeneas as a figure of both heroic endeavour and treacherous betrayal, is addressed in different ways by English, Welsh, and Irish writers. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Trojan prefaces in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer’s House of Fame, suggesting that these prefaces are motivated comments on the questionable historical construction of English identity.

“Litel Sercles” of Sound

This chapter discusses the Dreamer's journey to Fame's house as a reward for years of diligent service to the god of Love through an explanation by the eagle and visionary guide of Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame. It analyses Chaucer's semi-self-deprecating characterization that engages the key problem of authorship and authority that has driven study of the poem over the past few decades. It also explores the idea of experience that has been important to readings of The House of Fame, which located the poem in a larger intellectual context particular to late medieval philosophy. The chapter discusses Sheila Delaney's reading, in which Chaucer-the-Dreamer must navigate toward truth according to a principle of “skeptical fideism.” It determines where and how Chaucer locates an alternate model of literary authority that often stresses the importance of vernacular language and voices.

At Home and in the ‘Countour-Hous’

This chapter juxtaposes The House of Fame and the Shipman’s Tale to explore two London locations closely associated with Chaucer’s life: his residence above Aldgate, and the customs house on the wool quay. In The House of Fame, Chaucer synthesizes a quotidian portrayal of ‘Geffrey’ at home with imaginative representations of urban life and sounds. The poem not only engages with Latinate poetic traditions, but it also absorbs mixed-vernacular varieties of civic writing. In the Shipman’s Tale, a French merchant’s activities in his ‘contour-hous’ recall Chaucer’s vocation as a customs official for the Port of London, and the tale’s cross-linguistic wordplay suggests the multilingual capacities of Chaucer’s urban readers. In these works, the poet inhabits the polyglot settings of northern French ports and London’s waterfront. Chaucer’s portrayal of accounting practices reflect aspects of everyday medieval life, but more profoundly the poet illustrates the porous boundaries between languages within urban environments.