Controversy and Criticism: Lydgate's 'Thebes' and the Prologue to 'Beryn'

Author / Editor
Bowers, John M.

Title
Controversy and Criticism: Lydgate's 'Thebes' and the Prologue to 'Beryn'

Published
Chaucer Yearbook 5 (1998): 91-115.

Description
Treats "Thebes" and the Prologue to "Beryn" (here called "The Canterbury Interlude") as "efforts to write what Chaucer had left unwritten" and to confront contemporary controversies. Lydgate's work rebukes those who would critique monasticism and diminish the status of Saint Thomas a Becket. The "Beryn" Prologue (and the two-way journey of the Northumberland manuscript in which it appears) asserts orthodox acceptance of pilgrimage in the face of contemporary Lollard challenges.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion.
Canterbury Tales--General.
Manuscripts and Textual Studies.