Lydgate, John c.1370-c.1451
English monk and poet

He was born in Lydgate, Suffolk, and became a Benedictine monk. He may have studied at Oxford and Cambridge. He travelled in France and perhaps Italy, and became prior of Hatfield Broadoak, Essex, in 1423. A court poet, he wrote The Troy Book (1412-20), based on Colonna's Latin prose Historia Trojana, The Siege of Thebes (1420-22), represented as a new Canterbury tale, and the Fall of Princes (1431-38), based on Boccaccio. Other works include the Daunce of Machabre, from the French, Temple of Glas, a copy of Chaucer's House of Fame, and London Lickpenny, on London.

Bibliography: D Pearsall, John Lydgate (1970)