Chaucer's successors and imitators of his age

Chaucer's successors and imitators of his age,Thomas Hoccleve,Lydgate,Stephen Hawes,The Pastime of Pleasure,Scottish Chaucerians,Dunbar and Douglas

Chaucer's successors and imitators of his age

Q. Give a precise account of Chaucer's successors and imitators with their relevant works.

Or, Write a short essay on Chaucer's influences on the later English poets of his age.

Answer:

Chaucer's influence on English poetry, even after his death, appears almost unparalleled in the history of English literature. In fact, immediately after him, there was a trend to follow and imitate him and to produce literary works on his model. Of course, his successors and imitators were not quite successful in their imitation of their mighty master. In fact, the standard achieved by them is found below Chaucer's.

Lydgate:

Of Chaucer's immediate followers and imitators, Lydgate is considered the most remarkable literary figure. He is even given a rank very near to his great master. But actually his literary achievements are nothing exceptional. His literary works have never the recognition of Chaucer's.

Lydgate is taken as the most prolific author of the fifteenth century, rather of the whole of the middle English period. His composition is found to include about 1,45,000 lines. Lydgate's longest poems are Siege of Thebes and The Troy Book, both of which are taken from notable French romances.

See more: short notes on Lydgate

Thomas Hoccleve and his poems

Among the English Chaucerians, Thomas Hoccleve is not as prolific an author as Lydgate, but like him, he is found to imitate Chaucer, without any noticeable success.

Hoccleve is particularly noted for his Regement of Princes, based on the Latin work De Regimina Principum. The poem, of course, a long one, contains some 5500 verses dealing with the matters of varied interests – political, ethical, ecclesiastical, and so on. The poem reveals his gift of story-telling, imitated from Chaucer. There are, no doubt, some dissertations, with illustrations, that make the work didactic.

See more: Short notes on Thomas Hoccleve and his poems

Stephen Hawes

The last important name among the English Chaucerians is Stephen Hawes. He wrote towards the end of the fifteenth century and in the opening of the sixteenth, at a time when the courtly poetry of the Chaucerian tradition had become almost antiquated. In fact, in Stephen Hawes is found the last exponent of that great tradition.

Hawes, who had his education at Oxford, is the author of several works. His most important works is the The Pastime (Passetyme) of Pleasure (written about 1505-06).

See more: Short notes on Stephen Hawes and his poems

Some other Literary Names

Besides Hoccleve and Lydgate, the best known English Chaucerians, there are a number of other followers and imitators. They include Benedict Burgh, George Ashby, John Walton and Henry Bradshaw. Their verses, mainly didactic, illustrate amply the decadence that came over Chaucer's imitators.

In addition to those imitators, there are several poems, written by other poets but there is no definite indication of authorship here. Of such poems, bearing Chaucerian traits may be mentioned The Second Merchant's Tale, a verse narrative, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a French translation, The Cuckoo and The Nightingale, an allegory, The Court of Sapines, The Assembly of Ladies and The Flower and the Leaf. The last-named work is also a finely conceived allegory, the flower is the symbol of gay and transitory element and the leaf stands for the virtue of endurance.

The Scottish Chaucerians

Chaucer's literary influence in his age was not confined to England only. It extended to Scotland and proved instrumental to the emergence of the golden age of Scottish poetry in the fifteenth century. As a matter of fact, the Scottish poets, inspired by Chaucer, are found to imitate and follow their master with the greatest success than their English counterparts. King James I, Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas appear much truer abler descendants of Chaucer than Lydgate, Hoccleve, and even Hawes.

See more: Short notes on The Scottish Chaucerians