For a High, Short Lydgate Chronology

Abstract

ABSTRACT In memory of D. A. Pearsall (1931–2021) The late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century tradition of English antiquarianism is enlisted to license a proposed elevation of the birthdate of the poet John Lydgate by a generation, to ca. 1390, with a consequent abbreviation of his lifespan to the sixty-some years that the poet mentions. The proposal intends to mitigate problems of Lydgate’s early years, especially a long quiet at the start of the literary career of this most facile of English poets, by their elimination.