Quote #20

He is the first of our writers whose style is cloathed with that perspicuity, in which the English phraseology appears at this day to an English reader:Whether his subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of saint Austin or Guy earl of Warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a history or an allegory, he writes with facility.

More from John Lydgate

  1. In images of horror, and in a certain terrible greatness, our author comes far behind Chaucer. Whether they were not suited to the genius o…
  2. A voluminous, prosaick, and drivelling Monk.
  3. Comparable with Chawcer, yet more occupyed in supersticious and odde matters than was requesite in so good a wytte.
  4. Also Johnn Lydgate Wryteth after an hyer rate; It is dyffuse to fynde The sentence of his mynde, Yet wryteth he in his kynd, No man that ca…
  5. For hit ys oft seyde by hem that yet lyues He must nedys go that the deuell dryues.
  6. The wheel of Fortune tourneth as a ball; Sodeyn clymbyng axeth a sodeyn fall.
  7. He as a kyng is crowned in Fairie, With sceptre and suerd, & with his regalie Shal resorte as lord and souereyne, Out of Fairye & regne in …
  8. For princis ofte, of furious hastynesse, Wil cachche a quarrel, causeless in sentence, Ageyn folk absent, thouh ther be non offence.

All John Lydgate quotes