Middle English literature: The Fifteenth Century
The Fifteenth Century
The 15th cent. is not distinguished in English letters, due in part to the social dislocation caused by the prolonged Wars of the Roses. Of the many 15th-century imitators of Chaucer the best-known are John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve. Other poets of the time include Stephen Hawes and Alexander Barclay and the Scots poets William Dunbar, Robert Henryson, and Gawin Douglas. The poetry of John Skelton, which is mostly satiric, combines medieval and Renaissance elements.
William Caxton introduced printing to England in 1475 and in 1485 printed Sir Thomas Malory's
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- The Fifteenth Century
- The Fourteenth Century
- The Thirteenth Century
- The Early Period
- Background
- Bibliography
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