The Temple of Glass and Other Love Poems

The Floure of Courtesye belongs to Lydgate's earlier period, 1400-1410, and is, like Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules, a Valentine’s Day Poem. This was one of a number of his works influenced by Chaucer’s writings. The work blends courtly love, natural symbolism, and medieval allegory to celebrate both the joys and sorrows of devotion. On St. Valentine’s Day, as birds freely choose their mates, the narrator - tormented by unrequited love - retreats to a grove, lamenting his isolation while extolling the virtues of his idealized beloved, the “Flower of Courtesy.” She is compared to mythic women such as Helen and Penelope in her embodiment of perfect beauty, virtue, and grace. Lydgate contrasts the freedom of nature with the bonds of human love, with the narrator ultimately pledging his unwavering loyalty to his lady, despite the pain of rejection. The poem reflects the conventions of courtly love, while its structure (including a ballad and envoy) underscores the cyclical, almost ritualistic nature of romantic devotion.

The Complaint of the Black Knight, originally called A Complaynt of a Loveres Lyfe also belongs to Lydgate's earlier period, and is modelled on Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess. The work unfolds through a frame narrative characteristic of medieval dream vision poetry. The narrator, himself afflicted by lovesickness, wanders into an idealized May landscape where he discovers a dying knight in an arbour. The knight's extended complaint forms the poem's emotional and thematic core: a bitter meditation on Love's injustice, which rewards false lovers while destroying the faithful. The knight cites classical lovers, contrasting faithful figures such as Palamedes, Hercules, and Adonis with deceivers such as Jason, Tereus, and Aeneas, to argue that truth in love brings only suffering, while deceit prospers. Yet despite his lady's cruelty and the machinations of personified enemies (Disdain, Resistance, False-Suspicion), he pledges unwavering devotion unto death. The narrator, moved to tears, transcribes the complaint and invokes Venus to grant the knight mercy. The poem concludes with traditional envoys addressed to princes, ladies, and finally to the poem itself, which the narrator sends to his own unattainable beloved. Through its elaborate structure and catalogue of wronged lovers, the work both celebrates and questions courtly love's central paradox: that suffering itself proves devotion.

The Temple of Glas also belongs to Lydgate's earlier period, and is indebted to Chaucer’s ‘The House of Fame.’ The work is a dream vision written in the early fifteenth century, blending allegorical storytelling with lyrical expression. Set in midwinter, the poem transports the narrator to a circular temple of glass founded on ice, its walls painted with images of famous lovers - Dido, Medea, Penelope, Griselda - each petitioning Venus for relief from love's sorrows. The centrepiece is a lady of surpassing beauty who laments that though her heart is free, her body is bound; she lacks liberty to choose her beloved. Venus promises relief and pledges the lady will honourably possess the man she loves, symbolically binding her constancy with evergreen hawthorn. A tormented male lover then appears, pledging eternal devotion. The lady responds cautiously, guided by reason and deference to Venus's will. The goddess unites the pair with a golden chain and a kiss, witnessed by assembled lovers and accompanied by celestial music. The narrator awakens bereft, dedicating his "little book" to his own unattainable lady. The poem explores patience, loyalty, and love's trials, contrasting enforced unions with freely chosen devotion.