John Lydgate

John Lydgate (c. 1370–c. 1451) was a Benedictine monk of Bury St Edmunds and, in his own lifetime, probably the most prolific and widely read poet in England — his surviving output runs to well over a hundred thousand lines.

He wrote in conscious imitation of Chaucer, whom he revered as his master, producing enormous works such as the Troy Book and the Fall of Princes alongside occasional verse, saints' lives, and courtly dream visions for patrons that included the royal house of Lancaster.

Modern taste has generally preferred Chaucer's economy to Lydgate's copiousness, but he was central to how English poetry was read and valued through the fifteenth century.