Thomas Hoccleve – författare

The poetry of Thomas Hoccleve (1367?-1426) has attracted increased attention in recent years. All the verse known to be by him with the exception of his Regiment of Princes, survives in three manuscript copies made by him in the last years of his life. These manuscripts provide a very rare opportunity to study the work of a medieval English poet in copies carefully transcribed by the author himself. Almost all the contents of the three manuscripts were reproduced in the Early English Text Society's editions of Hoccleve's 'Minor Poems'; but the facsimile makes it possible to see exactly how the poet presents his own work, meticulously spelled and metred. The Introduction, as well as listing the contents of the manuscripts and describing them, includes a discussion of Hoccleve's handwriting. Other aspects considered are the dates of the copies, together with the poet's use of abbreviations and punctuation.

Thomas Hoccleve (1368–426) was one of Chaucer’s first disciples and is represented in this book by a selection of his works, newly edited from his own copies and fully annotated. It provides students and other readers new to his work with a very fair indication of his range and achievement as original writer and translator and includes a full Introduction and marginal glosses. It also offers those more familiar with his work a fuller account than has hitherto been available of the manuscripts both of Hoccleve’s own texts and, when he was translating from Latin or French, of his sources. Some of the themes and topics explored, with Hoccleve's light and witty touch, include women (for them or against them); money (always short of it, and as likely as not to be paid in counterfeit coin); isolation and suffering (causes various, but always painful); the pains of hell and the joys of heaven; the serendipitous nature of literary production; the writer as translator, reporter, or even as gossip.

Written in 1410–1411 by Thomas Hoccleve, a clerk of the Privy Seal and a prominent poet of his generation, The Regiment of Princes is a quintessential example in Middle English of the conduct manual genre. While popular during the century of its origin—43 manuscripts still survive today—it fell from both popular and scholarly attention until only recently. Dedicated to Henry V, then merely Prince Henry, The Regiment of Princes is notable for its clear identification of its source texts, its advice on living a virtuous life as a royal, and its early acclamation of Chaucer as “the first fyndere of our fair langage” of English. It offers remarkable insight into the challenges faced by Middle English poets as well, where Hoccleve appears as a character to lament his financial difficulties. This edition is the first to base its text on a comprehensive study and full collation of all extent Regiment manuscripts.