|
Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (c. 1368–1426) was an English poet and clerk. ==Biography== Hoccleve is thought to have been born in 1368/9, as he states when writing in 1421/2 (''Dialogue, 1.246'') that he has seen "fifty wyntir and three". Nothing is known of his family, but his name may come from the village of Hockliffe in Bedfordshire.〔J. A. Burrow: Hoccleve, Thomas... In: ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford: OUP, 2004; online e., January 2008 (Retrieved 24 November 2010. Subscription required. )〕 What is known of his life is gleaned mainly from his works and from administrative records. He obtained a clerkship in the Office of the Privy Seal at the age of about twenty.〔He remarks in the ''Regiment of Princes'' (c.1411, 11.804–5) that he has been writing for the seal "xxti year and iiij, come Estren" (quoted by A. Burrow: Hoccleve, Thomas....)〕 This would require him to know French and Latin. He retained the post on and off, in spite of much grumbling, for about 35 years. He had hoped for a church benefice, but none came. On 12 November 1399, however, he was granted an annuity by the new king, Henry IV.〔This was for £10 per annum, raised to 20 marks (£13 6s. 8d.) in 1409, the last half-yearly payment being made on 11 February 1426. His fringe benefits included board and lodging, money for robes at Christmas, two corrodies, occasional bonuses, and fees and favors from clients. A Burrow: Hoccleve, Thomas....〕 ''The Letter to Cupid'', the first poem of his which can be dated, was a 1402 translation of ''L'Epistre au Dieu d'Amours of Christine de Pisan'', written as a sort of riposte to the moral of ''Troilus and Criseyde'', to some manuscripts of which it is attached. ''La Male Regle'' (c. 1406), one of his most fluid and lively poems, is a mock-penitential poem that gives some interesting glimpses of dissipation in his youth. By 1410 he had married "only for love" (''Regiment...'', 1.1561) and settled down to writing moral and religious poems. His best-known ''Regement of Princes or De Regimine Principum'', written for Henry V of England shortly before his accession, is an elaborate homily on virtues and vices, adapted from Aegidius de Colonna's work of the same name, from a supposititious epistle of Aristotle known as ''Secreta secretorum'', and a work of Jacques de Cessoles (fl. 1300) translated later by Caxton as ''The Game and Playe of Chesse''. The ''Regement'' survives in 43 manuscript copies.〔 It comments much on Henry V's lineage, to cement the House of Lancaster's claim to England's throne. Its incipit is a poem encompassing about a third of the whole, containing further reminiscences of London tavern life in the form of dialogue between the poet and an old man. He also remonstrated with Sir John Oldcastle, a leading Lollard, calling on him to "rise up, a manly knight, out of the slough of heresy." The ''Series'', which combines autobiographical poetry, poetic translations, and prose moralizations of the translated texts, begins with a description of a period of "wylde infirmitee" in which the Hoccleve-character claims he temporarily lost his "wit" and "memorie" (this stands as the earliest autobiographical description of mental illness in English).〔(''Complaint'', 11.40ff.)〕 He describes recovering from this "five years ago last All Saints" – 1 November 1414 (''Complaint'', 11.55–6) – but nevertheless still experiences extreme social alienation as a result of gossip about this period of insanity.〔A. Burrow: Hoccleve, Thomas.〕 The ''Series'' continues with the "Dialog with a Friend," which claims to be written after his recovery and gives a pathetic picture of a poor poet, now fifty-three, with sight and mind impaired; in it he tells the unnamed friend about his plans to write a tale he owes his good patron, Humphrey of Gloucester, and of translating a portion of Henry Suso's popular Latin treatise on the art of dying (a task the friend discourages him from, pointing out that too much study was the cause of his mental illness). The ''Series'' then fulfills this plan, continuing with his moralized tales of ''Jereslau's Wife'' and of ''Jonathas'' (both from the ''Gesta Romanorum''). The ''Series'' next turns to the ''Learn to die'', a theologically and psychologically astute verse translation of Henry Suso's Latin prose ''Ars Moriendi'' (Book II, Chapter 2 of the ''Horologium Sapientiae''). Two autograph manuscripts of the ''Series'' survive. In addition to writing his own poetry, Hoccleve seems to have supplemented the income from his Privy Seal clerkship by working as a scribe. He may, in this capacity, have been a colleague of Adam Pinkhurst, tentatively identified as Chaucer's scribe, and prolific copyist Scribe D, as the hands of all three appear together in the same manuscript.〔Kerby-Fulton, K. ''Written work: Langland, labor, and authorship'', Publisher University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, p.118〕 He also compiled a formulary of more than a thousand model Privy Seal documents in French and Latin for the use of other clerks.〔BL, Add. MS 24062.〕 On 4 March 1426 the Exchequer issue rolls record a last reimbursement to Hoccleve (for red wax and ink for office use). He died soon after. On 8 May 1426 his corrody at Southwick Priory was granted to Alice Penfold to be held "in manner and form like Thomas Hoccleve now deceased".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Hoccleve」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|