'My Compleinte' And Other Poems

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.

Frontispiece, ii; Acknowledgements, vii; Sigla of Manuscripts and Other Abbreviations, viii; Introduction, 1; Notes, 42; Editorial Principles, 49; A Note on Hoccleve's Language, 50; MINOR VERSE; I. 'Conpleynte paramont', 53; Notes, 61; II. 'La male regle de T. Hoccleue', 64; Notes, 77; III. 'Balade et chanceon...a mon meistre H. Somer', 79; Notes, 81; IV. 'Balade...[pour] mon meistre Robert Chichele', 82; Notes, 87; V. 'Item de beata Virgine', 88; Notes, 92; VI. 'L'epistre de Cupide', 93; Notes, 108; VII. THE SERIES; 1. 'My compleinte', 115; Notes, 128; 2. 'A dialoge', 131; Notes, 156; 3. 'Fabula de quadam imperatrice Romana', 160; Notes, 191. 4. 'Ars vtillissima sciendi mori', 196; Notes, 226; 5. 'Fabula de quadam muliere mala', 234; Notes, 256; Appendices; 1. The stanzas added to the 'Conpleynte paramont' in the Middle English Pilgrimage of the Soul, 261; 2A.A comparison of the version of Hoccleve's first Gesta narrative with selected Latin and Middle English analogues, 263; 2B. The source of Hoccleve's 'Balade... translatee au commandement de... Robert Chichele.', 268; 3. The glosses to 'Ars vtillissima sciendi mori' in S and D, 270; 4. Additional notes on the textual relations of the non-holograph copies of the 'Conpleynte paramont', 'Epistre de Cupide' and the Series, 274; 5. Selected variants from the non-holograph manuscript copies of the texts here edited, 278; Bibliography, 287; Editions of texts or selections, 287; Secondary literature, 289.

 

Roger Ellis is a senior lecturer in English at the University of Cardiff. Since 1987 he has organised conferences on the theory and practice of translation in the Middle Ages and is editor of volumes 1–6 of The Medieval Translator.