Thomas Occleve

Thomas Occleve or Hoccleve is an English poet born about 1369 and died in 1426. He knew Geoffrey Chaucer and returns on several occasions to him homage in its most popular work in its time, the Regiment off Princes of 1412.

Biography

One knows little thing of the life of Hoccleve besides some autobiographical allusions in his work. He learned Latin and French, probably at the university, and not written in London dialect. To 18 or 19 years, it obtains a load of clerk at the offices of the Privy Seal (Private Seal), of which there will remain civil servant, with certain interruptions, during 35 years. This work is paid in an irregular way or rather badly, and he complains about the lack of money in several of his poems. It Marie about 1411.

Work

Hoccleve is generally regarded as a minor poet, epigone of Geoffrey Chaucer, which he knew and of which he declares the disciple. Its work is especially interesting by its descriptions of the life in London, of its work of bureaucrat to the Privy Seal , and of his personal problems.

Its first dated poem is a translation of Epistre to the god of loves of Christine de Pisan published in 1402 pennies the title The letter off Cupid (the letter of Cupid). In 1406 to the Male appears Regulates which presents a high vision colors of the night recreations of the graduates in the taverns and inns of Westminster. After its marriage, its work becomes more “serious”, and it is at this time that it produces the Regiment off Princes or Of regimine principum , dedicated to Henry Bolingbroke, prince de Galles, future Henry V. He pays homage to Chaucer in three passages different from this work.

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