Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

II.THOMAS OCCLEVE, orHOCCLEVE.ABOUT A.D. 1420.Thomas Occleve, or Hoccleve, was born about a.d. 1370,and died about a.d. 1454. He knew Chaucer personally, andcalls himself Chaucer's disciple. His lament upon Chaucer'sdeath is printed below. An edition of his minor poems wasprinted by G. Mason in 1796, in one of which, entitled ' La maleregie de T. Hoccleve,' he recounts, in a half-penitent manner,some of his youthful excesses :—'Wher was a gretter maister eek than y,Or bet acqweynctid at Westmynster yate,Among the taverneres namelyAnd cookes?'His principal poem is 'The Governail of Princes,' the greaterpart of which is a version of a Latin treatise called ' De RegiminePrincipum,' written by -/Egidius, a native of Rome, who flourishedabout 1280, for the use of Philip leHardi, son of Louis IX,king of France. The whole of this long poem was printed byMr. T. Wright for the Roxburghe Club in i860, from the RoyalMS. 17 D vi. in the British Museum. The extracts here printedare from the same MS., with a fe^ corrections from MS.Arundel 38. The first is of course original, and begins withstanza 281 of the poem. The remarks at the end of the secondextract refer to his position in a Government office as Clerk ofthe Privy Seal. He requests that the salary due to him may bepaid. For further information, see Morley's ' English Writers,'and Warton's ' History of English Poetry.'