ABSTRACT
Thomas Hoccleve was born in 1367 or 1366. He joined the office of the privy seal as a junior clericus at the age of about twenty, probably in the spring of 1387, and worked in that office until very shortly before his death in the spring of 1426, a period of almost forty years. Accordingly, he served under four kings: Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. The only two royal courts that require consideration are those of Henry IV and Henry V. All Hoccleve’s writings that can be dated fall within those two reigns: little is known of his life before 1399; and after 1422 the king was an infant. ‘Courtly’ is a term of modern criticism and as such it denotes a rather narrow range of ‘values and sensibilities’, especially those that are displayed in the poetry of fin amour— allegories, dream-visions, and lyrics.
