A New Hoccleve Literary Manuscript: The Trilingual Miscellany in London, British Library, MS Harley 219

Abstract

This essay identifies a hand which copies and corrects much of the literary manuscript, London, British Library, MS Harley 219, as that of Thomas Hoccleve. Texts in Hoccleve’s handwriting include selections from Odo of Cheriton’s Fables and the Gesta Romanorum (a source for the Series), all of a unique copy of Christine de Pizan’s Epistre Othea, and a glossary of French terms translated into Latin and English. Additionally, Hoccleve’s handwriting can be found in corrections to a French Secretum Secretorum (a source for The Regiment of Princes) that is otherwise copied in another hand. This essay offers preliminary observations on the literary implications of these identifications and attempts to situate these texts within Hoccleve’s career as a clerk and poet.