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‘Hokclyff’ and the Will of William Hoton

Brown, Peter (2020) ‘Hokclyff’ and the Will of William Hoton. The Review of English Studies, . pp. 1-22. ISSN 0034-6551. (doi:10.1093/res/hgaa001) (KAR id:86852)

Abstract

There are two surviving copies of La Male Regle by Thomas Hoccleve, a lively account of his dissolute life as a clerk of the Privy Seal. One is part of an autograph manuscript of Hoccleve’s works in the Huntington Library, the other an incomplete version in Canterbury Cathedral Archives. Reference to a third copy survives in the will of William Hoton, proved in 1447. As well as La Male Regle, Hoton bequeathed a letter of Pharaoh, chronicles and statutes, together with a mazer and pious donations. This information, coupled with records of Hoton’s family members, his burial place and associates, produces a profile of William

Hoton linking him with the law and the book trade, and possibly with Neville’s Inn, the London town house used by a noble family to whose members Hoccleve addressed some of his poems. Hoton’s will also leads to a second individual who owned La Male Regle – the person who received it as a bequest, the common attorney and citizen, John Mordon. Neither Hoton nor Mordon has hitherto featured in discussions of the reception of the poem, which was in circulation later than previously thought.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/res/hgaa001
Subjects: P Language and Literature
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Peter Brown
Date Deposited: 04 Mar 2021 09:20 UTC
Last Modified: 15 May 2022 23:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/86852 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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