Percy Society.
EARLY ENGLISH POETRY,
BALLADS,
AND POPULAR LITERATURE
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
EDITED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS
AND SCARCE PUBLICATIONS.
VOL. XVIII.
LONDON.
PRINTED FOR THE PERCY SOCIETY,
BY T. RICHARDS, ST. MARTIN’S LANE.
M.DCCC.XLVI.
CONTENTS OF VOL. XVIII.
THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE.
BY STEPHEN HAWES.
THE
PASTIME OF PLEASURE:
An Allegorical Poem,
BY
STEPHEN HAWES.
REPRINTED FROM THE EDITION OF 1555.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE PERCY SOCIETY,
BY T. RICHARDS, 100, ST. MARTIN’S LANE.
M.DCCC.XLV.
Council, 1845-6.
President,
The Rt. Hon. LORD BRAYBROOKE, F.S.A.
THOMAS AMYOT, Esq. F.R.S. Treas. S.A.
WILLIAM HENRY BLACK, Esq.
WILLIAM CHAPPELL, Esq. F.S.A.
J. PAYNE COLLIER, Esq. F.S.A.
BOLTON CORNEY, Esq.
T. CROFTON CROKER, Esq. F.R.S., M.R.I.A.
JAMES HENRY DIXON, Esq.
FREDERICK W. FAIRHOLT, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A.
J. O. HALLIWELL, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A.
WILLIAM JERDAN, Esq. F.S.A., M.R.S.L.
CAPTAIN JOHNS, R.M.
T. J. PETTIGREW, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A.
WILLIAM SANDYS, Esq. F.S.A.
W. J. THOMS, Esq. F.S.A.
THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A., F.S.A., Secretary and Treasurer.
PREFACE.
Stephen Hawes, the author of the followingpoem, was, according to the information gatheredby Warton, a native of Suffolk, and studied inthe University of Oxford, after which he travelledmuch in France, and “became a complete masterof the French and Italian poetry.” He subsequentlyobtained the favour of King Henry VII,who made him groom of his privy chamber. ToWarton’s information, we are at present able onlyto add, that it appears from a book of the expensesof the 12th Henry VIII, among the records in theRolls House, that the following payment was madeto our author on the 6th of January in that year:the play referred to is now perhaps lost.
“Item, to Mr. Hawse, for his play, vjli. xiijs. iiijd.”
Hawes was the author of several other worksbesides the one here printed, for an account ofwhich we refer the reader to “Warton’s Historyof English Poetry.” They are in general of verylittle imp