Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
Illegal English Bible
Chaucer’s influence
English: language of government
Medicinal plants
Chess playing
Recipe for 'custarde'
Gutenberg Bible
The Legend of King Arthur
First English printed book
Caxton's Chaucer
Valentine's day love letter
The Fabillis of Esope
Heretics burned at the stake
Caxton's 'egges' story
Medieval phrase book
A decade after Chaucer’s death in 1400, Thomas Hoccleve composed this long poem to the future King Henry V using Chaucer’s rhyme royal, the seven-line rhyming verse. In it, the Prince is instructed on the subjects of governance, virtue and vice. Earlier writers would have chosen Latin or French.
On this page
Hoccleve held Chaucer in great esteem, and on the left describes him as The firste fyndere of our faire langage and my worthy maistir. The implication is that English at last has a worthy literary standard. The portrait is Chaucer, and his right hand points to the line in the poem which explains why the illustration has been inserted: Þat to putte othir men in remembraunce, Of his p[er]son (To remind other men of his person or appearance).
Thomas Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes, 1412.
Shelfmark: Harley MS 4866, ff.87v–88.