5 - Thomas Hoccleve's heretics

Summary

An adherent of the most rigid orthodoxy may be demonic.

Kierkegaard

Having investigated Geoffrey Chaucer's relation to Wycliffism in the previous chapter, it seems appropriate now to turn to a figure who is often credited for establishing much of the Chaucer tradition, Thomas Hoccleve. Yet while Hoccleve extols Chaucer as his “maister” (1962, 4983) and indicates a personal acquaintance with the earlier poet (1866–67), he is careful to demonstrate quite a different relationship than Chaucer to Wycliffism. He does not follow Chaucer into the Wycliffite territories of vernacular translation theory, nor does he elaborate upon or notice Chaucer's endlink to the Man of Law's Tale, in which the Parson is called a “lollard” by the Host in a seemingly fond usage to which the Shipman reacts virulently (see Chapter 4, 75–79). And in view of Chaucer's deft handling of anticlerical materials in such tales as the Friar's Tale and the Summoner's Tale – treatments that have provoked comment from the Reformation to the present day about Chaucer's potential Wycliffite interests – Hoccleve avoids matters that would seem the least bit heterodox. We cannot, in other words, look to Chaucer as a mediator of Wycliffite problems for Hoccleve, despite the fact that he turned to Chaucer frequently to think through other social and cultural topics largely of a secular sort.