The Making of Thomas Hoccleve's "Series"

Thomas Hoccleve (c. 1368–1426) is one of the most famous and widely read Middle English poets. In this close textual reading of what many consider to be his most sophisticated work, “Series,” David Watt posits that Hoccleve’s “Series”—a collection of texts that each exemplify a different literary form, such as complaint, dialogue, moralization, and treatise—should be understood as a coherent whole. Watt’s nontraditional methodology opens up new ways for readers to engage with the text as literature within its physical context. A tour de force of literary analysis and philological insight, The Making of Thomas Hoccleve’s “Series” sheds light not only on the meaning and creation of “Series,” but also on the development of the book in late medieval England.