The New International Encyclopædia/Hawes, Stephen

HAWES, ha̤z, Stephen (?-1521). An English poet. He was born probably in Suffolk, and was educated at Oxford. He traveled on the Continent, and became a groom in the household of Henry VII. His rare minor poems are of interest chiefly to bibliophiles. But his Passetyme of Pleasure, or the Historie of Graunde Amoure and la Bel Pucel (printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509) occupies an important place in the history of English poetry. It is a long allegorical poem written in seven-line stanzas, divided into forty-six chapters. It describes the education and career of a perfect knight. Standing midway between Chaucer and Spenser, Hawes is the connecting link between them. Reprints of sixteenth-century editions have been made by Southey in English Poets (London, 1831), and by Wright (Percy Society, ib., 1845).