Skepticism and the Form of Thomas Hoccleve's Series

Abstract:In his Series, the fifteenth-century English poet Thomas Hoccleve repeatedly expresses skepticism about his ability to know himself and about the ability of others to know him. While he repeatedly seeks outside validation from a mirror, from the judgments of others, and from a trusted Friend, each source of knowledge proves to be unreliable. By questioning not only his own perception but that of others—his neighbors, his readers, his characters—Hoccleve sets up the question of skepticism as the central problem of the Series. The disordered, fragmented frame narrative of the Series embeds this problem into the formal characteristics of the poem. In narrating his own writing process, with its interruptions, changes of purpose, and revisions, Hoccleve undercuts the reliability of the frame narrative structure and questions whether his poetry can provide stable knowledge.