Thomas Hoccleve, The Complaint

Raymond Cummings (Dominican College Fortwilliam, Belfast)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1419

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

The Complaint, as the opening segment of Hoccleve’s Series, tells the story of its narrator’s recovery from a “wylde infirmitee” and establishes the subject matter for the Series’ second section, the Dialogue with a Friend. As a poem it is thematically interesting, connected to issues of self and subjectivity, autobiography and literary convention, intentionality and textual artifice. The poetic persona of The Complaint relates how he experienced a period of apparent mental instability, and the poem also touches upon the narrator’s perception of his own subsequent social stigmatization as he considers the change in the reaction of the community towards him. Essentially the poem c…

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1591 words

Citation: Cummings, Raymond. "The Complaint". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 March 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1214, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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