HAWES, Stephen, a minor English poet of the 16th century. Neither the date of his birth nor that of his death has been ascertained, and all the known facts of his life may be stated in a few lines. He was probably a member of a Suffolkshire family, studied at Oxford, with what success we can only conjecture, travelled in England, Scotland, and France, and having acquired the reputation of a man of culture was appointed groom of the chamber to King Henry VII. He was still alive in January 1520-21, as appears by an entry, Item to Mr Hawse for his play vj li. xiii s. iiij d. Of the play thus mentioned nothing further is known. The writer’s chief work was The Historie of Graunde Amour and la Bell Pucell, called the Pastime of Pleasure, conteyning the Knowledge of the Seven Sciences and the Course of Man’s Life, a long allegorical poem in the style of Lydgate. Its general method may be guessed from such a heading as How Science first sent him to Gramer where he was receyved by Dame Coηgruitie and, though it must be confessed that portions of the poem are better both in matter and in workmanship than might be expected, it is now of interest almost exclusively because, in Warton’s words, it is “almost the only effort of imagination and invention which had appeared in our poetry since Chaucer.” Probably written about 1506, and first printed, it is said, hy Wynkyn de Worde, it afterwards went through several editions (J. Wayland, 1554; Richard Tottel, 1555; J. Waley, 1559); a reprint of Tottel’s was made for the Percy Society in 1842. Among the minor poems attributed to Hawes it is sufficient to mention his Conversyon of Swerers and his Joyful Medytacyon to all Englonde of Kyηge Henry the Eight. The former, a dry didactic production, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde ...