author

Stephen Hawes

A Tudor court poet with a taste for allegory, chivalry, and moral adventure, he is best remembered for The Passetyme of Pleasure. His writing stands at an interesting crossroads, carrying late medieval traditions into the early English Renaissance.

5 Audiobooks

A Ioyfull medytacyon to all Englonde of the coronacyon of our moost naturall souerayne lorde kynge Henry the eyght

by Stephen Hawes

The Pastime of Pleasure: An Allegorical Poem

The Pastime of Pleasure: An Allegorical Poem

by Stephen Hawes

The cõforte of louers

by Stephen Hawes

The Example of Vertu

The Example of Vertu

by Stephen Hawes

The Conuercyon of swerers

by Stephen Hawes

About the author

Stephen Hawes was an English poet and courtier of the early Tudor period, probably born around 1474. Reliable reference sources agree that he was educated at Oxford, traveled in Britain and France, and served Henry VII as Groom of the Chamber from at least 1502.

He is chiefly known for The Passetyme of Pleasure, an extended allegorical poem completed in 1506 and printed in 1509 by Wynkyn de Worde. The poem follows the knight Graunde Amoure through learning, love, and the larger journey of life, blending courtly storytelling with moral and educational themes. Hawes is also associated with John Lydgate’s poetic tradition, and his work is often seen as a bridge between medieval English verse and newer Renaissance tastes.

Much about his life remains uncertain, including the exact year of his death, though he was still alive in 1521. Even so, his reputation lasts because his poems capture a lively moment in English literary history, when older allegorical forms were still flourishing at the Tudor court.