Produced by Mark C. Orton, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Books project.) _Percy Society._ EARLY ENGLISH POETRY, BALLADS, AND POPULAR LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. EDITED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS AND SCARCE PUBLICATIONS. VOL. XVIII. LONDON. PRINTED FOR THE PERCY SOCIETY, BY T. RICHARDS, ST. MARTIN’S LANE. M.DCCC.XLVI. CONTENTS OF VOL. XVIII. THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE. BY STEPHEN HAWES. THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE: _An Allegorical Poem,_ BY STEPHEN HAWES. REPRINTED FROM THE EDITION OF 1555. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE PERCY SOCIETY, BY T. RICHARDS, 100, ST. MARTIN’S LANE. M.DCCC.XLV. _Council_, 1845-6. _President_, The Rt. Hon. LORD BRAYBROOKE, F.S.A. THOMAS AMYOT, Esq. F.R.S. Treas. S.A. WILLIAM HENRY BLACK, Esq. WILLIAM CHAPPELL, Esq. F.S.A. J. PAYNE COLLIER, Esq. F.S.A. BOLTON CORNEY, Esq. T. CROFTON CROKER, Esq. F.R.S., M.R.I.A. JAMES HENRY DIXON, Esq. FREDERICK W. FAIRHOLT, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. J. O. HALLIWELL, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. WILLIAM JERDAN, Esq. F.S.A., M.R.S.L. CAPTAIN JOHNS, R.M. T. J. PETTIGREW, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. WILLIAM SANDYS, Esq. F.S.A. W. J. THOMS, Esq. F.S.A. THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq. M.A., F.S.A., _Secretary and Treasurer_. PREFACE. Stephen Hawes, the author of the following poem, was, according to the information gathered by Warton, a native of Suffolk, and studied in the University of Oxford, after which he travelled much in France, and “became a complete master of the French and Italian poetry.” He subsequently obtained the favour of King Henry VII, who made him groom of his privy chamber. To Warton’s information, we are at present able only to add, that it appears from a book of the expenses of the 12th Henry VIII, among the records in the Rolls House, that the following payment was made to our author on the 6th of January in that year: the play referred to is now perhaps lost. “Item, to Mr. Hawse, for his play, vj^li. xiij^s. iiij^d.”