Edward Hake ( fl. 1579), English satirist, was educated by John Hopkins, the part-author of the metrical version of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

Biography

He lived at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

and

Barnard's Inn Barnard's Inn is a former Inn of Chancery in Holborn, London. It is now the home of Gresham College, an institution of higher learning established in 1597 that hosts public lectures. History Barnard's Inn dates back at least to the mid-thirt ...

, London. In the address ''To the Gentle Reader'' prefixed to his ''Newes out of Powles Churchyard ... Otherwise entitled Syr Nummus'' (2nd edition, 1579) he speaks of "the first three yeeres which I spent in the Innes of Chancery, being now about a dosen of yeeres passed." In 1585 and 1586 he was mayor of New Windsor, and in 1588 he represented

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

in parliament. He was protected by the

earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. Early creations ...

, whose policy it was to back the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

party, and who no doubt found a valuable ally in so vigorous a satirist of error in clerical places as was Hake. Hake's last work was published in 1604.

Works

''Newes out of Paules Churchyarde, A Trappe for Syr Monye'', first appeared in 1567, but no copy of this impression is known, and it was re-issued in 1579 with the name given above. The book takes the form of a dialogue between Bertulph and Paul, who meet in the aisles of the cathedral, and is divided into eight ''

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, :wikt:σάτυρος, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, :wikt:Σειληνός, σειληνός ), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears ...

s'', dealing with the corruption of the higher clergy and of judges, the greed of attorneys, the tricks of physicians and

apothecaries ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medicine, medical professional who formulates and dispenses ''materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and Nor ...

, the

sumptuary law Sumptuary laws (from Latin ''sūmptuāriae lēgēs'') are laws that try to regulate consumption. '' Black's Law Dictionary'' defines them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate expendi ...

s, extravagant living, Sunday sports, the abuse of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

as a meeting-place for business and conversation,

usury Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...

, and so on. It is written in rhymed

fourteen-syllable metre In poetry, a fourteener is a line consisting of 14 syllables, which are usually made of seven iambic feet, for which the style is also called iambic heptameter. It is most commonly found in English poetry produced in the 16th and 17th centuries. ...

, which is often more comic than the writer meant. It contains, amid much prefatory matter, a "note to the carping and scornefull Sicophant," in which he attacks his foes with small courtesy and much

alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

. One is described as a "carping careless cankerd churle."

Other works

*A translation from

Thomas à Kempis Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380 – 25 July 1471; german: Thomas von Kempen; nl, Thomas van Kempen) was a German-Dutch canon regular of the late medieval period and the author of ''The Imitation of Christ'', published anonymously in Latin in the N ...

, ''The Imitation, or Following of Christ'' (1567, 1568) *''A Touchstone for this Time Present'' (1574), a scurrilous attack on the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, followed by a treatise on education *''A Commemoration of the Raigne of Elizabeth'' (1575), enlarged in 1578 to ''A Joyfull Continuance of the Commemoration'', etc. *Of ''Golds Kingdom, and this Unhelping Age'' (1604), a collection of pieces in prose and verse, in which the author inveighs against the power of gold *''Epieikeia: A Dialogue on Equity in Three Parts'' A bibliography of these and of Hake's other works was compiled by Charles Edmonds for his edition in 1872 of the ''Newes'' (

Isham Reprints Sir Charles Edmund Isham, 10th Baronet (16 December 1819 – 7 April 1903) was an English landowner and gardener based at Lamport Hall, Northampton. He is credited with beginning the tradition of garden gnomes in the United Kingdom when he intr ...

, No. 2, 1872).

Notes

References

* * Hake, Edward. Epieikeia : A Dialogue on Equity in Three Parts. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale UP; Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1953. Print. Yale Law Library Publications; No. 13.

External links

* English satirists Year of birth missing Year of death missing English MPs 1589 People from Windsor, Berkshire 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers {{16thC-England-MP-stub