In this paper we extend an elegant result of C. C. Cowen [Proc. Amer.
Math. Soc. 103 (1988), 809-812] on the hyponormality of Toeplitz opera
tors to a class of (generalized) Toeplitz operators. In order to do th
is by a commutant lifting approach we study the operator equation H(A)
= H(B)T(C), where H(A), H(B) are (generalized) Hankel operators and T
(C) is an analytic Toeplitz operator. Related results about the range
inclusion of Hankel and Toeplitz operators are also obtained. (C) 1994
Academic Press, Inc