entered into English literature in the Ayenbyt of Inwyt. Nor did he neglect edifying books of other kinds, translating and printing, besides The Game and Playe of the Chesse, the Fayts of Arms and of Chivalry of Cristine de Pisan, Alain Chartier's Curial, the Knight of the Tour (for the better education of girls), and a Book of Good Manners. Lord Rivers supplied him with the translation of The Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophres (of which an earlier English rendering already existed), and of the Moral Proverbs of Cristine de Pisan, and the Earl of Worcester with that of Cicero, De Amicitia, the version of the De Senectute being probably by Sir John Fastolfe. Caxton printed also a book of Statutes of Henry VII., a Latin speech made by John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, at the investiture of Charles the Bold as Knight of the Garter, some diplomatic correspondence between the Pope and the Venetian Republic relative to a war about Ferrara, a few books for teaching children morals and manners, several devotional treatises, some of the smaller service books, and some indulgences. But the total bulk of all these is but small compared with that of the books which Caxton himself translated or edited. He had a shrewd eye for the class of books which the nobles of the court and the rich city merchants cared to read and buy, and he produced them, year after year, mainly by his own literary diligence. Working, as he must have done, always under pressure, and with no French or Latin dictionaries to help him, his translations are often slipshod and full of errors; but they have a homely and straightforward style, and the prefaces and epilogues show that Caxton was an excellent critic, and had a pleasant humour of his own. As a specimen of his style we may take first his own account of his edition of The Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first book printed on English soil:

Here endeth the book named the dictes, or sayengis, of the philosophres, enprynted by me, William Caxton, at Westmestre, the yere of our lord M.CCCC.Lxxvij. Whiche book is late translated out of Frenshe into Englyssh, by the noble and puissant lord, Lord Antone, Erle of Ryvyers, Lord of Scales and of the Ile of Wyght, defendour and directour of the siege apostolique for our holy Fader the Pope in this Royame [realm] of Englond, and Governour of my lord Prynce of Wales. And it is so, that at suche tyme as he had accomplysshid this sayd werke, it liked him to sende it to me in certayn quayers [quires] to oversee, whiche, forthwith, I sawe, and fonde therin many grete, notable, and wyse sayengis of the philosophres, acordyng unto the bookes made in Frenshe, whiche I had ofte afore redd. But, certaynly, I had seen none in Englissh til that tyme. And so, afterward, I cam unto my sayd lord and told him how I had red and seen his book, and that he had don a meritory dede in the labour of the translacion therof into our Englissh tunge, wherin he had deservid a singuler lawde and thank, &c. Thenne my sayd lord desired me to over

to

see it and where as I sholde fynde faute to correcte it; wherein I answerd unto his lordship that I coude not amende it, but if I sholde so presume, I might apaire it, for it was right wel and connyngly made and translated into right good and fayr Englyssh. Notwithstondyng, he willed me oversee it, and shewid me dyverce thinges, whiche as him semed, myght be left out, as diverce lettres missives sent from Alisander to Darius and Aristotle, and eche to other, whiche lettres were lityl appertinent unto [the] dictes and sayenges aforsayd, forasmuch as they specifye of other maters. And also desired me, that don, to put the sayd booke in enprinte. And thus obeying hys request and comaundement, I have put me in devoyr to oversee this hys sayd book, and beholden, as nyghe as I coude, howe it accordeth wyth the origynal, beyng in Frensh. And I fynde nothyng dyscordaunt therin, sauf [save] onely in the dyctes and sayengys of Socrates, wherin I fynde that my saide lord hath left out certayn and dyverce conclusions towchyng women. Wherof I mervaylle that my sayd lord hath not wreton them, ne what hath mevyd [moved] hym so to do, ne what cause he hadde at that tyme. But I suppose that som fayr lady hath desired hym to leve it out of his booke. Or ellys he was amerous on somme noble lady, for whos love he wold not sette yt in his book; or ellys, for the very affeccyon, love and goodwylle that he hath unto alle ladyes and gentylwomen, he thought that Socrates spared the sothe and wrote of women more than trouthe, whyche I cannot think that so trewe a man and so noble a phylosophre as Socrates was, shold wryte otherwyse than trouthe. For, if he had made fawte in wryting of women, he ought not, ne shold not be belevyd in hys other dyctes and sayinges. But I apperceyve that my sayd lord knoweth veryly that suche defautes ben not had, ne founden, in the women born and dwellyng in these partyes ne regyons of the world. Socrates was a Greke, born in a ferre contre from hens, whyche contre is alle of othre condycions than thys is, and men and women of other nature than they ben here in this contre. For I wote wel, of what somever condicion women ben in Grece, the women of this contre be right good, wyse, playsant, humble, discrete, sobre, chast, obedient to their husbondis, trewe, secrete, stedfast, ever besy and never ydle, attemperat in speking and vertuous in alle their werkis, or at the leste sholde be For whyche causes, so evydent, my sayd lord, as I suppose, thoughte it was not of necessite to sette in his book the saiengis of his auctor, Socrates, touchyng women. But, for as moche as I had comandment of my sayd lord to correcte and amende where as I sholde fynde fawte, and other fynde I none sauf that he hath left out these dictes and saynges of the women of Grece, therfore, in accomplisshing his comandement, for as moche as I am not in certayn wheder it was in my lordis copye or not, or ellis, peraventure, that the wynde had blown over the leef at the tyme of translacion of his booke, I purpose to wryte tho same saynges of that Greke Socrates whiche wrote of tho women of Grece and nothyng of them of this royame whom I suppose he never knewe. For, if he had, I dar plainly saye that he wold have reserved [excepted] them, in especiall, in his sayd dictes. Alway not presumyng to putt and set them in my sayd lordes book, but in the ende, aparte, in the rehersayll of the werkis; humbly requiring all them that shal rede this lytyl rehersayll, that yf they fynde ony faulte, to arette [ascribe]

SOO.

it to Socrates and not to me, whiche wryteth as hereafter foloweth.

There is a touch of Chaucer's sly humour in this passage which explains Caxton's enthusiasm for him; and we shall not show the printer-editor at a disadvantage if as a second extract we take his 'Prohemye' to the second edition of the Canterbury Tales. This is full, as usual, of generous praise of the great poet, and interesting also for the light it throws on the difficulties against which the early printers had to contend in their efforts to find the right books to print from:

For

Grete thankes, lawde and honour ought to be gyven unto the clerkes, poetes, and historiographs, that have wreton many noble bokes of wysedom, of the lyves, passions, and myracles of holy sayntes, of hystoryes, of noble and famouse actes, and faittes [deeds], and of the cronycles sith the begynnyng of the creacion of the world, unto thys present tyme, by whyche we ben dayly enformed, and have knowleche of many thynges, of whom we shold not have knowen yf they had not left to us theyr monumentis wreton. Emong whom and in especial to-fore alle other we ought to gyve a singuler laude unto that noble and grete philosopher Gefferey Chaucer, the which for his ornate wrytyng in our tongue maye well have the name of a laureate poete. to-fore that he by hys labour embelysshed, ornated, and made faire our Englisshe, in thys royame was had rude speech and incongrue, as yet it appiereth, by olde bookes, whyche at thys day ought not to have place ne be compared emong ne to hys beauteuous volumes and aournate [adorned] writynges, of whom he made many bokes and treatyces of many a noble historye as wel in metre as in ryme and prose, and them so craftyly made that he comprehended hys maters in short, quyck, and hye sentences, eschewyng prolyxyte, castyng away the chaf of superfluyte, and shewyng the pyked grayn of sentence utteryd by crafty and sugred eloquence, of whom emong all other of hys bokes I purpose to emprynte by the grace of God the book of the Tales of Cauntyrburye, in whiche I finde many a noble hystorye of every astate and degre, Fyrst rehercyyng the condicions and the arraye of eche of them as properly as possyble is to be sayd, And after theyr tales, whyche ben of noblesse, wysedom, gentylesse, myrthe, and also of veray holynesse and vertue, wherin he fynyshyth thys sayd booke, whyche booke I have dylygently oversen and duly examyned to the ende that it be made acordyng unto his owen makyng. For I fynde many of the sayd bookes whyche wryters have abrydgyd it and many thynges left out. And in some place have sette certayn versys that he never made ne sette in hys booke, of whyche bookes so incorrecte was one brought to me vj yere passyd whyche I supposed had been veray true and correcte. And accordyng to the same I dyde do enprynte a certayn nombre of them, whyche anon were sold to many and dyverse gentylmen, of whom one gentylman cam to me and said that this book was not accordyng in many places unto the book that Gefferey Chaucer had made. To whom I answered that I had made it accordyng to my copye and by me was nothyng added ne mynusshyd. Thenne he sayd he knewe a book whyche hys fader had and moche lovyd, that was very trewe and accordyng unto hys owen first book by hym made, and sayd more, yf I wold enprynte it agayn he wold

gete me the same book for a copye, how be it he wyst well that hys fader wold not gladly departe fro it. Το whom I said, in caas that he coude gete me suche a book, trewe and correcte, that I wold ones endevoyre me to enprynte it agayn for to satysfye the auctor, where as tofore by ygnoraunce I erryd in hurtyng and dyffamying his book in diverce places, in settyng in some thynges that he never sayd ne made, and levyng out many thynges that he made whyche ben requysite to be sette in it And thus we fyll at accord [came to an agreement]. And he ful gentylly [courteously] gate of hys fader the said book and delyverd it to me, by whiche I have corrected my book as here after alle alonge by the ayde of almyghty God shal folowe, whom I humbly beseche to gyve me grace and ayde to achyeve and accomplysshe to hys lawde, honour and glorye, and that alle ye that shal in thys book rede or heere wyll of your charyte emong your dedes of mercy remembre the sowle of the sayd Gefferey Chaucer, first auctour and maker of thys book. And also that alle we that shal see and rede therin may so take and understonde the good and vertuous tales, that it may so prouffyte unto the helthe of our sowles that after thys short and transitorye lyf we may come to everlastyng lyf in heven. Amen.

Caxton's busy life came to an end in 1491, and his printing business was carried on by his foreman, Jan Wynkyn de Worde—that is, of Werden in Lorraine.

Other presses had by this time been established. In 1478 a Cologne printer named Theodoric Rood started at Oxford, and there, by himself or in conjunction with an English bookseller, Thomas Hunte, printed a few text-books, of which fifteen have come down to us. Of these the latest is given a date equivalent to 19th March 1487, and after this we hear of no more printing at Oxford till 1517. In London, John of Lettou, or Lithuania, started a press in 1480, and was joined two years later by William de Machlinia—that is, of Mechlin. The partners seem to have been mainly law printers, but printed other books as well, though sometimes on commission. Their most notable publications, from a literary standpoint, are the Revelations of St Nicholas to a Monk of Evesham, the Speculum Christiani (from which a few lines of verse have been quoted on page 80), and an edition of the Chronicles of England. Lettou disappears about 1484, but Machlinia continued printing till about 1491, Richard Pynson, a native of Normandy, being his successor. A translation by John Kay of a short description of the Siege of Rhodes, written in Latin by Gulielmus Caorsin, may have been printed by Machlinia, or by some one not known to us who had a similar but not identical fount of type. In 1479 or 1480 a schoolmaster at St Albans started a press there, printing altogether eight books of which we know, in types of the same character as Caxton's, and in one instance certainly borrowed from him. Of the eight books six are scholastic treatises, the other two being the then very popular Chronicles of England and the treatise on hawking, hunting, and coat-armour commonly known as the Book

of St Albans, and commonly ascribed to Dame Juliana Berners. This ascription rests on the fact that one of the sections of the book, the metrical treatise on hunting, ends with the words, 'Explicit [Here ends] Dam Julyans Barnes in her boke of huntyng.' On the strength of these words the authorship of the whole book is popularly attributed to this otherwise unknown lady, Juliana Bernes or Berners, who is represented as being a daughter of Sir James Berners (executed in 1388), and prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell, a dependency of the abbey of St Albans. As to this, we know that one prioress was elected in 1426, and another superseded on account of old age in 1480, and it is possible that there was a gap between the two which Juliana Berners filled; but we have no shred of evidence as to this, or as to any single fact about her, and if she was really the daughter of Sir James Berners, the dates do not fit in very happily. At the Bodleian Library there is a manuscript poem on the terms of the chase which is said to correspond closely to the poem ascribed to 'Dam Julyans Barnes' in the Book of St Albans, but as it is anonymous no conclusion can be drawn from it. Whatever the lady's connection with the Book of Huntyng,' there is nothing to suggest that she wrote also the treatises on Hawking and Heraldry, and the probability seems to be that the three works were drawn from different sources and edited by the schoolmaster-printer. As for the Treatyse of Fishing with an Angle,' this does not appear at all in the first edition, though a manuscript of another version of it (first printed in 1883), from the character of the handwriting, is judged to have been in existence before 1480. This treatise was first added to the work in Wynkyn de Worde's edition of 1496, with the obvious intention of completing it as a kind of 'Gentleman's VadeMecum.' Throughout the sixteenth century the book remained very popular, its different parts being frequently reprinted. But its popularity

was that of a text-book rather than a work of literature, and it is to its attractive subject and the mystery that surrounds its authorship, rather than to any literary merit, that it owes its fame. Here is a typical extract from the Book of Hawking':

And if yowre hawke be harde pennyd [strongly feathered] she may be drawne to be reclaymed [pulled by a string to be taught to come back]. For all the while that she is tender pennyd, she is not habull to be reclaymed. And if she be a Goshawke or Tercell that shall be reclaymed ever fede hym [sic] with washe meete at the drawyng and at the reclaymyng, bot loke that hit be hoote, and in this maner washe it. Take the meet and go to the water and strike it upp and downe in the water, and wringe the waater owte and fede hir therwith and she be a brawncher [a hawk just able to leave its nest]. And if it bene an Eyesse [a hawk reared in captivity] thow most wash the meete clenner than ye doo to the brawncher, and with a linne [linen] cloth wipe it and fede hir, &c.

The treatise on coat-armour offers rather more scope for the display of literary skill, and it is only fair to make some brief extracts from this also. Here is one on the origin of nobility, a point with which several writers of this period are concerned :

How Gentilmen shall be knawyn from chulis and how they first began.-Now for to devyde gentilmen from chorlis in haast it shall be preved. Ther was never gentilman nor churle ordenyd by kynde [nature] bot he had fadre and modre. Adam and Eve had nother fadre nor modre, and in the sonnys of Adam and Eve war founde bothe gentilman and churle. By the sonnys of Adam and Eve, Seth, Abell and Cayn, devyded was the royall blode fro the ungentill. A brother to sley his brother contrary to the law where myght be more ungentelnes. By that did Cayn become a chorle and all his ofspryng after hym, by the cursyng of God and his owne fadre Adam. And Seth was made a gentilman thorow his fadres and moderis blissyng. And of the ofspryng of Seth Noe come a gentilman by kynde.

From another section we may take these few lines, which tell us the vices which a gentleman must especially eschew:

Ther be ix. vices contrary to gentilmen.-Ther ben ix. vices contrari to gentilmen, of the wiche v. ben indetermynable and iiii. determynable. The v. indetermynable ben theys: oon to be full of slowthe in his werris, an other to be full of boost in his manhode, the thride to be full of cowardnes to his enemy, the fourth to be full of lechri in his body, and the fifthe to be full of drynkyng and dronckunli. Ther be iiii. determynable: on is to revoke his own chalange, an other to sley his presoner with his own handis, the thride to voyde from his soueraygnes baner in the felde, and the fifthe to tell his soueraygne fals talys.

Lastly, here is a passage with a pleasant reference to King Arthur:

Here begynnyth the blasyng of armys.—I haue shewyd to yow in thys booke a-foore how gentilmen began, and how the law of armys was first ordant, and how moni colowris ther be in cootarmuris, and the difference of cootarmuris with mony other thynggis that here needis not to be rehersed. Now I intende to procede of signys in armys and of the blasyng of all armys. Bot for to reherce all the signys that be borne in armys, as Pecok, Pye, Batt, Dragon, Lyon and Dolfyn, and flowris and leevys, it war to longe a tariyng, ner I can not do hit: ther be so mony. Bot here shall shortli be shewyd to blase all armys if ye entende diligentli to youre rulys. And be cause the cros is the moost worthi signe emong al signys in armys: at the cros I will begynne, in the wich thys nobull and myghti prynce kyng Arthure hadde grete trust, so that he lefte his armys that he bare of iii. Dragonys, and on that an other sheelde of iii. crownys, and toke to his armys a crosse of silver in a feelde of verte [green], and on the right side an ymage of owre blessid lady with hir sone in hir arme. And with that signe of the cros he dyd mony maruelis after, as hit is writyn in the 'bookis of cronyclis of his dedys.

Extracts like these may serve to explain the great popularity of the book, which gave just the information which a country gentleman would be

798501 A

most likely to prize, and at the same time was written in a tone sufficiently high to explain the readiness of a schoolmaster-printer to edit and publish it. But its main interest can hardly be called literary.

The Paston Letters.

To offer a similar judgment on the famous collection of letters which passed between members of the Paston family during the best part of a century (1424–1506) would be superfluous. Private letters, interspersed with law papers, have no pretensions to be regarded as literature, but these possess an interest which compels literature to take cognizance of them, in much the same way as the secret diary which Samuel Pepys wrote for no one's reading save his own has become a classic. The Pastons were a Norfolk family, belonging to the little village of that name near the coast, some twenty miles north of Norwich. Their origin was so obscure that their enemies, of whom they had many, tried to fasten on them the disabilities which attached to servile descent, but in the fifteenth century a William Paston (d. 1444) was a justice of the Common Pleas; and his son John, also a lawyer, as executor and heir to the estates of Sir John Fastolf, rose to a very perilous and unstable importance. This John Paston (d. 1466) had five sons, of whom both the first and the second bore his own name and succeeded to his estate. From the second son was descended Robert Paston, first Earl of Yarmouth (d. 1683), and the second Earl sold the family papers to the famous antiquary Peter Le Neve. After passing through other hands, a selection from the letters was published by Sir John Fenn in 1787, and aroused immediate interest. They present, indeed, the most vivid picture which we possess of life in the gloomy days of the fifteenth century, when, over and above the convulsions of civil war, private disputes were carried on by armed forces, and the forms of law were merely the instruments of oppression. William Paston, the judge, was noted for his uprightness; but his son John was a hard man, and in his unceasing quarrels, in which his houses were more than once formally besieged, he may have been as often wrong as right. His parents contracted him to Margaret Mauteby, who, though she had never seen him till the marriage was arranged, speedily proved herself a loving and even heroic wife. The second John was a softer and more pleasure-loving person than his father, and his mother worked hard, sometimes not without bitterness, to protect the family interests from his fits of neglect. This John's letters often contain references to his books; through another section of the correspondence there runs a whole love-story; we have accounts of tourneys and public events, notably one of the murder of the Duke of Suffolk on board ship (May 1450); the constant theme of legal struggles, with their violent incidents; and abundant references to food, clothes, and

other matters which help to bring the daily life of the time close to us. The most interesting letters of the series are those of Margaret Paston, whose passionate devotion to the interests of her husband and family often gives her correspondence a literary value, which even her painfully bad spelling can only slightly obscure. For our quotations we will take two of her letters, and precede them by this account given by her future mother-in-law of her reception of her bridegroom. Our extracts are all taken from Mr James Gairdner's edition (The Paston Letters, 1872-75):

Agnes Paston to William Paston (about 1440).—To my worshepefull housbond, W. Paston, be this letter takyn,Dere housbond, I recomaunde me to yow &c. Blessyd be God I sende yow gode tydynggs of the comyng, and the brynggyn hoom, of the gentylwomman that ye wetyn of fro Redham, this same nyght, acordyng to poyntmen [appointment] that ye made ther for your self.

And as for the furste aqweyntaunce be-twhen John Paston and the seyde gentylwomman, she made hym gentil chere in gyntyl wise, and seyde, he was verrayly your son. And so I hope ther shall nede no gret trete [negotiations] be-twyxe hym.

The parson of Stocton toold me, yif ye wolde byin [buy] her a goune, here moder wolde yeve ther-to a godely furre. The goune nedyth for to be had; and of colour it wolde be a godely blew, or erlys [else] a bryghte sangueyn. I prey yow do byen for me ij pypys of gold [rolls of gold thread]. Your stewes [fish-ponds] do weel. The Holy Trinite have you in governaunce.

Wretyn at Paston, in hast, the Wednesday next after Deus qui errantibus [the third Sunday after Easter] for defaute of a good secretarye.-Youres,

AGN. PASTON.

Our next letter (No. 36), written some three years later (28th September 1443), shows that the readiness with which Margaret Paston had accepted her husband had soon ripened into anxious affection :

Margaret Paston to John Paston.—To my rygth worchepful husbond, John Paston, dwellyng in the Inner Temple at London, in hast :—Ryth worchipful husbon, I recomande me to yow, desyryng hertely to her [hear] of yowr wilfar, thanckyng God of yowr a-mendyng of the grete dysese that ye have hade; and I thancke yow for the letter that ye sent me, for be [by] my trowthe my moder and I wer nowth in hertys es [not in heart's ease] fro the tyme that we woste [knew] of yowr sekenesse, tyl we woste verely of your a-mendyng. My moder be hestyd [vowed] a nodyr [another] ymmage of wax of the weytte of yow to oyer Lady of Walsyngham, and sche sent iiii nobelys [nobles, 6s. 8d.] to the iiii Orderys of Frerys at Norweche to pray for yow, and I have be hestyd to gon on pylgreymmays to Walsingham, and to Sent Levenardys [St Leonard's shrine at Norwich] for yow; be my trowth I had never so hevy a sesyn [season] as I had from the tyme that I wost of your sekenesse tyl I woste of yowr a-mendyng, and zyth [since] myn hert is in no grete esse [ease], ne nowth xal [shall] be, tyl I wott that ze [ye] ben very hal [really whole, or well]. Your fader and myn was dysday sevenyth [this day se'nnight or week] at Bekelys for a matyr of the Pryor of Bromholme, and he lay at Gerlyston