A SKETCH of the early printer-publishers of Europe would of course be incomplete without some reference to the career of the man whose work will always be associated with the history of printing in England. The publishing undertakings of Caxton were, however, of much less considerable importance than those of his continental contemporaries to whom chapters have been devoted, while it is also the case that the events of his life have been so fully set forth in various English histories that they are already familiar to readers interested in the record of printing and publishing. It would, therefore, be superfluous for me to attempt to present, in a general sketch like the present, any extended or detailed information concerning Caxton’s career. For my present purpose, it will be sufficient to indicate briefly the influences from which Caxton derived his interest in literary undertakings, and the sources from which he secured his training as a printer, with some reference to the character of his publishing undertakings as compared with those of the printers whose work had already been begun in Germany, France, and Italy.

Caxton was born in the Weald of Kent, about 1422, and died in London in 1492. His life covered, therefore, the period during which Gutenberg was perfecting his printing-press, and included also the years in which Koberger was beginning his publishing work in Nuremberg and Froben was organising his publishing concern in Basel. The first publication of Aldus in Venice was issued in the year after the death of Caxton. While the larger number of the early printers had had training in technical or mechanical work, which secured for them a certain preparation for the technical requirements of the new art, and others, as in the case of Aldus, had had experience as students and as instructors which gave them advantages for the editorial work of scholarly publishing, the larger proportion of the active life of Caxton had been devoted to business as a wool-merchant, in connection with which business he could, at least in his earlier years, have had but few opportunities for coming into relations with men interested in literature. His literary interests came to him comparatively late in life, as a result of his association with the Court of the Duke of Burgundy, while his first knowledge of and attraction towards the work of printing were the result of the acquaintance formed at that Court with Colard Mansion, the first printer of Bruges.

Caxton’s business work began as an apprentice to Robert Large, who was an eminent member of the Mercers’ Company of London. It is the conclusion of Mr. Blades, who has made himself the authority on the subject of Caxton, that the admission of the young Kentishman to such a household as that of Large was in itself sufficient evidence, under the conditions of the time, that Caxton was a man of good family. It is Mr. Blades’s belief that Caxton was a descendant of the Caunstons, who owned the manor of Caunston in the Weald.

In 1441, when Caxton was about twenty years old, his first master died and he was sent to Bruges, where he became a member of the English House or the English Nation, the term applied to the association of English merchants residing in Bruges, and carrying on from there business with England and with the other trade centres of the Continent. His early associations had given him some preparation for a sojourn in Flanders. A colony of Flemish wool-manufacturers had been established in the Weald by Edward III., and the Flemings, having inter-married with the Kentish families, had impressed their language and their social habits very largely upon that portion of the county. Of the English Nation in Bruges Caxton became governor, in or about 1462, a position which made him the leading Englishman in the dominions of Burgundy. His selection for such a position confirms the impression that he was a man of birth, while it was also evidence that he had been successful in his business undertakings and that he was recognised as a man of character and of executive ability.

His position brought him into official relations with the Court of Burgundy and with the new Duke, Charles the Bold, who, in 1467, succeeded his father, Philip the Good. Princess Margaret of England, the sister of King Edward IV., who became the wife of Charles, seems to have taken a keen, personal interest in Caxton, and, a year or two after her coming to Bruges, she induced him to give up his mercantile career and his honourable position as governor of the English merchants and to attach himself to her personal service. Lord Scales, afterward Earl Rivers, who had visited Bruges as one of the ambassadors to conclude the treaty of marriage, was, later, one of the most liberal patrons of Caxton the printer, and his translation of the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers was the first book with the date of imprint issued from Caxton’s London Press.[43]

After 1467, while Caxton still held his official responsibilities and before he had begun to investigate the new art of printing, we find him interesting himself in literary pursuits. He began in that year the translation of the Histories of Troy (Le Recueil des Histoires de Troye), which translation was printed in 1474. In 1471, Caxton was in the service of the Duchess, receiving a yearly salary and other advantages, and being under instruction to proceed with his literary undertakings. Margaret seems, in fact, in giving Caxton an income in order that he might devote himself to literature, to have had in view a kind of endowment of research. He presented to the Duchess, in 1471, as a first result of his literary labours, a manuscript copy of his now completed translation of the Histoires, and the favour given by her to the work appears to have secured for it an immediate reputation, not only with the English-speaking members of the Court, but with their friends and correspondents in England, so that demand for Caxton’s translation soon became more active than could be supplied by the work of the scribe. In the epilogue to the first printed edition, he speaks of his hand becoming “wery and not stedfast with much writing” while his eyes were “dimed with overmuch lokyng on the whit paper.” Then it was, apparently, that, through the suggestion of his friend Colard Mansion, he was led to turn his attention to the new art of printing.[44]

As has been mentioned in an earlier chapter, literary interests had, for a number of years before the beginning of printing, found a favourable environment in the dominions of the Duke of Burgundy. Burgundy and Flanders were, during the last half of the fifteenth century, among the richest territories in Europe. The arts and the luxuries of civilisation had at that time attained a higher development in Bruges than in almost any other capital, and with the other refinements of life, had come an active interest in literary pursuits and in the collection of libraries. These literary interests had been furthered by the example of the ruling family, successive dukes having set the fashion of collecting rare and costly works and of employing great staffs of skilled scribes, illuminators, and binders, to put into the most beautiful possible dress the manuscripts that had been secured from all parts of Europe. David Aubert, a well-known scribe, writing in 1457, thus describes the literary interests of Duke Philip the Good: “This renowned and virtuous prince has been accustomed, for many years past, to have ancient histories read to him daily. His library surpasses all others, for from his youth he has had in his service numerous translators, scholars, historians, and scribes, working diligently not only in Bruges but in various countries, so that now there is not in all christendom a prince who has so varied and rich a collection.”[45]

Barrois, in describing the library of this sovereign, gives (as a selection only) the titles of nearly three thousand works, the greater part being magnificent folios, written on vellum, beautifully illuminated, and bound in velvet, satin, or damask. Many of the volumes were studded with gems, and were fastened with gold clasps, jewelled or chased.

The fashion set by the Court was followed by the opulent nobles, and, later, by the wealthy merchants, who vied with each other in multiplying libraries. A nobleman whose name became famous in connection with literature was Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de la Gruthuyse, who afterwards received from Edward IV. of England the title of Earl of Winchester. The larger portion of his manuscripts were the work of Flemish scribes and were decorated by Flemish artists. His library afterwards came into possession of the kings of France, being added to the collection of the Chateau of Blois. A number of the manuscripts are now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. The Flemish armorial bearings had been partly obliterated in order to be replaced with those of the French King, but the obliteration was not so complete as to prevent the identification of the manuscripts with the original collection of Louis. It was to Louis de Bruges that Colard Mansion owed the first assistance he secured in the attempt (which was finally unsuccessful) to establish a printing concern in Bruges. It is somewhat surprising, in consideration of the great wealth of the Flemish capital, the large measure of literary interest shown by its noblemen and its merchants, the extensive collections of beautiful and accurate manuscripts available for the use of the printers, and the exceptional trade facilities and connections possessed by a city which was at the time the commercial capital of North Europe, that the art of printing should not at once have secured an assured foothold, and that some printer should not have built up in the Flemish capital a successful publishing concern. The first publishers who did secure an assured business foundation and a wide-spread literary prestige were obliged to do their work under conditions which appeared to be much less favourable than those existing in 1470 at Bruges. Bruges was probably the first city in Europe which possessed, some years before the beginning of printing, a guild of makers of books, the organisation of which was entirely on a mercantile basis, that is to say, which had no connection with any university and was under no other supervision or control than that of the monarch. The company, which in 1454 received a formal charter, is styled Der Ghilde van sinte jan Ewagz, or the Guild of S. John the Evangelist, who was the patron saint of scribes. The branches of industry connected with book-making which were represented in this guild are specified by Van Praet as follows: scriveners, illuminators, printers (that is to say, those who produced from blocks impressions of illustrations), parchment and vellum makers, letter engravers, figure engravers, carvers, cloth shearers, curriers, bookbinders, painters, vignette designers, print sellers, booksellers.

In Antwerp a similar guild, instituted at about the same time, was called the Guild of S. Luke; while at Brussels the scriveners instituted a limited guild of their own, called Les Frères de la Plume. It is to be borne in mind that there was in England no guild of writers or makers of books until a number of years after the introduction of printing, the charter of the Stationers’ Company dating from 1552.

It was the good fortune of Caxton to be for thirty-three years a resident of the city which could divide with Paris the distinction of being the literary capital of North Europe, and for the latter portion of that time, in his close association with the Court, to have had access to the ducal libraries and the other great collections of the city. Mr. Blades is of opinion that, in the course of his mercantile business, Caxton must often have had occasion to fill commissions, from correspondents in England who were interested in literature, for transcripts of Flemish manuscripts. If this be the case, he became a connecting link between his native country and the literary treasures of the continent a number of years before he began in London the work of printing for English readers his own versions of the Flemish manuscripts.

Of the history of Colard Mansion, the first printer of Bruges, but few details have been preserved. He is known to have been a skilled scribe, and one of the earliest references to him occurs in 1450, when there is record of his receiving from Duke Philip fifty-four livres for the manuscript of a romance entitled Romuleon, which was illuminated and bound in velvet. This copy is now in the Royal Library at Brussels.[46] From 1454 to 1473, Mansion’s name is found in the list of subscribers to the Guild of S. John, and, in or about the year 1471, he removed from Brussels to Bruges, and devoted himself to the work of printing. In 1484, he appears to have broken down in resources and in credit. He left Bruges, and after that time nothing further is known of him. He was at the time in arrears to the chapter of S. Donatus for the rent of his printing-office, the work of which he had carried on in two rooms over the porch of the church, but the value of the printed sheets left in the rooms appears to have been sufficient to liquidate this debt. Van Praet speaks of twenty-one works as having been printed by him, while Blades finds record of twenty-two. Of these, the most important was probably the edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, printed in French, in a large folio, with numerous woodcuts. The practice of adorning books with illustrations and with ornate initials and tail-pieces remained a characteristic of the Press of the Low Countries. Other noteworthy works on the list were French editions of Boëthius and Boccaccio. With the exception of one work, Dionysii Areopagiticæ liber, all of Mansion’s publications were in French. In this respect he forms a noteworthy exception to the printers of his generation, whose earlier works were nearly exclusively in Latin. One or two of the first printers in Lyons also began their work with volumes in French. Mansion’s undertakings were divided nearly equally between books of devotion and books of frivolity, such as Les Advineaux Amoureux, the only volume on the list which reached a second edition. The opinion of Mr. Blades, that the fonts of type used by Mansion were identical with those later employed in the first books of Caxton, may, I judge, be considered as established.[47]

It is the contention of the German historians that Caxton secured his training as a printer not in Bruges but in Cologne, and that the initiative for the introduction of printing into England is, therefore, to be credited to Germany. The evidence for and against this theory, evidence which depends largely upon technical details, such as the identity of certain fonts of type, the spacing of lines, etc., has been very thoroughly and skilfully analysed by Mr. Blades, and his conclusion, that Caxton did no work in the Cologne printing-offices and that his first printed books did not follow the Cologne models, can, I judge, be safely accepted. Some reference to the grounds for the German belief may, however, be made. Printing had been introduced into Cologne by Ulrich Zell, who was a fugitive from the sack of Mayence. His first publication, or at least his first book with a date, was the Liber Joannis Chrysostomi super Psalmo quinquagesimo, issued in 1466. His second undertaking was an edition of the De Officiis of Cicero. He printed in all no less than one hundred and twenty separate works, and was the leading printer in the city at the time of Caxton’s visit in 1471. In connection with his business as a wool-merchant and his official responsibilities for the English Nation, Caxton had had continued relations with Cologne, and must have had a full acquaintance with the city. Madden speaks of Caxton as being a visitor, in 1470, at the Weidenbach convent of the Brothers of Common Life in Cologne, at which time the Brothers had their printing-office in active operation.[48] Caxton’s diary tells us that the translation of his Recueil, begun in Bruges and continued in Ghent, was completed at Cologne on the 19th of September, 1471. Kapp concludes that his first idea for reproducing his translation in printed copies most probably came to him from an examination of the work of the presses of Zell or of the Brothers. It is of course possible enough that Caxton interested himself, while in Cologne in 1471, in inspecting the printing establishment of Zell, which must, as a novelty, have been one of the noteworthy sights of the city. It seems evident, however, from Mr. Blades’s analysis of the fonts of type used by Mansion and, later, by Caxton, that these were not secured from Cologne, but were cast in Bruges, while various details of the workmanship of Caxton’s earlier volumes show methods entirely different from those of the Cologne printers. As one such detail, Mr. Blades points out that Zell, after 1467, always spaced out the lines of his books to one even length, and feels convinced that he would have taught any one learning the art from him to do the same; yet this improvement was not adopted by either Mansion or Caxton until several years later. “Whoever may have been the instructor of Mansion and Caxton, and whatever may have been the origin of their typography, the opinion that either of them, after learning the art in an advanced school such as that of Cologne, would have adopted in their first productions, without any necessity for so doing, primitive customs which they had never been taught, and would have returned in after years by slow degrees to the rules of their original tuition, has only to be plainly stated to render it untenable.”[49]

The chief information concerning Caxton’s training as a printer is derived from his own Prologues and Epilogues. The first six books ascribed to Caxton’s Press are:

• “The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.”
• “Le Recueil des Histoires de Troye.”
• “The Game and Playe of Chesse, with Prologue by Caxton.”
• “The Meditacions sur les Sept Pseaulmes Penitenceaux.”
• “Les Fais et Processes du Chevalier Jason.”
• “Les Quatre Dernières Choses Advenir.”

Without going into the careful analysis presented by Blades of the evidence concerning the production of these books, it is sufficient to give his conclusions. The Recueil, with the translation of which Caxton had begun his literary undertakings, was probably first printed (in Caxton’s version) in 1474, and the edition of the French original must have followed shortly afterwards. The remaining four books were brought before the public between this date and 1476.

It is interesting to note the character of the selections made by Caxton for the first issues of his Press. With the exception of the Meditations on the Psalms, this group of books belongs entirely to what to-day would be called light literature. The same general character obtains with the books printed by Mansion, and, excepting with one or two Houses in Lyons, it could not be paralleled by the lists of any other of the printers of this generation, whose first undertakings were almost exclusively devoted to the service of the Church or to the revival of the classics. How far the responsibility for the literary standard of the two printers of Bruges rested with themselves, and how far it was determined by the preferences and suggestions of their patroness the Duchess, it is probably not now practicable to determine.

The German printers, Heynlin and Fichet, who introduced printing into Paris, and their successors, Krantz, Gering, and others, beginning their work under the instructions of the University, had printed the books which were selected for them by the University authorities, and these earlier issues of the Paris Press were restricted to theology and jurisprudence. Later, were added the works of certain selected classic authors. It was a number of years, however, before any volume was printed in Paris in the French language. The first volume printed in French in Europe was, in fact, Caxton’s edition of the Burgundian romance, Le Recueil. The first French books printed in France were issued in Lyons, where the publishers were free from the hampering supervision of the theologians of the University. The early Lyons lists of the fifteenth century included indeed a series of quite frivolous publications, in the vernacular, such as Le Roman de la Rose, La Farce de Pathelin, Les Quinze Joies de Mariage, Le Champion des Dames, and a French version of the Facetiæ of Poggio. The publishers of Paris, working under the restrictions of the University censors, must not infrequently have looked with envy at the publishing undertakings of their enterprising Lyons competitors, who were, with the exception of Caxton, the first to address themselves to the tastes and to the interests of the unscholarly and pleasure-seeking readers. In the matter of cultivating and supplying a taste for popular literature, Mansion and Caxton were in accord with the methods of Lyons rather than those of Paris.

It is the conclusion of Mr. Blades that the books above specified, while nominally issued by Caxton, were actually printed by Mansion. However this may be, it is evident that, in connection with the production of these books, Caxton secured a sufficient knowledge of the technicalities of the art to be qualified to carry on a printing-office himself. It is probable that the ready sale found in England for the printed copies of the Recueil which were sent over there gave him encouragement concerning the possibilities of the English market for similar printed books. It is certain that, in 1476, he gave up his home in Bruges, resigning at the same time the honours and privileges pertaining to his position at Court, and, retiring to England, established himself at Westminster. The type, and probably also the presses, taken over for his Westminster office, were those of Mansion, which had become the property of Caxton, doubtless through purchase from Mansion’s creditors. It was during the fifteen years that remained to him of active work after his varied life experience as an apprentice, a merchant, a governor of a great mercantile colony, a magistrate, and a courtier, that he was able to complete the undertakings with which his name will always be associated, and to bring to his native country the most important result produced by the activity of man during the noteworthy fifteenth century.

In the advertisement or announcement of his business, issued by Caxton about 1480, he professes himself ready to satisfy any man, whether spiritually or temporally inclined. The wording of the advertisement is as follows:

“If it plese any man spirituel or temporel to bye ony pyes of two and thre comemoracios of Salisburi ose emprynted after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben and truly correct, late hym come to Westmenester in to the almonesrye at the reed pale and he shall have them good chepe.”

The phrase “printed in the Abbey of Westminster,” which is affixed to some of the books, is not to be understood as indicating that the work of the printing-office was actually carried on within the walls of the church itself. The tenement occupied by Caxton, called the “red pale,” was in the almonry, this being a space within the abbey precincts, where alms were distributed to the poor. In the same enclosure were other buildings, including the almshouses built by Lady Margaret, the mother of Henry VII., who was one of Caxton’s patronesses. Some chroniclers have suggested that the scriptorium of the abbey would have been a very appropriate place in which to begin the work of producing printed books for England. One difficulty with this suggestion is the lack of evidence that the abbey had ever contained a scriptorium. No mention of such a place is made by any historian, nor does any existing manuscript bear record of having been produced within the abbey. Caxton’s immediate successor, Wynken de Worde, who had been his assistant, continued for some years after Caxton’s death to carry on the work of the printing-office in the same building. He placed on his books, for the Latin form of imprint, the words, “In domo Caxton in Westmonasterio.” His English imprint, with sundry variations, was most frequently “Printed in Caxton’s house at Westmynstere.”

Mr. Blades gives a list of ninety-eight separate works identified as Caxton’s, in addition to which there are eight or ten others concerning which the evidence is doubtful. The titles of the first five, printed in Bruges, in co-operation with Mansion, have already been cited. I give the titles of the remaining ninety-three:

• 1477. “Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers,” translated by Earl Rivers. This was probably the first book printed in England. The first printed book in Italy was issued in 1464, and was a “Donatus.” The first book printed in France bears date 1469, and was an edition of the “Letters of Kaspar von Bergamo.” A large proportion of the publications identified as Caxton’s were printed without imprint or specification of the place or date of issue. Mr. Blades is able, however, to give a list of twenty books which bear the record of having been printed at Westminster. The imprints and colophons show a pleasing variety in form and in spelling.
• 1478. Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.” 1st edition. Folio.
• The “Canterbury Tales” had been written about 1395, and during the century which preceded this first printed edition, the work had secured an assured prestige and a circulation which for a book in manuscript must have been very considerable. As one of the most famous productions of English literature, it was a very natural selection to be included with Caxton’s earlier publications. This first edition was in fact the tenth work produced from the Caxton Press. The second edition was printed about six years later (Blades says “probably 1484”), and appears to have had the advantage of a more correct or more complete text. In a prefatory note printed by the publisher in this volume, Caxton gives the following account of the way in which this better text came into his hands: “Of which book so incorrect was one brought to me six year passed, which I supposed had been very true and correct, and according to the same I did imprint a certain number of them, which anon were sold to many and divers gentlemen: of whom one gentleman came to me, and said that this book was not according in many places unto the book that Geoffrey Chaucer had made. To whom I answered that I had made it according to my copy, and by me was nothing added or diminished. Then he said he knew a book which his father had and much loved, that was very true, and according unto his own first book by him made; and said more, if I would imprint it again, he would get me the same book for a copy. How be it, he wist well his father would not gladly part from it; to whom I said, in case that he could get me such a book true and correct, that I would once endeavour me to imprint it again, for to satisfy the author: whereas before by ignorance I erred in hurting and defaming his book in divers places, in setting in some things that he never said nor made, and leaving out many things that he made which are requisite to be set in. And thus we fell at accord; and he full gently got me of his father the said book, and delivered it to me, by which I have corrected my book.”
• 1478. “The Moral Proverbs of Cristyne,” translated by Earl Rivers. Folio.
• Christine de Pisa wrote these “Proverbs” about 1400. Thomassy speaks of her as, with the exception of Joan of Arc, the most famous woman of her age.[50] Blades says of her that she was early left a widow, with children and parents to support, and urged on by necessity, she devoted herself to a literary life, and soon became famous, and that for many years her labours were incessant. He appears to be of the opinion that she succeeded in securing a livelihood by her pen. If this opinion be correct, Christine was certainly a marked exception to the other authors of the fourteenth century.
• 1478. “The Horse, the Sheep, and the Goose.”
• This is not a treatise on the care of domestic animals, but a series of dialogues in verse, attributed to Dr. John Lydgate. It reached a second edition.
• 1478. “The Chorle and the Bird.” 4to. A Fable, probably by Lydgate. This reached a second edition.
• 1479 (about). “The Book of Courtesy.” 4to.
• 1479. “The Temple of Brass or the Parliament of Fowls.”
• “Envoy of Chaucer to Skogan.” 4to.
• 1479. “Queen Anelida and False Arcyte.”
• “The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse.”
• 1479. “Boethius de Consolacione Philosophiæ,” translated into English by Geoffrey Chaucer. Folio. “I William Caxton have done my devoir to emprinte it.”

• 1479. “Cordyale, or the Four Last Things.” Folio. Translated from the French by Earl Rivers.
• 1480. “The Chronicles of England.” Folio. “Emprynted by me William Caxton in thabbey of Westmynstre.” 1st edition.
• This work is often referred to as “Caxton’s Chronicle.” It presents, in substance, the chronicle of Brute, with the narrative brought down to the battle of Towton (1461). The old chronicle of Brute was so called from the opening chapter, which describes the settlement in Britain of Brutus, the descendant of Æneas.[53]
• 1481. “Parvus et Magnus Chato.” 3rd edition. Folio.
• This edition contains two woodcuts, which Mr. Blades believes to be the earliest specimens of wood-engraving in England. In the matter of book-illustrations, the printers of England were, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, very much surpassed by those of the continent.
• 1481. “The Mirrour of the World,” translated from the French by Caxton. Folio, with illustrations.
• The French version from which Caxton worked was that of “Maître Gossevin,” which was itself based upon the metrical version, prepared, in 1245, by the Duke of Berri. The Latin original, “Speculum vel Imago Mundi,” was the work of some unknown author writing early in the thirteenth century. The number of manuscript copies which had been preserved, is evidence of its early popularity. Caxton’s judgment in reviving the work in an English version and a printed edition proved to be well founded, as it passed through various editions. This first edition was, however, not the speculation of the printer, the cost of its production having been borne by Alderman Hugh Brice.[54]
• 1481. “The History of Reynard the Fox.” Folio. A translation prepared by Caxton from a Flemish version of the popular legend.
• 1481. “Tully on Old Age”; “Tully on Friendship”; “The Declamation of Noblesse.” Folio. “Emprynted by me, symple person, William Caxton.”
• This translation was made, as is stated in the Prologue, “at the ordinance and desire of Sir John Falstoffe.”
• 1481. “Cura Sapientiæ,” or the “Court of Sapience.” By John Lydgate.

• 1481. “The History of Godfrey of Bulloigne, or the Conquest of Jerusalem.” Folio. A translation by Caxton from an anonymous French chronicle.
• “Polychronicon.” Folio. “Imprinted and set in forme by me William Caxton.”
• This volume includes the most considerable and important original work undertaken by Caxton. The “Polychronicon” had its origin with Roger Monk, of St. Werberg in Chester, early in the fourteenth century. It was continued by Higden of the same monastery, and, in 1387, Trevisa, chaplain of the Earl of Berkeley, prepared from the Latin text an English version. Caxton revised this version of Trevisa, and added a continuation of the history, bringing the record down to 1460.
• 1483. A “Vocabulary” in French and English. Folio.
• 1483. Gower’s “Confessio Amantis.” Large folio. “Emprynted at Westmestre, by me William Caxton.” Gower had died in 1408, and belonged, therefore, to a previous century, but even as late as the century succeeding his death, he continued to be the most widely read (at least in England) of the English poets. It is probable that the literary authorities of Caxton’s time rated Gower higher than Chaucer. It is certain that the “Confessio Amantis” was one of the most successful of Caxton’s publications. Some lines of Gower’s give an impression of the taste of English readers in his time.

• His “Confessio Amantis” had, he states, been written at the command of King Richard II., the same monarch to whom Froissart tells us he presented a volume of the famous “Chronicles,” “fair illumined and written, and covered with crimson velvet, with ten buttons of silver and gilt and roses of gold in the midst, with two great clasps, gilt, richly wrought.” Richard’s interest in books must, therefore, have included literature in two languages.
• 1484. “The Book which the Knight of the Tower Made to the ‘Enseygnment’ and Teaching of His Daughters.” Folio. “Emprynted at Westmynstre the last day of Januer the fyrst yere of the regne of Kynge Richard the Thyrd.” This was a translation by Caxton of a book by Geoffrey de la Tour, written in 1371.
• 1484. “The Golden Legend.” Folio. “Fynysshed at Westmere the twenty day of Novembre/ the yere of our Lord M/CCC/LXXXIII/. By me Wyllyam Caxton.”
• This work is described as the most laborious and most important of Caxton’s literary and publishing undertakings. The collection from which the various versions of “The Golden Legend” were derived was a compilation entitled “Legenda Aurea,” made in the thirteenth century by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, in which were narrated the lives and miracles of the Saints.[55] Caxton appears to have had before him, in preparing his volume for the press, one of the many Latin texts, an English version compiled about 1450, and the French version of Jean de Vignay. In editing the collection for English readers, Caxton omitted a number of the more incredible and more objectionable of the stories. Some of the best of these stories are identical with those given in the “Gesta Romanorum,” the first printed edition of which was issued by Koberger in 1493. Caxton’s volume was extensively illustrated, and he speaks of the preparation of the designs as having caused him much trouble and expense. The undertaking was suggested by the Earl of Arundel, who agreed to take “a reasonable number of copies,” and further to pay as an annuity “a buck in summer and a doe in winter.”
• 1484. “The Fables of Æsop”; of “Avian”; of “Alfonse”; and of “Poge” (Poggio), the Florentine. Folio. “Emprynted by me William Caxton at Westmynstre.” Illustrated. The text was translated by Caxton from the French, and was the first version of “Æsop” in English.
• 1485. “Troylus and Creside.” Folio.
• 1485. “The Lyf of Our Ladye.” Folio. “Emprynted by Wyllyam Caxton.”
• This poem was the work of John Lydgate, and had been written at the “excitation” of Henry V. It belonged to what may be called the popular group of Caxton’s publications.
• 1485. “The Noble Histories of King Arthur and of certain of his Knights.” Folio. “Emprynted in thabbey of Westmestre.”
• This was the work of Sir Thomas Malory, and was generally known as the “Morte d’Arthur”; it was completed, as the author states, in 1470. Caxton states in his Prologue, that Sir Thomas had “reduced” the romances “from certain books in French.” I have not been able to find record of the date of Malory’s death, but as Caxton makes no reference to any relations with him, it is probable that in 1485 he was no longer living. His “Histories” certainly, however, could be classed as contemporary literature, and their selection by Caxton for the honour of a printed edition gives the impression of a publisher who was not so absorbed in the literature of the past as to be unmindful of the literary activities and possibilities in his own community.
• Caxton gives in his Prologue his reasons for the selection of Malory’s work for publication. He considers Arthur to be a national hero and one of the nine great characters of the world’s history, his list comprising Hector, Alexander, Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon. “In these playsaunt historyes,” says Caxton, “may be seen noble chyvalrye, curtosye, humanyte, frendlynesse, hardynesse, love, frendship, cowardyse, murdre, hate, vertue and synne. Doo after the good and leve the evyl and it shal brynge you to good fame and renommee.” A book containing all this was certainly deserving of the honour of a printed edition. Caxton’s selection of the “Morte d’Arthur” showed admirable publishing judgment. The book was not only excellent “copy” for the time, but has had a more abiding repute than perhaps any production of its age.
• 1485. “The Life of the Noble and Christian Prince Charles the Great.” Folio. “Explicit per William Caxton.”
• This “Life” was based upon the biography (itself a compilation) by Henry Bolomyer, Canon of Lausanne. The work, which is something more than a translation, was undertaken by Caxton at the instance of Danberry, treasurer of the King’s jewels, and of certain other persons of noble estate and degree.
• 1485. “The Knight Paris and the Fair Vienne.” Folio. “Explicit per Caxton.”
• A translation by Caxton of a famous romance, which had originally been written in “Catalane,” but of which versions had appeared in a number of languages. It can be described as belonging to the popular literature of Europe, for after securing a wide circulation in manuscript editions, it was printed in Trevisa as early as 1482, in London, as above, in 1485, in Antwerp in 1487, and frequently thereafter.
• 1487. “The book of Good Manners.” Folio. “Explicit et hic est finis per Caxton.”
• This is the work of Jaques Legrand, an Augustinian friar, said to have been a native of Toledo. It was written about 1370. Legrand was also the author of the “Sophologium.” Caxton states in his Prologue that he undertook the translation in response to a “death-bed request” of his friend William Pratt, who was a man of influence in the Mercers’ Guild, and Caxton refers to him as “a singular friend of old Knowledge.”
• 1487. “Speculum Vitæ Christi.” Folio. “Emprynted by Wyllyam Caxton.” Probably a translation of the French version of the “Vita Christi,” written in 1410, by S. Bonaventura.
• 1488. “The Royal Book, or Book for a King.” Folio. “Translated out of Frensshe into Englysshe by me Wylyam Caxton.”
• This is a translation of “Le Livre des Vices et des Vertus,” said to have been written early in the fourteenth century by Friar Laurent, confessor of Philip the Bold. The book had come into general circulation in France and had been twice translated into English before the version of Caxton.
• 1489. “The Faytes of Arms and of Chivalry.” Folio. Per Caxton.
• This is a translation by Caxton of the work of Christine de Pisa of Venice. It was written in France about 1400. In her preface, Christine says: “Because men of arms are not clerks, nor instructed in the science of language, I have assembled and gathered together diverse books to produce this work, and because that this is a thing not accustomed and out of usage to women, which commonly do not intermit but to spin on the distaff and to occupy themselves in the things of the household; I supplicate humbly ... to have nor to take for no evil if I, a woman, charge myself to treat of so high a matter.”
• 1489. “Statutes of Henry VII.” Folio. The earliest known volume of statutes, and noteworthy also because printed in English.
• 1489. “The Governal of Health”; “The Medicina Stomachi.”
• The “Governal” was originally written in Latin, but was translated into English before Caxton’s time. It is a compilation from the writings of certain Greek and Arabian physicians. The “Medicina” is attributed to Lydgate, who seems to have been Caxton’s favourite author.
• 1489. “The Four Sons of Aymon.” Folio.
• A translation by Caxton of a very famous and popular romance, which originated probably as early as the twelfth century. Caxton’s version was apparently produced from the volume printed in Lyons in 1480, “Les Quatre Filz Aymon.”
• 1490. “Eneydos.” Folio. “Translated by me Wyllyam Caxton.”
• The original was not a version of the “Æneid,” but a romance based in part on the “Æneid,” and in part on the “Fall of Princes” of Boccaccio. Mr. Blades points out that a good sale was probably expected for it, as a large impression was struck off, and the existing copies are therefore comparatively numerous. The book failed, however, to reach a second edition.
• 1490. “A Book of Divers Ghostly Matters.” “Emprynted at Westmynstre. Qui legit emendet, pressorem non reprehendat Wyllelmn Caxton. Cui, de alta tradat.”
• The volume contains, with various writings, the “Rule of S. Benet.” The compilation is credited to Jehan de Sonshavie.
• 1491. “The Arte and Craft to Know Well to Die.” Folio. Translated by Caxton in 1490.
• The complete work, of which Caxton’s volume is an abridgment, had been known during the century, in manuscript form, under the title “The Art and Craft to Live Well and to Die Well.” It had been printed in Latin in Paris in 1483. Caxton had probably utilised for his translation the French version printed in Bruges by Mansion.
• 1491. “The Chastening of God’s Children.” Folio. Authorship unknown.
• 1491. “Ars Moriendi”: That is to say, “The Craft for to die for the Health of Man’s Soul.”
• A translation, by Caxton, of a Latin tract. The only copy known, either in MS. or in print, is in the Bodleian Library. This is the latest work certainly identified as Caxton’s, and, as he died in 1491, it is very possibly the last undertaking of his busy life.

I have classed under the dates specified, the works selected as representative of Caxton’s undertakings. I should explain, however, that the greater number of them were issued without date, and many without imprint of any kind. Mr. Blades has, with painstaking skill, identified the volumes issued from Caxton’s Press during the lifetime of the master, by a careful analysis and classification of the type used. He finds that six different fonts were utilised in all, the first being that secured from the wreck of Mansion’s concern in Bruges and forming the beginning of Caxton’s plant at Westminster, and the others having been added from year to year, according to the requirements and according also to the resources available. Very few of the books had any title-pages, and when the name of the author is mentioned, it must, as a rule, be looked for in the publisher’s or translator’s prologue. In some instances the dates of the printing have been arrived at or approximated by the references made by Caxton in his Prologue, or in a concluding paragraph, to the date when the work of the translation had been completed. In the small number of volumes containing an imprint, the pleasing variety of the form and spelling of such imprint is to be noted. The more usual wording is “Emprynted by me Wyllyam Caxton at Westmynstre,” but from this form there are a number of modifications. In selecting from the list of Caxton’s publications certain titles taken as fairly representative of the general character of his undertakings, I have avoided specifying any re-issues or later editions. As the entire typesetting had to be repeated, the labour and expense of producing a second edition was for the manufacturing items very nearly as great as for the original publication. The illustrations were, however, in the majority of cases, available for the reissue, while the work of translating or of the compilation, collation, and revision of texts needed, of course, to be incurred but once. There was, therefore, a better prospect of satisfactory returns if a second edition could be reached, while the record of such editions serves also as a partial test of the publisher’s judgment in gauging the taste and the interest of his public. Of the ninety-eight works issued by Caxton, three reached, during his lifetime, a third edition, the Dictes of Philosophers, the Parvus Chato, and the Horæ. While of fifteen, including, of course, the above, second editions were called for, the other twelve titles being: The Horse, the Sheep, and the Goose, The Chorle and the Bird, The Game of Chesse, Indulgence, The Chronicles of England, The Canterbury Tales, The Golden Legend, the Speculum Christi, The Mirrour of the World, The Book of Courtesy, and the Liber Festivalis. A number of Caxton’s books were issued, after his death, by De Worde in later editions. The more noteworthy of these were The Canterbury Pilgrimage, The Chronicles of England, and The Golden Legend.

Caxton’s absorption in his printing business at Westminster and in his literary occupations did not prevent him from continuing his association with the Mercers’ Company, in which he must have retained a number of old friends. Blades finds record of a payment made, in 1479, to Caxton from the royal treasury, of thirty pounds (equal to about four hundred and fifty pounds at this time), “for certain causes or matters performed by him for the said Lord the King”; and thinks it probable that this payment was for assistance rendered to Edward IV. and his retinue when fugitives at Bruges. It seems certain that the friendship of Margaret of Burgundy, Edward’s sister, secured for Caxton royal favour and interest in his venturesome undertakings. Tully and Godfrey were printed under the “protection” of the King, which probably means that the cost of their production was supplied from the royal treasury. Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., and Earl Rivers, brother to the King, were included in the list of Caxton’s Court friends. The Chesse Booke was dedicated to the Earl of Warwick, which probably also meant some measure of co-operation. The Order of Chivalry was dedicated to Richard III. The Faytes of Arms was translated and printed by Caxton, at the request of Henry VII., while the Eneydos was specially presented to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Caxton appears to have been more fortunate than some of the courtiers of his time, in being able, after the battle of Bosworth Field, to retain with Henry the favourable relations he had had with Richard. Caxton speaks of William Daubeney, the treasurer of Henry VI., as his “good and syngular friend.” William, Earl of Arundel, showed his interest in the work of the Caxton Press by allowing to the printer a “yearly fee of a buck in summer and a doe in winter.” Other of Caxton’s friends, whose names are given by Blades, were Sir John Falstoffe, described as a great lover of books, and Hugh Bryce and William Pratt, important members in the Mercers’ Company. Some of Caxton’s clients utilised his services with commissions for translating as well as for printing. For one “noble lady with many fair daughters,” he produced The Knyght of the Toure. The Book of Good Manners was printed by Caxton at the special request (made on his death-bed) of Caxton’s old friend, William Pratt, the purpose of the publication being “the amendment of manners and the increase of virtuous living.”

It is a suggestion of Blades that the occasion for the publication of the treatise The Arte and Craft to Die Well, was the death, in 1490, of Caxton’s wife Maude. Blades goes on to say, however, that there is no direct evidence that the Maude Caxton who died in that year and who was buried at S. Margaret’s was the wife of the printer.

The work done by Caxton as a translator includes versions of the following books: The Whole Life of Jason, The Mirrour of the World, Reynard the Fox, Godfrey of Bulloyne, The Golden Legend, The Book Called Caton, The Knight of the Tower, Æsop’s Fables, The Order of Chivalry, The Royal Book, The Life of Charles the Great, The History of the Knight and the Fair Vienne, The Book of Good Manners, The Doctrinal of Sapience, The Faytes of Arms, The Arte and Craft to Die Well, Eneydos, The Curial, The Life of S. Winifred, Blanchardin and Eglantine, The Four Sons of Aymon, The Gouvernayle of Health, and the Vitæ Patrum. This last was, at the time of his death not quite finished. These volumes, when printed, comprised together more than forty-five hundred pages. It would appear, therefore, that, apart from the very considerable labours and responsibilities of the management of his printing-office, nearly all the employees in which must have required training in each detail of their work, Caxton must have kept his time very fully occupied. Blades finds record from Caxton’s journal, that ten weeks’ time was required for the translation of The Mirrour of the World, containing one hundred and ninety-eight pages, and twelve weeks for Godfrey of Bulloyne, which contained two hundred and eighty-four pages. It may be assumed, however, that leisure for the literary work could be found only occasionally when the labour in the printing-office did not happen to be continuous. The time required for printing these books varied materially, according to the book. The edition of Cordyale, a volume of one hundred and fifty-two pages, was completed in seven weeks, while the Godfrey took nearly six months. I do not find any record of the number of copies printed in the editions, nor does there seem to have been any uniform list of selling prices.

Under Caxton’s will, it appears (the will itself not having as yet been discovered) that fifteen copies of The Golden Legend were “bequothen to the Chirch behove by William Caxston.” The citation is from the parish accounts of S. Margaret’s. In 1496, or about five years after the death of Caxton, the churchwardens had sold but three of the fifteen copies, for two of which they secured 6s. 8d. each and for the third 6s. 4d. The remaining copies were sold within the next sixteen years at an average price of 5s. 8d. It is probable that the price asked for these copies by the churchwardens was, at the outset at least, based upon the usual selling price of the printing-office.

Caxton died in 1491, when he was nearly seventy years of age. He was at work until within a few hours of his death upon the translation of the Vitæ Patrum. His assistant and successor, Wynken de Worde, in the colophon to the edition of this volume, makes the following record of his master, the translator: “Thus endyth the moost vertuous hystorye of the dewoute and right renowned lyves of holy faders lyvynge in deserte, worthy of remembraunce to all wel dysposed persones which hathe be translated oute of Frenche into Englisshe by William Caxton of Westmynstre late ded, and fynysshed at the laste daye of hys lyff.”

The list of Caxton’s publications, as compared with the lists of the first printers in Germany, Italy, and France, is noteworthy in a number of respects. Caxton did not undertake a single edition of the Scriptures or of any portion of the Scriptures, while the books of the Bible had formed the first and most important ventures of all the early printers of the continent. Caxton’s judgment that the England of his day was not asking for Bibles, was confirmed by his immediate successors, and no edition of the Bible was printed in England before the close of the fifteenth century. The list contains also no theological works, no editions of the Fathers, and, with the exception of a single treatise of Cicero and a volume of Boëthius, no works belonging to the older classics. Its most distinctive feature is the long series of romances and legends translated from the French, the translations of which were largely the work of the printer himself. Noteworthy also, of course, is the appreciation of the abiding literary importance of Chaucer, the recognition of the availability for popular sale of Gower, and the discovery and prompt utilisation of Malory. Caxton was not only his own translator, but he was his own adviser, that is, he seems to have been dependent for his selections chiefly upon his own knowledge of the literature of France and of Flanders. While the earlier issues from the presses of Mayence, Basel, Paris, and Venice, restricted almost exclusively to the Scriptures, to editions of the Fathers, and of classics, were in Latin, Caxton’s books were, with hardly an exception, printed in English. It was evidently his purpose to reach not the circles of scholars and theologians (circles which undoubtedly were at the time small in England), but as large a proportion as possible of the English public. I can but think, in looking at the long series of romances and poems and treatises on love, and the like, that Caxton had in mind the taste and requirements of women readers as well as of the men. In fact, in the fifteenth as in the nineteenth century, there must have been a larger share of leisure for the “fair ladyes” than for the noble gentlemen, and it is to be borne in mind that the first incentive towards his literary and publishing undertakings came to Caxton from a woman, his noble friend the Duchess Margaret of Burgundy. Caxton’s books give us the impression that they were the selections and productions of a man with a clear understanding, a wide knowledge of the world, a keen sense of humour, and a sympathy for pleasure-loving people, who proposed to do what was in his power to imbue his fellow-countrymen with an interest in literature. He printed certain stories which, from a modern point of view, are open to criticism, but it is evident from the pains taken by him in his selections and eliminations, that he had a standard of his own, and that in rejecting material which seemed to him unworthy, he had in view the directing and developing of the standard of his English readers. He seems to have made comparatively few serious blunders, and must be credited with good publishing judgment. He had also the business wisdom not to attempt to go ahead too fast. Copeland, one of his workmen, who was later in business for himself, says in the Prologue to his edition of Kynge Apolyn of Thyre, his first publication: “I am gladly followynge the trace of my mayster Caxton, begynnynge with small storyes and pamfletes, and so to other,” a very sound policy for any publishing concern.

In the preface to his translation of Blanchardin and Eglantine, Caxton makes an “apologie” for the literature of romance and chivalry, which is worth quoting. The translation had been made from the French, at the command of the Duchess of Somerset, mother of King Henry VII. The passage shows us that the old printers were dealers in foreign books as well as in their own productions: “Which book I had long to fore sold to my said lady, and knew well that the story of it was honest and joyful to all virtuous young noble gentlemen and women, for to read therein, as for their pastime. For under correction, in my judgment, histories of noble feats and valiant acts of arms and war, which have been achieved in old time of many noble princes, lords, and knights, are as well for to see and know their valiantness for to stand in the special grace and love of their ladies, and in like wise for gentle young ladies, and demoiselles for to learn to be stedfast and constant in their part to them that they once have promised and agreed to, such as they have put their lives oft in jeopardy for to please them to stand in grace, as it is to occupy the ken and study overmuch in books of contemplation.” This is possibly the earliest defence of novel-reading which occurs in the records of English literature.

The historian Gibbon makes it a cause of special regret that, in the choice of his authors, Caxton “was reduced to comply with the vicious taste of his readers; to gratify his nobles with treatises on heraldry, hawking, and the game of chess, and to amuse the popular credulity with romances of fabulous knights and legends of fabulous saints. The father of [English] printing expresses a laudable desire to elucidate the history of his country; but instead of publishing the Latin Chronicle of Radulphus Higden, he could only venture on the English version by John de Trevisa.... The world is not indebted to England for a single first edition of a classic author.”[56]

Blades, taking up the cudgels for his hero, points out that Caxton very properly made a careful study of the wants of the public which was about him. It was essential for his purposes that the business should be placed on an assured foundation and should be made profitable. Caxton tells us in the preface to his Charles the Great, that he earned his living by his printing-office. It seems probable that he could have brought with him from Bruges no further property than was required to get his printing business into working shape, and it appears that at his death he left for his heirs very little beyond his presses, his type, and the remainders of the editions of his books.

It is probable that the knowledge of Latin, even among the circles that were interested in literature, must have been at this time much less general in England than on the Continent, and it is certain that the interest in theological writings continued during the century following to be very much smaller with Englishmen than with the Germans reached by the presses of Wittenberg, Leipzig, and Basel. It is, I judge, generally accepted that during the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century, the standard of general cultivation was lower, and the extent of learning and of literary interests more limited in England than in Italy or the Low Countries.

“The demand in England in the fifteenth century,” says Blades, “was not for Bibles in the vernacular, nor for Horace nor Homer, whose writings very few could read in the original texts; but the clergy wanted service books, and Caxton accordingly provided them with Psalters, Commemorations, and Directories; the preachers wanted sermons, and were supplied with The Golden Legend; the ‘prynces, lordes, barons, knyghtes, and gentilmen,’ were craving for ‘joyous and pleysaunt historyes’ of chivalry, and the Press at the Red Pale produced a fresh romance nearly every year. Poetry and history required for their appreciation a more advanced standard of education [than at this time obtained in England], and of these, therefore, the issue was comparatively scanty.”

The England of Caxton’s time was torn asunder by civil war. The year 1471, in which Caxton was beginning his printing undertakings in Bruges, was the year in which was fought, only a few miles from London, the battle of Barnet, and it was the year of the death of Warwick and of Henry VI. The year 1485, in which Caxton was busied with the translation and printing of several of his most important books, including Charles the Great, witnessed the battle of Bosworth Field and a change of monarchs in England. All the troubles of the civil wars and the excitement connected with the overthrow of a great political party and the accession of a new king had, it seems, little influence upon the preference of that small portion of English society which was interested at all in literature, for “joyous and pleasant histories.” It was doubtless also the case that this direction of literary taste was influenced by the preferences and the knowledge of Caxton himself and of his associate and successor, Wynken de Worde. They brought with them to England the literary interests and standards of the gay Flemish capital, in which the capacity for pleasure and enjoyment was developed to its fullest extent. The rule of the Puritans in England was still more than a century distant.

It is probable that a remunerative demand could have been secured for an edition of the Bible or of the New Testament printed in the vernacular. There were, however, difficulties in the way. Sir Thomas More has clearly shown the reason why Caxton could not venture to print a Bible, although the people would have greedily bought Wyclif’s translation. There were translations of the Bible before Wyclif, and that translation which goes by the name of this great reformer was probably made up in some degree from those previous translations. Wyclif’s translation was interdicted, and thus More says: “On account of the penalties ordered by Archbishop Arundel’s constitution, though the old translations that were before Wyclif’s days remained lawful and were in some folks’ hands had and read, yet he thought no printer would lightly be so hot to put any Bible in print at his own charge, and then hang upon a doubtful trial whether the first copy of his translation was made before Wyclif’s days or since. For if it were made since, it must be approved before the printing.” This was a dilemma that Caxton would have been too prudent to encounter.[57]

Caxton’s experience as a publisher did nothing toward the development of any conception of literary property. Such literary labour as was contributed to his publications was his own work, and if there had at that time existed in England anything of the nature of copyright, the ownership in such copyright would, for the series of translations which comprised the most important portion of Caxton’s list, have been vested in the publisher himself. There seems to be, in the record of his business in Westminster, no reference to any literary payments whatever, that is to say, to any arrangements for editorial service or to compensation to scholars for the collection or collation of manuscripts. In this matter of the securing of “copy” for his Press, Caxton’s task was assuredly less arduous than that which came upon the first printers in Germany or Italy. He had at his command or within his reach the manuscript treasures of the great collections in Bruges, and during the years which were spared to him for carrying on the work of his Press, he was able to make but a very small beginning in the work of placing before the English public the legends and histories selected from those collections.

Caxton brought into his publishing business methods and standards which were the results of a long and honourable experience as a merchant. While he did not amass wealth, he seems to have sufficiently mastered the principles of a balance-sheet to have been able to carry on his undertakings with a full measure of independence and with no such serious financial anxieties as those which oppressed Gutenberg or which hampered the too idealistic ventures of Aldus. Caxton was evidently a clear-headed, practical man of business (although his interests came to be rather literary than commercial), possessing a keen sense of humour, shown in his appreciation of the best humorous literature of the time, and with a perception far beyond that of his publishing contemporaries as to the actual requirements of the public he was endeavouring to serve. Caxton made no claim to scholarship in the sense in which the term was used in the fifteenth century, but he is justly to be ranked with the men of letters. He was evidently a good linguist, having a thorough knowledge of French and Flemish, and a sufficient familiarity with Latin to enable him to print correctly books in that tongue, and to translate from Latin into English. In his edition of The Golden Legend, in the Life of S. Roche he prints the following record: “Which lyff is translated oute of latyn in to englysshe by me, Wyllyam Caxton.” His English style was fluent, and will compare favourably with that of other writers of the time. In the prologues and epilogues attached to his translations, he utilised freely (as was the custom of the time) material from various sources, altering this as he found convenient, and it is not always easy to distinguish between the pages that were original with himself and those of which he was simply the translator. He was able, however, to stamp his own individuality pretty thoroughly on all the editorial portions of his volumes, and occasionally, as in the sharp satire of women in the Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers, we find something which seems to be very definitely an expression of personal opinion.

For poetry Caxton had a cordial appreciation, and he printed the most noteworthy poems which were within his reach. In his second edition of The Canterbury Tales, he speaks of Chaucer as “the first founder of ornate eloquence in our English.” In history, the only works at that time available in English were the Chronicle of Brute and the Polychronicon. To the latter, Caxton himself prepared a continuation, bringing the narrative down nearly to his own time. Some of the earlier English authors, in recognition of the value of his work as a chronicler, class Caxton among the historians, while overlooking his distinctive service in introducing into England the art of printing. He was evidently a man of wide reading, and the acquaintance which he possessed with existing literature must have seemed very exceptional for his generation. His great delight was in romances, but he takes pains to tell us that these pleased him not simply for their accounts of feats of personal prowess, but rather for the examples presented in them of “courtesy, humanity, friendliness, hardiness, love, cowardice, murder, hate, virtue, and sin, which inflamed the hearts of the readers and hearers to eschew and flee works vicious and dishonest.[58]”

In his long and varied business career Caxton appears to have made no enemies and to have given no grounds for criticism or complaint, and during the troublous times of civil war he was able, notwithstanding his intimate relations with some of those high in authority, to preserve his independence of character and an unsullied record. He was not a man of genius, nor, perhaps, of the highest ideals; but he showed imagination, enterprise, and persistent courage. His work was honestly, intelligently, and effectively done, and his country has good reason to honour the memory of its first publisher.