WILLIAM CAXTON.
THE BIOGRAPHY AND TYPOGRAPHY OF
WILLIAM CAXTON,
_ENGLAND’S FIRST PRINTER_.
BY WILLIAM BLADES.
_SECOND EDITION._
~New York~:
SCRIBNER AND WELFORD.
1882.
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PREFACE.
In 1861 was published in quarto the first volume of “The Life and
Typography of William Caxton, England’s First Printer, with evidence of
his typographical connection with Colard Mansion the Printer at Bruges.
Compiled from original sources by William Blades;” the second volume
appearing in 1863.
In 1877, the year of the Caxton Celebration, a condensed edition of the
quarto work was issued in one volume octavo by Messrs. Trübner & Co.
In this some alterations and additions rendered necessary by recent
discoveries were incorporated.
The same publishers now offer a revised reprint, containing all the
matter and all the plates of the previous octavo issue, with the
addition of remarks upon the meaning and origin of Caxton’s Device,
and upon his system of punctuation.
A real study of our early printed books brings with it the knowledge,
more or less, of all the arts and sciences generally taught in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this lies one of its chief
attractions to the bibliographer. The invention of printing gave new
life to all branches of knowledge, and if we thoughtfully consider
the wonderful effects which have proceeded from it--effects far more
important to mankind than even the discovery of steam power, electric
power, or any other invention--we shall surely feel deeply interested
in all that concerns its introduction and spread in our own country.
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CONTENTS.
~Part I.~
CHAPTER I.
Caxton’s birthplace and parentage--Flemish settlers in the
Weald of Kent--Eyren = Egges--The families of Cauxton
and Causton--John Caxton of Canterbury--Date of Caxton’s
birth--Usual term of apprenticeship _page_ 1-6
CHAPTER II.
Caxton an apprentice--John Large: his household; his
mayoralty and death; his widow and her vow--Scenes in
London during Caxton’s apprenticeship--He goes abroad 7-14
CHAPTER III.
Bruges and the Merchant Adventurers--Caxton’s position
there--Journey to London--Fined for not attending
the “riding” on Lord Mayor’s Day--Account of the
Merchant Adventurers--Caxton appointed Governor; his
duties and emoluments--Correspondence between the
Mercers Company in London and Caxton at Bruges--Trade
treaties--Embassy--Marriage of the Duke of Burgundy
to Margaret of York--Caxton begins to translate “Le
Recueil”--Caxton as arbitrator--Presented with “vins
d’honneur”--Edward IV, a fugitive, takes refuge in
Bruges--Caxton in the service of the Duchess of
Burgundy--Resigns and turns Printer--Caxton’s marriage 15-32
CHAPTER IV.
Literature in the fifteenth century--Libraries of French
kings and Burgundian princes--Philip the Good--Edward
IV.--Louis de Bruges--Duke Humphrey--Guild of St. John
and of St. Luke and their manufacture of books--Caxton
starts to set up printing in England 33-38
CHAPTER V.
The gradual development of Books--Manuscripts compared with
printed books in their technical aspect--Shape of the
letters--Justification of types--Table of books--Tests
by which to recognise the dates of undated books 39-48
CHAPTER VI.
Colard Mansion: his history; workshop; landlords; his
printing compared with printing by William Caxton 49-54
CHAPTER VII.
Caxton a printer at Westminster--Dates of his first
productions and evidence of the place and date
of production--The “Bartholomeus” said to be by
Caxton--Printers’ errors--Wynken de Worde’s careless
mistakes--Sequence of Caxton’s books 55-68
CHAPTER VIII.
Caxton at Westminster--Position of his press--Not in the
Abbey--William Pratt--Maude Caxton--Chronological table
of all the books from the Westminster Press--Caxton
as a translator--His choice of works to print--His
death--His property and will--Legacies--His prologues
and epilogues--a Yorkist--His moralisations--Caxton
a linguist and translator--R. Atkyns and his
forgery--Caxton’s portrait--His character 69-92
CHAPTER IX.
Caxton as a master--His men--Peculiarities of
his books--The paper--Paper-marks--The
types--Compositor--Punctuation--Pressman--Printing
ink--Binder--Rubricator--Illuminator and wood
engraver--Early typefounders--B. Franklin--Type moulds
and punches--Particulars of all the five types, together
with the titles of the books used for each type--The
compositors--Pressmen--Bookbinder--Collation 93-142
APPENDIX.
Extracts from records and wardens’ accounts of the Mercers’
Company--Will of Robert Large--Records at Bruges--St.
Margaret’s Church records--Guild of our Lady in same
church--The treaty of Burgundy--Caxton’s marriage
certificate 143-166
~Part II.~
DESCRIPTION OF PRINTED BOOKS.
_BOOKS PRINTED IN TYPE NO. 1._
1. The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye.
2. Le Recueil des histoires de Troyes.
3. The game and playe of the chesse, moralised. First Edition.
4. Les fais et prouesses du noble et vaillant chevalier Jason.
5. Meditacions sur les sept pseaulmes penitenciaulx.
_BOOKS PRINTED IN TYPE NO. 2._
6. Les quatre derrennieres choses.
7. The history of Jason.
8. The dictes and sayinges of the Philosophers. First Edition.
9. Horæ ad usum Sarum.
10. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. First Edition.
11. The moral prouerbes of Chrystine.
12. Propositio Johannis Russell.
13. Stans puer ad mensam. First Edition.
14. Parvus Catho. First Edition.
15. Parvus Catho. Second Edition.
16. The Horse, the Shepe, and the Ghoos. First Edition.
17. The Horse, the Shepe, and the Ghoos. Second Edition.
18. Infancia Saluatoris.
19. The Temple of Glass.
20. The Chorle and the Bird. First Edition.
21. The Chorle and the Bird. Second Edition.
22. The Temple of Brass, or the Parlement of Fowls.
23. The Book of Curtesye. First Edition.
24. Queen Anelida.
25. Boecius de consolacione.
26. Cordyale; or the Four Last Things.
27. Fratris Laur. Guil. de Saona Margarita.
28. The dictes and sayinges of the Philosophers. Second Edition.
29. Indulgence from Pope Sixtus IV.
30. Parvus et Magnus Catho. Third Edition.
31. The Mirrour of the World. First Edition.
32. Reynard the Fox. First Edition.
33. Tully of olde age.
34. The game and playe of the chesse. Second Edition.
_BOOKS PRINTED IN TYPE NO. 3._
35. An Advertisement.
36. Directorium Sacerdotum. First Version.
37. Horæ ad usum Sarum. Second Edition.
38. Psalterium.
_BOOKS PRINTED IN TYPE NO. 4 AND 4*._
39. The Chronicles of England. First Edition.
40. The description of Britain.
41. Curia Sapientiæ.
42. Godfrey of Boloyne.
43. Indulgence from Sixtus IV. Second Edition.
44. Indulgence from Sixtus IV. Third Edition.
45. The Chronicles of England. Second Edition.
46. Polychronicon.
47. Pylgremage of the Sowle.
48. A Vocabulary.
49. The Festial. First Edition.
50. Four Sermons. First Edition.
51. Servitium de Visitatione beatæ V. Mariæ.
52. Sex Epistolæ.
53. Confessio Amantis.
54. The Knight of the Tower.
55. Caton.
56. The Golden Legende. First Edition.
57. Death-bed Prayers.
58. Æsop.
59. The Ordre of Chivalrye.
60. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Second Edition.
61. The Book of Fame.
62. The Curial.
63. Troilus and Creside.
64. The lyf of oure Ladye.
65. The lyf of Saynte Wenefrede.
66. Kyng Arthur.
67. Charles the Great.
68. Paris and Vienne.
69. The Golden Legende. Second Edition.
_BOOKS PRINTED IN TYPE NO. 5._
70. The booke of good maners.
71. Speculum Vite Christi. First Edition.
72. Directorium Sacerdotum. Second Version, First Edition.
73. Horæ ad usum Sarum. Third Edition.
74. The Royal Book.
75. Image of Pity.
76. The doctrynal of Sapyence.
77. Speculum Vite Christi. Second Edition.
78. Commemoratio lamentationis B. V. M.
79. Servitium de Transfiguratione.
80. Horæ ad usum Sarum. Fourth Edition.
_BOOKS PRINTED IN TYPE NO. 6._
81. Fayttes of Arms.
82. Statutes of England.
83. The gouernayle of Helthe.
84. Reynard the Fox. Second Edition.
85. Blanchardyn and Eglantyne.
86. The four Sons of Aymon.
87. Directorium Sacerdotum. Second Version, first Edition.
88. Eneydos.
89. The dictes and sayinges of the philosophers. Third Edition.
90. The Mirrour of the Worlde. Second Edition.
91. Divers Ghostly Matters.
92. The Fifteen Oes.
93. The Arte and Crafte to know well to dye.
94. The Book of Curtesye. Second Edition.
95. The Festial. Second Edition.
96. Four Sermons. Second Edition.
97. Ars moriendi.
98. The chastysing of goddes chyldern.
99. The treatise of Loue.
_POSTHUMOUS AND DOUBTFUL WORKS._
100. The life of St. Katheryne.
101. The Golden Legende. Third Edition.
102. The Siege of Rhodes.
103. Missale ad usum Sarum.
104. Bartholomeus de proprietatibus rerum.
105. Metamorphoses of Ovid.
106. The life and miracles of Robert Earl of Oxford.
107. A ballad.
The comparative rarity of books printed by Caxton.
INDEX.
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CHAPTER I.
_BIRTHPLACE AND PARENTAGE._
“I was born and lerned myn englissh in Kente in the weeld where I
doubte not is spoken as brode and rude englissh as is in ony place of
englond.” Thus briefly does William Caxton record the place of his
birth and early years, and not withstanding prolonged and careful
research nothing more precise has been ascertained.
The name of “weald,” rendered by Halliwell “forest,” or “woody
country,” betokens the nature of the district, which at the time of
the Conquest, and for centuries after, was covered with dense woods
where thousands of wild hogs roamed and fattened. This extensive tract
of country had no legally defined boundaries, and one can easily
understand how Lambarde, the Kentish historian, was so puzzled when he
attempted to describe it, that he declared it easier to deny altogether
the existence of the Weald than to define its boundaries with any
accuracy. An approximate idea of its geographical position may be
gained by observing that a traveller, starting from Edenbridge, and
journeying through Tunbridge, Marden, Biddenden, and Tenterden to the
Romney marshes, would pass through its centre.
A century before Caxton’s birth a great change had commenced in the
Weald of Kent. Hitherto the wool for which England was famous had been
purchased by merchants and carried over to Flanders, for the purpose
of being made into cloth, which was brought back for sale in England.
Edward III, struck by the wealth and power which accrued to Flanders
from the cloth manufacture established there, determined to try the
experiment of establishing a factory in England.
The Weald, covered as it then was with forests, was of little value
as land; and hither, aided in his design by the sanguinary feuds at
that time raging among the trade guilds of the Low Countries, the King
induced about eighty respectable Flemish families to migrate and carry
on the manufacture of cloth in the country which produced the wool.
Exempt from taxation, and favoured by the royal patronage and many
special privileges, the colony throve and grew rapidly. The Flemish
settlers soon became naturalised, and increased in wealth and influence
year by year; so that in the fifteenth century “their trade was of
great importance, and exercised by persons who possessed most of the
landed property in the weald.” Thus writes Hasted in 1778, and adds,
“Insomuch that almost all the antient families of these parts, now of
large estates, are sprung from ancestors who have used this staple
manufacture.”
We read Caxton’s narrative of his birth in a new light, when we bear
in mind that the inhabitants of the Weald had a strong admixture of
Flemish blood in their best families, and that cloth was their chief
and, probably, only manufacture. We understand why the Kentish dialect
was so broad and rude, and we enter more heartily into the amusing
anecdote in Caxton’s preface to the “Eneydos,” where he tells of the
good wife of Kent who knew what the Flemish word “eyren” meant, but
understood not the English word “eggs.” “Certayn marchaunts,” says
Caxton, “were in a ship in tamyse for to have sayled over the see into
zelande, and for lacke of wynde thei taryed atte forlond . and wente to
lande for to refreshe them And one of theym named sheffelde a mercer
cam in to an hows and axed for mete . and specyally he axed after eggys
And the good wyf answerde . that she coude speke no frenshe . And the
marchaunt was angry . for he also coude speke no frenshe . but wolde
have hadde egges, and she understode hym not, And thenne at last a
nother sayd that he wolde have eyren, then the good wyf sayd that she
understod hym wel.” Dr. Pegge, in his “Alphabet of Kenticisms,” gives
“eiren” as the equivalent of “eggs” in the Kentish dialect of old
English; and in any Dutch dictionary may be read: Eie, an egg; _pl._
eyren.
Here, then, in some rural homestead, surrounded by people who spoke
English “not to be understonden,” was Caxton born. Kentish historians,
anxious to localise the honour of having given birth to so famous a
man, claim the ancient manor of Caustons, near Hadlow, in the Weald
of Kent, as the original seat of the Caxton family. In the fifteenth
century the name Caxton was usually pronounced _Caux_ton or _Caus_ton,
the letter _a_ having a broad sound, and the _u_ being frequently
inserted after it. Numerous instances are given in the “Archæologia
Cantiana,” Vol. V, of names of Kentish towns having this broad
pronunciation. Thus Francklyn occurs in old deeds as Frauncklyn;
Malling as Mauling, and Wanting as Waunting. The letters _s_ and
_x_ were often interchanged, and so Caxton writes _Alisaunder_ for
_Alexander_, while to _ask_ appears in the “Chess Book” as to _axe_.
We may further note that _Caxton_, in Cambridgeshire, is spelt in old
documents, _Causton_, and, in the records of the Mercers’ Company, a
certain Thomas Cacston appears as one of the liverymen appointed to
welcome King Edward IV on his entry into London, and is immediately
after entered as Thomas Cawston. Many years before Caxton’s birth, the
manor of Caustons had been alienated from the Caxton family, by whom
it had long been held; and although some offshoots may have remained
in the neighbourhood, the most important branch appears to have taken
root in Essex, and there adopted the name of the old Kentish hundred
for their new residence; for among the wills now preserved at Somerset
House is that of Johannes Cawston, of Hadlow Hall, Essex, dated 1490.
Nothing, however, of interest can be gleaned from it.
We therefore conclude that William Caxton probably descended from
the old stock of the Caustons, who owned the manor of Caustons, near
Hadlow, in the Weald of Kent. The evidence is not strong, but yet there
is no other locality in the Weald in which can be traced the slightest
connection, either verbal or otherwise, with the family.
[Illustration: Three Cakes and a Tun]
Caxton’s pedigree is quite unknown, no trace of any of his relatives,
except a married daughter, having been discovered. The “William Caxton”
who was buried in 1478, in the church of St. Margaret, Westminster, is
asserted by some biographers to have been the father of our printer.
This may be possible; but no relationship can be assumed from mere
identity of name, for Caxtons, Caustons, or Cauxtons are to be found in
many parts of England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
William de Caxtone owned a house in the parish of St. Mary Abchurch,
London, in 1311: a man of the same name paid his tax to the City
authorities in 1441: and there was a family of Caxtons famous for
centuries as merchants at Norwich, who used as their trade-mark three
Cakes and a Tun. The will of Robert Caxton, alias Causton, is preserved
at Canterbury; and at Sandwich, Tuxford, Newark, Beckenham, Westerham,
and frequently in the early records of London does the name appear. The
will of John Caxton, of Canterbury, likewise still exists: he was “of
the parish of St. Alphage, Mercer,” and left to the church some wooden
“deskys,” upon which the following device may still be seen.
[Illustration: Device of John Caxton]
When was Caxton born? To this question a more satisfactory answer
can be given, for the date of his apprenticeship has fortunately been
preserved in the records of the Mercers’ Company. It has generally been
assumed that 1412 was the date of his birth, upon the sole ground that
Caxton himself complained, in 1471, that he was growing old and weak,
from which the inference has been drawn that he must then have seen at
least sixty years. That this date, however, must be advanced is proved
by the following extract from the earliest volume of the “Wardens’
Accounts” in the Archives of the Mercers’ Company. The entry occurs in
a list of fees for the binding and enrolment of apprentices “pur lan
deūnt passe cest assauoir des Fest de Saynt John Bap^{te} lan xvj du
Roy Henr sisme;” that is, “for the year last passed that is to say from
the Feast of St. John Baptist in the 16th year of King Henry VI [June
24, 1438],” and is literally as follows:--
Entres des Appñtices.
Item John large, } les appñtices de
Item Will’m Caxston, } Robert Large iiij s
We have here recorded the interesting fact that in 1438 Caxton was
apprenticed to Robert Large. It is the first genuine date in his life
with which we are acquainted, and affords us a starting-point from
which can be reckoned, with some degree of certainty, the date of his
birth.
The age of twenty-one has always been considered as the period when
a man arrives at his _legal_ majority; but in the fifteenth century
there was also what may be termed the _civic_ majority, which was not
attained until three years later. This custom prevailed to the end
of the seventeenth century; for in 1693 an Act of Common Council was
passed enjoining the Chamberlain to ascertain that every candidate
for admission to the freedom of the City had “reached the full age
of twenty-four.” The phrase “quousque ad etatem suam xxiiij annorum
peruenerit,” so commonly found in old wills, refers to this custom; and
in view of it the indenture of an apprentice was always so drawn that
on the commencement of his twenty-fifth year he might _issue_ from his
apprenticeship. This necessarily caused a considerable variation in the
length of servitude, which ranged according to the age of the youth,
from seven years, the shortest term, to fourteen years. In the Archives
of the Corporation of London (Lib. Dunthorne, 398_b_) is recorded a
case brought before the Court of Aldermen in the year 1451. William
Skydmore was apprenticed to Thomas Falkener, Citizen and Mercer, of
London, for the term of _fourteen_ years; but Thomas Falkener having
died, and the widow being unable to instruct Skydmore in his trade, and
moreover keeping him badly clothed and worse fed, he appealed to the
Court to discharge him from his apprenticeship. To this request, after
inquiry, the Court acceded.
Taking the “entries” and “issues” in the Mercers’ records as a guide,
ten years appears to have been the term most usual in the fifteenth
century; but if we calculate his servitude to have lasted but seven
years, Caxton could not have been more than seventeen years of age when
apprenticed, and would therefore have been born not later than the year
1421. That he was not much younger is evident from the position he had
gained for himself at Bruges only eleven years after he entered his
apprenticeship, when he was accepted as surety for a sum equal to £1500
at the present day; so that we cannot be far wrong if we assume 1422-3
as the date of his birth.
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