The Court of Burgundy—Caxton a Translator—Literature of Chivalry—Feudal
Times—Caxton at the Ducal Court—Did Caxton print at Bruges—Edward the
Fugitive—The new Art.
The "most dear" Duke of Burgundy, with whom Caxton was appointed to
negotiate in 1464, was Philip, surnamed the Good. He was a wise and
peaceful prince, and honourably earned his title. We know not whether
Caxton was in immediate attendance upon the court of Philip from the
commencement of his mission until the death of the duke in 1467; but the
evidence is subsequently clear that he was about the court in some
office of trust after the succession to the dukedom of the eldest son of
Philip, the Count of Charolois. The character of this prince was
entirely opposed to that of his father; and he acquired the name of
Charles le Téméraire, or the Rash. This fiery prince, whose influence in
that warlike age was perhaps greater than the benignant power of his
father, was not likely to have looked very favourably upon an envoy from
Edward of England: for he was allied by blood on his mother's side to
the house of Lancaster, and was consequently opposed to the fortunes of
the house of York. The court of Burgundy was the resort of many of the
adherents of that unhappy house, who had fled from England after many a
vain struggle with the triumphant Edward. These fugitives are described
by Comines "as young gentlemen whose fathers had been slain in England,
whom the Duke of Burgundy had generously entertained as his relations of
the house of Lancaster." Comines adds, "Some of them were reduced to
such extremity of want and poverty before the Duke of Burgundy received
them, that no common beggar could have been in greater; I saw one of
them, who was Duke of Exeter (but he concealed his name), following the
Duke of Burgundy's train bare-foot and barelegged, begging his bread
from door to door: this person was the next of the house of Lancaster;
had married King Edward's sister: and being afterwards known, had a
small pension allowed him for his subsistence. There were also some of
the family of the Somersets, and several others, all of them slain
since, in the wars." But the policy of Charles of Burgundy, after his
accession to the dukedom, led him to consider the ties of ancient
friendship as of far less importance than the strengthening of his hand
by an alliance with the successful house of York. Within a year of his
accession he married Margaret, sister of Edward IV. Comines says this
marriage "was principally to strengthen his alliance against the king of
France, otherwise he would never have done it, for the love he bore to
the house of Lancaster." The establishment of Margaret as Duchess of
Burgundy gave a direction to the fortunes of William Caxton, and was in
all likelihood the proximate cause that _he_ was our first English
printer.
Margaret Plantagenet was married to Charles of Burgundy at the city of
Bruges, on the 3rd of July, 1468. We have the distinct evidence of
Caxton that he was residing at Bruges some months previous to the
marriage; that he had little to do; and that he employed his leisure in
literary pursuits. In his 'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye' it is
stated in the title-page, "which said translation and work was begun in
Bruges, in the county of Flanders, the first day of March, the year of
the Incarnation a thousand, four hundred, sixty and eight." The prologue
begins as follows:—"When I remember that every man is bounden by the
commandment and counsel of the wise man to eschew sloth and idleness,
which is mother and nourisher of vices, and ought to put myself unto
virtuous occupation and business, then I, having no great charge or
occupation, following the said counsel, took a French book and read
therein many strange marvellous histories, wherein I had great pleasure
and delight, as well for the novelty of the same, as for the fair
language of the French, which was in prose so well and compendiously set
and written, methought I understood the sentence and substance of every
matter. And for so much as this book was new and late made and drawn
into French, and never had seen it in our English tongue, I thought in
myself it should be a good business to translate it into our English, to
the end that it might be had as well in the royaume of England as in
other lands, and also for to pass therewith the time, and thus concluded
in myself to begin this said work, and forthwith took pen and ink, and
began boldly to run forth, as blind Bayard, in this present work."
Philip de Comines, speaking of the prosperity of the people at the time
of the accession of Charles, says, "The subjects of the house of
Burgundy lived at that time in great plenty and prosperity, grew proud
and wallowed in riches.... The expenses and habits both of women and men
were great and extravagant; their entertainments and banquets more
profuse and splendid than in any other place that I ever saw." The city
of Bruges was then the great seat of this wealth and luxury. The Flemish
nobles lived here in mansions of striking architecture, some traces of
which still remain. The merchants vied with the nobles in tasteful
magnificence. The canals of Bruges were crowded with boats laden with
the richest treasures of distant lands. It was commerce that made the
inhabitants of Bruges, of Ghent, and the other great Flemish towns so
rich and powerful; and the same commerce was the encourager of art,
which even at this early period displayed itself amongst a people
naturally disposed for its cultivation. Charles the Rash destroyed much
of this prosperity by his aptitude for war. But in the onset of his
career he fought with all the pomp and graces of the old chivalry, and
his court was the seat of such romantic pageantries that John Paston, an
Englishman who went over with Margaret of York, writes, "As for the
duke's court, as for lords, ladies, and gentlewomen, knights, esquires,
and gentlemen, I heard never of none like to it save King Arthur's
court." It was here, without doubt, that William Caxton, the yeoman's
son of the Weald of Kent, and afterwards the mercer's apprentice of the
city of London, acquired that love for the literature of chivalry which
he displays on many occasions in his office of translator and printer.
Here he made acquaintances that led him to the study of the
romance-writers, as for example of a worthy canon of whom he writes,
"Oft times I have been excited of the venerable man Messire Henry
Bolomyer canon of Lausanne, for to reduce for his pleasure some
histories, as well in Latin and in romance as in other fashion written;
that is to say, of the right puissant, virtuous, and noble Charles the
Great, King of France and Emperor of Rome, son of the great Pepin, and
of his princes and barons, as Rowland, Oliver, and other." His zeal for
this species of literature left him not in his latest years: for in his
translation of 'The Book of the Order of Chivalry,' which was printed by
him about 1484, he rises into absolute eloquence in his address at the
conclusion of the volume: "Oh, ye knights of England, where is the
custom and usage of noble chivalry that was used in those days? What do
ye now, but go to the baynes [baths] and play at dice? And some, not
well advised, use not honest and good rule, against all order of
knighthood. Leave this, leave it! and read the noble volumes of St.
Graal, of Lancelot, of Galaad, of Trystram, of Perse Forest, of
Percyval, of Gawayn, and many more: there shall ye see manhood,
courtesy, and gentleness. And look in latter days of the noble acts sith
the Conquest, as in King Richard days Cœur de Lion, Edward I., and III.
and his noble sons, Sir Robert Knolles, Sir John Hawkwode, Sir John
Chandos, and Sir Gueltiare Manny. Read Froissart; and also behold that
victorious and noble King Harry V., and the captains under him, his
noble brethren the earls of Salisbury, Montagu, and many other, whose
names shine gloriously by their virtuous noblesse and acts that they did
in the honour of the order of chivalry. Alas, what do ye but sleep and
take ease, and are all disordered from chivalry?" Caxton was dazzled, as
many others were, with the bravery and the generosity of the chivalric
character. He did not see the cruelty and pride, the oppression and
injustice, that lurked beneath the glittering armour and the velvet
mantle. Yet he was amongst those who first helped to destroy the gross
inequality upon which chivalry was founded, by raising up the middle
classes to the possession of knowledge. There were scenes transacting at
Bruges, even at the very hour when Margaret of York came to give her
hand to Charles of Burgundy, that must have shown him what fearful
passions were too often the companions of the courage and graces of
knighthood.
At the midsummer of 1468 Bruges presented a scene of magnificence that
was probably unequalled in those days of costly display. On the occasion
of the approaching marriage, the nobility of Charles's extensive
dominions arrived from every quarter. Ambassadors were there from all
Christian powers. It looked like an occasion on which men should forget
that there was such a thing as war in the world; and when despotism
should put on its blandest smile and its most courteous reverence for
all orders of men. The Duke of Burgundy anxiously desired the presence
of the Count de St. Pôl, the great Constable of France. The constable
arrived, surrounded with every pomp that his pride could devise,—with
trumpets and banners, with pages on foot and crowds of horsemen, and a
naked sword borne before him as the symbol of sovereignty. Charles was
irritated beyond measure, and refused to receive the great lord, who
from that hour became his deadliest enemy. But there was something more
tragic to be enacted in the midst of a population looking only for high
triumphs and royal pleasures. One of the chamberlains of the Duke of
Burgundy was an illegitimate son of the Lord of Condé; he was very
young, of exceeding beauty, and the most agreeable manners. He had
fought by the side of the duke at the battle of Montlhéry, and was one
of his most especial favourites. The youth, with that ferocious
self-abandonment which was not incompatible with the gentlest manners in
courts and the noblest honours in camps, committed a murder under
circumstances of extraordinary aggravation. He was playing at tennis,
and, the fairness of a stroke being doubtful, a bystander was called
upon to decide. Deciding against the Bastard of Condé, the young man
swore that he would be revenged. The bystander, who was a canon of the
church, fled to his home, and the furious youth pursued him. The canon
escaped, but his brother encountered the madman. Some victim must be
offered up to appease his selfish rage, and the brother was in his path.
The wretched man fell on his knees, and, clasping his hands, begged for
mercy. Those uplifted hands were cut off in an instant, and the sword
that had been honourably drawn at Montlhéry, pierced the breast of an
unoffending citizen. Such a murder could not pass unnoticed; and yet the
young man's friends did not doubt that he would go unpunished, for he
had committed the crime in his father's lordship. Such crimes were often
committed with impunity by the great and the powerful; and even the
commonalty were unprepared to expect any heavier punishment than a
pecuniary recompense to the relations of the murdered man. The duke,
however, had taken his determination. The Bastard of Condé was held in
arrest at the house of the gatekeeper of the city of Bruges. Charles was
solicited on every side for pardon, and even the relations of the
deceased, having been moved by suitable presents, supplicated his
release; but the duke kept the matter in suspense till Bruges was filled
with his subjects from every part of his dominions, and especially with
the most powerful of his nobles. At the instant that he was ready to
depart to meet the Lady Margaret at the neighbouring port of Ecluse, he
commanded that the young man should be taken to the common prison, and
the next morning led to execution. Even the magistrate of the city to
whom this command was intrusted thought it impossible that the duke
should execute one so highly connected, as if he were a common offender.
The execution was delayed several hours by the magistrate in the hope
that the duke would relent; but no respite came. The youth was carried
through the city to the place of execution, amidst the tears of the
people, who forgot his crime in his beauty. He was beheaded, and his
body divided into four quarters. The Lord of Condé and his adherents
left the city vowing vengeance. The nobles assembled felt themselves
outraged by this exercise of absolute power. Even the citizens
attributed the stern decree of the duke to his indomitable pride rather
than to his love of justice. Such was the prelude to the bridal
festivities of the court of Burgundy; of which one who wrote an especial
description in Latin says, "The sun never shone upon a more splendid
ceremony since the creation of the world."
There can be no doubt that Caxton was in the direct employ of Margaret,
Duchess of Burgundy. What he has told us himself of his position in her
court is far more interesting than all the conjectures which his
biographers have exercised upon the matter. He was in an honourable
position, he was treated with confidence, he was grateful. We have
already given an extract from the prologue to his 'Recuyell of the
Historyes of Troye,' which shows when and under what circumstances he
commenced the translation of that work. Remembering his simpleness and
unperfectness in the French and English languages (which passage we have
already noticed), he continues: "When all these things came before me,
after that I had made and written five or six quires, I fell in despair
of this work, and purposed no more to have continued therein, and the
quires laid apart; and in two years after laboured no more at this work,
and was fully in will to have left it. Till on a time it fortuned that
the right high, excellent, and right virtuous princess, my right
redoubted lady, my Lady Margaret"—and then he gives her a host of
titles—"sent for me to speak with her good grace of divers matters,
among the which I let her highness have knowledge of the aforesaid
beginning of this work; which anon commanded me to shew the said five or
six quires to her said grace. And when she had seen them, anon she found
defaute [fault] in mine English, which she commanded me to amend, and
moreover commanded me straightly [immediately] to continue and make an
end of the residue then not translated. Whose dreadful commandment I
durst in no wise disobey, because I am a servant unto her said grace,
and receive of her yearly fee, and other many good and great benefits,
and also hope many more to receive of her highness; but forthwith went
and laboured in the said translation after my simple and poor cunning,
all so nigh as I can following mine author, meekly beseeching the
bounteous highness of my said lady, that of her benevolence list to
accept and take in gree [take kindly] this simple and rude work." The
picture which Caxton thus presents to us of his showing his translation
with an author's diffidence to the "dreadful" duchess, her criticism of
his English, and her very flattering command that in spite of all its
faults he should make an end of his work, is as interesting as
Froissart's account of his literary recreations with Gaston de
Foix:—"The acquaintance of him and of me was because I had brought with
me a book, which I made at the contemplation of Winceslaus of Bohemia,
Duke of Luxembourg and of Brabant, which work was called 'Meliador,'
containing all the songs, ballads, rondeaux, and virelays which the
gentle duke had made in this time, which by imagination I had gathered
together; which book the Count of Foix was glad to see. And every night
after supper I read therein to him; and while I read there was none
durst speak any word, because he would I should be well understood,
wherein he took great solace." In both cases the men of letters were
received on a free and familiar footing in the courtly circles. In the
case of Caxton this was even more honourable to the Lady Margaret, than
the welcome which Gaston de Foix gave to the accomplished knight Sir
John Froissart. Caxton had no knightly honours to recommend him; he was
a plain merchant: but he was unquestionably a man of modesty and
intelligence; he had travelled much; he was familiar with the most
popular literature of his day; and he desired to extend the knowledge of
it by translations into his native language. It is difficult to say what
was his exact employment in the court of the Lady Margaret. He was
somewhat too old to partake of its light amusements, to mingle in its
gallantries, or even to prompt my lady's fool with some word of wisdom.
We have seen that four months before Margaret of York came to Bruges he
had "no great charge or occupation," and he undertook the translation of
a considerable work "for to pass therewith the time." It has, however,
been maintained of late years, that Caxton was at this very time a
printer. The question is a curious one, and we may bestow a little space
upon its examination.
Mr. Hallam, in his 'Literature of Europe,' noticing the progress of
printing, says that several books were printed in Paris in 1470 and
1471, adding, "But there seem to be unquestionable proofs that a still
earlier specimen of typography is due to an English printer, the famous
Caxton. His 'Recueil des Histoires de Troye' appears to have been
printed during the life of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, and consequently
before June 15, 1467. The place of publication, certainly within the
duke's dominions, has not been conjectured. It is, therefore, by several
years the earliest printed book in the French language. A Latin speech
by Russell, ambassador of Edward IV. to Charles of Burgundy, in 1469, is
the next publication of Caxton. This was also printed in the Low
Countries." The authority upon which the learned and accomplished
historian of the Middle Ages relies for this statement is that of Mr.
Dibdin, in his 'Typographical Antiquities.' The French edition of the
'Recueil des Histoires de Troye' bears no printer's name, date, or
place. It purports to have been composed by Raoul le Fevre, chaplain to
Duke Philip de Bourgoyne, in the year 1464. The evidence that this book
was printed by Caxton was summed up by Mr. Bryant, and communicated by
him to Mr. Herbert, the first editor of Ames's 'Typographical
Antiquities.' The Rev. Mr. Dibdin, the second editor, says that these
memoranda of Mr. Bryant's "clearly prove it to have been the production
of Caxton." The argument rests upon these points: that the French and
English editions of Le Fevre's work have an exact conformity and
likeness throughout, for not only the page itself, but the number of
lines in a page, the length, breadth, and intervals of the lines, are
alike in both, and the letters, great and small, are of the same
magnitude. It corresponds too with 'The Game of the Chess,' printed by
Caxton in England, in 1474. "These considerations," says Mr. Bryant,
"settle who the printer was." We venture to doubt this. Mr. Bryant has
himself shown how this resemblance might be produced between books
printed by Caxton, and books supposed to be printed by him, without
Caxton being the actual printer. "Mentz was taken by the Duke of Saxony
in the year 1462, and most of the artificers employed by John Fust, the
great inventor, were dispersed abroad. I make no doubt but Caxton, who
was at no great distance from Mentz, took this opportunity of making
himself a master of the mystery, which he had been at much trouble and
expense to obtain. This I imagine he effected by taking into pay some of
Fust's servants, and settling them for a time at Cologne. Of this number
probably were Pinson and Rood, Mechlin, Lettou, and Wynkyn de Worde.
With the help of some of these, he printed the book [which Wynkyn de
Worde says Caxton printed] 'Bartholomeus de Prop. Rerum,' and the
translation of the 'Recueil;' and probably many other books, which,
being either in French or Latin, were not vendible in our country, and
consequently no copies are extant here. Of all the books he printed in
England, I do not remember above one in a foreign language." The
calamity which drove the printers of Mentz from their homes, the
storming of the city by Adolphus of Nassau, would naturally disperse
their types, as well as break up their workshops. The resemblance
between the doubtful books, and books undoubtedly printed by Caxton, was
the resemblance of types cast in the same matrices; the spaces between
the lines, as well as the form and magnitude of the letters, were
produced by the letters being cast in the same mould. The resemblance
would have been equally produced whether the types were used by one and
the same printer, or by two printers. The typographical antiquarians say
that the same types are used in the French and English works of Le Fevre
and in Caxton's 'Game of Chess;' and Mr. Herbert adds, that the types
are the same as those used by Fust and Schoeffer, the partners of
Guttenberg. If the resemblance of types were sufficient to determine the
printer of two or more books, then Fust and Schoeffer ought to be called
the printers of the French 'Recueil,' as well as of the English
translation which Caxton says he printed at Cologne. There can be little
doubt that, when Caxton went to Cologne to be a printer in 1471, he
became possessed of the types and matrices with which he printed his
translation of Le Fevre, and subsequently brought to England to print
his 'Game of Chess.' Another printer might have preceded him in their
possession, and might have received them direct from Fust and Schoeffer.
When the art ceased to be a mystery, a profit might arise from selling
the types or multiplying the matrices. Upon these considerations we
wholly demur to the assertion, resting solely upon this resemblance,
that Caxton was a printer during the life of Philip le Bon. The belief
is entirely opposed to his own statement, that shortly after the death
of this prince he was completely at leisure, and set about a translation
to while away his time. To be a printer in those days was a mighty
undertaking. We shall subsequently see that he declares that he had
practised and learnt the art at great charge and expense. It is wholly
unlikely, also, that so gossiping a man, who makes a familiar friend of
his readers, telling them of almost every circumstance that led to the
printing of every book, that he in his translation should not have said
one word of being the printer of the original work. The other book, the
Latin speech by Russell, in 1469, which has been called the second
publication of Caxton, is attributed to him absolutely upon no other
grounds than the same resemblance of type. Assuredly we cannot receive
the fact of resemblance as conclusive of Caxton being the printer either
in this case or in that of the preceding. He tells us that in 1470 he
was a servant receiving yearly fee from the Duchess of Burgundy, and
completed an extensive work at her command, which he simply began "to
eschew sloth and idleness," and to put himself "unto virtuous occupation
and business." When he did fairly become a printer, he left sufficiently
clear indications of his habitual industry. We have no question how he
filled up his time when the press at Westminster was at work.
It was in the autumn of 1470, when Master William Caxton would appear to
have been busily labouring in some silent turret of the palace at
Bruges, upon his translation of Raoul le Fevre, that an event occurred,
of all others the most calculated to spread consternation in the court
of Burgundy, and to make the bold duke feel that in abandoning his
family alliance with the house of Lancaster he had not done the politic
thing which he anticipated. Edward IV., who had sat for some years with
tolerable quiet upon the English throne, to which he had fought his way
in many a battlefield with prodigious bravery, suddenly arrived at
Bruges, in the October of 1470, a discrowned fugitive. He made his
escape from the overwhelming inroad of the power of Warwick, "attended,"
says Comines, "by seven or eight hundred men without any clothes but
what they were to have fought in, no money in their pockets, and not one
in twenty of them knew whither they were going." He, the most beautiful
man of the time, as Comines describes him,—who for twelve or thirteen
years of prosperity had lived a life of the most luxurious
gratification,—he arrived at Bruges, after being chased by privateers,
and with difficulty rescued from their hands, so poor that he "was
forced to give the master of the ship for his passage a gown lined with
martens." At Bruges, then, did this fugitive remain nearly five months,
when he again leaped into his throne, in the following April, with a
triumphant boldness which has only one parallel in modern history,—that
of the march of Napoleon from Elba. In May, 1471, he addressed a letter
in French to the nobles and burgomasters of Bruges, thanking them for
the courtesy and hospitality he had received from them during his exile.
Edward was of a sanguine temper; and, however depressed in fortune, was
not likely, during those five months of humiliation, to have doubted
that in good time he should regain the throne. He was of an easy and
communicative disposition; and would naturally confer with his sister
and her confidential servants upon his plans and prospects. Comines
says, "King Edward told me that, in all the battles which he had gained,
his way was, when the victory was on his side, to mount on horseback,
and cry out to save the common soldiers, and put the gentry to the
sword." We mention this to show that he was not indisposed to talk of
himself and his doings with those whom he met during his exile. It is
more than probable, then, that he had the same sort of free
communication with his countryman Caxton. It was at this period that the
progress of the art of printing must have been a subject of universal
interest The merchants of Bruges had commercial intercourse with all the
countries of Europe; and they would naturally bring to the court of
Burgundy some specimens of that art which was already beginning to
create a new description of commerce. From Mentz, Bamberg, Cologne,
Strasburg, and Augsburg, they would bring some of the Latin and German
bibles which, from 1461 to 1470, had issued from the presses of those
cities. The presses of Italy, and especially of Rome, of Venice, and of
Milan, had, during the same period, sent forth books, and more
particularly classical works, in great abundance. The art had made such
rapid progress in Italy, that in the first edition of St. Jerome's
Epistles, printed in 1468, the Bishop of Aleria thus addresses Pope
Paul II.: "It was reserved for the times of your holiness for the
Christian world to be blessed with the immense advantages resulting from
the art of printing; by means of which, and with a little money, the
poorest person may collect together a few books. It is a small testimony
of the glory of your holiness, that the volumes which formerly scarcely
an hundred golden crowns would purchase may now be procured for twenty
and less, and these well-written and authentic ones." It is pretty clear
that Caxton, when he began his translation of the 'Histories of Troye,'
had some larger circulation in view than could be obtained by the medium
of transcription: "I thought in myself it should be a good business to
translate it into our English, to the end that it might be had as well
in the royaume of England as in other lands." It is also probable that
he was moving about in search of the best mode of printing it; for he
says, at the end of the second book of the 'Recueil,' "And for as much
as I suppose the said two books be not had before this time in our
English language, therefore I had the better will to accomplish the said
work; which work was begun in Bruges, and continued in Gaunt [Ghent],
and finished in Cologne, in time of the troublous world, and of the
great divisions being and reigning as well in the royaumes of England
and France as in all other places universally through the world, that is
to wit, the year of our Lord one thousand, four hundred, and
seventy-one." But he further says, with reference to his translation of
the third book, which he doubted about doing, "because that I have now
good leisure, being in Cologne, and have none other thing to do at this
time in eschewing of idleness, mother of all vices, I have deliberated
in myself of the contemplation of my said redoubted lady, to take this
labour in hand." We shall presently see when Caxton became, or at any
rate avowed himself to have become, a printer. Up to this point we see
him only as a translator, a man of leisure, and not one learning a new
and difficult craft. But we see him moving about from Bruges to Ghent,
from Ghent to Cologne, without any distinct or specified object. There
can be little doubt, we believe, that he was endeavouring to make
himself acquainted with the new art, still in great measure a secret
art, the masters of which required to be approached with considerable
caution. That the presence of Edward IV. in Flanders, during a period
when Caxton might readily have had access to his person, might have led
him to believe that the time would come when, under the patronage of the
restored prince, he might carry the art to London, is not an improbable
conjecture. Amongst the companions of Edward's exile was his
brother-in-law, the celebrated Lord Rivers. This brave and accomplished
young nobleman subsequently translated a book called 'The Dictes and
Sayings of Philosophers,' which Caxton printed at Westminster, in 1477.
The printer has added an appendix to this translation, from which we
collect that the noble author and his literary printer were upon terms
of mutual confidence and regard: "At such time as he had accomplished
this said work, it liked him to send it to me in certain quires to
oversee.... And so afterward I came unto my said lord, and told him how
I had read and seen his book, and that he had done a meritorious deed in
the labour of the translation thereof.... Then my said lord desired me
to oversee it, and, where as I should find fault, to correct it, wherein
I answered unto his lordship that I could not amend it....
Notwithstanding he willed me to oversee it." Earl Rivers, then Lord
Scales, was also at Bruges upon the occasion of the Lady Margaret's
marriage. Employed, therefore, by the Duchess of Burgundy, the sister of
Edward IV., and honoured with the confidence of Earl Rivers, his
brother-in-law, we may reasonably believe that the presence of Edward at
Bruges in 1470-71 might have had some influence upon the determination
of Caxton to learn and practise the new art of printing, and to carry it
into England, if the "troublous times" could afford him occasion. We
have distinct evidence that Edward IV. gave a marked encouragement to
the labours of Caxton as a translator, in a book printed by him without
any date, 'The Life of Jason,' written, as were the 'Histories of Troy,'
by Raoul le Fevre, in which Caxton says in his prologue, "For as much as
late by the commandment of the right high and noble princess my Lady
Margaret, &c., I translated a book out of French into English, named
'Recueil,' &c.... Therefore, under the protection and sufferance of the
most high, puissant, and Christian king, my most dread natural liege,
Lord Edward, &c., I intend to translate the said book of the 'Histories
of Jason.'" The expression "for as much as late by the commandment,
&c.," brings the date of the 'Histories of Jason' close to that of the
'Histories of Troy' and points out the probability that the protection
and sufferance of Edward was afforded to Caxton when the king was a
fugitive at the court of Burgundy. In the 'Issues of the Exchequer,'
there is the following entry of a payment on the 15th of June, in the
19th of Edward IV., "To William Caxton, in money paid to his own hands,
in discharge of twenty pounds which the lord the king commanded to be
paid to the same William for certain causes and matters performed by him
for the said lord the king." This is eight years after the period of
Edward's exile, being in 1479. But as the productions of Caxton's press
were very prolific at this time, we may believe that the payment of such
a large sum for certain causes and matters performed for the king was in
some degree connected with his labours in the introduction of printing
into England,—a payment not improbably postponed for obligations
incurred, and promises granted, at an earlier period.