WILLIAM CAXTON, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND,
1422-1492.
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.”
With the exception of the anonymous French version printed by
Mansion in Bruges, in 1471, this was the first edition of this
perennial work issued in Europe in any version but the original
Latin. The earliest printed edition of the Latin, that of Koberger,
had been issued in Nuremberg in 1473. Boëthius had received
continued attention at the hands of the scribes, and the number
of manuscript copies available for the earlier printers was
possibly greater than of any other classic. M. Paris speaks of five
different translations of the “De Consolacione” into French verse,
which had been produced in the fifteenth century. Mr. Blades says
that the version by Chaucer was made not from the French, but from
the original Latin. One of the three copies of the Caxton edition
in the British Museum, which was discovered in the library of the
school attached to the Abbey of St. Albans (an abbey which had had
an old-time association with literature), was noteworthy because
in the covers were discovered certain printed sheets of other of
Caxton’s publications not previously known.[51]
Chaucer appears to have considered this translation to be one of
his praiseworthy undertakings. He writes:
And for to speke of other holynesse
He hath in prose translated Boëce.[52]
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.
This poet, several of whose productions have been preserved by
Caxton’s Press, died in 1461, about fifteen years before Caxton
began his printing work. While not quite a contemporary, he was
one of the few English authors of his own times with whom Caxton’s
imprint is associated. The poem presents a debate between Mercy,
Truth, Justice, and Peace, together with a metrical description
of theology, geography, natural history, horticulture, grammar,
rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. I am not
sure from the description whether it is to be classed with light
literature, or may properly be considered as one of the publisher’s
“solid” productions.
The author is frank enough in regard to his own deficiencies. He
writes:
I am a monk by my profession,
Of Bury, called John Lydgate by my name,
And wear a habit of perfection,
Although my life agree not with the same.
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.
Full oft time it falleth so,
Mine ear with a good pittance
Is fed of reading of romance,
Of Iodyne, and of Amadas,
That whilom weren in my case,
And eke of other many a score,
That loveden long ere I was bore.
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.
=Wynken de Worde.=--Caxton’s successor, Wynken de Worde, was by birth
a Lorrainer, and had accompanied Caxton on his removal from Bruges to
London. He had made good use of his years of preliminary training, and
he was able largely to improve upon Caxton’s printing methods, while
in his publishing undertakings, he had the advantage of a constantly
widening circle of readers of books. His publications comprised no less
than four hundred separate works, covering a wide range of literature.
He does not appear himself to have undertaken any translating or
editorial responsibilities, and in fact no one of the English printers
of the sixteenth century is to be placed in the group of scholars to
which belonged Aldus, Froben, and the Estiennes.
The demand for printed books in England, a demand which had, as we have
seen, antedated the establishment of Caxton’s Press at Westminster, was
much greater than could be satisfied by either Caxton, or his immediate
successors, De Worde and Richard Pynson, and the importation of books
from Paris, Rouen, Bruges, Antwerp, Cologne, and other continental
cities, increased steadily during the last part of the fifteenth
and the first portion of the sixteenth century. Of a number of the
English publications of this period, the editions were printed on the
Continent especially for the English market. Humphreys cites, among
other instances, a series of missals printed in 1516 by Olivier of
Rouen for the church of York, and an edition of the _Chronicles of
England_ printed (in English) in Antwerp, in 1493, by Gerard Leew.[59]
These Rouen missals were among the last of the Roman Catholic books
of service printed abroad for the use of the English churches, as, in
1534, these churches adopted the _Ritual of the Reformation_. The title
of the chronicles reads, “_Chronycles of the Lond of Englond_.”
=Printing in Oxford.=--The second printing-office established in
England was that of Oxford. The authority on the earlier history of
printing in Oxford is the treatise and comprehensive bibliography of
Mr. Madan, published in 1895, under the title of _The Early Oxford
Press_. Some of the earlier historians of the University had claimed
for the Oxford Press an earlier date than that of Caxton’s undertaking.
This claim has rested almost entirely on the date 1468, which appears
in the colophon of a treatise on the Apostles’ Creed, which treatise,
says Madan, was undoubtedly the first product of the Oxford Press.
The authorship of the volume as printed is ascribed to S. Jerome, and
it is so referred to by Humphreys and other writers. Madan points
out, however, that the actual author was Tyranneus Rufinus. It is his
conclusion that the date 1468 (which is nine years earlier than the
date of the first Caxton publication) is undoubtedly an error, and an
error probably due to a single misprint.
The history of this volume came to possess some importance apart
from its relation to the chronology of the English printing-press.
In 1664, Richard Atkyns, a graduate of Balliol, printed in London a
monograph entitled, _The Original and Growth of Printing, Collected
out of History and the Records of this Kingdome. Wherein is also
Demonstrated that Printing Appertaineth to the Prerogative Royal, and
is a Flower of the Crown of England._ It was the purpose of Atkyns to
recommend himself to the attention of King Charles II. by proving that
printing was a royal privilege, and for this purpose it was desirable
that there should be evidence of the introduction of the art into
England under royal protection. The history of the establishment of
the printing-press of Caxton did not give grounds for such a claim.
In this Oxford volume bearing date 1468, Atkyns found, however, the
evidence which could be made to serve his purpose. He goes on to
give in his narrative a story, more or less confused, as to persons
and places, the purport of which was, that at the instance of Thomas
Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, King Henry VI. had taken measures
to bring into the kingdom a “printing-mold.” The King, says Atkyns,
was a “good man and much given to works of this nature.” He was very
ready to further the undertaking, and he provided a considerable
sum of money, to be used for enticing away some of the workmen from
_Harlein in Holland_, where the art had recently been invented by _John
Cuthenberg_. “The money was confided to me, Robert Tournour, Master of
the Robes, who took into his assistance Mr. Caxton, a citizen of good
abilities, who traded much in Holland.” Further details of the journey
to Holland made by Tournour and Caxton are given, with the final
result that they succeeded in getting off one of the under workmen,
whose name was Frederick Corsells (or Corsellis). It was not thought
prudent to set Corsellis to work in London, and he was, therefore,
taken to Oxford, where, according to this theory, he instituted the
first printing-press in England. Atkyns goes on to point out that “This
press at Oxon was at least ten years before there was any printing in
Europe (except at _Harlein_ and _Mentz_) where also it was but new
born.” Later, “the King set up a press at St. Albans and another at
the Abbey of Westminster, where they printed several books of Divinity
and Physics (for the King, for reasons best known to himself and
Council, permitted no law books to be printed), nor did any printer
exercise that art but only such as were the King’s sworn servants;
the King himself having the Price and Emolument for Printing Books.”
For the mixing up in this narrative of Harlem and Koster and Mentz and
Gutenberg, it is to be noted, Atkyns refers, as his authority, to an
old manuscript in Lambeth, which has, however, not been found.
This story of Atkyns is dismissed by Madan (as it had previously been
dismissed by Humphreys and Blades) as a “clumsy forgery.”[60] It is
of interest, however, as indicating the theory of the Crown, or at
least the theory which the Crown was supposed to favour at the time
of Charles II., concerning the relation of the printing-press to the
Crown and the historic foundation for the royal claim to control and
supervise printed literature.
If the corrected date of 1478 be accepted for the _Rufinus_, it still
appears that the work of printing in Oxford began very promptly after
the establishment of the Caxton Press in Westminster. It is further
evident from the comparison of the typography and other manufacturing
details of this first Oxford volume and of its immediate successors,
that the methods and instruction of the Oxford printers were not
derived from London or from Bruges, but are to be connected directly
with the undertakings of the printers of Cologne, and more particularly
with the orifice of Ulrich Zell, whose name has already been referred
to.
The second Oxford publication, bearing an unquestioned date of 1479,
is an edition of a treatise by Bishop Ægidius de Columna, of Rome.
The third work, issued in the same year, was a Latin translation,
prepared by Brunus of Arezzo, of the _Ethics_ of Aristotle. The fourth
publication, issued in 1480, was an edition of the oration of Cicero,
_Pro Milone_. Both Madan and Blades are of opinion that the book
probably belonged to Oxford and to this year, although the evidence is
not conclusive. If the book has been correctly placed, it is the first
Latin classic printed in England, the second being a _Terence_ issued
(in London) in 1497.[61] The work of the first printing-press of Oxford
came to a close suddenly in 1487. The printing at St. Albans ceased at
about the same time. The first printers in Oxford did not connect their
names with their volumes. The name of the printer of the _Rufinus_ and
of the _Ægidius_ has not been traced. The printer of the _Cicero_, and
of some works following the _Cicero_, is identified as Theodoricus Rood
de Colonia. The same name appears in connection with that of Thomas
Hunt (Anglicus) as the printers together, in 1485, of the _Letters
of Phalaris_. Thomas Hunt’s name is recorded in 1473, as that of a
_Universitatis Oxoni Stationarius_. A record has been preserved,
bearing date 1483, in which Sir Thomas Hunt agrees to sell certain
books in Oxford at fixed prices. Madan suggests that the stopping of
the Oxford Press in 1487 may have been due to the departure of Rood for
Cologne, as he finds record of the printing in Cologne in that year of
certain books in a type similar to that used for the preceding Oxford
volumes, by a printer registered as _Theodoricus_.
During the years 1517 and 1518, editions of Burley on _Aristotle_,
Burley’s _Principia_, and three or four other books were printed in
Oxford by Johannes Scolar and Carolus Kyrfoth. These were evidently
Germans, and were probably from Cologne. Three of the works were issued
_cum privilegio_. After 1518, printing ceases in Oxford for nearly
forty years.[62]
=Later English Presses.=--The third place in England in which a
printing-press was established was the Abbey of St. Albans, an abbey
which during the manuscript period had had a long and honourable
association with literary activity. The first book issued from the St.
Albans Press, the _Exempla Sacræ Scripturæ_, bears date 1481. The type
is from the same font, or from a precisely similar font, as that used
in the Caxton volumes of this year, and Humphreys is of opinion that
Caxton was concerned in this St. Albans undertaking. The most famous
publication of the St. Albans Press, which is also printed in what may
be described as a Caxton font of type, is _The Bokys of Haukyng and
Huntyng and also of Cootarmuris_, by Dame Juliana Berners, who was
Prioress of Sopwell Nunnery near St. Albans. This work was printed in
1486, and is frequently referred to as _The Book of St. Albans_.
The beginning of printing in the University of Cambridge was delayed
until about 1520. This was nearly fifty years later than the
establishment of the printing concerns connected with the University of
Paris, and twenty-five years later than the beginning of the series of
editions of the classics issued from the Aldine Press of Venice, which
may properly also be described as the Press of the University of Padua.
The first publication of importance bearing the imprint of Cambridge
University was an edition of Bulloc’s translation of _Lucian_, issued
in 1521.
The business of printing in London took a great development when De
Worde associated with him in the management of the Caxton Press his
assistant Richard Pynson, who had been one of Caxton’s apprentices.
These printers made a large use in their volumes of engraved
illustrations, the blocks for which were in great part imported from
the Continent. Many of these engravings had evidently been prepared
originally for Flemish or German books, and, having been purchased at
second hand, were frequently introduced into English books, without
any regard to their fitness in character, or to any relation to the
text. They were apparently, in fact, utilised not as illustrations but
simply as adornments. This practice of importing illustrations from the
Continent and of scattering them miscellaneously through texts with
which they have no relation, is not unknown among English publishers of
the nineteenth century.
After the death of De Worde, Pynson continued the work of the Caxton
Press with his own imprint. Among the more important of his earlier
issues were the translation of _Froissart_, by Lord Berners, and his
English version of the famous _Navis Stultifera Mortalium_, issued
under the title of _The Shyp of Folys_. Up to the date of about 1490,
the fonts used in the Caxton Press were purchased either in Bruges
or in Cologne. In 1493, Pynson imported some French fonts, which
probably came from Rouen. Lord Berners makes the “Book-fool,” the first
described of the passengers of the _Ship of Fools_, to speak as follows:
“I am the firste fole of all the whole Navy
To kepe the pompe, the helme, and eke the sayle;
And this is my mynde, this one pleasure have I
Of books to have great plenty, and aparayle
Yet take no wisdom by them; nor yet avayle,
Nor them perceyve not.”
“The fole” (whose modern name would, of course, be “bibliomaniac”)
possesses his books, in short, for show, for the repute of having a
library, and for their fine binding:
“Full Goodly bounde in pleasant Couverture
Of Damas, satin, or else of velvet pure.”
Pynson did not confine his list to books of satire or of amusement,
although these formed by far the larger proportion of his publications.
He continued the series of chronicles begun by Caxton. In 1516, he
published the _Chronicle Fabyan_, in which Brute, of the regal family
of Priam of Troy, is made the founder of the first colony in the
British Isles. With hardly an exception, the books of both De Worde
and Pynson were very fully illustrated. Their interest in illustrated
texts had been formed in the environment of the Flemish school,
the printers in which seem to have considered that a book without
illustrations was hardly complete. It was of course also the case that
the class of literature selected by the first group of the English
printers was in its subject-matter much more available for illustration
than were the classical texts or the controversial and theological
treatises which were at this time absorbing so large a share of the
attention of the printers in Paris, in Germany, and in Switzerland.
The first Bible published in England was Tyndale’s English version
of the New Testament. This first issue, however, was printed, not in
England, but in Cologne, at the Press of Quentell. Tyndale was by birth
a Welshman. After studying in Oxford and in Cambridge, he sojourned
in Antwerp, and in that city he completed, in the year 1525, with the
assistance of John Fryth and Joseph Royes, his translation of the New
Testament. The supplies of the book when forwarded to London were very
promptly bought up; but as soon as the ecclesiastical authorities had
an opportunity of examining the book, it was put under ban, and all
copies that could be found were seized and destroyed. At the instance
of the Roman Catholic party in England, Tyndale was, in 1536, arrested
at Antwerp, under the authority of the Emperor Charles V., and after
being imprisoned for eighteen months, was burned. A similar fate befell
his assistants, Fryth having been burned at Smithfield, and Royes in
Lisbon. It is not clear from the record at what time the translation by
Tyndale of the Pentateuch was produced, but it appears not to have been
printed until after Tyndale’s death. In 1535, a complete English Bible,
comprising Tyndale’s version of the New Testament and the Pentateuch
and a translation prepared by Coverdale and others, of the remaining
books of the Old Testament, was printed on the Continent, the name of
the printer not being given. Humphreys is in accord with Wanley in the
belief that this Coverdale Bible was printed at Zurich by Christopher
Froschauer. Coverdale utilised, as the basis of his portion of the
translation, the German Bible of Luther, but makes references also to
the Latin Vulgate.
Fortunately for the freedom of the English Press and for the spread of
religious belief through the instruction of the Scriptures, it happened
that, shortly after the completion of the Coverdale Bible, Henry
VIII. wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. I need not here refer to the large
results brought about in connection with this particular preference
of the King. It is sufficient to point out that, with the close of
the supremacy of the papal power in England, and with the addition of
Great Britain to the list of the countries accepting the principles of
the Reformation, the printing and distribution of the English version
of the Scriptures became practicable. It would not be correct to say
that from this date the printing-press in England was free, but it
was the case that it became free for the production of the Protestant
Scriptures and of other Protestant literature, while it was also
the case that the censorship put in force by the authorities of the
English Church never proved as severe, or as serious an obstruction to
publishing, as had been the case with the ecclesiastical censorship of
the Catholics.
The Coverdale Bible contains a series of graphic illustrations, the
designs for which some of the historians have attributed to Holbein.
The work was dedicated to King Henry VIII., and the dedication makes
reference to his “just wyfe and vertouous prencesse Queene Anne.” In
the later editions, the name of Anne is replaced in succession by those
of the later queens.[63]
The Bible known as “Matthews’s” was published in London, in 1537,
by Grafton. This appears to have been the first English Bible that
was published under the authority of the State. A royal license or
privilege for the publication was procured for it by Archbishop
Cranmer, who had interested in the undertaking Thomas Cromwell, Earl of
Essex. Humphreys speaks of Grafton, the English publisher, as having
furnished five hundred pounds for the undertaking, the remaining
portion of the cost being provided by Cranmer and Cromwell. The text
was a combination of Tyndale’s and Coverdale’s. The type is from a
German font, and the work was probably printed in Hesse.[64]
The first English Bible printed in England was the translation by John
Hollybushe, which was issued in 1538 by John Nicholson, in Southwark.
The great Cranmer Bible was printed between 1539 and 1541, by Richard
Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. The funds for its publication were
supplied by Cranmer and Cromwell, and the magnificent illustrations are
ascribed to Holbein. This work is described as the finest specimen of
typography and the best example of artistic and graphic illustrations
that had as yet been published in England. The text contains a number
of variations from that of Tyndale and Coverdale. The first edition
bore on the title-page the arms of Cromwell, but in the second edition,
printed in 1540, these arms were omitted, the Earl having perished on
the scaffold in July, 1540. A separate edition of this Cranmer Bible
was printed in 1539 by John Bydell, under the editorship of the Greek
scholar Taverner. This publication constituted an infringement of the
patent issued to Grafton, but no steps appear to have been taken for
his protection. Grafton continued for some years to be the authorised
publisher for the Reformed Church of England, and he published in 1549
the first authorised Prayer-Book of the Church.
Next to Grafton, the most eminent of the English printer-publishers
of the sixteenth century, was John Day, who has been called the
English Plantin. He greatly improved the Greek and the italic types,
and was the first to make use of Saxon characters. His most important
publication was _The Acts and Monuments of the Church_, by John Fox,
commonly called _Fox’s Book of Martyrs_, issued in 1563. This work
exercised probably a larger influence than any English book of the
century in completing the conversion of England from Romanism to
Protestantism, an influence which continued through the following
centuries. John Fox was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and after
the death of Queen Mary (during whose reign he had been an exile in
Switzerland) he was made a prebendary in Salisbury. I do not find any
record of his publishing arrangement with Day. The _Book of Martyrs_
came into immediate and continued demand and ought to have brought
to its author large returns. His interest in the undertaking was,
however, evidently in connection with the fight against Rome, and it
is quite probable that he made his literary labour a contribution to
the cause of the Reformation. The book, which was dedicated to Queen
Elizabeth, was printed in excellent style, and the effectiveness of the
long series of dramatic and tragic narratives was very much heightened
by the graphic and well-executed illustrations. Its publication was
evidently considered by the Protestant friends of Day to be the chief
glory of his career. Over his tomb in the village of Bradley Parva, the
following epitaph is inscribed:
“Here lyes the Daye that darkness could not blinde,
When Popish fogges had overcast the sonne;
This Daye the cruel nighte did leave behinde,
To view and shew what blodi actes were donne.”[65]
The plan and compass of the present work will not permit any detailed
account of the work of the English printers and publishers during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These centuries were periods
of very great literary activity, and were rendered noteworthy by
the production of some of the greatest works in the literature of
the world. A list of authors which includes such names as those of
Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson, and Bacon, gives an indication of the
importance as a lasting property of the books of the Elizabethan
writers. The literary productiveness of England came, however, in
advance of any system of law for the protection of literary producers,
and it is probable that neither the writers above specified, nor any
of their contemporaries, secured compensation from the sales of their
books.
Miss Scott,[66] in her scholarly monograph on Elizabethan translations
from the Italian, in referring to the large influence exercised by the
literature of Italy upon the work of the writers of the Elizabethan
age, says that she has “collected more than one hundred and sixty
translations from the Italian, made by ninety translators. The
translators include nearly every well-known Elizabethan author, except
Shakespeare and Bacon.” Apart from the translations, it is evident
that a very liberal use was made by English authors of the time, and
especially by the dramatists, of Italian stories and other literary
material which could be reshaped for the requirements of English
readers. Italy seems in fact to have served as a kind of literary
quarry for the authors of Elizabeth, very much as Greece had done for
the writers of the Augustan age.
The taste for romances appears to have continued without abatement
throughout the sixteenth century, the stories put into print being very
largely translations or free adaptations of French and Italian tales.
It was a period when Italian thought and Italian literary methods
were beginning to exert a very large influence upon both writers and
readers in England. Roger Ascham declaimed against the pernicious
tendencies of the Italian literature in much the same language as has
been used to-day against the influence of French books upon the morals
of English readers. From Paynter’s _Palace of Pleasure_, printed in
1561, which contained a series of studies from French and Italian
authors, were derived the plots of several of Shakespeare’s plays,
including that of _Romeo and Juliet_.[67] Certain of these volumes
secured what can be described as a popular success. _The Goodli History
of the Ladye Lucres of Scene in Tuskane and of her Lover Eurialus_, a
translation from the _Æneas Piccolomini_, went through twenty-three
editions in the fifteenth century and was eight times translated.[68] I
do not find record of the names of the fortunate publishers, but it is
not probable that the publisher who arranged for the translation first
issued, was able to keep his version from being appropriated by others.
Mr. Furnivall cites a curious list of books which, in 1575, were
recorded as the property of a man of the lower-middle class, a mason
by trade,--such a man, remarks Jusserand, as would have been an
average member of a Shakespearian audience. The titles include _Kyng
Arthurz Book_, _Huon of Burdeaus_, _The Foour Suns of Aymion_, _Bevis
of Hampton_, _Lucres and Eurialus_, and a number of other illustrated
romances.[69]
English readers of the time were not only interesting themselves in
translations from the Italian, but were evidently to some extent
prepared to read their Italian literature in the original. Among the
books of which editions printed in Italian were issued in London in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, was the _Pastor Fido_ of Guarini,
published in 1590.[70]
During the lifetime of Shakespeare, there were published of his
no less than seventy-two separate original works, plays and poems,
the first in date being _Venus and Adonis_, in 1593, and the last,
_The Rape of Lucrece_, in 1616. A number of these volumes reached a
third or fourth edition, and, notwithstanding the lack of adequate
book-selling machinery, the sales of many of them appear to have been
considerable. The authorities on the life of Shakespeare are, however,
I believe, in substantial accord in the conclusion that the author
secured from these sales no direct benefit, and that the independent
fortune accumulated by him was derived from his pay as an actor, from
the interest later possessed by him in the business of the theatre, and
probably, also, from some recognition on the part of the performing
companies of the author’s right to a share of the profits earned by
his plays. Shakespeare apparently benefited by stage-right if not by
copyright. The seventy-two publications above referred to include only
those which, having been duly entered for copyright, may be described
as “authorised.” There are various references to unauthorised editions,
but no record of any one of these having been suppressed. The first
issue of _Venus and Adonis_, printed by Richard Field, was certainly
authorised, as it contained a dedication by the author. The copyright
was registered in the name of Field, while the book was published by
John Harrison. A diary of the time speaks of the selling price as being
twelve pence.[71] _Lucrece_, published in its first edition in the year
following, was, like the earlier book, dedicated by the author to the
Earl of Southampton, and was likewise printed by Field for Harrison.
We find from this time an increasing tendency to separate the business
of printing from that of publishing, while the copyright entry is
nearly always made in the name of the printer. _The Comedy of Errors_,
printed in 1594, was entered as belonging to the Lord Chamberlain’s
company, that to which Shakespeare was at the time attached. It
was the case with other, though not with all, of the plays, that the
copyright was vested in the company for which they had been written.
The first publisher who secured copyright in a play of Shakespeare’s
was Andrew White, who, in 1597, made entry of _Richard the Second_.
Neither in this case nor in that of the long list of other printers
and publishers who, during the lifetime of the author, “claimed
copie” in Shakespeare’s writings, does it appear by what authority
they undertook to control such “copie.” While there may possibly in
the case of the plays have been assignments or authorisations on the
part of the theatre company, there is, I understand, no record of, or
specific reference to, any such assignments. The first collection of
Shakespeare’s plays for which any measure of completeness was claimed,
was presented in the well-known folio of 1623, the publication of which
was supervised by Heminge and Condell, who had been fellow actors with
the dramatist. It does not appear what compensation, if any, the two
editors secured for their labours from printer or from publisher.
In order to find an instance of the payment of “copy money” for an
original work, we must look forward sixty years later than the death
of Shakespeare. The oft cited agreement between Milton and the printer
Samuel Simmons, which was executed in April, 1667, is possibly the
earliest of the kind in the history of publishing in England. Under
this agreement, the copyright of _Paradise Lost_ was assigned for a
present payment of five pounds, with the obligation for a further
payment of the same amount when 1300 copies had been sold. The
agreement authorised the printing of a second and a third edition (no
limit being fixed for the number of copies in either) on the payment,
at the time of each printing, of the further sum of five pounds. The
author received before his death ten pounds in all, and his widow
later relinquished for the sum of eight pounds all further right in
the “copy.” The first impression of the poem had not been sold at the
expiration of seven years, and trivial as the honorarium to the author
certainly was, it is probable, as Sir Walter Scott remarks, that the
publisher did not make much by his bargain.
As an example of a more remunerative transaction, may be cited, among
others, the arrangement between Dryden and the publisher Tonson for
the poet’s translation of _Virgil_, an undertaking from which Dryden
received nearly £1300. The date of the agreement was 1695, less than
thirty years later than the date of the sale of _Paradise Lost_. We
are now, however, approaching the period of copyright law, while it
was the case that during the last years of the seventeenth century,
the printer-publishers of the Stationers’ Company appear to have been
sufficiently powerful, in advance of copyright statutes, to secure
for their “copies” a substantial measure of protection, and thus to
maintain the common-law property rights assigned to them by their
authors.
The earliest catalogue of books published in England contains a list
“of all books printed in England since the dreadful fire, 1666, to
the end of Trinity term, 1680.” The statistical results of this
catalogue of the productions of the press for fourteen years have been
ascertained. The whole number of books printed was 3550; of which 947
belonged to divinity, 420 to law, 153 to physic; 397 were school-books.
About one-half of these works were single sermons and tracts. Deducting
the reprints, pamphlets, single sermons, and maps, it is estimated
that, upon an average, 100 new books were produced in each year.[72]
This average, which is based upon the estimate of Knight, does not,
however, give an accurate impression of the actual production of each
year,--the output of the later years of the series being much more
considerable than of those immediately succeeding the fire.
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