Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/181

 172

HISTORY OF PRINTING.

vant, and not to disdain to take it of me, io poor, ignorant, and timple a person."

This volume of three tracts, which is rather elegantly printed, contains 120 leaves.

1481 . Godefroy of Boloyne ; or the last Siege and Conqueste of Jherusalem. Fynyuhyd the vii dayofJuyn, theyere ofourlorde mececlxxxi, and the xxi yere of the regne of our sayd Soue- rayn, kyng Edward the fourth. And in this maner sette in forme and Enprinled the xx day of Novembre the yere aforsayd, in thabby of Westmester by the sayd Wylliam Caxton. Folio.

This book, which is divided into two hundred and twelve chapters, is comprised in 146 leaves.

1482. The Polycronycon ; conteynyng the Berynges and Dedet of many Tymes, in eyght Books, ^e. Imprinted by WiUiam Caxton, after having somewhat chaunged the rude and old Eng- lysshe, that is to wele, certayn Wordes which in these Dayea he neither vsyd ne understanden. Ended the second Dayof Juyll, the xxij Yere of the Regne of Kynge Edward the fourth, and of the Incamacion of oure Lord a thousand four Hundred four Score and tweyne. Folio.

This translation was made at the request of Thomas, lord Berlceley, by John de Trevisa,* vicar of Berkeley, (who ranks among the ear- liest of our English poets) from the Latin of Ranulph Higden,f one of the monks of St. Werberg's monastery (now the cathedral in Chester), who died in 1360, at the advanced age of between eighty and ninety.

Trevisa's translation of Higden closes in the year 1357, to which Caxton added the eighth book, thereby extending the history to the year 1460. The work opens with a preface of four pages; 2dly, an alphabetical table of persons, places, and principal things, containing thirty- two pages; 3dly, a dialogue between a clerk, the lord, and the vicar of Berkeley, comprising four pages and a half; 4thly, the epistle of John

this centory, has also been enumerated amon^ the first translators of tile Bible into Eng:Ligh. He was born at Caradoc, in the county of Comval], and educated at Ox- ford. His learning and talents ^ned him thi; patrona^ uf earl Berkeley, who appointed him his chaplain, and presented him to the vicara^ of Berlieley, in Gloucester- shire. He was also canon of Westbury, in Wiltshire. War- ton, in his History of English Poetry, vol. 1. p. 343, speaks of him as haying been a great traveller ; and Ant. Wood (Antiq. Ojon.J says, " He was a man of extensive erudi- tlon, and of considerable eloquence ; and one of the first who laboured to polish his native language, and rescue It from barbarism." — Writers are divided on the subject of Trevisa's translation of the Bible. Some maintain that he was the author of a transUtlon i while others obsti- nately deny the assertion, and state that be did no more than translate certain sentences, which were painted on the walls of Berkeley castle. — Trevisa finished his transla- tion of the Potychronicon in 1 387 ; and is said to have died in the year 1412, at a very advanced a^.
 * John de Trevisa, who flomished towards the close of

tThis work contains the transactions of many ages, and is said to border upon the marvellous and fabulous, the first chapter describes all countries in ^neral, parti- cularly Britain. The other six comprise a concise account of civil history, from the creation down to the author's own time : viz. the reign of Edward 111. terminating in 13&7. It has been asserted that Hidden was not the real aathor, but that he borrowed it from the Polycratico Temporum of Roger Cestrensis, (a Benedictine monk of the above monastery,) without making the least acknow- ledgment of the souice from whence he derived his ma- terials.

Trevisa unto Thomas of Berkeley, consisting of thirty-five lines. At the end, he observes —

" Uod be thanked of al his dedes, this transU- eion it ended on a thvrsdaye, the eightenthe daye of Apryll, the yere of our lord a thousand thrt honderd and Ivii, the xxxi yere ofkyng Edward the thyrd, after the conquest of England, the yert of my lordes age. Sir Tliomas lord of Berkley, that made me make this translacion, fyue and Ihyrly."

Then follows Caxton's addition, in which he informs us, that the original was "made and compiled bv Ranulph, monke of Chestre," Hcc.

The Polycronicon is a large volume, and seems to have been intended by Caxton as a helpmate to his Chronicle. The printing must have occupied him the whole year, as no other publication came from his press in 1482. Be- sides printing it, however, he added an eighth book, bringing the history down from 1357 to 1460; " because," he says, " men, whiles in this time ben oblivious and lightly forgotten, nuan/ things deygne to be put in memory;, and also there cannot be founden in these days but few that wryte in their regysters such things as daily happen and fall." He was also obliged to take the trouble of altering many parts of Trevisa's language; for, though only 124 years had elapsed, many words were quite obsolete and unintelligible. This, Caxton particularly no- tices in the Polychronicon ; and at greater length in the following curious passage in the preface to his Eneid, a work from his press, that will be afterwards noticed.

"After divers works, made, translated, and atchieved, having no work in hand, I, sitting in my study, where as lay many divers pamphlets and books, it happened that to my hand came a little book, in French, which late was transited out of Latin, by some noble clerk of Fiance, which book is named Eneid, as made in Latin by that noble person and great clerk, Virril, which book I saw over, and read therein. (He then describes the contents.) In which book I had great pleasure by cause of the fair and honest terms, and words, in French, which I never saw tofore like, ne none so pleasant nor so well ordered : which book as me seemed should be much requisite to noble men to see, as well for the eloquence as histories; and when I bad advised me in this said book, I deliberated, and concluded to translate it into English, and forth- with took a pen and ink, and wrote a leaf or twain, which I oversaw again, to correct it ; and when I saw the fair and strange terms therein, I doubted that it should not please some gentle- men, which late blamed me, saying, that in mv translations, I had over curious terms, whicn could not be understand of common people; and desired me to use old and homely terms in my translations ; and fain would I satisfy every man, and so to do, took an old book, and read therein ; and certainly the English was so rude and broad, that I could not well understand it ; and also, my lord abbot of Westminster, did do shew to mc late certain eWdcnces, written in old

VjOOQ IC