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 ballads, he never seems to have confined himself to short tracts or to any one class of publications. Gibbon has complained that no classical author came from Caxton's press, and has vehemently denounced his choice of books. But Lydgate and Gower, besides Chaucer, were repeatedly issued by him in large folio volumes, and the publication of Sir Thomas Malory's ‘King Arthur’ (1485), of translations of Cicero's ‘De Senectute,’ Cicero's ‘De Amicitia’ (1481), and a Dutch version of ‘Reynard the Fox’ (1481), together with paraphrases of the ‘Æneid,’ proves some literary taste. In the epilogue to Chaucer's ‘Book of Fame’ (No. 47 below) the printer criticises the poet in a highly appreciative spirit. His industry while in England almost baffles conception. He printed in fourteen years more than eighteen thousand pages, nearly all of folio size, and nearly eighty separate books, some of which passed through two editions, and a few through three. The names of three assistants are known, those of Wynkyn de Worde, Richard Pynson, and Robert Copland. It is quite possible that Machlinia and Treveris—also early English printers—were his workmen, but there is no evidence on the point. In any case his assistants hardly appear to have been numerous or skilled enough to have relieved Caxton of even much mechanical labour.

The amount of his work as a translator is even more remarkable. He states himself that he translated twenty-one books, mainly romances, from the French and one from the Dutch (‘Reynard the Fox’). His knowledge of French was very thorough, and the number of Latin books he undertook leaves little doubt that he was also acquainted with that language. As a voluminous translator Caxton did something to fix the literary language of the sixteenth century. He was never very literal; he interpolated some passages and paraphrased others. Not unnaturally his vocabulary borrows much from the French, but his style is idiomatic and rarely reminds the reader that the work before him is other than an original composition.

Caxton was a favourite at the courts of Edward IV and Richard III, and doubtless reflected his patrons' predilections in his choice of books. On 15 June 1479 King Edward gave him 20l. ‘for certain causes and matters performed;’ whether Caxton's services in Edward's behalf at Bruges are referred to, or his magnificent enterprise at Westminster, is uncertain. Edward IV is known to have possessed at least one of Caxton's books (No. 31 below), and Caxton describes several works as printed under Edward's protection. Earl Rivers and the Earl of Worcester were not only intimate friends of Caxton, but translated books for his press, and Margaret, countess of Richmond, and Henry Bourchier, earl of Essex, showed him many attentions. To Richard III Caxton dedicated his ‘Order of Chivalry.’ Henry VII bade Caxton print the ‘Fayts of Arms,’ and the ‘Eneydos’ was dedicated to Arthur, prince of Wales. William, earl of Arundel, allowed him a buck every summer and a doe in winter. Sir John Fastolf eagerly purchased his books, and many rich mercers were his fastest friends.

In the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, where Caxton lived, he was from the first a man of mark. He audited the parochial accounts for each year from 1478 to 1484. In 1490 his friend William Pratt, a mercer of London, died, and requested him on his deathbed to print the ‘Book of Good Manners,’ and in 1491 Caxton's own busy life came to a close. On his last day he was engaged in translating the ‘Vitæ Patrum,’ which his assistant Wynkyn de Worde printed in 1495. There is no entry of his death accessible, but the St. Margaret's parish accounts for the period 1490–2 state that 6s. 8d. was paid for four torches ‘atte bureying of William Caxton,’ and 6d. ‘for the belle atte same bureying.’ His will has not been discovered, but the parish accounts record that fifteen copies of his ‘Golden Legend’ were ‘bequothen to the chirch … by William Caxston,’ and other entries describe the distribution of the books. The printer was buried in the church of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and in 1820 the Roxburghe Club erected there a tablet to his memory. In 1883 a stained-glass window was also set up in his honour by the London printers and publishers, and upon it is emblazoned an inscription by Lord Tennyson.

Caxton married probably about 1469. Maud Caxton, who was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1490, may have been his wife. It was in that year that Caxton undertook his ‘Arte and Craft how to die.’ One daughter, Elizabeth, married Gerard Croppe, a merchant tailor of London, and on 20 May 1496 obtained from the ecclesiastical courts at Westminster a deed of separation from her husband. In consideration of this arrangement Croppe received, out of a bequest of Caxton's, ‘twenty legends’ valued at 13s. 4d. each (Academy, 4 April 1874).

An interesting discussion has been held as to the exact site of Caxton's house and workshop in Westminster. In the colophons of seven books Caxton describes himself as printing or translating in Westminster Abbey; in other books he merely states that they were