A fourth theory also has some plausibility: it is that Caxton's father was at the time living at Westminster and that he wished to be near him in his declining years. This is supported by the Warden's Account of St. Margaret's, Westminster, which has this entry in the Burial Fees, for 1478:1

"Itm. the day of the burying of William Caxton
for ij torches and iiij tapirs at a lowe

masse

xx d." Caxton's father need not have been more than seventy-five years of age in this year, so this entry may be the record of his burial. If however one takes Thomas Caxton to have been the son of the same father, then one must reckon the latter to have arrived by 1478 at the age of about one hundred and three years!

There is however one fact which seems to outweigh all the others. In 1473-4 there was instituted at Westminster a monk named Richard Caxston or Caston. He rapidly became a man of some importance and by 1498 was Quartus Prior and in 1500 Master of the Novices in the Abbey. In 1501-2 he was made custodian of the Richard II and Anne manors and by 1503 was Treasurer of the Queen's manors. From 1501 until he died in 1504 he was Sacrist of the Abbey.2

Merely to find a Caxton in a position of some authority at Westminster at the time when the printer chose to settle there is of no small significance. But there are other links in the chain of evidence which points to a relationship between William and Richard.

The list of monks instituted in 1473-4 is not alphabetical and therefore it is not for this reason that the name of one W. Lokyngton immediately follows that of Richard Caxston. It is at least unlikely that Caxton and Lokyngton were not friends.

Now, by 1482, William Caxton had flourished to such an extent that he found it necessary to hire another room in t Abbey. The one that he then took over was situated above t gate of the Almonry, and the following is the entry in t Almoner's Roll 1 concerning it :

"De Camera supra portam exteriorem nuper de Daui Selley ad T(erminum) xl annorum hoc anno xxxv iam in tenencia Will(ielm)i Caxton per annum

iij s. iiij d.

It is clear therefore that this camera 2 was at one time in th possession of David Selley, citizen and vintners of London and described by Canon Westlake as a "man of considerabl wealth and influence." 4 From the will of Cecile Selley, his widow, which was proved in 1474, one learns that he had at that time not been long dead and that his appointed executors were Walter Lokyngton and Robert Spayne. Selley had possessed the chamber on a lease of forty years, which was drawing near to expiry when Caxton took up his residence therein.

In 1479-80 the rent had been paid by Lokyngton, whether as executor under Selley's will or because he was actually in occupation cannot now be determined. In 1483-4 the ownership passed into the hands of the Prior and a corresponding entry appears in his record-book, while the Almoner's Roll reads:- 6

"De camera supra portam exteriorem nuper de Dd. Selley ad terminum xl annorum doc anno xxxvijo iam in manibus prioris nichil hoc anno

n1."

In 1486-7 the lease is said to be "in xl et ultimo anno." 7 What is more likely than that William and Richard Caxton and Lokyngton formed the nucleus of a little circle of friends ? Still another small point bears out the suggestion. When the "Seyny Books" 8 were repaired, Richard Caxton subscribed

two shillings towards the cost and "W. Lokyngton paieth for the peecyng of the bokes. And also fyndith the writer his bedd." Now although this work was not finished until 1492, the year after William Caxton died, it is most likely that it was executed in Caxton's workshop, probably once more at the suggestion of Richard Caxton.

We must here remind ourselves 1 that Richard Caxton was most probably the means by which the De Causton documents entered the Abbey Muniments, but that Thomas Caxton also appears among them, and if Thomas really were William's brother it is not unlikely that all three were relatives and that it was through the kind offices of Richard that William settled in the Sanctuary of Westminster.

In the year 1477 Caxton produced from his press a number of small books 2 and two more important works, which come under our consideration because of Caxton's original writing concerning them. The first is the "Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophres" and the second the "Life of Jason."

Of the "Dictes and Sayengis" there appeared a second edition in or about 1479 and a third edition some ten years later still, but there also appear variant forms of the first edition which point to a re-issue during the year 1477. This re-issue is distinguished only by the addition of a colophon, 4 which gives a brief restatement of the book's authorship and the date of the impression - "the xviij day of the moneth of Nouembre and the seuenteth yere of the regne of kyng Edward the fourth."

The second edition was printed from the re-issue of the first and repeats the colophon. Throughout the Epilogue the wording compares page for page but not line for line. The third edition was probably not set up from the second but from the first.5

Earl Rivers, who translated the work from the Fre himself wrote an explanatory prologue1 to it which Cax printed, and since he may be considered as an excellent exam of the educated writer of his day, this piece of original writ forms a useful basis of comparison by which to judge Caxto style. One may say that, if Caxton does not quite equal style on his first return to England, by the time he has reach his middle period of translation (1480-2) there is little choose between them.

Caxton added a long epilogue, which contained son additional translation, and therein he showed an unmista able kinship with Chaucer. That he loved and appreciat Chaucer we know, but that he shared Chaucer's power light and subtle humour is perhaps not quite so general evident.

Earl Rivers had sent his translation to Caxton asking him t amend any defects he might find therein and to set it in print No fault could Caxton find save that his lord had omitted certain sayings of Socrates concerning women. These he added "apart" in the Epilogue, but not without excuses. And wha a variety of them he gives!

Perhaps some fair lady had persuaded Earl Rivers to leave out that particular section from his work? Or perhaps he had been "amerous on somme noble lady. for whos loue he wold not sette yt in hys book"? "Or ellys for the very affeccyon and good wylle that he hath unto alle ladyes & gentylwomen"? Or perhaps those sayings were not in his lord's copy? Or maybe "the wynde had blowe ouer the leef. at the tyme of translacion of his book"? In any case his lord should have remembered that "Socrates was a Greke boren in a ferre Contre from hens. whyche contre is alle of othre condycions than thys is for I wote wel. of what someuer condicion women ben in Grece. the women of this contre ben right good, wyse, playsant, humble, discrete, sobre, chast, obedyent to their husbondes, trewe, secrete, stedfast, euer besy, & neuer ydle, attemperat in speking, and vertuous in all ther werkes. or atte lests sholde be soo!" 3

Could anything be nearer the spirit of

" In principio

“Mulier est hominis confusio.
"Madame, the sentence of this Latin is-
"Womman is mannes joye and al his blis"?1

The Prologue to Jason enshrines a graceful piece of diplomacy, for the subject of the book is the story of the quest for the Golden Fleece, of which Burgundian Order Edward IV had lately been made a Knight. Caxton makes it clear with the utmost delicacy that although he was printing the work "under the proteccion & suffraunce" of the King, yet he does not presume to present it to him (for the reason that the King most likely had it in French "which he wel understondeth ") but craves with the permission of the King and of the "most excellent princesse" the queen, to present it to the young Prince of Wales "to thentente that he may begynne to lerne rede English" from out of it.

In the Prologue too occurs one of the few personal passages which are to be found in Caxton's books. In discussing the foundation of the Order of the Golden Fleece he writes:

"Well wote I that the noble Duc Philippe firste foundeur "of this sayd ordre, dyd doo maken a chambre in the "Castell of Hesdyn, where in was craftyly and curiously "(with skill and ingenuity) depeynted the conqueste of "the golden flese by the said Iason, in whiche chambre I "haue ben and seen the sayde historie so depeynted, & in "remembraunce of medea and her connyng & science. he "had do make in the seyde chambre by subtil engyn that "when he wolde it shuld seme that it lightend, then "thondre, snow & rayne; and all within the sayde chambre "as ofte tymes & when it shuld plese him." 2

The Epilogue contains a little further information upon the subject of Jason, gleaned by Caxton from Boccaccio.

The Moral Proverbs of Christine de Pisan, which were printed in 1478, have a brief epilogue consisting of two verses. The second stanza is certainly by Caxton, the first is more probably by Earl Rivers, who was again the translator. No poetic merit whatever can be claimed for any of the lines.