"in ryme & prose / and them so craftyly made / that "comprehended hys maters in short / quyck & h "sentences / eschewyng prolyxyte / castyng away t "chaf of superfluyte / and shewyng the pyked grayn "sentence / utteryd by crafty and sugred eloquence." Only two of the books printed in 1485 contain no origin writing by the printer: they are the Lyf of Wenefryde and t popular romance, Paris and Vyenne.

The History of Arthur was finished by July 31st 1485 ar the Ordre of Chyualry either in the same year or a little before both deal with a subject near to Caxton's heart. In th prologue to Arthur Caxton enumerated the "nine worthies," 'c whome was fyrst the noble Arthur,' and goes on to tell ho 'many noble and dyuers gentylmen' persuaded him that he who had already printed the life of Godfrey, the least of th three Christian kings, must on no account fail to give Malory* work to the world.

A brief discussion follows as to the authenticity of King Arthur's life and adventures, of which Caxton was a faithfu believer:

"Al these thynges considered ther can no resonable man "gaynsaye butt here was a kyng of thys lande named "Arthur"

who was

"fyrst of the three crysten men / and also he is more spoken "of beyonde the see, moo bookes made of his noble actes "than there be in englond, as well in duche, ytalyen, "spanysshe and grekysshe as to frensshe."

But no man

"is accept for a prophete in his owne countreye."

In the mention of the "dyuers gentylmen" Mr. Plomer sees a clue to the social status of Caxton at the time. This is his picture :

"There is no doubt that by this time Caxton's printing "office had become the meeting place of the literati. Lords "and ladies from Court, the clergy of London, merchants "from the city, and book lovers of every class found their

way there, to buy books and talk over bookish matters

" with the old printer."

The view is perhaps a little onesided: Caxton must still have been the business man and the commander of men, and he was almost certainly a government official too.

It is in the epilogue to the Ordre of Chyualry however that Caxton rose to one of his greatest heights of eloquence, in a passage which is often cited as a remarkable specimen of fifteenth-century declamation :

"O ye knyghtes of Englond, where is the custome and " usage of noble chyualry that vsed in the dayes / What "do ye now / but go to the baynes & playe atte dyse? "And some not wel aduysed vse not honest and good rule

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ageyn alle ordre of knyghthode / leue this / leue it and "rede the noble volumes of saynt graal of lancelot / of "galaad/..... Ther shalle ye see manhode curtesys & "gentylnesse / And loke in latter dayes of the noble "actes syth the conquest Allas what doo ye / but

"slepe & take ease / and ar al disordred fro chyualry?"

This book he presented to Richard III, "to thende / "that he commande this book to be hadd & redde vnto the

yong lordes knyghtes and gentylmen within this royame / "that the noble ordre of chyualry be herafter bette vsed "& honoured than hit hath ben in late dayes passed."

In 1485 he also completed the trilogy, with the life of Charles the Great. The opening of the prologue is very obviously a translation of the author's own prologue, but less skilfully adapted than usual: it is continued by a brief apology for the "rudeness" of the translation, which was made

"after the symple connyng that god hath lente to me, "wherof I humbly & wyth al my herte thanke hym / & "also am bounden to praye for my fader & moders soules / "that in my youthe sette me to scole / by whyche by the "suffraunce of god I gete my lyuyng, I hope truly."

He translated the " enuoye of thauctour" and added a brief mention of William Daubeney, "one of the tresorers of the Iewellys of the noble kyng Edward the fourth, on whos soule Ihesu have mercy." It was Daubeney who had desired him to print the work.

..

One may conclude that in 1486 Caxton either temporarily broke down in health or that once more he was occupied to a very great extent with official matters, for the Speculum I is the only book ascribable to that year. For the next year, the E of Good Manners is the only one of five1 which has any orig matter. It refers to the death of Caxton's great friend, Will Pratt, whom we have already considered.2

It was a group of friends, this time "mercers of Londo not nobles, who inspired Caxton to print the Royal Book 1488. The prologue to it is full of a sense of the transitorin of the world, perhaps due to an increasing feebleness which laying hold of the printer, for again this is the only bo ascribable to that year.

Be that as it may, the year next following saw a revival energy, for no less than eleven extant books appear to ha been printed in 1489, although much of the work involved me revision, such as might readily have been done by Caxton assistants.

Two of these books were translated by royal command: or at the desire of Henry VII and the other at that of the Duche of Somerset, the King's mother. So are we informed in th epilogues to the Faytts of Arms and the prologue to Blanchardy respectively.

The prologue to the Four Sonnes of Aymon is not extant i Caxton's own print, but Copland reprinted the work in 155and there is little doubt that the prologue therein given is reasonably faithful copy of Caxton's original introduction. H tells us that the book was translated from the French at the desire of "the ryght noble and vertus Erle John Erle o Oxeforde," for whom he had already printed a book concerning one of his predecessors, Earl Robert. This latter book is not extant.

For 1490 there is an entry in the Churchwardens' Account of St. Margaret's, Westminster, which runs as follows :

"Item, atte buryeing of Maude Caxton for torches &
taperes
iijs. iid."

This Maud Caxton may well have been William's wife : if so, as Blades wrote, "It will explain in a most interesting manner,

the reason why he in that year suspended printing the 'Fayts of Arms' until he had finished a new undertaking, 'The Arte. and Crafte to Die Well. "

It is in this year too that the last known entry in official documents directly concerning Caxton occurs. Among the Records of the Treasury, there exists a book of "Receipts and Payments" for the reign of Henry VII,1 in which are recorded two payments 2 made to William Caxton "for thexpens of dyuers officers of the Kinges Receyt at Westminster." The second of the two adds the information that they were made "for dyuers appoyntments to be made for the See and otherwise." The two sums amount to 10s. 10d. -about £6 in modern money.

It is known that the Camera Prioris at the Abbey was at one time used for the Receipt and it may therefore have been therein that Caxton performed some kind of official duty. What exactly that duty may have been is difficult to conjecture, but from the wording of the entries one may suppose that it concerned arrangements for the going to sea or crossing to the Continent of certain of the King's officers, arrangements which entailed some little expense to Caxton, who was duly reimbursed by the Treasury.

Almost at the end of his career as a translator, in the Prologue to the Eneydos (1490), Caxton tells us a little about the problem which had all along been facing him that of the choice of a suitable English medium. Just previously, he writes, "some gentylmen blamed me sayeng that in my "translacyons I had ouer curyous termes which coude not "be vnderstonde of comyn peple / and desired me to vse "olde & homely termes."

...

Again, John Esteney, Abbot of Westminster, had shown him some writings in "olde englysshe," which he desired him to modernise:

"Certaynly it was written," says Caxton, "in suche wyse "that it was more lyke to dutche than englysshe. I "coulde not reduce ne brynge it to be understonden."

But his greatest difficulty had been to choose between the

1 T.R.B. 124.

2 ff. 80 & 92. See Appendix XXIV. These interesting entries were brought to my notice by my good friend, Mr. G. S. Humphreys, whose period of research partially overlapped my own,

varying dialectal words which prevailed in his day. follows the famous illustrative story of the merchant who as for eggs at a wayside inn and was accused of speaking Fre by the hostess who knew them as " eyren."

In the face of these problems Caxton confessed hin "abasshed," but he resolved to choose "the comyn termes be dayli vsed" as his medium. This decision on the part of introducer of printing influenced the English language to obvious but incalculable extent. The Art and Craft was only other new book issued in that year.1

The end of Caxton's life came suddenly some time in year 1491 and it came as he would have desired it to come while he was engaged in active labour. When Wynken Worde published the English version of the Lyves of Fathers he added this colophon :

"Thus endyth the most vertuouse hystorye of the deuou and right renowned lyves of holy faders lyuynge in deser worthy of remembraunce to all wel dysposed persone which hath be translated oute of Frenche into Englisshe b William Caxton of Westmynstre late deed and fynyshed the laste daye of hys lyff."

It is to be noted that pious works alone 2 issued from th press the year of his death, among which the Fifteen Oc (Prayers) only has a short epilogue.

The exact date of Caxton's death is unknown: two reference only attest it; the one is the entry in the Parish Accounts o St. Margaret's, Westminster :

1490-1492

"Item. atte Buryeing of William Caxton for

iiij torches

Item for the belle atte same bureyng

vij s. viij d. vj d.'

(the costs convey the importance of the funeral ceremony), and a note "in a very old hand" quoted by Ames as written in a copy of the Fructus Temporum :

"Of your charitee pray for the soul of Mayster Wyllyam "Caxton, that in his time was a man of moche ornate and

11490. The others were Speculum II, Horae III & IV, Myrrour II. 2 1491. Festum Transfigurationis, Divers Ghostly Matters, Fifteen Oes, Four Sermons, Festial II, Ars Moriendi.