FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
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EngUsh, DOW used ; and certainly it was written in such wise, that was more like to Dutch than to English. I could not reduce, nor bring it to be understanden."
Again: "CertaiDly the language now used Turieth far firam that which was used and spoken when I was bom; for we, Englishmen, been borne under the dominacion of the moone, which is never stedfaste, but ever wavering." In his time, the inhabitants of one county hardly un- derstood those of another : " The most quantity of the people understand not Latin nor French, in this royaume of England." The intermixture of French words and iuoms, of course, was most prevalent in the capital. " That common Eng- lish, that is spoken in one shyre varyeth from another — ^in so much that in my dayes hap- pened, that certain merchants were in a ship, in Thamys, for to have sailed over the sea to Zea- land ; and, for lack of wind, they tarried att Forland, and went to land for to refresh them ; and one of them, named She£Beld, a mercer, came into an hous, and axed for mete, and espe- cially he axed after egges ; and the good wyfe answerde, that she coula speke no Frenche, and the merchant was angry, for he also could speke no Frenche, but would have had egges, and she understood him not. And then at last another sayd, that he would have eyrun. Then the good wife sayd, that she understood him well.*" Cax- ton seems to have been a good deal puzzled and perplexed about the language he should use in his translations ; for, while some advised him to use old and homelr terms : " Some honest and great clerks," he adds, " have been with me, and desired me to write the most curious terms that I could finde — and thus, betwixt plain, rude, and curious, I stand abashed." Tnere can be no doubt, however, that either by following the advice of those honest and great clerks, or from Im long residence abroad — in his translations, as Dr. Johnson observes, " the original is so scrupulously followed, that they afford us little knowledge of our own language; though the words are English, the phrase is foreign."
The great scarcity of books, prior to the in- vention of printing, it is conjectured by Oldys and Mr. Burnett, gave our typogpranfaer cause for the* foregoing complaint. The fifteenth cen- toiy has not been accounted a very fruitful one in historical writers ; and Mr. Lewis, in his Life of CaxUm, thus remarks upon the above subject: " Particularly of the reign of Edward IV. that even the favourers of justice and his cause, have not known what account to give of the times, or how to form a regular history from such a heap of confiision." Yet in this century lived such manuscript authors as Froissart, K. Avesbury, Rosse, Knyghton, Walsingham, Otterbume, and others, of whom, had Caxton known of their
existence, or could have gained access to them, it is probable that he might have obtained far more ample materials for his history. It appears that he was censured for the liberty he had taken in changing the obsolete language.*
This volume is comprised in 428 folios, and is considered by Mr. Dibdin as one of the most curious and interesting productions of Caxton's press.
. 1482. Printing introduced into the following places in the course of this year.
Aquila, by Adam de Rotwil.
Erfurt, by Paul Wider de Hombach.
Memmingen, by Albert Kunne.
Passau, by Conrad Stahel and Benedict Mayr.
Vienna, by John Winterbcrg.
Promentour, by Louis Guerin.
Reutlingen, by John Otraar.
1482. Erchardus Ratdolt, a German printer, has the credit of inventing ink of a golden colour, of which a specimen may be seen m some of the copies of the Euclid printed by him. In some copies of the Simpliciui, of 1499, and of the Ammoniui, of 1600, by Caliergus, the titles are in letters of gold.
1482. John Lettou and William Machlinia have already been mentioned as introducing the art of printmg into the city of London, and we now give some notices of their works. Lettou is considered, from bis name, to have been a foreigner, and most probably a German ; but neither Ames, Herbert, nor Dibdin, have been able to discover any thing relating to his life. The first of these authors supposes that he came to England, with others, &om the continent, on the invitation and encouragement of Caxton and Hunt, to work at the newly-established presses o£ Britain. He appears to have been first employed in the office of Machlinia, as a pressman, but he afterwards was received into partnership with his master, and his name is even placed first in the colophons of those books which they printed in connection. It does not appear that Lettou ever printed abroad ; and there are probably but two volumes now exist- ing to which his name is affixed alone ; —
1. QutBstiones Antonii Andrete Ord. Minor, fuper xii libroi Metavhysica emendata per Ven. fralrem Magittrwm Thmnam Penketh Ord. ft. Avffuttin. mxccclxxx. Folio.
2. ExpoHtionet Super Psalterium. London, m.eceelxxxi. Folio.
- If Caiton U correct in thia story, the Uuigaa<;e of thia
ptrt of Kent (in the weald of whlcb, where he was boin, tie acknowledces'Boglish U spoken broad and rude) must liaTe borrowed the word for egj^ from the Teutonic, and not (torn the Anglo-EtexoDi mg, being the Anglo-Saxon, and ei Oie Oennan, for an egg.
- Lewis, In his Life of Cotton, thos commends tali mo-
desty, and Justifies his alteration of the olisolete terms : — " One cannot help observing here, the great modesty and humility of Mr. Caxton, how mean an opinion he had oi himself and his works, and with what deference and re- spect he treated others and their learned labours. It is likewise obvioos to remark what Mr. Caxton says of the alteration of the English language in his time ; which waa so great, that there were many words in Trerisa's trans- lation of the Polffchronieon, which, in his days, were nei- ther used nor understood. Now it was but 134 years since that translation was made j whereas archbishop Parker noted it as very strange, that our language should lie so changed in 40« years from his time, that the manuscript book of the Liva of the Samts, written about A.D. IIM, in old English verse, now in Bennet college library, was so written that people could not understand it."
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