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  CENTRE
  for
  REFORMATION
  and
  RENAISSANCE
  STUDIES

  VICTORIA
  UNIVERSITY

  TORONTO




  FIFTEENTH CENTURY
  PROSE AND VERSE




  _AN ENGLISH GARNER_

  FIFTEENTH CENTURY
  PROSE AND VERSE


  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
  ALFRED W. POLLARD


  WESTMINSTER
  ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO., LTD.
  1903



Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE.




PREFACE


Of the contents of the present volume about a half now appears in the
ENGLISH GARNER for the first time. Professor Arber (whose ready
acquiescence in my meddlings I wish cordially to acknowledge) had
gathered his good corn wherever he could find it without concerning
himself with the claims of the different centuries; and his specimens of
Lydgate and Hoccleve, Robin Hood Ballads, and trials for Lollardy,
needed as much more added to them to make up a homogeneous volume in the
arrangement now adopted. My additions consist of some Christmas Carols,
a Miracle Play, a Morality, and a number of the interesting prologues
and epilogues of William Caxton; also two extracts on the art of
translation and the need for its exercise, and some depositions in a
theatrical lawsuit. The extracts are of the end of the fourteenth
century, but are germane to our period as heralding the numerous
translations by which it was distinguished; the lawsuit is of the
sixteenth century, but throws light on the transition from municipal to
private enterprise in theatrical matters which had then been for some
time in progress. As these pieces are included for their matter, not for
their style, I hope they will not be considered intrusions in a volume
essentially devoted to the fifteenth century, though the extracts on
translation have led me in my Introduction to an excursus on the
authorship of the Wycliffite translations of the Bible, which can only
be excused on the pleas that Purvey and Trevisa both lived on into the
fifteenth century, and that it was in the early years of that century
that the Bibles were most in circulation.

In editing my texts I have availed myself of the help of the edition of
the play of the Coventry Shearmen and Tailors in Professor Manly's
_Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama_ (Ginn, 1897), of Dr. Henri
Logeman's _Elckerlijk and Everyman_ (Librairie Clemm, Gand, 1892), of
Professor Ewald Fluegel's transcript of the Balliol College Carols
published in the Festschrift presented to Professor Hildebrand in 1894,
of the Caxton Prefaces printed in Blades's _Life of Caxton_, of Mr.
Henry Plomer's transcript of the pleadings in Rastell _v._ Walton in
vol. iv. of the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, and of
Forshall and Madden's Wyclif Bible. In Professor Arber's text of the
Robin Hood Ballads I have ventured to make a few corrections by the
light of the excellent edition (based on the work of Professor Child),
printed by Professor Gummere in his _Old English Ballads_ (Ginn, 1894).
That of Hoccleve's _Letter of Cupid_, originally printed from Urry's
text, has been revised with the aid of the collations published by
Professor Skeat in his _Chaucerian and Other Pieces_. Professor Arber's
other texts are reprinted substantially as they stood.

In accordance with the plan adopted throughout the _English Garner_, the
extracts in this volume are given in modern spelling. I should have
preferred myself to re-write them in the educated spelling of their own
period, which would offer no obstacle of any kind to a modern reader.
Not only, however, for the sake of uniformity, but because I am so
convinced that this is the right method of dealing with badly spelt
texts that I wish the experiment to be made for the first time by a
better philologist than myself, I have fallen back on modern spelling.
Whatever its disadvantages, they seem to me as nothing compared with the
absurdity of preserving in texts printed for the second, third, and
fourth time the vagaries of grossly ignorant scribes. In the play of the
Shearmen holiness is spelt _whollenes_, merry _myrre_, voice _woise_,
signification _syngnefocacion_, celestial _seylesteall_, and so on.
These spellings are as demonstrably wrong as those of _consepeet_
(concipiet) and _Gloria in exselsis_, with which the scribe favours us.
It is ungracious to find fault with Professor Manly after appropriating
some of his stage directions and his identifications of some French
words, but I cannot think an editor is right in reprinting a text of
which he is obliged to confess 'in general, the sound will be a better
guide to the meaning than the spelling.' In any case I am sure that this
is not the way to win new readers for our earlier literature.

As a matter of literary honesty, as well as for my own comfort, I may be
permitted to state that this is the only volume of the new edition of
the _Garner_ for which I am responsible or can take credit. I have eaten
at least one dinner intended for my friend Mr. A.F. Pollard; my
wastepaper basket has received applications for subscriptions which
prove his reputation for generosity; I have even received a cheque,
which the fact that it is reckoned forgery under some circumstances for
a man to sign his own name forbade my cashing; and I have recently been
more congratulated as the author of his _Henry VIII._ than I have ever
been on any book of my own. So far from being identical, I regret to say
that we are not even related; but as we seem to be as much mistaken as
the two Dromios, I hope that our appearance side by side in this new
edition of the _Garner_ may help to distinguish rather than further
confound us.

ALFRED W. POLLARD.




CONTENTS

                                                                       PAGE

  PREFACE,                                                              iii

  INTRODUCTION,                                                         vii

  John Lydgate (?). The Siege of Harfleur and the Battle of Agincourt,    1

  Thomas Occleve. The Letter of Cupid,                                   14

  A Little Geste of Robin Hood and his Meiny and of the proud Sheriff
  of Nottingham,                                                         35

  English Carols. From a Manuscript at Balliol College, Oxford,          83

  The Examination of Master William Thorpe, priest, of heresy, before
  Thomas Arundell, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1407,                       90

  The Examination of Sir John Oldcastle,                                175

  On Translating the Bible. Chapter XV. of the Prologue to the second
  recension of the Wycliffite version,                                  193

  John Trevisa. Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk upon Translation,   203

  William Caxton. Prefaces and Epilogues:--
    The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy,                              213
    Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers,                             218
    Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiae,                              222
    Golden Legend,                                                      225
    Caton                                                               227
    AEsop,                                                               230
    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, second edition,                         232
    Malory's King Arthur,                                               234
    Eneydos,                                                            239

  A Miracle Play of the Nativity. The Pageant of the Shearmen and
  Tailors, from the Coventry Corpus Christi Plays,                      245

  Everyman: A Moral Play,                                               277

  Pleadings in Rastell _v._ Walton, a Theatrical Lawsuit, temp. Henry
  VIII.,                                                                307

  BRIEF GLOSSARY,                                                       323




INTRODUCTION


In the world of politics and statecraft a nation which has once begun to
decline seldom, perhaps never, recovers itself. There are too many other
dogs about for the bone which has once been relinquished to be resumed
later on. It is luck, indeed, if there are any decent scraps to be found
on the platter when it is revisited. In the world of literature and
thought the dogs are better bred, showing each other new
hunting-grounds, and by example and precept often helping to restore a
famished comrade to sleekness and vigour. Political conditions may not
be gainsaid. A nation which has once lost its ideals cannot again
produce a fresh, strong, and manly literature. But the possibilities of
literature remain immense, and we cannot foretell in what country it may
not revive and win fresh triumphs. Hence