ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 479
- At VVeftmenfter, of Feverer tlie xx
day,
- And ot King Edward the xvii yere
vraye.
« Emprinted by C AX TON.'
- In Feverer the colde feafon.'
III. The book named 'Cordial, ' or Meniorate noviflima;' a third tranfl^ition from the French ; the orieinal author not named : begun to be printed by Caxron * the
- morn after the purification of
« our bliiTid Lady in the yere
- 1478, which was the daye of
- Seint Bafe, bifhop and martir:
- and finifhed on the even of
' thannunciation of our faid bliffid
- Lady in the xix yere of Kyng
- Edward the fourth, 1480.' By
which it feems that Caxton was above two years in printing this book. It does not appe.ir that he publifhed any other work in that period : yet he was generally more expeditious ; but the new art did nor, or could not multiply its pro- ductions, as it does now in its ma- turity.
Thefe are all the remains of this i11u!trinus Lord, though, as Cax- ton fays, * notvvithlionding the
- greet labours and charges he
- had in the fervice of the King
' and of my faid Lord Prince,
- which hath been to him no little
- thought and biiinefs, yet over
- that, tenrich his vertuous dif-
- pofition, he put him in devoyr
- at all tymes, when he might
- have a leyfer, which was but
- ftarte mete, to tranflate diverfe
- bookes out of French into Eng-
- lifh.* He then mentions thofe I
have recited, and adds,
• IV. Over that hath made di-
' vers balade ayenll the feven dede-
- ly fynnes.*
It is obfervable with what timi- dity and lowlinefs young Learning ventured to unfold her recent pi- nions, how little fne dared to raife herfelf above the ground. We have feen that Earl Tiptoft and Earl Rivers, the rellorers and pa- trons of fcience in this country, contented themfelves with tranflat- ing the works of others ; the lat- ter condefcending even to tranflate a tranflation. But we mull re- member how fcarce books were; how few of the claffic llandards were known, and how much lefs underftood. Whoever confiders the account which Caxton gives of his meeting * with the lytyle
- book in Frenflie, tranflated out
- of Latyn by that noble Poete
- and grete Clerke Virgyle,' will
not wonder that invention did not exert itfelf. Whatever was tranf- lated was new, and a real prefent to the age. Invention operates only where there is no pattern, or where all patterns are exhaulled. Ke, who in the dawn of fcience made a verfion of Chriftinaof Pifa, in its vigorous maturity would tranf- late Montefquieu — and, I trull, not in metre !
- I have dwelled the longer on the
articles of thefe two lords, as they are very flightly known, and as I think their country in a great mea- fure indebted to them for the relloration of learning. The coun- tenance, the example of men in their fituation, muft have operated more ftrongly than the attempts of an hundred profefTors, bene- diiflines, and commentators. Th« fimilitude of their ftudies was ter- minated by too fatal a refemblance in their catallrophe !
Henrt
