Dr. Van der Linde also describes a MS. on parchment of the fifteenth century, forming part of the national library at Paris, which contains the Game of Chess in verse.
"Mès si d'esbat te prent tallant,
Pren ton esbat déuement;
Mès si à jouer vieulx attendre,
Un noble jou te faulte attendre,
C'est des echecs qui est licite
Et à touz bien les gens incite."
The author has concealed his name with an ingenuity that has so far defied penetration.
"Nommez mon nom et mon surnom,
Je ey escript tout environ,
A vingt et dous lettres sans plus,
Sera trouvé cy au dessus
En enscript, et sans plus ne moins."
On this it is only necesiary to quote the remarks of a French critic:--"Ou ne nous dit pas si c'est dans la suite même de la phrase, ou seulement en acrosticke, que se trouvent les vingt-deux lettres de ces nom mystérieux. Nous ne saurions former aucun nom avec les initiales des trente vers qui précèdent ceux que nous venons de citer; et le merite de l'ouvrage ne nous encourage pas à faire des longues recherches pour découvrir un nom que l'auteur a pris plaisir à nous cacher."[13]
The bulk of Caxton's work is undoubtedly from the French translation of Jehan de Vignay, whose dedication to Prince John of France has simply been transformed into a similar address to the Duke of Clarence. He styles De Vignay "an excellent doctor of the order of the Hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem." This is the only authority we have for supposing De Vignay to be connected with that order. He styles himself "hospitaller de l'ordre de haut pas," which was situated in the Faubourg St. Jacques of Paris. It is curious that two members of the same order--for Ferron was also a Jacobin--should independently have occupied themselves with the same work. The version by De Vignay was probably the later of the two, and it was also the most popular, for whilst Ferron's is still unprinted, that of De Vignay has been frequently re-issued from the press. The work is dedicated to Jean de France, Duc de Normandie, who became king in 1350. It will be seen from this that these two French versions were practically contemporaneous.
The prologue to the book is as follows:--"A Tres noble & excellent prince Jehan de france duc de normendie & auisne filz de philipe par le grace de dieu Roy de france. Frere Jehan de vignay vostre petit Religieux entre les autres de vostre seignorie/ paix sante Joie & victoire sur vos ennemis. Treschier & redoubte seign'r/ pour ce que Jay entendu et scay que vous veez & ouez volentiers choses proffitables & honestes et qui tendent alinformacion de bonne meur ay Je mis vn petit liuret de latin en francois le quel mest venuz a la main nouuellement/ ou quel plussieurs auctoritez et dis de docteurs & de philosophes & de poetes & des anciens sages/ sont Racontez & sont appliquiez a la moralite des nobles hommes et des gens de peuple selon le gieu des eschez le quel liure Tres puissant et tres redoubte seigneur jay fait ou nom & soubz vmbre de vous pour laquelle chose treschr seign'r Je vous suppli & requier de bonne voulente de cuer que il vo daigne plaire a receuvoir ce liure en gre aussi bien que de vn greign'r maistre de moy/ car la tres bonne voulente que Jay de mielx faire se je pouoie me doit estre reputee pour le fait/ Et po'r plus clerement proceder en ceste ouure/ Jay ordene que les chappitres du liure soient escrips & mis au commencement afin de veoir plus plainement la matiere de quoy le dit liure pole."[14]
It will be seen that this is the foundation of Caxton's dedication of the Chess-book to the Earl of Warwick. The "Golden Legend," printed by Caxton in 1484, was in effect a translation from "La Legende Dorée," made before the year 1380 by Jehan de Vignay, who in his prologue mentions that he had previously translated into French "Le miroir des hystoires du monde," at the request of "Ma dame Jehanne de Borgoigne, royne de France."[15] This preface Caxton, as usual, adopted with some changes of name and other alterations, amongst which is a reference to "the book of the chesse" as one of his works. The "Legenda Aurea" of Jacobus de Voragine is, of course, the original source of De Vignay's "Legende Dorée," and Caxton's "Golden Legend."
Ferron and de Vignay were avowedly translators. Their original was Jacques de Cessoles. The name of this author has been tortured into so many fantastic forms that one may almost despair of recovering the original. Cæsolis, Cassalis, Castulis, Casulis, Cesolis, Cessole, Cessulis, Cesulis, Cezoli, de Cezolis, de Cossoles, de Courcelles, Sesselis, Tessalis, Tessellis, de Thessolus, de Thessolonia, and de Thessolonica are different manners of spelling his surname, and the two last are certainly masterpieces of transformation. Prosper Marchand has amused himself by collecting some vain speculations of previous writers as to the age, country, and personality of Jacques de Cessoles. Some counted him a Lombard, some an Italian, whilst others again boldly asserted that he was a Greek!
He lived towards the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century, and having joined the Dominican order, was a "Maître en Théologie" of that brotherhood at Reims. Various works are attributed to him, and his learning and piety had many eulogists.
It is more than probable that his name would have been much less widely known but for the happy accident that turned his attention to the game of chess. It was a popular diversion, and in the moralizing spirit of the age he saw in it an allegory of the various components of the commonwealth. The men who were merely killing time were perhaps flattered at the thought that they were at the same time learning the modes of statecraft. Then, as now, the teachers of morality felt that a song might reach him who a sermon flies, and they did not scruple to use in the pulpit whatever aids came handy. The popular stories, wise saws, and modern instances, were common enough on the lips of the preachers, and such collections as the "Gesta Romanorum show what a pitch of ingenuity in unnatural interpretation they had reached. An appropriate instance is furnished by it in the following quaint fashion of moralizing the chess play:--
"Antonius was a wys emperour regnyng in the cite of Rome, the which vsid moche to pley with houndis; and aftir þat pley, all þe day aftir he wolde vse þe chesse. So yn a day, as he pleide at þe chesse, & byheld the kyng fette yn the pley, som tyme hy and som tyme lowe, among aufyns and pownys, he thought þerwith þat hit wold be so with him, for he shuld dey, and be hid vndir erth. And þerfore he devided his Reame in thre parties; and he yaf oo part to þe kyng of Ierusalem; þe secunde part vnto þe lordis of his Reame or his empire; and the thrid partie vnto the pore people; & yede him self vnto the holy londe, and ther he endid his lyf in peas.
MORALITE.
Seth now, good sirs; this emperour, þat lovith so wele play, may be called eche worldly man þat occupieth him in vanytes of the world; but he moste take kepe of the pley of the chesse, as did the emperoure. the chekir or þe chesse hath viij. poyntes in eche partie. In euery pley beth viij. kyndes of men, scil. man, woman, wedewer, wedowis, lewid men, clerkes, riche men, and pouere men. at this pley pleieth vj. men. the first man, þat goth afore, hath not but oo poynt, but whenne he goth aside, he takith anoþer; so by a pouere man; he hath not, but when he comyth to þe deth with pacience, þen shall he be a kyng in heuen, with þe kyng of pore men. But if he grucche ayenst his neighbour of his stat, and be a thef, and ravissh þat wher he may, þen he is ytake, and put in to the preson of helle. The secund, fcil. alphyn, renneth iij. poyntes both vpward and douneward; [he] betokenyth wise men, the whiche by deceyuable eloquence & takyng of money deceyueth, & so he is made oonly. The iij. scil. þe kny3t, hath iij. poyntes, & goth þerwith; [he] betokenyth gentilmen þat rennyth aboute, & ravisshith, and ioyeth for her kynrede, & for habundaunce of richesse. The fourth, scil. þe rook, he holdith length & brede, and takith vp what so is in his way; he betokenyth okerers and false merchaunt3, þat rennyth aboute ouer all, for wynnyng & lucre, & rechith not how thei geten, so that thei haue hit. The fifthe is þe quene, that goth fro blak to blak, or fro white to white, and is yset befide þe kyng, and is ytake fro the kyng. This quene bytokenyth virgyns and damesels, þat goth fro chastite to synne, and beth ytake by the devill, for glovis or such maner yiftis. The vj. is to whom all owe to obey and mynystre; and he goth forth, and bakward ayen, & in either side, & takith ouer all; so sone discendith in to þe world, and ascendith to god by praiers; But when he takith [no] kepe of god, and hath no meyne, þan is hit to þe man chekmate. And þerfore let vs not charge of oure estatis, no more þan is with þe men, when þei be put vp in þe poket; then hit is no charge who be above or who be byneth; and so by the Spirit of loulynesse we may come to þe ioy of heven. And þat graunt vs, qui viuit &c."