After mentioning that the duke had considered the book of ‘Boccasio, on the Fall of Princes,’ he adds, ‘and he gave me commandment, that I should, after my conning, this book translate him to do plesance.’ MS. 18 D 4.—Sharon Turner’s History of England, vol. vi. pp. 55—7.

P. S. When printing the 1513 edition of Wynkyn de Worde’s Boke of Keruynge, I was not aware of the existence of a copy of the earlier edition in the Cambridge University Library. Seeing this copy afterwards named in Mr Hazlitt’s new catalogue, I asked a friend to compare the present reprint with the first edition, and the result follows.

[ NOTE ON THE 1508 EDITION OF
The Boke of Keruynge,]
BY THE REV. WALTER SKEAT, M.A.

The title-page of the older edition, of 1508, merely contains the words, “¶ Here begynneth the boke of Keruynge;” and beneath them is—as in the second edition of 1513—a picture of two ladies and two gentlemen at dinner, with an attendant bringing a dish, two servants at a side table, and a jester. The colophon tells us that it was “Enprynted by wynkyn de worde at London in Flete strete at the sygne of the sonne. The yere of our lorde M.CCCCC.VIII;” beneath which is Wynkyn de Worde’s device, as in the second edition.

The two editions resemble each other very closely, running page for page throughout, and every folio in the one begins at the same place as in the other. Thus the word “moche” is divided into mo-che in both editions, the “-che” beginning Fol. A. ii. b. Neither is altogether free from misprints, but these are not very numerous nor of much importance. It may be observed that marks of contraction are hardly ever used in the older edition, the word “ye” being written “the” at length, and instead of “hãged” we find “hanged.” On the whole, the first edition would seem to be the more carefully printed, but the nature of the variations between them will be best understood by an exact collation of the first two folios (pp. 151-3 of the present edition), where the readings of the first edition are denoted by the letter A. The only variations are these:—

P. 151. lyft that swanne] lyfte that swanne A (a misprint). frusshe that chekyn] fruche that chekyn A. thye all maner of small byrdes] A omits of. fynne that cheuen] fyne that cheuen A. transsene that ele] trassene that ele A. Here hendeth, &c.] Here endeth, &c. A. Butler] Butteler A.
P. 152,l. 5. trenchoures] trenchours A. l. 12. hanged] hanged A. l. 15. cannelles] canelles A. l. 18, 19. ye] the (in both places) A. l. 20. seasous] seasons A. l. 23. after] After A. l. 27. good] goot A. l. 30. ye] the A. l. 34. modon] modon A. l. 36. sourayne] souerayne A.
P. 153. ye] the A (several times). l. 5. wyll] wyl A. l. 9. rede] reed A. reboyle] reboyle not A. l. 12. the reboyle] they reboyle A. l. 17. lessynge] lesynge A. l. 20. campolet] campolet A. l. 21. tyer] tyerre A. l. 22. ypocras] Ipocras A (and in the next line, and l. 26). l. 24. gynger] gynger A. l. 27. ren] hange A. l. 29. your] youre A. In l. 33, A has paradico, as in the second edition.

It will be readily seen that these variations are chiefly in the spelling, and of a trivial character. The only ones of any importance are, on p. 151, lyste (which is a misprint) for lyft, and trassene for transsene (cp. Fr. transon, a truncheon, peece of, Cot.); on p. 152, goot for good is well worth notice (if any meaning can be assigned to goot), as the direction to beware of good strawberries is not obvious; on p. 153, we should note lesynge for lessynge, and hange for ren, the latter being an improvement, though ren makes sense, as basins hung by cords on a perch may, like curtains hung on a rod, be said to run on it. The word ren was probably caught up from the line above it in reprinting.

The following corrections are also worth making, and are made on the authority of the first edition:—