The translation of Cicero de Senectute, which was printed by Caxton in 1481, is indeed in the preface stated to have been translated by the ordinance and desire of the noble ancient knight sir John Fastolfe;[[73]] and, though Worcestre's name is not mentioned by Caxton, we may conclude that it was the same translation which from Worcestre's own memoranda we know was made by him.[[74]] Still, it was but a very slight deference to literature, if the ancient knight approved of his secretary's translating "Tully on Old Age," and did not make any further contribution towards its publication.
But on the particular subject of the loss of the English provinces in France, and the causes thereof, there can be no question that sir John Fastolfe, the "baron
of Sillie le Guillem," once governor of Anjou and Maine, and lord of Piron and Beaumont, took the deepest interest; considering that he had spent his best days in their acquisition, administration, and defence, and that he was one of the principal sufferers by their loss. He may, therefore, well have promoted the composition of the work now before us.
William of Worcestre has the reputation of having written a memoir[[75]] of the exploits of sir John Fastolfe; but this is not traceable beyond the bare assertion of Bale, and a more recent misapprehension of the meaning of one of the Paston letters.
Another person whose name has occurred as having been employed in a literary capacity for sir John Fastolfe[[76]] is Peter Basset[[77]]; who is commemorated with some parade by Bale as an historical writer, but whose writings, though quoted by Hall the chronicler, have either disappeared or are no longer to be identified.
I have, however, mentioned the names of William of Worcestre and Peter Basset only from the circumstance of their being connected with that of sir John
Fastolfe; and not from there being any other presumptive proof that either of them wrote "The Boke of Noblesse." We have no known production of Basset with which to compare it; and as to Worcestre his "Collectanea" and private Memoranda can scarcely assist us in determining what his style might have been had he attempted any such work as the present.
Altogether, The Boke of Noblesse is more of a compilation than an original essay. It has apparently largely borrowed from the French; and I have already shown that it was partly derived from former works, though I cannot undertake to say to what extent that was the case. In its general character our book resembles one which was popular in the middle ages, as the Secretum Secretorum, falsely attributed to Aristotle,[[78]] and which was also known under the title De Regimine Principum. The popularity of this work was so great that MS. copies occur in most of our public libraries, and not less than nine English translations and six French translations are known.[[79]] A Scots translation by sir Gilbert de Hay, entitled "The Buke of the Governaunce of Princis," is contained in a MS. at Abbotsford, accompanying a version of The Tree of Batailes, already noticed in pp. [iii]. [vi].
Another work of the same class is that of which Caxton published (about the year 1484) a translation entitled The booke of the ordre of Chevalrye or Knyghthode, and of which the Scots translation by sir Gilbert de Hay was printed for the Abbotsford Club by Beriah Botfield, esq. in 1847.