It was through this Latin version that the work was communicated to nearly all the languages of Western Europe; and in 1520 a translation into English was printed by the famous printer Wynkyn de Worde. A fine copy of this is preserved in the British Museum, and from it is printed the text of the present version. One or two pages are missing from this copy, and the passages are restored from the earliest chap-book version which I have been able to discover—namely, that printed in 1671 at London, and belonging to the British Museum. This chap-book version is nearly identical with the Wynkyn de Worde, with the simple alteration of the spelling to the modern forms. One curious variation, however, illustrating the force of the change of religious opinions at the time of the Reformation, is well worth noting. On page 173 of our text will be found related how the murdered children of the Emperor Lodwyke were found alive singing "of ye moost blessed vyrgyne Mary, aue Maria gracia plena dn̄s tecum," but in the chap-book of 1671 it is said they were singing praises to the Almighty.
Since 1671 many chap-book versions have been issued, and I have succeeded in obtaining a copy still published in Dublin. These later versions are all much deteriorated from the original. Besides the 1671 edition, there are the following: London 1684, 1687, and 1697; Glasgow 1713; London [1750]; Newcastle 1750; London 1780—7 [1785]; Boston 1794; London 1805; Warrington 1815. And I have no doubt that it has been continually reproduced until the present day.
Besides the closeness of the translation of the prose version of Wynkyn de Worde, one curious feature to be noted is the series of illustrations. It is well known that German woodcuts supplied English books with illustrations,[1] and this is a good instance of the practice. In the Bibliographer (vol. ii. p. 70) Mr. W. M. Conway has told the history of the woodcuts of the Lubeck edition of the Seven Wise Men. It was first printed in April, 1488, with the name of Claes Leeu, probably a brother of Gerard Leeu. In 1490 appeared another edition printed at Cologne by J. Koelhof de Lubeck, to whom the blocks must have been lent. He returned them to Leeu with the exception of one, which was either retained by him or lost on the journey; and the imperfect set, a new block being made by some other hand to replace the lost one, was employed in the edition printed by Leeu on the 6th November, 1490. One of the cuts (see p. 21) represents the Emperor coming angrily into the chamber of his wife with a drawn sword in his hand and reproaching her with her infidelity. She is seated on a chair on the right, with her hands clasped in an attitude rather of shyness than fear or remorse. One reason for this seems to be discoverable from the fact that along the top of the bed behind, the words Ave regina cœlorum can be traced carved in reverse; and it is quite possible that the whole cut, with the exception of the figure of the Emperor, was copied from some print representing the Annunciation.
Both these editions, that by J. Koelhof de Lubeck and that printed by Gerard Leeu on 6th November, 1490, are in the library of the British Museum, the latter under the title of Historia de Calumnia Novercali. This book has a preface not contained in the other edition, and it formed the subject of a communication to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767, p. 541, in a letter signed T. From this letter it would appear that later editions were issued. The preface quoted in the letter is the same as the preface in the British Museum copy, but the words of the latter are much more contracted than the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine indicates was the case with his copy. This letter is, I think, worth reproducing, as it conveys some useful information. It is as follows:—
"I lately met with a mutilated copy of a book, which to me, at least, appears a curiosity. It bears for its title, Historia de Calumnia Novercali: an history now commonly sold at stalls for the entertainment of English children, under the title of The History of the Seven Wise Masters; with which last-mentioned book mine agrees as to the substance and order of the tales, but differs considerably from it in the form and manner of relating them.
"It is printed in sixteens, in the common Gothic character of the time (the beginning, as I judge, of the 16th century), an English or black face approaching to a Roman, on a pica body, and with many abbreviations, and is ornamented with wooden cuts of the size of the pages, which, considering their age, are by no means contemptible.
"The preface runs thus:—
"'Compositâ pridem Calumniæ Novercalis Historia quæ Septem Sapientum dicitur, pulchro quidem argumento, pulchris etiam ac memoratu dignis tractata exemplis, in utramq: partem & defensionis & condemnationis sive vera sive ficta sit, nihil ad te attinere puto mi Gerarde: magis autem quid doceat adverte, intelligimus ex ea & qui sint malarum mulierum, & pravorum liberorum, & zelotyporum itemq: delirorum senum aliarumq: personarum mores atq: fortunæ variâ ratione, ut quid caveri quidve eligi oporteat agnoscamus. Cum autam nominum quorundam ratio temporibus satis respondere visa non esset, & textus nimium fluxus minimeq: cohærens videretur non indignum judicavi quo tibi morem gererem id postulanti, paululum mutatis verbis obmissisq: nominibus ne legentem offendant, re ipsa integra servata, hanc narationem efferre; ne quid inventori laudis aut inventioni veritatis detractum esse videatur: imposito potius nomine Calumniæ Novercalis qualis & Phædræ fuit is Hyppolitum; et simili quoq: genere uxoris Putipharis in Joseph Hebræum; & senum illorum in Susannam; ut eo nomine historia hæc majorem notitiam gratiamq: apud lectores sit habitura.'
"From hence it appears that this book is an alteration and improvement of a more ancient work, intitled Historia Septem Sapientum, and, as the particulars here said to be altered are retained unaltered in the English translation, it should seem that the English history is translated from a performance of a more early date than this."
The woodcuts of the Wynkyn de Worde are not identical with the Cologne edition, but copies, having been decidedly improved. All these are reproduced in facsimile in the present edition. Owing to the missing pages, one or two of these illustrations are not given in the British Museum copy. The Cologne edition contains a frontispiece plate, one after the first two as printed on pages 4 and 8 of our text, and two printed at the end of the book, making four in all, which are not contained in the British Museum copy of the Wynkyn de Worde.