Dialogues in French and English   By: William Caxton (1422?-1492?)

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Early English Text Society.

EXTRA SERIES, LXXIX.

Dialogues in French and English.

BY WILLIAM CAXTON.

(Adapted from a Fourteenth Century Book of Dialogues in French and Flemish.)

EDITED FROM CAXTON'S PRINTED TEXT (ABOUT 1483), WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND WORD LISTS,

BY

HENRY BRADLEY, M.A.,

Joint Editor of the New English Dictionary.

LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., Ltd.

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD.

MDCCCC.

Price Ten Shillings.

BERLIN: ASHER & CO., 13, UNTER DEN LINDEN. NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.; LEYPOLDT & HOLT. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

Dialogues in French and English.

BY WILLIAM CAXTON.

(Adapted from a Fourteenth Century Book of Dialogues in French and Flemish.)

EDITED FROM CAXTON'S PRINTED TEXT (ABOUT 1483), WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND WORD LISTS,

BY

HENRY BRADLEY, M.A., Joint Editor of the New English Dictionary.

LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., Ltd.

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. M DCCCC.

Extra Series, No. LXXIX.

OXFORD: HORACE HART, M.A., PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY.

INTRODUCTION.

The work now for the first time reprinted from Caxton's original edition has been preserved in three copies. One of these is in the Library of Ripon Cathedral, another in the Spencer Library, now at Manchester, and the third at Bamborough Castle. A small fragment, consisting of pp. 17 18 and 27 28, is in the Bodleian Library. The text of the present edition is taken from the Ripon copy. I have not had an opportunity of seeing this myself; but a type written transcript was supplied to me by Mr. John Whitham, Chapter Clerk of Ripon Cathedral, and the proofs were collated with the Ripon book by the Rev. Dr. Fowler, Vice Principal of Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham, who was kind enough to re examine every passage in which I suspected a possible inaccuracy. It is therefore reasonable to hope that the present reprint will be found to be a strictly faithful representation of the original edition.

The earlier bibliographers gave to the book the entirely inappropriate title of 'Instructions for Travellers.' Mr. Blades is nearer the mark in calling it 'A Vocabulary in French and English,' but, as it consists chiefly of a collection of colloquial phrases and dialogues, the designation adopted in the present edition appears to be preferable. As in other printed works of the same period, there is no title page in the original edition, so that a modern editor is at liberty to give to the book whatever name may most accurately describe its character. The name of Caxton does not occur in the colophon, which merely states that the work was printed at Westminster; but the authorship is sufficiently certain from internal evidence. On the ground of the form of type employed, Mr. Blades inferred that the book was printed about 1483. However this may be, there are, as will be shown, decisive reasons for believing that it was written at a much earlier period.