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Editor: Frederick J. Furnivall

CAXTON'S BOOK OF CURTESYE

Printed at Westminster about 1477-8 A.D. and Now Reprinted, with Two Ms. Copies of the Same Treatise, from the Oriel Ms. 79, and the Balliol Ms. 354

Edited by

FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL, M.A.

Editor of 'The Babees Book, Etc.' , Etc. Etc.

London: Published for the Early English Text Society by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, Amen House, E.C. 4

On this latter point Mr Skeat writes:

"The Oriel copy is evidently the best. Not only does it give better readings, but the lines, as a rule, run more smoothly; and it has an extra stanza. This stanza, which is marked 54, occurs between stanzas 53 and 54 of the other copies, and is of some interest and importance. It shows that Lidgate's pupil, put in mind of Lidgate's style by the very mention of his name, introduces a ballad of three stanzas, in which every stanza has a burden after the Lidgate manner. The recurrence of this burden no doubt caused copyists to lose their place, and so the stanza came to be omitted in other copies. Its omission, however, spoils the ballad. Both it and the curious lines in Piers Ploughmans Crede,

Another passage I cannot feel sure is set at rest by the Oriel text. Hill's and Caxton's texts, when describing the ill-mannered servant whose ways are to be avoided, say of him, as to his hair, that he is

For the last line the Oriel MS. reads,

If this is the meaning, we may compare with it the old poet's reproof to the proud man:

Nis ?er flei, fle, no lowse, In clo?, in toune, bed, no house.

"F ... a foole with his foolishnesse framed in his owne imagination may giue to a hundred wise men matter to picke out.

But the subject is not a very pleasant one for discussion, though the occupation alluded to in the Oriel Text must have been one of the pastimes of many people in Early England.

But to return to our author. He gives Chaucer the poet's highest gift, Imagination, in these words,

And though the writer has the bad taste to praise Lydgate more than Chaucer, yet we may put this down to his love for his old master, and may rest assured that though the cantankerous Ritson calls the Bury schoolmaster a 'driveling monk,' yet the larking schoolboy who robbed orchards, played truant, and generally raised the devil in his early days , retained in later years many of the qualities that draw to a man the boy's bright heart, the disciple's fond regret. We too will therefore hope that old Lydgate's

In old age the present poem was composed ; 'a lytill newe Instruccion' to a lytle childe, to remove him from vice & make him follow virtue. At his riper age our author promises his boy the surplusage of the treatise ; and if a copy of it exists, I hope it will soon fall in our way and get into type, for 'the more the merrier' of these peeps into old boy-life.

On one of the grammatical forms of the Oriel MS., Mr Skeat writes:

Commenting also on l. 71 of Caxton and Hill, Mr Skeat notices how they have individualised the general 'child' of the earlier Oriel text:

I have no more to say: but, readers, remember this coming New Year to do more than last for what Dr Stratmann calls "the dear Old English." Think of Chaucer when his glad spring comes, and every day besides; forget not Langland or any of our early men:

The Book of Curtesye.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT.

Kembe your hede / & loke ye kepe it clene Your eres tweyne / suffre not fowl to be In your visage / wayte no spot be sene 38 Purge your nose / lete noman in it see The vile mater / it is none honeste Ne with your bare honde / no filth fro it fecche For that is fowl / and an vncurtoys teche 42

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

'Yn hert,' he seyth, 'who that is inconstaunte, A waveryng eye, glyddryng but sodenly From place to place, and A fote variaunte 108 That in no place abydeth stabully-- Thes ben signes,' the wyse man seyth sekerly, 'Of suche a wyght as is vnmanerly nyce, And is full like dissposed be to vice.' 112

And wayte, my childe, whan ye stond at the table, Of souereyne or maister whether hit be, Applieth you to be seruysable, 115 That no defaute in you may founde be; Loke who doth best and hym envyeth ye, And specially vseth attendaunce, Whiche is to souereyne thyng of gret plesaunce. 119

CAXTON'S TEXT.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT

And prynte ye trewly your memorie For a princypal point of fair noreture Ye depraue no man absent especyally 157 Saynt austyn amonessheth with besy cure How men atte table / shold hem assure That there escape them / no suche langage As myght other folke hurte to disparage 161

THE ORIEL TEXT

CAXTON'S TEXT.

Eschewe also tacches of foule Raueyne Of gredy luste / with vncurteys appetyte Prece not to sone / fro your viand restreyne 178 Your honde a while / with manerly respite Fede you for necessite / & not for delite Demene you with mete / & drynke so sobrely That ye not ben enfecte with glotony 182

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT.

Enbrewe not your vessel / ne your naprye Ouer maner & mesure / but kepe hem clene Ensoyle not your cuppe / but kepe it clenlye 185 Lete no fat farssine / on your lippes be sene For that is fowle / ye wote what I mene Or than ye drynke / for your owen honeste Your lippes wype / and clenly loke they be 189

Lose not your gyrdel / sittyng at your mete For that is a tacche / of vncurtesye But yf ye seme / ye be embraced streite 199 Or then ye sytte / amende it secretly So couertly that no wight you espye Beware also / no bret fro you rebounde Vp ne dou / leste ye were shameful founde 203

THE ORIEL TEXT.

Beth huste in chambre, cilent in the halle, Herkenyth well, yeueth good audience; Yef vsher or marchall for eny romour calle, 206 Putting Ianglers to rebuke and cilence, Beth mylde of langage, demure of eloquence; Enforcith you to them confourmyde be, That can most good and haue humanyte. 210

CAXTON'S TEXT.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

CAXTON'S TEXT.

THE ORIEL TEXT.

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