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BY DAME JULIANA BERNERS

CONTAINING

TREATISES ON HAWKING, HUNTING, AND COTE ARMOUR:

PRINTED AT SAINT ALBANS BY THE SCHOOLMASTER-PRINTER IN 1486

REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE

WILLIAM BLADES

LONDON ELLIOT STOCK, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

Several independent printing presses were established in England before the close of the fifteenth century; and from them issued numerous books which are invaluable to all students of antiquity from the light they throw upon the social habits and literary progress of our nation. Of these it may safely be said that not one exceeds in interest that work of an unknown typographer, which is here presented in facsimile, and which, from the town in which it was compiled, as well as printed, is known to all bibliographers as "The Book of St. Albans." This work has always been a favourite, partly because our feelings are appealed to in favour of the writer who for centuries has taken rank as England's earliest poetess, and is still, in all our Biographical Dictionaries, reckoned among "noble authors;" and partly because we love mysteries, and a mystery has always enshrouded the nameless printer. The subjects, too, so curiously alliterative--Hawking, Hunting, and Heraldry, have an enticing and antique flavour about them, being just those with which, at that period, every man claiming to be "gentle" was expected to be familiar; while ignorance of their laws and language was to confess himself a "churl."

Looking at the book, then, all round, it will be a convenient plan to consider these subjects separately, and to treat the volume in its four aspects of Authorship, Typography and Bibliography, Subject-matter, and Philology.

In this very book we have a striking instance of such erroneous attribution. The three treatises, of which the book is made up, are quite distinct, and to a portion only of one of these is there any author's name attached. Yet that name, "Dam Julyans Barnes," altered by degrees to "Dame Juliana Berners," is now universally received as the name of the authoress of the whole volume. With even less show of reason she is credited with the authorship of a "Treatise on Fishing" for which there is not the shadow of evidence, that treatise having been added ten years later by Wynken de Worde, who, when reprinting the Book of St. Albans, thought that the subject of Fishing would complete the work as a Gentleman's Vade Mecum.

There are really four distinct tractates in the Book of St. Albans, although the two last being on Heraldry are generally counted as one.

The first is on Hawking; to this no name of the author is attached, but it has a prologue which no one acquainted with the other writings of the printer can doubt to be his. Of this we shall have more to say anon.

The second tractate is on Hunting: it is specially associated with the name of Dame Juliana Berners, and will require a more extended elucidation than the others.

Here the evidence of authorship is as good as for most pieces of fifteenth-century production--a period at which literary rights did not exist, and when the scribe, if at all acquainted with the subject upon which the book he was copying treated, did not scruple to interpolate his own ideas, and that without any egotistical vanity, but merely from a feeling that all books being written for the good of men, and not from vanity in the author, it was a duty to improve them where possible. But as improvement mostly meant the addition of something on the same subject taken from another manuscript, we have the constant occurrence of one MS. being a compilation of two or three others, and yet appearing under the name of the last compiler.

In this treatise on Hunting we have the express statement at the end of the twenty-fourth page--"Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes." This might certainly apply to the transcription only, but, when taken with Wynken de Worde's version, the probability is, that the lady compiled as well as wrote it. In the reprint by Wynken de Worde, only ten years later than the original, he varies the colophon thus:--"? Explicit dame Julyans Bernes doctryne in her boke of huntynge," the whole reprint ending "Enprynted at westmestre by Wynkyn the Worde the yere of thyncarnac?n of our lorde. M . CCCC . lxxxxvj." So that he, a contemporary, evidently believed her to be the authoress. Later authorities attributed the whole book to her pen, but as they were in possession of no more evidence than we now are, and probably not so much, we should attach no weight to such statements, which were founded simply on a vivid imagination.

But enough of such sham biography; let us return to facts.

The word "Dame" did not in the fifteenth century, as it does now, imply any connection with a titled family, it meant simply Mistress or Mrs. Chaucer speaks of Dame Partlet in this sense; and had the Dame Julyans Barnes of the fifteenth century lived now, she would have been just "Mrs. Barnes."

Similarity of name in history, like similarity of sound in philology is a will-o'-the-wisp which has led many a writer into a bog. Allowing that Lord Berners' name was sometimes spelt Barnes, is that sufficient reason for making our authoress a member of his family? I think not.

That the greater portion of the book on Hunting was compiled by Mistress Barnes, is probably correct, and had she written much more, and produced even an original work on the subject, she would not have stood alone, even at that early period, as an authoress. Crystine de Pisan, two of whose works were printed by Caxton, was contemporary with Julians Barnes, and left not only numerous original writings behind her--one of which was upon the Art of War--but left her mark, and that no mean nor ignoble one, upon the political course and moral development of her countrymen. But Dame Julyans' work upon Hunting is certainly not original, as indeed very few works upon any subject were at that period. This is evident from a glance at the text and the grouping of the subjects. It begins with distinguishing the varieties of beasts and their ages; the proper names by which to designate the beasts, singly and together; on hunting and dressing a Roe, a Boar, a Hare; of flaying; of the horns of a Roebuck; of the Hart; of the seasons; of the Hare. Then follows, from another source, an interpolation of a discourse between a Master of the Hunt and his man, going over portions of the same ground again; and this ended, we get back again to the original MS. and the dismemberment of various beasts. All through, with the exception of the interpolated conversation, the text is addressed to "My deare childe." Thus we read--"Do so, my child;" "Think what I say, my son;" "My lief childer;" "Say, child, where you go? my dame taught you so." Evidently that portion was originally written for a mother to use as a school-book, by which her son would learn to read, and, at the same time, become familiar with the terms of venery.

Footnote 1:

In the Bodleian Library is a small manuscript on the Terms of the Chase, the beginning of which is:--

"Mi dere sones, where ye fare, be frith or by fell, Take good hede in his tyme how Tristram wol tell."

This manuscript was probably copied by some youth as a school-exercise, which would account for the following odd colophon--"Explicit, expliceat, ludere scriptor eat."

Compare the above with the opening stanza of the verses we attribute to Mistress Barnes:--

"Wheresoever ye fare, by frith or by fell, My dear child, take heed how Tristram doth you tell."

Footnote 2:

Footnote 3:

Sir Tristram, the well-known knight of the Round Table, was a mighty hunter, and the great authority upon all subjects connected with the chase. Popular belief attributed to him the origin of all the special terms used in hunting, and his name was invoked to give authority to any statement upon this subject, just as in a later century the arithmetical rules of Cocker give rise to the popular phrase--"According to Cocker."

The rest of the Oxford MS. is in similar accord with the print, but nowhere in it is there a word about Mistress Barnes.

The words "Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes" have been considered to prove that the lady was alive when the book was printed. If, however, Sir James Berners were her father, of which there is no evidence, she must have been close upon a hundred years old in 1486, as he died in 1390. But this is importing a needless difficulty into the theory, which is not rendered more probable by making the authoress and printer contemporary.

It may here be as well to say a few words about Sopwell Nunnery, over which, without a particle of evidence, our authoress is supposed to have presided. Sopwell Nunnery, Hertfordshire, was founded about 1140, under the rule of St. Benedict, and subject to the Abbot of St. Albans, from which it was not far distant. The rule of life among the inmates was very severe, and at the first the nuns were enclosed under locks and bolts, made additionally sure by the seal, on the door, of the Abbot for the time being . How long this lasted, and how the nuns liked it, history saith not; but, in 1338, a re-organisation had become imperative, and the Abbot of St. Albans, among other instructions, ordered that no nun should lodge out of the house, and no guest within it . There does not seem much scope left here for the Prioress to take an active part in field sports, though a hundred and fifty years later, which was about the period of our "Dame," many relaxations of the strict rules may have become common. But, then, we have apparently accurate lists of all the Prioresses of Sopwell in the fifteenth century, and the name of Juliana Barnes does not appear at all in them. The known dates are these:--In 1416, Matilda de Flamstede was Prioress. Four years before her death, which was in 1430, she was succeeded by Letitia Wyttenham. The next whose name is known was Joan Chapell; the date of her appointment is not recorded, but as she was set aside in 1480 on account of her age, she had probably occupied the position for many years. In 1480, Elizabeth Webb succeeded Joan Chapell.

What is really known of the Dame is almost nothing, and may be summed up in the following few words. She probably lived at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and she possibly compiled from existing MSS. some rhymes on Hunting.

There is still the authorship of the other parts of the book to determine, and if similarity of wording and phraseology may be taken as evidence, they were all from one pen.

At the end of the book on Heraldry the printer has put the following--"Here endeth the book of Blasing of Arms translated and compiled together at Seynt Albons." Here we have the printer's own statement as to the origin of his text, and doubtless this, as well as the treatise on Hawking, were made up or "compiled" from more than one manuscript in French. Haslewood gives a list of such as are in the British Museum, in several of which portions of the printed work are contained. Works on Hunting and Hawking were not uncommon in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and are still found in all large collections of manuscripts. There were several in the libraries of the Dukes of Burgundy in the fifteenth century, and many are still extant in the national collections of England and France.

As specimens of the schoolmaster's powers of composition we annex the following, the originals of which can be seen in the ensuing facsimile pages:--

"In so much that gentlemen and honest persons have great delight in Hawking, and desire to have the manner to take hawks: and also how and in what wise they should guide them ordinately: and to know the gentle terms in communing of their hawks: and to understand their sicknesses and infirmities, and to know medicines for them according, and the many notable terms that be used in hawking both of their hawks and of the fowls that their hawks shall slay. Therefore this book following in a due form shows very knowledge of such pleasure to gentlemen and persons disposed to see it."

"Likewise, as in the Book of Hawking aforesaid are written and noted the terms of pleasure belonging to gentlemen having delight therein, in the same manner this book following showeth to such gentle persons the manner of Hunting for all manner of beasts, whether they be beasts of Venery, or of Chace, or Rascal. And also it showeth all the terms convenient as well to the hounds as to the beasts aforesaid. And in certain there be many diverse of them as it is declared in the book following."

"Here in this book following is determined the lineage of Coat Armours: and how gentlemen shall be known from ungentle men, and how bondage began first in angel and after succeeded in man kind, as it is here showed in process, both in the childer of Adam and also of Noe, and how Noe divided the world in three parts to his three sons. Also there be showed the nine colours in Arms figured by the nine orders of Angels, and it is showed by the foresaid colours which be worthy and which be royal; and of regalities which be noble and which be excellent. And there be here the vertues of Chivalry, and many other notable and famous things, to the pleasure of noble persons shall be showed, as the works following witnesses, whosoever liketh to see them and read them, which were too long now to rehearse. And after these notable things aforesaid followeth the Blasing of all manner Arms in Latin, French, and English."

So wrote the schoolmaster. Let us now see what kind of book this is typographically.

The works printed by William Caxton were almost without exception in the English tongue, while the contemporary presses of Oxford, St. Albans, and Machlinia were nearly all in Latin. Of the eight books at present known to have been printed at St. Albans, the only two in English were the "Fructus Temporum" and the work under review. The "Fructus" or St. Albans' Chronicle is the same as that printed two years previously by Caxton, with the addition of certain ecclesiastical events and Papal chronology, probably added by the printer himself to please the monks.

The Book of St. Albans' and the St. Albans' Chronicle make a class of themselves; but as it is impossible to understand their position without a glance at the other works from the same press, we will give a tabulated description of the whole eight.

BOOKS PRINTED AT ST. ALBANS IN FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

But who was the printer? What was his name? Was he associated with the great Abbey? and is there any internal or external evidence in his works to connect him with any other printer or any other town?

The only notice we have of the printer is an accidental one by Wynken de Worde, who, in reprinting the St. Albans' Chronicle, says in the colophon, "Here endith this present Chronicle ... compiled in a book and also enprinted by our sometime Schoolmaster of St. Alban." He was a schoolmaster, then, and this will account for the nature of his early works, all scholastic and all in Latin. Not till the end of his typographical career did he realise the fact that the printing press, instead of being the hobby of a few learned men, was the educator of the people, the whole nation; and then he gave his countrymen what they wanted--a history of their own country and a book upon the whole duty of the gentleman, as then understood.

The name of the schoolmaster-printer is quite unknown. No notice of him is found in the records of the Abbey, nor does he appear in any contemporary document. Yet here, as in Mistress Barnes's case, imagination has come to the rescue and a legendary name has been provided.

Footnote 4:

Was he connected with the Abbey? I think not. There is not a word to suggest such a connection, although we may take it for granted that the Abbot and his fraternity could not have frowned upon the printer, or he would never have established himself. His imprints all mention the town of St. Albans, but never the Abbey, and his position was probably similar to that of Caxton, who was simply a tenant of the Abbot of Westminster, but, so far as is known, nothing more.

Was he connected with Caxton and the Westminster press? Without a shadow of doubt I say, No! Mr. E. Scott, of the MS. department in the British Museum, has indeed strung together a number of surmises to show that the Schoolmaster was employed by Caxton, and that all the books without date or place hitherto attributed to Westminster were really printed at St. Albans. But internal evidence is against any such gratuitous assumption. There is nothing in common between the two printers in any of their habits or customs except the possession of Caxton's No. 3 type. This is the only one of Caxton's types used outside his own office . Caxton employed it from his arrival in England in 1477 till 1484, when it makes its last appearance in the headings of "AEsop," the "Order of Chivalry," and "The Golden Legend." In 1485 Caxton obtained a new fount, similar in shape and character, and from that time the old No. 3 disappears to make way for the new and smaller type No. 5. This being more suited to the taste of the day, we find the larger and worn fount passing over to the country press of St. Albans, where the Schoolmaster first uses it in 1486, being the identical year in which its successor appears in Caxton's "Royal Book." We may here observe that after the stoppage of the St. Albans' Press the same fount finds its way back again and is seen in W. de Worde's reprint, in 1496-97, of the two English St. Albans books. But the discovery of a copy of Caxton's Boethius in the old Grammar School at St. Albans, and the numerous fragments of old books extracted from its covers, are quoted as confirming the idea. Yet the book itself and all these fragments were from Westminster, not a single one being from a known St. Albans book, and they included the Caxton "Chronicles," 1480, the "Dictes," 1477, and the still earlier "Life of Jason;" so that we had better at once remove the whole Westminster press, dated and undated, to St. Albans, if such an argument is to have any force. These fragments, indeed, can only point to the fact that the copy of Boethius was bound in the printing office, as was commonly the case with the books from Caxton's press.

Again, Mr. Scott draws attention to the fact that a page of the St. Albans' Book, 1486, has been copied by a contemporary writer on to the blank leaves of one of Caxton's earliest books. 'Tis true; but this copying of part of one book into another, printed ten years before, has no typographical bearing whatever. Lastly, the name Causton appears in an old St. Albans' Register of the early part of the fifteenth century. But this, again, means positively nothing. Caxton's name was not at all uncommon; there were Caustons or Caxtons in nearly every English county, and I have quite a long list of them.

It is highly probable that Caxton, while at Westminster, in the van of all the literature of his day, would have communications of some sort with the important town of St. Albans; but that the two printers assisted one another in the production of books, is, so far as any evidence goes, a pure fiction.

Let us now glance at the bibliographical aspect of the book.

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