the mercer's apprentice—his book-knowledge—commerce in books—schools in london—city apprentices—city pageants—spread of english language—english writers—chaucer—gower—lydgate—the minstrels—national literature.
in a book which caxton printed in 1483, 'the booke callyd cathon,' he says in his prologue or preface, "unto the noble, ancient, and renowned city, the city of london in england, i, william caxton, citizen and conjury [sworn fellow] of the same, and of the fraternity and fellowship of the mercery, owe of right my service and good will; and of very duty am bounden naturally to assist, aid, and counsel, as farforth as i can to my power, as to my mother of whom i have received my nurture and living; and shall pray for the good prosperity and policy of the same during my life. for as me seemeth it is of great need, by cause i have known it in my young age much more wealthy, prosperous, and richer than it is at this day; and the cause is, that there is almost none that intendeth to the common weal, but only every man for his singular profit." it is the usual habit of the aged to look back upon the days of their youth as a period of higher prosperity and more exalted virtue, public and private, than they witness in their declining years. this is in most cases merely {20} the mind's own colouring of the picture. but it is very possible that london, in the first year of richard iii., when caxton wrote this preface, was really less prosperous, and its citizens less devoted to the public good, than half a century earlier, when caxton was a blithe apprentice within its walls. the country had passed through the terrible convulsion of the wars of the roses; and it is the nature of civil wars, especially, not only to waste the substance and destroy the means of existence of every man, but to render all men selfish, grasping at temporary good, suspicious, faithless. the master of caxton was robert large, a member of the mercers' company, who was one of the sheriffs in 1430, and lord mayor in 1439-40. the date of caxton's apprenticeship has not been ascertained; but it is considered by several of his biographers to have commenced about 1428. at this period, the sixth of henry vi., a law was on the statute-book, and rigorously enforced, whose object was to prevent the sons of labourers in husbandry, and indeed of the poorer classes of the yeomanry, from rising out of the condition in which they were born, by participating in the higher gains of trade and handicraft. a law of the seventh of henry iv., about two-and-twenty years before this conjectural period of caxton's apprenticeship, recites that, according to ancient statutes, those who labour at the plough or cart, or other service of husbandry, till at the age of twelve years, should continue to abide at such labour, and not to be put to {21} any mystery or handicraft;—notwithstanding which statutes, says the law of henry iv., country people whose fathers and mothers have no land or rent are put apprentices to divers crafts within the cities and boroughs, so that there is great scarcity of labourers and other servants of husbandry. the law then declares, "that no man nor woman, of what estate or condition they be, shall put their son or daughtor, of whatsoever age he or she be, to serve as apprentice to no craft or other labour within any city or borough in the realm, except he have land or rent to the value of twenty shillings by the year at least, but they shall be put to other labours as their estates doth require, upon pain of one year's imprisonment." this iniquitous law was necessarily as demoralizing and as injurious to the national prosperity as the institution of castes in india. yet, by a most extraordinary blindness to cause and consequence, the makers of the law provided in the most direct way for its overthrow; for the statute goes on to say, that, although the husbandry labourer is always to be a labourer, "every man or woman, of what estate or condition they be, shall be free to set their son or daughter to take learning at any manner school that pleaseth them within the realm." the citizens of london, much to their honour, procured a repeal of this act in the eighth of henry vi., about the period when caxton was apprenticed. the probability is, that he would not have been affected by the exclusive character of this law; for his master was a rich {22} and distinguished mercer—a member of that association which has always had pre-eminence amongst the livery companies of london. the dignified gravity, the prudence, and the prosperity of the citizens of that day have been well described by chaucer:—
"a merchant was there with a forkéd beard;
in motley, and high on horse he sat,
and on his head a flaundrish beaver hat.
his bootes claspéd fair and fetisly;[1]
his reasons spake he full solemnély,
sounding alway the increase of his winning:
he would the sea were kept[2] for any thing,
betwixen middleburgh and orewell.
well could he in exchanges shieldies[3] sell,
this worthy man full well his wit beset;[4]
there wiste no wight that he was in debt,
so stedfastly did he his governance
with his bargains, and with his chevisance.[5]"
when we look at william caxton as the apprentice to a london mercer, his position does not at first sight appear very favourable to that cultivation of a literary taste, and that love of books, which was originally the solace, and afterwards the business, of his life. yet a closer insight into the mercantile arrangements of those days will show us that he could not have been more favourably placed for attaining some practical acquaintance with books, in the way of his ordinary occupation. when books were so costly and so inaccessible to the great body of the people, there was necessarily {23} no special trade of bookselling. there were indeed stationers, who had books for sale, or more probably executed orders for transcribing books. their occupation is thus described by mr. hallam, in his 'literature of europe:'—"these dealers were denominated stationarii, perhaps from the open stalls at which they carried on their business, though statio is a general word for a shop, in low latin. they appear by the old statutes of the university of paris, and by those of bologna, to have sold books upon commission; and are sometimes, though not uniformly, distinguished from the librarii; a word which, having originally been confined to the copyists of books, was afterwards applied to those who traded in them. they sold parchment and other materials of writing, which, with us, though, as far as i know, nowhere else, have retained the name of stationery, and naturally exercised the kindred occupations of binding and decorating. they probably employed transcribers." the mercer in those days was not a dealer in small wares generally, as at an earlier period; nor was his trade confined to silken goods—such an one as shakspere describes, "master threepile, the mercer," who had thrown a man into prison for "some four suits of peach-coloured satin." the mercer of the fifteenth century was essentially a merchant. the mercers in the time of edward iii. were the great wool-dealers of the country. they were the merchants of the staple, in the early days of our woollen manufacture; and the merchant adventurers {24} of a later period were principally of their body. in their traffic with other lands, and especially with the low countries, they were the agents by which valuable manuscripts found their way into england; and in this respect they were something like the great merchant princes of italy, whose ships not unfrequently contained a cargo of indian spices and of greek manuscripts. john bagford, who wrote a slight life of caxton about 1714, which is in manuscript in the british museum, says, "kings, queens, and noblemen had their particular merchants, who, when they were ready for their voyage into foreign parts, sent their servants to know what they wanted, and among the rest of their choice many times books were demanded, and there to buy them in those parts where they were going." caxton tells us in the 'book of good manners,' which he translated from the french and printed in 1487, that the original french work was delivered to him by a "special friend, a mercer of london, named william praat." this commerce of books could not have been very great; but it might have been so far carried on by robert large, the wealthy master of caxton, that a lad of ability might thus possess opportunities for improvement which were denied to the great body of his fellow-apprentices. at this particular period there appear to have been but few opportunities even for the sons of parents of some substance to obtain the rudiments of knowledge. there is a petition presented to {25} parliament in the twenty-fifth year of henry vi., 1446, which exhorts the commons "to consider the great number of grammar-schools that sometime were in divers parts of this realm, besides those that were in london, and how few there are in these days." the petitioners, who are four clergymen of the city, go on to say that london is the common concourse of this land, and that many persons, for lack of schoolmasters in their own country, resort there to be informed of grammar; and then they proceed thus: "wherefore it were expedient that in london were a sufficient number of schools and good informers in grammar; and not, for the singular avail of two or three persons, grievously to hurt the multitude of young people of all this land. for where there is great number of learners and few teachers, and all the learners be compelled to go to the few teachers, and to none others, the masters wax rich of money, and the learners poorer in cunning, as experience openly showeth, against all virtue and order of weal public." these benevolent clergymen accomplished the object of their petition, which was that in each of their parishes they might "ordain, create, establish, and set a person sufficiently learned in grammar to hold and exercise a school in the same science of grammar, and there to teach to all that will learn." one of the schools thus established exists to this day, in connexion with the mercers' company, and is commonly known as the mercers' school. we are a little anticipating {26} the period of our narrative, for this petition belongs to caxton's mature life; but we mention it as an evidence of the extreme difficulty which must have existed in those days for the children of the middle classes to obtain the rudiments of knowledge. it is evident that caxton belonged to the more fortunate portion, upon whom the blessings of education fell like prizes in a lottery. the evil has not been wholly corrected even during four centuries; but it is devoutly to be hoped that the time is not far distant when, to use the words of the benevolent clergymen who knew the value of knowledge at that comparatively dark period, there shall be in every place a school, and a competent person "there to teach to all that will learn."
oldys, the writer of the life of caxton in the 'biographia britannica,' says, speaking of robert large, the master of caxton, "the same magistrate held his mayoralty in that which had been the mansion-house of robert fitzwalter, anciently called the jews' synagogue, at the north corner of the old jewry." this old jewry appears to have been in earlier times an accustomed place of residence for the mercers; for there are records still extant of legal proceedings in the time of henry iii. against four mercers of that place, for a violent assault upon two lombard merchants, whom they regarded as rivals in trade. in the days of their retail dealings they occupied a portion of cheapside which went by the name of the mercery. in the fourteenth century their shops were little better {27} than sheds, and cheapside, or more properly cheap, was a sort of market, where various trades collected round the old cross, which remained there till the time of the long parliament. when the mercers became large wholesale dealers in woollen cloths and silk, the haberdashers took up their standing in the same place. in the ballad of 'london lickpenny,' written in the time of henry vi., the scene in the cheap is thus described:—
"then to the cheap i began me drawn,
where much people i saw for to stand;
one offered me velvet, silk, and lawn,
another he taketh me by the hand,
'here is paris thread, the finest in the land.'"
the city apprentice in the days of caxton was a staid sober youth, who, although of gentle blood (as the regulations for the admittance of freemen required him to be), was meanly clothed, and subjected to the performance of even household drudgery. we learn from a tract called the 'city's advocate,' printed in 1628, that the ancient habit of the apprentices was a flat round cap, hair close cut, narrow falling bands, coarse side-coats (long coats), close hose, close stockings, and other such severe apparel. they walked before their masters and mistresses at night, bearing a lantern, and wearing a long club on their necks. but the mercer's apprentice had some exceptions which set him above his fellows: "anciently it was the general use and custom of all apprentices in london (mercers {28} only excepted, being commonly merchants and a better rank as it seems) to carry water-tankards to serve their masters' houses with water fetched either from the thames or the common conduits." but, with all his restraints, the city apprentice was ever prone to frolic, and too often to mischief. the apprentices were a formidable body in the days of the tudors, sometimes defying the laws, and raising tumults which have more than once ended in the prison and the halter. chaucer, writing some few years before the term of caxton's service, describes the love of sight-seeing which was characteristic of the london apprentice:—
"when there any ridings were in cheap,
out of the shop thither would he leap;
and till that he had all the sight yseen,
and danced well, he would not come again."
cheap was the great highway of processions; and london was the constant theatre of triumphs and pageants, by which the wealthy citizens expressed their devotion to their ruling authorities. in the fifteenth century, when the very insecurity of the tenure of the crown demanded a more ardent display of public opinion, the london apprentice had "ridings" enough to look upon, where the pageantry was a real expression of power and magnificence, and not a tawdry mockery, as that which now disgraces the city of london once a year. froissart describes the riding of henry iv. to his coronation. the entry of his illustrious son into london after the battle of agincourt was {29} another of these remarkable ridings. this, which was an occasion of real enthusiasm, took place in caxton's childhood. but in 1432, when he is held to have been an apprentice, the boy king, henry vi., upon his return from being crowned king of france, entered london with a magnificence which chroniclers and poets have vied in recording. robert fabyan, an alderman of london, who wrote in the reign of henry vii., describes this ceremonial with such an admiration of the pomp, as only one could be supposed to feel who was born, as chaucer says,
"to sitten in a guildhall on the dais."
to look forward to such occasions of pomp was a satisfaction to the people, who knew nothing of the real workings of public affairs, and saw only the outward indications of success or misfortune. the reign of henry vi. was an unhappy one for the citizens of london. violent contests for authority, insurrections, battles for the crown, left their fearful traces upon the course of the next thirty years. but during caxton's boyhood the evil days seemed distant.
in the books of the brewers' company, which, like all other records, were for the most part in norman french, there is a curious entry in the reign of henry v., which records a great change in the habits of the people. the entry is in latin, and is thus translated: "whereas our mother-tongue, to wit, the english language, hath in modern days {30} begun to be honourably enlarged and adorned, for that our most excellent lord king henry the fifth hath in his letters missive, and divers affairs touching his own person, more willingly chosen to declare the secrets of his will; and for the better understanding of his people hath, with a diligent mind, procured the common idiom (setting aside others) to be commended by the exercise of writing; and there are many of our craft of brewers who have the knowledge of writing and reading in the said english idiom, but in others, to wit, the latin and french, before these times used, they do not in any wise understand; for which causes, with many others, it being considered how that the greater part of the lords and trusty commons have begun to make their matters to be noted down in our mother-tongue, so we also in our craft, following in some manner their steps, have decreed in future to commit to memory the needful things which concern us, as appeareth in the following."
the assertion of the brewers' company, in the reign of henry v., that "the english language hath in modern days begun to be honourably enlarged and adorned," rested, we apprehend, upon broader foundations than the "letters missive" of the king in the common idiom. great writers had arisen in our native tongue, with whose productions the nobler and wealthier classes at any rate were familiar. the very greatest of these,—the greatest name even now in our literature, with one exception,—must have furnished employment to hundreds {31} of transcribers. the poems of geoffrey chaucer were familiar to all well-educated men, however scanty was the supply of copies and dear their cost. that caxton himself was acquainted in his youth with these great works we cannot have a doubt. when it became his fortunate lot to multiply editions of the canterbury tales, and to render them accessible to a much larger class of the people than in the days when he himself first knew the solace and the delight of literature, he applied himself to the task with all the earnestness of an early love. in his preface to the second edition of the canterbury tales he thus delivers himself, with more than common enthusiasm: "great thanks, laud, and honour ought to be given unto the clerks, poets, and historiographs that have written many noble books of wisdom of the lives, passions, and miracles of holy saints, of histories, of noble and famous acts and faits [deeds], and of the chronicles sith [since] the beginning of the creation of the world unto this present time; by which we are daily informed and have knowledge of many things, of whom we should not have known if they had not left to us their monuments written. amongst whom, and in especial before all other, we ought to give a singular laud unto that noble and great philosopher geoffrey chaucer, the which, for his ornate writing in our tongue, may well have the name of a laureat poet. for before that he, by his labour, embellished, ornated, and made fair our english, in this royaume [kingdom], was {32} had rude speech and incongrue [incongruous], as yet it appeareth by old books, which at this day ought not to have place nor be compared among nor to his beauteous volumes and ornate writings, of whom he made many books and treatises of many a noble history, as well in metre as in rhyme and prose; and them so craftily made, that he comprehended his matters in short, quick, and high sentences; eschewing prolixity, casting away the chaff of superfluity, and shewing the picked grain of sentence, uttered by crafty and sugared eloquence." again, in his edition of chaucer's 'book of fame' he says, "which work, as me seemeth, is craftily made, and worthy to be written and known: for he toucheth in it right great wisdom and subtle understanding; and so in all his works he excelleth in mine opinion all other writers in our english; for he writeth no void words, but all his matter is full of high and quick sentence, to whom ought to be given laud and praising for his noble making and writing. for of him all other have borrowed sith, and taken in all their well saying and writing." there is another passage in the second edition of the canterbury tales which we quote here, not for the purpose of showing caxton's honourable character as a printer, for that belongs to a subsequent period, but to point out that manuscripts of chaucer were in private hands, varying indeed in their text, as books must have varied that were produced by different transcribers, but still keeping up the fame of the poet, and {33} highly valued by their possessors: "of which book so incorrect was one brought to me six year passed, which i supposed had been very true and correct, and according to the same i did imprint a certain number of them, which anon were sold to many and divers gentlemen: of whom one gentleman came to me, and said that this book was not according in many places unto the book that geoffrey chaucer had made. to whom i answered, that i had made it according to my copy, and by me was nothing added nor diminished. then he said he knew a book which his father had and much loved, that was very true, and according unto his own first book by him made; and said more, if i would imprint it again, he would get me the same book for a copy. how be it, he wist well his father would not gladly part from it; to whom i said, in case that he could get me such a book true and correct, that i would once endeavour me to imprint it again, for to satisfy the author: whereas before by ignorance i erred in hurting and defaming his book in divers places, in setting in some things that he never said nor made, and leaving out many things that he made which are requisite to be set in. and thus we fell at accord; and he full gently got me of his father the said book, and delivered it to me, by which i have corrected my book."
there was another poet of considerable popularity who was contemporary with chaucer. with the works of gower, caxton must have been familiar. {34} his principal poem, 'confessio amantis,' was printed by caxton in 1483, and is said to have been the most extensively circulated of all the books that came from his press. the poem is full of stories that were probably common to all europe, running on through thousands of lines with wonderful fluency, but little force. he was called the "moral gower" by chaucer. the play of pericles, ascribed to shakspere, is founded upon one of these stories. gower himself shows us what was the general course of reading in those days:—
"full oft time it falleth so,
mine ear with a good pittance
is fed of reading of romance,
of idoyne, and of amadas,
that whilom[6] weren[7] in my case,
and eke of other many a score,
that loveden[8] long ere i was bore."[9]
the romances of chivalry, the stories of "fierce wars and faithful loves," were especially the delight of the great and powerful. when the noble was in camp, he solaced his hours of leisure with the marvellous histories of king arthur or launcelot of the lake; and when at home, he listened to or read the same stories in the intervals of the chace or the feast. froissart tells in his own simple and graphic manner how he presented a book to king richard the second, and how the king delighted in the subject of the book: "then the king desired to see my book that i had brought for him; so he saw it in his chamber, for i had laid it there ready {35} on his bed. when the king opened it, it pleased him well, for it was fair illumined and written, and covered with crimson velvet, with ten buttons of silver and gilt, and roses of gold in the midst, with two great clasps, gilt, richly wrought. then the king demanded me whereof it treated, and i showed him how it treated matters of love, whereof the king was glad, and looked in it, and read it in many places, for he could speak and read french very well." froissart was a frenchman and wrote in french; but even englishmen wrote in french at that period, and some of gower's early poems are in french. according to his own account, the long poem of the 'confessio amantis,' which was written in english, was executed at the command of the same king richard:—
"he hath this charge upon me laid,
and bad me do my business,
that to his high worthiness
some new thing i should book,
that he himself it might look,
after the form of my writing."
chaucer and gower lived some time before the period of caxton's youth in london, but there was a poet very popular in his day, whom he can scarcely have avoided having seen playing a conspicuous part in the high city festivals. this was john lydgate, monk of bury, who thus describes himself—
"i am a monk by my profession,
of bury, called john lydgate by my name,
and wear a habit of perfection,
although my life agree not with the same."
{36}
lydgate
lydgate presenting a book to the earl of salisbury.
thomas warton has thus exhibited the nature of his genius: "no poet seems to have possessed a greater versatility of talents. he moves with equal ease in every mode of composition. his hymns and his ballads have the same degree of merit: and whether his subject be the life of a hermit or a hero, of saint austin or guy earl of warwick, ludicrous or legendary, religious or romantic, a history or an allegory, he writes with facility. his transitions were rapid from works of the most serious and laborious kind to sallies of levity and pieces of popular entertainment. his muse was of universal access, and he was not only the poet of his monastery, but of the world in general. if a disguising was intended by the company of goldsmiths, a mask before his majesty at eltham, a may game for the sheriffs and aldermen of london, a mumming before the lord mayor, a procession of pageants from the creation for the festival of corpus christi, or a carol for a coronation, lydgate was consulted and gave the poetry." a fine illuminated drawing in one of lydgate's manuscripts, now in the british museum, represents him presenting a book to the earl of salisbury. such a presentation may be regarded as the first publication of a new work. the royal or noble person at whose command it was written bestowed some rich gift upon the author, which would be his sole pecuniary recompence, unless he received some advantage from the transcribers, for the copies which they multiplied. doubtful as the {37} rewards of authorship may be when the multiplication of copies by the press enables each reader to contribute a small acknowledgment of the benefit which he receives, the literary condition must have been far worse when the poet, humbly kneeling before some mighty man, as lydgate does in the picture, might have been dismissed with contumely, or his present received with a low appreciation of the labour and the knowledge required to produce it. the fame, however, of a popular writer reached {38} his ears in a far more direct and flattering manner than belongs to the literary honours of modern days. there can be little doubt that the narrative poems of chaucer and gower and lydgate were familiar to the people through the recitations of the minstrels. an agreeable writer on the rise and progress of english poetry, mr. george ellis, says, "chaucer, in his address to his troilus and cressida, tells us it was intended to be read 'or elles sung,' which must relate to the chanting recitation of the minstrels, and a considerable part of our old poetry is simply addressed to an audience, without any mention of readers. that our english minstrels at any time united all the talents of the profession, and were at once poets and reciters and musicians, is extremely doubtful; but that they excited and directed the efforts of their contemporary poets to a particular species of composition, is as evident as that a body of actors must influence the exertions of theatrical writers. they were, at a time when reading and writing were rare accomplishments, the principal medium of communication between authors and the public; and their memory in some measure supplied the deficiency of manuscripts, and probably preserved much of our early literature till the invention of printing." we may thus learn, that, although the number of those was very few whose minds by reading could be lifted out of the grovelling thoughts and petty cares of every-day life, yet that the compositions of learned and accomplished men, who still hold a {39} high rank in our literature, might be familiar to the people through the agency of a numerous body of singers or reciters. there has been a good deal of controversy about the exact definition of the minstrel character—whether the minstrels were themselves poets and romance-writers, or the depositaries of the writings of others and of the traditional literature of past generations. ritson, a writer upon this subject, says, "that there were individuals formerly who made it their business to wander up and down the country chanting romances, and singing songs and ballads to the harp, fiddle, or more humble and less artificial instruments, cannot be doubted." they were a very numerous body a century before chaucer; and most indefatigable in the prosecution of their trade. there is a writ or declaration of edward the second, which recites the evil of idle persons, under colour of minstrelsy, being received in other men's houses to meat and drink; and then goes on to direct that to the houses of great people no more than three or four minstrels of honour should come at the most in one day, "and to the houses of meaner men that none come unless he be desired, and such as shall come to hold themselves contented with meat and drink, and with such courtesy as the master of the house will show unto them of his own goodwill, without their asking of anything." nothing can more clearly exhibit the general demand for the services of this body of men; for the very regulation as to the nature of their reward shows clearly {40} that they were accustomed to require liberal payment, approaching perhaps to extortion; and then comes in the state to say that they shall not have a free market for their labour. they struggled on, sometimes prosperous and sometimes depressed, according to the condition of the country, till the invention of printing came to make popular literature always present in a man's house. the book of ballads or romances, which was then to be bought, was contented to abide there without any "meat and drink." in the words of richard de bury, whom we quoted in the first chapter, books "are the masters who instruct us without rods, without hard words and anger, without clothes and money. if you approach them, they are not asleep; if investigating you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them, they never grumble; if you are ignorant, they cannot laugh at you." one of the later ministrels, to whom is ascribed the preservation, and by some the composition, of the old ballad of chevy chase, thus humbles himself in a most unpoetical and undignified manner to those who fed him for his services:—
"now for the good cheer that i have had here
i give you hearty thanks with bowing of my shanks,
desiring you by petition to grant me such commission—
because my name is sheale—that both for meat and meal
to you i may resort some time for my comfort.
for i perceive here at all times is good cheer,
both ale, wine, and beer, as it doth now appear;
i perceive, without fable, ye keep a good table.
i can be content, if it be out of lent,
a piece of beef to take, my hunger to aslake;
both mutton and veal is good for richard sheale.
{41}
though i look so grave, i were a very knave
if i would think scorn, either evening or morn,
being in hunger, of fresh salmon or congar.
i can find in my heart with my friends to take a part
of such as god shall send; and thus i make an end.
now, farewell, good mine host; i thank you for your cost,
until another time, and thus do i end my rhyme."
but even such a humiliated ballad-maker, or ballad-singer, as poor old richard sheale, was the depositary of treasures of popular fiction, many of which have utterly perished, but of which a great portion of those which are still preserved are delightful even to the most refined reader. for, corrupted as they are by transmission from mouth to mouth through several centuries, they are full of high and generous sentiments, of deep pathos, of quiet humour; they carry us back into a state of society wholly different from our own, when knowledge was indeed scanty, and riches not very plentiful, but when the feelings and affections were not so wholly under the direction of worldly wisdom, and men were brave and loving, and women tender and confiding, with something more of earnestness than belongs to the discreeter arrangements of modern social life. the minstrels had indeed something to call up the tear or the smile in every class of auditor. for the earls and barons, the knights and squires, there were romances and songs of chivalrous daring, such as moved the noble heart of sir philip sidney, even in the days when the minstrel was a poor despised wanderer: "is it the lyric that most displeaseth, who, with his tuned lyre and well-accorded voice, giveth praise, the reward of virtue, {42} to virtuous acts? who giveth moral precepts and natural problems? who sometimes raiseth up his voice to the height of the heavens, in singing the lauds of the immortal god? certainly i must confess mine own barbarousness, i never heard the old song of percy and douglas, that i found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet, and yet it is sung but by some blind crowder, with no rougher voice than rude style." for those of meaner sort there were the ballads of robin hood, "of whom the foolish vulgar make lewd entertainment, and are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing them above all other ballads." so wrote a scottish historian in the middle of the fourteenth century.
we have thus briefly recapitulated the popular modes of acquiring something of a literary taste in the early days of william caxton. books were rare, and difficult to be obtained except by the wealthy. the drama did not exist. the preachers, indeed, were not afraid to address an indiscriminate audience with the conviction that, although the majority were unlettered, they had vigorous understandings, and did not require the great truths of religion and of private and of social duty to be adapted to any intellectual weakness or infirmity. the national poetry, which was heard at the high festivals of the city traders, and even descended to as lowly a popularity as that of the village circle upon the ale-bench under the spreading elm on a summer's eve, had no essentials of vulgarity or {43} childishness, such as in later days have been thought necessary for general comprehension. we were ever a thoughtful people, a reasoning people, and yet a people of strong passions and unconquerable energy. a popular literature was kept alive and preserved, however imperfectly, before the press came to make those who had learnt to read self-dependent in their intellectual gratifications; and what has come down to us of the old minstrelsy, with all its inaccuracy and occasional feebleness, shows us that the people of england, four or five centuries ago, had a common fund of high thought upon which a great literature might in time be reared. the very existence of a poet like chaucer is the best proof of the vigour, and to a certain extent of the cultivation, of the national mind, even in an age when books were rarities.
