The Boke of Noblesse Part 3

THE BOKE OF n.o.bLESSE, after the total failure of those more generous sentiments and aspirations which it was intended to propagate, at once became, what it is now, a mere mirror of by-gone days; and, considering these circ.u.mstances, we cannot be surprised that it was never again transcribed, nor found its way to the press.

It is with regret that I relinquish to some future more fortunate inquirer the discovery of the author of this composition. The ma.n.u.script from which it is printed is certainly not his autograph original; for its great inaccuracy occasionally renders the meaning almost unintelligible. And yet the corrections and insertions, which I have indicated as coming _a secunda manu_, would seem to belong to the author.

I have already, in the first page of this Introduction, intimated the possibility of the work having been composed in the lifetime of sir John Fastolfe, and merely re-edited, if we may use the term, upon occasion of the projected invasion of France in 1475. There are three circ.u.mstances which decidedly connect the book with some dependent of sir John Fastolfe:--

1. That the writer quotes sir John as "mine autour," or informant, in pp.

16 and 64, as well as tells other anecdotes which were probably received from his relation.

2. His having access to sir John's papers or books of account (p. 68); and

3. There being still preserved in the volume, bound up with its fly-leaves, the two letters, probably both addressed to Fastolfe, and one of them certainly so, which are printed hereafter, as an Appendix to these remarks.

Sir John Fastolfe is not commemorated as having been a patron of literature. In the inventory of his property which is printed in the twentieth volume of the Archaeologia, no books occur except a few missals, &c. belonging to his chapel. Though William of Worcestre, now famous for his historical collections, (which have been edited by Hearne, Nasmith, and Dallaway,) was Fastolfe's secretary, he was kept in a subordinate position, and valued for his merely clerical, {li} not his literary, services. Sir John Fastolfe's pa.s.sion was the acquisition of property; whilst William of Worcestre, on his part, followed (as far as he could) the bent of his own taste, and not that of his master; being (as his comrade Henry Windsore declared) as glad to obtain a good book of French or of Poetry as his master Fastolfe was to purchase a fair manor.[72]

The translation of Cicero de Senectute, which was printed by Caxton in 1481, is indeed in the preface stated to have been translated by the ordinance and desire of the n.o.ble ancient knight sir John Fastolfe;[73]

and, though Worcestre's name is not mentioned by Caxton, we may conclude that it was the same translation which from Worcestre's own memoranda we know was made by him.[74] Still, it was but a very slight deference to literature, if the ancient knight approved of his secretary's translating "Tully on Old Age," and did not make any further contribution towards its publication.

But on the particular subject of the loss of the English provinces in France, and the causes thereof, there can be no question that sir John Fastolfe, the "baron {lii} of Sillie le Guillem," once governor of Anjou and Maine, and lord of Piron and Beaumont, took the deepest interest; considering that he had spent his best days in their acquisition, administration, and defence, and that he was one of the princ.i.p.al sufferers by their loss. He may, therefore, well have promoted the composition of the work now before us.

William of Worcestre has the reputation of having written a memoir[75] of the exploits of sir John Fastolfe; but this is not traceable beyond the bare a.s.sertion of Bale, and a more recent misapprehension of the meaning of one of the Paston letters.

{liii}

Another person whose name has occurred as having been employed in a literary capacity for sir John Fastolfe[76] is Peter Ba.s.set[77]; who is commemorated with some parade by Bale as an historical writer, but whose writings, though quoted by Hall the chronicler, have either disappeared or are no longer to be identified.

I have, however, mentioned the names of William of Worcestre and Peter Ba.s.set only from the circ.u.mstance of their being connected with that of sir John {liv} Fastolfe; and not from there being any other presumptive proof that either of them wrote "The Boke of n.o.blesse." We have no known production of Ba.s.set with which to compare it; and as to Worcestre his "Collectanea" and private Memoranda can scarcely a.s.sist us in determining what his style might have been had he attempted any such work as the present.

Altogether, The Boke of n.o.blesse is more of a compilation than an original essay. It has apparently largely borrowed from the French; and I have already shown that it was partly derived from former works, though I cannot undertake to say to what extent that was the case. In its general character our book resembles one which was popular in the middle ages, as the _Secretum Secretorum_, falsely attributed to Aristotle,[78] and which was also known under the t.i.tle _De Regimine Principum_. The popularity of this work was so great that MS. copies occur in most of our public libraries, and not less than nine English translations and six French translations are known.[79] A Scots translation by sir Gilbert de Hay, ent.i.tled "_The Buke of the Governaunce of Princis_," is contained in a MS. at Abbotsford, accompanying a version of _The Tree of Batailes_, already noticed in pp.

iii. vi.

Another work of the same cla.s.s is that of which Caxton published (about the year 1484) a translation ent.i.tled _The booke of the ordre of Chevalrye or Knyghthode_, and of which the Scots translation by sir Gilbert de Hay was printed for the Abbotsford Club by Beriah Botfield, esq. in 1847.

To his translations of the treatises of Cicero on Old Age and Friends.h.i.+p, which Caxton printed in 1481, he also appended two "declaracyons," or orations, supposed to be spoken by two n.o.ble Roman knights before the senate, in order "to know wherein n.o.blesse rest.i.th," or, as otherwise expressed in the t.i.tle-page, "shewing wherin Honoure should reste." These imaginary orations were the work of an Italian, who styled himself, in Latin, Banatusius Magnomonta.n.u.s.

After a time, the term n.o.blesse, which we here find synonymous with Honour, and (in p. xv. _ante_) with Chivalry, in the sense of a cla.s.s or order of society, {lv} became obsolete as an English word. In the former sense, at least, it was changed into our English "n.o.bleness;" and about the year 1530 we find published a "Book of n.o.blenes," printed by Robert Wyer, without date.[80] This work had been translated from Latin into French, and "now into English by John Larke." I have not seen it, but I imagine it was a far smaller and slighter composition than the present.[81]

Ames[82] mentioned our "Boke of n.o.blesse" as a printed work, on the authority of Tanner's MSS., but this was evidently a misapprehension.

It only now remains that I should describe the Ma.n.u.script, which is preserved in the Royal Collection at the British Museum, and marked 18 B.

XXII.

It is written in a paper book, which is formed of four quires of paper, each consisting of six sheets, and is of the size of a modern quarto volume. The quires are marked in the lower margin with the signatures of the scribe: the first quire consisting of six sheets, placed within one another, and marked j. ij. iij. iiij. v. vj.; the second also of six sheets, marked .a.i. .a.ij. .a.iij. .a.iiij. .a.v. and .a.vj.; the third, b.1. .b.3. .b.4. .b.5. .b.6.; the fourth .c.1. c.2. c.3. c.4. c.5. c.6.

Thus it is seen that the sheet containing the leaf b.2. and the attached leaf (b.11. as it might be called) is lost: and this loss occasions the defects which will be found in the present volume at p. 50 and p. 68.

In front of the volume are bound three leaves of vellum, on the last of which is fastened a slip of the like material, inscribed, apparently

Edwarde w [iiij?]

wych ys bold

On the back of the same leaf is the name of

_Symond'_ _Samson._

At the foot of the first paper leaf is the autograph name of

_Lumley._

_i. e._ John lord Lumley, the son-in-law of the last Earl of Arundel, into whose {lvi} possession the volume probably came by purchase in the reign of Elizabeth or James the First.

On the leaf .c.2. is the autograph name of _Robert Savylle_.

On the last leaf are many scribblings, and attempts in drawing grotesque heads and figures, apparently done about the time of queen Mary. Among them occurs again the name of

_Symeon Sampson p._

Also those of _Richarde Dyconson_ and _Edward Jones of Clemente in the Jor of_ ---- and these sentences,

John Twychener ys booke he that stellys thys booke he shall be hangid a pon a hooke and that wylle macke ys necke to brake & that wyll macke ys neck awrye

A nyes wiffe & a backe dore makythe } outon tymys a Ryche man pore. }

In the name of the father of the Sonne and the holey Gost. So be itt.

Jhesus nazerinus Rex iudior[=u] fillij dei miserere mei.

Jhesus.) G.o.d save the king o^r souu'ain lorde.

Jhesus Nazarinus. G.o.d save king p. & mary.

O gloryous Jesu o mekest Jesu o moost sweteste Jesu have m'cye on us.

Quite at the bottom of the page is the name of

_Edward Banyster._

LETTERS ADDRESSED TO SIR JOHN FASTOLFE.

(Royal MS. 18 B. XXII. f. 44.)

From JOHN APPULTON, captain of Pontdonne and the Haye de Puis.

Mon treshonnoure et Redoubte Sr., toute humble Recommendacion primier mise, plaise vous savoir que Jay entendu que piecha vous aviez quittie et transporte afin de heritaige a Degory Gamel vostre terre et seignourie de Piron pour le prix de deux mille francs lesquelx il devoit paier a chinq annees enssuit du dit transport, cest a.s.savoir pour la premir ann six cens francs, et le demourant es autres quatres anns ensuit, a chacun par egalle porcion; de la quelle chose J'entens que le dit Degory na pas acompli ces termes ne ses {lvii} paiemens, car il nest pas tousjours prest de paier, et est de tel gouvernement que p..... que navez eu que peu de chose de vostre ditte s'rie dempuis quil en a eu le gouvernement. Et pour ce, mon treshonnoure et Redoubte, Janvois grant desir davoir icelle terre afin de heritaige si c'estoit vostre plaisir et volente. Car elle est pres de mes et bien a mon aise. Sy vous prie et requier tant humblement comme Je puis et comme vostre pet.i.t et humble serviteur, qu'il vous pla[ira] que J'aie icelle terre et seigneurie de Piron par les prix et condicions dessus descleres et que l'aviez accordee au dit Degory en cas que [sera] vostre plaisir de vous en des faire, et que Je la puisse avoir aussi tost que ung autre, et J'en seay a tousjours mais tenu ... car vous estes le seigneur qui vive en monde a qui Je suis plus tenu et a qui Jay greigno' service, et que elle me soit confe[rme?] par le Roy nostre seigneur tellement que Je ny puisse avoir empeschement. Et je vous promet que Je vous paieray loyalment es termes qui seront a.s.signes sans aucune faulte, et se faulte y avez per moy que le marchie ne fust nul, et sur paine de perdre s ... que Jen avoie paie. Et sy est ce grant chose pour le present de deux mille Francs attendans la guerre qui est a present ou ... a l'occasion de la prinse et perte de la place de Grantville. Car se remede ny est mis de brief tout le bailliage de Costentin est en voie destre destruit, et estre comme le pais de Caulx, que Dieu ne vueille. Car se seroit grant dommaige et grant pitie.

Et pour ceste cause Jenvoie Jehan Dotton devers vous, qui est vostre serviteur, porteur de ces presentes, auquel Jay donne pouvoir et puissance den composer et appointier avecque vous ainsi quil vous plaira, et que regarderez quil sera bon a faire, tout aussi comme se Je y estoie present, et lequel vous parlera plus a plain de lestate et gouvernement de vostre ditte seigneurie de Piron et comme elle a este gouvernee. Et pour ce que autrefois Je vous avoie rescript de vostre terre et seigneurie de Beaumont, que Jeusse volentiers eue se ceust este vostre plaisir et volente, pour ce que ma terre d'Asineres est parmys la vostre et joingnent ensemble, Et en cas que se ne seroit vostre plaisir que Jeusse vostre ditte seigneurie de Piron, jentend' encores volentiers a icelle de Beaumont, et quil vous pleust la mettre a prix de raison, car Je ne scay pas bien que elle peult valloir, mes vous le savez bien, car vous en avez fait fe presn(?) et en avez eu la desclaracion, non obstant que les terres depar de cha sy sen vont en tres grant diminucion pour la cause dessus dict. Sy vous plaise de vostre grace a y avoir sur le tout advis, et den faire tant que Jen puisse estre tous jours vostre pet.i.t et humble serviteur, et comme Jay tousjours este et seray tant que je vivray. Et se il vous plaist faire quelque appointe des choses dessus dictes, quil vous plaise a le faire vous mesmes, et que ne menvoiez a Raouen ne ailleurs, car les chemins sont trop dangereux, et ne voudroie pas aler a Rouen voulentiers pour gaignier deux cens frans. Mon treshonnoure et redoubte seigneur, Je me recommande a vous tant humblement comme Je puis et comme vostre pet.i.t et humble serviteur, et se il est chose que faire puisse pour vous, mandez le moy et Je l'acompliray de tout mon cuer et volentiers, en priant le Saint Esprit qu'il soit garde de vous et vous donne bonne vie et longue et acomplisse(ment) de vous n.o.bles desirs. Escript a la Haie du Puis, le derrain jour de May. {lviii}

Mon treshonnoure et redoubte seigneur, Je vous recommande ma fille qui est demour' veufue, et quil vous plaist qelle soit (en) vostre bonne grace et service, et la conseiller et conforter en tous ses afaires.

Letout vostre humble serviteur Jhon 'Appulton, cap(itaine) du Pont donne et de la Haie du Puis.

(_Directed on the back_,)