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THE EPISTLE OF OTHEA TO HECTOR

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OTHf:A DELIVERS HER EPISTLE TO HECTOR.

Harley MS. 4431, FOL. 97b.

The Epistle of Othea to Hector

OR

THE BOKE OF KNYGHTHODE

Translated from the French of Christine de Pisan

With a Dedication to Sir John Fastolf^ K.G.

BY

STEPHEN SCROPE, ESQUIRE

EDITED
FROM A MANUSCRIPT IN THE LIBRARY OF

THE MARQUIS OF BATH

BY

GEORGE F. WARNER

M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A., Assistant Keeper of MSS. British Museum

LONDON

J. B. NICHOLS AND SONS, PARLIAMENT MANSIONS
VICTORIA STREET, S.W

1904.

o

LONDON

J. B. NICHOLS AND SONS, PARLIAMENT MANSIONS
VICTORIA STREET, S.W.

TO

THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS

OF

Cf>e &ojrfwre* Club

THIS VOLUME

Orttratrt anb UrrsnitrtJ

BY THEIR OBEDIENT SERVANT

BATH

LONGLEAT, MARCH, 1904

Cfje

Clufc.

MCMIV.

LORD ALDENHAM.

PRESIDENT.

DUKE OP DEVONSHIRE, K.G.

DUKE OP BUCCLEUCH, K.T.

DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, K.G.

DUKE OP SUTHERLAND, K.G.

MARQUESS OF BATH.

EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.

EARL OF CRAWFORD, K.T.

EARL OF ROSEBERY, K.G.

EARL COWPER, K.G.

EARL OF CARYSFORT, K.P.

EARL OF POWIS.

EARL BEAUCHAMP.

EARL BROWNLOW.

EARL OF CAWDOR.

EARL OF ELLESMERE.

EARL OF CREWE.

THE LORD BISHOP OF SALISBURY.

LORD ZOUCHE.

LORD WINDSOR.

LORD AMHERST OF HACKNEY.

HON. ALBAN GEORGE HENRY GIBBS.

RIGHT HON. ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.

RIGHT HON. MOUNTSTUART GRANT DUFF, G.C.S.I.

SIR WILLIAM REYNELL ANSON, BART.

SIR THOMAS BROOKE, BART.

SIR JOHN EVANS, K.C.B.

SIR EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON, K.C.B.

CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ.

INGRAM BY WATER, ESQ.

GEORGE BRISCOE EYRE, ESQ.

ALFRED HENRY HUTH, ESQ., Treasurer.

ANDREW LANG, ESQ.

CHARLES BRINSLEY MARLAY, ESQ.

JOHN MURRAY, ESQ.

EDWARD JAMES STANLEY, ESQ.

HENRY YATES THOMPSON, ESQ.

REV. EDWARD TINDAL TURNER.

VICTOR WILLIAM BATES VAN DE WEYER, ESQ.

W. ALDIS WRIGHT, ESQ.

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THE EPISTLE OF OTHEA, TEXT XX.

Longieat MS. 253, FOL. 22b.

INTRODUCTION.

r I ^HE English version here printed for the first time of Christine
-* de Pisan's " Epitre d'Othea la deesse a Hector " is taken from
a MS. which is believed to be unique, and which, if not actually the
original, can be very little removed from it. The volume of which
it forms a part is numbered MS. 253 in the valuable library of the
Marquis of Bath at Longleat, but how or when it found its way
thither it is impossible to say. There is little doubt, however, that
it was acquired at least as early as the time of Thomas Thynne,
first Viscount Weymouth, who died in 1714, and it is not unlikely
that it has been at Longleat ever since the house was built by
Sir John Thynne in the latter part of the i6th century. It is a small
vellum folio, 9! inches by 7, in modern binding, and in its present
state it consists of ninety-five leaves, the first seventy-five of which
are occupied by the work in question and the remainder by an
English poem or series of poems, probably also translated from the
French, in which love is compared with the growth of a tree. The
hand appears to be the same throughout and of a date about the
middle of the I5th century. As may be seen from the page here
reproduced (cf. p. 33), it is fairly neat and regular, but it is hardly
the hand of a professional book-scribe, the type being that more
commonly found in correspondence and business documents of the
period. As to ornament, there is none whatever ; for, although
blank spaces were left for rubrics and initials, and in a few instances
apparently for miniatures as well, for some reason they were never
filled in. But the deficiencies of the MS. in this respect are of
less practical importance than the mutilation inflicted later upon,
the text. In the main article, and consequently in this edition of

b

x The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

it, there are two lacunas, one of a single leaf (p. 13) and the other
of a whole quire of eight (p. 53), while the supplementary matter
has been shorn both of its first leaf and of an unknown number at
the end. Nor is the mischief confined to the loss of these portions
of the text. Probably, as in the case of another work by the same
translator, 1 there was a colophon which would have given interesting
particulars of the origin of the whole MS., and unfortunately this
also has perished. As the translator has been identified and as
specimens of his handwriting are available for comparison, 2 the
question whether the copy is in his autograph is easily decided in the
negative, but beyond this little can be ascertained of its history.
For reasons which will appear further on it is a tempting supposi-
tion that it is the " Boke de Othea, text and glose .... in quavers "
(sc. quires), which is included in an "Inventory offEnglysshe boks"
belonging to John Paston the younger (?) in the time of Edward IV.
(after I474). 3 If, however, the latter MS. in its turn was identical
with the "Othea pistill " which one William Ebesham wrote for
Sir John Paston at a cost of 7sh. 2d. about 1469,* it contained no
more than forty-three leaves. In the margin of f. 75b is an entry,
made about 1500, of a certificate of the banns of marriage, real or
imaginary, of William Stretford and Joyce Helle, the certifying
minister being William Houson, curate ; and from scribblings on
f. 50 and elsewhere it may be inferred that at a later date in the i6th
century the MS. was in the hands of a certain William Porter, who,
to judge from the nature of his entries, was perhaps a scrivener's
clerk. There is more decisive evidence of ownership in the
signature " Jo. Malbee " on the first page, written towards the end
of the 1 6th century under the moral distich :

" Viue diu, sed viue Deo ; nam viuere mundo
Mors est. Haec vera est viuere vita Deo."

1 See below, p. xxiv.

2 Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 28,212, ff. 220, 26.

3 J. Gairdner, The Paston Letters, ed. 1896, iii. p. 301.

4 Ibid., ii. p. 335 (cf. p. xxx. below, note 2). This copy was included in a
"grete booke," other articles of which now form Lansdowne MS. 285. Ebesham's
hand as they show it is not identical with that of the Longleat MS., though it bears
a certain resemblance to it.

Introduction. xi

The same page also contains the initials J. M., probably meaning
John Malbee, together with the old library mark, ix D. 72.

Before commenting upon the English translation something
must be said of the original "Epitre d'Othea" and the remarkable
woman who was its author. 1 In no sense was Christine de Pisan
French by birth. Her father Thomas de Pisan, or de Boulogne,
was, as she tells us, 2 a native of Bologna, and he may reasonably
be identified with Tommaso di Benvenuto di Pizzano, who was
Professor of Astrology there between 1345 and I356. 3 Later he
obtained the salaried office of State Councillor at Venice, where
also he married, and where Christine, probably the eldest of his
three children and the only girl, was born in I364- 4 It was shortly
after her birth that he was prevailed upon by the French king
Charles V. to remove to Paris, and the fact that Louis the Great of
Hungary was equally anxious to attract him to Buda shows how
widely the fame of his learning and science had spread. 5 For
fifteen years he had no cause to regret his change of country, for
Charles not only made him his physician and astrologer with
handsome emoluments, but treated him altogether with marked
distinction. Christine, who with her mother joined him at the end
of 1368, was thus brought up at the most brilliant and intellectual

1 Of the authorities used the best and most recent are E. Robineau, Christine de
Pisan, sa vie et ses ceuvres, St. Omer, 1882 ; F. Koch, Leben und Werke der Christine
de Pizan, Goslar, 1885; M. Roy, CEuvres poetiques de Christine de Pisan, Soc. des
Anciens Textes Francois, i.-iii. 1886-1896. The most interesting details are derived
from her own writings, many of which are still unprinted.

2 See below, p. xxxvi.

3 Koch, p. 14.

4 This date may be inferred from two statements by herself, one in " Le Chemin
de long estude," written in 1402, that she had then been widowed thirteen years (ed.
R. Piischel, Berlin, 1887, p. 6), and the other in " La Vision" (Koch, p. 12) that she
was twenty-five when her husband died, sc. in 1389.

6 " Car comme renommee lors tesmoignast par toute crestiente la souffisance de
mon pere naturel ds sciences speculatives comme supellatif astrologien, jusques en
Ytalie en la cite de Boulongne la grace par ses messages 1'envoya querir " ("Livre des
fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V.," in Petitot's Collection des M'emoires, v.
P- 275)-

xii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

court of the time, and when, at the early age of fifteen, she was
married to Etienne du Castel in 1379, her ties with it were further
strengthened by her husband's appointment as secretary to the
king. This prosperity was rudely interrupted by the premature
death of Charles V. on i6th September, 1380. In her own words,
" Or fu la porte ouverte de noz infortunes, adonc faillirent a mon
dit pere ses grans pensions." * Thomas de Pisan in fact was
growing old and out of fashion ; with the loss of his place at court
and its prestige he soon fell into neglect, and when in a few years
he died, his wife and two sons were left dependent upon his
daughter and son-in-law. Happily the latter still retained his post
under the new king, and if he had lived all might have gone well,
though possibly in that case Christine's latent powers would never
have been called into activity. As a climax, however, to her
misfortunes Etienne du Castel was carried off by an epidemic at
Beauvais in 1389, and she thus found herself a widow at twenty-
five with three children besides others 2 to support out of what
little she could rescue from the claimants to her husband's estate.
Curious details of the protracted lawsuits and other troubles
by which she was harassed during the next few years are given in
several of her works ; but it is enough to say that her tenacity and
force of character carried her safely through until she made for
herself a literary position which for one of her sex was probably
without precedent. Excepting a few short pieces anterior perhaps
to her husband's death, she appears to have begun writing poetry
as a solace in her widowhood. Such pathetic effusions as " Seulete
suy et seulete vueil estre " and " Je suis vesve, seulete et noir
vestue," 3 with others in a similar strain, could hardly fail to excite
sympathy, and she was thus encouraged to utilize her pen for
procuring more material support. At the end of the I4th century

1 Robineau, p. 10.

2 Thus in " La Vision " she writes " le me tolli en fleur de ieunece, comme en
1'aage de xxxiiij. ans, et moy de xxv. demouray chargee de iii. enfans petiz et de grant
maisnage " (cf. p. xi. note 4).

3 CEuvres poetique^ ed. Roy, i. p. 12, "Cent Balades," No. xi., and p. 148,
"Rondeaux," No. iii.

Introduction. xiii

all that an author struggling with poverty had to depend upon was
the patronage and munificence of the great, and it may therefore
have been mainly to suit the taste of those to whom she looked
for favour and assistance that she composed the lighter and more
amatory of the "Ballades," "Lais" and "Virelais," "Rondeaux "
and "Jeux a vendre," which were the earliest, and not the least
charming, of her poems. Besides Charles VI. and his queen, the
Dukes of Berry, Burgundy, and Orleans, and other princes, nobles,
and great ladies of the French court, it is interesting to find among
her warmest patrons the English Earl of Salisbury, 1 who came on
an embassy to Paris in December, 1398. The theory that it was
for him that she made the collection of her " Cent Ballades" rests
on little, if any, foundation, but his friendly regard for her is shown
by his having taken her elder son Jean du Castel, then thirteen, to
England, in order to educate him with a boy of his own of similar
age. By her own account, as it appears, 2 this was at the time of
the marriage of Isabella, daughter of Charles VI., to Richard II.,
which took place at Calais on 4th November, 1396, so that she
may have become acquainted with the earl during a previous visit
to Paris, or while he was in France with Richard, who crossed
over for the marriage as early as 2/th September. If he had not
met a tragic fate on yth January, 1400, in an abortive attempt in
favour of his deposed sovereign, Christine herself might have fol-
lowed her son. At the same time Salisbury was not the only nor most
influential admirer of her talent on this side of the Channel. After
his death the usurper Henry IV. himself took charge of the boy
and tried to induce her to settle in England, and it is to her credit
that loyalty to the earl's memory among other reasons made her

1 John de Montacute or Montagu, who succeeded his father as second Baron
Montacute in 1390, his mother as Baron Monthermer in 1395 (?), and his uncle as
third Earl of Salisbury in 1397. One of the objects of his embassy in 1398 was to
hinder the marriage of Henry of Lancaster with a daughter of the Duke of Berry.
Christine speaks of him as " gracieux chevalier, aimant dictiez et luy mesme gracieux
dicteur " (Boivin, " Vie de Chr. de Pisan," in K^ralio's Collection des meilleurs outrages
jFranfois, 1787, ii. p. 118).

2 Koch, p. 36.

xiv The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

obdurate. In order, however, to get back her son she feigned
compliance until he was sent to fetch her, when she kept him with
her and remained in France. 1

Before this she had entered on the second stage of her literary
career, to which the "Epitre d'Othe'a" most probably belongs.
In 1399 she resolved to attempt longer and more serious poems,
animated by a more or less definite moral purpose, and she began
by preparing herself for this task by a strenuous course of study,
as nearly encyclopaedic in character as was then possible, though
there is no reason to suppose that she was acquainted with Greek
authors except through Latin translations. But her earliest poems
of any length, issued between 1399 and 1402, were still of the
nature of u Dits d'Amour." Such, for example, were the "Epitre
au dieu d'amour" and the " Dit de la Rose," the "De"bat de
deux amants," the " Dit de Poissy," with its lively account of her
visit in 1400 to Poissy Abbey, where her daughter was a nun, and
the idyllic " Dit de la pastoure." 2 The first two of these poems
were written in defence of women against the aspersions of Jean
de Meun in the "Roman de la Rose" and his school, and they
involved her in a protracted controversy, in which with the valuable
support of Jean Gerson she fully held her own. The moralizing
element is much more strongly developed in the " Chemin de long
estude," 3 and the " Mutation de Fortune," 4 which were composed in

1 In a ballad praying the Duke of Orleans to take him into his service (Roy, i.
p. 232) she speaks of his having been three years in England :

Ja trois ans a que pour sa grant prouesse

L'en amena le conte tres louable

De Salsbery, qui moru a destrece

Ou mal pais d'Angleterre, ou muable

Y sont la gent.

Elsewhere she says that Henry IV. " tres joyeusement prist mon enfant vers luy et
tint chierement et en tres bon estat " ('Boivin, p. 119).
3 All printed by Roy, vol. ii. 1891.

3 An edition, "traduit de langue romanne en prose franchise par Jan Chaperon,"
appeared a Paris in 1549. See also above, p. xi., note 4, Koch, p. 76, and Keralio,
ii. p. 297.

4 For an analysis see Koch, p. 63.

Introduction, xv

1402 and 1403. In the earlier of these somewhat prolix, but withal
extremely interesting, works Christine is conducted by the Sibyl
Amalthea through the known world, 1 and then ascends with her
as far as the fifth heaven. After recounting these experiences she
proceeds to inculcate doctrines of right and justice by means of an
elaborate allegory, in which Raison, Sagesse, Noblesse, Chevalerie,
and Richesse play the leading parts, room being also found for a
glowing eulogy of Charles V. In the u Mutation de Fortune " she
again indulges her taste for allegory, but in place of geography and
astronomy other sciences have their turn. The introduction, which
is rich in personal interest, deals with her father's life and her own
and then leads up to her dream or vision of the great " Chastel de
Fortune." This castle is in fact the world, and those who lodge
in it are the various classes of mankind, who from pope and king
downwards are vividly characterized ; while the subjects painted
on the walls of the hall give occasion for summaries of philosophy
and of universal history to the birth of Christ, followed by allu-
sions to more recent events and by another tribute to the virtues
of Thomas de Pisan's royal patron. On 1st January, 1403-4,
Christine presented this poem as a new-year's gift to Philip, Duke
of Burgundy, brother of Charles V. The immediate result was a
commission to write the late king's life, and although the duke
himself died on 2/th April following, she completed this task
within the year, sending a copy to his elder brother John, Duke of
Berry, on ist January, 1404-5.

The " Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V."
is the best known and in many respects the most valuable of all
her writings, 2 and it also marks the beginning of the period when
she practically abandoned verse in favour of prose. Though full
of interesting details, the work is not so much a regular biography
as an appreciation of the king's character from the point of view
of an enthusiastic partisan. To some extent Charles V. realized

1 In this part of the work she plagiarizes largely from the so-called Travels of Sir
John Mandeville (see article by P. Toynbee in Romania^ xxi. 1892, p. 228).

2 Printed in Petitot's Collection des Memoires, 1824, vols. v. vi. and elsewhere.

xvi The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

Christine's ideal of chivalry, and in her discursive way she seized
her chance to enforce by his example the paramount necessity to
a ruler of a sound education and virtuous principles, with covert
reflections no doubt upon the political rivalries and dissolute morals
which under the unhappy circumstances of his successor's mental
disease were bringing ruin upon France. Of her remaining works
" La Vision," 1 which appeared later in 1405, is of peculiar interest
for its self-revelation. It was apparently meant as a reply to those
who, on the ground of her sex and foreign origin, questioned her
right to pose as an authority on French history and morals ; but
with a frank recital of her chequered fortunes and a defence of her
position she mixes up a curious allegory on the mighty power of
" Dame Opinion " and a discussion on the comfort to be derived
from philosophy. To quote a simile which she more than once
applies to herself, 2 "petite clochete grant voix sonne " ; and this
may certainly be said of two ambitious treatises written seemingly
about 1407. One of them is the well-known " Livre des faits
d'armes et de chevalerie," 3 which is nothing less than an attempt
to teach the whole art of war, grounded largely upon Vegetius and
other authorities, but not without shrewd and pertinent observations
of her own ; while in the other, entitled " Le Corps de Policie,"
she takes up the subject of civil government, more particularly
with regard to the education of princes and the duties and mutual
relations of the several orders in the state. The " Cite des
Dames" 4 and its complement the "Livre des Trois Vertus " 5 deal

1 Analysed by Koch, p. 73.

2 As in the dedication of the " Epitre d'Othea " partly printed below, p. xxxvi.

3 The original of The book of fay ties of armes and of Chyualrye, printed by
Caxton in 1489. He tells us in a note that it was given to him by Henry VII. on
23rd January, 1489, to translate and print, " to thende that euery gentylman born to
armes and all manere men of werre captayns souldiours vytayllers and all other shold
haue knowlege how they ought to behaue theym in the fayttes of warre and of
bataylles." He adds that the translation was finished on the 8th July and printed on
the i4th. A French edition appeared at Paris in 1488, and others in 1497, etc.

4 An English translation by Bryan Anslay, entitled The boke of the cyte of Ladyes,
was printed at London, 1521.

5 For the dedication to the Dauphiness and the table of chapters see Thomassy,
Essai sur les ecrits politiques de Christine de Pisan, 1838, p. 185.

Introduction. xvii

on the contrary with subjects which fell less disputably within her
natural sphere. As we have seen, she had already championed her
sex in verse. In coming forward again in its defence, but this time
in prose, she went further, taking upon herself to lay down rules of
guidance for women of all ranks, which she effectively did by
allegory as well as by precepts and by historical examples.

In all these works her aims were moral rather than political.
But although, considering her relations with the leaders of the con-
tending factions, it is not surprising that she abstained from decisively
taking a side, there is no doubt that she was profoundly moved by
the growing miseries of her adopted country. As early as 1405
she addressed to the queen, Isabella of Bavaria, a letter 1 strongly
advocating peace, and five years later she returned to the subject
in a passionate appeal 2 to the princes generally and the Duke of
Berry in particular. The " Livre de la Paix," the different parts of
which were composed respectively in 1412 and 1413 in connexion
with the transient pacifications of Auxerre and of Pontoise, is of less
restricted scope. 3 It was dedicated by Christine to the youthful
Dauphin, Louis, Duke of Guienne, and after an earnest exhortation
to harmony it is expanded into a formal treatise on the virtues that
go to form the perfect prince, Charles V. providing her as usual
with an ever ready example. This appears to have been the latest,
as it is one of the most important, of her prose works ; for although
possibly some of her religious verses were composed in the interval,
so far as is known she maintained an unbroken silence until 1429,
when the triumphs of the Maid of Orleans drew from her a poem
ringing with patriotic fervour, 4 her joy at the approaching deliver-
ance of France being no doubt all the greater because its promised
saviour was a woman. What her feelings were when these hopes
were again deferred can only be imagined, for nothing more is

1 Printed by Thomassy, p. 133.

2 Ibid.) p. 141.

8 For an analysis of its contents, with extracts, see ibid., p. 150. The Dauphin
Louis was born in 1396 and died in 1415.

4 See Thomassy, p. xlii. ; Martin, Histoire de France, 4th ed. 1878, vi. p. 192.
It is dated 3ist July, 1429, a fortnight after the coronation of Charles VII. at Reims.

C

xviii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

heard of her. In the opening lines of her poem she states that she
had then been eleven years in a convent, 1 but she omits to give its
name, and the date and the place of her death thus alike remain
unidentified.

Of all her works the one with which we are here specially
concerned presents perhaps most difficulty with regard to date. In
the best copies, as in Harley MS. 4,43 I, 2 it is headed " Ci com-
mence lepistre Othea la deesse, que elle envoya a Hector de Troie
quant il estoit en laage de quinze ans," for which reason, coupled
with its dedication to Louis, Duke of Orleans, it has been too
hastily assigned to I386, 3 when Louis himself was of that age.
Against this date it is almost enough to urge that Christine was
then only twenty-two years old, and from all that we know of her
she was not in the least likely to have begun authorship so early
with a long didactic treatise mostly in prose ; but, apart from this,
Louis was not made Duke of Orleans until 4th June, 1391, so that
the work could not have been addressed to him, as it is, under that
title five years before. Another theory, that, although dedicated
to Louis, it was designed for the edification of his son and heir
Charles 4 is not open to the same objections ; for, as the future poet-
duke was born in 1391, the date would then be 1406, at which
time Christine was in full career as a moralist and prose-writer,
with strong views, as may be seen in her "Fais et bonnes meurs
du sage roy Charles V.", on the subject of chivalrous qualities. On
the other hand, if the facts were as supposed, in addressing the
work to the father she would hardly have failed to make some
explanatory reference to the son. Her omission to do so there-
fore makes this theory hardly less untenable than the other. It is

1 "Je Christine, qui ay plour xi. ans en 1'abbaye close." It was perhaps the
abbey of Poissy, of which her daughter was already an inmate in 1400 (above, p. xiv.),
and which may possibly be meant by " Passy " in the passage from the Boke of Noblesse
quoted in a note on p. xxxiii.

2 See below, p. xxxv.

3 Koch, p. 81. Louis was born I3th March, 1372.

4 Robineau, p. 89, speaks as if it was addressed to Charles himself, but the words
are " Dorliens due Loys " (see below, p. xxxvi.).

Introduction. xix

more likely that the date lies between these two extremes. The
significance of the dedication may easily be overrated. It was
Christine's habit to send her works with a separate dedicatory
preface to her several patrons as new-year's gifts for no other
reason probably than the hope of a tangible acknowledgment, and
w r e know in fact that other copies of the " Epitre d'Othea" were
sent both to Charles VI. and the Duke of Berry. 1 If it is necessary
to look for some particular youth of fifteen to whom she wished
to play the part of a moral instructress, he may perhaps be found
in her own son, for whom on another occasion she wrote the
" Enseignemens Moraux." 2 Jean du Castel was probably of the
required age about 1400, so that in this case the work represents,
as it well may, the first-fruits of the studies in which she immersed
herself shortly before, and its date moreover exactly accords with
its position in her own collections of her works, where it comes
after the " Dit de Poissy" (1400) and before the "Chemin de long
estude" (i4O2). 3

Although without any claim to be reckoned among the best
of her works, it is at least admirable in motive. Ostensibly it is
addressed by the Goddess of Prudence or Wisdom to her protege
Hector with the object of inciting him to the attainment of true
knighthood by the practice of virtue, the name of the goddess
being clearly no more than the Greek vocative & Bed, commonly
used in Homer in speeches addressed to Athena. 4 The plan of
the work is somewhat peculiar. The epistle proper, which pur-
ports to be Othea's own, is in verse, and is divided into a hundred
" textes," each of which after the first five consists of a single
quatrain. These hundred "textes" serve as a medium for instilling
into the mind of the pupil as many moral precepts or rules of
behaviour, wrapped up in an allusion to some story from mythology,

1 See pp. xxxiv., xxxvii.

3 " Les enseignemens que je Cristine donne a Jehan de Castel mon filz " (CEuvres
poetiques, ed. Roy, iii. p. 27).

8 See the comparative table in Roy, i. p. xxii.

4 This was first pointed out by the Abbe Sallier, Memoires de F Academic Royale
des Inscriptions, xvii. 1751, p. 518.

xx The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

from the history of Troy or, very rarely, from other sources, with-
out the least regard for chronological propriety. Othea indeed
anticipates the charge of anachronism by claiming at the outset (p. 6)
the divine prerogative of prophecy, by which means she obviates
the incongruity of drawing lessons for Hector from the circum-
stances of his own death (p. 105), from the story of Cyrus and
Queen Tomyris (p. 63), and even from the vision of Christ shown
by the Sibyl to the Roman emperor Augustus (p. 113). Perhaps the
most glaring anachronism is the reference to the fate of "Thune"
(p. no). It has been suggested in a note on the passage that this
is a corruption in the MSS. for " Thyre " or Tyre ; but the rhyme
both in the French and English versions requires " Thune," and
possibly the allusion is to the much vaunted expedition of Louis,
Duke of Bourbon, against Tunis in 1391. If so, this is a single
instance of a reference to an event in more recent times. The
" textes," however, are not left to stand alone, being invariably
followed by a "glose" and an " allegoric, " both of which are in
prose and often of some length. The bulk of the work therefore
is really a commentary by Christine herself upon Othea's supposed
teaching. Thus, in the " glose " she amplifies and explains the
allusion in the " texte," and as a rule points its application by a
maxim from an ancient philosopher ; and, having done this to her
own satisfaction, she next dilates in the " allegoric " on its more
spiritual meaning, which she illustrates by a passage from one of the
Fathers or some later theologian, and finally by a more or less appro-
priate verse from Scripture. These last citations are from the Latin
Vulgate, and from the fact that the translator omits them it may be
inferred that he was either ignorant of Latin or intended to supply
them from the Wycliffite English version. In this way Christine
works through the Virtues and Vices, the Articles of the Creed, the
Ten Commandments, the properties and influences of the seven
planets, and so forth ; and the whole forms a curious and ill-assorted
medley, which is not without interest as a reflection of the taste
of the time, but which contains, it must be confessed, little either to
attract or to edify the modern reader.

No critical edition of the original work has yet appeared,

Introduction. xxi

and the preface to a translation is hardly the place in which
to enter minutely into its composition* Apart, however, from
the Latin Vulgate and the theological writers whose names
mav be found in the index, there are three sources from

j f

which the matter appears to be mainly derived. Christine's
classical mythology, it is clear, comes almost entirely from the
Metamorphoses of Ovid, but whether she had recourse to the
original or to a moralized mediaeval adaptation is a question not so
easily determined. There is a work of the latter kind in French
verse and of prodigious length, fourteen MSS. of which are known,
including one in the British Museum (Add. MS. 10,324). By some
misunderstanding it was formerly attributed to Philippe de Vitryj
Bishop of Meaux (1351-1362). Modern criticism, however, has
proved that it was really written by Chretien Legouais, a Friar
Minor, for the queen of Philip IV., Jeanne de Champagne, who
died in I3O5. 1 There was a copy in the library of Christine's
patron, the Duke of Berry, 2 but it was apparently acquired in 1403,
after the "Epitre d'Othea" was written. Although it is quite
possible that she had a direct knowledge of this poem, she is more
likely to have used a moralized prose paraphrase of the Metamor-
phoses by the Benedictine Pierre Bersuire, who in his second
edition, written at Paris in 1342, laid Legouais under contribution.
Bersuire wrote in Latin, which language Christine certainly under-
stood, and how soon his work appeared in French it is difficult to
say. In the Berry Library there were three MSS. of the Meta-
morphoses apparently in vernacular prose, 3 any one, if not all, of
which may have been Bersuire in a French version. There is also
a French prose version in Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 17 E. iv. in com-
pany with the " Epitre d'Othea " itself, but the MS. is not earlier
than the latter part of the I5th century. This version is closely

1 See articles by B. Haureau in Memoires de F Academic des Inscriptions, xxx.
1883, p. 45, and by G[aston] P[aris] in the Histoire Litteraire de la France, xxix.
1885, p. 502.

2 Guiffrey, Inventaires de Jean, Due de Berry, 1894, i. p. 237, "escript en
franois rime"; Delisle, Le Cabinet des MSS., iii. p. 192.

3 Guiffrey, i. pp. 226, 229, ii. p. 127.

xxii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

connected with that printed at Bruges in 1484 by Colard Mansion,
who supposed the original author to have been, not Bersuire, but
Thomas Waleys or de Galles. The two are, however, not quite
identical, and the former possibly represents an older version,
which Mansion revised for printing. But whatever the particular
form of Ovid's Metamorphoses which Christine utilized, her naive
interpretations of his mythological tales are no doubt largely her
own. In this respect she was certainly not in advance of her age.
In the usual euhemeristic fashion she regarded the classical deities
and demigods as men and women who by the a prerogative of some
grace " had raised themselves above their fellows and were for this
reason accorded divine honours ; or, on the other hand, they were
mere inventions of the poets, who, for instance, by inverting the
process by which the planets were named from the gods, made gods
of the planets. A fair sample of her method may be seen in the
story of Perseus (p. 15). This hero, whose name, by the way, our
English translator changed into that of the better known Arthurian
Sir Perceval, was a " moult vaillant chevalier," his steed Pegasus
was " bonne renommee " or fame, which carried his name into all
lands, and his deliverance of Andromeda teaches the aspirant to
knighthood the duty of relieving all women in distress. So much
may be learnt from the " glose " ; but in the "allegoric" Pegasus
becomes the spiritual knight's good angel, " qui fera bon rapport
de lui au jour de jugement," while Andromeda is his soul, which
he frees from the power of the fiend.

With regard to the many personages and incidents from
Trojan history introduced into the work, Christine's authority was
evidently a French prose romance which in a I5th century copy
in the British Museum (Add. MS. 9,785) is entitled " La vraye
ystoire de Troye." Its origin has been traced in an instructive
article by M. Paul Meyer entitled " Les premieres compilations
franchises d'histoire ancienne." x It appears to be founded upon
the well-known romance of Troy in French verse by Benoit de
Ste. More and to have been composed before 1287, and it was

1 Romania^ xiv. 1885, p. i.

Introduction. xxiii

employed, instead of Dares Phrygius as was previously the case,
in the second edition of the compilation known as the " Histoire
ancienne jusqu' a Ce"sar." There is, however, no reason to doubt
that what Christine worked from was the " Vraye histoire " itself.

The third authority of which she habitually made use was
of a different character, supplying her, not with mythological or
legendary tales, but with moral maxims, one of which, as we have
already remarked, she generally quoted at the end of each " glose."
These maxims are derived from a singular work known as " Dicta
Philosophorum," and consisting of long strings of apophthegms
attached to the names of various ancient sages. They begin with
Sedechias, of whom it is said " primus fuit per quern nutu Dei lex
precepta fuit," and besides Homer, Solon, Hippocrates, Pythagoras,
Diogenes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander of Macedon, and
Ptolemy, they include Hermes Trismegistus and such strange and
evidently corrupted names as Tac, Salquinus (or, as it is written in
some MSS., Zaqualquin), Rabion (or Sabion), Assaron, Longinon,
Magdarges, Texillus (or Thesillus) and others, some of which have
a distinctly oriental appearance. The Arabic original in fact exists
in a work written by Abu-'l-Wafa Mobasschir ibn-Fdtik al Kaid,
an emir of Egypt, in 1053.* Sedechias appears there as Adam's
son Seth, and some other of the above names may be dimly
recognized in Sab, ancestor of the Sabasans, Lokman, Mahada Gis,
and Basilius. From the heading of the Latin version in the MS.
from which it has been published, 2 it seems that the work was first
translated from Arabic into Greek, and then again from Greek into
Latin, the last version being by John de Procida, famous for the
prominent part he took in the revolution which freed Sicily from
Charles of Anjou and the French in 1282. Christine de Pisan,
however, apparently employed a popular French version made

1 De Jong and De Goeje, Catalogus codicum orientalium Bill. Acad. Lugd. Bat.,
iii. p. 342 ; Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Literatur^ i. p. 459.

2 Salv. de Rcnzi, CoUectio Sakrnitana, iii. 1854, p. 69, " Incipit liber philoso-
phorum moralium .... quern transtulit de Greco in Latinum Mag. Johannes
de Procida." The Latin text is quoted in the notes here from Brit. Mus. Add. MS.
16,906, the French text from Royal MS. 19 B iv., both of the isth century.

xxiv The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

from the Latin for Charles VI. by one of his chamberlains, Guillaume
de Tignonville, who was afterwards Provost of Paris (1401-1408)
and died in 1414. As a copy of it at Paris was written in I4O2, 1 it
was certainly completed before then, and the probability is that it
preceded the " Epitre d'Othea" by several years. It possesses
a special interest from the fact that an English version of it had
the honour of being the first book actually printed in this country.
This was the famous Dictes and Sayengis of the Philosophres,
which Anthony Wydeville, second Earl Rivers, translated from a
copy of De Tignonville's work lent to him when he was going on
a pilgrimage to Compostella in 1473, and which Caxton issued
from his newly established press at Westminster in I477. 2 Neither
of them seems to have been aware that another English version was
in existence, which dated from I45O. 3 This is still preserved in two
MSS. in the British Museum, but has never been printed. The
late i5th century copy in Add. MS. 34,193 (ff. 137-201) has the
advantage of being complete, but it bears no evidence of origin,
having neither title nor preface and ending merely with the words
" Hie est finis libri moralium philosophorum." Harley MS. 2,266,
on the contrary, though it is mutilated at the beginning and else-
where, fortunately has the following colophon :

" This boke byfore wretyn is callid in Frensh lettris Ditz de Philisophius
and in Englysh for to sey the doctryne and ]>e wysedom of the wyse auncyent
philysophers, as Arystotle, Plato, Socrates, Tholome and suche oj?er, trans-
latid out of laten in to frensh to (sc. for) kyng Charles the vi te of Fraunse by
Wyllyam Tyngnovyle, knyght, late provest of the cyte of Parys, and syth
now late translatyd out of frensh tung in to englysh the yere of oure Lord
m l ccccl. to (sc. for) John Fostalf, knyght, for his contemplacion and solas by
Stevyn Scrope, squyer, sonne in law to the seide Fostalle. Deo gracias."

1 P. Paris, Les MSS.franfois de la Bibl. du Roi, v. p. i.

3 " Enprynted by me William Caxton at Westmestre the yere of our lord
m.cccc.lxxvii." A second edition appeared in 1480 (?), and a third, by W. de Worde,
in 1528.

3 Thus, the translator says in his preface, " And at the last [I] concluded in my
self to translate it in to thenglyssh tong, wiche in my jugement was not before," and
Caxton adds in the colophon, " Certaynly I had seen none in englissh til that tyme."

Introduction. xxv

The truth of the statement here made may be accepted without
hesitation, nor is its interest confined to the translation of the
" Dis des Philosophes " to which it is attached, for, as will be seen
below, it also materially helps to determine the similar origin of the
English version of Christine de Pisan's " Epitre d'Othea," which
we now have to consider.

If the rubricator had done his work, no doubt the " Epistle of
Othea to Hector " would have had this title prefixed in conformity
with the MSS. of the French original. As it is, the text begins
abruptly without a word of heading three lines from the bottom of
the first page, and the only preliminary indication of its nature is
furnished by the inscription " The Booke of Knyghthode," written,
apparently by a somewhat later hand, on the old vellum cover,
which now serves for a fly-leaf. This alternative title is peculiar
to the English version, and is extracted from the translator's
dedicatory preface, to which source we are also indebted for a clue
to his identity and the knowledge of the circumstances under which
the translation was made. The anonymous patron, " noble and
worshipfull among the ordre of cheualrie," to whom the preface
is addressed was obviously a person of some consequence. He
was of knightly rank and had won great renown in France and
elsewhere 1 abroad, having spent most part of his life in " dedys of
cheualrie and actis of armis." He was now, however, sixty years
of age, and was compelled by failing strength to seek retirement,
and he is thereupon somewhat pointedly reminded that it behoved
him to devote the remainder of his days to conflict with those
spiritual enemies that war against the soul. If this were all, it
might have applied to more than one veteran of the protracted
French war which began in 1415 ; but, when the writer goes on to
speak of himself (p. 2) as " I, yowre most humble son Stevyn,"
there can hardly be a doubt that, as in the case of the above-
mentioned translation of the " Dis des Philosophes," we have to do

1 No doubt there is some rhetorical exaggeration in the expression " othir straunge
regions, londes and contrees " (p. 2, cf. p. xxx below) ; at any rate, there is no evidence
that Fastolf served anywhere but in France, both north and south, and in Ireland.

d

xxvi The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

with that famous old warrior Sir John Fastolf, K.G., and his stepson 1
Stephen Scrope, esquire.

The briefest summary of Fastolf's military career 2 will suffice
to show how closely it accords with the writer's description. Son
of a Norfolk squire and born in or about 1378, he appears to have
begun active service early in the reign of Henry IV. with that
king's second son, Thomas, afterwards Duke of Clarence. In
1401, though a mere lad of fourteen, Thomas of Lancaster, as he
was then called, was appointed his father's Lieutenant in Ireland.
Fastolf was in his train there in 1402, if not before, and on
I4th April, I4o6, 3 he had from him a grant of the office of joint
Chief Butler of Ireland during the minority of the Earl of
Ormonde. He was still in Ireland when he married Millicent,
daughter of Robert, Lord Tiptoft, and widow of the Deputy
Lieutenant, Sir Stephen Scrope. The marriage took place on I3th
January, 1409, only four months after the death (4th September,
1408) of the lady's first husband, 4 whose son and heir Stephen
was a minor ten or twelve years old at the time. 5 Besides other
advantages, it gave Fastolf the control over lands of his wife and
stepson in Yorkshire, at Castle Combe in Wiltshire, and elsewhere,
and he seems to have exercised it with little regard to any one's
interest except his own. His earliest service in France probably
dated from 1412. He figures in the long muster-roll of esquires
who joined the expedition under Clarence in August of that year, 6
and before its close he had become Lieutenant of the castle of

1 In the colophon to the other work he is styled son in-law, but the meaning is
the same.

2 There is a good account of him in the Did. of National Biography, vol. xviii.
See also G. Poulett Scrope, Hist, of Castle Combe, 1852, ch. vii. p. 169. Besides other
authorities given in the first-named work, some further particulars and corrections are
supplied in Wylie's Hist, of England under Henry IV., 1884-1898, and in Sir J. H.
Ramsay's Lancaster and York, 1892.

3 Wylie, iii. p. 168.

4 Ibid.

6 Hist, of Castle Combe, p. 282.
6 Wylie, iv. p. 74.

Introduction. xxvii

Bordeaux. 1 With the accession of Henry V. his energy and
undoubted talent for war found ample scope. His contract in June,
I4I5, 2 to serve the king with ten men-at-arms and thirty archers
was speedily followed by Henry's invasion of France and the siege
of Harfleur. Evidently it was not long before he attracted notice,
for when the town surrendered on 22nd September he was at once
put in command of it under the king's uncle, Thomas Beaufort,
Earl of Dorset. 3 This did not prevent him from displaying his
prowess a month later at Agincourt ; and he was again active in the
sieges of Caen and Rouen and in other operations during Henry's
second invasion of Normandy in 1417-1419. Hardly any name in
fact of secondary rank more frequently recurs in the chronicles
and documents of the war for a quarter of a century. Already
knighted before 29th January, 1415-6,* he was made a knight ban-
neret in 1423 and a Knight of the Garter in 1426 ; and, only to
mention a few of the posts conferred upon him, 5 in 1420 he was
made Governor of the Bastille of St. Antoine at Paris, in 1422
Master of the Household to John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of
France, and in 1423 Lieutenant of Normandy and Governor of
Anjou and Maine. In the minor battles and sieges which made
up so much of the desultory warfare of the time he was everywhere
conspicuous. On 2nd March, 1423, with the Earl of Salisbury,
he recovered Meulan ; on lyth August, 1424, he shared in the
victory at Verneuil and took the Duke of Alenon prisoner ; on

1 Wylie, iv~p. 86.

2 The warrant for his pay, i8th June, is in Rymer's fcedera, ed. 1740, iv. pt. ii.
p. 130.

3 According to the Boke of Noblesse (see below, p. xliii.), p. 1 5, " the seyd erle
made Ser John Fastolfe, chevaler, his lieutenaunt with mV soudeours."

* Rymer, iv. pt. ii. p. 153. Diet. Nat. Biogr. has 1417-18.

5 The Boke of Noblesse, after praising him for his care in provisioning his
garrisons, goes on to say (p. 68), " and that policie was one of the grete causes that
the regent of Fraunce and the lordes of the kyngys grete councelle lefft hym to hafe
so many castells to kepe that he ledd yerly iii c sperys and the bowes." The value of
his foresight in this respect is then illustrated by an anecdote of what happened when
the Bastille was threatened with a siege in 1420.

xxviii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

nth October in the same year he captured Sille le Guillaume,
from which he acquired the title of baron ; on 2nd August, 1425,
again with Salisbury, he received the surrender of Le Mans * ; and
on 1 2th February, 1429, when in command of a convoy of much
needed supplies for the English camp before Orleans, he signally
defeated a far stronger force of French and Scots at Rouvray
St. Denis in the famous " Battle of the Herrings." Up to this point,
so far as is known, he had met with almost uninterrupted success ;
but after the advent of Jeanne Dare had caused the raising of the
siege of Orleans, when the English were routed and Lord Talbot
was taken prisoner at Pataye on i8th June following, he barely
succeeded in escaping from the field. Unfortunately for his fame
with posterity, the charge of cowardice on this occasion made
against him in Monstrelet's Chronicle was repeated by Hall and
Holinshed and has been perpetuated in the " First Part of
Henry VI." 2 The effect of the charge at the time was, however,
transient at most, and there is no need to dwell upon it here, either
on its own account or in its bearing upon the question whether he
was the original of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff. It is contra-
dicted by the chronicler Wavrin, who fought in the battle under
him, and it is out of keeping with his whole career ; moreover,
Talbot, who was his bitterest accuser, was already on ill terms
with him and, having flouted his advice just before the battle, in
his chagrin at defeat was perhaps only too ready to make him a
scapegoat. The Regent Bedford's action in the matter is signifi-
cant ; for, although Fastolf was at first badly received by him, after
a formal inquiry be was again taken into favour and the Garter, of
which he is said to have been deprived, was restored to him in
spite of Talbot's protests. Nor was less use made of his services
afterwards. Thus, between 1430 and 1434 we find him Lieutenant
of Caen and of Alengon and Captain of Fresnay, and in 1431 he
relieved Vaudemont and captured the Duke of Ban As late as

1 The Diet. Nat, Biogr. oddly calls the place Mons !
3 Act iii. sc. 2, 11. 104-109 ; Act iv. sc. i, 11. 9-47.

Introduction. xxix

1435 he is spoken of as Governor of Anjou and Maine, 1 and until
the Duke of Bedford's death on I4th September of that year he
continued at the head of his household, being so described both in
a list of the Regent's retinue in 1435 and in a highly interesting
report on the conduct of the war which he himself drew up about
the same time. 2 Bedford's confidence in him to the last is also
clear from the fact that he named him one of the executors of his
will. Notwithstanding the loss of so powerful a patron and his
own advancing years, Fastolf was plainly in no hurry to put off his
armour ; for, with the exception of occasional visits to England
as before, he remained abroad for at least five years longer. His
retirement is generally fixed in 1440, but there is evidence of his
being in Maine in the following year. 3 On I2th May, 1441, the
Duke of York, Bedford's successor as Regent, granted him a
yearly pension of 20 for his services, 4 and probably therefore it
was not very long before or after that date that he finally turned
his back upon the country from whose unhappy distractions he had
won fame and fortune.

It is at this stage of his life that we get a glimpse of him in
the dedication of the " Epistle of Othea." From its language this
was written soon after he finally returned home ; in fact it gives
his age, no doubt somewhat loosely, as sixty, whereas even in 1440
he was probably sixty-two. During the greater part of the period
which elapsed before his death on 5th November, 1459, he seems
to have resided chiefly in Southwark, where he was within easy
reach of a summons to the King's Council, of which he was a
member ; and there is something attractive in the picture which

1 Paston Letters, i. p. 37; Stevenson, Wars of the English in France, Rolls Series,
ii. pt. ii. p. [549]-

2 Stevenson, pp. [433], [575].

8 Ramsay, Lancaster and York, ii. p. 41.

4 Brit. Mus. Add. ch. 14,598, "pro notabili et laudabili seruicio ac bono consilio
que predilectus consiliarius noster loh. Fastolff miles nobis impendit et impendet in
futurum," 12 May, 19 Hen. VI. The future service was no doubt to be rendered in
the council-chamber rather than the field.

xxx The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

Stephen Scrope's words suggest of the war-worn old soldier
beguiling his leisure with literary studies. Nor are the " Epistle
of Othea " and the " Sayings of the Philosophers " the only two
translations made at his " commaundeinent " and for his " contem-
placion and solas." In 1481 Caxton printed an English version,
rendered from the French of Laurence de Premierfait, of Cicero's
" De Senectute." * On the question of its authorship I shall have
some remarks to make further on but meanwhile it deserves
notice that its preface states that it "was translated and thystoryes
openly declared by the ordenaunce and desyre of the noble
auncyent knyght Syr Johan Fastolf of the countee of Norfolk
banerette, lyuyng the age of four score yere, excercisyng the warrys
in the Royame of Fraunce and other countrees, ffor the diffence
and vnyuersal welfare of bothe royames of englond and ifraunce
by fourty yeres enduryng, the fayte of armes hauntyng, and in
admynystryng justice and polytique gouernaunce vnder thre kynges,
that is to wete Henry the fourth, Henry the fyfthe, Henry the
syxthe, and was gouernour of the duchye of Angeou and the
countee of Mayne, Capytayn of many townys, Castellys and fortressys
in the said Royame of ffraunce, hauyng the charge and saufgarde
of them dyuerse yeres, ocupyeng and rewlynge thre honderd speres
and the bowes acustomed thenne, and yeldyng good acompt of the
forsaid townes castellys and fortresses to the seyd kynges and of
theyr lyeutenauntes, Prynces of noble recomendacion, as Johan
regent of flfraunce Due of Bedforde, Thomas due of excestre,
Thomas due of clarence & other lyeutenauntes," etc.

At the same time, there was another side to Fastolf 's character,
which is revealed in that mine of curious information on the social
life and manners of the time, the well-known Paston Letters.
Through his intimacy with John Paston, 2 who was ultimately his

1 "Thus endeth the boke of Tulle of olde age translated ont of latyn in to
frenshe by laurence de primo facto .... and enprynted by me symple persone
William Caxton in to Englysshe .... the xii day of August the yere of our lord
m.cccc.lxxxi."

2 He was father of Sir John Paston, for whom a copy of " Othea " was written
in 1469, as well as of John Paston the younger, who owned a copy somewhat later
(see above, p. x).

Introduction. xxxi

executor and principal heir, many of his private letters and papers are
there preserved, and they certainly do not exhibit him in a favour-
able light. 1 Hot-tempered, arbitrary and rapacious, harsh and mean
to his dependents, an exacting creditor and a rancorous litigant, he
was the reverse of Chaucer's type of the " verray perfight, gentil
knight." Wealthy as he was and childless, he was still bent on
making gain, partly no doubt to pay for the building of his great
castle at Caister in Norfolk, the ruins of which may still be seen.
No one perhaps knew him better or had suffered more from his
hard dealing than his stepson. Some years later than the present
work Stephen Scrope drew up a formal statement of his wrongs, 2
in which he not only complained that in the disposal of his wardship
Fastolf had bought and sold him "as a beast," but even charged
him with being the cause of illnesses which had marked him for
life 3 and with having at a later period used him so scurvily that he
was compelled to sell his manor of Hever in Kent and take service
with the Duke of Gloucester. Apparently this sign of independence
did not meet Fastolf s views, for he soon managed to get him into his
own retinue, and, as the other admits, at this time he showed him
u good fatherhood," employing him at Honfleur and elsewhere,
probably in a civil capacity, 4 until he returned home in pique at some
slight. Fastolf's dealings with regard to Scrope's inheritance are
somewhat obscure, but by some arrangement he contrived to secure
Castle Combe for life. 5 As Lady Fastolf died in 1446, her son by
her first marriage, to whom it should have then come by right, was
thus kept out of it for thirteen years longer, only enjoying it from

his stepfather's death in 1459 until his own in 1472. But in spite of

. \ . ' \- i ) ' / 1 o *. -, \ i . j

1 See Gairdner's introduction, ed. 1896, i. p Ixxxvii. Fastolfs relations with his
stepson are also illustrated by numerous documents in G. Poulett Scrope's History of
Castle Combe, where there are memoirs of both, as lords of that manor.

2 Hist, of Castle Combe, p. 279.

3 " Thorugh the wiche sale I tooke sekenesses that kept me a xiii. or xiiii. yere
swyng, whereby I am disfigured in my persone and shall be whilest I lyve " (ibid.).

* From some curious accounts dealing with meat and fish in 1427-8 (ibid. p. 266)
he was perhaps in the commissariat service.
5 Hist, of Castle Combe, p 169.

xxxii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

differences the two were apparently not altogether on bad terms ;
otherwise neither this translation nor that of the " Dis des
Philosophes " would have been made, and still less would Scrope
have spoken of Fastolf as he here does. His language indeed is
something more than respectful and laudatory. While he fully
endorses Wavrin's description of Sir John as " moult sage et
vaillant chevallier," 1 there is a tone of humility which makes it
difficult to realize that the writer was upwards of forty years of age
and at least Fastolf s equal by birth. The nature of their relations
may be gathered from a singular letter to the latter about 1455
from Sir Richard Bingham, Justice of the King's Bench, whose
daughter Stephen Scrope had recently married. 2 In imploring help
for him the writer says 3 :

" . . . . My saide son is and hath be, and will be to hys lifes ende, your
true lad and servaunt, and glad and well willed to do that myght be to your
pleaser, wirschip and profit, and als loth to offend yow as any person in
erth, gentill and well disposid to every person. Wherfore I besech your
gode grace that ye will vouchesafe remember the premissez, my saide sons
age, his wirschipfull birth, and grete misere for verrey povert, for he hath had
no liflode to life opon sithen my lady his moder deed, safe x. marc of liflode
that ye vouched safe to gife hym this last yer, and therffore to be his good
maister and fader. And thof he be not worthy to be your son, make hym
your almesman, that he may now in his age life of your almesse, and be your
bedeman, and pray for the prosperite of your noble person "

The result of this appeal, and of more to the same effect, is not
recorded, but that Fastolf could be gracious enough in words is
evident from the only letter from him to Scrope which is included
in the Paston Letters? written on 3Oth October, 1457. It is
addressed, " Worschepeful and my right wel beloved sone," and,

1 Chroniques, ed. W. Hardy, Rolls Series, vol. for 1422-31, p. 289. Elsewhere
(p. 254) he describes him as " moult sage et prudent aux armes lu quel se fyoit
grandement le due de Bethfort, regent."

2 She was a second wife, but the name of the first, who bore him a daughter, is
not known {Hist, of Castle Combe, p. 271).

8 Ibid., p. 276 ; Paston Letters, i. p. 356.
4 Ibid., p. 419.

Introduction. xxxiii

after thanking him for his " good avertismentys and right well
avysed lettres," begs him to recommend to his father-in-law,
Justice Bingham, a suit in which the writer was interested, and
the tone throughout is unexceptionable. There is, however,
another letter in the History of Castle Combe (p. 270), written
from Calais, and, according to the editor, about 1420, which is not
so amiable. After Scrope's second marriage he and his stepfather
no doubt lived apart, but at the time when the " Epistle of Othea "
was translated they were probably under the same roof, and as late
as 1454, when Caister Castle was completed and Fastolf was about
to take up his residence there, it is expressly stated that Scrope
would live with him. 1

While there is little doubt that he was incapacitated by weak
health from military service and that he was deficient also in force
of character, it cannot be said that, so far as we can judge from
his two translations from the French, he possessed much literary
ability. There is nothing original in either of them except the
short preface to the "Epistle of Othea" here printed, and, inter-
esting as this is in other respects, its style is so involved that in
places it is hardly intelligible. Nor is the writer more fortunate
in his account of the French work which he translated : for bv

s

some strange misunderstanding he deprives its authoress of the
credit of it and makes out (p. 3) that it was compiled by doctors of
the University of Paris merely at the instance and prayer of the
" fulle wyse gentyl woman of Frawnce called Dame Cristine." It
is curious that a very similar statement is made as to her works
generally in a marginal note in the " Boke of Noblesse," 2 with

1 William Paston to John Paston : "He wyll dwelle at Caster, and Skrop wyth
hym" (Paston Letters^ i. p. 296). "The chaumboure sumtyme for Stephen Scrope"
is mentioned in the inventory of Fastolf s effects at Caister made after his death (ibid.^
i. p. 482).

3 See below, p. xliii. The note (Roxburghe Club ed. p. 54) runs, " Notandum
est quod Cristina [fuit] domina praeclara natu et moribus et manebat in domo
religiosarum dominarum apud Passye prope Parys; et ita virtuosa fuit quod ipsa

e

xxxiv The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

reference to a passage taken from her " Livre des faits d'armes,'
which, however, is wrongly spoken of as the " Arbre des batailles."
It is there said that Christine was a lady of high birth and character,
who dwelt in a house of religious ladies at Passy (Poissy ?) near
Paris, that she maintained with exhibitions several clerks studying
in the University of Paris and caused them to compile divers
virtuous books, such as the " Arbre des batailles," and that the
doctors in consequence attributed the books to Christine herself.
As this note is in the hand of the well-known William Worcester
or Botoner, who was servant and secretary to Fastolf, the two
statements no doubt had a common origin, coming perhaps from
Sir John himself.

From the prominent way in which Scrope mentions the Duke
of Berry it is reasonable to conclude that the French MS. which
supplied him with the original text contained a dedicatory address
by the authoress to that famous royal bibliophil, who, as we know,
was one of her special patrons. In the inventory of his library,
among the MSS. acquired soon after 1401, there is in fact the
entry, 1 " Item le livre de 1'espitre que Othea la deesse envoia a
Ethor (sc. Hector), compile par damoiselle Christine de Pizan,
escript en frangois de lettre de court, tres bien historie" . . . . le
quel livre la dicte Cristine a donne a mon dit seigneur " ; and the
probability is that on Fastolf s return to England he brought with
him either this identical MS. or a transcript of it, together with a
copy of De Tignonville's " Dis des philosophies." Existing copies
of the " Epitre d'Othea " are not uncommon. In the Bibliotheque

exhibuit plures clericos studentes in vniuersitate Parisiensi, et compilare fecit plures
libros virtuosos, utpote librum arborum bellorum, et doctores racione eorum exhibicionis
attribuerunt nomen autoris Cristine, sed aliquando nomen autoris clerici studentis
imponitur in diuersis libris; et vixit circa annum Christi 1430, sed floruit ab anno
Christi 1400."

1 Guiffrey, Inventaires, i. p. 249; cf. Delisle, Le Cabinet des MSS.) iii. p. 193,
no. 290.

Introduction, xxxv

Nationale at Paris there are twelve, 1 and Koch (p. 59) mentions
six others at Brussels, while the British Museum possesses four.
One of these is included in the fine collection of Christine's poems
and other works in Harley MS. 4,431. It is the MS. " H," readings
from which are given here in the notes, and the collotype frontis-
piece, which depicts the goddess Othea personally handing her
letter to Hector, is reproduced from the second of its numerous
miniatures, one of which precedes each of the hundred "textes."
The collection, which is of the highest importance, including pieces
found nowhere else, 3 was made by Christine herself, apparently
about 1410-1415, for the French queen, Isabella of Bavaria, the
MS. beginning with an introductory poem of ninety-six lines
addressed to her. 3 Probably it came into the possession of John,
Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, in 1425* among other MSS.
from the royal library of the Louvre ; for the signature " Jaquete "
of his second wife, Jacquetta of Luxemburg, is written on the fly-
leaf, together with that of Anthony Wydeville, Earl Rivers, her
son by her second marriage, in 1437, with Sir Richard Wydeville,
who was created Earl Rivers in 1466. As we have already seen,

1 In answer to an inquiry M. Omont, keeper of MSS., kindly states that only
one of them, franc.. 12,438, a poor copy on paper, contains a dedication to the Duke
of Berry. It begins " Le Prologue. Louenge a Dieu soit . . . . et apres ensuivant
a tres noble fleur . . . . et puis a vous excellant prince, saige, bon et vertueux,
Jehan excellant, redouble filz au roy de France .... due de Berry," etc.

2 The "Cent Balades d'Amant et de Dame" (CEuvres Poetiques, ed. Roy, Hi.
p. 209), besides ten others.

3 Printed by Roy, i. p. xiv. The MS. is there described and compared with
another rather earlier collection (now Bibl. Nat. franc,. 835, 606, 836, 605), which the
Duke of Berry bought from Christine for 200 crowns. A reduced facsimile of the first
page of the Harley MS., with a large miniature of Christine presenting the volume to
the queen in her bedchamber, is prefixed to Roy's vol. iii. (cf. a note by P. Meyer,
p. xxii.). A coloured plate of the same miniature is given by Shaw, Dresses and
Decorations of the Middle Ages, 1843.

4 Delisle, Le Cabinet des MSS., i. p. 52.

xxxvi The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

Anthony, Earl Rivers, translated the " Dis des philosophes," and
he also made an English version, printed by Caxton in 1478, of
Christine's " Proverbes moraux," the text of which he no doubt
obtained from this MS. After he perished on the scaffold in 1488,
the volume passed by some means to Louis de Bruges, Sieur de
Gruythuyse, created Earl of Winchester in 1472, whose motto and
name, " Plus est en vous. Gruthuse," appear on the same page. In
1676 it belonged to Henry Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and no
doubt it found its way into the Harley collection by the marriage
of his grand-daughter Lady Henrietta Cavendish-Holies in 1713
to Edward Harley, Lord Harley, second Earl of Oxford in 1724.
That it was known to Fastolf, when Master of the Household to
the Regent Bedford, is likely enough ; but the copy of the " Epitre
d'Othea " included in it can hardly have been the one used by
Scrope, as it is dedicated, not to the Duke of Berry, but to his
nephew Louis, Duke of Orleans. After some lines of apostrophe
to the " Fleur de lis " and to " Seigneurie," which begin,

" Tres haulte flour, par le monde louee,
A tous plaisant et de dieu auouee,"

it proceeds,

" Et a vous tres noble prince excellant,
Dorliens due loys, de grant renom,
Filz de Charles Roy quint de cellui nom,
Qui fors le roy ne congnoiscez greigneur,
Mon tres loue et redoubte seigneur,
Bumble vouloir moy, poure creature,
Femme ignorant, de petite estature,
Fille iadis philosophe et docteur,
Qui conseiller et humble seruiteur
Vostre pere fu, que dieu face grace,
Et iadis vint de Boulongne la grace,
Dont il fu ne, par le sien mandement,
Maistre Thomas de pizan, autrement
De Boulonge, fu dit et surnomme,
Qui sollempnel clerc estoit renomme."

Introduction. xxxvii

This is the dedication which appears, not only in some other MSS.
but in the edition printed by Philippe Pigouchet at Paris, probably
in 1490, under the title Les cent histoires de troye? Of the other
three manuscript copies in the British Museum, Royal MS. 14 E. ii.
(f. 294) and 17 E. iv. (f. 272) have no dedication at all, while that
in Harley MS. 219 (f. 106) appeals to a third patron :

" Prince excellent de haute renommee,
De qui grand vois par le mond est semee,
Tres noble en fais, sage, duit et apris
De touz les biens qui en bon sont compris,
Roy noble et haut chiualer conquerour,
Digne destre par vaillaunce Emperour,
A vous puissant, tres redoute seignour,
Qui dessur vous ne cognoise greignour,
Soit tres humble recommendacioun
Deuant mise de vray entencioun
De par moy que en sagesse non digne
Femme ignorant suy nominee Cristine,
Fille iadis philosophe et docteur,
Qui conseiller fu, humble seruiteur
Au Roy Charles quint, qui dieu face grace."

The king who is thus addressed can be no other than the unfor-
tunate Charles VI., although any hopes that he once excited had
by this time been dispelled by his strange intermittent fits of
insanity, which dated from 1392. Very similar terms were
employed in the dedication to him by name of the "Chemin de
long estude " in 1402 :

1 This is the only edition in the British Museum. Its second title runs : Lepistre
de Othea deesse de prudence enuoyee a lesperit cheualereux Hector de troye auec cent
hystoires. Nouuellement imprimee a Paris. Other editions are said to have been
issued at Lyons in 1497 and 1519, and at Paris in 1522.

xxxviii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

" A vous, bon roy de France redoubtable,
Le VI e Charles du nom notable,
Que Dieux maintienge en joie et en sante,
Mon petit dit soit premier presente,
Tout ne soit il digne qu'en telz mains aille,
Mais bon vouloir comme bon fait me vaille."

In this instance, however, Christine associated with him his uncles
Berry and Burgundy and his brother Orleans, who during his
incapacity divided the real power between them :

" Et puis a vous, haulz dues magnifiez,
Dicelle fleur fais et ediffiez,
Dont Pesplendeur s'espant par toute terre,
Par quel honneur fait los a France a querre."

In her presentation copies she was not wont to measure her
language, and probably Scrope's extravagant eulogy of the Duke
of Berry was based upon what he found in his MS., although,
instead of translating the dedication as it stood, he chose to
embody it in his preface. On the other hand, Christine of course
was in no way responsible for the statement that the duke lived for
a hundred years (p. 3). How it originated is. a mystery, for there
is no doubt whatever that he died on I5th June, 1416, at the age
of seventy-six. 1 Jean Bouchet indeed in his Annales cT Aquitaine?
although he records the date of his death correctly, states that he
was ninety or thereabouts, but he gives no authority, and it is enough
to say that Berry's father King John II. was born in 1319, and his
eldest brother Charles V. in 1337. It will be seen that Scrope
represents him as a perfect paragon of chivalrous qualities, unrivalled
in his time both in war and in council, as well as for deeds of piety.
In more sober history, however, he by no means appears to such

1 Both date and age were given on his tomb at Bourges erected by Charles VII.
in 1457 (Raynal, Histoire du Berry, 1844, ii. pp. 504, 513 ; Champeaux and Gauchery,
Les Travaux cf art executes pour Jean de France, Due de Berry, 1894, p. 43).

8 Ed. 1644, p. 238. Bouchet was born in 1476, and his work first appeared in
1524. I owe the reference to it to Mr. Wylie.

Introduction. xxxix

advantage. His cultured and sumptuous tastes, his splendid build-
ings and his library and other rich collections, have shed a certain
lustre on his name ; but, as he showed especially in his government
of Languedoc, he was cruel, rapacious, and unprincipled, and in
critical times his life was that of a selfish and prodigal voluptuary.
For war he had neither talent nor zest ; his real element appears to
have been diplomacy, and, apart from his patronage of art and
letters and his benefactions to the church, his chief claim to credit
rests on his repeated attempts to mediate between the Burgundian
and Orleanist factions. Scrope's estimate of him is in striking
contrast with that of modern historians, such as Raynal 1 and Martin,
the latter of whom in recording his death writes, " Ce prince laissa
une memoire souillee entre toutes dans cette dpoque de souillures.
II joignait & bien d'autres vices le vice que la France pardonne le
moins a ses chefs, le peche irremissible, la lachete." 2

To pass from the preface to the " Epistle of Othea" itself, there
is no reason to suppose that the translator had received the training
of a scholar ; on the contrary, the probability is that, owing to a
sickly youth and other drawbacks, his education had been more or
less neglected. It is not even certain that he had been regularly
taught French. From a curious passage interpolated by Trevisa in
his translation of Higden's " Polychronicori," which was finished in
1387, it seems that the fashion was then already dying out among
the class to which by birth he belonged, 3 and possibly therefore he
learnt all he knew of the language while he was with his stepfather
in France. Be that as it may, his rendering of Christine de Pisan's
French may claim on the whole to be fairly well done. The verse
of his " textes " is too much of the doggrel type and his meaning is

1 Histoire du Berry, ii. p. 375.

3 Histoire de France, 4th edition, 1878, vi. p. 25. The most favourable view of his
character is given by Guiffrey, Inventaires, p. cxci.

8 " Now children of gramere scole conne'p no more Frensch )>an can here lift
heele .... also gentil men habbej? now moche yleft for to teche here childern
Freynsch " (R. Morris, Specimens of Early English, 1867, p. 339). See also the Rolls
Series edition of Higden, ii. p. 161, where Trevisa's text is taken from another MS.

xl The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

sometimes obscure, but as a rule he follows the original closely,
while the orthography of the MS., though atrociously bad, is no
worse than what we are accustomed to in the Paston Letters and
elsewhere at the same period. Occasionally, as is only natural,
he goes astray, though it is of course possible that the fault lay
with the MS. from which he translated. In most cases the source
of his errors is obvious. Thus he translates "ton bon cuer" (p. 5)
by " all good hertys," having evidently mistaken " ton " for
" tou[t] " ; and again " en quant fraisle vaissel est sa vie contenue "
(p. 28) by "in how frele (sc. frail) a vessel his lyff is all naked"
(toute nue) ! Similarly "conscience pour soy" (p. 16) appears as
"conscience for feyth " (foy) ; " ala querre les autres dieux "
(p. 62) as "thanne went he forth [to seek] the tothir ii" (deux) ;
"maisa nostre propos [la fable] veult dire" (ibid.) as "Mars to
owre purpose seith " ; and " gard toy de lagait (1'agait) de tes
ennemis " (p. 73) as " kepe the (sc. thee) from the peple (la gent)
of thyn ennemyes." It is not so easy to understand the process
by which the simple sentence " Vanite fist lange devenir deable "
(p. 15) was transformed into " Vanite made avoyde degre to becum
a fende," whatever that may mean ; or why in the story of Acis
and Galatea (p. 65) " un iouuencel qui Acis estoit nommez"
became " and he was dede " (sc. dead), though possibly in this case
there was some confusion between " acis " and " occis." But the
strangest mistranslation is in the words " Averyse and covetise be
ii sausmakers the which sesseth neuer to seye, ' Bryng, Bryng '
(p. 105), where the French text has "sont ii. sancsues," sanguisugae,
or leeches. The reference of course is to Proverbs xxx. 15, "The
horseleach hath two daughters, crying, 'Give, give' " ; and, as stated
in the note, "horseleeches" is in fact the rendering given in
another translation of Christine's work. Scrope's "sausmakers"
can hardly be anything but "sauce-makers," 1 but it is not impossible
that he coined the mongrel word u sane-suckers," which the scribe
miscopied.

1 See Chaucer's Nonne Prestes tale, 1. 14, "Of poynant saws hir needide never
a deel."

Introduction. xli

The second English translation of the "Epttre d'Othea" referred
to above can be so little known that a brief account of it will not
be superfluous. It exists only in the form of a small printed
octavo in black-letter with the title Here foloweth the C. Hy story es
of Troye, and there is no doubt that it was taken from Pigouchet's
French edition of I49O, 1 or one of the reprints ; in fact it copies
the second title in French, merely omitting the imprint " a Paris."
Many of its rough woodcuts, one of which accompanies each
"texte," also come from the same source, being generally reversed,
but others are independent and their subjects often have no con-
nexion whatever with the text. In place of the dedication to the
Duke of Orleans the translator gives a prologue of his own in ten
seven-line stanzas, the first two of which are as follows :

" Boke, of thy rudenesse by consyderacion
Plunged in the walowes of abasshement,
For thy translatoure make excusacion
To all to whom thou shalt thy selfe present,
Besechynge them vpon the sentement
In the composed to set theyr regarde
And not on the speche cancred and frowarde.

" Shewe them that thy translatour hath the wryten,
Not to obtain thankes or remuneracions,
But to the entent to do the to be wryten
As well in Englande as in other nacyons.
And where mysordre in thy translation is,
Vnto the perceyuer with humble obeysaunce
Excuse thy reducer, blamyng his ygnoraunce."

All the information which he gives about himself in this prologue
is that, when he made his translation, he was " flo wring in youth,"
but after the " Finis " he has added, "Thus endeth the .C. Hysterics
of Troye, translated out of Frenche in to Englysshe by me.

1 See above, p. xxxvi. There is an imperfect copy of the English text in the
British Museum (C. 21. a. 34).

xlii The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

R.W." This again is followed by the colophon, " Imprynted by
me Robert Wyer, dwellyng in S. Martyns parysshe at Charyng
Crosse at the sygne of S. John Euangelist besyde the Duke of
Suffolkes place " ; and it is therefore highly probable that R. W.
and Robert Wyer were identical, though the latter is not otherwise
known except as a printer. A list of nearly a hundred books issued
by him has been made up, 1 ranging in date from 1530 to 1556, and
all those which, as in this instance, have the Duke of Suffolk's
name in the imprint must have been published after 1536, when
the property referred to, which previously belonged to the Bishop
of Norwich, passed into his possession. The date of the book
therefore is about 1540-1550, though the translation may have
been made some years before. For the sake of comparison with
the earlier version of Stephen Scrope, one of the texts with its
commentary is here given :

THE .xxvin. TEXTE.

Loue and prayse Cadmus so excellente,
And his dyscyples holde thou in chyerte.
He gaygned the fountayne of the Serpente
With ryght great payne afore that it wolde be.

THE .xxvin. GLOSE.

Cadmus was a moche noble man and founded Thebes, whiche cytie was
greatly renomed. He set there a study & he hym selfe was moche pro-
foundly lettered and of great science. And therfore sayth the fable that he
daunted the serpent at the fountayne, that is to vnderstande the science and
sages that alwayes springeth; the Serpent is noted for the payne and trauayle
which it behoueth the student to daunte afore that he maye purchase scyence.
And the fable sayth that he hym self became a serpent, which is to vnder-
stande he was a corrector and mayster of other. So wol Othea say that
the good knight ought to loue and honour the clerkes lettered, which ben

1 H. R. Plomer, Robert Wyer, printer end bookseller^ 1897. For an account of
the woodcuts, see p. 9.

Introduction. xliii

grounded in science. To this purpose sayeth Arystotle to Alexandre,
" Honour thou scyence and fortyfie it by good maysters."

THE .xxviii. ALLEGORIE.

Cadmus whiche daunted the Serpent at the fountayne, whiche the good
knyght ought to loue, we may vnderstande the blyssed humanite of Jesu
christ, which dompted the serpent and gaigned the fountayne, that is to say
the lyfe of this world, from the which he passed afore with great payne and
with great trauayle. Wherof he had perfyte victory whan he rose agayne the
thyrd day, as sayth S. Thomas, " Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis."

In conclusion it only remains to say a few words on the pos-
sible connexion of Stephen Scrope with two other works already
mentioned, which, like his " Epistle of Othea " or " Boke of
Knyghthode " and his " Sayings of the Philosophers," were written
for Sir John Fastolf or under his influence. One of them, the
" Boke of Noblesse," is preserved in a unique copy in the British
Museum, Royal MS. 18 B. xxii., and was edited for the Roxburghe
Club in 1860 by Mr. J. Gough Nichols. In the form in which it
has come down to us, it was addressed to Edward IV. at the time
of his invasion of France in 1475, professing to be " write and
entitled to courage and comfort noble men in armes to be in
perpetuite of remembraunce for here noble dedis, as right con-
uenient is soo to bee," or, more precisely, for the purpose of
inciting the English to recover by force of arms their lost foreign
conquests. The contents were admirably summarized in the
editor's introduction, and all that need be said of them here is that,
in addition to a highly interesting retrospect of English relations
with France, they include a large amount of matter derived from
a French treatise on the art of war, which is spoken of as the "Arbre
de Batailles" and attributed to "Dame Cristyn." Although the
editor failed to identify the author, he pointed out that he must have
been intimately associated with Fastolf and had access to his papers.
Strictly speaking, Fastolf s name is not specially prominent except
in the marginal insertions and notes, where the writer refers to him

xliv The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

as " myne autor " and gives several curious anecdotes as heard from
his lips. The body of the MS. is clearly not autograph ; but these
additions, together with the title and colophon, 1 are in a different
handwriting, and, although the editor seems to have been unaware
of the fact, it is beyond question that of William Worcester, or
Botoner, who was not only Fastolf s servant and secretary, but is
also known as an annalist and a diligent collector of matter on
historical, topographical and other subjects. 2 The editor therefore
dismissed his claims to the authorship of the work rather too
hastily, for, as the final touches were certainly his, the only ques-
tion is whether he was also responsible for the whole of it from
its inception. From the limit of date of the events mentioned there
is some reason to believe that it was originally composed within
Fastolf s lifetime and was only revised and enlarged in 1475 for a
special occasion ; and its date may perhaps be fixed still more
exactly, since there is an allusion (p. 42) to " another gret armee
and voiage fordone for defaut and lak of spedy payment this ycre
of Crist M^cccli." Apart from the final additions there is evidence
to connect Worcester with it in a passage of the prologue to a series
of documents relating to the wars in France which were collected
by him, 3 mainly no doubt from materials that belonged to Fastolf,
and which may be regarded as pieces justificatives to the " Boke
of Noblesse." This collection also appears to have been designed
for Edward IV., but the original prologue was awkwardly recast, as
we now have it, after Worcester's death by his son for dedication

1 " Here endyth thys Epistle, undre correccion, the xv. day of June, the yeere of
Crist M c iiii c lxxv.," etc. (p. 85).

2 Examples of his writing are fairly abundant, e.g. in the Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton
Julius F. vii., Royal 13 C. i., Sloane 4 and Add. 27,443-4,28,208, 34,888. In Sloane
MS. 4, f-38b, he gives a curious account of Fastolf 's last illness.

3 Stevenson, Wars of the English in France, vol. ii. pt ii. pp. [5I9H742], from
Lambeth MS. 506, which is partly in Worcester's own hand. His Annals, extending
from 1324 to 1468, are printed in the same volume, p. [743], from the autograph MS.
in the College of Arms.

Introduction. xlv

to Richard III. The passage in it referred to, for which he is
responsible, is as follows :

" And I, as moost symple of reasone, youre righte humble legemane,
cannot atteyne to understand the reasons and bokes that many wise philo-
sophurs of gret auctorite have writtene upone this vertue of Force, but that
my pore fadyr, William Worcestre .... toke upone hym to write in this
mater and compiled this boke to the most highe and gretly redoubted kyng,
your most nobille brodyr and predecessoure, shewyng after his symple
connyng, after the seyng of the masters of philosophic, as Renatus Vegesius
in his Boke of Batayles, also Julius Frontinus in his Boke of Knyghtly
Laboures, callid in Greke Stratagematon, a new auctoure callid The Tree of
Batayles."

Obviously this cannot apply to the purely historical documents
of which the collection itself consists. It is, however, strongly
suggestive of the " Boke of Noblesse," to which they are, as it
were, an appendix, and coupled with the evidence of the hand-
writing of the additions, it leaves little room for doubt that William
Worcester was its author. At the same time, it is by no means
unlikely that Stephen Scrope also had a hand in it. If indeed it
was wholly compiled in 1475, this is impossible, since he died in
I472. 1 Assuming, however, for the reason given above, that it
dates from 1451, or thereabouts, he was residing at the time with
Fastolf and was no doubt on familiar terms with Worcester. As
already remarked, a prominent feature of the work is the number
of extracts translated from the so-called "Arbre de Batailles " of
" Dame Cristyn." This, however, was not, as the editor supposed,
Honore Bonet's treatise of that name 2 assigned to a wrong author,
but Christine de Pisan's " Faits d'armes et de chevalerie " under a
wrong title. 3 Whether Worcester was capable of making transla-

1 Hist, of Castle Combe, p. 288.

3 Written about 1385 and dedicated to Charles VI. It was first printed at Lyons
about 1480. See the modern edition by E. Nys, L Arbre de Batailles^ Brussels, 1883

3 The colophon of Caxton's English version (above, p. xvi.) points to the source of
the misnomer : " Thus endeth this boke whiche Xpyne of Pyse made and drewe out of
the boke named Vegecius de re militari and out of tharbre of bataylles." Christine in
fact made use of Bonet's work.

xlvi The Epistle of Othea to Hector.

tions from it as early as 1451 is somewhat doubtful ; for he seems
to have only begun to learn French about August, I458, 1 little
more than a year before Fastolf s death. Scrope on the contrary
had before this translated two French works for the latter, one of
them being by the same Christine, and it is therefore in this part
of the " Boke of Noblesse," if at all, that he may possibly have
collaborated.

Unlike the last-named work, the anonymous English version
of Cicero's " De Senectute " which Caxton printed in 1481 has
already been attributed to William Worcester, 2 the ground of this
assumption being an entry made in his "Itinerarium," 3 that on loth
August, 1473, he presented to Bishop Waynflete at Esher a transla-
tion which he had made of this treatise, but got nothing in
return. Apart from this statement there is no more reason for
attributing Caxton's text to Worcester than to Scrope. The
language is better than might have been expected from either of
them, but as no MS. copy exists, we cannot tell to what extent it
was edited by Caxton. In the preface, as may be seen above
(p. xxx.), it is said that the translation was made from the French
of Laurence de Premierfait by Sir John Fastolf s " ordenaunce
and desyre." As there is no reason to doubt this, its date cannot
be later than 1459, so that, if Worcester was the translator, he kept
it at least thirteen years before he offered it to Waynflete. This
does not seem very likely, and his translation was therefore possibly
a different one altogether, completed shortly before the occasion
when the bishop so disappointed him by his cold acceptance of it.

1 " I may sey to you that William hath goon to scole to a Lumbard called Karoll
Giles, to lern and to be red in poetre or els in Frensh ; for he hath byn with the same
Caroll every dey ii. tymes or iii. and hath bought divers boks of hym," H. Wyndesore
to J. Paston, 27th Aug. 1458 (Paston Letters, i. p. 431).

2 Paston Letters, i. p. cxiv. ; Hist of Castle Combe, p. 194.

3 Ed. J. Nasmith, 1778, p. 368, " 1473, die 10 Aug. presentavi W. episcopo
Wyntoniensi apud Asher librum Tullii de Senectute per me translatum in anglicis,
sed nullum regardum recepi de episcopo."

Introduction. xlvii

The earlier version in that case was almost certainly by Scrope ;
but, where so much is left to conjecture, the most that can be said
is that the evidence upon which it has hitherto been assigned to
Worcester is not wholly conclusive.

G. F. W.

ERRATA.

P. 2, 1. 6, for yowr emost read yowre most.

P. n, 1. i, for streygth read strey[n]gth.

P. 19, 1. ili for yif is read yif it.

P. 56, Text Hi., 1. 3, transfer semicolon to end of line,

P. 72, note Z,for metu Dei read nutu Dei.

P. 104, Text xci., 1. 3, for thyre read thyne.

THE EPISTLE OF OTHEA TO HECTOR;

OR

THE BOKE OF KNYGHTHODE.

"XT OBLE 1 and worshipfull among the ordre of cheualrie,
renommeed ffor in as much as ye and suche othir noble
knyghtes and men of worchip haue exerciced and occupied by
long continuaunce of tyme the grete part of yowre dayes in dedys
of cheualrie and actis of armis, to the whic[h]e entent ye
resseyved the ordre of cheualrie, that is to sey, principaly to be
occupied in kepyng and defendyng the cristyn feythe, j?e rigth
of the chirch, the lond, the centre and the comin welefare of it
And now, seth it is soo that the naturel course off kynde, by revo-
lution and succefsyon of .lx. yeeres growyn vpon yowe at this tyme
of age and feblenesse, ys comen, abatyng youre bodly laboures,
takyng away yowre naturall streyngtht and power from all such
labouris as concernyth the exercysing off dedis of cheuallrie, be it
yowre noble courage and affeccion of such noble and worchipfull
actis and desirys departyth not from yow, yet rygth necefsarie
[it] now were to occupie the tyme of yowre agys and feblenes

1 For this dedication, addressed by the translator, Stephen Scrope, to his step-
father, Sir John Fastolf, see the Introduction.

A

2 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

of bodie in gostly cheuallrie off dedes of armes spiritual!, as in
contemplacion of morall wysdome and exercisyng gostly werkys
which that may enforce and cavse yow to be callid to the ordire
of knyghthode that schal perpetuelly endure and encrese in ioye
and worship endelese.

And therefor I, yowr emost humble sone Stevyn, whiche that
haue wele poundered and consideryd the many and grete entre-
prises of labouris and aventuris that ye haue embaundoned and
yovyn youre selph to by many yeeris contynued, as wele in Fraunce
[and] Normandie as in othir straunge regions, londes and con-
trees and God, which is souuerayne cheueten and knyght off all
cheualrie, hath euer preseruyd and defendid yow in all yowre seyde
laboures off cheualrye into this day, ffor the which ye be most
specyaly obliged and bownden to becom hys knyght in yovre
auncient age, namely for to make ffyghtyng ayen youre goostly
ennemyes, that allwey be redy to werre wyth youre sovle, the
which, and ye ouerecom hym, shall cawse yow to be in renomme
and worchyp in Paradis euerlastyng I, consideryng thees premisses
wyth othir, have (be the suffraunce off yowre noble and good
ffadyrhode and by yowre commaundement) take vpon me at this
tyme to translate ovte off Frenche tong, ffor more encrese of
vertu, and to reduce into owre modyr tong a Book off Knyghthode,
as wele off gostly and spirituell actis off armys for the sowle hele
as of wordly 1 dedys and policie gouernaunce, and which is auctorised
and grounded fryst vpon the .iiii. Cardinal Vertous, as Justice,
Prudence, Fors and Temperaunce, also exempled vpon the grete
conceytys and doctrine off fulle wyse pooetys and philosophurs, the
whiche teche and covnesell how a man schuld be a knyght for the
world prynspally, as in yeftis off grace vsyng, as the Cardinalle
Vertuus make mencion, ffryst in iustice kepyng, prvdently hym
self gouuernyng, hys streynght bodely and gostly vsyng, and
magnanimite conseruyng, and allso gouuernyng hymself as a knyght
in the seyde Cardinall Vertuouse kepyng. Which materis, con-
seytys and resons be auctorised and approued vpon the textys and

1 Sc. worldly.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 3

dictes off the holde 1 poetys and wyse men called Philosophurs.
And allso ye schal fynde here in this seyde Boke off Cheuallry
how and in whatte maner ye, and all othir off whatte astate,
condicion or degre he be off, may welle be called a knyght that
ouercomyth and conqveryth hys gostly ennemyes by the safegard
repuignand defence off hys sovle, wich among all othir victories
[and] dedys off worchip is most expedient and necefsarie, where as
dayly in grettest aventures a man puttyth hym inne and most wery
he is to be renommed in worchip and callid a knyght that dothe
exercise hys armes and dedys off knyghthode in gostly dedys, in
conqveryng his gostly ennemees and ouyrcomyng J?e peple and
aventure off the world.

And this seyde boke, at the instavnce and praer off a fulle
wyse gentylwoman of Frawnce called Dame Cristine, was compiled
and grounded by the famous doctours of the most excellent
in clerge the nobyl Vniuersyte off Paris, made to the ful noble
famous prynce and knyght off renovnne in his dayes, beyng called
Jon, Duke of Barry, thryd son to Kyng Jon of Frawnce, that he
throwe hys knyghtly labourys, as welle in dedys of armes temporell
as spirituell exercisyngby the space and tyme of .c. yeerys 2 lyvyng,
flowrid and rengnyd in grete worchip and renownne of cheualry.
And in thre thyngges generaly he exercisyd his knyghtly labowris.
Thereof oon was in victories, dedis of cheualrie and of armys,
in defendyng the seyde royalme of Frawnce from his ennemyes.
[The second was] in grete police vsyng, as of grete cowneseylles
and wysdomys, yevyng and executing the same for the conseruacyon
of iustice and transquillite and alsoo pease kepyng for all the
comon welleffare of that noble royaulme. The thredde was in
spirytuell and gostly dedys yovyn ontoo for the helthe and wellfare
of hys sovle. And in euery of these thre thynggys the seyde
prynce was holden ful cheualrouse and suremounted in his dayes
above all othir. Wych schewyth welle opynly to euery vnder- f 4.

1 Sc. old.

2 So the MS., but John, Duke of Berry, was born 3oth November, 1340, and died
1 5th June, 1416.

4 The Epistle of Othea to Hector;

stander in the seyde booke redyng that it was made acordyng to
hys seyde victorious dedis and actis of worchip exercysyng.

And the seyde booke ys diuidyd in thre partys gederid in a
summe of an .c. textys, drawen vpon the dictis and conceytys of the
seyd most famous poetys off olde tyme beyng, as Vyrgyl, Ouyde,
Omer and othir ; and also with an .c. commentys therevpon, callid
exposicyons or glosis vpon the seyde textys, of exemplys temporell
of policie gouernaunce and worldlye wysdoms and dedys, grovndyed
and also exempled by experiens and by auctorite of the auncient
philosophurs and clerkes, as Hermes, 1 Plato, Salomon, Aristotiles,
Socrates, Ptholome and suche othir. And vpon thies exemplis
and glosis is made and wretyn also an othyr .c. allegories and
moralizacions, applied and moralized to actis and dedys of werkyng
spirituell, for to doctrine enforme and to lerne euery man nov
lyvyng in this world how he schuld be a knyht exercisyng and
doyng the dedys of armys gostly, for euerlastyng victorie and
helthe of the sovle. Which allegories and moralizacions ben
grovnded and auctorised vpon the .iiii. holy doctoris of the chirche,
as Austyn, Jerom, Gregorie, Ambrose, alsoo vpon the Bible, the
Holy Ewaungelistes and Epistollys and othyr holy doctorus, as here
textis more opynly schalle appere hereafftyr. Fiat. Fiat. Amen.

1 The mythical Hermes Trismegistus. The citations from these and other less
well known philosophers were taken by Christine de Pisan from Guillaume de
Tignonville's " Les dis moraulx des Philosophies," which Scrope himself translated
into English (see Introduction). "Salomon" here represents the "Salon" or "Zalon,"
sc. Solon, of the original.

or The Boke of Knyghthode.

I.

, of prudence named godesse,
That setteth goode in worthy ness e,
To the, 1 Hector, noble prince myghty,
That in armes is evere worthye,
The sone of Mars, 2 the god of bateyle,
Tn dedys of armes which wyll not fayle,
And of myghty Minerve, the godes,
The whiche in armes is hy maystres,
Sucefsoure of the noble Troyens,
Heyre 3 of Troye and of the ceteseyns,
Salutacion afore sette plenere
I sende, wyth love feyned in no manere.

good lorde, how am I desyryng
Thi grete avayle, which I goo sekeyng,
And that aumented and preseruyd

It may be, and euer obseruede
Thy worchipe and worthines in old age,
That thow hast gretly hadde in thi fryst age.
Now for to schewe the my pistile playnely,

1 wyll the enorte and telle verily
Off thyngges that be ful necefsarie
To hye worthynesse and the contrarie,
To the opposite off worthinesse,

So that all goode hertys may theym dres*
For to gete be goode besy lernynge
The hors that in the eyre is flyynge
(It is named the Pegasus truly),

1 Sc, thee, which is spelt " the " throughout.

2 This parentage is explained further on, pp. 22, 24.
Sf. Heir; Feyre MS.; Hoir, H.

4 Affin que ton bon cuer sadrece, H. The translator no doubt read " tout bon
coeur."

6 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

That all louers loueth hyly. 1

And because of thi condvcion

I knowe be rygth inclynacion

Able to take knythly dedys on hand

More than is in othir .v. score thowsand

(For as a godes I haue knovynge,

Not by the assay but by kunnyng,

Of thynges the which be on to kome),

I owthe to thynkke on the, hole and some 2 ;

For I knowe thowe shake be euer duryng,

Worthiest of all the worthy lyvyng,

And schall afore all othir namyd be,

So that I may be belouyd of the.

Belovyd, why schuld not I be soo ?

I am that the which araveth all thoo

j

That loueth me and holdyth me dere ;

I rede theym lessons in chaiere,

Which maketh theym clyme heuen onto.

I pray the that thow be oon off tho

That will here inne beleve me wele. 3

Now sete it well thane in thy mynd and fele

The wordes that I wyll to the endyte,

And yf thowe here me owght telle, sey or wryte

Any thyng that for to come may be

As that I seye, vmbethynke the

As that they were past, so do thow oughte

Knowe ryght wele that they be in my thought

In the spyrite off profecie.

Vndirstonde wele nowe and greve not the,

For I shall no thyng sey but that schalle falle.

Thynke wele the comyng is not yet at all.

1 Qui de tous vaillans est ame, H. Pegasus is explained below (p. 15) as meaning
" a goode name, the which flyeth through the eyre."

2 Sc. thee, whole and sum ; me doit il de toy souuenir, H.

3 Et que tu me vueilles bien croire, H.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 7

Othea opon the Greke may be takyn for the wysedome off
man and woman 1 , and as ancient pepyll of hold tyme, not havynge
yit at that tyme lyght of fey the, wirchippyd many goddys, vndyr
the which lawe be passed the hyest lordes that hathe ben in the
world, as the reaume off Assire, of Perse, the Grekys, the Troyens,
Alexandre, the Romaynes and many other, anamly the grettest
philosophurs that 2 euer was so as yet at that tyme God hade not
oppenyd the 3ate off mercy, but we Crysten men and women now
at this tyme by the grace of God enlumynid wyth very feyth may
bryng ayene to morall mynde the oppinyons of ancient pepyll and
thereopon many feyre allegories may be made and as they hade f. 6.
a costom to worchipe all thynge the which above the comon cours
of thynges hade prerogatyue of some grace, many wyse ladyes in
there tyme were called godefses. And trwe it ys, aftyr the storie,
that in the tyme that grete 3 Troye fflorishede in his grete name
a ful wyse ladie callede Othea, consyderyng the ffre thought 4 of
Hector of Troye, the which that tyme ffloryshed in vertues, and that
it be a shewynge of fortunes to be in hym in tyme commynge,
sche sent hyrne many grete and notabil yiftys, and namly the fayre
stede that men callyd Galathee, the which had no felawe in all the
worlde. And becavse that all wordly grace[s] that a good man
oughte for to have were in Hector, morally we may sey that he
toke theyme by the cownsel of Othea, the which sent hyme this
pystylle.

By Othea we schall vndirstond by the vertu of prudence and of
wysedome, wherewyth he was arayed ; and because the Cardinal
Vertues ben necefsarie to good pollicie, we schall speke of them,
sewynge ich after othyr. And to J?e fryst we have youen a name
and takyn a maner of speche in some wyse poetykly, the bettyr to
folewe owre matere acordyng to the very storie, and to owre
purpoyse we schall take some auctoritees of ancient philosophres.
Thus we schall sey that by the seyde lady this present was yovyn

1 Sagesse de femme, H.

2 Thas, MS.

3 Greke, MS. ; Troye la grant, H.

4 La belle ieunece, H.

8 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

or sente to goode Hector, the which in lech wyse may be to all
other desirynge bounte and wysedome. And as the vertue of
prudence ought gretely to be recomendede, Aristotle, the prynce
off philosophurs, seyth, " Becavse that wysedome is fe most noble
off all othir thynges, it schulde be shevyd by the best resone and
the most behouely maner that myghte be."

Fore to bryng ayen to allegoric the purpos of owre matyr to
owre wordes, we schall applique Holy Scrypture to edificacion of
the soule, beyng in wrecheed worlde. As by the grete wysedome
and hye my3te of God all thynges that be resonabily made all
scholde streche to the ende of hyme, and becawse that owre
speryt, mad off God to hys lekenes, is made of thynges moste
noble aftyr the aungelles, it is behouely and necefsarie that it be
arayed wyth vertues, whereby it may be conveyed to the ende for
the which it was made. And becavse it was lettyd by the assautes
of the wacches 1 of the enemy of helle, the which is his dedely
enemye and aduersarie and oftyn distourbeth it to come to hys
beaute, 2 we may calle mankyndely lyfe very cheualrie, as the
Scripture seyth in many partes, and standyng 3 all erthyly thynges *
be desceyvable, 5 we schulde haue in contynuell mynde the tyme
for to come, which is wythowte ende. And because this is the
grete wysedome of perfite knygthhode and that all othir be of
no comparison to regarde of the victorius peple the which be
corounede in blys, we schal take a maner of speche of gostly
knyhthode, that [is] to be done princypally to the preysynge of
God and to the profyth of thoo [>at wylle delyte theyme to here
this present dittee.

Howe prudence and wysedome is modyr and conditoures of
all vertues, wythowte the which the tothire may not be well
gouernede, it is necessarie to gostly knyghthode to be arayed wyth
prudence, as Seynte Austyn seyth in the book of Singularite off

1 Par les agais et assaulx, H.

2 Beatitude, H.

3 Sc. considering that.

4 Kynges, MS. ; toutes choses terrestres, H.

5 Thesceyvable, MS., with " de " interlined.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 9

Clerkes, 1 that in what maner of place prudence be men may lyghtly
cesse and amende 2 all contrarius thynges, but there w[h]ere prudence
is despisyd all cont[r]arius thynges hath domynacyon. And to this
purpoose Salamon seyth in his Proverbis, " Si [intraverit sapientia
cor tuum et scientia animse tuse placuerit, consilium custodiet te et
prudentia servabit te."] 3

II.

A ND to the entent that know may be
^~ What thou schuldeste do, drawe vnto )?e
The vertues that may the most restore,
The bettir to come to that seyde afore
Of the worshipful chevalroures. 4
Allthoughe that it be aventerous,
Yet schall I sey whi that I sey thus.
A cosyn germayne 5 I haue, I wys.
Fullefyllyd sche is beaute wyth all ;
But of all thynges in specyall
Sche ys ful softe and temperede full wele ;

Of stroke of ire felyth sche no dele ; f. 8.

Sche thynkkyth no thynge but of rygth balance.
It is the godesse of Temperance.
I may not all only but by hyre face
Haue the name of that by myghty grace ;
For yef the weghte ne were sche to the made,

1 De Singularitate Clericorum, attributed to Cyprian and Origen as well as to
St. Augustine (Migne, Patrologia Latina, iv. col. 835). The passage runs (col. 866) :
" Ubicumque fuerit providentia, frustrantur universa contraria ; ubi autem providentia
negligitur, omnia contraria dominantur."

- Cesser et anientir, H.

3 Prov. ii. 10, ii. This and other quotations from the Vulgate are supplied
from the French text, being omitted by the translator, possibly with the intention of
filling them in from the Wycliffite English version.

4 De vaillance cheualereuse, H.

5 Seur germaine, H.

B

io The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

The all were not worthe a leke blade. 1
Therefor I wyll that with me sche love the.
Yf she wyll, lete hire note forgetyn be ;
For she is ryght a wele lerned godesse,
Hyr witte I love and prays myche in distrese.

Othea seyth that Temperance is here cosyn germayne, 2 the
which he schuld loue ; for the vertu of temperance may veryly be
seyde cosyn germayne and lykennd [to] prudence, for temperans
is schewer of prudence and of prudence folwyth temperance.
Therefor it is seide that he shulde hold hyr for his love ; and euery
good knygth shulde do the same, that desiryth due prayse of goode
peple. As the philosophre Demetricus 3 seyth, " Temperance
moderath vices and perfyteth vertues."

The good spiryte shuld haue the vertue of temperance, the
whiche [hath] the propirte to lemyte and to sede on syde super-
fluytes. 4 For Seynt Austyn seyth in the book of the condycions 5
. ... of concupyscence, the whiche be contrary to vs and
lettyth vs from Godes lawe, and more also to dispite fleschely
delytys and worldly praysynge. Seynt Petir spekyth to that
purpose in hys fyrst Pystyl, [" Obsecro vos tanquam advenas et
peregrinos abstinere vos a carnalibus desideriis, quae militant
adversus animam "]. 6

1 Sf. the leaf of a leek ; Car selle nen faisoit le pois, Tout ne te vauldroit pas vn
pois, H.

2 Serour, H.

3 Democritus, H.

4 De limiter les choses, H.

6 Ou liure des meurs de leglise, que loffice dattrempance est reffraindre et ap-
paisier les meurs de concupiscence, H. The repetition of " meurs " caused the
translator to omit some words. The reference is to the treatise " De moribus ecclesiae
catholicae," i. 19 (Migne, xxxii. 1326).

6 i Pet. ii. ii.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 1 1

III.

A ND wyth vs streygth be honesty ]?e yete.
^^ If that be gretter vertues thou sete,
Thou moste the turne toward Hercules
And behold wele his grete worthines,
In whome there was full myche bounte.
And to thi lenage all thoughe that he
Was contrarie and a grete name hym gate,
For all that haue thou neuer the more hate
To his vertue, streyngth and nobylnese,
Which opynned the }ates of worthinese.
Yet, though that thowe wylt folwe hys weye
And also hys worthines, I sey
It nedyth no thyng to the to make
Were ! with theyme of hell ne no stryfe take,
Ne for to were wyth the god Pluto
For ony fauour Proserpyng onto,
The godes dowter called Ceres,
Whome he rauysched on the se of Gres. 2
Ne onto the it is no mystyr 3
That thow be Serebrus,* the portar
Of helle, besye the hys cheynes to breke,
Ne of theyme of helle to take any wreke,
The which to vntrewe wynnors be ; 5
Nor for his felaws as dede he,
Pirotheus and Theseus, 6 in fere,
The which that nere hand desceyuyd were

1 Sc. war, cf. next line ; where, MS.

2 Sur la mer de Grece, H.

3 Maystyr, MS. ; mestier, H.

4 Sc. by Cerberus.

5 Qui trop sont desloyaulx gaignons, H.

6 See below, p. 41.

12 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

[To] auenture theyme in that valy soo,

W[h]ere many a sowle hath ful mych woo ;

For werre inougth in herthe ! J?ou schalt fynd felle,

Thougth thow goo not to sek yt in helle.

It is no thinge necefsarie to the

So to purchase or do armes, parde,

To go and fyghte with serpentes stynggyng,

With boores wylde or beerys rampyng. 3 ,

Wheythir thou ymagen this I wote noghte,

Or ell of wyldenes it commyth in thy thougth

Of worthines for to have a name.

In dystres, yf it be not for the same,

As ffor thy body the ffor to defende,

Yf that sych bestis wylde the offende,

Than diffence, if asailled thou be,

Withowte dowte it is worchip to the ;

Yf thow ouercome theym and the saue,

Bothe grete lavde and worchip thou shalt haue.

The vertu of strength is not only to vndyrstonde bodely
strength, but the stabilnes and stedefastenes that a goode knygth
schulde haue in all hys dedis by deliberaciou of good wytte and
strength to resyst ayens contrariousnes that may come onto hym,
weythir it be infortunes or tribulacions, where strengh and myghti
corage may be vaylable to the exaussyng of worthines. And alyche 3
Hercules for to gif exampel of strengh, to the entent that it may
be doble availe, that is to seye, in as myche as tocheth to his vertue
and anamly in dedes of knygthhode, wherin he was ryghte
excellent. And for the hynes of Hector, it is a behouely thynge
to gyfe hyme hy 4 example. Hercules was a knyghte of Grece of
meruelyous strengh and broute to ende many knyghtly worthines.

1 Sc. on earth.

3 Aux lyons ne aux ours rampans, H.

3 Sc. allege, take example from ; Et pour donner materiel exemple de force,
allegue Hercules, H.

* Sc. high ; by, MS ; hault exemple, H.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 13

A grete iorneyer he was in the worlde, and, for the grete and
meruelyous viagis and thinges of grete strenghe that he made and
dede, the poietes, the wyche spak couertly and in maner of fable,
seyde that he wente into helle to fygth wyth the prynces off helle
and that [he] favth l wyth serpentes and fiers bestis, by the wyche
is to vndirstonden the grete and stronge entreprises 2 * *

IV.

*******

Elles arte thou note worthy an helme to were,
Ne for to gouerne a reaume nowhere. 3

Prudence seith to the good knyghte that, yf he will be on of
the goode mennes rowe, he most haue the vertue of iustice, that is
to seye, ryghtwyse iustice. And Aristotle seith he that is a
rytewyse iusticer fryst shulde iustifie hym selph, ffor he that Justifies
not hym self is not worth! to iustifye anothir. This is to vndir-
stond that a man shulde correcte his owne defavtes, so fat thei be
holy fordone, and than a man so correctid may wele, and schulde,
be a corrector of othir men. And to speke morally, ve shall tell
a fable to this purpoise vndir the couertvre of poyetis. Minos, as
poyetis sey, is a iusticer off helle or a prouoste or a cheife
bayle, and afore hym is broughte alle the sowles descendyng into

1 Sc. fought.

2 A leaf is here missing from the MS.

8 The complete " texte " in H. runs :

Encor se veulx estre des noz,
Ressembler te couuient Minos,
Tout soit il iusticier et maistres
Denfer et de tous li estres.
Car se tu te veulx auancier,
Estre te couuient iusticier,
Autrement de porter heaume
Nes digne ne tenir royaume.

14 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

that vaylie ; and afftir that they haue disseruede of penance as
many degrees as he wille that thei be sette deipe, as ofte he
turnyth his tayle abwte hym. And becawse that he is thee iustice
ande the punyschment of God, lete vs take owre maner to speke
oure speche veryly to that purpose. O trouth there was a kyng in
Grece 1 called Mynos of mervelious fairnes, 2 and in hym was grete
rigoure of iustice ; and therefor the poietis seyde that aftir his deth
he was commytted to be iusticer of helle. And Aristotile seyth,
"Justice is a mesure that God hath sette in erthe for to limitte
thereby thynges ryghtwysly."

And even as God is hede of iustice and of all orderes, it is
necefsarye to the cheualerous sperit that wille come to the victorius
blysse for to have this vertue. And Seynt Bernard seith in a
sermone 3 that iustice is not ellis but to gifife euery man that his
is. " Yife than," seith he, " to .iii. maner of peple that the whiche
is theires, that is to say, to thi souereyne, to thi felawe and to thi
soget : to thi souereyne reuerence and obeissance of body ; to
thi falawe thou schulde gyffe counsel and helpe, counsel in
teschyng hym where he is ignorant and helpe hym in com-
fortynge his owyn power 4 ; to thi soget, thow schuldest gyf hym
chastissyng and kepyng hym frome euyl dedes, in chastisyng 5
hym forgiffeyng hym that he hath doo amysse." And thus
hereto seyth Salomon in his Proverbis, " Ex[cogitat iustus de
domo impii ut detrahat impios a malo . . . Gaudium est iusto
facere iusticiam "]. 6

1 En Crete, H.

2 Fierte, H.

3 De adventu Domini Sermo iii. (Migne, clxxxiii. 45), but the passage is not
literally translated.

4 Sa non puissance, H.

6 Chastisyng in chastisyng, MS. ; garde et discipline, garde en le gardant de mal
faire et discipline en le chastiant se il a mal fait, H.
6 Prov. xxi. 12, 15.

or The Boke of Knyghthode, 15

V.

A LSO remenbre the of Percyvale, 1
Whos name is knowen ouer alle
Throwghowte the worlde, both soft and hard,
The swyffte hors Pegasus afterward.
He roode hyme through the eyre flyyng,
And Andromeda in hys goyng
Fro the bellue 2 he hyr delyueryd
And wyth his streynght hir from hym revede,
As a ryght good errant myghtty knyghte
Brought hyr ageyne to hir kyne ful ryght.
Thys dede in yowre mynde loke that it holde,
For a good knyght shuld kepe that is bolde
Thys wey, if that he will haue exprese
Wyrchip, which is mych better than ryches.
Hys shynnynge shelde than loke thou opon,
The which haue euer ouercome many one.
Wythe his fauchon loke that thou arme the,
Both strong and stedefast than shalt thou be.

And because that it is acordyng thyng 3 for a good knyght to
haue wirchip and reuerence, we shalle make a fygure aftyr the
maner of poietis. Percevale was a ful worthi knyght and whan *
many reaumes, and the name off the grete lande of Perce come of
hyme. And poyetis seide that he roode the hors that flawe in the
eyre, the which was called Pegasus and that is to vnderstonde a
goode name, the which flyeth through the eyre. He bare in his
honde a fauchon or a glayve ; the whiche is seide for the grete
multytude of peple that were discomfyte by hym in maney batayles.
He delyueryd Andromeda from the bellue ; this was a kynggys

1 Apres te mire en Perseus, H., and so below; cj. Ovid, Met. iv., 610 sq.

2 Belue, H. ; monstre, Wyer.

3 Chose couuenable, H.

4 Sc. won ; il acquist, H.

1 6 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

doghter, the which he delyuered from a monstre of the see, the
which by the sentence of the godes shulde a 1 deuoured hire.
This is to vndirstonde that alle knyghtes shulde socovre women
that hade nede of there socoure. This Percivale and the hors
the which fleeth 2 may 3 be notede for the good name that a goode
knyghte shulde haue and gete by hys good desertes ; and there
shuld he ryde, that is to seye, that hys goode name shulde be borne
in all contrees. And Aristotile seyth that a good name of a man
maketh a name shynnyng to the worlde and agreable in presence of
princes.

The cheualerours sperit shulde desyre a goode name among
the felachipe of the seyntis of heuen gotten by his goode desertes.
The good hors Pegasus that [beareth] * hyme shall be his good
angel, the which shall make good reporte off hyme at the day of
dome. Andromeda that shal be delyuered, it is his sowle, the
which he delyueres fro the feend of hell by the ouercomyng off
synne. And that a man on the same maner wyse shuld wylne to
haue a good name in this worlde to the plesaunce of God and not
for vayne glorie, Seynt Austin seyth in the Booke of Correccion 5
that " ii. thyngges be necefsarie to beleve wele, 6 that is to sey, good
conscience and good name, conscience for feyth, 7 good name for
his neyburwe ; and [w]ho so trostyth in conscience and dyspiteth
a good name, he is cruel " ; for it is a synge of a nobyll corage to
loue the wele of a good name. And to this purpoise seyth the
wyse man, " Curam habe [de bono nomine, magis enim perma-
nebit tibi quam mille thesauri preciosi " ]. 8

1 Sc, should have ; deuourer la deuoit, H.

2 Sc. flyeth ; qui vole, H.

3 Many,MS.

4 Omitted in MS. ; le porte, H.

5 Sermo ccclv., de vita et moribus clericorum (Migne, xxxix. 1569).

6 A bien viure, H.

7 Pour soy, H. ; conscientia tibi, fama proximo tuo, S. Aug. The translator
evidently read " foy."

8 Eccl. xli. 15.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 17

VI.

A ND wyth thyne inclynacions

Off Jouis ' softe condiccions
Loke thou haue ; the better thou shalt be,
Whene that thow kepes theme ryghtfulle.

As it is seyde, poyetis, the vvhiche worchipped many godes,
they helde the planetis of heuen ffor speciall godes, and of the .vii.
planetes they made the .vii. dayes of the weke. They worchypped
and helde Jouis or Jubiter for there grettest god, because that he is
sette in the hyest spere of the planetis vndyr Saturne. The day off
Thurseday is named of Jouis. And anamely the philosophres yaf
and compared the vertues of the .vii. metallis to the .vii. planetis
and named the teremys of there sciences by the same planetis, as a
man may se in Geber 2 and Nicholas 3 and in othir auctoris of that
science. To Jouys is youyne copyr or bras. Jouis or Jubiter is a
planete of softe condicion, amiable and ful gladde and fygure * to
sanguyne comp[l]eccion. Therefor Othea seyth, that is to sey,
Prudence, that a good knyght shuld haue the condicion of Jubiter,
and the same shulde euery nobyll man haue, purse wyng knyghtt- f. 13.
hode. To this purpose seythe Pictogoras 5 that a kyng shuld be
gracyously conuersaunt wyth his peple and shew to them a glade
visage ; and on the same wyse it is to vnderstond off all wordly
peple tendyng to wirchippe.

1 Sc. the planet Jupiter ; Joyus, MS. ; de iouis les condicions, H.

2 Jabir ibn Aflah, an Arab astronomer of uncertain date, whose work on
Astronomy was published in Latin, in nine books, at Nuremberg in 1534. A isth
century MS. of it is in the British Museum, Harley MS. 625.

3 Perhaps Nicholas of Lynne, a Carmelite who lived in the latter part of the
1 4th century, and whose astronomical tables were used by Chaucer in his "Astrolabe."
Among other works he wrote tracts " de natura Zodiaci " and " de Planetarum domi-
bus " (Tanner, Bibliotheca, p. 346).

4 Et est figuree a la compleccion sanguine, H.
6 Sc. Pythagoras.

C

1 8 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

Now lete vs brynge to owre purpoyse in allegoric the
properteis of the .vii. planetis. Jouis, the which is a softe and a
mankyndly ' planete, of the whyche the good knyght schulde haue
condicions, may sygnifie to vs mercy and compassyon that the
good knyght hade, Jhesu Cryste that is, the which the sperit
schulde haue in hym selfe. For Seynte Gregorie seyth in the
pistylle of Pontian, 2 "I remembre not," seith he, "that euer I
herde or redde that he dyed of heuy dethe that hathe wylle to
fulfylle the dedes of mercy, ffor mercy hathe many prayeres and
it is inpossyble but that many prayeres most nedes be exauced."
To this purpose oure Lord seythe in the Gospell, " Beati [miseri-
cordes, quoniam ipsi misericordiam consequentur "]. 3

VII.

Venus in no wyse make thi godesse,
And for no thynge sette store by here promyfse.
To folowe here it is rauenous, 4
Both vnworchippefull and peryllous.

Venus is a planete of heuen, aftyr whome the Fryday is
named ; and the metall that we call tynne or pewter is yovyn
to the same. Venus yiffeth influence of loue and of ydylnes, and
she was a lady called soo, the which was qwene of Cippre. And
because that [she] excedyd all women in excellent beaute and
jolynesse, and was ryght amerous and not stedefast in o loue, and
becawse that she yevyth influence of lecheri, Othea seyth to the
good knyght that he make here not his godes. This is to vndir-
stond, that in sech lyfe he shuld not abaundon his body ne his

1 Doulce et humaine, H.

2 A Nepocian, H. The passage does not appear to be among the works of
St. Gregory, nor in St. Jerome's epistle to Nepotianus.

8 Matt. v. 7.

4 Traueilleux, H.

or The Bake of Knyghthode. 19

entent. Armes ' seyth that the vice of lecherye steynyth all
vertues.

Venus, of whom the good knyght shuld not make hys godes, it
is fat the good speryth in hym selphe shuld haue no vanyte. And
Cassidore seyth vpon the Sawtyr, "Vanite made avoyde degre 2 to
becum a fende and yafe dethe 3 to the fryste man and voyeddid
hyme frome the blyssidnefse that was grawntyd on to hyme."
Vanite is modyr off all evelles, welle off all vices, and the weyne * of
wykydnesse, the which puttyth a man oute of the grace of God and
setti[t]h hym in his hate. To this purpose Dauid seyth in his
Sauter, spekyng to God, " Odisti [observantes vanitates super-
vacue " ]. 5

VIII.

'Y/'F thou asemble the in jugement, f. 14.

Be leke to Saturne in avisement ;
Or that thou gyf thy sentence, veryly
Be ware that thou yif is not doutously.

Satyrday is named after Saturne, ande the metall lede is youen
therto, and it is a planete of slow condicion, hevy and wyse. And
there was a kyng in Grece hadde the same name, the [which] was
full wyse, off whom poyetis spake vnder conuerteure of fable, and
they seyde that his sone Jubiter kutte from hym his preuy men-
bres. The which is to vnderstond that he toke ffrom hym his myghte

1 Sc. Hermes Trismegistus.

2 An unintelligible corruption; fist lange deuenir deable, H. and other Fr. MSS.;
doth [make] the aungell to become a devyll, Wyer ; superbia est per quam angelus
cecidit, per quam Adam de naturae suae dignitate dejectus est, Cass. Exp. in Psalterium
(Migne, Ixx. 843).

Tethe, MS. ; la mort, H.

4 Sc. vein ; la veine, H.

5 Ps. xxx. 7.

2O The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

and dysheryted him and drwe l hym avay. And becawse that
Saturne is hevy and wyse, Othea seyth that a good knyght shuld
peyse a thynge grettely or 2 that he 3 shulde yefe his sentence,
weythir that it be in pris of armes or of ony othir dede. And euery
iuge may not 4 the same that hathe offices longgynge to iugement.
And to thys purpoise Hermes seith, " Thynkke wele on all thinges
that thou hast for to do and in especyall of iugement of othyr."

As the good knyghte scholde be slowe in the iugement of
othir, that is to sey, to peise wele the sentence or f>at he gyf it, on
the same wyse the goode spiryte shulde doo in that the which
longyth to hyme ; for to Gode longeth the iugement, the which
can discerne cawses ryghtwysly. And Seynt Grigorye seyth in
hys Moralles 5 that, whan owre frelnes cannot comprehende the
iugementes of God, we oughte not to discute them in bolde wordes,
but we ought to worchippe thyme wyth ferefull scilens and, how
mervelyous that euer we thowght theyme, we shulde holde them
iuste. And to this purpoose spekyth Dauid in the Sawter-booke,
" Timor [Domini sanctus, permanet in seculum seculi. Judicia
Domini vera iustificata in semet ipsa"]. 6

IX.

T ETE thi worde be clere and trwe in kynde.
^-^ Appollo shall gif it the in mynde,
For he by no mene may non ordure
Suffir no wyse vndere couerture.

Appollo or Phebus, that is the sone, to whom the Sonday is
yoven and allsoo the metall that is callyd golde. The sonne by

1 St. drove ; le desherita et chaca, H.

2 St. ere ; peser la chose ains quil donne, H.
8 Ye, MS.

4 St. note ; peuent notter tous sages, H.

3 Moralia, xxvii. 3 (Migne, Ixxvi. 401).
6 Ps. xviii. 10.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 21

hys clerenes shewyth thynges that be hidde ; and therefore trewth,
the whiche is clere and shewith secrete thynges, may be yofe to
hyme. The which vertue shulde be in the herte and in the mowthe
of euery good knyghte. And to this purpose seyth Hermes,
" Love Godde, trowthe euer, and gyffe good counsell."

Apollo, the whiche is to sey the sonne, by whom we notyfye
trowthe, we may take that man shulde haue in hys mouth the
trwthe of the very knyght Jhesu Cryst and flee all falsenes. As
Cafsiodyr seyth in the booke of Praysyng of Seynt Powle, 1 "The
condicion of falsenes ys swche that, where as it hath no
geyneseyyng, yit it falleth in hym selphe ; butte the condycion of
trowth is to the contrary, ffor it is so sete that the more
geyneseynges of aduersytes that it hath, the more it encresyth and
reysyth hym selphe. To this purpose seith Holy Scripture, " Super
[omnia vincit veritas"]. 2

X.

~\ 7"NTO Phebe resemble not. For why ?

He 8 is to chaungable and enemye
To stedefastnes and to courage strong,
Malencolius is and full of wronge.

Phebe is called the mone, off whom the Moneday hath his
name ; and to hyme is yoven the metall that we calle syluyr. The
mone resteth non oure in a ryghte poynte and yiffeth influens of
vnstefastenes and foly, and therefore it is seyde fat a goode knyght
shulde kepe hym from which vicys. And to this purpose Hermes
seith, " Vse wisedome and be stedefast."

Phebe the moone, that we not for vnstedefastnes, the whiche a

1 No such work appears under the name of Cassiodorus.
3 Esdras iii. 12.

3 The translator, not Christine de Pisan, is responsible for making Phcebe
masculine.

22 77/6 Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

goode knyght shulde not haue ; on the same wyse the good sperit.
As Seynt Ambrose seith in the pistil of Simpliciain, 1 that a foole is
schawnegeable as the moone, but a wyse man is euer stedefast in o
state, where he neythir brekyth for fere ner schawngyth for no
myght ; he reyseth hym notte in prosperite ner plangeth not in
heuynes. 2 There where wysedome is, there is vertue, strengh and
stedefastnes. The wise man is euer of oon corage ; it lessyth it notte,
ne encressyth not, for [he] schawngyth notte in no maner wyse for no
thyng ; he flotereth not in dyuers opynions, but abydyth perfythe in
Jhesu Cryst, gon growndid in charite and roted in feyth." And
to this purpose scythe Holy Scripture, " Homo sanctus [in
sapientia manet sicut sol, nam stultus sicut luna mutatur"]. 3

XL

T DOWTE notte in no wyse Mars thi fadyr.

Thow shalt folowe hyme in heuery matyr ;
For thy hy and nobil condycion
Draweth therto thyne inclynacion.

The Twysday is named after Mars ; and that metalle that we
callen iren is youen to hym. Mars is a planete that yifeth influence
of werris and batayles ; therefore euery knyght that loveth and
schewyth armes and dedes of knyghthodand hathe a grete name off
worthines may be callyd the sone of Mars. And therfor Othea
named Hector so, notwythstondyng he was sone to Knyng Pryant,
and seyde he wolde well folowe hys fadir in as moche as a goode
knyght ought to doo. And a wyse man seith that by the dedes of
a man men may knowe his inclynacions.

Mars the god of bateyle may wele be called the Sone of God, the
whiche bateilled victoriously in this worlde, by example ; [and the

1 Ep. ad Simplicianum (Migne, xvi. 1085).

2 Ne se plunge point, H. ; non tristibus mergitur, St. Ambr.

3 Eccl. xxvii. 12.

or The Boke of Knyghthode. 23

good sperit shulde] folow ' his Fadere Jhesu Cryst and fyght
ayens vicis. Seynte Ambrose seyth in the fryst booke off Offices
that how so will be Godes frend, he must be the fendes enemy, whoo
so will haue pees wyth Jhesu Cryst, he most haue werre withe vices.
And even as in veyne men maketh werre in the felde wyth foreyne
enemys there where the cete is full of homely spyes, on the same
wyse non may ouercome the eveles outewarde that wyll not were
strongly wyth the synnes of there sowlys ; ffor it is the most
gloryous victorie that may be, for a man to ouercome hyme selphe.
And tho this purpose seyth Seynt Poule the postyle, [" Non est
vobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem sed adversus
principes et potestates," etc.]. 2

XII.

/"AF thi faucon 3 be thou bolde and pleyne,

And of thi worde bothe clene and certeyne.
Mercurye schall teche the that, holde * and sounde,
The which of good spech knowyth wele the grounde.

The Wednysday is named after Mercurye, [the which] ys a
planete that yevyth influence off pontificall behavynge and of fayre
langage arayed wyth retorique. Therefor it is seide to the good
knyte that he shulde be arayed therewyth, for wirchipfull
behavynge and faire langage ys full behovely to all nobill pepyll
desyryng the hy pris of worchipe, so that they kepe them fro to
myche langage ; ffor Dyogeneys seyth that off all vertues the
more the bettir, saue of speche.

1 Folowynge, MS. There is some confusion here in the translation, cf. en ce
monde et que le bon esperit par son exemple [pot bien] ensuiuir son bon pere Ihesu
Crist et batailler centre les vices, H.

8 Ephes. vi. 12.

3 Soyes aourne de faconde, H. The translator seems to have misinterpreted
" faconde," eloquence, speech, as " falchion."

* Sf. old ; ce tapprendra Mercurius, H.

24 The Epistle of Othea to Hector ;

Be Mercuric, the whiche is called god of langage, we may
vndirstonde that the knyghte of Jhesu Cryste shulde be armed
wyth good prechynges and wordes of techynges, and all so thei
shulde loue and worchyppe the schewers thereof. And Seynte
Gregory seithe in his Omelyis J?at men shulde haue the prechores
of Holy Scripture in grete reuerence, for they be the mafseyngeres
that gone to [fore] l owre Lord God and owre Lorde folio wyth
them. Holy prechyng maketh the way, and than owre Lord
commeth into the dwellyng place of owre hert ; the wordes of
exortacion maketh the coorse, and so trwthe is reseyuyd intoo
owre vndirstondyng. And to this purpose owre Lorde seyth to
his aposteles, [" Qui vos audit me audit, et qui vos spernit me
spernit "]. a

XIII.

all maner sortes of armure

For to arme the wyth, bothe wele and sure,
Be thi moder inough sygned shall be, 3
Mynerve, the which is not bitter to the.

Mynerve was a lady of grete connyng and fonde the craft
to make armure ; for a