EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY,
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUeBNER & CO., Ltd.

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD.
M DCCCC.

Extra Series, No. LXXIX.

OXFORD: HORACE HART, M.A., PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY.

INTRODUCTION.

The work now for the first time reprinted from Caxton's original edition
has been preserved in three copies. One of these is in the Library of
Ripon Cathedral, another in the Spencer Library, now at Manchester, and
the third at Bamborough Castle. A small fragment, consisting of pp.
17-18 and 27-28, is in the Bodleian Library. The text of the present
edition is taken from the Ripon copy. I have not had an opportunity of
seeing this myself; but a type-written transcript was supplied to me by
Mr. John Whitham, Chapter Clerk of Ripon Cathedral, and the proofs were
collated with the Ripon book by the Rev. Dr. Fowler, Vice-Principal of
Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham, who was kind enough to re-examine every
passage in which I suspected a possible inaccuracy. It is therefore
reasonable to hope that the present reprint will be found to be a
strictly faithful representation of the original edition.

The earlier bibliographers gave to the book the entirely inappropriate
title of 'Instructions for Travellers.' Mr. Blades is nearer the mark in
calling it 'A Vocabulary in French and English,' but, as it consists
chiefly of a collection of colloquial phrases and dialogues, the
designation adopted in the present edition appears to be preferable. As
in other printed works of the same period, there is no title-page in the
original edition, so that a modern editor is at liberty to give to the
book whatever name may most accurately describe its character. The name
of Caxton does not occur in the colophon, which merely states that the
work was printed at Westminster; but the authorship is sufficiently
certain from internal evidence. On the ground of the form of type
employed, Mr. Blades inferred that the book was printed about 1483.
However this may be, there are, as will be shown, decisive reasons for
believing that it was written at a much earlier period.

A fact which has hitherto escaped notice is that Caxton's book is
essentially an adaptation of a collection of phrases and dialogues in
French and Flemish, of which an edition was published by Michelant in
1875[1], from a MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale.

[Footnote 1: _Le Livre des Mestiers: Dialogues francais-flamands
composes au X