hondred and lxxiiii. *.:.:.*.]

The second edition ends thus:

[Blackletter: Thenne late every man of what condycion he be that redyth
or herith this litel book redde. take therby ensaumple to amend hym.
Explicit per Caxton.]

This copy came from the library of Mr. L.M. Petit.[4]

It will be noticed that Mr. Quaritch calls the _editio princeps_ of
Caxton's "Game and Play of the Chesse" the first book printed in
England. This was the general opinion of bibliographers before the
investigations of Mr. Blades. Dibdin, although he seems to have had some
doubt, pronounced in favour of that view. Yet it is clearly erroneous.
The only materials for judgment are those afforded by the colophon and
the prologue to the second edition, with the silent but eloquent
testimony of typography. Caxton ends the first edition with the
words:--"Fynysshid the last day of Marche the yer of our lord god a
thousand four hondred and LXXIIII." The word "fynysshid," as Mr. Blades
observes, "has doubtless the same signification here as in the epilogue
to the second book of Caxton's translation of the Histories of Troy,
'Begonne in Brugis, contynued in Gaunt and finysshed in Coleyn,' which
evidently refers to the translation only. The date, 1475-6, has been
affixed, because in the Low Countries at that time the year commenced on
Easter-day; this in 1474 fell on April 10th, thus giving, as the day of
the conclusion of the translation, 31 March 1475, the same year being
the earliest possible period of its appearance as a printed book." Then
there is Caxton's own racy account of the circumstances under which the
book first appeared:--

"And emong alle other good werkys It is a werke of ryght special
recomendacion to enforme and to late vnderstonde wysedom and vertue vnto
them that be not lernyd ne can not dyscerne wysedom fro folye Th[=e]ne
emonge whom there was an excellent doctour of dyuynyte in the royame of
fraunce of the ordre of thospytal of Saynt Johns of Jherusalem which
entended the same and hath made a book of the chesse moralysed whiche at
suche tyme as I was resident in brudgys in the counte of Flaundres cam
into my handes/ whiche whan I had redde and ouerseen/ me semed ful
necessarye for to be had in englisshe/ And in eschewyng of ydlenes And
to thende that s[=o]me which haue not seen it/ ne [=v]nderstonde frenssh
ne latyn J delybered in my self to translate it in to our maternal
tonge/ And whan I so had achyeued the sayd translacion/