William Caxton - Caxtons History of Jason: The History of Jason - Translated from the French of Raoul Le Fevre

Routledge Revivals

William Caxton

THE FIGHT BETWEEN JASON AND CORFUS AND THE PREPARATIONS OF JASON AND MEDEA FOR THE CONQUEST OF THE FLEECE, FROM THE FRENCH Fais de Jason, c. 1485.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
OF RAOUL LE FEVRE

BY

WILLIAM CAXTON.

c. 1477.

EDITED BY

JOHN MUNRO.

THE TEXT.

*

LONDON:

PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY,
BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRBNER & CO., LTD.,
6874 CARTER LANE, E.C.,
AND BY HUMPHREY MILFORD, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS,
AMEN CORNER, E.C.

__

M DCCCC XIII

Extra Series.

NO. CXI.

TO

A. B. K. COOK.

A. H. SMITH.

IN preparing this text for the press I had the advantage of William Morriss type-written copy of the Romance, a copy which, I believe, he had had prepared for his own press but never used, and which his executors very kindly handed over for the use of the Early English Text Society.

In the text itself, now reprinted for the first time, I have indulged in much less interference with the original than is usual in the case of editing a manuscript, feeling that scholars may most usefully be served by the reproduction as near as may be of Caxtons text in all possible details. The few departures made from the original seemed more or less imperative. The difficulty of following the dialogue in such talk as that between Jason and Corfus (p. 32) led me to adopt inverted commas. The initials of proper names are capitalized where Caxton has occasionally used a lower-case letter, and the few contractions whereby he sometimes effected his spacing have been expanded. In punctuation other than that mentioned above, the original has been sedulously followed, and though Caxton was not so liberal of points as the modern typographer, his own system, with which the text may easily be read, and his own occasional disregard of it, are probably more desirable here than our own lavishness.

I had hoped to have included in this volume the Introduction, the collation with the French original, the Notes, and the Glossary: but pressure of other affairs has forced me to postpone these for a second volume at some future time.

The Romance was probably the first folio printed by Caxton after he left Bruges and his colleague Colard Mansion for London and the Sign of the Red Pale in the Almonesrye at Westminster. The first book dated in England, the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres (Nov. 18, 1477), was printed in the same type as the Jason (Type No. 2). One page of the Dictes is reproduced in facsimile in Mr. Seymour de Riccis Census of Caxtons, Bibliographical Society, 1909.

Caxtons Prologue to this Romance, with its account of the Order of the Golden Fleece and of the marvels of Duke Philippes Castle, has a special interest of its own.

J. M.

[Caxtons Prologue.]

F Or as moche as late by the comaundement of the right hye & noble princesse my right redoubted lady / My lady Margarete by the grace of God Duchesse of Bourgoyne Brabant &c. I translated a boke out of Frensshe in to Englissh named Recuyel of the histories of Troye in whiche is comprehended how Troye was thries destroyed And also the labours & histories of SaturnusTytan / Iubyter Perseus and Hercules / & other moo therin Rehersed. but as to the historie of Iason / towchyng the conqueste of the Golden Flese / myn auctor hath not sett in his boke. but breuely and the cause is for asmoche as he hadde made before a boke of the hoole lyf of Iason. whyche he presented vnto the noble Prynce in his dayes Philippe Duc of Bourgoyne / And also the sayde boke shulde haue ben to grete. if he had sett the saide historie in his boke. for it conteyneth thre bokes beside thistorie of Iason. Thenne for as moche as this sayd boke is late newe made aparte of alle thistories of the sayd Iason & the historie of him whiche that Dares Frigius & Guido de Columpnys wrote in the begynnyng of their bokes/ touchyng the conqueste of the sayd Golden Flese. by occasion wherof grewe the cause of the seconde destruccion of the sayd cite of Troye. is not sett in the sayd boke of Recuyel of thistories of Troye / Therefor vnder the proteccion & suffraunce of the most hyghe puissant & christen kyng my most dradde naturel liege Lord Edward by the grace of God kyng of Englond and of Fraunce and lord of Irland / I entende to translate the sayd boke of thistories of Iason. folowyng myn auctor as nygh as I can or may not chaungyng the sentence. ne presumyng to adde ne mynusshe ony thing otherwyse than myne auctor hath made in Frensshe / And in somoche as the grettest fame & renomme standeth & resteth in the conquest of the Flese of Gold / where of is founded an ordre of knightes. wherof oure sayd souerayne lord is one & hath taken the profession therof / ho we well somme persones afferme and saye that the sayd ordre hath taken his orygynal of the Flese of Gedeon. where in I will not dispute. But well wote I that the noble Duc Philippe firste foundeur of this sayd ordre / dyd doo maken a chambre in the Castell of Hesdyn / where in was craftyly and curiously depeynted the conqueste of the Golden Flese by the sayd Iason/ in whiche chambre I haue ben and seen the sayde historie so depeynted. & in remembraunce of Medea & of her connyng & science. he had do make in the sayde chambreby sub til engyn that whan he wolde it shuld seme that it lightend & then thondre / snowe & rayne. And all within the sayde chambre as ofte tymes & whan it shuld please him. which was al made for his singuler pleasir. Then