Dedication, Paragraph 1
late receyved in Frenshe from her good grace. See the General Introduction, pp. 2, 6–8 and Introduction to this romance, pp. 134–36, 146, for discussion of Margaret’s patronage of Caxton.back to note sourcereduce. To translate (MED reducen (v.), sense 4a).back to note sourceauncyent hystoryes. Caxton may be referring to his own books such as The Recuyell of Troy, Enydos, Jason, Le Morte D’Arthur, and others of the Nine Worthies. His point, that it is as worthwhile for young gentlemen and ladies to read accounts of faithful lovers and military campaigns as it is for them to read devotional and didactic works, is a conventional justification for secular reading. The comment is relevant, for his patron was an early supporter of printing for the dissemination of devotional material.back to note sourcestedfaste and constaunt. These comments may have had particular resonance for Margaret, who had earlier negotiated a much delayed marriage of her son, Henry VII, to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. See the Introduction to this romance, p. 134.back to note sourceFryse. Frisia is a region on the North Sea, in what is now Holland and Germany. See Introduction to this romance, pp. 134–35, for the significance of this locale.back to note sourceDedication, Paragraph 2
rude and comyn Englyshe. Caxton employs a humility formula common in literary dedications. In his prologue to Charles the Grete, he asks pardon for the lack of gay terms and new eloquence in his translations (ed. Crotch, Prologues and Epilogues, p. 96). The prologues to The Recuyell of Troy, Jason, Feats of Arms and Chivalry, and The Book of the Knight of the Tower all contain similar phrases. See the General Introduction, pp. 13–14, for comments on Caxton’s style.back to note sourcearte of rethoryk. Rhetoric, along with grammar and logic, was part of the trivium that consituted the initial phase of formal education in the Middle Ages. The aureate prose fashionable in the fifteenth century made much use of rhetorical figures.back to note source