They seem to have come late into England, for Caxton printed all his books on paper imported from the Low Countries; and it was not till Winkin de Worde succeeded him, in 1495, that paper was manufactured in England.

" Winkin de Worde, who had come in his youth with Caxton to England and continued with him in the superintendence of his office to the day of his death, succeeded to the business, and conducted it with great spirit for the next forty years.

but I pray you: what can ther by there of God, of his worde, of of honestye in such folishnes: I holde my tounge, that is, I speake nothing of their wordes, amorous deuises, or deuises of loue, wanton communications or speeches or markes only knowen to the Ladye, or Gentlewoman.

The passages which refer to rhetoric are given in full because they can otherwise be consulted only in the Caxton edition of 1481 or in the black letter copy printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1510.

Within her parlour fresshe and precyous Was set a quene, whose speche delycyous Her audytours gan to all Joye converte Eche worde of her myght ravysshe every herte.

And many clerke had lust her for to here Her speche to them was parfyte sustenance Eche worde of her depured was so clere And illumyned with so parfyte pleasaunce That heven it was to here her beauperlaunce Her termes gay as facunde soverayne Catephaton in no poynt myght dystane.

A trope is a movynge and changynge of a worde or sentence, from thyr owne significacion into another which may agree with it by a similitude."

[It was turned into verse] by William Walter, a retainer to Sir Henry Marney, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, [and printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1532.

Possibly in reference to a tract, so called, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and (after him) by others.

whyche I fynd, indeede, as I haue heard you often defende in worde, neither so harde nor so harshe, that it will easily and fairely yeelde it selfe to oure moother tongue.

But Y seie to you, that ye swere not for ony thing;... but be youre worde, yhe, yhe; nay, nay; and that that is more than these, is of yvel....

having nether a complete number of actors, nor any good aparell, nor any ornament of the stage, yet the Germans, not understanding a worde they sayde, both men and wemen, flocked wonderfully to see their gesture and action.

From De Worde's Ed., 1529.]

Speake it out, What, not a worde?

A myght in one worde playnlye have sayd "never" And saved much cyrcomstance.

What, not a worde?

" I humbly crave but only one worde of answer from your selfe.

" The fashionable school of courtly allegory, first introduced into England by the translation of the Romaunt of the Rose, reached its extremity in Stephen Hawes's Passetyme of Pleasure, printed by Caxton's successor, Wynkyn de Worde, in 1517.

Wynkyn de Worde printed in 1489 A Lytell Geste of Robin Hood, which is a sort of digest of earlier ballads on the subject.

Many manuscript copies of it were made and circulated, of which six or seven are known to be still in existence, and after the introduction of printing it passed through many editions in the presses of Pynson, Wynkyn de Worde, and Julian Notary.

Thys realme hath been il provided, for that it hath had suche corrupte judgementes in it, to prefer Robyn Hode to Godde's worde.

The 3. 4. and 5. when wee were againe before the towne, we had other letters, that by our comming they were better vsed, and hoped to bee set at a reasonable ransome, and that they promised that one of our men should come aborde, so he would returne againe into towne, that shoulde by worde of mouth certifie vs what hope they were in, and the cause thereof, that we might the better believe it.

At the same time, it is clear, from the language of the treatise, that its author, though anonymous, believed himself well known to his opponent: "I would have hereto put mi name, good reader, but I know wel that thou regardest not who writteth, but what is writen; thou estemest the worde of the verite, and not of the authour.

XXVII, the xix yere of the regne of our souverayne lord Kynge Henry the eyght. Imprynted at London in Flete Strete at the Sygne of the Sonne by Wynkyn de Worde".

Eclogues i-iv were printed by Pynson, and the fifth by Wynkyn de Worde early in the century; i-iii were twice reprinted about 1550.