were in this new capacity, but it is evident they were not urgent, and left him plenty of time on his hands. He says, with much naïveté, "I had now no great charge or occupation, and wishing to eschew sloth and idleness-which is mother and nourisher of viceshaving good leisure, being at Cologne, I set about finishing the translation of the 'Histories of Troy(written by R. le Fevre). When, however, I remembered my simpleness and my imperfection in French and English, I fell into despair, and for two years after laboured no more in this work." The translation, however, was eventually resumed, by command of the duchess, who, learning from the author the history of the attempt and its renunciation, desired him "to continue and make an end of the residue," which command he "durst not disobey." He mentions, in his preface to the volume, that "his eyes were dimmed with over-much looking on the white that his courage paper, was not so ready to labour as it had been, and that age was creeping on him daily, and enfeebling all his body; and finally, that he had learnt and practised at great charge and dispense to ordain the said book in print, and not written with pen and ink, as other books be."

It thus appears that he had acquired the art of printing; but by what means he became acquainted with it, cannot be discovered. It is evident, from his types, that he learned it in the Low Countries; nor does he appear to have seen any of the superior productions of the Roman, Venetian, and Parisian presses, before he caused his own fount of letters to be cut.

No precise information has been obtained as to the time when Caxton returned to England. In 1477 he had undoubtedly quitted the Continent, and taken up his residence in the neighbourhood of Westminster Abbey, under the patronage of Thomas Milling, Bishop of Hereford and Abbot of Westminster, a man of superior abilities and learning for the times in which he lived. We learn, from a curious placard, a copy of which is still in existence, that Caxton printed in the Almonry.

The commonly-received opinion is that "The Game of Chess" was the first book he printed in England; it was dedicated to George, Duke of Clarence. Caxton enjoyed the royal patronage, and some of the nobility also encouraged him. Whether their favours were of a profitable and substantial nature, does not appear ; but (to their honour) it is mentioned that the mercers of London showed themselves great promoters of literature. He was himself indefatigable in cultivating and perfecting this new art, and although, as we have seen, already in the autumn of his days, he laboured with unwearied diligence, and printed, in all, sixty-four works; and, besides the labour necessarily attendant on the superintendence of his press,* he translated most

* "When the impression was finished, Caxton revised a single copy, and corrected the faults with red ink; the copy thus corrected was given to an assistant, to correct the whole impression; and as he was extremely exact, this operation occasioned him much troublesome and minute labour." His printing is inferior in many respects to the printing executed on the Continent during the same period. Mr. Dibdin, however, says that whenever good copies of his books are met with, his type has a bold

In the

of these books into English from the French. performance of this task he found no small trouble in his choice of words, for, in those days, the inhabitants of one county hardly understood those of another; "the common English that is spoken in one shyre varying from another, and certainly," he adds, "the language now used varieth far from that which was used and spoken when I was born." No wonder Caxton was a great deal puzzled and perplexed about the language he should employ in making his translations.

In his selection of works for the press, he was necessarily guided by the public taste, and limited by the difficulty of finding suitable materials, and by the probability of being repaid for his labour and expense. "The Father of Printing," says the historian Gibbon, "expressed a laudable desire to elucidate the history of his country, but, instead of translating the Latin chronicle of Ralph Higden, he could only venture on the English version by John de Trevisa. In the choice of his authors he was reduced to comply with the vicious taste of his readers; to gratify the nobles with treatises of heraldry, hawking, and the game of chess; and to amuse the popular credulity with romances of fabulous knights, and legends of more fabulous saints."

Yet, on the whole-as has been well remarked—

and rich effect, which renders their perusal less painful than that of many foreign productions, where the angular sharpness of the letters somewhat dazzles the eye. All his works were printed in what is called "black letter." Dibdin has given fac similes of his sets or founts of letters. His ink was inferior, but his paper fine and good, resembling thin vellum.

D

when we reflect on the troubled, wasted, and distracted state of the country at that period (he carried on his works during the reigns of Edward V. and Richard III.), we cannot but feel amazed that he did so much, and persisted, amid troubles and confusion, and at such disadvantage, in prosecuting his labours, so as to succeed in establishing the art of printing in his native land.

His last book, "The Lives of the Fathers,” he translated from the French, and his admirable assistant and successor, Wynkyn de Worde, says that he finished that work "at the last day of his life.”

He died in 1491, and was buried in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. The date of his birth is generally supposed to have been about 1412.

To him belong the high praise and merit of having, at his own charge and on his sole responsibility, undertaken so great an enterprise, in which, despite all difficulties, he succeeded—thus conferring on his fellowcountrymen an incalculable benefit.

All honour to the "Father of Printing!"

BENVENUTO CELLINI.

Born 1500-Died 1570.

"Lo! Welcome* born, I proudly raise my head,

Fair Florence' son-bright flower of Tuscany."

Or the numerous great and celebrated men who have worked in metal, one of the most renowned is Benvenuto Cellini. The distinguished eminence of this artist in the times of the "old masters," his intimacy with Michael Angelo, Titian, and all the great Italian sculptors and painters of the age, his intercourse with Francis I., Pope Clement VII., the illustrious Duke of Florence, as well as with so many others of the princes, statesmen, and commanders of that turbulent period in which he lived-all these combine to make his history a most remarkable and interesting one. And he has himself given the record of his life, in a very curious piece of autobiography, betokening the genius, eccentricity, and powerful imagination of the

man.

He was born in Florence, in 1500, of a family reduced in circumstances, whose ancestors had been territorial lords, trained to the profession of arms. His grandfather, Andrea Cellini, was an architect, and his father, who followed the same calling, was desirous that his son should be brought up to the profession of music; but the lad showed so decided a preference for

*In allusion to his name Benvenuto.