External Evidence:
In a study for the Bibliographical Society, Frank Isaac made a
specific, though still preliminary, classification of Wynkyn de Worde's type
for the purpose of dating that printer's undated books. Following E. G.
Duff's
earlier and more general study,
[12]
Isaac finds that Wynkyn brought to his new premises at the Sign of the Sun
in Flete Street "two textura, Duff 4 (95 mm.) and Duff 8 (95 mm.), and
one rotunda, Duff 9 (53 mm.). Of these, 4 lasted only a short time and is
not found in a dated book after 1502. The other two he used until his
death."
[13] Type 95 (Duff 8),
according to Isaac, is the one most frequently used by Wynkyn in the
sixteenth century. From time to time, however, some of the letters were
recut and the small differences found can be used as an approximate guide
for dating the undated books. Final s (s
1), for example,
is recut four
times between 1501 and 1536 (s
1, s
2,
s
3, s
4), beginning
as a rather blunt letter and ending with a curling top serif. Isaac gives
specimens of Wynkyn de Worde's dated work of different periods and
identifies the types used as follows:
[14]
The Ordynarye of Crysten men (1502 ed.)
Types 95: s1 v2
w2 (small) y1
62: a d1 h1 s v2
y2
The Ordynarye of Crysten Men (1506 ed.)
Types 95: s2 v3
w2 y2
53b: a1 d1
h1 v3 s1
Richard Rolle's Contemplacyons (1506)
h1 s2 w2 (large)
y2
Fisher, Fruytfull Saynges of Dauyd (1508)
Type 116: h (pointed) s (with serif) v3
w2
Ovid de Arte Amandi (1513)
Types 95: s2 v3
62: a1 h1 s1
w5 (1513) w
I have identified the type used in
Cocke Lorelles Bote (not
mentioned by Isaac) as follows:
Types 95: s2 v3
w2 (large) y2
53b: a1 d1
h1 v3
The type used for
Cocke Lorelles Bote resembles most
closely
Isaac's examples for 1506. Moreover, the capital C and B, the & sign,
and the hyphen used in this poem differ from those in works before 1505
and are identical with those in works of 1506, 1507, and 1508. I was
unable to discover any use of type 95:w
2 (large) in works
dated after
1508.
Further evidence for a date of 1506-8 for Cocke Lorelles
Bote is found in the colophon to the poem. E. G. Duff tells us that
"towards the end of 1508 when Pynson was appointed printer to the King,
De Worde seems to have received some sort of official appointment as
printer to the Countess
of Richmond, which he notified in all his colophons up to her death in
1509: calling himself printer to the King's mother, and after the death of
Henry VII, to the King's grandmother."
[15] The colophon of the Nicodemus
Gospel
(1509) is an example: "Enprynted at London in Flete strete at the sygne of
the sonne of Wynkyn de worde, printer vnto the moost excellent pryncess
my lady the Kynges moder. In the yere of oure lorde god MCCCCC. ix.
the xxiii daye of Marche."
[16] Such
notification is not in the colophon to
Cocke Lorelles Bote. If
Duff is correct and if, as I have argued, the poem was not written after
1509, then it must have been written and printed between 1506 and late
1508. But if these arguments for a terminal date of 1508 are not conclusive,
there is additional evidence that the poem was not written after 1510 as
some scholars have asserted.
In 1938 A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley discovered and edited a
valuable document called The Great Chronicle of London. In
that work in the entry for the year 1509 during the mayorality of Stephan
Genyn, the chronicler inserts several contemporary ballads dealing mostly
with the villainies of Empson, Dudley, and one John Baptist de Grimaldi.
In the longest of these ballads is this reference to Cocke Lorelles
Bote:
Avaunt captayn of knavys, ffor þu In thy best
coot
Was evyr Capemarchaunt, of Cok lorellys boot.[17]
The date of either the
Chronicle or the ballad may be used to
establish a terminal date for
Cocke Lorelles Bote. The
Chronicle is carefully dated by its editors between the years
1509 and Feb., 1513. Woodcuts, capital letters, and handwriting were
thoroughly studied, but the conclusive piece of evidence for the terminal
date is the fact that the chronicler refers to Pope Julian, who died in
February, 1513, as still living (intro. and p. 338). This makes it certain that
Cocke Lorelles Bote was written before February, 1513. But
there remains the possibility of an earlier date for the ballad itself. The
ballad refers to John Baptist as a "common Brocour of chevysaunce &
cursid usury" who put stones in ships to get more insurance and then caused
the ships to sink at sea in order to collect the insurance (p. 359).
Eventually, however, Baptist ran afoul of the law and was driven into
hiding. To recover his freedom he joined a band of outlaws and deliberately
had himself arrested for stealing a horse of "Rede colour." But since he was
really innocent of this crime and could prove it, he was let off and could
not be tried for earlier crimes as a usurer and broker
(pp. 357-358). This affair seems to be the same as that recorded in C. P.
R. Henry VII (ii 522, 564, 625) as follows:
"John Baptist di Grimaldi, described as merchant of Genoa, alias of
London, broker, had a protection 22 June, 1507, when at Calais with
Gilbert Talbot, lieutenant of that town and castle. On 10 Oct., 1507, he was
pardoned his outlawry in the Hustings of London in connection with
proceedings against him on suspicion of treason, he having surrendered."
A year and a half later he seems to have been again in prison, for he is
mentioned as excepted from a general pardon issued on April 30th, 1509.
But on 2 Feb, 1510, a warrant was issued for his pardon, and from that
time on he appears no more in the records.
[18] Now the ballad appears to refer
also to
this second arrest; several stanzas after the business of the "Rede" horse the
poet speaks of John Baptist as if he were again incarcerated and about to be
executed:
Avaunt smokysh herytyk, that hast saylyd soo fferr
To passe the stormy sees, and here to take an ende
By paynfull deth, yit hast þu cawse to thank
Allmigthty God, that he such space the lend
To take Repentaunce, ffor If on sees bank
Thow had departid, ffrom this lyfe sodeynly
Then body & sawle, had been In Jupardy (p. 364).
These lines seem to have been written while Grimaldi was still in prison;
no mention is made of the warrant for his pardon in Feb., 1510. If these
arrests in the ballad are the same as those referred to in the records of the
reign of Henry VII, it is almost certain that the ballad was written before
Feb., 1510. And since the ballad mentions "Cok lorellys boot," we can
assign Feb., 1510 as the latest likely date for the composition of that
poem.