University of Virginia Library

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 (s1), for example, is recut four times between 1501 and 1536 (s1, s2, s3, s4), 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] I have identified the type used in Cocke Lorelles Bote (not mentioned by Isaac) as follows: 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:w2 (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:

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: 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.