MANUSCRIPT AND PRINTED HERBALS 47 



first printed by Caxton's famous apprentice, Wynken de Worde. 1 

 The translator in a naive little introductory poem says that, 

 just as he had looked as a child to God to help him in his games, 

 so now he prays Him to help him in this book. 



" C[?]Rosse was made all of red . 

 In the begynning of my boke . 

 That is called, god me sped . 

 In the fyrste lesson that j toke . 

 Thenne I learned a and b . 

 And other letters by her names . 

 But alway God spede me . 

 Thought me nedefull in all games . 

 Yf I played in felde, other medes . 

 Stylle other wyth noyse . 

 I prayed help in all my dedes . 

 Of him that deyed upon the croys . 

 Now dyuerse playes in his name . 

 I shall lette passe forth and far . 

 And aventure to play so long game . 

 Also I shall spare . 

 Wodes, medes and feldes . 

 Place that I have played inne . 

 And in his name that all thig weldes . 

 This game j shall begynne. . 

 And praye helpe conseyle and rede . 

 To me that he wolde sende . 

 And this game rule and lede . 

 And brynge it to a good ende. ." 



And in the preface Trevisa addresses his readers thus : 

 " Merveyle not, ye witty and eloquent reders, that I thyne of 

 wytte and voyde of cunning have translatid this boke from 

 latin to our vulgayre language as a thynge profitable to me and 

 peradventure to many other, whych understonde not latyn nor 

 have not the knowledge of the proprytees of thynges." 



The seventeenth book of De Proprietatibus Rerum is on herbs 

 and their uses, and it is full of allusions to the classical writers 

 on herbs Aristotle, Dioscorides and Galen but the descrip- 

 tions of the plants themselves are original and charming. 



1 Wynkyn de Worde's real name was Jan van Wynkyn (de Worde being 

 merely a place-name), and in the sacrist's rolls of Westminster Abbey, 1491- 

 1500, he figures as Johannes Wynkyn. 



