an
constantly, '_es duerstet mich_' = it thirsts me, I thirst."]

The final _d_, _f_, _t_, of Hill's MS., often have a tag to them. As
they sometimes occur in places where I judge they must mean nothing, I
have neglected them all. Every final _ll_ has a line through it, which
may mean _e_. Nearly every final _n_ and _m_ has a curly tail or line
over it. This is printed _e_ or _[=n]_, though no doubt the tail and
line have often no value at all. The curls to the _r_s are printed _e_,
because _ther_ with the curly _r_, in l. 521, Hill, rimes to _where_ of
l. 519.

At the end of Caxton's final _d_ and _g_ is occasionally a crook-backed
line, something between the line of beauty and the ordinary knocker.
This no doubt represents the final _e_ of MSS., and is so printed, as Mr
Childs has not the knocker in the fount of type that he uses for the
Society's work. Caxton's _[=n]_ stands for _u_n in the _-aunce_,
_-aunte_, of words from the French. No stops or inverted commas have
been put to Caxton's text here, but the stanzas and lines have been
numbered, and side-notes added.

"The _Book of Curtesye_," says Mr Bradshaw, "is known from three early
editions. The first, without any imprint, but printed at Westminster by
Caxton ab. 1477-78,[1] the only known copy of which is here reproduced.
The second (with the colophon 'Here endeth a lytyll treatyse called the
booke of Curtesye or lytyll John. Emprynted atte Westmoster') is only
known from a printer's proof of two pages[2] preserved among the Douce
fragments in the Bodleian. It must have been printed by Wynkin de Worde
in Caxton's house ab. 1492. In the third edition it was reprinted at the
end of the _Stans puer ad Mensam_ by Wynkin de Worde ab. 1501-1510. The
Cambridge copy is the only one known to remain of this edition."

[Footnote 1: In his type No. 2, _Blades_, ii. 63.]

[Footnote 2: In Caxton's type No. 5, _Blades_, ii. 235 (not 253 as in
Index).]

I have no more to say: but, readers, remember this coming New Year to do
more than last for what Dr Stratmann calls "the dear Old English." Think
of Chaucer when his glad spring comes, and every day besides; forget
not Langland or any of our early men:

reporte
& revyue _th_e lawde of the_m_ th_a_t were
famovs i_n_[1] owr_e_ langage, these faders dere,
whos sowles i_n_ blis, god et_er_nall avaunce,
_th_at lysten so[2] owr_e_ langage to enhavnce!

(