INTRODUCTION

HE “MASTER OF GAME,” now for the first time in ae Be

reader, is the oldest as well as the most Se ae ate e chase i

English language that has come down to us from the Mi : oF a pen

Written between the years 1406 and 1413 by E war nash o
Edward, second Duke of York, our author’s personality will be ae 7)
ader of Shakespeare’s Richard II., for he is no other than the plotting Duke of Aumarle,
ne cae Earl of Rutland, while the student of history will recognise in him the gallant
fee Spree vanguard at Agincourt, where he was one of the great Se
purchased with their lives what was probably the most glorious eee ao » ont 0
English AIG Seu eCMCLIG us in his prologue, in which he dedicates is Fae ee am
to Henry, eldest son of his ee Henry IV. “ kyng of Jngelond and of Fraunce,” etc.,
Z i aster of Game at the latter’s court.

ie rae part of the Duke of York’s book is a careful translation oes Hine :
indisputably the most famous hunting-book of all times, z.e., Count Gaston de Foix’s ies
Chasse, or, as author and book are often called, Gaston Phoebus, which was commenced, as this
puissant prince and patron of Froissart informs us in his preface, on IVa atone, F772 E
the thirty-six chapters in the “ Master of Game” only five are original, but these, as wel
as the numerous interpolations made by the translator, are all of the first importance to the
student of venery, for they emphasise the changes—as yet but very trifling ones—that had
been introduced into Britain in the three hundred and two score years that had intervened
since the conquest when the French language and French hunting customs became established
on English soil. ‘To enable the reader to see at a glance which parts of the “ Master of
Game” are original, these are printed in italics in the old English text. The latter is
reproduced from the Cottonian MS. Vespasian B. XII., dating from about 1420, exactly as
it stands, with the addition of stops, and the correction of obvious clerical mistakes or
repetitions.

Side by side with the old text a modernised version is printed, for the quaint
English of Chaucer’s day, with its archaic contractions, puzzling orthography and long
obsolete technical terms is not always as easy to read as those who only wish to get a
general insight into the contents of the “Master of Game” might wish. It was a
difficult question to decide to what extent this text should be modernised. If translated
completely into twentieth-century English a great p
original would be lost. For this reason m
tion of sentences have been retained w
able to appreciate the “ feeling ”
a few cases where,

art of the charm and interest of the
any of the old terms of venery and the construc-
here possible, so that the general reader will be
of the old work without being unduly puzzled. In
through the omission of words, the sense was left undetermined, it has
been made clear after carefully consulting other English MSS. and tl
work.

It seemed very desirable to elucidate the textual

duction of good contemporary illuminations, but unfortunately English art had not at that
period reached the high state of perfection which French art had attained. Asa matter of
fact, only two of the English MSS. contain these pictorial aids, and they are, as the reader
can see by a glance at the reproductions from the best—an Oxford MS,—of very inferior
GUUS Le TC iIC ea Licuiinen cay icc Memon titer hand, are in several cases exquisitely

ye French parent

description of hunting by the repro-