2.9 3 Vo Is, Fcap . 8 vo, Clothe ^61, Is. The Paston Letters. I422-I 5O9. A NEW EDITION, containing upwards of 400 letters, etc,, hitherto unpublished. EDITED BY JAMES GAIRDNER, of the Public Record Office. 3 Vols. Fcap, Svo, Cloth extra , 15s. net,
- The Paston Letters are an important testimony to the progressive condition of Society, and
come in as a precious link in the chain of moral history of England, which they alone in this period supply. They stand, indeed, singly, as far as I know, in Europe ; for though it is highly probable that in the archives of Italian families, if not in France or Germany, a series of merely private letters equally ancient may be concealed ; I do not recollect that any have been pub- lished. ‘They are all written in the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., except a few that extend as far as Henry VII., by different members of a wealthy and respectable, but not noble, family ; and are, therefore, pictures of the life of the English gentry of that age.’ — Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe , i. 228, Ed. 1837. These Letters are the genuine correspondence of a family in Norfolk during the Wars of the Roses. As such, they are altogether unique in character ; yet the language is not so antiquated as to present any serious difficulty to the modern reader. The topics of the letters relate partly to the private affairs of the family, and partly to the stirring events of the time : and the correspondence includes State papers, love letters, bailiffs accounts, sentimental poems, jocular epistles, etc. Besides the public news of the day, such as the Loss of Normandy by the English; the indictment, and subsequent murder at sea of the Duke of Suffolk; and all the fluctuations of the great struggle of York and Lancaster ; we have the story of John Paston’s first introduction to his wife; incidental notices of severe domestic discipline, in which his sister frequently had her head broken ; letters from Dame Elizabeth Brews, a match-making Mamma, who reminds the youngest John Paston that Friday is ‘Saint Valentine’s Day,’ and invites him to come and visit her family from the Thursday evening till the Monday, etc., etc. Every Letter has been exhaustively annotated ; and a Chronological Table with most copious Indices, conclude the Work.
