THE OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH FREEMASONS.
87
"
It is desirable to look closely iuto this legend of the
two stones," which is ordinarily to be
"
"
in the MSS. following No. 2.
Tlie
Polychronicon was one of the most popular
met with
and the two following
histories during the fourteenth
centuries.^
Both Latin and English
versions were widely circulated long prior to the first printed edition
by the father of English
in 1482 (" emprynted and sette in form by me 'William Caxton and a
typography
lytel
This work
embelyshed ").
therefore, that the
is
very scarce, few perfect copies being known.
mere reference
of the particulars were obtained
to the
"
by the writer
the one quoted from, seeing that there were
Tre visa's translation of 1387 reads
and
—
"
It will
of No.
2, is
be evident,
which some
Policronico," as the chief source from
no proof that Caxton's edition was
many manuscript versions of a far earlier date.
hem in tweie greet pileres i-made of marbyl
closede
of brend tyle.
In a piler of marbyl for water, and in a pyler of tyle for fuyre." ^ Another
translation says: "did write artes whom thei hade
geten by labore in ij pillers of diverse
that hit scholde not peresche from memory, oon ston was of marbole,
ston,
ageyne the floenge
"
^
of water, that other was of tyle ston,
The " Cooke MS.
ageyne the brennenge of f}Te."
"
ii man of ston of suche wtu y' y^
gives a still more elaborate account, and states that
one wolde newbreune and y' ston= is callyd marbyll, and y' oy ston^ y' well not synke in
wat, y' stone is namyd lacus"* {laUr, a brick).
The edition of Caxton ^ styles the two
stones
"
marbel and brent
so
tile,"
it
will be seen that,
agreement with any one of the translations.^
At
on
first
this point,
still
sight
No. 2
is
not in exact
another test might be
"
applied to settle the period of composition of this MS., viz., the reference to
ye derthe
of Korne and vytayl in ye contry," but as there were several famines from the thirteenth
to the fifteenth centuries,
it is not
possible to decide which is cited, c.^., one in 1315, "so
dreadful that the people devoured the flesh of horses,
dogs, cats, and vermin," and others in
1335 and 1353, as well as many later, especially one in the year 1438.' However, not to waste
time by further criticising the antiquity of this ancient document, we may dismiss the point by
"
From the language of these Charges,
adopting the estimate of Sir Francis Palgrave, who says
:
they are, in the existing texts, at least as old as the early part of the fifteenth century,"*
To
'
well-infoi-med readers of tlie fourteenth
work on general History (Introduction
or version, of the
^
'
"
and
"Polychronicon" was the standard
Babington considers that the first edition,
fifteenth centuries Higden's
to Babington's Higden, p. xlii.).
Mr
Polychronicon" appeared A.D. 1342.
Babington's Higden, vol. ii.,
Harleian MS., 2261, foL 84.
p. 233.
This translation
is
"different from that
made by John do
Trevisa,
and continued
to
the year 1401."
" The world was to be
Josephus also alludes to the legend
destroyed at one time by force of fire, and at another
the violence and quantity of water ; they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone they inscribed
time by
their discoveries on them both," etc. (Antiquities, 1841, Book I., chap. ii.).
Dr James Anderson selects this account in
*
:
;
the 1723 edition of the Constitutions, and acknowledges its source in that of 1733.
In its description of the second stone
(with which those of the later MSS. in this series are in general agreement). No. 2 differs, it wiU be seen, materially
from the other authorities cited in the
'
At the Caxton Exhibition,
text.
"
Polychronicon" exhibited, one of which, lent by
St John's College, Cambridge, has the autograph of " Tho. Baker, Col. Jo. Socius ejectus," and the suggestive state" So scarce and dear that it cost me what I am ashamed to own "
ment,
(Official Catalogue, p. 14).
" Therfor bookes that
^
Cronica
reads:
anno
book named "
W.
1877, there were four copies of the
Randulphi (the
made by
Proloconyson
").
1482,
Caxton's,
and studye he closed hem in two grete pilers made of marble and of brente tile. In a
of marbel for water, and in a pyler of tyle for fyre.
For it shold be saued by that maner to helpe of mankynde,
pyler
me seth that the piler of stone escaped the flode and yet is in Siria" (Liber Secundus, cap. v., line 65).
they had
'
greet trauayl
Haydn's Dates, 1873,
p. 258.
*
Edinburgh Keview, April 1839.