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VI Introduction
These repeated reproductions made the ‘ Nar¬
renschiff’ well known in England, and in 1509
two English translations appeared. The first
of these, ‘The grete shyppe of fooles of this
worlde,’ was a prose version, made from the
‘rethoryke Frensshe’ of Drouyn by one Henry
Watson. His own prologue tells all that is
known of him. He was young, ‘ indygne and
symple of vnderstandynge,’ conscious of his
imperfect training: ‘y* tendernes of my yeres
hathe so affusked me that I haue not applyed
me vnto the lettres as I ought to haue done.’
The work was entrusted to him by his ‘ worshyp¬
full mayster Wynkyn de Worde, thrughe the
entysement & exhortacyon of the excellent
prynces Margarete, countesse of Rychemonde
and Derby’, the Lady Margaret whose pro¬
fessors still lecture at Oxford and Cambridge,
‘ grandame vnto our moost naturall souerayne
lorde kynge Henry y viii, whome Ihesu
preserue from all encombraunce. Watson’s
translation, though reprinted in 1517, is now
almost forgotten: one copy of his first edition
alone survives, in the Bibliothéque Nationale
at Paris.