She is untruthful, opportunist, frigid, and insensitive.
In particular, Mary contrasts Jean’s deceptiveness with
her own constancy. Since the insipid Jean cannot con-
ceive any persuasive arguments to win Bothwell on her
own, she resorts to “writtinges and paintit learning”
that were “borrowit from sum feate [fi tting] authour”
(ll. 5, 7)—she plagiarizes. Everything Jean says is sus-
pect: “all hyr payntit wordis, / Hyr teares, hyr plaintes
[are] full of dissimulation” (ll. 9–10). By contrast, Mary
offers “constancie without fi ction” (Sonnet 2, l. 12).
Though Mary rightly points out that lies cannot com-
municate true love, Bothwell’s failure to notice Jean’s
dissimulation reduces Mary’s power.
Sebastiaan VerweijCasket Letters: Sonnet 4 (“You believe her—
alas—I perceive it too well,” “Vous la croyez,
las! Trop je l’apperçoy”) MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
(before 1568) Another SONNET directly addressing
the beloved, and complaining about his wife, this
poem imagines many allegations made against the
speaker, and passionately argues against them.
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, fears her beloved thinks of
her as untrustworthy (“I see that you esteeme me light,”
l. 5); wavering in her affections (“And doost suspect
[my hart] without any appearing cause,” l. 7); perhaps
undedicated and capricious (“You suspect that vther
loue transporteth me / You thinke my wordes be but
wind,” ll. 10–11); and, fi nally and importantly, lacking
wisdom, insight, and intelligence (“You imagine me an
woman without jugement,” l. 13). Judgment is crucial
here, as it carries a wide range of connotations. Also,
the speaker previously accused her beloved’s (Both-
well’s) wife (Jean Gordon) of “euill jugement” (evil
judgment), meaning in this case the inability to know
her husband, and to serve him truthfully and well.
Scholars suggest a pun resides in line 9: “You do nat
knaw the loue I beare to you.” Mary may have known
she was pregnant by Bothwell at least by June 1567, so
this “loue” may be Bothwell’s child.
Mary ends her sonnet unambiguously: After listing
all possible misunderstandings she fi nds that “all that
encreaseth my burning” (l. 14). Bothwell believing
Jean’s false allegations does not set Mary back but,
rather, urges her on. Again, there is a double entendre:
“Encreaseth” may refer to the pregnancy alluded to
earlier, as pregnant women were often called “increas-
ing.” However, Mary also casts herself in the male role
of wooer, urging the beloved to notice her “burning,”
or sexual desire. Throughout the “Casket sonnets”
Mary adopts and reverses the conventional gender
roles as found in ITALIAN (PETRARCHAN) SONNETS. In this
light, critics have fruitfully explored the tensions
between Mary’s poetry and her role as queen of Scots.
Sebastiaan VerweijCASSANDRA See CYNTHIA, WITH CERTAIN SONNETS.
CAXTON, WILLIAM (ca. 1422–1491) printer
Very little is known about the early years of the man
who fi rst brought the printing press to England. Wil-
liam Caxton was born in Kent, and there is a 1438
record for his entry as an apprentice in the Mercer’s
Company of London. The nature of his apprenticeship
suggests that he probably came from a successful mer-
chant family. By the early 1450s, he was traveling reg-
ularly between England and the Low Countries
(modern Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands) on
business, and by the early 1460s he had settled down
as a merchant in Bruges. From roughly 1465 to 1470,
he was governor of the fraternity of English merchants
in Bruges.
Caxton may have already been dealing in manu-
scripts as part of his luxury trade during his time in
Bruges, but in 1471 he moved to Cologne and
expanded his business into the production and trade
of printed books. He also acquired a printing press and
learned the trade. By the end of the following year,
Caxton returned with his printing press to Bruges,
where he began publishing his own English transla-
tions of popular French books. Around the beginning
of 1474, he printed History of Troy, the fi rst book
printed in English.
In 1476, Caxton moved back to England, setting up
his press in the precincts of Westminster Abbey at the
sign of the Red Pale. In close proximity to the court
and government, he had a ready audience for his work.
Soon afterward, he printed GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s The106 CASKET LETTERS: SONNET 4