The Chronicle of Brut and Higden's "Polychronicon" were the only available works of an historical character then existing in the English tongue, and Caxton not only printed them but himself continued the latter up to his own time.

A translation of Boethius, a version of the AEneid from the French, and a tract or two of Cicero, were the stray first-fruits of the classical press in England.
[Sidenote: Caxton's work] Busy as was Caxton's printing-press, he was even busier as a translator than as a printer.

More than four thousand of his printed pages are from works of his own rendering.

The need of these translations shows the popular drift of literature at the time; but, keen as the demand seems to have been, there is nothing mechanical in the temper with which Caxton prepared to meet it.

A natural, simple-hearted taste and enthusiasm, especially for the style and forms of language, breaks out in his curious prefaces.