THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID
(see page [83])]
Considering the number of Caxton's productions that are now known to us only from mere fragments, it is probable that many have disappeared altogether. Amongst these may be reckoned one of considerable importance, the Metamorphoses of Ovid.
In the introduction to the Golden Legend Caxton writes: "Whan I had parfourmed and accomplisshed dyvers werkys and hystoryes translated out of frensshe into englysshe at the requeste of certeyn lordes, ladyes and gentylmen, as thystorye of the recuyel of Troye, the book of the chesse, the hystorye of Jason, the hystorye of the myrrour of the world, the xv bookes of Metamorpheseos in whyche been conteyned the fables of ouyde, and the hystorye of godefroy of boloyn ... wyth other dyuers werkys and bookes, etc."
These, like all Caxton's translations, were done for the press, so there is every reason for believing that the Ovid also was printed. Fortunately we have further evidence, for in the Pepysian collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge, is a manuscript on paper bought by Pepys at an anonymous auction, which contains the last six books of the Metamorphoses, with the following colophon: "Translated and fynysshed by me William Caxton at Westmestre the xxij day of Apryll, the yere of our lord. M. iiijc iiijxx. And the xx yere of the Regne of kyng Edward the fourth."
Though the point can never be settled, it is not unlikely that this manuscript has preserved for us a genuine specimen of Caxton's own writing, not, of course, the ordinary current hand, but the book hand used in copying manuscripts. At that time there was still a prejudice amongst the nobles against printed books, so that the presentation copy to the patron generally took the form of a neatly written manuscript.
There is another interesting point to be noticed about this manuscript. It contains the autograph of Lord Lumley, who inherited the library formed by the Earls of Arundel. Now, William Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, was one of Caxton's patrons, so that it seems extremely probable that this manuscript was presented to him by Caxton himself.
Another translation of which no trace remains is mentioned in the prologue to the Four Sons of Aymon. The only known copy of Caxton's edition is imperfect, and wants the earlier part containing this prologue, but it occurs in full in the later edition printed by William Copland in 1554, from which the following quotation is taken: "Therefore late at the request and commandment of the right noble and virtuous Earl, John Earl of Oxford, my good singular and especial lord, I reduced and translated out of French into our maternal and English tongue the life of one of his predecessors named Robert Earl of Oxford tofore said with divers and many great miracles, which God showed for him, as well in his life as after his death, as it is showed all along in his said book." What this romance may have been is difficult to say, but it probably refers to the favourite of Richard the Second, the Duke of Ireland, who was killed in France while engaged in a boar-hunt.
Caxton, like all other printers at that time, numbered bookbinders amongst his workmen and issued his books ready bound. Every genuine binding from his workshop is of brown calf, ornamented with dies. His general method of covering the sides of his bindings was to make a large centre panel contained by a framework of dies. This panel was divided into lozenge-shaped compartments by diagonal lines running both ways from the frame, and in each of these compartments a die was stamped. The die most commonly found has a winged dragon or monster engraved upon it. The framework was often composed of repetitions of a triangular die pointing alternately right and left, also containing a dragon. This die is interesting, not only because the use of a triangular die was uncommon, but because it was an exact copy of one used by a London binder of the twelfth century.