Chapter 64
is not printed, but the following heading is inserted: "Of the neclygences of the masse and of the remedyes I passe over for it apperteyneth to prestes and not to laie men. C. Lxiiij."
In the Windsor copy this chapter is printed at the end of the book on three extra leaves, and ends as follows: "This chapitre to fore I durst not sette in the boke by cause it is not convenyent ne aparteynyng that every laye man sholde knowe it."
[Illustration:
PLATE XIX
THE BOKE OF ENEYDOS
(see page 77) ]
[Illustration:
PLATE XX
ARS MORIENDI
(see page 77) ]
In June, 1490, Caxton finished the translation of two books, _The Art and Craft to know well to die_ and the _Eneydos_. The first is not a translation of the complete book, but merely a small abridgment, running to thirteen printed leaves in folio. Blades mentions only three copies, and curiously enough makes no mention of the peculiarly fine one which belonged to Lord Spencer, though he made a careful examination of all the Caxtons at Althorp.
The _Eneydos_ is not, as might be expected from the name, a translation of Virgil's _Aeneid_, but is more in the nature of a romance founded upon it. Caxton's version was translated from "a lytyl booke in frenshe, named Eneydos," probably the work called _Le Livre des Eneydes_, printed at Lyons in 1483 by G. le Roy. The most interesting part of the work is the prologue, for in it Caxton sets out at length his views and opinions on the English language, its changes and dialects. He notes that it was rapidly altering. "And certaynly our langage now used varyeth ferre from that whiche was used and spoken when I was borne." While some were anxious to preserve the old style, others were equally wishful to introduce the new. "And thus bytwene playn rude and curious I stande abasshed, but in my judgemente the comyn termes that be dayli used ben lyghter to be understonde than the olde and auncyent englysshe."
In order to make the style as good as possible, Caxton obtained the assistance of John Skelton, lately created a "poeta laureatus" at Oxford, who revised the work for the press.
A second edition of the _Speculum Vitae Christi_ and the _Liber Festivalis_ belong probably to 1490. The latter book is not a reprint of the first edition, but another version, and is reprinted from the Oxford edition of 1486.
The last five books printed by Caxton are theological or liturgical. The _Ars Moriendi_, a unique little quarto of eight leaves, was discovered in a volume of early tracts in the Bodleian by Henry Bradshaw, and is described by Blades in the second edition of his book. He there states that no other edition in any language is known; but it was certainly reprinted by Wynkyn de Worde. The _Fifteen Oes_, a little quarto containing fifteen prayers, each commencing with O, is known from a unique copy in the British Museum. The book was no doubt intended as a supplement to the Sarum _Book of Hours_, but no edition agreeing with it typographically is known. It differs from all other of Caxton's books in having wood-cut borders round each page of text. It also contains a beautiful wood-cut of the Crucifixion, one of a series intended for a _Book of Hours_. No doubt Caxton possessed the set, and we find it later on in the hands of Wynkyn de Worde.
The _Servitium de Transfiguratione Jesu Christi_ and the _Commemoratio lamentationis Beatae Mariae Virginis_ are special issues of new services to be incorporated into the _Breviary_. The first contains 10 leaves, and is one of the very few books in which Caxton introduced printing in red. The only copy known, bound up with a unique tract printed by Pynson, and some foreign books, was formerly in the Congregational Library, London, but was purchased by the British Museum in 1862 for £200. The _Commemoratio_, a quarto of 34 leaves, is known only from the unique copy, wanting two leaves, presented to the University of Ghent by the learned librarian, Dr. Ferdinand Vander Haeghen. This little book was purchased for a trifle at a sale in Ghent and remained unrecognized for many years, until M. Campbell of The Hague identified it as a production of Caxton's press.
The book generally considered to have been the last printed by Caxton consists of three treatises printed with separate signatures. These are the _Orologium Sapientiae_, the _Twelve profits of Tribulation_, and the _Rule of St. Benet_.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXI
SERVITIUM DE TRANSFIGURATIONE JESU CHRISTI
(see page 78) ]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXII
THE CRUCIFIXION
(see page 78) ]
A writer in the British Museum speaking of these three books, says that they "are in most of the known copies bound together, and have been usually treated as a single volume under the title, probably dating from the eighteenth century, _A Book of Divers Ghostly Matters_. There is, however, no reason to suppose the connexion to be due to any other cause than similarity of subject and form, combined with nearly simultaneous publication."
No doubt this idea commends itself to the Museum authorities, since they possess only one of the three portions, ruthlessly abstracted by a thief some years ago from a perfect copy in a private library, but unfortunately it is quite incorrect. The compiler distinctly speaks of the books having been printed together, and on account of their treating different subjects, his wish that the compilation should be called the _Book of Divers Ghostly Matters_.
When complete the book consisted of 148 leaves in quarto. It contains, at the end of the second tract, a wood-cut which belongs to the series specially cut for the _Speculum Vitae Christi_, though it was not used in it.
The number of books actually printed by Caxton in England, counting separate editions, is ninety-six, and with the three printed at Bruges and the _Missal_ makes altogether one hundred genuine Caxtons. Blades describes ninety-nine books, but amongst these he includes two which were certainly printed at Bruges after Caxton had left, and three printed by Wynkyn de Worde after Caxton's death, so that the number of genuine books which he describes is ninety-four. The finest collection is now, as is right, in the British Museum, which by judicious purchases in recent years has quite outstripped any possible rival.
Five more books remain to be described, which although not printed by Caxton himself, were printed with his types, and have therefore often been ascribed by different writers to his press. These are the _Life of St. Katherine_, the _Chastising of God's Children_, the _Treatise of Love_, the _Book of Courtesy_, and the third edition of the _Golden Legend_.
The first of these books is a small folio of 96 leaves, and contains, besides the Life of St. Katherine of Siena, the Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The type used is a modification of Caxton's type No. 4*, recast on a slightly smaller body and with several new additions. Unlike Caxton's books which were made up in quires of eight leaves, this has been made up in quires of six. Another point which distinguishes it and the remaining books from Caxton's work is the introduction of several remarkable capital letters. These were obtained along with a fount of type and some wood-cuts from Godfried van Os, apparently about the year 1490, when he moved from Gouda to Copenhagen. The fount of type was not used until 1496, and then only for one book.
The _Chastising of God's Children_, a folio of 48 leaves, printed in Caxton's type No. 6, is notable as being the first book issued at the Westminster press with a genuine title-page. It is printed in three lines, and runs as follows: "The prouffytable boke for mannes soule, And right comfortable to the body, and specyally in adversitee and trybulacyon, whiche boke is called The Chastysing of goddes Chyldern."
Why so obvious an improvement as a title-page never commended itself to Caxton it is hard to say. It could not have been for want of examples, for, introduced in Germany as far back as the year 1468, they had at any rate during the last ten years of Caxton's life been in common use abroad. Even the London printer, William de Machlinia, had prefixed one to an edition of the _Treatise on the Pestilence_, by Canutus, Bishop of Aarhaus, which he printed about the year 1486. Of the _Chastising_, about twelve copies are known.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIII
THE LYF OF SAINT KATHERIN
(see page 80) ]
The _Treatise of Love_ is also a folio of 48 leaves, and agrees typographically with the _Chastising_; indeed, the two were often bound together, and are quoted by Dibdin as two parts of one book. The introduction tells us that it was translated in 1493 from French into English by a person "unperfect in such work," but no mention is made either of the original author or the translator. It was most probably printed also in 1493, for at the end of that year De Worde introduced his own type and ceased the use of Caxton's for the text of his books. At the end his first device is found, consisting of Caxton's initials and mark, much reduced in size, in black on a white ground, and apparently engraved on metal. Blades quotes four copies of this book, all of them perfect, but does not mention the copy in the University Library at Göttingen, and there are probably at least two other copies in private libraries in England.
Of the _Book of Courtesy_, which, like the earlier editions, was in quarto, nothing now remains but two leaves printed on one side in the Douce collection at the Bodleian. These two leaves, which have been used at some time to line a binding, are waste proof of the beginning and end of the second and last quire of the book, which probably consisted, like the earlier edition, of 14 leaves. On the last page, under the colophon, "Here endeth a lytyll treatyse called the booke of curtesye or lytyll John. Enprynted atte westmoster," is De Worde's device printed upside down, the reason no doubt for the rejection of the sheet.
The last book, the _Golden Legend_, is a small, thick folio of 436 leaves, with a number of illustrations which had been used in previous editions. The colophon is reprinted verbatim from the first edition, with the simple alteration of the date and regnal year. It ends, as do those of the preceding editions, "By me William Caxton," a circumstance which gives Blades the opportunity of remarking on the carelessness of Wynkyn de Worde. "This is only another instance," he writes, "of the utter disregard of accuracy by Wynken de Worde, who has here reprinted Caxton's colophon, with the date only altered, and thus caused what might have been a puzzling anomaly."
This is, I think, hardly fair criticism. The book is the largest which Caxton translated, and the words "By me William Caxton" may apply quite as much to the translation as to the printing, and it is no doubt that De Worde retained it as applying to the former. As Caxton was but recently dead, and well known to every one, he could not possibly have intended to signify that he was the printer.
One point in connexion with this book is curious. How was it that this third edition was printed when the stock of the earlier edition was not exhausted? Caxton, by his will, bequeathed a certain number to the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, to be sold for the benefit of the church, but these were not exhausted even by 1498, when a fourth edition was printed. In 1496 Caxton's son-in-law received twenty, and a number still remained in possession of his daughter.
A solution of this difficulty has occurred to me, which, though it may be considered as improbable, is by no means impossible. This is, that the "legends" mentioned in the various documents were not copies of the _Golden Legend_ at all, but were copies of the _Legenda_ of Salisbury use, which, as pointed out on page 71, were probably printed for Caxton. Being a book printed specially for the use of the clergy in church, such a bequest would be very suitable. In 1496 these "legends" were valued in the law-court at thirteen shillings and four pence apiece, but the twelve copies sold by the churchwardens of Westminster between 1496 and 1500 gradually decreased in price from six shillings and eight pence in the first year to five shillings in the last.
[Illustration:
PLATE XXIV
THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID
(see page 83) ]
[Illustration:
PLATE XXV
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.
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