In his Middle English translation of a French retelling of the story of ‘Arachne’ found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, William Caxton capitalises on the theme of propriety in the relationships between the gods and immortals and amongst mortals of different social standings to primarily warn readers against overstepping their bounds, focusing particularly on the proper deference owed to one’s superior. Through the structure of his story and the multi-accentuality of the language he uses for Arachne in particular, Caxton portrays Arachne as the more reprehensible of the tale’s two female figures while portraying Athena as ultimately righteous and justified in her anger.
Caxton begins the story with Athena expressing anger at Arachne for her ‘connynge and pryde maistreth me and despreyseth’.1 While this introduction to Athena presents her as insecure because she feels disparaged by Arachne’s mastery over her, perhaps unduly so considering Arachne’s status as a young girl, the noun ‘pryde’, meaning “unreasonable self-esteem” leaves a lasting impression about Arachne’s nature that overshadows Athena’s jealousy.2 Caxton creates this effect by giving pre-eminence to Arachne’s faults over those of Athena through word order, beginning with the negative nouns describing Arachne. The problematic nature of Arachne’s conduct is especially highlighted by Caxton’s placing ‘connynge’ and ‘pryde’ alongside each other as the triple meaning of cunning, skill, and knowledge that ‘connynge’ carries imitates the guileful nature alerted to by the adjective cunning, a nature further problematised by the biblical status of pride as a sin. By privileging Athena’s perception of the situation rather than providing an objective introduction to either of the characters, Caxton implicitly positions the reader alongside Athena which simultaneously influences our hostility towards Arachne and enables exoneration for Athena’s subsequent behaviour — most significantly her murderous rage at the story’s climax.
The impression of Arachne as proud created at the beginning of the story is given more significance by Caxton’s use of repetition and double entendre which additionally presents Arachne as a threat to order. Caxton repeats the verb ‘werk’ and its variations to refer to Arachne’s artistry and while this primarily means “to labour” or “perform”, referencing her weaving, it also could mean “to exercise creative power, be a creator”, suggesting an inappropriate divinity to her craft that is exacerbated by her characterisation as being of ‘lowe kynred’ (l. 10).3 The disorder indicated by the nature of Arachne’s skill being presented as eclipsing the goddess’ is furthered by Caxton’s repetition of Arachne’s fame in the lines ‘She had grete renomee in alle the contree | of Lyde’ and ‘the nymphs of alle the contree cam and had grete delyte to see | what she wrought’ (ll. 12-14). By describing the delight of what are minor deities in gathering to see the art of a girl of low birth, Caxton demonstrates the subversive power of Arachne’s artistry, emphasised by the fact that it is all the nymphs of Lyde, with the repetition of ‘alle’ also indicating the all-consuming nature of Arachne’s skill. Similarly, Caxton describes Arachne as having ‘absteyned her fro smytyng’ (ll. 30-31) Athena out of anger. By ascribing ‘smyting’ to Arachne — a verb most immediately recognisable as the verb used in reference to God’s might and power in the Old Testament — Caxton again reinforces Arachne’s sense of grandeur by indicating the god status she has fashioned for herself in rivalling Athena. Through the attribution of divinity to Arachne, demonstrated by suggestive verb choices signalling the disorder resulting from her skill, and the repetition of certain words, Caxton depicts the threat to divine hegemony posed by Arachne’s impropriety.
Caxton also makes conspicuous allusions to the Christian God in his characterisation of Athena to depict her favourably, thus emphasising Arachne as the transgressor. Disguised as an old mortal woman, Athena calls Arachne to ‘Repente | the and requyre of the old lady pardon’ (ll. 25-26) so she can be forgiven. Due to its significance in the New Testament as an instruction given by Jesus to all, by choosing the verb “repent” Caxton presents Athena as merciful, underscored by the fact that she abandons her divinity, making herself a mortal to plead her case to Arachne which entirely echoes the Christian doctrine of Jesus as God incarnate for the redemption of mankind. By elaborating on Athena’s attempt as a mortal woman to rectify Arachne’s wrongdoing, Caxton portrays Athena as gracious through the fact that she first chooses to appeal to Arachne with reason rather than immediately punishing her. This provides the reader with a gradual descent to Athena’s final violent rage that allows us to sympathise with her, furthered by Caxton’s choice of representing this interaction through direct speech which recreates Athena’s earnestness, whose authority and righteousness is reinforced by the biblical overtones of her speech.
Where Arachne’s embodiment of overpowering creative ability is most evident is in Caxton’s description of the tapestry she weaves in contrast to his description of Athena’s tapestry. Instead of glorifying the gods as Athena’s tapestry does, Arachne weaponises her skill to demonstrate the gods’ immorality in exploiting their abilities for personal gain. Caxton highlights the heinousness of the gods in Arachne’s eyes through his repetition of Jupiter and Neptune’s rapes of female mortals which he illustrates through violent verbs such as ‘ravysshd’ and ‘deflowered’. While Athena uses the gods’ powers of metamorphosis to depict their supremacy over mortals, Arachne subverts this to depict their faults which Caxton demonstrates by using the motif of shape shifting to signal deception and nefariousness in Arachne’s tapestry, illustrated by nouns denoting falsity such as ‘guyse’, ‘lyknes’ and ‘semblance’. Caxton also creates the sense of ceaselessness through the repetition of ‘and how’ to depict Arachne’s addition of further details to her tapestry. This perpetuity creates an effect of youthful limitlessness that carries the suggestion of skill that has not yet been honed unlike Athena, whose brevity in her tapestry exhibits a self-control and wisdom associated with maturity. This is reinforced by Caxton’s self-censorship in saying ‘Other portraytures Yranes portrayed in her werke, but I sholde haue | ouermoch to doo yf I shold recyte alle’ (ll. 112-13) which reinforces this stiflingly endless quality of her work. Rather than purely highlighting her skill, the level of detail Caxton incorporates into his description of Arachne’s tapestry instead highlights her impudence and a possible indecency signalled by the nature of such acts being depicted so brazenly by so young a girl. Thus, although Arachne’s creation is proven to be grander than Athena’s, evidenced by her winning the competition, through the nature of his description of Arachne’s tapestry, Caxton does not represent her creative ability exclusively positively. Instead, he presents the reader with an artistic ability so uncurbed that it threatens to overwhelm, implicitly undermining her art.
Caxton also hints at Arachne’s lack of self-control through the stark difference in self-governance between the two characters. Athena’s transformation into an old woman is not only intentional, it is also carefully designed which Caxton demonstrates through his use of the active verb in ‘put her self in the forme of’ (l. 18). In contrast, Caxton describes Arachne as having ‘chaunged colour for angre and yre’ (l. 32) and ‘she wexed reed in her vysage and anon after was whyte | agayne’ (ll. 45-46), illustrating Arachne’s body’s subjection to her emotions. By highlighting Arachne’s failure to command her own body in the way Athena can, Caxton emphasises Arachne’s youthfulness and inexperience, demonstrating that while Arachne possesses artistic skill superior to the goddess, she lacks the supreme agency over all things that ultimately rests with the gods, which Athena’s metamorphosing Arachne into a spider is a manifestation of. This is emphasised by the fact that Athena’s ‘salvation’ of Arachne by turning her into a spider is a response to Arachne’s attempt to control her own fate through suicide, making Arachne’s failed suicide attempt a demonstration of both the futility of human sovereignty and the supremacy of the gods over all living beings.
Through his differing portrayals of Arachne and Athena’s nature and creativity, William Caxton’s translation of the moralised Arachne story reinforces the importance of honouring hierarchy. By depicting Arachne as impolite which he shows through her relationship to her mortal elders as well as the goddess Athena, and juxtaposing this with Athena’s self-abasement in becoming mortal for Arachne’s sake, Caxton presents Arachne as the offending party and highlights pride as the cause of mortals’ own destruction. Unlike the relative neutrality of the Ovid version, Caxton’s moral judgement of Arachne — made explicit by his emphasis on her self-concept as transgressive — transforms Arachne’s downfall into a lesson demonstrative of the precept that she who does not know her place will be her own undoing.
Bibliography
Caxton, William, The Book of Ovyde Named Methamorphose, ed. by Richard J. Moll (Toronto: PIMS and Bodleian Library, 2013), Book VI, ll. 1-213 (pp. 208-13)
Middle English Compendium, <https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary> [accessed 12 February 2022]
- William Caxton, The Book of Ovyde Named Methamorphose, ed. by Richard J. Moll (Toronto: PIMS and Bodleian Library, 2013) ll. 5-6 (subsequent references to this edition to be referred to by line number in text).
↩︎ - MED Online, s.v. ‘maistren (v.)’ 1a, and ‘pride (n.)’ (2) 1a. [accessed 12 February 2022].
↩︎ - MED Online, s.v. ‘werken (v.)’ 3.a, 5.a, 10.a. [accessed 12 February 2022].
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