Device of Alexander Arbuthnot.Fig.29.—Device of Alexander Arbuthnot.
On the 7th March 1574-75, in partnership with Alexander Arbuthnot (who was not the same as the Alexander Arbuthnot who had been appointed to exercise a supervision of Bassandyne's books in 1568), Bassandyne laid proposals before the General Assembly for printing an edition of the Bible, the first ever printed in Scotland. The General Assembly gave him hearty support, and required every parish to provide itself with one of the new Bibles as soon as they were printed. On the other hand, the printers were to deliver a certain number of copies before the last of March 1576, and the cost of it was to be £5. The terms of this agreement were not carried out by theprinters. The New Testament only was completed and issued in 1576, with the name of Thomas Bassandyne as the printer. The whole Bible was not finished until the close of theyear 1579, and Bassandyne did not live to see its completion, his death taking place on the 18th October 1577.
Like most of his predecessors, Bassandyne was a bookseller; and on pp. 292-304 of their workAnnals of Scottish Printing, Messrs. Dickson and Edmond have printed the Inventory of the goods he possessed, including the whole of his stock of books, which is of the greatest interest and value. Unfortunately such inventories are not to be met with in the case of English printers.
Bassandyne used as his device a modification of the serpent and anchor mark of John Crespin of Geneva.
Arbuthnot was now left to carry on the business alone, and was made King's printer in 1579. But he was a slow, slovenly, and ignorant workman, and the General Assembly were so disgusted with the delivery of the Bible and the wretched appearance of his work, that, on the 13th February 1579-80, they decided to accept the offer of Thomas Vautrollier, a London printer, to establish a press in Edinburgh.
Arbuthnot died on September 1st, 1585. His device was a copy of that of Richard Jugge of London, and is believed to have been the work of a Flemish artist, Assuerus vol Londersel.
Another printer in Edinburgh between 1574-80 was John Ross. He worked chiefly for HenryCharteris, for whom he printed theCatechismein 1574, and a metrical version of the Psalms in 1578. For the same bookseller he also printed a poem,The seuin Seages, Translatit out of prois in Scottis meter be Johne Rolland in Dalkeith, a quarto, now so rare that only one copy is now known, that in the Britwell Library.
In 1579 Ross printedAd virulentum Archbaldi Hamiltonii Apostatæ dialogum, de confusione Calvinianæ Sectæ apud Scotos, impie conscriptum, orthodoxa responsio, Thoma Smetonio Scoto anctore, a quarto, printed in Roman letter, and followed it up with two editions of Buchanan'sDe Jure Regni apud Scotos dialogus.
Ross used a device showing Truth with an open book in her right hand, a lighted candle in her left, surrounded with the motto 'Vincet tandem veritas.' This device was afterwards used by both Charteris and Waldegrave. Ross died in 1580, when his stock passed into the hands of Henry Charteris, who began printing in the following year. As we have seen, he employed Scot, Lekpreuik, and Ross to print for him. Up to 1581 he confined himself to bookselling. His printing was confined to various editions of Sir David Lindsay'sWorksand theological tracts. He used two devices, that of Ross, and another emblematical of Justice and Religion, with his initials. He died on the 9th August 1599.
In 1580, at the express invitation of the General Assembly, Thomas Vautrollier visited Edinburgh, and set up as a bookseller, no doubt with the view of seeing what scope there was likely to be for a printer with a good stock of type. The Treasurer's accounts for this period show that he received royal patronage.
On his second visit, a year or two later, he went armed with a letter to George Buchanan from Daniel Rodgers, and set up a press in Edinburgh. But in spite of the support of the Assembly and the patronage that an introduction to Buchanan must have brought him, he evidently soon found there was not enough business in Edinburgh to support a printer, for he remained there little more than a year, when he again returned to London. During his short career as a printer in Edinburgh he printed at least eight books, of which the most important were Henry Balnave'sConfession of Faith, 1584, 8vo, and King James'sEssayes of a Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie, 4to.
Scotland's next important printer was Robert Waldegrave, who, after his adventures as a secret printer in England, set up a press in Edinburgh in 1590, and continued printing there till the close of the century.
One of his first works was a quarto in Roman type entitledThe Confession of Faith, Subscribed by the Kingis Maiestie and his householde: Togitherwith the Copie of the Bande, maid touching the maintenaunce of the true Religion. Among his other work, which was chiefly theological, may be mentioned King James'sDemonologie, 1597, 4to, and the first edition of theBasilikon Doron, in quarto, of which it is said only seven copies were printed.
Contemporary with him was a Robert Smyth, who married the widow of Thomas Bassandyne, and who in 1599 received license to print the following books:—'The double and single catechism, the plane Donet, the haill four pairtes of grammar according to Sebastian, the Dialauges of Corderius, the celect and familiar Epistles of Cicero, the buik callit Sevin Seages, the Ballat buik, the Secund rudimentis of Dunbar, the Psalmes of Buchanan and Psalme buik.'
The only known copy of Smyth's edition of Holland'sSeven Sagesis that in the British Museum.
The last of the Scottish printers of the sixteenth century was Robert Charteris, the son and successor of Henry Charteris, but he did not succeed to the business until 1599, and his work lies chiefly in the succeeding century.
It may safely be said that the earliest press in Ireland of which there is any authentic notice was that of Humphrey Powell, of which there is the following note in theAct Books of the PrivyCouncil(New Series, vol. iii. p. 84), under date 18th July 1550:—
'A warrant to ——, to deliver xxliunto Powell the printer, given him by the Kinges Majestie towarde his setting up in Ireland.'
'A warrant to ——, to deliver xxliunto Powell the printer, given him by the Kinges Majestie towarde his setting up in Ireland.'
Nothing is known of Humphrey Powell's work in England beyond several small theological works issued between 1548 and 1549 from a shop in Holborn above the Conduit.
On his arrival in Ireland he set up his press in Dublin, and printed there the Prayer Book of EdwardVI.with the colophon:—
'Imprinted by Humphrey Powell, printer to the Kynges Maieste, in his Highnesse realme of Ireland dwellynge in the citie of Dublin in the great toure by the Crane Cum Privelegio ad imprimendum solum. Anno Domini, M.D.L.I.'
'Imprinted by Humphrey Powell, printer to the Kynges Maieste, in his Highnesse realme of Ireland dwellynge in the citie of Dublin in the great toure by the Crane Cum Privelegio ad imprimendum solum. Anno Domini, M.D.L.I.'
Timperley, in hisEncyclopædia(p. 314), says that Powell continued printing in Dublin for fifteen years, and removed to the southern side of the river to St. Nicholas Street.
In 1571 the first fount of Irish type was presented by Queen Elizabeth to John O'Kearney, treasurer of St. Patrick's, to print theCatechismwhich appeared in that year from the press of John Franckton. (Reed,Old English Letter Foundries, pp. 75, 186-7.) It was not a Pure Irish character, but a hybrid fount consisting for the most part of Roman and Italic letters, with the seven distinctly Irish sorts added. Acopy of theCatechismis exhibited in the King's Library, British Museum, and in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is a copy of a broadsidePoem on the last Judgement, sent over to the Archbishop of Canterbury as a specimen.
This type was afterwards used to print William O'Donnell's, or Daniel's, Irish Testament in 1602.
O
ne of the first acts of King James on his accession to the English throne was to strengthen the hands of the already powerful Company of Stationers. Hitherto all Primers and Psalters had been the exclusive privilege of the successors of Day and Seres, while Almanacs and Prognostications, another large and profitable source of revenue, had been the property of James Roberts and Richard Watkins. But now, by the royal authority, these two valuable patents were turned over to the Stationers to form part of their English stock. At the same time, the privileges of Robert Barker, son and successor to Christopher Barker, and king's printer by reversion, were increased by grants for printing all statutes, hitherto the monopoly of other printers. On the other hand, Robert Barker did not retain the sole possession of the royal business as men like Berthelet andPynson had been wont to do, but had joined with him in the patent John Norton, who had a special grant for printing all books in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and John Bill, who probably obtained his share by purchase. These three men were thus the chief printers during the early part of this reign.
Robert Barker had been made free of the Stationers' Company in 1589, when he joined his father's assigns, George Bishop and Ralph Newbery, in the management of the business. He was admitted to the livery of the Company in 1592, and upon his father's death succeeded to the office of King's printer by reversion. In 1601-2 he was warden of the Company, and filled the office of Master in 1605. Some time before 1618 he sold his moiety of the business to Bonham Norton and John Bill, and this arrangement was confirmed by Royal Charter in 1627.
Upon the death of Bonham Norton, Barker's name again appears in the imprint of the firm, and he continued printing until about 1645. It is said by Ames (vol. ii. p. 1091), and has been repeated by all writers since his day, that Robert Barker was committed to the King's Bench Prison in 1635, and that he remained a prisoner there until his death in 1645. No confirmation of this can be found in the State Papers; indeed the fact that he accompanied CharlesI.to Newcastle in 1636, and was printing in other parts ofEngland until 1640, proves that he could not have been in prison the whole of the time from 1635 to 1645.
Robert Barker's work was almost entirely of an official character, the printing of the Scriptures, Book of Common Prayer, Statutes and Proclamations.
His work was very unequal, and his type, mostly of black letter, was not of the best.
His most important undertaking was the so-called 'authorised version' of the Bible in 1611. As a matter of fact it never was authorised in any official sense. The undertaking was proposed at a conference of divines, held at Hampton Court in 1604. The King manifested great interest in the scheme, but did not put his hand in his pocket towards the expenses, and the divines who undertook the translation obtained little except fame for their labours, while the whole cost of printing was borne by Robert Barker. Like all previous editions of the Scriptures in folio, this Bible of 1611 was printed in great primer black letter. It was preceded by an elaborately engraved title-page, the work of C. Boel of Richmond, and had also an engraved map of Canaan, partly the work of John Speed.
The type and ornaments were the same as had been used to print the first edition of the 'Bishops' Bible,' the initial letter to the Psalms containing the arms of Whittingham and Cecil.
From the Bible of 1611.Fig.30.—From the Bible of 1611.
Barker also possessed the handsome pictorial initial letters which had been used by John Day, and many of the ornaments and initials previously in the office of Henry Bynneman.
John Norton was the son of Richard Norton, a yeoman of Billingsley, county Shropshire; he was nephew of William Norton, and cousin of Bonham Norton, and was thus connected by marriage with the sixteenth century bookseller, William Bonham. He was three times Master of the Stationers' Company, in 1607, 1610, and 1612. On his death, in 1612, he left £1000 to the Company of Stationers, not as is generally stated as a legacy of his own, but rather as trustee of the bequest of his uncle, William Norton. The bulk of his property he left to his cousin, Bonham Norton (P. C. C. 5 Capell).
His press will always be remembered for the magnificent edition of theWorks of St. Chrysostom, in eight folio volumes, printed at Eton in 1610, at the charge of Sir Henry Savile, the editor. The late T. B. Reed, in hisHistory of the Old English Letter Foundries(p. 140), speaks of this edition as 'one of the most splendid examples of Greek printing in this country,' and further describes the types with which it was printed as 'a great primer body, very elegantly and regularly cast, with the usual numerous ligatures and abbreviations which characterised the Greek typography of that period' (p. 141).
Dedication of Savile's St. Chrysostom. Eton, 1610.Fig.31.—Dedication of Savile'sSt. Chrysostom. Eton, 1610.
The work is said to have cost its promoter £8000.
The title-page to the first volume was handsomely engraved, and a highly ornamental series of initial letters were used in it.
Another Greek work that Norton completed at Eton in the same year was theSancti Gregorii Nazianzeni in Julianum Invectivae duae, in quarto.
In addition to his patent for printing Greek and Latin books, Norton also acquired from Francis Rea his patent for printing grammars, and by his will he directed a sum of money to be paid out of the profits of this patent to his wife Joyce.
John Bill was the son of Walter Bill, husbandman, of Wenlock, county Salop, and on the 25th July 1592 he apprenticed himself to John Norton. In 1601 he was admitted a freeman of the Company.
He appears to have been a man of shrewd business ability and some scholarship, as we find him writing in Latin to Dr. Wideman of Augsburg on the subject of books. He was also looked upon by the Government as an authority on matters concerning his business. Under his partnership with Bonham Norton, he secured a large share in the Royal business. John Norton bequeathed him a legacy of £10, and a similar sum to his wife.
John Bill died in 1632, and on the 26th August of that year the whole of his stock was assigned to Mistress Joyce Norton, the widow of John Norton, and Master Whittaker. The list fills upwards of two pages of Arber'sTranscripts(vol. iv. pp. 283-285), and includes the following notable works:—
Beza'sTestamentin Latin, Camden'sBritannia, Comines'History, Cornelius Tacitus, Du Moulin'sDefence of the Catholique Faith, Gerard'sHerball, Goodwin'sHistory of Henry VIII., Plutarch'sWorks, Rider'sDictionary, Spalato'sSermons, Usher'sGravissimæ questiones, Verstegan'sRestitution of Decayed Intelligence.
The reversion of John Norton's patent for Greek and Latin books had been granted in 1604 to Robert Barker (Dom. S. P. 1604), but the year following Norton's death it was granted to Bonham Norton for thirty years (Dom. S. P. I., vol. 72, No. 5), and he also seems to have acquired the patent for printing grammars.
Bonham Norton was the only son of William Norton, stationer of London, who died in 1593, by his wife Joan, the daughter of William Bonham. He took up his freedom on the 4th February 1594, and was Master of the Stationers' Company in the years 1613, 1626, and 1629, and must have been one of the richest men in the trade. He was joined with Thomas Wight in a patent for printingAbridgements of the Statutesin 1599, and later with John Bill in a share of the Royal printing-house. He is frequently mentioned in wills and other documents of this period. At the time of John Norton's death Bonham had a family of five sons and four daughters. He died intestate on the 5th April 1635, and administration of his estate was granted to his son John on the 28th May 1636 (Admon, Act Book 1636).
On the 9th May 1615 an order was made by the Court of the Stationers' Company, upon complaint made by the master printers of the number of presses then at work, that only nineteen printers, exclusive of the patentees,i.e.Robert Barker, John Bill, and Bonham Norton, should exercise the craft of printing in the city of London. There is nothing in the work of these men, judged as specimens of the printer's art, to interest us, but there were some whose work was of very much better character than others.
Richard Field, the successor of Thomas Vautrollier, and a fellow-townsman of Shakespeare, has already been spoken of in an earlier chapter. He printed many important books between 1601-1624, had two presses at work in 1615, and was Master of the Company in 1620. He maintained the high character that Vautrollier had given to the productions of his press.
Felix Kingston was the son of John Kingston of Paternoster Row, and was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' Company on the25th of June 1597, being translated from the Company of Grocers. Throughout the first half of the seventeenth century his press was never idle. He was Master of the Company in 1637.
Edward Aide was the son of John Aide of the Long Shop in the Poultry. He had two presses, and printed very largely for other men, but his type and workmanship were poor.
William and Isaac Jaggard are best known as the printers of the works of Shakespeare. They were associated in the production of the first folio in 1623, which came from the press of Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, at the charges of William Jaggard, Edward Blount, J. Smethwicke, and William Aspley; the editors being the poet's friends, J. Heminge and H. Condell.
In addition to being the first collected edition of Shakespeare's works, this was in many respects a remarkable volume. The best copies measure 13-1/2 x 8-1/2''. The title-page bears the portrait of the poet by Droeshout. The dedicatory epistle is in large italic type, and is followed by a second epistle, 'To the Readers,' in Roman. The verses in praise of the author, by Ben Jonson and others, are printed in a second fount of italic, and the Contents in a still smaller fount of the same letter. The text, printed in double columns, is in Roman and Italic, each page being enclosed within printer's rules. Of these various types,the best is the large italic, which somewhat resembles Day's fount of the same letter. That of the text is exceedingly poor, while the setting of the type and rules leaves much to be desired. The arrangement and pagination are erratic. The book, like many other folios, was made up in sixes, and the first alphabet of signatures is correct and complete, while the second runs on regularly to the completion of the Comedies on cc.2. The Histories follow with a fresh alphabet, which the printer began as 'aa,' and continued as 'a' until he got to 'g,' when he inserted a 'gg' of eight leaves, and then continued from 'i' to 'x' in sixes to the end of the Histories. The Tragedies begin withTroilus and Cresside, the insertion of which was evidently an afterthought, as there is no mention of it in the 'Contents' of the volume, and the signatures of the sheets are ¶ followed by ¶¶ six leaves each. Then they start afresh with 'aa' and proceed regularly to 'hh,' the end of theMacbeth, the following signature being 'kk,' thus omitting the remainder of signature 'hh' and the whole of 'ii.' In a series of interesting letters communicated toNotes and Queries(8 S. vol. viii. pp. 306, 353, 429), the make up of this volume is explained very plausibly. The copyright ofTroilus and Cressidebelonged to R. Bonian and H. Walley, who apparently refused at first to give their sanction to its publication. But by that time it had been printed,and the sheets signed for it to followMacbeth, so that it had to be taken out. Arrangements having at last been made for its insertion in the work, it was reprinted and inserted where it is now found. It is also surmised that the original intention was to publish the work in three parts, and to this theory the repetition of the signatures lends colour.
One of the most interesting presses of the early Stuart period, both for the excellence of its work and the nature of the books that came from it, was that of William Stansby. This printer took up his freedom on the 7th January 1597, after serving a seven years' apprenticeship with John Windet. The following April he registered a book entitledThe Polycie of the Turkishe Empire. This little quarto was, however, printed for him by his old master, John Windet, and there is no further entry in the registers until 1611, or fourteen years after the date at which he took up his freedom.
It would appear that Stansby began to print in 1609 with an edition of Greene'sPandosto, which was not registered. In 1611 he purchased the copyright in the books of John Windet for 13s. 40d., but three of them the Company added to its stock, with the undertaking that Stansby should always have the printing of them. One of these books wasThe Assize of Bread. On the 23rd February 1625 the whole of WilliamEast's copies, including music, was assigned over to him. This list of books is the longest to be found in the registers, and covers every branch of literature.
About this time Stansby got into trouble with the Company for printing a seditious book, and his premises were nailed up, but eventually they were restored to him, and he continued in business until 1639, when his stock was transferred to Richard Bishop, and eventually came into the hands of John Haviland and partners.
Among his more important works may be mentioned the second and subsequent editions of Hooker'sEcclesiastical Politie, in folio; theWorksof Ben Jonson, 1616, folio; Eadmer'sHistoria Novorum,1623, folio; Selden'sMare Clausum, 1635, folio; Blundeville'sExercises, 1622, quarto; Coryate'sCrudities,1611, quarto.
He possessed a considerable stock of type, most of it good. Some of the ornamental headbands and initial letters that he used were of an artistic character, and were used with good effect. An instance of this may be seen in his edition of Hooker, 1611, which has an engraved title-page by William Hole, showing a view of St. Paul's. The page of Contents is surrounded on three sides by a border made up of odds and ends of printers' ornaments, yet, in spite of its miscellaneous character, the effect is by no means bad. The border to the title-page of the fifth bookwas one of a series that formed part of the stock of the Company, and were lent out to any who required them. Stansby's presswork was uniformly good, and in this respect alone he may be ranked among the best printers of his time.
Another of the printers referred to in the list was somewhat of a refractory character, a printer of popular books at the risk of imprisonment, a class of men who were to figure largely in the events of the next few years. Nicholas Okes is known best, perhaps, as the printer of some of the writings of Dekker, Greene, and Heywood; but in 1621 he printed, without license,Wither's Motto, a tract from the pen of George Wither, which had been published by John Marriot a short time before. This satire aroused the ire of the Government, and all connected with it at once made the acquaintance of the nearest jail. In the State Papers for that year are preserved the examination of the author, the booksellers, and the printer, Nicholas Okes. One of the witnesses declared that Okes told him that he had printed the book with the consent of the Company, and that the Master (Humphrey Lownes) had declared that if he was committed they would get him discharged. Another declared that Okes had printed two impressions of 3000 each, using the same title-page as that to the first edition, and that one of the wardens of the Company (Matthew Lownes) continued tosell the book, and called for more copies. The only defence Okes made was that he believed the book to be duly licensed, and when challenged as to why he printed Marriot's name on the title-page, declared he simply printed the book as he found it. (S. P. Dom. JamesI., vol. cxxii. Nos. 12et seq.)
On the 10th December 1623 an end was put for the time to the disputes that had for so long a period been raised by the Stationers' Company to the rights of the printers of the University of Cambridge.
The Company's last attempt to suppress Cantrell Legg, and prevent him from printing grammars and prayer-books, led to an appeal to the King, who made short work of the matter by ordering the two parties to come to an agreement. The terms of the settlement were:—
1. That all books should be sold at reasonable prices.
2. That the University should be allowed to print, conjointly with the London stationers, all books except the Bible, Book of Common Prayer, grammar, psalms, psalters, primers, etc., but they were only to employ one press upon privileged books.
3. That the University should print no almanacs then belonging to the Stationers, but they might print prognostications brought to them first.
4. That the Stationers should not hinder the sale of University books.
5. That the University printer should be at liberty to sell all grammars and psalms that he had already printed, and such as had been seized by the Company were to be restored.
To the last clause a note was added to the effect that Bonham Norton was prepared to buy them at reasonable prices.
On the accession of CharlesI.plague paralysed trade and made gaps in the ranks of the Stationers' Company. During the autumn of 1624 and the following year several noted printers died, probably from this cause. Chief among these were George Eld, Edward Aide, and Thomas Snodham. Eld was succeeded by his partner, Miles Flessher or Fletcher, and Aide by his widow, Elizabeth. Thomas Snodham had inherited the business of Thomas East. The copyright in these passed to William Stansby, one of his executors; but the materials of the office, that is the types, woodcut letters, and ornaments, and the presses, were sold to William Lee for £165, and shortly afterwards passed into the possession of Thomas Harper. They included a fount of black letter, and several founts of Roman and Italic of all sizes, and one of Greek letter, all of which had belonged to Thomas East, and were by this time the worse for wear.
But the plague was at the worst only a temporary hindrance; the censorship of the press the printers had always with them, and this, which had been comparatively mildly used during the late reign, was now in the hands of men who wielded it with severity. During the next fifteen years the printers, publishers, and booksellers of London were subjected to a persecution hitherto unknown. During that time there were few printers who did not know the inside of the Gatehouse or the Compter, or who were not subjected to heavy fines. For the literature of that age was chiefly of a religious character, and its tone mainly antagonistic to Laud and his party. All other subjects, whether philosophical, scientific, or dramatic, were sorely neglected. The later works of Bacon, the plays of Shirley and Shakerley Marmion, and a few classics, most of which came from the University presses, are sparsely scattered amongst the flood of theological discussion. The history of the best work in the trade in London is practically the history of three men—John Haviland, Miles Fletcher, and Robert Young, who joined partnership and, in addition to a share in the Royal printing-house, obtained by purchase the right of printing theAbridgements to the Statutes, and bought up several large and old-established printing-houses, such as those of George Purslowe, Edward Griffin, and William Stansby. Bernard Alsop and Thomas Fawcett were also among the large capitalists of this time,while Nathaniel Butter, Nicholas Bourne, and Thomas Archer were also interested in several businesses beside their own. From the press of Haviland came editions of Bacon'sEssays, in quarto, in 1625, 1629, 1632; of hisApophthegmes, in octavo, in 1625; of hisMiscellanies, an edition in quarto, in 1629, and hisOpera Moraliain 1638. From the press of Fletcher came theDivine Poemsof Francis Quarles, in 1633, 1634, and 1638, and theHieroglyphikes of the life of Man, by the same author, in 1638; while amongst Young's publications, editions ofHamletandRomeo and Julietappeared in 1637. Bernard Alsop and his partner printed the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, Decker, Greene, Lodge, and Shirley, the poems of Brathwait, Breton, and Crashaw, and the writings of Fuller and More.
But the most notable books of this period were not those enumerated above, but rather those which brought their authors, printers, and publishers within the clutches of the law, and the story of the struggle for freedom of speech is one of the most interesting in the history of English printing. Three men—Henry Burton, rector of St. Matthews, Friday Street; William Prynne, barrister of Lincoln's Inn; and John Bastwick, surgeon, are generally looked upon as the chief of the opposition to Laud and his party; but there were a number of other writers on thesame subject, whose works brought them into the Court of High Commission. Thus, on the 15th February 1626, Benjamin Fisher, bookseller, John Okes, Bernard Alsop, and Thomas Fawcett, printers, were examined concerning a book which they had caused to be printed and sold, calledA Short View of the Long Life and reign of Henry the Third, of which Sir Robert Cotton was the author. Fisher stated in his evidence that five sheets of this book were printed by John Okes, and one other by Alsop and Fawcett, which in itself is an indication of the immense difficulty that must have attended the discovery of the printers of forbidden books. The manuscript Fisher declared he had bought from Alsop, who, in his turn, said that he bought it of one Ferdinando Ely, 'a broker in books,' for the sum of twelvepence, and printed what was equivalent to a thousand copies of the one sheet delivered to him, 'besides waste.' Nicholas Okes declared that his son John had printed the book without his knowledge and while he (Nicholas) was a prisoner in the Compter. Ferdinando Ely was a second-hand bookseller in Little Britain.
No very serious consequences seem to have followed in this instance; but in the following year (1628), Henry Burton was charged by the same authorities with being the author of certain unlicensed books,The Baiting of the Pope's Bull,Israel's Fast,Trial of Private Devotions,Conflicts and Comforts of Conscience,A Plea to an Appeal, andSeven Vials. The first of these was licensed, but the remainder were not. They were said to have been printed by Michael Sparke and William Jones; Sparke was a bookseller, carrying on business at the sign of the Blue Bible, in Green Arbour, in little Old Bayley, and he employed William Jones to print for him. The parties were then warned to be careful, but on 2nd April 1629 Sparke was arrested and thrown into the Fleet, and with him, at the same time, were charged William Jones, Augustine Mathewes, printers, and Nathaniel Butter, printer and publisher. Butter's offence was the issuing of a newspaper or pamphlet calledThe Reconciler; Sparke was charged with causing to be printed another of Burton's works, entitledBabel no Bethel, and Spencer'sMusquil Unmasked; while Augustine Mathewes was accused of printing, for Sparke, William Prynne'sAntithesis of the Church of England. Each party put in an answer, and of these, Michael Sparke's is the most interesting. He declared that the decree of 1586 was contrary to Magna Charta, and an infringement of the liberties of the subject, and he refused to say who, beside Mathewes, had printed Prynne's book; it afterwards turned out to be William Turner of Oxford, who confessed to printing several other unlicensed books. A short term of imprisonment appears to havebeen the punishment inflicted on the parties in this instance.
Both in 1630 and 1631 several other printers suffered imprisonment from the same cause, and Michael Sparke, who appears to have given out the work in most cases, was declared to be more refractory and offensive than ever.
In 1632 appeared William Prynne's noted book,The Histrio-Mastix,The Player's Scourge or Actor's Tragedie, a thick quarto of over one thousand closely printed pages, which bore on the title-page the imprint, 'printed by E. A. and W. J. for Michael Sparke.' This book, as its title implies, was an attack on stage-plays and acting. There was nothing in it to alarm the most sensitive Government, and even the licenser, though he afterwards declared that the book was altered after it left his hands, could find nothing in it to condemn. But, as it happened, there was a passage concerning the presence of ladies at stage-plays, and as the Queen had shortly before attended a masque, the passage in question was held to allude to her, and accordingly Prynne, Sparke, and the printers—one of whom was William Jones—were thrown into prison, and in 1633 were brought to trial before the Star Chamber. The printers appear to have escaped punishment; but Prynne was condemned to pay a fine of £1000, to be degraded from his degree, to have both his ears cropped in the pillory, andto spend the rest of his days in prison; while Sparke was fined £500, and condemned to stand in the pillory, but without other degradation.
During this year John Bastwick also issued two books directed against Episcopacy, both of which are now scarce. One was entitledElenchus Religionis Papisticæ, and the otherFlagellum Pontificis. They were printed abroad, and as a punishment their author was condemned to undergo a sentence little less severe than that passed upon Prynne, who, in spite of his captivity, continued to write and publish a great number of pamphlets. Amongst these was one entitledInstructions to Church Wardens, printed in 1635. In the course of the evidence concerning this book, mention was made of a special initial letter C, which was said to represent a pope's head when turned one way, and an army of soldiers when turned the other, and to be unlike any other letter in use by London printers at that time.
For printing this and other books, Thomas Purslowe, Gregory Dexter, and William Taylor of Christchurch were struck from the list of master printers.[11]
In 1637 appeared Prynne's other notorious tract,Newes from Ipswich, a quarto of six leaves, for which he was fined by the Star Chamber a further sum of £5000, and condemned to lose the rest of his ears, and to be branded on the cheek withthe letters S. L. (i.e.scurrilous libeller), a sentence that was carried out on the 30th June of this year with great barbarity. The imprint to this tract ran 'Printed at Ipswich,' but its real place of printing was London, and perhaps the name of Robert Raworth, which occurs in the indictment, may stand for Richard Raworth, the printer whom Sir John Lambe declared to be 'an arrant knave.' Or the printer may have been William Jones,[12]who about this time was fined £1000 for printing seditious books.
In 1634 the King wrote to Archbishop Laud to the effect that Doctor Patrick Young, keeper of the King's library, who had lately published theClementis ad Corinthios Epistola priorin Greek and Latin, and in conjunction with Bishop Lindsell of Peterborough, now proposed to make ready for the press one or more Greek copies every year, if Greek types, matrices, and money were forthcoming. The King expressed his desire to encourage the work, and therefore commanded the Archbishop that the fine of £300, which had been inflicted upon Robert Barker and Martin Lucas in the preceding year, for what was described as a base and corrupt printing of the Bible in 1631 (the omission of the word 'not' from the seventh commandment, which has earned for the edition the name of theWickedBible), should be converted to the buying of Greek letters. The Kingfurther ordered that Barker and Lucas should print one work every year at their own cost of ink, paper, and workmanship, and as many copies as the Archbishop should think fit to authorise. The Archbishop thereupon wrote to the printers, who expressed their willingness to fall in with the scheme, and a press, furnished with a very good fount of Greek letter, was established at Blackfriars. But the result was not what might have been expected. Partly owing to the political troubles that followed its foundation, and partly perhaps to delay on the part of the printers, the only important works that came from this press were Dr. Patrick Young's translation of the book of Job, from the Codex Alexandrinus, a folio printed in 1637, and an edition in Greek of the Epistles of St. Paul, with a commentary by the Bishop of Peterborough, also a folio, which came from the same press in 1636. The Greek letter used in this office cannot be compared for beauty or delicacy of outline with that which Norton had used in theChrysostomof 1610.
On the 11th July 1637 was published another Star Chamber Decree concerning printers. Professor Arber, in his fourth volume (p. 528), states that the appearance of a tract entitledThe Holy Table, Name and Thingmust ever be associated with this decree; but it may be doubted whether it was not rather to general causes, such as the growing power of the press, the long-continued attackupon the Prelacy by pamphleteers, which no fear of mutilation or imprisonment could stop, than any one particular tract, which led to that severe and crushing edict.
This act, which was published on the 11th July 1637, consisted of thirty-three clauses, and after reciting former ordinances, and the number of 'libellous, seditious, and mutinous' books that were then daily published, decreed that all books were to be licensed: law books by the Lord Chief Justices and the Lord Chief Baron; books dealing with history, by the principal Secretaries of State; books on heraldry, by the Earl Marshal; and on all other subjects, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, or the Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors of the two Universities. Two copies of every book submitted for publication were to be handed to the licensee, one of which he was to keep for future reference. Catalogues of books imported into the country were to be sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London, and no consignments were to be opened until the representatives of one of these dignitaries and of the Stationers' Company were present. The name of the printer, the author, and the publisher was to be placed in every book, and, with a view to encouraging English printing, it was decreed further that no merchant or bookseller should import any English book printed abroad. No person was to erect a printing-press, or to let anypremises for the purpose of carrying on printing, without first giving notice to the Company, and no joiner or carpenter was to make a press without similar notice.
The number of master printers was limited by this decree to twenty, and those chosen were:—
Each of these was to be bound in sureties of £300 to good behaviour. No printer was allowed to have more than two presses unless he were a Master or Warden of the Company, when he might have three. A Master or Warden might keep three apprentices but no more, a master printer on the livery might have two, and the rest one only; but every printer was expected to give work to journeyman printers when required to do so, because it was stated that it was they who were mainly responsible for the publication of the libellous, seditious, and mutinous books referred to. All reprints of books were to be licensed inthe same way as first editions. The Company were to have the right of search, and four typefounders, John Grismand, Thomas Wright, Arthur Nichols, and Alexander Fifield were considered sufficient for the whole trade. Finally, a copy of every book printed was to be sent to the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The penalties for breaking this decree included imprisonment, destruction of stock, and a whipping at the cart's tail.
The twenty printers appointed by this decree were the subject of much investigation by Sir John Lamb, whose numerous notes and lists concerning them, as reprinted in the third volume of Professor Arber's transcripts from documents at the Record Office, are an invaluable acquisition to the history of the English press. It will be seen that four of the chief offenders of the previous ten or eleven years, namely William Jones, Nicholas Okes, Augustine Mathewes, and Robert or Richard Raworth, were absolutely excluded, their places being taken by Marmaduke Parsons, Thomas Paine, and a new man, Thomas Purslowe, probably the son of Widow Purslowe. Conscious perhaps that their positions were in jeopardy, all four petitioned the Archbishop to be placed among the number, but in vain, and another man who was excluded at the same time was John Norton, a descendant of a long family of printers of that name, and who had served his apprenticeship in the King's printing-house. Only one of thosewho had at times come before the High Commission Court was pardoned, and allowed to retain his place. This was Bernard Alsop.
The clause requiring all reprints to be licensed caused a good deal of murmuring, as did also that which forbade haberdashers, and others who were not legitimate booksellers, to sell books.
The small number of type-founders allowed to the trade has also been a subject of much comment by writers on this subject; but judging from the evidence of Arthur Nicholls, one of the four appointed, the number was quite sufficient. Nicholls was the founder of the Greek type used in the new office of Blackfriars, and his experience was certainly not likely to encourage other men to set up in the same trade. At the time when he was appointed one of the four founders under the decree, he could not make a living by his trade, and though he does not expressly state the fact, his evidence seems to imply that English printers at that time obtained most of their type from abroad, and it is beyond question that they had long since ceased to cast their own letter.
Drastic as this decree was, it practically remained a dead letter, for the reason that in the troublous times that followed within the next five years, the Government had their hands full in other directions, and were obliged to let the printers alone.
Between this date and the year 1640, there was very little either of interest or value that came from the English press. The memory of rare Ben Jonson induced Henry Seile, of the Tiger's Head in Fleet Street, to publish in 1638 a quarto with the titleJonsonus Virbius: or the Memory of Ben Jonson. Revived by the friends of the Muses, and among the contributors were Lord Falkland, Sir John Beaumont the younger, Sir Thomas Hawkins, Henry King, Edmund Waller, Shackerley Marmion, and several others. The printer's initials are given as E. P., but these do not suit any of those who were authorised under the decree of the year before, and they may refer to Elizabeth Purslowe. That there was a considerable number of persons who, in spite of the Puritan tendencies of the age, loved a good play, is clearly seen from the number turned out during the years 1638, 1639, and 1640 by Thomas Nabbes, Henry Glapthorne, James Shirley, and Richard Brome. These of course were mostly quartos, very poorly printed, and chiefly from the presses of Richard Oulton, John Okes, and Thomas Cotes. Of collected works, there came out in small octavo form thePoemsof Thomas Carew from the press of John Dawson in 1640, and a collection of Shakespeare's Poems from the press of Thomas Cotes in the same year. There were also published in 1640 from the press of Richard Bishop, who had succeeded to the business of WilliamStansby, Selden'sDe Jure Naturali et Gentium juxta disciplinam Ebræorum, in folio, and William Somner'sAntiquities of Canterbury, one of the earliest and best of the contributions to county bibliography.
Having now brought the record of the London press down to the time when it became engulphed in the chaos of civil war, it is time to turn to the University presses of Oxford and Cambridge.
Since the year 1585, these were the only provincial presses allowed by law, and removed as they were from the turmoil of conflicting parties, and the severity of trade competition, in which the London printers lived, their work showed more uniformity of excellence, and on the whole surpassed that of the London printers.
Down to the year 1617 Oxford appears to have had but one printer, John Barnes; but in that year we find two at work, John Lichfield and William Wrench, the latter giving place the following year to James Short. In 1624 the two Oxford printers were John Lichfield and William Turner—the second, as we have seen, being notorious as the printer of unlicensed pamphlets for Michael Sparke the London publisher; but in spite of this we find him holding his position until 1640, though in the meantime John Lichfield had been succeeded in businessby his son, Leonard. In the introduction to his bibliography of the Oxford Press, Mr. Falconer Madan has given a list of the most important books printed at Oxford between 1585 and 1640, which we venture to reprint here with a few additions:—
As we have noted, the University of Cambridge had after a long struggle established its claim to print editions of the Scriptures and other works, and like its sister University turned out some of the best work of that period.
A notable book from this press was Phineas Fletcher'sPurple Island, a quarto published in 1633. The title-page was printed in red and black, in well-cut Roman of four founts, with the lozenge-shaped device of the University in thecentre, the whole being surrounded by a neat border of printers' ornaments. Each page of the book was enclosed within rules, which seems to have been the universal fashion of the trade at this period, and at the end of each canto the device seen on the title-page was repeated. The Eclogues and Poems had each a separate title-page, and two well-executed copper-plate engravings occur in the volumes.
We must not close this chapter without noting that in 1639 printing began in the New England across the sea. The records of Harvard College tell us that the Rev. Joseph Glover 'gave to the College a font of printing letters, and some gentlemen of Amsterdam gave towards furnishing of a printing-press with letters forty-nine pounds, and something more.' Glover himself died on the voyage out from England, but Stephen Day, the printer whom he was bringing with him, arrived in safety and was installed at Harvard College. The first production of his press was theFreeman's Oath, the second an Almanac, the third, published in 1640,The Psalms in Metre, Faithfully translated for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints in Publick and Private, especially in New England. This, the first book printed in North America, was an octavo of three hundred pages, of passably good workmanship, and is commonly known as the Bay Psalter—Cambridge, the home of Harvard College, lyingnear Massachusetts Bay. Stephen Day continued to print at Cambridge till 1648 or 1649, when he was succeeded in the charge of the press by Samuel Green, whose work will be mentioned at the end of our next chapter.