A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 Part 11

John Raworth.

John Legate.

Robert Young.

John Haviland.

George Miller.

Richard Badger.

Thomas Cotes.

Marmaduke Parsons.

Bernard Alsop.

Richard Bishop.

Edward Griffin.

Thomas Purslowe.

Rich. Hodgkinsonne.

John Dawson.

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 in the 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 doc.u.ments 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 pet.i.tioned 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 those who 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 t.i.tle _Jonsonus 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 the _Poems_ of 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 William Stansby, Selden's _De Jure Naturali et Gentium juxta disciplinam Ebraeorum_, in folio, and William Somner's _Antiquities 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 compet.i.tion, in which the London printers lived, their work showed more uniformity of excellence, and on the whole surpa.s.sed 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 business by 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:--

1599. Richard de Bury's _Philobiblon_.

1608. Wycliff's _Treatises_.

1612. Captain John Smith's _Map of Virginia_.

1621. Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_.

1628. Field _On the Church_.

1633. Sandys' _Ovid_.

1634. _The University Statutes_.

1635. Chaucer's _Troilus and Cressida_ in English and Latin.

1638. Chillingworth's _Religion of Protestants_.

1640. Bacon's _Advancement and Proficience of Learning_.

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's _Purple Island_, a quarto published in 1633. The t.i.tle-page was printed in red and black, in well-cut Roman of four founts, with the lozenge-shaped device of the University in the centre, 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 t.i.tle-page was repeated. The Eclogues and Poems had each a separate t.i.tle-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 the _Freeman'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 pa.s.sably good workmanship, and is commonly known as the Bay Psalter--Cambridge, the home of Harvard College, lying near Ma.s.sachusetts 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.

[Footnote 11: _Domestic State Papers_, vol. 357, No. 172, 173; vol. 371, No. 102.]

[Footnote 12: _Domestic State Papers_, vol. 354, No. 180.]

CHAPTER VIII

FROM 1640 TO 1700

Having at length reached what is without doubt the darkest and the most wretched period in the history of English printing, it may be well before pa.s.sing a severe condemnation on those who represented the trade at that time, to remind ourselves of the difficulties against which they had to contend.

The art of printing in England had never at any time reached such a point of excellence as in Paris under the Estiennes, in Antwerp under Plantin, or in Venice under the Aldi. So great was the compet.i.tion between the printers, and so heavy the restrictions placed upon them, that profit rather than beauty or workmanship was their first consideration; and when to these drawbacks was added the general disorganisation of trade consequent upon the outbreak of civil war, it is not surprising that English work failed to maintain its already low standard of excellence. Literature, other than that which chronicled the fortunes of the opposing factions, was almost totally neglected.

Writers, even had they found printers willing to support them, would have found no readers. On the other hand, such was the feverish anxiety manifested in the struggle, that it was scarcely possible to publish the Diurnals and Mercuries which contained the latest news fast enough, and the press was unequal to the strain, although the number of printers in London during this period was three times larger than that allowed by the decree of 1637. Professor Arber, in his _Transcript_, says that this increase in the number of printers was due to the removal of the gag by the Long Parliament. There is no proof that the Long Parliament ever intended to remove the gag; but having its hands full with other and weightier matters it could find no time to deal with the printers, and doubtless, in the heat of the fight, it was only too thankful to avail itself of the pens of those who replied to the attacks of the Royalist press. The best evidence of this is, that as soon as opportunity offered, and in spite of the warning of the greatest literary man of that day, who was on their own side, the Long Parliament reimposed the gag with as much severity as the hierarchy which it had deposed.

For the publication of the news of the day, each party had its own organs. On the side of the Parliament the princ.i.p.al journals were _The Kingdoms Weekly Intelligencer_, printed and published by Nathaniel b.u.t.ter, and _Mercurius Britannicus_, edited by Marchmont Nedham; while _Mercurius Aulicus_, edited by clever John Birkenhead, represented the Royalists, and was ably seconded by the _Perfect Occurrences_, printed by John Clowes and Robert Ibbitson.

These sheets, which usually consisted of from four to eight quarto pages, contained news of the movements and actions of the opposing armies, and the proceedings of the Parliament at Westminster, or of the King's Council at Oxford or wherever he happened to be. They were published sometimes twice and even three times a week. The political pamphlets were bitter and scurrilous attacks by each party against the other, or the hare-brained prophecies of so-called astrologers, such as William Lilly, George Wharton, and John Gadbury. These two cla.s.ses formed more than half the printed literature of those unhappy times, and the remainder of the output of the press was pretty well filled up with sermons, exhortations, and other religious writings. The rapidity with which the literature was turned out accounts for the wretched and slipshod appearance it presents. Any old types or blocks were brought into use, and there is evidence of blocks and initial letters which had formed part of the stock of the printers of a century earlier being brought to light again at this time. Unfortunately the evil did not stop here, for careless workmanship, indifference, and want of enterprise, are the leading characteristics of the printing trade during the latter half of the seventeenth century. But as, even in this darkest hour of the nation's fortunes, the soul of literature was not crushed, and the voice of the poet could still make itself heard, so it is a great mistake to suppose that there were no good printers during the period covered by the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth.

Take as an example the little duodecimo ent.i.tled _Instructions for Forreine Travell_, which came from the pen of James Howell, and was printed by T. B., no doubt Thomas Brudnell, for Humphrey Moseley. Some of the founts, especially the larger Roman, are very unevenly and badly cast, but on the whole the presswork was carefully done. The same may also be said of the folio edition of Sir R. Baker's _Chronicle_, published in 1643. In this case we do not know who was the printer; but the ornaments and initials lead us to suppose that it was the work of William Stansby's successor. The prose tracts again that Milton wrote between 1641-45 are certainly far better printed than many of their contemporaries, and prove that Matthew Simmons, who printed most of them, and who was one of the Commonwealth men, deserved the position he afterwards obtained. The first collected edition of Milton's poems was published by Humphrey Moseley in 1645. This was a small octavo, in two parts, with separate t.i.tle-pages, and a portrait of the author by William Marshall, and came from the press of Ruth Raworth. In 1646 there appeared _A Collection of all the Incomparable Peeces written by Sir John Suckling and published by a freend to perpetuate his memory_. This came from the press of Thomas Walkley, who had issued the first edition of _Aglaura_ and the later plays of the same writer. Walkley also printed in small octavo, for Moseley, the _Poems_ of Edmond Waller, but his work was none of the best.

A printer of considerable note at this time was William Dugard, who in 1644 was chosen headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School, and set up a printing-press there. In January 1649 he printed the first edition of the famous book _Eikon Basilike_, and followed it up by a translation of Salmasius' _Defensio Regia_, for which the Council of State immediately ordered his arrest, seized his presses, and wrote to the Governors of the school, ordering them to elect a new schoolmaster, 'Mr. Dugard having shewn himself an enemy to the state by printing seditious and scandalous pamphlets, and therefore unfit to have charge of the education of youths' (_Dom. S. P. Interregnum_, pp. 578-583). Sir James Harrington, member of the Council of State, and author of _Oceana_, who seems to have known something about Dugard, interceded with the Council on his behalf, and at the same time persuaded him to give up the Royalist cause. So his presses were restored to him, and henceforward he appears to have devoted himself with equal zeal to his new masters.

He was the printer of Milton's answer to Salmasius, published by the Council's command, of a book ent.i.tled _Mare Clausum_, also published by authority, of the _Catechesis Ecclesiarum_, a book which the Council found to contain dangerous opinions and ordered to be burnt, and of a tract written by Milton's nephew, John Phillips, ent.i.tled _Responsio ad apologiam_. His initials are also met with in many other books of that time.

His press was furnished with a good a.s.sortment of type, and his press-work was much above the average of that period.

Among other books that came from the London press during this troubled time, we may single out three which have found a lasting place in English literature. The first is Robert Herrick's _Hesperides_, printed in the years 1647-48; the second a volume of verse, by Richard Lovelace, ent.i.tled _Lucasta, Epodes, Odes, Sonnets, Songs_, etc., printed in 1649 by Thomas Harper; the last Izaak Walton's _Complete Angler_, which came from the press of John Maxey in 1653. All were small octavos, indifferently printed with poor type, and no pretensions to artistic workmanship.

In 1649, the year of Charles I.'s execution, the Council of State, in consequence of the number of 'scandalous and seditious pamphlets' which were constantly appearing, in spite of all decrees and acts to the contrary, ordered certain printers to enter into recognizances in two sureties of 300, and their own bond for a similar amount, not to print any such books, or allow their presses to be used for that purpose.

Accordingly, in the _Calendar of State Papers_ for the year 1649-50 (pp.

522, 523), we find a list of no less than sixty printers in London and the two Universities who entered into such sureties. In almost every case the address is given in full, in itself a gain, at a time when the printer's name rarely appeared in the imprint of a book. This list has already been printed in _Bibliographica_ (vol. ii. pp. 225-26), but as it is of the greatest interest for the history of printing during the remainder of the century, it is inserted here (see Appendix No. 1.).

While it does not include all the printers having presses at that time, yet, if we remember that under the Star Chamber decree of 1637 the number in London was strictly limited to twenty, it shows how rapid the growth of the trade was in those twelve years. Of the original twenty, only three seem to have survived the troubles and dangers of the Civil Wars--Bernard Alsop, Richard Bishop, and Thomas Harper, though the places of three more were filled by their survivors--Elizabeth Purslowe standing in the place of her husband, Thomas Purslowe; Gertrude Dawson succeeding her husband, John Dawson; and James Flesher or Fletcher in the room of his father, Miles Flesher. John Gresmond and James Moxon were type-founders, Henry Hills and John Field were appointed printers to the State under Cromwell, and Thomas Newcomb was also largely employed, and shared with the other two the privilege of Bible printing.

Roger Norton was the direct descendant of old John Norton, who died in 1590. Of Roycroft and Simmons we shall hear a good deal later on, as indeed we shall of many others in this list. The only names that hardly seem to warrant insertion in the list as printers are those of John and Richard Royston. Although they were for many years stationers to King Charles II., we cannot hear of any printing-presses in their possession.

With the quieter time of the Commonwealth, several notable works were produced, though the annual output of books was much below the average of the seven years preceding. Foremost among the publications of that time must be placed Sir William Dugdale's _Monasticon Anglicanum_, the first volume of which appeared in 1655.

As a monument of study and research this book will always remain a standard work of English topography; and it was not unworthily printed.

The preparation of the numerous plates for the ill.u.s.trations, and the setting up of so much intricate letterpress, must have been a very onerous work. This first volume, a large and handsome folio, came from the press of Richard Hodgkinson, and was printed in pica Roman in double columns, with a great deal of italic and black letter intermixed. The types were as good as any to be found in England at that time, and the press-work was carefully done. The engravings were chiefly the work of Hollar, aided by Edward Mascall and Daniel King, and are excellently reproduced. The whole work occupied eighteen years in publication, the second volume being printed by Alice Warren, the widow of Thomas Warren, in 1661, and the third and last by Thomas Newcomb in 1673; but these later volumes differed very little in appearance from the first, the same method of setting and the same mixture of founts being adhered to.

Sir William Dugdale followed this up in 1656 by publishing, through the press of Thomas Warren, his _Antiquities of Warwickshire_, a folio of 826 pages. On the t.i.tle-page is seen the device of old John Wolfe, the City printer. The dedication of this book was printed in great primer; but the look of the text was marred by a bad fount of black letter which did not print well. Like the _Monasticon_, this work was ill.u.s.trated with maps and portraits by Hollar and Vaughan.

Another considerable undertaking was the _Historical Collections_ of John Rushworth, in eight folio volumes, of which the first was printed by Newcomb in 1659, the others between 1680 and 1701.

But the great typographical achievement of the century was the Polyglott Bible, edited by Brian Walton. It was the fourth great Bible of the kind which had been published. The earliest was the Complutensian, printed at Alcala in 1517, with Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Chaldean texts. Next came the Antwerp Polyglott, printed at the Plantin Press in 1572, which, in addition to the texts above mentioned, gave the Syriac version. This was followed in 1645 by the Paris Polyglott, which added Arabic and Samaritan, was in ten folio volumes, and took seventeen years to complete.