THE STUART PERIOD
1603-1640
One 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 and Pynson 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 Charles I. to Newcastle in 1636, and was
printing in other parts of England 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.
[Illustration: 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 the
_Works 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 his _History 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).
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Dedication of Savile's _St. 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
the _Sancti 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's _Transcripts_ (vol. iv. pp. 283-285), and includes the following
notable works:--
Beza's _Testament_ in Latin, Camden's _Britannia_, Comines' _History_,
Cornelius Tacitus, Du Moulin's _Defence of the Catholique Faith_,
Gerard's _Herball_, Goodwin's _History of Henry VIII._, Plutarch's
_Works_, Rider's _Dictionary_, Spalato's _Sermons_, Usher's _Gravissimæ
questiones_, Verstegan's _Restitution 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 printing _Abridgements of the Statutes_ in 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 the 25th 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 with _Troilus 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 the _Macbeth_, the following signature being 'kk,' thus
omitting the remainder of signature 'hh' and the whole of 'ii.' In a
series of interesting letters communicated to _Notes and Queries_ (8 S.
vol. viii. pp. 306, 353, 429), the make up of this volume is explained
very plausibly. The copyright of _Troilus and Cresside_ belonged 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 follow _Macbeth_, 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 entitled _The 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's _Pandosto_, 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 was _The Assize of
Bread_. On the 23rd February 1625 the whole of William East'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's _Ecclesiastical Politie_, in folio; the
_Works_ of Ben Jonson, 1616, folio; Eadmer's _Historia Novorum_,1623,
folio; Selden's _Mare Clausum_, 1635, folio; Blundeville's _Exercises_,
1622, quarto; Coryate's _Crudities_,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 book was 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 to sell 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. James I., vol. cxxii. Nos. 12 _et 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 Charles I. 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 the _Abridgements 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's
_Essays_, in quarto, in 1625, 1629, 1632; of his _Apophthegmes_, in
octavo, in 1625; of his _Miscellanies_, an edition in quarto, in 1629,
and his _Opera Moralia_ in 1638. From the press of Fletcher came the
_Divine Poems_ of Francis Quarles, in 1633, 1634, and 1638, and the
_Hieroglyphikes of the life of Man_, by the same author, in 1638; while
amongst Young's publications, editions of _Hamlet_ and _Romeo and
Juliet_ appeared 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 the same 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,
called _A 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_, and _Seven 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 called _The Reconciler_; Sparke was charged with causing to
be printed another of Burton's works, entitled _Babel no Bethel_, and
Spencer's _Musquil Unmasked_; while Augustine Mathewes was accused of
printing, for Sparke, William Prynne's _Antithesis 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 have been 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, and to 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 entitled _Elenchus
Religionis Papisticæ_, and the other _Flagellum 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 entitled _Instructions 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 with the 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
the _Clementis ad Corinthios Epistola prior_ in 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 the
_Wicked_ Bible), should be converted to the buying of Greek letters. The
King further 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 the _Chrysostom_ of 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 entitled _The Holy Table, Name and
Thing_ must 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 attack upon 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 any
premises 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:--
Felix Kingston.
Adam Islip.
Thomas Purfoote.
Miles Fletcher.
Thomas Harper.
John Beale.
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 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 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 title _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 Ebræorum_, 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 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 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 title-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 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 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 passably good
workmanship, and is commonly known as the Bay Psalter--Cambridge, the
home of Harvard College, lying near 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.
[Footnote 11: _Domestic State Papers_, vol. 357, No. 172, 173; vol. 371,
No. 102.]
[Footnote 12: _Domestic State Papers_, vol. 354, No. 180.]