Myles Davis's "ICON LIBELLORUM, or a Critical History Pamphlets,"
affords some curious information; and as this is a _pamphlet_-reading
age, I shall give a sketch of its contents.
The author observes: "From PAMPHLETS may be learned the genius of the
age, the debates of the learned, the follies of the ignorant, the
_bévues_ of government, and the mistakes of the courtiers. Pamphlets
furnish beaus with their airs, coquettes with their charms. Pamphlets
are as modish ornaments to gentlewomen's toilets as to gentlemen's
pockets; they carry reputation of wit and learning to all that make them
their companions; the poor find their account in stall-keeping and in
hawking them; the rich find in them their shortest way to the secrets of
church and state. There is scarce any class of people but may think
themselves interested enough to be concerned with what is published in
pamphlets, either as to their private instruction, curiosity, and
reputation, or to the public advantage and credit; with all which both
ancient and modern pamphlets are too often over familiar and free.--In
short, with pamphlets the booksellers and stationers adorn the gaiety of
shop-gazing. Hence accrues to grocers, apothecaries, and chandlers, good
furniture, and supplies to necessary retreats and natural occasions. In
pamphlets lawyers will meet with their chicanery, physicians with their
cant, divines with their Shibboleth. Pamphlets become more and more
daily amusements to the curious, idle, and inquisitive; pastime to
gallants and coquettes; chat to the talkative; catch-words to informers;
fuel to the envious; poison to the unfortunate; balsam to the wounded;
employ to the lazy; and fabulous materials to romancers and novelists."
This author sketches the origin and rise of pamphlets. He deduces them
from the short writings published by the Jewish Rabbins; various little
pieces at the time of the first propagation of Christianity; and notices
a certain pamphlet which was pretended to have been the composition of
Jesus Christ, thrown from heaven, and picked up by the archangel Michael
at the entrance of Jerusalem. It was copied by the priest Leora, and
sent about from priest to priest, till Pope Zachary ventured to
pronounce it a _forgery_. He notices several such extraordinary
publications, many of which produced as extraordinary effects.
He proceeds in noticing the first Arian and Popish pamphlets, or rather
_libels_, i. e. little books, as he distinguishes them. He relates a
curious anecdote respecting the forgeries of the monks. Archbishop Usher
detected in a manuscript of St. Patrick's life, pretended to have been
found at Louvain, as an original of a very remote date, several passages
taken, with little alteration, from his own writings.
The following notice of our immortal Pope I cannot pass over: "Another
class of pamphlets writ by Roman Catholics is that of _Poems_, written
chiefly by a Pope himself, a gentleman of that name. He passed always
amongst most of his acquaintance for what is commonly called a Whig; for
it seems the Roman politics are divided as well as popish missionaries.
However, one _Esdras_, an apothecary, as he qualifies himself, has
published a piping-hot pamphlet against Mr. Pope's '_Rape of the Lock_,'
which he entitles '_A Key to the Lock_,' wherewith he pretends to unlock
nothing less than a _plot_ carried on by Mr. Pope in that poem against
the last and this present ministry and government."
He observes on _Sermons_,--"'Tis not much to be questioned, but of all
modern pamphlets what or wheresoever, the _English stitched Sermons_ be
the most edifying, useful, and instructive, yet they could not escape
the critical Mr. Bayle's sarcasm. He says, 'République des Lettres,'
March, 1710, in this article _London_, 'We see here sermons swarm daily
from the press. Our eyes only behold manna: are you desirous of knowing
the reason? It is, that the ministers being allowed to _read_ their
sermons in the pulpit, _buy all they meet with_, and take no other
trouble than to read them, and thus pass for very able scholars at a
very cheap rate!'"
He now begins more directly the history of pamphlets, which he branches
out from four different etymologies. He says, "However foreign the word
_Pamphlet_ may appear, it is a genuine English word, rarely known or
adopted in any other language: its pedigree cannot well be traced higher
than the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. In its first state
wretched must have been its appearance, since the great linguist John
Minshew, in his '_Guide into Tongues_,' printed in 1617, gives it the
most miserable character of which any libel can be capable. Mr. Minshew
says (and his words were quoted by Lord Chief Justice Holt), 'A
PAMPHLET, that is _Opusculum Stolidorum_, the diminutive performance of
fools; from [Greek: pan], _all_, and [Greek: plêtho], I _fill_, to wit,
_all_ places. According to the vulgar saying, all things are full of
fools, or foolish things; for such multitudes of pamphlets, unworthy of
the very names of libels, being more vile than common shores and the
filth of beggars, and being flying papers daubed over and besmeared with
the foams of drunkards, are tossed far and near into the mouths and
hands of scoundrels; neither will the sham oracles of Apollo be esteemed
so mercenary as a Pamphlet.'"
Those who will have the word to be derived from PAM, the famous knave of
LOO, do not differ much from Minshew; for the derivation of the word
_Pam_ is in all probability from [Greek: pan], _all_; or the _whole_ or
the _chief_ of the game.
Under this _first_ etymological notion of Pamphlets may be comprehended
the _vulgar stories_ of the Nine Worthies of the World, of the Seven
Champions of Christendom, Tom Thumb, Valentine and Orson, &c., as also
most of apocryphal lucubrations. The greatest collection of this first
sort of Pamphlets are the Rabbinic traditions in the Talmud, consisting
of fourteen volumes in folio, and the Popish legends of the Lives of the
Saints, which, though not finished, form fifty folio volumes, all which
tracts were originally in pamphlet forms.
The _second_ idea of the _radix_ of the word _Pamphlet_ is, that it
takes its derivations from [Greek: pan], _all_, and [Greek: phileo], _I
love_, signifying a thing beloved by all; for a pamphlet being of a
small portable bulk, and of no great price, is adapted to every one's
understanding and reading. In this class may be placed all stitched
books on serious subjects, the best of which fugitive pieces have been
generally preserved, and even reprinted in collections of some tracts,
miscellanies, sermons, poems, &c.; and, on the contrary, bulky volumes
have been reduced, for the convenience of the public, into the familiar
shapes of stitched pamphlets. Both these methods have been thus censured
by the majority of the lower house of convocation 1711. These abuses are
thus represented: "They have republished, and collected into volumes,
pieces written long ago on the side of infidelity. They have reprinted
together in the most contracted manner, many loose and licentious
pieces, in order to their being purchased more cheaply, and dispersed
more easily."
The _third_ original interpretation of the word Pamphlet may be that of
the learned Dr. Skinner, in his _Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicanæ_, that it
is derived from the Belgic word _Pampier_, signifying a little paper, or
libel. To this third set of Pamphlets may be reduced all sorts of
printed single sheets, or half sheets, or any other quantity of single
paper prints, such as Declarations, Remonstrances, Proclamations,
Edicts, Orders, Injunctions, Memorials, Addresses, Newspapers, &c.
The _fourth_ radical signification of the word Pamphlet is that
homogeneal acceptation of it, viz., as it imports any little book, or
small volume whatever, whether stitched or bound, whether good or bad,
whether serious or ludicrous. The only proper Latin term for a Pamphlet
is _Libellus_, or little book. This word indeed signifies in English an
_abusive_ paper or little book, and is generally taken in the worst
sense.
After all this display of curious literature, the reader may smile at
the guesses of Etymologists; particularly when he is reminded that the
derivation of _Pamphlet_ is drawn from quite another meaning to any of
the present, by Johnson, which I shall give for his immediate
gratification.
PAMPHLET [_par un filet_, Fr. Whence this word is written anciently, and
by Caxton, _paunflet_] a small book; properly a book sold unbound, and
only stitched.
The French have borrowed the word _Pamphlet_ from us, and have the
goodness of not disfiguring its orthography. _Roast Beef_ is also in the
same predicament. I conclude that _Pamphlets_ and _Roast Beef_ have
therefore their origin in our country.
Pinkerton favoured me with the following curious notice concerning
pamphlets:--
"Of the etymon of _pamphlet_ I know nothing; but that the word is far
more ancient than is commonly believed, take the following proof from
the celebrated _Philobiblon_, ascribed to Richard de Buri, bishop of
Durham, but written by Robert Holkot, at his desire, as Fabricius says,
about the year 1344, (Fabr. Bibl. Medii Ævi, vol. i.); it is in the
eighth chapter.
"Sed, revera, libros non libras maluimus; codicesque plus dileximus quam
florenos: ac PANFLETOS exiguos phaleratis prætulimus palescedis."
"But, indeed, we prefer books to pounds; and we love manuscripts better
than florins; and we prefer small _pamphlets_ to war horses."
This word is as old as Lydgate's time: among his works, quoted by
Warton, is a poem "translated from a _pamflete_ in Frenshe."