"Printed ouer sea, in Europe, within two forlongs of a Bouncing Priest,
at the Cost and Charges of Martin Marprelate, Gent, 1589."
_The Return of the renowned Cavaliero Pasquill_ has the following
extraordinary imprint:
"If my breath be so hote that I burne my mouthe, I suppose I was
printed by Pepper Allie, 1589."
The original "Marprelate" was John Penri, who at last fell into the hands
of his enemies, and was executed under circumstances of great barbarity in
Elizabeth's reign. "Martin Junior," however, sprung up, and _The
Counter-Cuffe_ to him is--
"Printed between the Skye and the Grounde, wythin a Myle of an Oake,
and not many Fields off from the unpriuileged Presse of the Ass-ignes
of Martin Junior, 1589."
The virulency of this theological warfare died away in James's reign, but
only to be renewed with equal rancour in that of Charles, when Marprelatism
was again called into activity by the high-church freaks of Archbishop
Laud. _Vox Borealis, or a Northerne Discoverie by way of Dialogue between
Jamie and Willie_, is an example of these later attacks upon the
overbearing of the mitre, and affords the imprint--
"Amidst the Babylonians. Printed by Margery Marprelate, in Thwack-Coat
Lane, at the Signe of the Crab-Tree Cudgell, without any privilege of
the Cater-Caps, 1641."
Others of this stamp will occur to your readers: this time the Puritans had
the best of the struggle, and ceased not to push their advantage until they
brought their enemy to the block.
When the liberty of the press was imperfectly understood, the political
satirist had to tread warily; consequently we find that class of writers
protecting themselves by jocular or patriotic imprints. A satirical
pamphlet upon the late _Sicke Commons_ is "Printed in the Happie Year
1641." _A Letter from Nobody in the City to Nobody in the Country_ is
"Printed by Somebody, 1679." _Somebody's Answer_ is "Printed for Anybody."
These were likely of such a tendency as would have rendered both author and
printer amenable to _somebody_, say Judge Jeffries. During the
administration of Sir Robert Walpole, there were many skirmishing satirists
supported by both ministry and people, such as James Miller, whose
pamphlet, _contra, Are these things so?_ is "Printed for the perusal of all
Lovers of their Country, 1740." This was answered by the ministers'
champion, James Dance, _alias_ Love, in _Yes, they are!_ alike addressed to
the "Lovers of their Country." _What of That?_ was the next of the series,
being Miller's reply, who intimated this time that it was "Printed, and to
be had of all True Hearts and Sound Bottoms."
When there was a movement for an augmentation of the poor stipends of the
Scots Clergy in 1750, there came out a pamphlet under the title of _The
Presbyterian Clergy seasonably detected_, 1751, which exceeds in
scurrility, if possible, the famous or infamous, _Scotch Presbyterian
Eloquence Displayed_; both author and printer, however, had so much sense
as to remain in the background, and the _thing_ purported to be "Printed
for Mess John in Fleet Street." Under the title of _The Comical History of
the Marriage betwixt Heptarchus and Fergusia_, 1706[1], the Scots figured
the union of the Lord Heptarchus, or England, with the independent, but
coerced, damsel Fergusia, or Scotland; the discontented church of the
latter {144} finding that the former broke faith with her, could not help
giving way to occasional murmurings, and these found vent in (among others)
a poetical Presbyterian tract, entitled _Melancholy Sonnets, or Fergusia's
Complaint upon Heptarchus_, in which the author reduced to rhyme the
aforesaid _Comical History_, adding thereto all the evils this ill-starred
union had entailed upon the land after thirty-five years' experience. This
curious production was "Printed at Elguze? for Pedaneous, and sold by
Circumferaneous, below the Zenith, 1741."[2] Charles II., when crowned at
Scone, took the solemn league and covenant; but not finding it convenient
to carry out that part of his coronation oath, left the Presbyterians at
the Restoration in the lands of their enemies. To mark their sense of this
breach of faith, there was published a little book[3] describing the
inauguration of the _young profligate_, which expressively purports to be
"Printed at Edinburgh in the Year of Covenant-breaking." The Scots folk had
such a horror of anything of a deistical tendency, that John Goldie had to
publish his _Essays, or an Attempt to distinguish true from false Religion_
(popularly called "Goldie's Bible"), at Glasgow, "Printed for the Author,
and sold by him at Kilmarnock, 1779;" neither printer nor bookseller would,
apparently, be identified with the _unclean thing_. Both churchmen and
dissenters convey their exultations, or denouncements, upon political
changes, through the medium of imprints; and your correspondents who have
been discussing that matter, will see in some of these that the "Good Old
Cause" may be "all round the compass," as Captain Cuttle would say,
depending wholly upon the party spectacles through which you view it.
_Legal Fundamental Liberty_, in an epistle from Selburne to Lenthal, is
"Reprinted in the Year of Hypocritical and Abominable Dissimulation, 1649;"
on the other hand, _The Little Bible_ of that militant soldier Captain
Butler is "Printed in the First Year of England's Liberty, 1649." _The Last
Will and Testament of Sir John Presbyter_ is "Printed in the Year of
Jubilee, 1647." _A New Meeting of Ghosts at Tyburn_, in which Oliver,
Bradshaw, and Peters figure, exhibits its royal tendency, being "Printed in
the Year of the Rebellious Phanatick's Downfall, 1660." "Printed at N.,
with Licence," is the cautious imprint of a republication of _Doleman's
Conference_ in 1681. _A proper Project to Startle Fools_ is "Printed in a
Land where Self's cry'd up, and Zeal's cry'd down, 1699." _The Impartial
Accountant, wherein it is demonstratively made known how to pay the
National Debt, and that without a New Tax, or any Inconveniency to the
People_, is "Printed for a Proper Person," and, I may add, can be had of a
_certain person_, if Mr. Gladstone will come down with an adequate
consideration for the secret! These accountants are all mysterious,--you
would think they were plotting to empty the treasury rather than to fill
it; another says his _Essay Upon National Credit_ is "Printed by A. R. in
Bond's Stables!" Thomas Scott, the English minister at Utrecht, published,
among other oddities, _Vox Coelis; or Newes from Heaven, being Imaginary
Conversations there between Henry VIII.(!), Edward VI, Prince Henrie, and
others_, "Printed in Elysium, 1624." Edward Raban, an Englishman, who set
up a press in the far north, published an edition of Lady Culros' _Godlie
Dreame_, and finding that no title commanded such respect among the canny
Scots as that of _Laird_, announced the book to be "Imprinted at Aberdene,
by E. R., Laird of Letters, 1644." _The Instructive Library_, containing a
list of apocryphal books, and a satire upon some theological authors of
that day, is "Printed for the Man in the Moon, 1710." _The Oxford Sermon
Versified_, by Jacob Gingle, Esq., is "Printed by Tim. Atkins at Dr.
Sacheverell's Head, near St. Paul's, 1729." "Printed, and to be had at the
Pamphlett Shops of London and Westminster," was a common way of circulating
productions of questionable morals or loyalty. The Chapmen, or
Flying-Stationers, had many curious dodges of this kind to give a relish to
their literary wares: _The Secret History of Queen Elizabeth and the Earl
of Essex_ derived additional interest in the eyes of their country
customers by its being "Printed at Cologne for Will-with-the-Wisp, at the
Sign of the Moon in the Ecliptic, 1767." The Poems of that hard-headed
Jacobite, Alexander Robertson of Struan, are "Printed at Edinburgh for
Charles Alexander, and sold at his house in Geddes Close, where Subscribers
may call for their Copies, circa 1750."[4] _The New Dialogues of the Dead_
are "Printed for D. Y., at the foot of Parnassus Hill, 1684." Professor
Tenant's poem of _Papistry Stormed_ imitates the old typographers, it being
"Imprentit at Edinbrogh be Oliver and Boyd, anno 1827." A rare old book is
Goddard's {145} _Mastiffe Whelpe_, "Imprinted amongst the Antipodes, and
are to be sould where they are to be bought." Another, by the same author,
is a _Satirical Dialogue_, "Imprinted in the Low Countreyes for all such
Gentlemen as are not altogether idle, nor yet well occupyed." These were
both, I believe, libels upon the fair sex. John Stewart, otherwise _Walking
Stewart_, was in the habit of dating his extraordinary publications "In the
year of Man's Retrospective Knowledge, by Astronomical Calculation, 5000;"
"In the 7000 year of Astronomical History in the Chinese Tables;" and "In
the Fifth Year of Intellectual Existence." "Mulberry Hill, Printed at Crazy
Castle," is an imprint of J. H. Stevenson. _The Button Makers' Jests_, by
Geo. King. of St. James', is "Printed for Henry Frederick, near St. James'
Square;" a coarse squib upon royalty. One Fisher entitled his play _Thou
shall not Steal; the School of Ingratitude_. Thinking the managers of Drury
Lane had communicated his performance, under the latter name, to Reynolds
the dramatist, and then rejected it, he published it thus: "Printed for the
curious and literary--shall we say? Coincidence! refused by the Managers,
and made use of in the Farce of 'Good Living,'" published by Reynolds in
1797. _Harlequin Premier, as it is daily acted_, is a hit at the ministry
of the period, "Printed at Brentafordia, Capital of Barataria, and sold by
all the Booksellers in the Province, 1769." "Printed Merrily, and may be
read Unhappily, betwixt Hawke and Buzzard, 1641," is the _satisfactory_
imprint of _The Downefall of temporising Poets, unlicensed Printers,
upstart Booksellers, tooting Mercuries, and bawling Hawkers_. Books have
sometimes been published for behoof of particular individuals; old Daniel
Rodgers, in his _Matrimonial Honour_, announces "A Part of the Impression
to be vended for the use and benefit of Ed. Minsheu, Gent., 1650." How full
of interest is the following, "Printed at Sheffield by James Montgomery, in
the Hart's Head, 1795!" A poor man, by name J. R. Adam, meeting with
reverses, enlisted, and after serving abroad for a period, returned but to
exchange the barrack-room for the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum. Possessing a
poetical vein, he indulged it here in soothing his own and his companions'
misery, by circulating his verses on detached scraps, printed by himself.
These on his enlargement he collected together, and gave to the world in
1845, under the title of the _Gartnavel Minstrel_, a neat little square
volume of 104 pages, exceedingly well executed, and bearing the imprint
"Glasgow, composed, printed, and published by J. R. Adam;" under any
circumstances a most creditable specimen, but under those I have described
"a _rara avis_ in literature and art."
The list might be spun out, but I fear I have exceeded limits already with
my dry subject.