wrytten by | Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by | Thomas
Sackuyle. | Sette forthe as the same was shewed before the
| Qvenes most excellent Maiestie, in her highnes | Court of
Whitehall, the XViii day of January | Anno Domini, 1561. By
the Gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London. | Imprynted at
London | in Flete strete, at the Signe of the Faucon by
William Griffith; and are | to be sold at his shop in Saincte
| Dunstones Churchyarde in | the West of London. | Anno. 1565.
Septemb. 22._
Day, in his introductory note to the present volume, entitled
"The P to the Reader," explains very satisfactorily the reason
for the new edition, but lets us only infer why he dropped the
authors' names from the title-page. He says:
"Where this Tragedie was for furniture of part of the grand
Chriſtmaſſe in the Inner Temple firſt written about
nine yeares agoe by the right honourable Thomas now Lorde
Buckherſt, and by T. Norton, and after ſhewed before her
Maieſtie, and never intended by the authors therof to be
publiſhed: yet one W. G. getting a copie therof at
ſome youngmans hand that lacked a little money and much
diſcretion, in the last great plage. an. 1565. about V.
yeares paſt, while the ſaid Lord was out of England, and
T. Norton farre out of London, and neither of them both made
priuie, put it forth exceedingly corrupted."
Then, the worthy printer goes on to say in a very allegorical
vein, that being so dishonored, her parents, the authors,
very much displeased, gave her into his hands to be sent forth
honorably; and he hopes she will be well received, else he
will wish that she had tarried at home with him "for ſhe did
neuer put me to more charge, but this one poore black gowne
linèd with white that I haue now geuen her to goe abroad among
you withall."
Quarto. The first authorized edition. Roman.
COLLATION: _A-H3, in fours_.
JOHN LYLY
(1553?-1606)
10. Euphues. | The Anatomy | of Wit. | [10 lines] By Iohn Lylie,
Maiſter of Art. | Corrected and augmented. | At London | Printed
for Gabriell Cawood, | dwelling in Paules Church-yard. [Colophon]
¶Imprinted at London by | Thomas Eaſt, for Gabrill Cawood, |
dwelling in Paules Church- | yard 1581.
The work was licensed "under the hande of the bishopp of
London" December 2, 1578, and was printed for Cawood by Thomas
Eate, or East, the stationer, without a date, but probably
in 1578. Many editions of the famous book have been issued;
fifteen are known, dated between 1579 and 1636, but confusion
exists chiefly over the first three.
Mr. C. Warwick Bond in his recent edition of _The Complete
Works of John Lyly_, Oxford, 1902, brings forward evidence to
prove that two undated copies of _Euphues_, one belonging
to the British Museum and the other to Trinity College,
Cambridge, are all that remain of the first edition, whose
date of issue he sets at about Christmas time, 1578. A unique
Trinity College copy without a date, he thinks was issued
about midsummer of the next year; the famous Malone and Morley
copies of 1579, he considers belong to a third edition, issued
at Christmas; the edition dated 1580 would be fourth and the
copy from which our facsimile was taken would belong to a
fifth edition. Mr. Bond founds his supposition as to the
seasons when the volumes appeared upon the following very
interesting preface:
"TO THE GENTLEMEN READERS.
"I Was driuen into a quandarie Gentlemen," says Lyly, "whether
I might ſend this my Pamphlet to the Printer or to the
pedler, I thought it too bad for the preſſe, & to good
for the packe.... We commonly ſee the booke that at Eaſter
lyeth bounde on the Stacioners ſtall, at Chriſtmaſſe
to be broken in the Haberdaſhers ſhop, which ſith it is
the order of proceeding, I am content this Summer to haue my
dooinges read for a toye, that in Winter they may be readye
for traſh.... Gentlemen vſe bookes as Gentlewomen handle
theyr flowres, who in the morning ſticke th[~e] in their
heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles. Cheries
be fulſome when they be through ripe, becauſe they be
plentie, and bookes be ſtale when they be printed in that
they be common. In my minde Printers & Tailers are chiefely
bound to pray for Gentlemen, the one hath ſo much
fantaſies to print, the other ſuch diuers faſhions to
make, that the preſſing yron of the one is neuer out of
the fyre, nor the printing preſſe of the other any tyme
lieth ſtill...."
The address "To my verie good friends the Gentlemen Scholers
of Oxford" first appeared with the second edition, to which
Lyly made other additions, beside thoroughly revising the
text.
The title-page is bordered with a band of type-metal
ornaments. Among the initial letters are several of a series,
each letter of which represents a child at play. A large
tail-piece is repeated several times, and East's mark of a
black horse with a white crescent on his shoulder, and the
motto _Mieulx vault mourir en vertu que vivre en Honcte_,
is here used for the first time. Some copies dated 1581 have
Rowland Hall's mark but no printer's name.
Mr. Henry R. Plomer says of the book in an interesting article
on our printer: "The preliminary matter is printed in a very
regular fount of Roman, the text in his ordinary fount of
Black Letter, and the whole book is distinguished for its
clear, regular, and clean appearance."
On July 24, 1579, the stationer Cawood entered for license a
second part of _Euphues_, which he had promised at the end of
this volume in the following words:
"I Haue finiſhed the firſt part of Euphues whome now I
lefte readye to croſſe the Seas to Englande, if the winde
send him a ſhorte cutte you ſhall in the ſeconde part
heare what newes he bringeth and I hope to haue him retourned
within one Summer...."
The book appeared the next year with the title: ¶_Euphues and
his England. | Containing | his voyages and adventures, myxed
with | ſundry pretie diſcourſes of honeſt Loue ... ¶
By Iohn Lyly, Maiſter | of Arte. | Commend it, or amend it.
| By Imprinted at London for Gabriell Cawood, dwelling in |
Paules Church-yard._ | 1580.
Edward Blount, the stationer, who published Shakespeare's
folio works, tells us in a preface to Lyly's _Sixe Court
Comedies_, which he collected and William Stansby printed in
1632, of the sensation _Euphues_ created when it appeared.
"Our Nation," he wrote, "are in his (i.e. Lyly's) debt, for a
new Engliſh which hee taught them. Euphues and his England
began firſt, that language: All our Ladies were then his
Scollers; And that Beautie in court, which could not Parley
Euphueiſme, was as little regarded, as ſhee which, now
there, ſpeakes not French."
Quarto. Black letter and Roman. The fifth edition.
COLLATION: _A-Z, in fours_.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
(1554-1586)
11. The | Countesse | Of Pembrokes | Arcadia, | Written By Sir
Philippe | Sidnei. | [Coat-of-arms of the Sidney family] London |
Printed for William Ponſonbie. | Anno Domini, 1590.
The _Arcadia_ was begun in 1580, and when finished, probably
before 1583, was circulated in manuscript copies amongst the
author's friends. That he did not wish to have it printed is
evident from his affectionate dedication to his sister, where
he says:
"HEre now haue you (moſt deare, and moſt worthy to be
moſt deare Lady) this idle worke of mine: which I fear (like
the Spiders webbe) will be thought fitter to be ſwept away,
than worn to any other purpoſe. For my part, in very trueth
(as the cruell fathers among the Greekes, were woont to doo
to the babes they would not foſter) I could well find in my
harte, to caſt out in ſome deſert of forgetfulnes this
child, which I am loath to father. But you deſired me to
doo it, and your deſire, to my hart is an abſolute
commandement. Now, it is done onelie for you, onely to you: if
you keepe it to yourſelfe, or to ſuch friendes, who will
weigh errors in the ballaunce of good will, I hope, for the
fathers ſake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of,
though in itſelfe it haue deformities. For indeede, for
ſeuerer eyes it is not, being but a trifle, and that
triflinglie handled. Your deare ſelfe can best witnes the
maner, being done in looſe ſheetes of paper, moſt of it
in your preſence, the reſt, by ſheetes ſent vnto
you, as faſt as they were done.... But his chiefe ſafetie
ſhal be the not walking abroad; & his chiefe protection, the
bearing the liuerye of your name; which (if much good will do
not deceaue me) is worthy to be a ſanctuary for a greater
offender."
And again later, when he lay dying, reflecting, as he did,
that all things in his former life had "been vain, vain,
vain," he requested that the _Arcadia_ should be burned.
But he counted without the public, who in the person of a
publisher took steps to make it common property the very year
of Sidney's death. We have this from a letter written to
Sir Francis Walsingham, Sidney's father-in-law, by Sir Foulk
Greville, first Lord Brooke, who in his self-written epitaph
styled himself "servant to Queen Elizabeth, councillor to King
James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney":
"S^r, this day, one ponsonby, a booke-bynder in poles
church-yard, came to me and told me that ther was one in hand
to print S^r Philip Sydney's old arcadia, asking me yf it were
done with your honors consent, or any other of his frendes?
I told him, to my knowledge, no: then he aduysed me to give
warninge of it, either to the archbishope or doctor Cosen, who
haue, as he says, a copy to peruse to that end.
"S^r, I am loth to renew his memory unto you, but yeat in this
I must presume; for I haue sent my lady, your daughter, at her
request, a correction of that old one, don 4 or 5 years sinse,
which he left in trust with me; wherof there is no more copies,
and fitter to be reprinted than the first which is so common:
notwithstanding, even that to how and why; so as in many
respects, espetially the care of printing of it; so as to be
don with more deliberation."
Ponsonby obtained a license to print the book, under the hand
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, August 23, 1588, but not with
the full consent and sympathy of the family, owing, we will
hope, to a sentiment of proper respect for the poet's
wishes. There was so much dissatisfaction with Ponsonby's
"adventuring" that Collier thinks the book may have been
called in or suppressed, a fact which would account for its
great rarity. The hesitancy, however, seems to have been
overcome in course of time, for the Countess herself edited
the work for a later edition of Ponsonby's publishing.
No mark or name of a printer is given in our copy, and
Collier, when he gave it as his opinion that Richard Field did
the work, seemed to have been unaware of the existence of the
variation in the imprint, which occurs in the copy belonging
to Trinity College Library, Cambridge, _London, Iohn Windet
for william Ponsonbie_. Probably several had a hand in the
printing. Only a close examination of the few existing copies
could show whether or not they were all issued at the same
time. We shall never know by name the "overseer of the print,"
who assumed the responsibility of arranging the poem, as is
told in a note on the verso of the title-page:
"The diuiſion and ſumming up of the Chapters was not of
Sir Philip Sidneis dooing, but aduentured by the ouerſeer
of the print, for the more eaſe of the Readers. He therfore
ſubmits himſelfe to their judgement, and if his labour
anſwere not the worthines of the booke, deſireth pardon
for it. As alſo if any defect be found in the Eclogues,
which although they were of Sir Phillip Sidneis writing, yet
were not peruſed by him, but left till the worke had bene
finiſhed, that then choiſe ſhould haue bene made, which
ſhould haue bene taken, and in what manner brought in.
At this time they haue bene choſen and diſposed as the
ouer-ſeer thought beſt."
Whoever the overseer may have been, whether in the employment
of Ponsonby, Windet, or Field, and however unfortunate the
result of his literary judgment, he produced a book which for
beauty may take its place with the best of the period. The
Roman type and excellent press-work distinguish it amongst
the mass of inferior productions. Large ornamental initial
letters, more or less related, are used at the beginning of
all the Books, while Book I begins with an especially fine
allegorical woodcut initial representing a crowned Tudor rose,
Justice with her foot on Medusa's head, and Peace. Head- and
tail-pieces, some of type metal and some woodcuts, are used at
the beginning of the Books to give added effect. At the end
of the sixteenth chapter of Book III is a panel made of
type-metal ornaments, intended to hold the lines referred to
in the words: "Vpon which, Baſilius himself cauſed this
Epitaph to be written." These, however, owing to the printer's
oversight, were never added.
In setting up the title-page, it may be that Ponsonby followed
Sidney's hint, and so sought "the chief protection" of the
name of the Countess, and, not content with the name alone,
added the coat-of-arms of the Sidney family.
Quarto. Roman.
COLLATION: _A-Zz, in eights_.
EDMUND SPENSER
(1552?-1599)
12. The Faerie | Queene. | Diſpoſed into twelue books, |
Faſhioning | XII. Morall vertues. | [Printer's mark] London |
Printed for William Ponſonbie. | 1590.
On December 1, 1589, "Maſter Ponſonbye. Entered for his
Copye, a booke intytuled _the fayrye Queene dyspoſed into
xij. bookes. &c._ Aucthoryzed vnder thandes of the Archbishop
of Canterbery, and bothe the wardens ... vj^{d}."
Spenser's name not being mentioned and not being printed on
the title-page, it would almost seem as if he had wished his
book to be anonymous; but that was probably not the case,
because the dedication on the verso of the title, "To the Most
Mightie And Magnificent Empresse Elizabeth ..." is signed by
"Her moſt humble Seruant, Ed. Spenſer." The "Letter of the
Authors Expounding his whole intention in the Courſe of the
worke.... To the Right Noble, and Valorous Sir Walter Raleigh
..." is also signed "Ed. Spenſer," and the last two of his
poems addressed to various personages are signed "E. S."
It will be observed that the license to print the book, as
well as the title-page, refers to the whole work, only three
books of which, treating of the virtues Holiness, Temperance,
and Chastity, had been completed by the author at this time.
Ponsonby may be regarded as a fortunate man to have had the
handling of the works of such authors as Greene, Sidney, and
Spenser. If his attempts to exploit the first great English
prose romance were not always successful, his relations with
Spenser were more satisfactory, and this work finding "a
favorable passage," no less than ten other of the poet's
productions were issued over his imprint.
The printer's name does not appear, but the device on the
title-page is the mark of John Wolfe, son of Reyner Wolfe, a
printer to the City of London, and one of the busiest members
of the Stationers' Company. It was he who printed _The
Shepheard's Calendar_, for John Harrison the younger, in
1586. His use of the Florentine lily is probably not without
significance. The first Italian book printed in England
(_Petruccio Ubaldino La vita di Carlo Magno Imperadore_,
1581), came from his press, as well as numerous translations
of books in that tongue; and it is easy to believe that he may
have received his idea for a mark of a fleur-de-lis "seeding,"
as Herbert calls it, from the Florentine lily of an Italian
printer seen in some of the Italian books so numerous in
England at this time.
A frame of printer's ornaments surrounds a verse at the
beginning of each chapter, and there is a rather clumsy
woodcut, representing Saint George and the Dragon, at the end
of the first Book, but these are the chief ornaments in the
volume. This book, like the _Arcadia_, is in the Roman type,
and of remarkably good press-work.
_The Second | Part Of The | Faerie Queene. | Containing |
The Fourth, | Fifth, | And Sixth Bookes. | By Ed. Spenſer
| [Printer's mark] Imprented at London for VVilliam |
Ponſonby._ 1596. was licensed January 20, 1595-6, and was
published with a second edition of the first part, which
it was meant to accompany. The remaining six books never
appeared.
The device on the title-page of the second volume is that of
Thomas Vautrollier, a foreigner settled in London, whose stock
passed, at his death, to his son-in-law, Richard Field. It
seems clear that Field printed the volume (Vautrollier did
no work after 1588), although Herbert ascribes it to the
master-printer Thomas Creed.
In some early copies of the first volume there are blank
spaces on page 332, which had been left by the printer to be
filled later with Welsh words and then forgotten. Other copies
have this omission corrected.
Quarto. Roman and Italic.
COLLATION: _A-Qq4, in eights_.
FRANCIS BACON, BARON VERULAM
(1561-1626)
13. Eſſaies. | Religious Me- | ditations. | Places of
perſwaſion | and diſſwaſion. | Seene and allowed. | London
| Printed for Humfrey Hooper | and are to bee ſolde at the blacke
Beare in Chaun- | cery lane. 1598. [Colophon] Imprinted at London by
John Windet for Humfrey Hooper. 1598.
This edition is thought by some to be rarer than the first,
which was published by Hooper, in octavo, in the previous
year. Some differences occur in the spelling, the table
of contents here precedes "The Epistle Dedicatorie," the
_Meditationes Sacræ_ are done into English, and the ornaments
used are quite different. Only ten Essays were included
in these two issues, whereas the edition of 1612 has
thirty-eight, and that of 1625, fifty-eight.
Hooper, of whose publications there are very few examples
existing, is thought by Roberts to have been a young publisher
whom Bacon wished to help. John Windet was the successor to
John Wolfe as printer to the City of London; many books came
from his press, but few of them of note.
Perhaps the most interesting peculiarity of the book is the
word _essay_, in the sense of a composition of moderate length
on a particular subject. With this work, the word makes its
first appearance on the title-page of an English book. The
first two books of Montaigne's _Essais_ had appeared in 1580,
and Bacon was no doubt familiar with them as a new style of
writing, since his brother, to whom he addressed this volume,
was a friend of Montaigne. He says in his volume of _Essays_
dedicated to Prince Henry: "For Senacaes Epistles ... are but
Essaies--that is dispersed Meditations ... Essays. The word is
late, but the thing is auncient."
Lord Bacon's reasons for printing his book, expressed in the
signed preface which accompanied both editions, is interesting
as showing that he was alive to the piracies of the
book-sellers, and that he knew how to meet the difficulty in a
sensible manner.
"To M. Anthony Bacon his deare brother.
Louing & beloued Brother, I doe nowe like ſome that haue an
Orcharde ill neighbored, that gather their fruit before it is
ripe, to preuent ſtealing. Theſe fragments of my conceites
were going to print: To labour the ſtaie of them had bin
troubleſome, and ſubiect to interpretation; to let them
paſſe had beene to adu[=e]ture the wrong they might receyue
by ontrue Coppies, or by ſome garniſhment, which it might
pleaſe any that ſhould ſet them forth to beſtowe oppon
them. Therefore I helde it beſt diſcretion to publiſh
them myſelfe as they paſſed long agoe from my pen
without any further diſgrace, then the weakneſſe of the
Author...."
Duodecimo. The second edition.
COLLATION: _A-E4, in twelves_.
RICHARD HAKLUYT
(1552?-1616)
14. The | Principal Navi- | Gations, Voiages, | Traffiques And Disco-
| ueries of the Engliſh Nation, made by Sea | or ouer-land, to the
remote and fartheſt di- | ſtant quarters of the Earth, at any
time within | the compaſſe of theſe 1500. yeeres: Deuided |
into three ſeuerall Volumes, according to the | poſitions of
the Regions, whereunto | they were directed. | [Thirteen lines] And
laſtly, the memorable defeate of the Spaniſh huge | Armada, Anno
1588. and the famous victorie | atchieued at the citie of Cadiz,
1596. | are described. | By Richard Hakluyt Maſter of | Artes, and
ſometime Student of Chriſt- | Church in Oxford. | [Illustration:
Printer's ornament] Imprinted at London by George | Bishop, Ralph
Newberie | and Robert Barker. | 1598. [-1600].
The year 1589 had seen the publication of a small folio volume
entitled:
_The Principall | Navigations, Voia- | ges, And Discoveries
Of The | Engliſh nation, made by Sea or ouer Land, |
[Twenty-seven lines] By Richard Hakluyt Maſter of Artes,
and Student ſometime | of Chriſt-church in Oxford. |
[Printer's ornament] Imprinted at London by George Bishop |
and Ralph Newberie, Deputies to | christopher Barker, Printer
to the Queenes moſt excellent Maieſtie._ | 1589.
The book presents a handsome appearance in the matter of type
and ornament: the archer head-band appears, and there are
two large pictorial initials at the beginning signed A. It
contains also "one of the beſt generall mappes of the world
onely, untill the comming out of a very large and most exact
terreſtrial Globe, collected and reformed according to
the neweſt, ſecretest, and lateſt diſcoueries
... compoſed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare
gentleman in his profeſſion...." This map was a close copy
of one engraved by Francis Hogenberg for Ortelius's _Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum_, published first in Antwerp in 1570. Like the
original it is called _Typus Orbis Terrarum_, but Hogenberg's
name is erased, and no other appears in its stead.
This volume is usually called the first edition of the
amplified work in three volumes, here facsimiled, which
Hakluyt began to issue nine years later. _The British
Librarian_ of William Oldys, that "oddest mortal that ever
wrote," gives a full synopsis of the contents of the latter
work, "this elaborate and excellent _Collection_, which
redounds as much to the Glory of the _Engliſh_ Nation, as
any Book that ever was publiſhed in it." He says:
"Tho' the firſt Volume of this _Collection_ does frequently
appear, by the Date, in the Title Page to be printed in 1599.
the Reader is not thence to conclude the ſaid Volume was
then reprinted, but only the Title Page, as upon collating the
Books we have obſerved; and further, that in the ſaid last
printed Title Page, there is no mention made of the _Cadiz_
Voyage; to omit which, might be one Reaſon of reprinting
that Page: for it being one of the moſt proſperous and
honorable Enterprizes that ever the Earl of Eſſex was
ingaged in, and he falling into the Queen's unpardonable
Displeaſure at this time, our Author, Mr. Hakluyt, might
probably receive Command or Direction, even from one of the
Patrons to whom theſe Voyages are dedicated, who was of the
contrary Faction, not only to ſupreſs all Memorial of that
Action in the Front of this Book, but even cancel the whole
_Narrative_ thereof at the _End_ of it, in all the Copies
(far the greateſt Part of the Impreſſion) which remained
unpubliſhed. And in that caſtrated Manner the Volume has
deſcended to Poſterity; not but if the Caſtration was
intended to have been concealed from us, the laſt Leaf of
the Preface would have been reprinted alſo, with the
like Omiſſion of what is there mentioned concerning the
Inſertion of this Voyage. But at laſt, about the middle of
the late King's Reign, an uncaſtrated copy did ariſe, and
the said Voyage, was reprinted from it; whereby many imperfect
Books have been made complete."