No More Learning

The outstanding name among the workers in this field is that
of the prolific and versatile enthusiast Gervase Markham, whose
i See vol. 11, p. 318.


## p. 365 (#387) ############################################

Markham's Cavelarice 365
activity extended from the last decade of the sixteenth century to
his death in 1637. He was born about 1568, and, in his early
years, spent at his Nottinghamshire home, he naturally became
familiar with every aspect of country life. Like many other
younger sons of the time, he took to a military career; but, after
some years' experience in the wars of the Low Countries, he
exchanged his sword for the pen.
The subjects with which he dealt included such matters as
hunting, hawking, husbandry, gardening, housewifery and the
military art, diversified by occasional excursions into polite lite-
rature in the shape of plays and poems. But, of the many sides of
his literary activity, the most prominent, as well as most congenial,
was, without doubt, that dealing with horsemanship and the vete-
rinary art.
The first of the long series of his books on horses was issued in
1593 under the title A Discource of Horsmanshippe. In this
same year, also, he made his first essay in belles lettres, by pre-
paring for the press a poem entitled Thyrsis and Daphne; but no
copy of this is known to have survived. After having reissued the
Discource in a new and enlarged guise, under the title How
to chuse, ride, traine, and diet, both hunting-horses and running
horses, he followed it, in 1605, with a treatise on How to trayne
and teach horses to amble. Two years later, Markham produced
his chief work on his favourite theme, the horse, 'with whose
nature and use,' he claims with some pride, 'I have been exercised
and acquainted from my Childhood, and I hope, without boast,
need not yield to any in this Kingdome. '
This book he entitled Cavelarice, or the English Horseman.
But it was not in Markham's nature to be satisfied with so brief,
though comprehensive, a title. Showman at heart as he was,
the big drum must be beat, and the attention of the world called
to the wonders to be found within. So, characteristically, and
with a flourish, he sets forth his wares in detail, and acclaims their
originality and his own altruism. Here is the whole:
Cavelarice, or the English Horseman: contayning all the Arte of Horse-
manship, as much as is necessary for any man to understand, whether he be
Horse-breeder, horse-ryder, horse-hunter, horse-runner, horse-ambler, horse-
farrier, horse-keeper, Coachman, Smith, or Sadler. Together with the
discovery of the subtill trade or mistery of horse-coursers, and an explanation
of the excellency of a horses understanding, or how to teach them to doe
trickes like Bankes his Curtall: And that horses may be made to drawe
drie-foot like a Hound. Secrets before unpublished, and now carefully set
down for the profit of this whole Nation.


## p. 366 (#388) ############################################

366 Writers on Country Pursuits
But, if Markham was adept at displaying his wares, he was
no less a master in the choice of appropriate patrons and in the
writing of dedications—a practice reduced to a fine art in those
days. It was a poor book which could not be made to carry two,
if not three, of his dedicatory epistles, for each of which he doubt-
less looked for some remuneration. In Cavelarice, the division
into books affords him opportunity for no less than eight dedica-
tions, leading off with prince Henry, to whom succeed noblemen
of various titles duly graduated. In issuing a new edition,
'corrected and augmented, with many worthy secrets not before
known,' ten years later, the name of Charles, prince of Wales, is
quietly substituted for that of the late prince, without the slightest
change in the terms of the address.
And, when we come to the text of the book itself, Markham is
not wanting in this matter either. He is master of his subject;
and, whether he calls upon the stores of his own experience, or,
as was much the fashion in his time, uses material drawen out
of the most approved authors,' he conveys the impression of writing
with full knowledge, and inspires confidence as one who speaks
with the unhesitating assurance of authority. His directions are
full and clear, and his style is touched with an enthusiasm and an
engaging familiarity wbich bring his reader into close contact and
almost convey the illusion of oral instruction. Now and again,
one comes across bits of that deep-rooted country tradition which
has not even yet worn itself out, such as when he directs that
'If your horse be shrewe-runne, you shall looke for a briere which
growes at both endes, and draw your horse thorow it and he will
be well. ' But Markham is not much given to this kind of thing,
and, whether it was a concession to rural superstition or a filching
from one of his 'approved authors,' it is noticeable that he neither
gives the symptoms of being ‘shrew-runne' nor describes the nature
of the malady.
The mention, in the title-page, of 'Bankes his Curtall,' is a
reference to a celebrated performing horse, called 'Marocco,' which
his owner, one Banks a Scotsman, had taught to do tricks so asto-
nishing that both the 'dancing horse' and its trainer achieved a
European reputation. Shakespeare, in Love's Labour's Lost,
makes reference to Marocco's power of counting money, and many
other allusions to his cleverness may be found in contemporary
literature. The most renowned exploit of this famous animal
was the ascent of St Paul's Cathedral, which took place in 1600.
He was afterwards exhibited in Paris, Frankfort and other places,


## p. 367 (#389) ############################################

Markham's Maister-peece
367
and the amazement which his performances created brought his
owner under the suspicion of employing magic. But Markham,
with his knowledge of horse training, calls Bankes an 'exceeding
honest' man; and, since it would be impossible for Markham to
admit his inferiority to any one in any matter relating to horse-
manship, a chapter is, accordingly, devoted to showing 'How à
horse may be taught to doe any tricke done by Bankes his
Curtall. '
In one of his later books', Markham complains that, by reason
of a too greedy and hasty bookseller, his Cavelarice was not only
exceedingly falsely printed, but, also, the most part of the book of
cures was left out. To supply this omission, he brought out, in
1610, his Maister-peece, wherein, he says, 'I have set down every
disease, and every medicine, so full and so exactly that there is
not a farrier in this kingdome, which knowes a medicine for any
disease, which is true and good indeed, but I will finde the
substance thereof in that booke' Markham evidently prided him-
self on this work, in which he describes himself to be amply and
fully adorned with the best of his own feathers; and his estimation
of it as his master-piece finds justification in the fact that it
continued in use for upwards of one hundred years?
Not content with having produced these comprehensive works
on his special subject, he sought to reach a still wider circle; and,
in 1616, he brought out a popular little octavo called Markhams
Method: or Epitome, which, with an innate knowledge of the
essential elements of popularity, he further attractively described
as containing ‘his approved remedies for all diseases whatsoever,
incident to horses, and they are almost 300, all cured with twelve
medicines onely, not of twelve pence cost and to be got commonly
everywhere'; and he also includes remedies for the diseases of
every description of domestic live stock, from oxen and sheep to
hawks and singing birds. By this time, he is well aware that he
has gained the reputation of being a book-maker, for, in the
preface, he says,
a
me thinks I heare the world say: Sir, why load you thus both mens mindes
and the Booke-sellers stalls with such change and variety of Bookes, all
upon one subject, as if men were tyed to your readings?
and he then proceeds, in three pages, to justify the appearance of
this epitome. But, however plausibly Markham might defend his
1 Markhams Method: preface.
2 The twenty-first edition appeared in 1734.


## p. 368 (#390) ############################################

368 Writers on Country Pursuits
book-making in print, the stationers concerned in his publications
felt that this multiplying of treatises was becoming a serious
matter, and, from the following entry in the register of the
Stationers' company, it appears that they took steps to protect
their interest in such of his books as were already in print.
Memorandum That I Gervase Markham of London gent Do promise
hereafter Never to write any more book or bookes to be printed, of the
Deseases or cures of any Cattle, as Horse, Oxe, Cowe, sheepe, Swine and
Goates &c. In witnes whereof I have hereunto sett my hand the 14th Day of
Julie. 1617.
Gervis Markham.
It is probably this memorandum which has led to Markham
being often described as the first English ‘hackney writer,' a
phrase used by Harte; but he no more deserves this appellation
than many another contemporary writer, and there is no evidence
that he was employed by the booksellers to write any of his
numerous books. How, or by whom, he was induced to sign the
promise does not appear, but it was hardly to be expected that
such an enthusiast could thus completely forswear his especial
hobby.
For some years, he spent his energies upon other subjects, but,
in his later days, he brought out yet two other small horse books,
The Complete Farriar, or the Kings High-way to Horsmanship
and Markhams Faithfull Farrier. In sending forth the latter,
he utters a note suggestive of the weariness of age, but he shows
no abatement of his claim to supremacy in veterinary lore, he has
lost nothing of his valiant assurance, and he still does all 'for the
publick good.
Having (he says) gained experience all my life to these present dayes,
wherein I am ready to creepe into the earth, willing now at the important
request of my best friends, [I] have yeelded my selfe to lay the glory of my
skill in Horsemanship, open to the World: and having kept secret in the
Cabinet of my Brest, these Secrets, by which I have gained from many a
Noble person, many a fayre pound, I now bestow it upon thee for the value
of sixe pence. It may be; some will account me a Foole in Print, for
disclosing my Secrets, but I ever regarded the life of a worthy Horse, before
the word of a foole.
Among the modern writers on horses to whom Markham,
in his Maister-peece, acknowledges his indebtedness, he especially
esteemed Salomon de la Broue, a man of exquisite practice and
knowledge,' whose work Le cavalerice François was printed at
Paris in 1593—4. Of English authors, he names Clifford and
Mascall, and also mentions among his authorities fifteen names


## p. 369 (#391) ############################################

Markham's Predecessors
369
which he terms private, meaning, it may be presumed, practitioners
of the veterinary art who did not publish. Christopher Clifford
was the author of The Schoole of Horsemanship, published in
1585; the works of Leonard Mascall are referred to below.
No other writer on this subject approached Markham, either in
popularity or in knowledge and literary craft. His books were
continually reprinted throughout the seventeenth century, and
they were not entirely superseded even by the great horse-
masters of the latter part of the century, the duke of Newcastle
and Sir William Hope, translator of Solleysel.
Perhaps get better known than his books on horses is the
collection of treatises on country matters which he gathered into
one volume, under the alluring title A Way to get Wealth. This
comprehensive work forms an encyclopaedia of rural occupations
and recreations, in which Markham brought up to date the existing
literature of the subject.
The earliest of his predecessors in this field was Walter of
Henley, whose Book of Husbandry, originally written in the
thirteenth century, circulated largely in manuscript', being added
to from time to time and amended as need arose. Its long con-
tinued popularity must have been due to the practical nature of
the work; and the sphere of its usefulness was extended by a trans-
lation, out of the original Anglicised Norman French, into English,
this version being attributed, on apparently insufficient grounds,
to Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln. After having enjoyed
popularity in manuscript for two hundred years, it was at length
printed by Wynkyn de Worde early in the sixteenth century, only
to be shortly afterwards superseded by Fitzherbert's Book of
Husbandry, which made its appearance about 1523.
It is a question whether the authorship of this treatise, as well
as of its companion volume, The Book of Surveying, should be
rightly assigned to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, justice of the common
pleas, or to his elder brother John Fitzherbert, lord of the manor of
Norbury in Derbyshire; but the balance of probability is in favour
of the latter? The squire, if he it be, tells us that the work was
the outcome of more than forty years' experience, and that it was
intended for the benefit of 'poore fermers and tenauntes. ' The
familiarity with detail, the minuteness of instruction and the care
with which the author states his reasons, well bear out his claim
1 See Lamond and Cunningham's edition (1890) for & list of the twenty-one
extant copies.
2 See English Historical Review, XII, 255 ff. (1897).
24
E. L. IV.
CH. XVII.


## p. 370 (#392) ############################################

370 Writers on Country Pursuits
6
to long experience. The whole course of farming operations is
dealt with, including the management of horses, cattle and sheep;
woodcraft finds a place, and there is likewise a chapter on bees,
which are 'lyttell charge but good attendaunce. ' And, country
squire-like, caring for the welfare of his people, he concludes with
some thirty admonitory essays suited to various occasions, from
the Occupation of a Wife' to 'the Manner of Almsdeeds. ' The
Book of Surveying, which had a forerunner in the rules drawn
up by bishop Grosseteste for the countess of Lincoln, dealt with
duties pertaining to the office of steward or bailiff, and was, in effect,
a hand-book of estate management, designed for the profytte of
all noble men and women. '
For a considerable period, Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry
had no rival, and it was several times reprinted before the end of
the century, when it finally gave way to the Elizabethan writers
on the subject, to whom it had served as a useful quarry. Of
these writers, the most notable, to name them in chronological
order, were Thomas Tusser, Leonard Mascall, Barnabe Googe,
Sir Hugh Plat and Markham.
Thomas Tusser, whose Hundreth good pointes of Husbandrie
(1557), afterwards amplified into Five Hundreth Pointes (1573),
was rather a collection of riming aphorisms than a regular
treatise, is dealt with in another volume of the present work?
Leonard Mascall, quoted by Markham as one of his authorities
and, next to Markham, the best known writer of the time on
husbandry, is said by Fuller to have introduced pippin apples and
carp into England; but carp were already known in 1496, and
Mascall's statement in his Book of Fishing may have referred to
one of his ancestors rather than to himself. Mascall's first book
was of the arte and maner howe to plant and graffe all sortes
of trees (1572), and, for this, he drew upon French and Dutch
sources, supplemented by his own observation. The husbandlye
ordring and governmente of Poultrie, which he brought out in
1581, seems to be the earliest independent treatise which was printed
on the subject. Mascall's chief work, The government of cattell,
made its first appearance in 1587, and, though very largely a com-
pilation, nevertheless represented the best practice of the day, and
continued in vogue together with Markham's books until far into
the succeeding century. This was followed in 1590 by A booke of
fishing with hooke and line. . . Sundrie engines and trappes to take
polcats, buzards, rattes, mice, and all other kindes of vermine.
1 See vol. 111, chap. vill.
2 See Buok oj St Albans.


## p. 371 (#393) ############################################

Barnabe Googe.
Sir Hugh Plat 371
Barnabe Googe takes his real place in literature in another
department', but his translation of the Foure bookes of Husbandry,
collected by M. Conradus Heresbachius (1577) must be noted
here. As Googe remarks in his preface, you have here set down
before you ‘the rules and practices of the olde auncient husbands,
as well Greekes as Latines whose very orders, for the most, at this
day wee observe'; and, though he professes to have increased the
work both by his own reading and the experience of his friends,
yet it represents precepts of the older writers rather than con-
temporary knowledge and practice, and the subject is treated from
the stand-point of a man of letters rather than from that of a
professed agriculturist. The authorities quoted in the preface
include the names of several Englishmen, and he mentions in terms
of respect ‘Master Fitzherbert and Master Tusser: whose workes
may, in my fancie, without any presumption, compare with any,
either Varro, Columella, or Palladius of Rome. Some fifty years
later, the book was re-edited and enlarged by Markham.
Sir Hugh Plat, an interesting person whose activity extended
to other matters besides agriculture, was known as the author of
many curious inventions, a number of which are described in his
Jewell House of Art and Nature: conteining divers rare and
profitable inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in
the art of husbandry, distillation, and moulding (1594). He
applied himself more particularly to improvements in farming and
gardening, his most useful contribution to the subject being a
treatise on manures, which, under the title of Diverse new sorts of
soyle not yet brought into any publique use, for manuring both
of pasture and arable ground, formed the second part of the
Jewell House. About 1596, he also issued an exposition of
The new and admirable arte of setting corne. Harte, in his
Essays on Husbandry (1764), speaks of him as the most ingenious
husbandman of his times, and says that he corresponded with all
the lovers of agriculture and gardening throughout England.
Here, again, as in the field of horsemanship, Markham holas
the foremost place in his day. His books on husbandry are, perhaps,
not written with so intimate a first-hand knowledge, but a faculty
for minute observation and a long acquaintance with country
matters in general enabled him to supplement his own knowledge
by selecting and assimilating what was best and most advanced in
existing literature; and his literary taste and skill enabled him to
present it in a form at once attractive and practical. He is equally
at home in expounding the best methods of tillage, the treatment
1 See vol. II, chap. VIII.
24-2


## p. 372 (#394) ############################################

372 Writers on Country Pursuits
6
of live stock, the subtleties of hawking, the secrets of angling, or
the most approved recipes for the housewife; there is little, indeed,
in the whole range of country pleasures and duties, upon which
he did not discourse with ease, enthusiasm and authority, and,
on all occasions, with that display of omniscience which is a mark
of the true journalist.
All these characteristics are seen to advantage in that encyclo-
paedic and seductive volume A Way to get Wealth. The first
treatise in this collection, Cheap and Good Husbandry, deals
with the management of domestic animals and fowls and the
cure of their diseases. As in duty bound, he leads off with his
favourite, the horse, and, in the directions for training, the gentle-
ness of his methods is particularly noticeable. Correction, indeed,
is to be given ‘soundly and sharply, as oft as just occasion shall
require'; but there is much more of 'cherishing' than chiding, and
suaviter in modo is the key-note of all his instruction. No
treatise on rural economy of this period seems to have been
considered complete without its chapter on bees, and Markham
duly devotes a section to these 'gentle, loving and familiar
creatures. '
Having dealt with the duties of country life, Markham then
proceeds in Country Contentments to set out the various recrea-
tions wherewith a husbandman may refresh himself after the toil
of more serious business. Here, he writes with accustomed ease,
and in somewhat more leisurely manner, as befits the occasion.
The singular rhythmical charm of his style is at its best; nothing is
abrupt or unfinished; sentences are rounded off with a due regard
to effect; and, in the direct simplicity of his diction, nothing of
clearness is lost. What, for instance, could be better and more
attune to its subject than these instructions for the composition of
a pack of hounds:
If you would have your Kennell for sweetnesse of cry, then you must
compound it of some large dogges, that have deepe solemne monthes, and are
swift in spending, which must as it were beare the base in the consort; then
a double number of roaring, and loud-ringing mouthes, which must beare the
counter tenor; then some hollow plaine sweete mouthes, which must beare
the meane or middle part: and soe with these three parts of musicke, you
shall mal your cry perfect. . . .
If you would have your Kennell for loudnes of mouth, you shall not then
choose the hollow deepe mouth, but the loud clanging mouth, which spendeth
freely and sharpley, and as it were redoubleth in the utterance: and if you
mix with them the mouth that roareth, and the mouth that whineth, the
crye will be both the louder and smarter; . . . and the more equally you
compound these mouthes, having as many Roarers as Spenders, and as many
wbiners, as of either of the other, the louder and pleasanter your cry will
be, especially if it be in sounding tall woods, or under the eccho of Rocks.


## p. 373 (#395) ############################################

A
Way to get Wealth
373
Hunting is followed by hawking, ‘a most princely and serious
delight”; and shooting with long-bow and cross-bow, and the
games of bowls, tennis and baloon are all included. The moral-
ising chapter in which The whole Art of Angling is introduced
is entirely in keeping with the spirit of 'the contemplative man's
recreation, and therein Markham shows himself a not unworthy
precursor of Izaak Walton. After commendation of the gentle
art, the making of rods, lines and other implements is described
with a particular nicety, and other directions follow, all set forth
with similar conciseness.
In the English Huswife, which forms the second part of
Country Contentments, Markham, for once, does not claim origin-
ality, but describes it as being in great part from 'a Manuscript,
which many yeeres agon belonged to an Honourable Countesse.
In it, the whole sphere of the housewife's domain is dealt with,
household physic, cookery, distilling, dairying and brewing.
Recipes are given for every domestic occasion, from a remedy for
the Tysicke to the making of Ipocras, with many other conceited
secrets. The cookery directions are characterised by lavishness,
and some of the other recipes are, to say the least, somewhat
curious. If Markham had been challenged as to the 'halfe a
bushell of the doune of Cats tailes' prescribed for the concoction
to cure burning or scalding, he would, probably, have referred it to
the countess's manuscript; but he might not have disowned the
description of qualities which should be discernible in the good
housewife, when he says
First, shee must bee cleanly both in body and garments, shee must have a
quicke eye, a curious nose, a perfect taste, and ready eare; (shee must not be
butter-fingred, sweete-toothed, nor faint-hearted) for, the first will let every
thing fall, the second will consume what it should increase, and the last will
loose time with too much nicenesse.
A Way to get Wealth also contains The Inrichment of the
Weald of Kent and Markhams Farewell to Husbandry, both
of which treat of the manuring and enrichment of poor soils ;
and it concludes with two or three horticultural treatises, the most
important of which, A New Orchard and Garden, was the work
of William Lawson. The collection was many times reprinted, the
fifteenth edition making its appearance in 1695.
Markham wrote several other books on practical subjects, the
titles of which, as well as of works by contemporary writers on
country matters, will be found in the bibliography. Among the
latter, may be specially noted Turbervile's Booke of faulconrie


## p. 374 (#396) ############################################

374 Writers on Country Pursuits
(1575), and The Noble arte of venerie or hunting, also attributed to
Turbervile, and both compilations from foreign sources ; Simon
Latham's two books of Falconry (1615—8); and John Dennys's
Secrets of angling (1613), from which Markham drew more than
inspiration, and with which Walton was acquainted. Descriptive
natural history makes a good beginning in Topsell's illustrated
Historie of Fourefooted Beastes (1607), in which, as the author
frankly and quaintly says,
I have followed D. Gesner as neer as I could, I do profess him my Author
in most of my stories, yet I have gathred up that which he let fal, and added
many pictures and stories as may apeare by conference of both together.
A companion volume, The historie of Serpents, or the second
booke of living creatures, was published in the following year.
Both these books were re-issued in 1658, together with the Theater
of Insects, the latter being a translation of Thomas Moffett's
Insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum, which, though
written in 1590, first appeared in its Latin form in 1634. Moffett,
who had studied medicine in Cambridge and Basle and travelled in
Italy and Spain, was also the author of a descriptive and moralising
poem on The silkewormes and their flies (1599). Silk culture was
receiving some attention in England about this time, and other
practical treatises on the subject were brought out. The newly
imported accomplishment of smoking tobacco was also contributing
its quota to literature.
The earliest of the numerous herbals which appeared in England,
the Grete Herball, founded on the French Grand Herbier, was
printed by Peter Treveris at Southwark in 1526, and several
times reprinted before the middle of the century. William Turner,
the reformer, who had a garden at Kew, diversified his protestant
polemics with botanical pursuits; and his New herball (1551-
62) is considered a starting point in the scientific study of botany
in England. Matthias de L'Obel, whose important works appeared
only in Latin, was a resident in England and botanist to king
James I. The Niewe herball (1578) of Rembert Dodoens, in its
English dress by Henry Lyte, through the French version of
L'Écluse (Clusius), was very popular, as was also the abridgment
by William Ram, published in 1606 under the title Rams little
Dodeon. It was also from Dodoens's Pemptades that John Gerard,
through the manuscript of Priest's translation which came into
his hands, derived and adapted, without acknowledgment, a great
part of his celebrated Herball or generall historie of Plantes


## p. 375 (#397) ############################################

Herbals
375
(1597). The majority of the numerous woodcuts used in this folio
had previously appeared in the Eicones plantarum of Tabernae-
montanus (1590). A revised and enlarged edition was brought
out by Thomas Johnson in 1633.
These herbals, though not professedly horticultural works, give
occasional glimpses into plant culture as practised at that time;
and the art of gardening, which was then making consider-
able progress in this country at the hands of a number of enthusi-
astic devotees, also began to produce its own special literature.
Dutch and other foreign sources provided ready material and
inspiration for some of the earlier writers, among whom there is
naturally a good deal of repetition ; illustrations were also freely
copied, especially designs for knots, or carpet beds, which seem to
have been highly esteemed, but of which Bacon, in his magnificent
plan of a princely garden, says contemptuously that you may see
as good sights, many times, in Tarts. ' Tusser has introduced a
considerable amount of gardening detail into his Pointes of good
husbandrie ; but Thomas Hill, or ‘ Didymus Mountain'as he some-
times facetiously styled himself, was one of the earliest to compile
a book devoted exclusively to horticulture. This was printed in
1563 under the title A most briefe and pleasaunt treatyse,
teachynge howe to dress, sowe, and set a garden, and afterwards
enlarged as The proffitable arte of gardening. Markham's writings
on the subject are to be found chiefly in his English Husbandman,
Country-mans Recreation, and Country Housewifes Garden, the
latter sometimes printed with Lawson's New Orchard mentioned
above. In 1608, Sir Hugh Plat published his contribution to
horticulture under the title Floraes Paradise ; and, in 1629, the
ardent botanist and lover of flowers, John Parkinson, king's
herbarist, brought out his delightful Paradisi in sole Paradisus
terrestris, or a garden of all sorts of pleasant flowers which our
English ayre will permitt to be noursed up: with a kitchen
garden . . . and an orchard, the woodcuts for which were specially
done in England; this was followed in 1640 by his great herbal,
Theatrum botanicum, with its description of nearly 3800 plants
and its 2600 illustrations.
In his recension of the Book of St Albans, issued in 1595 as the
Gentlemans Academie, Markham came into touch with heraldry ;
but, as he merely modernised the diction without revision of
the matter, he can scarcely be deemed a writer on this science.
The section on coat-armour in the St Albans book was the first
English treatise on heraldry, and is not without some practical


## p. 376 (#398) ############################################

376
Writers on Country Pursuits
value; it was derived largely from Nicholas Upton's De officio
militari (1441), first printed in 1654 by Sir Edward Bysshe. In
1562, Gerard Legh brought out his popular Accedens of Armory,
and several other writers, such as John Bossewell, Sir John Ferne
and William Wyrley, followed him; but most of these works were
vitiated by flights of imagination and absurd legends about the
antiquity of coat-armour, and it was left to John Guillim, whose
Display of Heraldrie, first printed in 1610, is still a classic, to
place the science on something approaching a sound basis.
According to Langbaine, Markham was esteemed a good scholar
and an excellent linguist, understanding perfectly the French,
Italian and Spanish languages. He was certainly well read in the
subjects which he handled, and thoroughly conversant with the
classical allusions with which it was the fashion in his day to over-
lay polite literature. In verse, however, his achievement does not
reach a high order; his was not a lyric muse, and the long parra-
tive poems which he attempted are dull conventional productions,
lacking inspiration and spontaneity. Even his best opportunity,
the thrilling story of the last fight of the Revenge', fails to arouse
him, and the poem, dragged out through 174 stanzas of eight lines
each, is a tedious performance, clogged with laboured metaphor
and classical simile. In other poems he deals with some of the
sacred themes much affected at that time: the Poem of poems, or
Sions muse, contayning the divine Song of Salomon in eight
eclogues, the subject of one of bishop Hall's satires? and mentioned
by Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia, made its appearance in 1595;
and, in 1600, was printed Teares of the Beloved : or, the lamenta-
tion of Saint John concerning the death and passion of Christ
Jesus our Saviour, a poem of 140 six-lined stanzas in heroic metre;
Marie Magdalens lamentations for the losse of her Master Jesus,
a similar poem of the following year, has also been attributed to
him.
Besides these original exercises, Markham translated from the
French of Madam Genevefve Petau Maulette,' Devoreux, or
vertues tears (1597), a lament on the death of Henry III of France
and of Walter Devereux, a brother of the Earl of Essex. In 1609,
he produced The Famous Whore, or Noble Curtizan, being the
story of the career of 'Paulina, the famous Roman curtizan, some-
times mes unto the great Cardinall Hypolito, of Est,' a poem in
riming couplets translated, it is said, from the Italian; but the
6
6
1 The Most Honorable Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinvile, Knight, 1595.
2 Bk. 1, Sat. VIIL.


## p. 377 (#399) ############################################

Markham's Poems and Translations 377
6
original of this, as likewise of Devoreux, has not been traced.
Rodomonths Infernall, or the Divell conquered, a spirited English
rendering from the French of Desportes, also belongs to him ; but
the version of Ariostos Satyres, issued under Markham's name
in 1608, was claimed by Robert Tofte. This ascription may have
been an error, either accidental or intentional, on the part of the
publisher; and
and a similar confusion seems to have occurred in the
case of the Pastoralls of Julietta, which was entered by Thomas
Creede in the Stationers' register in November 1609 as 'translated
out of French by Jarvis Markam, but in the following year was
published by him as the work of Tofte.
Seeing the freedom with which he 'paraphrastically’used other
writers' work, it is not surprising to find that Markham adventured
the hazardous role of continuator. In 1607, he published The
English Arcadia, alluding his beginning from Sir Philip Sydnes
ending, and followed it, six years later, with The second and last
part of the first booke of the English Arcadia. Making a compleate
end of the first history; but neither of these attempts seems to
have met with any marked success.
Markham is further known as collaborator in the production of
two plays, but precisely what share belongs to him is not apparent.
The Dumbe Knight (1608), founded on one of Bandello's Italian
novels, was written in conjunction with Lewis Machin of whom
nothing further is known. The true tragedy of Herod and
Antipater, printed in 1622 but written some ten years earlier, was
the joint work of Markham and William Sampson. Both plays
belong to the older school of dramatic writing, and present no
features of importance in either the progress of the drama or the
development of literary art.
In appraising Markham as a writer, his efforts in poetry and
drama may well be ignored. He is essentially an open-air man.
Any rural occupation or manly sport is fit subject for his willing
pen, and therein we find the true Markham. He is delightfully
human, and everything upon which he touches is lighted up by his
enthusiasm and made, for the moment, the most engrossing theme
in the world


## p. 378 (#400) ############################################

CHAPTER XVIII
THE BOOK-TRADE, 1557-1625
The outstanding feature in the history of English printing and
bookselling in the second half of the sixteenth century is the
incorporation of the Stationers' company. This organisation of
the trade was the means whereby a strong dual control over the
output of the press was acquired, in the first place by the state, for
political and ecclesiastical reasons, and, secondly, by the company
itself, for the domestic regulation of the trade.
The guild or fraternity of scriveners and others connected with
the production and sale of books, which had been formed in 1403,
had, with the increased trade in books and the introduction of
printing, developed in course of time into the craft of Stationers;
and, as all persons carrying on any business in the city of London
connected with the book trade were required to become members
of the craft, this association had long exercised considerable
influence in fixing and controlling trade customs. Prompted by
the desire of increased power, the craft, in 15571, procured a royal
charter of incorporation which invested the fraternity not only
with a more formal dignity, but, also, with a greater authority
over the trade. The government of the new corporation was
vested in a master and two wardens to be elected annually, and
the list of original members of the company, as set forth in the
charter, contains ninety-seven names. In 1560, the development
of the association was completed by its admission as one of the
liveried companies of the city.
Under the rules of the company, every member was required
to enter in the register the name of any book or copy which
he claimed as his property and desired to print, paying, at the
same time, a fee for the entry. Besides these entries of books,
the registers also contain records of the admission of freemen, the
* This, as has been pointed out by E. Gordon Duff, is the correct date, not 1556.
as is usrally stated.


## p. 379 (#401) ############################################

The Stationers' Company
379
taking of apprentices, and other matters relating to the affairs
of the company. The registers served, primarily, as an account of
the fees received by the wardens; and the book entries were,
doubtless, also intended to prevent disputes as to who might
possess the right to print any particular work. It should be
observed that the registers by no means include everything which
appeared from the press. Those who held special privileges or
monopolies for printing a certain book or, maybe, a whole class
of books, were not, apparently, under obligation to enter such
books, and the royal printers were also superior to the rule so far
as the works included in their patent were concerned. But, not-
withstanding these lacunae, the registers of the company form
a marvellous storehouse of information concerning the productions
of the press during the period which they cover.
As a direct consequence of the company's charter, no one,
thenceforth, could print anything for sale within the kingdom
unless he were a member of the Stationers' company, or held some
privilege or patent entitling him to print some specified work or
particular class of book. And even the members of the company
who printed or published were subject to many limitations in the
exercise of their calling. Royal proclamations and injunctions,
and Star chamber decrees must not be ignored; the numerous
printing monopolies granted to individuals must not be infringed ;
and, more important still, the strict trade regulations, as laid down
and enforced by the Stationers' company, could not be disregarded
with impunity.
The charter of incorporation was probably the more readily
granted by the authorities of state, in that it provided an organisa-
tion for securing better supervision of the press, and furnished
means of suppressing those seditious and heretical publications
which haunted the authorities with a perpetual fear, and which
were the subject of frequent prohibition. The extent to which this
supervision was made effective may be gathered from the shifts
to which the secret presses were put in order to carry on their
hazardous work? .
The particular class of book to which the terms heretical,
traitorous and seditious were applied varied, of course, with the
form of religion professed by the reigning sovereign. Quite naturally,
popish books were banned under Edward VI, but, in the reign
of queen Mary, a great effort was made to stem the tide of
protestaut literature which the preceding reign had encouraged.
1 See the chapter on the Marprelate tracts in vol. n of the present work.


## p. 380 (#402) ############################################

380
The Book-Trade, 1557–1625
In 1555, a stringent royal proclamation was issued prohibiting the
printing or importation of the works of Luther, Calvin, Bullinger,
Melanchthon, Latimer, Coverdale, Tindale, Cranmer, Becon, and
other reformers; and, in 1558, another brief but peremptory
proclamation was directed against heretical and treasonable books,
including the service books of Edward VI.
By the death of queen Mary, these enactments were soon
rendered null, but the accession of a protestant queen brought
no real freedom, as, with the increase of printing, there also grew
up an increasing desire on the part of both state and church to
obtain complete control over the production and distribution of
printed literature.
In the first year of her reign, Elizabeth confirmed the Stationers
in their charter, and, in the same year, issued the Injunctions
geven by the Quenes Majestie. One of these injunctions had an
important bearing on book production in England, for it is the
authority on which was based that licensing and censorship of
books which was actively enforced by the dignitaries of the church
during this and the next two reigns, and which enabled them to
obtain and retain a tight hold on the output of the legitimate
press. This injunction ordained that no manner of book or paper
should be printed unless the same
be first licenced by her maiestie by expresse wordes in writynge, or by . vi. of
her privy counsel, or be perused and licensed by the archbyshops of Cantor-
bury, and yorke, the bishop of London, the chaunselours of both universities,
the bishop being ordinary, and the Archdeacon also of the place where
anye suche shalbe printed, or by two of them, wherof the ordinary of the
place to be alwaies one. And that the names of such as shal allowe the same
to be added in thende of every such worke, for a testymonye of the allow-
aunce thereof.
Had this injunction been literally obeyed, the object of its
promoters would have been at once secured. But the numerous
proclamations which were issued against dangerous and obnoxious
books attest both the determination to suppress them and the
ineffectiveness of the means employed. In June 1566, the Star
chamber issued a decree against the printing, importing, or selling
of prohibited books, threatening offenders with pains and penalties,
and authorising the Stationers' company to make search for such
books in suspected places. The publication of one of William
Elderton's ballads, entitled Doctor Stories stumblinge into
Englonde, in 1570, was made the occasion for a further effort
in the shape of a privy council order addressed to the master
1 No. 51 : quoted from one of Jugge and Cawood's early undated edicions.
.


## p. 381 (#403) ############################################

Star Chamber Decrees
381
and wardens of the Stationers' company, commanding that they
suffer neither book nor ballad nor any other matter to be pub-
lished without being first seen and licensed. Admonition was
backed up by example, and the severity with which offenders
were occasionally treated served as a reminder of the risk
involved in intermeddling with such matters. William Carter,
a printer who had been imprisoned on divers occasions for printing
‘naughtye papysticall books, found that these were no empty
threats, for, as Stow relates in his Annales, on 10 January 1584,
he was condemned for high treason as having printed a seditious
book entitled, A treatise of schisme, and, on the morrow, he
was drawn from Newgate to Tyburn and there hanged, bowelled
and quartered.
A long-standing feud, between the printers who held monopolies
and the unprivileged men who were continually infringing patents,
resulted in appeals by both parties for state intervention, and the
authorities were not slow to avail themselves of this opportunity
for tightening their hold on the press. Accordingly, in June 1586, ,
the Star chamber enacted a most important decree for the
regulation of printing, which was practically a consolidation
and amplification of previous legislation, and was superseded
only by the still more stringent but short-lived decree issued by
the Star chamber of Charles I in 1637. By the ordinance of 1586,
it was enacted that all presses at present set up, and any which
might hereafter be set up, should be reported to the master and
wardens of the company; that no press should be set up in any
other place than London, except in the universities of Cambridge
and Oxford, and only one press in each of these two places; that,
in order to diminish the excessive multytude of prynters havinge
presses already sett up,' no further press to be erected until such
time as, by death or otherwise, they are reduced to the number
which the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London
shall think requisite for the service of the realm ; and, on the
occurrence of vacancies, the company is to nominate free stationers
to fill the vacancies and to present them to the ecclesiastical
commissioners to be licensed. Severe penalties are threatened
against those who shall print any books except such as have
been allowed according to the order appointed by the queen's
Injunctions.
The order in the injunction of 1559 that the names of the
licensers should be added at the end of every book was practically
a dead letter; but the ‘seen and allowed according to the order


## p. 382 (#404) ############################################

382
Book-Trade, 1557–1625
The
appointed,' which appears on some title-pages soon after that
date, shows that some degree of supervision was being exercised,
and the form of the book entries in the Stationers' registers clearly
indicates the gradually extending operation of the censorship.
Previous to 1561, books are entered merely as licensed by the
company, without any reference to censorship, but, from the March
of that year, books are occasionally noted as authorised by the
bishop of London, and, in a few cases, by the archbishop of
Canterbury. Twenty years later, when John Aylmer had become
bishop of London, and was taking a lively interest in the sub-
jection of the press to authority, his name very frequently appears
as licenser of all kinds of books, and even trifles like ballads
receive his imprimatur. The elevation of the rigorous disci-
plinarian Whitgift to the see of Canterbury in 1583, and the
promulgation of the Star chamber decree of 1586, mark further
steps in the progress of control. By 1588, it had become the
,
practice to enter the name of the licenser and that of one or both
of the wardens of the company, and, in the same year, Whitgift,
whose interest in the censorship was receiving a stimulus from the
activity of his Marprelate opponents, appointed twelve persons
to license books to be printed. The most active among these
twelve were Abraham Hartwell, the younger, secretary to Whitgift,
and Dr Stallard. Another of them was Robert Crowley, author
and formerly printer, from whose press came three editions of
Piers Plowman in 1550. After sojourning abroad during queen
Mary's reign, he renewed his connection with printing, being
adınitted a freeman of the Stationers' company in 1578. Among
prominent censors in succeeding years were Richard Bancroft,
chaplain to Whitgift and afterwards his successor, to whose activity
was largely due the unearthing of the Marprelate press ; William
Barlow, also chaplain to Whitgift and, later, bishop of Lincoln;
Richard Mocket, the reputed author of the tract God and the
King (1615), which was ordered to be bought by every house-
holder in England and Scotland ; and Daniel Featley, controver-
sialist and Westminster assembly divine.
Besides these censors by ecclesiastical warrant, various secular
authorities sometimes authorised the printing of books, such as
Sir Francis Walsingham, the lord treasurer's secretary, or even
lord Burghley himself. Occasionally, the countenance of the privy
council was obtained, and, at other times, a book is passed by the
lord mayor or the city recorder. In certain cases, professional
aid was invoked, as in 1589, when a medical book was entered


## p. 383 (#405) ############################################

Trade Discipline
383
under the hands of both the wardens and three Chirurgyans
appointed to peruse this boke. ' In the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, the drama received special attention, and plays
were licensed by the master of the revels; an office filled by
Sir George Buck from about 1608 to 1622, his immediate successors
being Sir John Ashley, and Sir Henry Herbert, a brother of the
poet. But all these, with the exception of the plays, were rather
in the nature of occasional instances, and the vast majority of
books were licensed either by the archbishop or bishop, or by his
chaplain or secretary. Such was the narrow and hazardous
channel through which the impetuous stream of English literature
in Elizabethan days had to force its way before being allowed to
reach the world of letters.
By their charter, the Stationers were empowered to search the
premises of any printer or stationer to see that nothing was printed
contrary to regulations, and, accordingly, searchers were appointed
to make weekly visits to printing houses, their instructions being
to ascertain how many presses every printer possessed; what every
printer printed, the number of each impression and for whom
they were printed; how many workmen and apprentices every
printer employed, and whether he had on his premises any un-
authorised person. These inquisitorial visits resulted in frequent
seizures of illegally printed books, and, in the records of the
company, there are many instances of such books being brought
into the hall and there either burned or damasked.
But the attentions of the company were not confined to illegal
productions ; the brethren themselves were well looked after, and
the accounts of fines received for breaking of orders and other
offences show that a rigorous supervision was maintained. In
1559, John King is fined two shillings and sixpence for printing
The Nutbrowne Mayde without licence, and William Jones is
mulcted in twenty pence 'for that he solde a Communion boke
of Kynge Edwardes for one of the newe. ' In 1595, Abel Jeffes,
having printed 'lewde ballades and thinges verye offensive,' it was
ordered by the court of the company that his press, type and
other printing stuff, which had been seized and brought into the
hall, should be defaced and made unserviceable for printing.
Penalties were also imposed for printing other men's copies, that
is, infringing copyright, and for disorderly' printing, which
evidently included carelessly, as well as wrongfully, printed books.
These are mostly individual cases, but, occasionally, a wholesale


## p. 384 (#406) ############################################

384 The Book-Trade, 1557–1625
raid is made, as in 1562—3, when William Powell was fined for
printing the prognostication of Nostradamus, and nineteen other
booksellers were fined for selling the book. In 1594, several
stationers were heavily penalised for selling 'psalmes disorderly
printed'; and, in 1603, thirteen booksellers got into trouble for
being concerned in an unauthorised edition of Basilicon doron,
which had been first printed at Edinburgh in 1599, in a private
edition of only seven copies. This second edition was printed
by Edward Allde, and a bookseller, Edward White, who had sold
500 copies which, therefore, could not be forfeited, was condemned
to imprisonment but respited to the further order of the company.
Cases are not wanting in which contumacious offenders were
actually committed to prison. Even in those early days, the soul
of the bookseller was vexed by the intrusion of other trades upon
his domain, and Thomas Purfoot was fined for selling Primers
to the haberdashers. Fines for keeping open shop on Sundays
and festival days are not infrequent in the sixteenth century, and
the keeping of an apprentice without presenting him was a common
offence.
A cause of much dissension and frequent dispute among the
printers was the number of printing monopolies granted during
the reign of Elizabeth. These privileges were not only for the
exclusive right of printing a definite book, but frequently covered
a whole class of books. Thus, in 1559, the printing of law books
was confirmed to Richard Tottel, for his lifetime. William Seres,
who, in queen Mary's reign, had been deprived of his privilege
of printing Primers and books of private prayers and had suffered
imprisonment, succeeded in recovering his patent with reversion to
his son and the addition of Psalters to his monopoly. Christopher
Barker, successor in 1577 of Richard Jugge in the office of queen's
printer, had the privilege of printing Bibles, the Book of Common
Prayer, statutes and proclamations. Through the influence of
the earl of Leicester, John Day had been given the monopoly
of printing the Psalms in metre and the ABC and Catechism.
The printing of dictionaries and chronicles was granted to Henry
Bynneman. Richard Watkins and James Roberts had a patent
for twenty-one years for almanacs and prognostications, and in
1603 this valuable privilege was conferred by king James I
upon the Stationers' company for ever. Thomas Marshe's patent
included a number of the most usual school books in Latin.
'Master Birde and Master Tallis of her Majesty's Chappel have
all music books and also ruled paper for music. There are


## p. 385 (#407) ############################################

Privileges
385
also instances of a monopoly being granted for a term of years
for a specified book, a privilege which corresponds to our present
copyright.
It will be noticed that these privileges were mainly for books
of a stereotyped kind for which there was a constant demand, and
the production of works of real literature was scarcely, if at all,
affected by them. But this concentration of the best paying work
in a few hands bred much discontent in the trade, and, together
with scarcity of employment, led to frequent complaints by those
who felt the pinch.
The forces thus brought into conflict were, on the one side,
the possessors of profitable privileges or valuable copyrights
which formed the backbone of their business; these were the
leading members of the trade, men of influence in the affairs of
the company. On the other side, forming a natural opposition,
were ranged the unprivileged men, who, possessed of small means
and being, to some extent, outsiders, were driven to a more
speculative class of business, and picked up-no great matter
how-copy which was likely to appeal to the popular taste, such
as plays, poems, ballads, or any other unconsidered trifles out of
which they might turn a penny. Notwithstanding the specious
argument of the monopolists that
privileges are a means whereby many books are now printed which are more
beneficial to the commonwealth than profitable to the printer, for the patentee
being benefited by books of profitable sale is content to bestowe part of his
gain in other books, which though very beneficial to the commonwealth will
not repay the tenth part of his charge,
it is, as a matter of fact, to the unprivileged printers that we owe
the preservation in print of the greater part of the poetical,
dramatic and popular literature of the time. But, though the
names of these men have become known to us mainly in connection
with this literature, it is not necessary to credit them with either
great literary taste or a consciousness of the part they were playing
in this cause; it merely means that necessity and keen com-
petition for business had given them a shrewd eye as to what was
likely to find a good market.
This clashing of interests led to various efforts on the part
of the lesser men to obtain redress of their grievances, and a few
adventurous spirits took matters into their own hands and pro-
ceeded to pirate some of the smaller books for which there was
a large and steady sale. Besides being quickly printed, these
sinall publications possessed the advantage of being easily
E. L. IV.
25
CH. XVIII.


## p. 386 (#408) ############################################

386
The Book-Trade, 1557–1625
dispersed, and many of them were sent into the country, where, as
imprints were also forged, there was little risk of their spurious
origin being detected. Legal proceedings naturally followed,
and, in 1582, John Day, one of the largest patentees, preferred
a complaint to the Star chamber against Roger Ward for printing,
and William Holmes for selling, pirated copies of the ABC with
the little catechism, a publication for which Day held a patent
of monopoly. In his answer to the charge, Ward makes a stout
defence, eked out with convenient lapses of memory, and pleads
that, a very small number of stationers having gotten all the best
books to be printed by themselves by privilege, have left little
or nothing for the rest of the printers to live upon. In the same
year, William Seres appealed to lord Burghley against the in-
fringement by certain stationers of his right of printing Primers
and Psalters, and the form in which his complaint is stated indi-
cates the existence of some more or less organised piracy by the
younger men of the company, .
The leader of this lawless band was John Wolfe, of the Fish-
mongers' company, a born agitator; he not only printed other
men's copies, but incited others to defy the constituted authorities.
A petition against him and his associates, addressed to the privy
council by the Stationers' company in 1583, relates that, on being
remonstrated with, Wolfe declared that he would print all their
books if he lacked work. Being admonished that he, being but
one so mean a man, should not presume to oppose her Highness's
government, 'Tush,' said he, ‘Luther was but one man, and re-
formed all the world for religion, and I am that one man that
must and will reforme the governement in this trade. ' However,
efforts made to compose the differences between the disputants
met with some success. The patentees surrendered a number of
their copyrights for the use of the poor of the company; and
Wolfe, it was reported,'acknowledged his error,' and was admitted
into the Stationers' company. It is amusing to discover Wolfe
and Francis Adams, a year or so later, appearing in a Star chamber
case righteously indignant at the lawless infringement of a print-
ing patent in which they had acquired a share; and Wolfe is
afterwards found taking an active part, as an official of the
company, in the search for secret presses.
About the year 1577, the number of printers and stationers,
journeymen and all, within the city of London was 175, besides
a large number of apprentices; and in a report on the printing
patents which he drew up in 1582, Christopher Barker, the queen’s


## p. 387 (#409) ############################################

Apprentices
387
printer, stated that there were about threescore journeymen con-
nected with the printing trade alone. He also says that there
were twenty-two printing houses in London, and expresses the
opinion that '8 or 10 at the most would suffise for all England,
yea and Scotland too. ' A not very liberal view, perhaps ; but
Barker was a patentee. In 1586, the number of master printers
had risen to twenty-five, and they had among them a total of
fifty-three presses; but, by the Star chamber decree of that year,
no further increase in the number of master printers or presses
was permitted, and there was little variation in this number, until,
under the stress of public affairs in 1640, the restrictions on
printing were relaxed, when there was a rapid increase, and, by
1649, there were in London upwards of sixty printing houses.
But, though the amount of work that could be provided by
the presses was thus strictly limited, there was no similar limit
to the supply of workmen, and, owing to the masters having taken
too many apprentices in past years, the number of journeymen
so increased that there was lack of work for them all and
consequent discontent and distress. Endeavours were made to
.
remedy this state of matters by limiting the number of appren-
tices; but, as a more immediate step for relieving the lack of
employment, the company, in 1587—8, made certain orders con-
cerning printing, which provided that no apprentice should be
employed in composing or working at the press if any competent
journeyman wanted work, and that no formes of type should be
kept standing to the prejudice of workmen. By these regulations,
also, the number of copies of one impression of a book was limited,
in ordinary cases, to 1250 or 1500 copies. The effect of this
restriction was to supply more work for compositors, inasmuch
as the type had to be reset for each impression. The operation
of some similar earlier trade regulation may, possibly, explain
the existence of such bibliographical puzzles as the appearance
in duplicate of the second edition of Tottel's Miscellany, a book
which achieved an immediate popularity. The first edition of this
is dated 5 June 1557, and the enlarged second edition, of which
there are two very similar variants, appeared as early as 31 July
in the same year.
The fact that, in all probability, the second
impression of a book would be set up from a copy of the first
edition may account for a close typographical similarity of appear-
ance between successive editions, which might easily cause copies
of them to be taken for variations of the same edition.
The term of apprenticeship varied from seven to eleven years,
25-2


## p. 388 (#410) ############################################

388
The Book-Trade, 1557—1625
80 arranged that the apprentice should reach at least the age of
twenty-four years before the expiration of his term. At the end
of his time, his master was bound to make him free of the company
‘if he have well and truely served'; but, as Arber has remarked,
hardly more than one-half of the apprentices ever attained to the
freedom of the company. On becoming a freeman, an ambitious
young printer would naturally turn his thoughts towards starting
in business for himself. As has been seen, the number of master
printers was, for a long period, limited to about 25, and the
prospect of a young man gaining admission to this small company
was very slender. The picturesque tradition of the industrious
apprentice marrying his master's daughter suggests itself in this
connection, but, as a matter of fact, it was much more often his
master's widow that he married, and cases are not uncommon of
the business and the widow being 'taken over' by two printers in
succession.
To embark on his career as a bookseller and publisher was a
simpler, if more hazardous, undertaking. If possessed of means,
the young bookseller might purchase a stock of saleable books,
and at once open a shop in some busy thoroughfare or take up
a point of vantage in one of the stalls or booths which crowded
round the walls of St Paul's, and there expose his wares for sale.
But, supposing him to have nothing save his native wit to aid
him, there was still a way by which he could set up for himself.
If he could procure the copy of some book, or pamphlet, or, may
be, even a ballad, which he could enter in the register as his
property, and then get printed by some friendly printer, he would
have made a modest beginning; and, if this first essay happened
to promise a fair sale, he might, by exchanging copies of it with
other publishers for their books, at once obtain a stock in trade.
This system of interchange seems to have been a common practice,
and books were sometimes entered in the register with the proviso
that the stationer 'shall not refuse to exchange these bookes with
the company for other good wares. ' The custom continued in
vogue throughout the seventeenth century, and it was in this way
that, in 1681, the celebrated John Dunton began his career as a
publisher; having ventured to print Doolittle's Sufferings of
Christ, he says, 'by exchanging it through the whole trade, it
furnished my shop with all sorts of books saleable at that
time. '
Besides publishing books brought to them by authors, stationers
often took the initiative and engaged writers to produce works for


## p. 389 (#411) ############################################

Readers, and Translators
389
them. Thus, it was at the instance and expense of Christopher
Barker that George Turbervile undertook the compilation of The
noble arte of venerie or hunting (1575), the publisher himself seek-
ing out and procuring works of foreign writers for the use of the
compiler. When William Fulke was at work upon his Confutation
of the Rhemish Testament, he and two of his men, with their
horses, were maintained in London for three-quarters of a year by
the publisher of the book, George Bishop, who also supplied Fulke
with such books as he required, and at the finish paid him forty
pounds for his work. The six revisers who went up to London to
make the final revision of the Authorised Version of the Bible,
each received thirty shillings a week for the nine months during
which they were engaged upon the task. For his Survey of
London, John Stow had £3 and 40 copies; and, ‘for his pains
in the Brief Chronicle,' he received twenty shillings and 50 copies.
Correcting and editing for the press afforded occupation for a
few scholars in the more important printing houses, and it is
probable that John Foxe, after his return from the continent,
worked in some such capacity in the office of John Day, as he had
previously done in the house of Oporinus at Basel. Christopher
Barker, in 1582, mentions the payment of ‘learned correctours' as
one of the expenses which printers had to bear; and, about 1630,
the king's printing-house was employing four correctors, all of
whom were masters of arts.
Translations, of which an extraordinary number were published
during this period, formed a large part of the work which hack
writers did for booksellers, and it was generally poorly paid work.
For the writing of an ordinary pamphlet, two pounds seems to
have been a customary payment, but oft-times, especially in the
case of translation, the writer had to content himself with receiv-
ing a certain number of copies to dispose of for his own benefit.
After 1622, when news sheets began to be issued, the translating
of these from foreign Corantos offered another means of earning a
pittance, and if there were dearth of news, or the supply of foreign
print failed, the resourcefulness of writers was, doubtless, quite
equal to that of Thomas Herbert and his companions who, some
twenty years later, sat themselves down at the sign of the Antelope
and there 'composed' Good Newes from Ireland, Bloudy Newes
and other equally reliable information, and then sold their fabri-
cations to the stationers for half-a-crown a-piece.
A humble form of literature, which provided occupation for
inferior writers and work for smaller printers, was the ballad,
3


## p. 390 (#412) ############################################

390
The Book-Trade, 1557–1625
which came forth from the press in thousands. Not the old
narrative ballads of oral tradition, but their debased descendants,
topical street ballads—sentimental ditties in amorous, moral, or
satirical vein ; story of horrid crime or monstrous birth ; relation
of disaster by fire or flood; or any other popular excitement of
the hour: in short, any peg upon which could be hung a jingling
rime or doleful ditty served for a ballad, and 'scarce a cat can
look out of a gutter,' it was said, “but presently a proper new
ballad of a strange sight is indited. Yet, in spite of the vast
number which were printed, these ephemeral sheets have perished
almost as completely as the names of their writers. Those who
bought them cared as little to know who wrote them, as do the
patrons of the popular songs of to-day. William Elderton was
responsible for a large number in his time, Thomas Deloney had
written some 50 by 1596, and Anthony Munday also contributed
his quota; but, as is only natural, ballads, with few exceptions,
are known only by their titles. Printers of them were as
numerous as writers; one of the earliest, John Awdeley, wrote as
well as printed them, as did also Thomas Nelson later in the
sixteenth century. Among the most active producers of these
sheets were Thomas Colwell of Fleet Street, Alexander Lacy of
Little Britain, William Pickering of London Bridge, Richard Jones
the publisher of several of Elderton's writing, who, in 1586, entered
in the Stationers' register no fewer than 123 at one time, and
Edward Allde and Henry Carr, who entered batches of 36 and 20
respectively in this same year.
To the professional writer, a patron, to whom he might dedicate
his book, was almost as essential as a publisher; and the com-
petition for the favour of distinguished persons who patronised
literature was very keen. Prominent among these were the earl
of Leicester, who befriended Spenser and Ascham; the earl of
Southampton, the friend, as well as patron, of Shakespeare;
Sir Philip Sidney and his sister the countess of Pembroke ; and
William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, the friend of Donne, who was
accustomed, on the first day of each new year, to send to Ben
Jonson a gift of £20 to buy books. No doubt it was an advantage
to a book to be launched under the approbation of some person of
mark, but the needy writer had also well in view the more
substantial reward which was invariably expected in return for the
flattering compliments, or often fulsome eulogy, of the dedication.
Occasionally, this desired recompense might be an appointment to
some office or other similar recognition, but, more generally, it
>


## p. 391 (#413) ############################################

6
Copyright
391
took the form of a gift of money, varying in amount with the
generosity of the patron or the persuasive importunity of the
author, though, sometimes, the mere acceptance of the dedication
must have been the only solatium. In the record of his literary
earnings which Richard Robinson, compiler and translator of a
number of dull religious works between 1576 and 1598, has left in
manuscript', we get a glimpse of what the ordinary occasional
dedication was worth. For a book dedicated to the master of the
Leathersellers, of which company he was a member, he received
28. 6d. from the master and 78. 6d. more from the company. In
1579, Sir Philip Sidney, to whom he had presented' a book, gave
him four angels, increased by a gift of 108. from Sir Henry Sidney.
But, for the third series of his Harmony of King Davids Harp
(1595), which he dedicated to queen Elizabeth and presented to
her highness as she was 'goyng to the Chappell in the morning,'
he received no gratification : in fact, the queen characteristically
told him that she had quite enough to do in paying and relieving
her needy soldiers, and that as she had not set him on the
work she did not intend to pay him any wages.
The only form of copyright recognised at this time was the
entry of a 'copy' in the Stationers' register by a member of the
company, and the right to print any work so entered became
vested in the stationer in whose name it stood So far as
the author was concerned, no rights existed; in a few cases,
it is true, a royal patent was granted to a particular individual
giving him a monopoly of his work for a specified period, but these
exceptions only serve to accentuate the general case. The author
was thus at the mercy of the stationer. He could, no doubt, take
his manuscript in his hand, and, making the round of the shops,
conclude a bargain with some bookseller whom he found willing to
undertake the publication of his work; but, except by agreement,
he could retain no control over his book : it would be entered
in the register in the stationer's name and become his property.
As for the author who allowed his writings to be circulated in
manuscript, as was often done in the case of poems and other
forms of polite literature, he was in a still more defenceless state,
for his manuscript was liable to be snapped up by any literary
scout who might scent a paying venture; and the first stationer
who could acquire it might forthwith proceed to Stationers' Hall
and secure the copyright of the work, leaving the hapless author
1 • Eupolemia' (British Museum, Royal MSS, 18 A. lxvi). See Gentleman's
Magazine, April 1906, pp. 277–284.
6


## p. 392 (#414) ############################################

392
The Book-Trade, 1557–1625
without recompense or redress, and without even the consolation
to his literary pride of correcting the errors of copyist and
printer. In such cases, the publisher frequently prefixed an
address from his own pen, dedicating the work to whom he would,
and taking credit to himself for presenting it to the reading
public. It was in this way that Sidney's Sonnets in 1591, Shake-
speare's Sonnets in 1609, and other worthy shelf-fellows first
attained the dignity of print, if that description may be applied
to such mean typographical productions.
John Minsheu, the lexicographer, indeed, took matters into his
own hands, and, in 1617, printed ‘at his owne charge, for the
publicke good,' his polyglot dictionary, Ductor in linguas ; but, as
stationers boycotted the book, he was forced to seek subscribers
for it himself, and the experiment does not seem to have been a
success. John Taylor, the Thames waterman, also resorted to
publication by subscription, and, in his case, his whimsical per-
sonality, added to the amusement afforded by the rough wit and
boisterous humour of his effusions, secured a large number of
patrons. Before starting on one of his eccentric journeys, he
would circulate a quantity of prospectuses or ‘Taylor's bills,' as he
called them, with the object of securing subscribers for the account
of his travels to be afterwards published. In this way, he obtained
more than sixteen hundred subscribers to The Pennyles Pil
grimage (1618), a record of his journey on foot into Scotland. On
the strength of this list, he had 4500 copies printed, but nearly
half the subscribers refused to pay, and he castigated the defaulters
in an amusing brochure entitled A Kicksey Winsey, or,
A Lerry
Come-Twang, which he issued in the following year. He also
worked off copies of his publications by 'presenting' them to
various people, not forgetting to call on the morrow for 'sweet
remuneration. ' Buty notwithstanding king James's dictum, as
reported by Ben Jonson, that he did not see ever any verses in
England equal to the Sculler's,' Taylor cannot be accounted as
anything more than a voluminous scribbler, possessed of irrepres-
sible assurance and facile wit of a coarse vein. He had, however,
the saving grace of acute observation of men and manners, and
this has given his productions a certain value for the student
of social history. The term 'literary bargee' befits him much
better than his own self-styled title 'the water-poet'; and his
unrelenting satirical persecution of Thomas Coryate shows him in
an unamiable light. In 1630, he gathered into one folio volume,
which he called All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-poet,
a


## p. 393 (#415) ############################################

The Shakespeare Stationers 393
sixty-three of his pieces in prose and verse ; but, before his
death, in 1653, the number of his publications had exceeded one
hundred and fifty.
It would appear that the dramatist was especially exposed to
the predatory habits of the piratical publisher. The playhouse
authorities, believing that the circulation of a play in print was
likely to detract from its financial success on the stage, gave no
encouragement to the publishing of plays. But a popular play
was sure of finding a ready sale, and a stationer on the look-out
for ‘vendible copy,' if he could obtain an acting copy of a favourite
play, or procure a shorthand writer to take notes during its
performance, would have little regard to the wishes of either
playwright or players.
The printers and publishers of the early Shakespeare quartos
belonged almost entirely to the class of unprivileged men, and,
though they were otherwise quite unimportant as stationers, their
association with the production of the plays makes them an in-
teresting group. Of the thirty-six plays contained in the first
folio (1623), sixteen had previously been issued in separate form.
The earliest in date is the Titus Andronicus of 1594, which was
printed by John Danter for Edward White and Thomas Milling-
ton. This Danter, who, three years later, issued the first edition of
Romeo and Juliet, was one of the least reputable members of
the trade, and was given to the printing of pirated works and
scurrilous pamphlets. Millington also published The First Part
of the Contention and The True Tragedie of Richard the Third,
which appeared in 1594 and 1595 respectively. In 1600, jointly
with John Busby, another publisher of plays, he issued the first
edition of Henry V; and, on 15 October 1595, he entered for his
copy in the Stationers' register The Norfolk gent his will and
Testament and howe he Commytted the keepinge of his Children
to his owne brother whoe delte moste wickedly with them and
howe God plagued him for it—a story which has since found a
briefer and more poetical title in The Babes in the Wood.