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diff --git a/40841-0.txt b/40841-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b870e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/40841-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1030 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40841 *** + + SHAKSPERE & TYPOGRAPHY + + + _By William Blades_ + + NEW YORK: Edited & Reprinted + by _The Winthrop Press_ for _The + American Type Founders Company_ + MD CCC XC VII + + + + +_The_ INTRODUCTION + + +In the good old days when printing was better recognized as a mystery than +as an art, one could call a printer 'a man of letters' without being +guilty of a pun. Books were for the few then, and the man who would print +them must be somewhat of a scholar himself. + +To-day, amid the whirr of many presses, and the hurrying to and fro of the +printing office, the printer finds little or no time for literary +pursuits, despite the fact that printing is, in very truth, the handmaid +of literature. It is the more admirable, therefore, when a successful +printer attains to a degree of scholarship--particularly scholarship in +matters that enlighten and dignify his own handicraft. + +Such a printer was _William Blades_. During fifty years of active +business life he contributed to the history of printing, a goodly number +of books and a mass of miscellaneous articles. Among these is the most +complete and authoritative life of Caxton, England's first printer, +representing an immense amount of study and research. + +The book from which the following pages are reprinted is perhaps the least +familiar of Blades' works, and it evidently was written as a literary +recreation. The thought that reading it may afford recreation to those +busied about the making of books, and the comparative scarcity of the only +edition, are the excuses for reprinting the more interesting portion. + +The first chapter (merely a resumé of the theories that have been advanced +by various professions and callings to claim Shakspere for their own) has +been omitted; likewise the appendix, which is a suggestion that many of +the obscurities in the text of Shakspere may be cleared up by a study of +the typographical errors in the first editions. With these exceptions, the +work is given here entire, and, it is hoped, in such form as accords with +the spirit of the author, whose tastes were those of the scholarly +printer. + + _Editorial Dept. + The Winthrop Press, + 32 Lafayette Place, N. Y. + November, 1897_ + + + + +_The PREFACE_ + + +_The First Chapter of this Tractate is designed to show, in a succinct +manner, the numerous and contradictory theories concerning Shakspere's +special knowledge, the evidence for which has been created by 'selecting' +certain words and phrases from the mass of his writings._ + +_The Second and Third Chapters, erected on a similar basis of 'selection', +are intended to prove that Shakspere had an intimate and special knowledge +of Typography._ + +_Old Printers can still call to mind that period of our history when a +stalwart Pressman, on his way to work, ran considerable risk in the +streets of London of being seized by another kind of pressmen, viz., the +Press-gang, and forced_ nolens volens _into the service of the King. Some +readers (not Printers) may think that I have exercised over quotations +from Shakspere's works a similar compulsion, by pressing into my service +passages whose bearing is by no means in a typographical direction. They +may even go so far as to strain somewhat the self-accusation of Falstaff +(Henry IV, iv, 2), and bring against me the charge that_ + + _I have misused the King's press most damnably, by printing such + evidences._ + +_I can only reply that if, notwithstanding a careful consideration of the +proofs here laid before him, the reader should consider my case 'not +proven', I must submit with all humility to his penetration and judgment._ + +_At the same time, since my proofs that Shakspere was a Printer are at +least quite as conclusive as the evidence brought forward by others to +demonstrate that he was Doctor, Lawyer, Soldier, Sailor, Catholic, +Atheist, Thief, I would claim as a right that my opponent, having rejected +my theory that he was a Printer, should be consistent, and at once, reject +all theories which attribute to him special knowledge, and repose upon the +simple belief that Shakspere, the Actor and Playwright, was a man of +surpassing genius, of keen observation, and never-failing memory._ + +W. B. + + + + +I. SHAKSPERE IN THE PRINTING OFFICE + + +In November, 1589, the company acting at the Blackfriars Theatre thought +it would be advantageous to their interests to send in to the Privy +Council a memorial, certifying that they had never given cause of +displeasure by introducing upon the stage 'matters of State or Religion'. +The actors who signed this memorial styled themselves 'Her Majesty's Poor +Players', and among them appears the name of William Shakspere. We here +meet the Poet's name for the first time after he had left his home at +Stratford-on-Avon, about four years previously. What his employment had +been in the intervening period is a question which few of his biographers +have cared to ask, and which not one has answered. + +It is usually supposed that immediately upon his arrival in London he +became in some way associated with the Stage,--but there is no evidence of +this. On the contrary, we shall give reasons for believing that coming to +London poor, needy, and in search of employment, he was immediately taken +into the service of Vautrollier the Printer. + +THOMAS VAUTROLLIER, entitled in his patents 'typographus Londinensis, in +claustro vulgo Blackfriers commorans', was a Frenchman who came to England +at the commencement of Queen Elizabeth's reign. He was admitted a brother +of the Stationers' Company in 1564, and commenced business as Printer and +Publisher in Blackfriars, working in the same premises up to the time of +his death, which occurred in 1588. His character as a scholar stands high, +and his workmanship is excellent. He had a privilege, or monopoly, for the +printing and sale of certain books, as all the chief Printers then had. +Shortly before his death he married his daughter to Richard Field, who for +this reason, and because he succeeded to the premises and business of the +widow, is erroneously supposed by Ames to have served his apprenticeship +to Vautrollier. But why bring in the name of Richard Field? The reply is +important. Field was Shakspere's own townsman, and being of about the same +age and social rank, the boys probably grew up together as playfellows. +Field's father, Henry Field, was a Tanner at Stratford-on-Avon, and +Halliwell says 'a friend of Shakspere's family'. Early in 1578 young Field +came up to London, and at Michaelmas was apprenticed for seven years to +George Bishop, Printer and Publisher. Being in the same trade as +Vautrollier, Field would naturally become acquainted with him; and in +1588, a year after he was out of his time, he married Vautrollier's +daughter. Here, then, we seem to have a missing link supplied in the chain +of Shakspere's history. In 1585 Shakspere came up to London in a 'needy' +state. To whom would he be more likely to apply than to his old playmate +Richard Field. Field, a young man nearly out of his apprenticeship, on +terms of intimacy with Vautrollier, could do nothing better than recommend +him to the father of his future wife. Once introduced we may be sure that +Shakspere, with his fund of wit and good humour, would always be a welcome +guest; and that this friendly feeling was maintained between him and the +Vautrollier-Field families receives confirmation from the fact that +Richard Field, who succeeded to the shop and business soon after the death +of his father-in-law, actually put to press the two first printed works of +the great Poet, the 'Venus and Adonis', 1593, and the 'Lucrece', 1594. + +Here then, in Vautrollier's employ, perhaps as a Press-reader, perhaps as +an Assistant in the shop, perchance as both, we imagine Shakspere to have +spent about three years upon his first arrival in the metropolis. Placed +thus in Blackfriars, close to the Theatre, close to the Taverns, close to +the Inns of Court, and in what was then a fashionable neighbourhood, +Shakspere enjoyed excellent opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of men +and manners. + +Field did not succeed Vautrollier immediately upon his death. His widow +endeavoured for some time to carry on the business alone; but for some +unknown reason the Stationers' Company withheld their license; and after a +fruitless effort to obtain it, she was succeeded by her son-in-law. These +business changes would probably be the occasion of which Shakspere eagerly +availed himself to join the Players at the neighbouring theatre. + +The Sonnets, although not printed until 1609, are generally acknowledged +to be among Shakspere's earliest efforts, and we cannot help imagining +that Sonnet XXIV was written while in the employment of Vautrollier; or +at any rate, while the shop, hung round with prints, was fresh in the +Poet's memory. May be some of their warmth was inspired by the charms of +the buxom widow herself who was apostrophised by the Poet when wishing her + + To find where your true image _pictured_ lies, + Which in my bosom's _shop_ is hanging still, + That hath his _windows_ glazed with thine eyes. + _Sonnet_ xxiv. + +At any rate, we have here in three lines as many metaphors, and all +derived from just such employment as we suppose Shakspere at that time to +have been engaged in. + +Then, again, to a Printer's widow, not over young, what more telling than +the following reference? + + Or what strong hand can hold Time's swift foot back? + Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? + O, none, unless this miracle have might, + That in _black ink_ my love may still shine bright. + _Sonnet_ lxvi. + +Note here, that the jet black ink which everybody admires in old +manuscripts was much too thick for a running hand, and had long been +superseded by a writing fluid which, in the 16th century, was far from +equalling the bright gloss of Printing Ink. + +Before turning to the internal evidence supplied by Shakspere's writings +in support of our theory, let us glance at the list of works printed and +published by Vautrollier, and see if Shakspere reflected any trace of +their influence upon his mind. + +From Herbert's 'Typographical Antiquities' we find that in the 'Shop' +would be the two following works: + + _A brief Introduction to Music. Collected by P. Delamote, a Frenchman; + Licensed._ + + _London_, 8vo., 1574. + + _Discursus Cantiones; quæ ab argumento sacræ vocantur, quinque et sex + partivm. Autoribus Thoma Tallisio et Guilielmo Birdo. Cum Privilegio._ + + _London_, oblong quarto, 1575. + +Delamote's Introduction, as well as the Sacred Songs by Tallis and Bird, +were Vautrollier's copyright, and we have already seen how intimate an +acquaintance Shakspere had with music. Might not the above works have been +the mine from which he obtained his knowledge? + +Of religious works, Vautrollier printed and published several, all in +accordance with the principles of the great Reformation, and the writer +who argued that from his intimate knowledge of the tenets of Calvin, +Shakspere must have been himself a Calvinist, would have found sufficient +explanation of his special knowledge in the following books from +Vautrollier's press: + + _The Neu Testament, with diversities of Reading and profitable + annotations. An epistle by J. Calvin, prefixed._ + + 4to., 1575: + + _Institutio Christianæ Religionis, Joanne Caluino authorè._ + + 8vo., _London_, 1576: and + + _The Institution of Christian Religion_ [not in Herbert's Ames] + _written in Latine, by Mr. John Calvine, and translated into English + by Thomas Norton. Imprinted at London, by Thomas Vautrollier._ + + 8vo., 1578. + +This last contains an Epistle to the Reader by John Calvin, as well as an +address headed _Typographus Lectori_. Of each of the above works several +editions were published. + +In one of his pedantic speeches Holofernes exclaims: + + Venetia! Venetia! + Chi non te vede non ti pretia. + Old Mantuan! Old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not, loveth thee not. + _Love's Labour Lost_, iv, 2. + +Where did Shakspere learn his Italian, which, although then a court +language, he quotes but rarely, and in an awkward manner? Surely at +second-hand, and probably quoting the phrases current at the period, or +still more probably from conning in his spare moments: + + _An Italian Grammer, written in Latin by M. Scipio Lentulo: and turned + into Englishe by Henry Grantham. Typis Tho. Vautrolerij._ + + _London_, 16mo., 1578. + +This was put to press again in 1587. In Vautrollier's 'shop' he would also +have often in his hands: + + _Campo di Fior; or else the Flourie field of foure Languages, for the + furtherance of the learners of the Latine, French, English, but + chiefly of the Italian tongue. Imprinted at London, by Thos. + Vautrollier, dwelling in the Black Friers by Ludgate._ + + 16mo., 1583. + +Here, again, we have a very extensive Italian vocabulary upon all common +subjects quite sufficient for an occasional quotation; as to the plots +taken from Italian sources, such as 'Romeo and Juliet', it seems to be now +generally admitted that Shakspere in every instance followed the English +translations. + +But Shakspere knew also a little French, and uses a few colloquial +sentences here and there. In one play indeed, _Henry V_, iii. 4, there is +a short scene between the Princess and her attendant, in alternate French +and English, which reads almost like a page of a Vocabulary. Shakspere's +knowledge of Latin was apparently about the same in extent; and for the +uses to which he has applied both tongues, the _Flourie Field of Four +Languages_, already quoted as the source of his Italian, would be quite +sufficient. If not, he had the opportunity of consulting under his +master's roof + + _A Treatise on French Verbs._ + + 8vo., 1580. + + _A most easie, perfect, and absolute way to learne the Frenche + tongue._ + + 8vo., 1581; and + + _Phrases Linguæ Latinæ._ 8vo., 1579; + +the last compiled from the writings of that great Printer, Aldus Manutius. + +Some of Shakspere's biographers have maintained that he must have been +acquainted with Plutarch and other classical writers, because he quotes +from their works. Dr. Farmer in his masterly essay on the learning of +Shakspere, has shown that the Poet took all his quotations, even to the +blunders, from the edition of Plutarch, in English, printed and published +by Vautrollier, a year or two before we suppose that Shakspere entered +into his service: + + _Plutarch's Lives, from the French of Amyott, by Sir Tho. North. + Licensed._ + + Folio, 1579. + +Moreover, Vautrollier, who was a good scholar, appears to have had a great +liking for Ovid. He printed _Ovid's Metamorphoses_, _Ovid's Epistles_, and +_Ovid's Art of Love_. Now it is a notable fact that although Shakspere, +unlike contemporary writers who abound in classical allusions, scarcely +ever mentions a Latin poet, and still more seldom a Greek poet, yet he +quotes Ovid several times: + + As Ovid, be an outcast quite abjured. + _Taming of the Shrew_, i, 1. + + + _Tit._ Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so? + _Luc._ Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses. + _Titus_, iv, 1. + + + I am here with thee and thy goats as the most + capricious poet, honest Ovid was among the Goths. + _As You Like It_, iii, 3. + + + Ovidius Naso was the man. + _Love's Labour Lost_, iv, 2. + +Of _Cicero's Oration_ Vautrollier issued several editions, and had the +privilege 'ad imprimendum solum' granted him; and to this work also, on +at least two occasions, Shakspere refers: + + Hath read to thee + Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator. + _Titus_, iv, 1. + + + Sweet Tully. + _2 Henry VI_, iv, 1. + +The fact to be noted with reference to these classical quotations is this: +Shakspere quotes those Latin authors, and those only, of which Vautrollier +had a 'license'; and makes no reference to other and popular writers, such +as Virgil, Pliny, Aurelius, and Terence, editions of whose works +Vautrollier was not allowed to issue, but all of which, and especially the +last, were great favorites in the sixteenth century, as is shown by the +numerous editions which issued from the presses of Vautrollier's +fellow-craftsmen. + +Among other publications of Vautrollier was an English translation of +_Ludovico Guicciardini's Description of the Low Countries_, originally +printed in 1567. In this work is one of the earliest accounts of the +invention of printing at Haarlem, which is thus described in the Batavia +of Adrianus Junius, 1575. 'This person [Coster] during his afternoon walk, +in the vicinity of Haarlem, amused himself with cutting letters out of +the _bark_ of the beech tree, and with these, the _characters_ being +inverted as in seals, he printed small sentences.' The idea is cleverly +adapted by Orlando: + + these trees shall be my _books_, + And in their _barks_ my thoughts I'll _character_. + _As You Like It_, iii, 2. + +Lastly, it would be an interesting task to compare the Mad Folk of +Shakspere, most of whom have the melancholy fit, with + + _A Treatise of Melancholie: containing the Causes thereof and Reasons + of the Strange Effects it worketh in our Minds and Bodies._ + + _London_, 8vo., 1586. + +This was printed by Vautrollier, and probably read carefully for press by +the youthful Poet. + +The disinclination of Shakspere to see his plays in print has often been +noticed by his biographers, and is generally accounted for by the theory +that reading the plays in print would diminish the desire to hear them at +the theatre. This is a very unsatisfactory reason, and not so plausible as +the supposition that, sickened with reading other people's proofs for a +livelihood, he shrunk from the same task on his own behalf. His +contemporaries do not appear to have shared in the same typographical +aversion. The plays of Ben Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher were all +printed in the life-time of their authors. Francis Quarles had the +satisfaction and pride of seeing all his works in printed form, and showed +his appreciation and knowledge of Typography by the following quaint +lines, which we quote from the first edition, literatim: + + _On a Printing-house._ + + The _world's_ a _Printing-house_: our _words_, our _thoughts_, + Our _deeds_, are _Characters_ of sev'rall sizes: + Each _Soule_ is a Compos'ter; of whose faults + The Levits are Correctors: Heav'n revises; + _Death_ is the _common Press_; fro whence, being driven, + W' are gathered _Sheet_ by _Sheet_, & bound for _Heaven_. + From _Divine Fancies_, 1632, lib. iv, p. 164. + + + + +II. THE TECHNICALITIES OF PRINTING, AS USED BY SHAKSPERE + + +Nature endows no man with knowledge, and although a quick apprehension may +go far toward making the true lover of Nature a Botanist, Zoologist, or +Entomologist, and although the society of 'Men of Law', of Doctors, or of +Musicians may, with the help of a good memory, store a man's mind with +professional phraseology, yet the _opportunity_ of learning must be there; +and no argument can be required to prove that, however highly endowed with +genius or imagination, no one could evolve from his internal consciousness +the terms, the customs, or the working implements of a trade with which he +was unacquainted. If, then, we find Shakspere's mind familiar with the +technicalities of such an art as Printing--an art which, in his day, had +no such connecting links with the common needs and daily pleasures of the +people, as now--if we find him using its terms and referring frequently to +its customs, our claims to call him a Printer stand upon a firmer base +than those of the Lawyer, the Doctor, the Soldier, or the Divine; and we +have strong grounds for asking the reader's thoughtful attention to some +quotations and arguments, which, if not conclusive that Shakspere was a +Printer, afford indubitable evidence of his having become at some period +of his career practically acquainted with the details of a Printing +Office. We propose, then, to carefully examine the works of the Poet for +any internal evidence of Typographical knowledge which they may afford. + +But here, at the outset, we are met by obvious difficulties. Would +Shakspere, or any poet have made use of trade terms and technical words, +or have referred to customs peculiar to and known by only a very small +class of the community in plays addressed to the general public? They +might have been familiar enough to the mind of the writer, but would +certainly have sounded very strange in the ears of the public. Shakspere +was too artistic and too wise to have committed so glaring a blunder. His +technical terms are used unintentionally, and with the most charming +unconsciousness. Therefore, when we meet with a word or phrase in common +use by Printers, it is so amalgamated with the context, that although +some other form of expression would have been chosen had not Shakspere +been a Printer, yet the general reader or hearer is not struck by any +incongruity of language. + +What simile could be more natural for a Printer-poet to use or more +appropriate for the public to hear than this: + + Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince; + For she did _print_ your royal father off, + Conceiving you. + _Winter's Tale_, v, 1. + +Here, surely, the Printer's daily experience of the exact agreement +between the face of the type and the impression it yields must have +suggested the image. + +Printers in Shakspere's time often had patents granted them by which the +monopoly of certain works was secured; and unscrupulous printers +frequently braved all the pains and penalties to which they were liable by +pirating such editions. It is this carelessness of consequences which is +glanced at by Mistress Ford when debating with Mistress Page concerning +the insult put upon them by the heavy old Knight, Sir John Falstaff: + + He cares not what he puts into the Press when he + would put us two. + _Merry Wives_, ii, 1. + +What printer is there who has put to press a second edition of a book +working page for page in a smaller type and shorter measure but will +recognise the Typographer's reminiscences in the following description of +Leontes' babe by Paulina: + + Behold, my Lords, + Although the _print_ be little, the whole _matter_ + And _copy_ of the father ... + The very _mould_ and _frame_ of hand, nail, finger. + _Winter's Tale_, ii, 3. + +Is it conceivable that a sentence of four lines containing five distinct +typographical words, three of which are especially technical, could have +proceeded from the brain of one not intimately acquainted with Typography? +Again, would Costard have so gratuitously used a typographical idea, had +not the Poet's mind been teeming with them? + + I will do it, sir, in print. + _Love's Labour Lost_, iii, 1. + +The deep indentation made on the receiving paper when the strong arm of a +lusty pressman had pulled the bar with too great vigour is glanced at +here: + + Think when we talk of horses that you see them + _Printing_ their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth. + _Henry V_, Chorus. + +The frequency with which the words _print_ or _imprint_ are used is very +noticeable: + + The story that is _printed_ in her blood. + _Much Ado about Nothing_, iv, 1. + + + I love a ballad in _print_. + _Winter's Tale_, iv, 4. + + + She did _print_ your royal father off conceiving you. + _Winter's Tale_, v, 1. + + + You are but as a _form_ in wax, by him _imprinted_. + _Midsummer-Night's Dream_, i, 1. + + + His heart ... with your _print impressed_. + _Love's Labour Lost_, ii, 1. + + + I will do it, sir, in _print_. + _Love's Labour Lost_, iii, 1. + + + This weak _impress_ of love. + _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, iii, 2. + + + To _print_ thy sorrows plain. + _Titus Andronicus_, iv, 1. + + + Sink thy knee i' the earth; + Of thy deep duty, more _impression_ show. + _Coriolanus_, v, 3. + + + Some more time + Must wear the _print_ of his remembrance out. + _Cymbeline_, ii, 3. + + + The _impressure_. + _Twelfth Night_, ii, 5. + + + He will _print_ them, out of doubt. + _Merry Wives of Windsor_, ii, 1. + + + We quarrel in _print_, by the book. + _As You Like It_, v, 4. + + + Let it _stamp_ wrinkles in her brow. + _Lear_, i, 4. + + + His sword death's _stamp_. + _Coriolanus_, ii, 2. + +Hear how deftly Title-pages are treated: + + _Sim._ Knights, + To say you're welcome were superfluous. + To place upon the _volume_ of your deeds, + As in a _title-page_, your worth of arms, + Were more than you expect, or more than's fit. + _Pericles_, ii, 3. + +Hear, too, Northumberland, who thus addresses the bearer of fearful news: + + This man's brow, like to a _title-leaf_, + Foretells the nature of a tragic _volume_. + _2 Henry IV_, i, 1. + +Evidently Shakspere had a good idea of what a Title-page should contain. + +From Title to Preface is but a turn of the leaf, and its introductory +character is thus noticed: + + Is but a _Preface_ of her worthy praise, + The chief perfections of that lovely dame. + _1 Henry VI_, v, 5. + +We must not forget a well-known passage about the introduction of Printing +to England, which has caused much discussion. It is where Jack Cade +accuses Lord Saye: + + Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in + erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, before, our forefathers had no + other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to + be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast + built a paper mill. + + _2 Henry VI_, iv, 7. + +The early-invented fable of Faustus, and the assistance given him by the +Devil in the multiplication of the first printed bibles (certainly a most +short-sighted step on the part of his Satanic Majesty) had got fixed in +the minds of the populace, and created among the ignorant a prejudice +against the Printing-press, and it was to this feeling Jack Cade appealed. +All our Chroniclers place the erection of a Printing-press in England some +years too early, but no one except Shakspere has put the date so far back +as 1450, the date of Jack Cade's insurrection: it is simply a blunder; but +it was the Printing-press and its introduction to this country that was in +the Author's brain, and the _exact_ date of that event was unknown, being +probably as difficult to arrive at then as it is now.[1] + +We have already noticed in how simple a manner originated that grand +discovery which, instead of one perishable manuscript, produced numberless +printed books, and thus enabled mankind to perpetuate for ever the +knowledge they had gained. The real superiority of the Press over the pen +was the easy multiplication of copies, and this was the idea in the Poet's +brain when he wrote: + + She carved thee for her seal and meant thereby + Thou shouldst _print more_ nor let that copy die. + _Sonnet_ xi. + +Type-founding has in these days arrived at such perfection, that most of +the blemishes and faults common in Shakspere's time are now unknown. Under +the old system of hand moulds a type founder was sure when commencing work +to cast a certain number of imperfect letters, because until the mould by +use got warmed, the liquid metal solidified too soon, and the body or +shank of the type was shrunk, and became no inappropriate emblem of an old +man's limbs whose hose would be + + A world too wide for his shrunk shank. + _As You Like It_, ii, 7. + +The names of the various sizes of type in the sixteenth century were few +compared with our modern list; Canon, Great Primer, Pica, Long Primer, and +Brevier almost complete the catalogue; and however familiar Shakspere may +have been with their names, it is difficult to imagine any scene in which +these technical names could be introduced with propriety. Yet, of one, +Nonpareil, a new small type first introduced from Holland about 1650, and +which for its beauty and excellence was much admired, Shakspere seems to +have conceived a most favorable idea. Prospero, praising his daughter, +calls her 'a Nonpareil' (_Tempest_, Act iii, Sc. 2); Olivia is the +'Nonpareil of beauty' (_Twelfth Night_, Act i, Scene 5); and Posthumus +speaks of Imogen as the 'Nonpareil of her time' (_Cymbeline_, Act ii, +Scene 5). + +The exactitude and precision of everything connected with the arrangement +of printing from types is curiously hinted at by Touchstone, when +describing the preciseness of the Courtiers' quarrels: + + We quarrel _in print by the book_. + _As You Like It_, v, 4; + +that is, no step was taken except according to acknowledged rules. + +It often happens when a book comes to its last sheet that the text runs +short, and two or three blank or vacant pages remain at the end. In the +middle of one of these it is usual to place the typographer's imprint. +What compositor is there who has rejoiced in such _fat_ pages[2] but will +not at once recognise the following allusion: + + The _vacant_ leaves thy mind's _imprint_ will bear, + And of this _book_ this learning mayst thou taste. + _Sonnet_ lxxvii. + +People with a grievance write now-a-days to the Newspapers, in hope of +redress. In Shakspere's time the only method to make wrongs public and to +show up abuses was by the _Broadside_, in prose or rhyme, passing from +hand to hand. Many of these have survived to the present day, and are +treasured up as curious relics of a by-gone age. They were frequently +libellous and grievously personal, and hence the point of Pistol's remark: + + Fear we broadsides? + _2 Henry IV_, ii, 4. + +We must not think here that the naval 'broadside'--a volley of guns from +the broadside of a ship--is meant. Shakspere does not use the word once in +that sense, nor was it a conversational word in his time. That Pistol was +indeed thinking of a printed broad sheet is evident from the whole +sentence, which, although composed of disjointed exclamations continues +with the following expressions, both strongly suggestive of the Composing +room or Reader's closet: + + Come we to full points here? and are etceteras + nothing? + _2 Henry IV_, ii, 4. + +'Come we to full points here?' This question is often a puzzler for both +Compositor and Reader. Indeed, few things cause more disagreements between +Author and Printer than the very loose ideas held by the former concerning +punctuation. Some writers, like Dickens in his early days, insist upon +ornamenting their sentences with little dashes and big dashes, with colons +where commas should be, and with + + _Points_ that seem impossible. + _Pericles_, v, 1. + +In vain does the Printer declare that in altering the Author's unregulated +punctuation, + + No levelled malice infests one _comma_, + _Timon_, i, 1, + +the irate Author exclaims, that he + + Puts the _period_ often from his place, + _Lucrece_, l. 565, + +and adds, 'Follow + + My _point_ and period ... ill or well. + _Lear_, iv, 7. + + + You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent. + _Love's Labour Lost_, iv, 2. + + + Wherefore stand you on nice points? + _3 Henry VI_, iv, 7. + +The Printer has no resource but compliance, which, however, unless the +affront be very severe, will soon + + Stand a comma 'tween their amities, + _Hamlet_, v, 2, + +and thus heal the breach, and end all happily with mutual + + Notes of Admiration. + _Winter's Tale_, v, 2. + +'And are etceteras nothing?' What a typographical question! and probably +the only occasion on which so unpoetical a figure has done duty in any +drama. The &c. makes an insignificant appearance in either MS. or type, +and yet how often it stands for whole pages of matter. Hence the point of +the question. + +If a book is folio, and two pages of type have been composed, they are +placed in proper position upon the imposing stone, and enclosed within an +iron or steel frame called a 'chase', small wedges of hard wood termed +'coigns' or 'quoins' being driven in at opposite sides to make all tight. + + By the four opposing coigns, + Which the world together joins. + _Pericles_, iii, 1. + +This is just the description of a forme in folio where two quoins on one +side are always opposite to two quoins on the other, thus together +joining and tightening all the separate stamps. In a quaint allegorical +poem, published anonymously about the year 1700, in which the mystery of +man's redemption is symbolised by the mystery of Printing, the author +commences thus: + + Great blest Master Printer, come + Into thy Composing-room; + +and after 'spiritualising' the successive operations of the workman thus +touches upon the quoins: + + Let the Quoins be thy sure Election, + Which admits of no Rejection; + With which our Souls being joined about, + Not the least Grace can then fall out. + +Here, the idea of joining together by quoins so that nothing shall fall +out, is just the same as in the couplet quoted from Shakspere. + +The tightening of these quoins by means of a wooden-headed mallet, + + (There is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet, + _2 Henry IV_, ii, 4), + +is called 'locking up', an exclusively technical term. The expression, +however, occurs in 'Measure for Measure', IV, 2, + + Fast locked up in sleep, + +where the idea conveyed is the same. + +The 'Forme' worked off and the metal chase removed, leaving the pages +'naked', affords the Poet the following simile, which although not +carrying to the popular ear any typographical meaning, was doubtless +suggested by Shakspere's former experience of the workshop: + + And he but _naked_ though _locked up_ in steel. + _2 Henry VI_, iii, 2. + +The primary idea of 'locking up' had, doubtless, reference to 'armour'; +the secondary to printing, as shown by the use of the word 'naked'. + +The forme then went to the Press-room, where considerable ingenuity was +required to make 'register'; that is, to print one side so exactly upon +the other, that when the sheet was held up to the light the lines on each +side would exactly back one another. The accuracy of judgment required for +this is thus glanced at: + + _Eno._ But let the world rank me in _register_ + A master-leaver and a fugitive. + _Antony and Cleopatra_, iv, 9. + +When the green-eyed Othello takes his wife's hand and exclaims: + + Here's a young and sweating devil, + _Othello_, iii, 4, + +we fail at first to catch the idea of the Poet in calling a hand a +'devil'; but take the word as synonymous with 'messenger', and we see at +once how the moist plump palm of Desdemona suggested to the intensely +jealous husband the idea of its having been the lascivious messenger of +her impure desires. In this sense of 'messenger', the word 'devil' has a +special fitness; for it is, and always has been among Printers, _and +Printers only_, another word for 'errand-boy'. In olden times, when speed +was required, a boy stood at the off-side of the press, and as soon as the +frisket was raised, whipped the printed sheet off the tympan. When not at +work, he ran on messages between printer and author, who, on account of +his inky defilement, dubbed him 'devil'. All Printers' boys go now by the +same name: + + Old Lucifer, both kind and civil, + To ev'ry Printer lends a Devil; + But balancing accounts each winter, + For ev'ry Devil takes a Printer. + +Moxon, in 1683, quotes it as an old trade word, and it was doubtless the +same in Shakspere's time, a century earlier, as it is now two centuries +later. But where could Shakspere have picked up the word if not in the +Printing-office? + +Any one accustomed to collate old MSS. must have noticed how very seldom +the copyist would, in transcribing, add nothing and omit nothing. If what +the scribe considered a good idea entered his mind while his pen was +travelling over the page, he was a very modest penman indeed, if he did +not incorporate it in the text. From this cause, and from genuine +unintentional blunders, the texts of all the old authors had become +gradually very corrupt--a source of great trouble to the early Printers. +With this in his mind Shakspere defines it as one of the qualities of Time + + To blot old books and alter their contents. + _Lucrece_, l. 948. + +Many of Vautrollier's publications must have been printed from discolored +old manuscripts; and these papers Shakspere, if he read 'proof' for his +employer, would have to study carefully. Does he call this to mind in +Sonnet XVII? + + My papers yellowed with their age. + +Was it, after admiring some beautifully illuminated Horæ, that he wrote: + + O that record could with a backward look, + E'en of five hundred courses of the sun; + Show me your image in some antique book, + Since mind at first in character was done. + _Sonnet_ lix. + +Does the Poet refer to its wonderfully burnished gold initials, and the +red dominical letters which he must often have seen in the printed +calendars, when he exclaims in tones of admiration: + + My red dominical--my golden letter! + _Love's Labour Lost_, v, 2. + +The old calendar had a _golden number_ and a _dominical letter_, but not a +_golden letter_, which last must refer specifically to the practice of +gilding important initials. 'Golden Letters' are mentioned in 'King John', +III, 1, and in 'Pericles', IV, 4, while the red initials, which were +common to both manuscripts and printed books of the fifteenth century, are +made by Shakspere the death warrant of the unfortunate Clerk of Chatham, +against whom is brought the fatal accusation that he + + Has a book in his pocket with red letters in 't. + _2 Henry VI_, iv, 2. + +In Shakspere's time, as we have already noticed (p. 41, ante), the press +laboured under great restrictions. All books with a profitable +circulation were monopolised by favored stationers or printers who held +special patents or licenses from the Crown. Thus Reynold Wolfe, in 1543, +held a monopoly of all books printed in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. Seres was +privileged to print all psalters, primers, and prayer books; Denham might +print the New Testament in Welch; others held grants for scholastic or +legal books, for almanacs, and even for broadsides, or as the grant says +'for any piece of paper printed on one side of the sheet only'. In these +favored books it was customary to place the patent granting the monopoly +at the end, as a 'caveat' for other printers, and occasionally the phrase +'Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum' would appear in a conspicuous part +of the title. Among the printers in London, who secured such special +privileges, was Vautrollier, Shakspere's presumed employer. 'In the +sixteenth year of Elizabeth, 19th June, 1574', says Ames, 'a patent or +license was granted him which he often printed at the end of the New +Testament'; this was a monopoly of Beza's New Testament which Vautrollier +had the privilege 'ad imprimendum solum', for the term of ten years. We +have already seen the curious connection between the products of +Vautrollier's press and the writings of Shakspere, and we now plainly +perceive what was floating in the Poet's brain when he placed the +following speech in Biondello's mouth, who urges Lucentio to marry Bianca, +while her father and the pedant are discussing the marriage treaty: + + _Luc._ And what of all this? + + _Bion._ I cannot tell; expect they are busied about a counterfeit[3] + assurance: Take your assurance of her _cum privilegio ad imprimendum + solum_: to the church;--take the priest, clerk, and some sufficient + honest witnesses. + + _Taming of the Shrew_, iv, 4. + +These protective privileges, 'ad imprimendum solum', instead of a benefit +were a great hindrance to the growth of Printing. Many master-printers +even then felt them to be so, and by all legal and sometimes illegal +means, tried to procure the abolition of laws which were oppressive and +restrictive. They saw works of merit die out of memory for want of +enterprise in the patentee--they saw folly, in the shape of a +Star-chamber, controlling skill; or as Shakspere himself expresses it, + + Art made tongue-tied by authority, + And Folly (doctor-like),[4] controlling skill. + _Sonnet_ lxvi. + +Shakspere abounds in kisses of every hue, from shadowy, frozen, and Judas +kisses, to holy, true, gentle, tender, warm, sweet, loving, dainty, kind, +soft, long, hard, zealous, burning, and even the unrequited kiss: + + But my kisses bring again + Seals of love, but seal'd in vain. + _Measure for Measure_, iii, 1. + +The 'burning' kiss might be thought passionate and even durable enough for +any extremity--yet Shakspere prefers, perhaps from an unconscious +association of ideas, the durability of which _Printing_ is the emblem +when he makes the Goddess of Love exclaim: + + Pure lips, sweet seals on my soft lips _imprinted_. + _Venus and Adonis_, l. 511. + +The same idea of durability is expressed in the cry of Henry's guilty +Queen, when parting with Suffolk: + + Oh, could this kiss be _printed_ on thy hand! + _2 Henry VI_, iii, 2. + +The idea has been still further developed in the following anonymous +quatrain: + + A PRINTER'S KISSES. + + _Print_ on my lips another kiss, + The picture of my glowing passion. + Nay, this wont do--nor this, nor this; + But now--Ay, that's a _proof impression_. + +Many of Vautrollier's publications went through several editions. In the +'Merry Wives', II, 1, Mistress Page says: + + These are of the second edition, + +and well can we imagine Shakspere handing volumes to a buyer with the same +remark, or asking some patron with whom he was a favourite: + + Com'st thou with deep premeditated lines, + With written pamphlet studiously devised? + _1 Henry VI_, iii, 1. + +as the author entered with a roll of 'copy' in his hand. + +In the deep mine from which the foregoing quotations have been dug, many +others would doubtless reward a more careful search. As it is, numerous +allusions, which, though plain to a printer, would seem too forced to the +general public, have been passed over. Enough, however, has probably been +brought forward to justify the belief pourtrayed in the title-page, viz.: +_That Shakspere must have passed some of his early years in a +Printing-office._ + + +Finis + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _The exact date was probably as difficult to arrive at then as now._ +The arrival of William Caxton in England may, with a certainty of being +near the truth, be placed in 1475-6, the date 1474 given by most writers +being a misconception of the language used by Caxton in the Preface to the +Chess-book. The Art on its first introduction was looked upon suspiciously +by the people, few of whom could read, its chief patrons being a few of +the more educated among the nobles and the rich burghers of London. +Another mistake is to suppose that Caxton printed in Westminster Abbey. +His printing-office was a tenement to the south-east of the Abbey Church; +its sign was the 'Red-pale', and Caxton rented it of the Abbot. There is +evidence to show that Caxton and the Abbot were on distant terms of +amity--none to show that the Ecclesiastic encouraged or patronised the +Printer, notwithstanding Dean Stanley's assertions in a sermon lately +preached by him in Westminster Abbey. The _only_ occasion upon which +Caxton mentions the Abbot is to this effect--that the Abbot, not being +able himself to read a passage in old MS., sent it to Caxton, with a +request that he would translate it. (See _The Life and Typography of +William Caxton_, by William Blades. 2 vols., 4to. London, 1861-63.) + +[2] _Fat Pages._ 'Fat' as a conventional word is not confined to Printers. +'A _fat_ living' is a phrase not unknown among churchmen, and is used in +the same sense by the compositor, who charges the master-printer for the +_fat_ pages, in which no work appears, at the same rate as if they were +full. + +[3] This word 'counterfeit' in the sense of 'reprint' or 'duplicate', is +certainly not used now-a-days by English printers; yet I find this in +Marahren's Parallel List of technical Typographical terms:--'Counterfeit, +to, or to Reprint, v., Nachdrucken.--Ré-imprimer.' With Bibliographers the +word is still retained; _e.g._ 'Lyons counterfeits of the Aldine +editions.' + +[4] _And Folly (doctor-like) controlling skill._ It is worth noting, that +in none of the various volumes written to show Shakspere's knowledge of +medicine and medical men, has the truth of this passage been brought +forward in evidence. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Shakspere & Typography, by William Blades + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40841 *** |