Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

Chapter II: Part 2

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"I Was driuen into a quandarie Gentlemen," says Lyly, "whether
I might ſend this my Pamphlet to the Printer or to the
pedler, I thought it too bad for the preſſe, & to good
for the packe.... We commonly ſee the booke that at Eaſter
lyeth bounde on the Stacioners ſtall, at Chriſtmaſſe
to be broken in the Haberdaſhers ſhop, which ſith it is
the order of proceeding, I am content this Summer to haue my
dooinges read for a toye, that in Winter they may be readye
for traſh.... Gentlemen vſe bookes as Gentlewomen handle
theyr flowres, who in the morning ſticke th[~e] in their
heads, and at night strawe them at their heeles. Cheries
be fulſome when they be through ripe, becauſe they be
plentie, and bookes be ſtale when they be printed in that
they be common. In my minde Printers & Tailers are chiefely
bound to pray for Gentlemen, the one hath ſo much
fantaſies to print, the other ſuch diuers faſhions to
make, that the preſſing yron of the one is neuer out of
the fyre, nor the printing preſſe of the other any tyme
lieth ſtill...."

The address "To my verie good friends the Gentlemen Scholers
of Oxford" first appeared with the second edition, to which
Lyly made other additions, beside thoroughly revising the
text.

The title-page is bordered with a band of type-metal
ornaments. Among the initial letters are several of a series,
each letter of which represents a child at play. A large
tail-piece is repeated several times, and East's mark of a
black horse with a white crescent on his shoulder, and the
motto _Mieulx vault mourir en vertu que vivre en Honcte_,
is here used for the first time. Some copies dated 1581 have
Rowland Hall's mark but no printer's name.

Mr. Henry R. Plomer says of the book in an interesting article
on our printer: "The preliminary matter is printed in a very
regular fount of Roman, the text in his ordinary fount of
Black Letter, and the whole book is distinguished for its
clear, regular, and clean appearance."

On July 24, 1579, the stationer Cawood entered for license a
second part of _Euphues_, which he had promised at the end of
this volume in the following words:

"I Haue finiſhed the firſt part of Euphues whome now I
lefte readye to croſſe the Seas to Englande, if the winde
send him a ſhorte cutte you ſhall in the ſeconde part
heare what newes he bringeth and I hope to haue him retourned
within one Summer...."

Edward Blount, the stationer, who published Shakespeare's
folio works, tells us in a preface to Lyly's _Sixe Court
Comedies_, which he collected and William Stansby printed in
1632, of the sensation _Euphues_ created when it appeared.
"Our Nation," he wrote, "are in his (i.e. Lyly's) debt, for a
new Engliſh which hee taught them. Euphues and his England
began firſt, that language: All our Ladies were then his
Scollers; And that Beautie in court, which could not Parley
Euphueiſme, was as little regarded, as ſhee which, now
there, ſpeakes not French."

Quarto. Black letter and Roman. The fifth edition.

COLLATION: _A-Z, in fours_.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

(1554-1586)

The _Arcadia_ was begun in 1580, and when finished, probably
before 1583, was circulated in manuscript copies amongst the
author's friends. That he did not wish to have it printed is
evident from his affectionate dedication to his sister, where
he says:

"HEre now haue you (moſt deare, and moſt worthy to be
moſt deare Lady) this idle worke of mine: which I fear (like
the Spiders webbe) will be thought fitter to be ſwept away,
than worn to any other purpoſe. For my part, in very trueth
(as the cruell fathers among the Greekes, were woont to doo
to the babes they would not foſter) I could well find in my
harte, to caſt out in ſome deſert of forgetfulnes this
child, which I am loath to father. But you deſired me to
doo it, and your deſire, to my hart is an abſolute
commandement. Now, it is done onelie for you, onely to you: if
you keepe it to yourſelfe, or to ſuch friendes, who will
weigh errors in the ballaunce of good will, I hope, for the
fathers ſake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of,
though in itſelfe it haue deformities. For indeede, for
ſeuerer eyes it is not, being but a trifle, and that
triflinglie handled. Your deare ſelfe can best witnes the
maner, being done in looſe ſheetes of paper, moſt of it
in your preſence, the reſt, by ſheetes ſent vnto
you, as faſt as they were done.... But his chiefe ſafetie
ſhal be the not walking abroad; & his chiefe protection, the
bearing the liuerye of your name; which (if much good will do
not deceaue me) is worthy to be a ſanctuary for a greater
offender."

And again later, when he lay dying, reflecting, as he did,
that all things in his former life had "been vain, vain,
vain," he requested that the _Arcadia_ should be burned.
But he counted without the public, who in the person of a
publisher took steps to make it common property the very year
of Sidney's death. We have this from a letter written to
Sir Francis Walsingham, Sidney's father-in-law, by Sir Foulk
Greville, first Lord Brooke, who in his self-written epitaph
styled himself "servant to Queen Elizabeth, councillor to King
James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney":

"S^r, this day, one ponsonby, a booke-bynder in poles
church-yard, came to me and told me that ther was one in hand
to print S^r Philip Sydney's old arcadia, asking me yf it were
done with your honors consent, or any other of his frendes?
I told him, to my knowledge, no: then he aduysed me to give
warninge of it, either to the archbishope or doctor Cosen, who
haue, as he says, a copy to peruse to that end.

"S^r, I am loth to renew his memory unto you, but yeat in this
I must presume; for I haue sent my lady, your daughter, at her
request, a correction of that old one, don 4 or 5 years sinse,
which he left in trust with me; wherof there is no more copies,
and fitter to be reprinted than the first which is so common:
notwithstanding, even that to how and why; so as in many
respects, espetially the care of printing of it; so as to be
don with more deliberation."

Ponsonby obtained a license to print the book, under the hand
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, August 23, 1588, but not with
the full consent and sympathy of the family, owing, we will
hope, to a sentiment of proper respect for the poet's
wishes. There was so much dissatisfaction with Ponsonby's
"adventuring" that Collier thinks the book may have been
called in or suppressed, a fact which would account for its
great rarity. The hesitancy, however, seems to have been
overcome in course of time, for the Countess herself edited
the work for a later edition of Ponsonby's publishing.

No mark or name of a printer is given in our copy, and
Collier, when he gave it as his opinion that Richard Field did
the work, seemed to have been unaware of the existence of the
variation in the imprint, which occurs in the copy belonging
to Trinity College Library, Cambridge, _London, Iohn Windet
for william Ponsonbie_. Probably several had a hand in the
printing. Only a close examination of the few existing copies
could show whether or not they were all issued at the same
time. We shall never know by name the "overseer of the print,"
who assumed the responsibility of arranging the poem, as is
told in a note on the verso of the title-page:

"The diuiſion and ſumming up of the Chapters was not of
Sir Philip Sidneis dooing, but aduentured by the ouerſeer
of the print, for the more eaſe of the Readers. He therfore
ſubmits himſelfe to their judgement, and if his labour
anſwere not the worthines of the booke, deſireth pardon
for it. As alſo if any defect be found in the Eclogues,
which although they were of Sir Phillip Sidneis writing, yet
were not peruſed by him, but left till the worke had bene
finiſhed, that then choiſe ſhould haue bene made, which
ſhould haue bene taken, and in what manner brought in.
At this time they haue bene choſen and diſposed as the
ouer-ſeer thought beſt."

Whoever the overseer may have been, whether in the employment
of Ponsonby, Windet, or Field, and however unfortunate the
result of his literary judgment, he produced a book which for
beauty may take its place with the best of the period. The
Roman type and excellent press-work distinguish it amongst
the mass of inferior productions. Large ornamental initial
letters, more or less related, are used at the beginning of
all the Books, while Book I begins with an especially fine
allegorical woodcut initial representing a crowned Tudor rose,
Justice with her foot on Medusa's head, and Peace. Head- and
tail-pieces, some of type metal and some woodcuts, are used at
the beginning of the Books to give added effect. At the end
of the sixteenth chapter of Book III is a panel made of
type-metal ornaments, intended to hold the lines referred to
in the words: "Vpon which, Baſilius himself cauſed this
Epitaph to be written." These, however, owing to the printer's
oversight, were never added.

In setting up the title-page, it may be that Ponsonby followed
Sidney's hint, and so sought "the chief protection" of the
name of the Countess, and, not content with the name alone,
added the coat-of-arms of the Sidney family.

Quarto. Roman.

COLLATION: _A-Zz, in eights_.

EDMUND SPENSER

(1552?-1599)

On December 1, 1589, "Maſter Ponſonbye. Entered for his
Copye, a booke intytuled _the fayrye Queene dyspoſed into
xij. bookes. &c._ Aucthoryzed vnder thandes of the Archbishop
of Canterbery, and bothe the wardens ... vj^{d}."

Spenser's name not being mentioned and not being printed on
the title-page, it would almost seem as if he had wished his
book to be anonymous; but that was probably not the case,
because the dedication on the verso of the title, "To the Most
Mightie And Magnificent Empresse Elizabeth ..." is signed by
"Her moſt humble Seruant, Ed. Spenſer." The "Letter of the
Authors Expounding his whole intention in the Courſe of the
worke.... To the Right Noble, and Valorous Sir Walter Raleigh
..." is also signed "Ed. Spenſer," and the last two of his
poems addressed to various personages are signed "E. S."

It will be observed that the license to print the book, as
well as the title-page, refers to the whole work, only three
books of which, treating of the virtues Holiness, Temperance,
and Chastity, had been completed by the author at this time.

Ponsonby may be regarded as a fortunate man to have had the
handling of the works of such authors as Greene, Sidney, and
Spenser. If his attempts to exploit the first great English
prose romance were not always successful, his relations with
Spenser were more satisfactory, and this work finding "a
favorable passage," no less than ten other of the poet's
productions were issued over his imprint.

The printer's name does not appear, but the device on the
title-page is the mark of John Wolfe, son of Reyner Wolfe, a
printer to the City of London, and one of the busiest members
of the Stationers' Company. It was he who printed _The
Shepheard's Calendar_, for John Harrison the younger, in
1586. His use of the Florentine lily is probably not without
significance. The first Italian book printed in England
(_Petruccio Ubaldino La vita di Carlo Magno Imperadore_,
1581), came from his press, as well as numerous translations
of books in that tongue; and it is easy to believe that he may
have received his idea for a mark of a fleur-de-lis "seeding,"
as Herbert calls it, from the Florentine lily of an Italian
printer seen in some of the Italian books so numerous in
England at this time.

A frame of printer's ornaments surrounds a verse at the
beginning of each chapter, and there is a rather clumsy
woodcut, representing Saint George and the Dragon, at the end
of the first Book, but these are the chief ornaments in the
volume. This book, like the _Arcadia_, is in the Roman type,
and of remarkably good press-work.

The device on the title-page of the second volume is that of
Thomas Vautrollier, a foreigner settled in London, whose stock
passed, at his death, to his son-in-law, Richard Field. It
seems clear that Field printed the volume (Vautrollier did
no work after 1588), although Herbert ascribes it to the
master-printer Thomas Creed.

In some early copies of the first volume there are blank
spaces on page 332, which had been left by the printer to be
filled later with Welsh words and then forgotten. Other copies
have this omission corrected.

Quarto. Roman and Italic.

COLLATION: _A-Qq4, in eights_.

FRANCIS BACON, BARON VERULAM

(1561-1626)

This edition is thought by some to be rarer than the first,
which was published by Hooper, in octavo, in the previous
year. Some differences occur in the spelling, the table
of contents here precedes "The Epistle Dedicatorie," the
_Meditationes Sacræ_ are done into English, and the ornaments
used are quite different. Only ten Essays were included
in these two issues, whereas the edition of 1612 has
thirty-eight, and that of 1625, fifty-eight.

Hooper, of whose publications there are very few examples
existing, is thought by Roberts to have been a young publisher
whom Bacon wished to help. John Windet was the successor to
John Wolfe as printer to the City of London; many books came
from his press, but few of them of note.

Perhaps the most interesting peculiarity of the book is the
word _essay_, in the sense of a composition of moderate length
on a particular subject. With this work, the word makes its
first appearance on the title-page of an English book. The
first two books of Montaigne's _Essais_ had appeared in 1580,
and Bacon was no doubt familiar with them as a new style of
writing, since his brother, to whom he addressed this volume,
was a friend of Montaigne. He says in his volume of _Essays_
dedicated to Prince Henry: "For Senacaes Epistles ... are but
Essaies--that is dispersed Meditations ... Essays. The word is
late, but the thing is auncient."

Lord Bacon's reasons for printing his book, expressed in the
signed preface which accompanied both editions, is interesting
as showing that he was alive to the piracies of the
book-sellers, and that he knew how to meet the difficulty in a
sensible manner.

"To M. Anthony Bacon his deare brother.

Louing & beloued Brother, I doe nowe like ſome that haue an
Orcharde ill neighbored, that gather their fruit before it is
ripe, to preuent ſtealing. Theſe fragments of my conceites
were going to print: To labour the ſtaie of them had bin
troubleſome, and ſubiect to interpretation; to let them
paſſe had beene to adu[=e]ture the wrong they might receyue
by ontrue Coppies, or by ſome garniſhment, which it might
pleaſe any that ſhould ſet them forth to beſtowe oppon
them. Therefore I helde it beſt diſcretion to publiſh
them myſelfe as they paſſed long agoe from my pen
without any further diſgrace, then the weakneſſe of the
Author...."

Duodecimo. The second edition.

COLLATION: _A-E4, in twelves_.

RICHARD HAKLUYT

(1552?-1616)

The year 1589 had seen the publication of a small folio volume
entitled:

The book presents a handsome appearance in the matter of type
and ornament: the archer head-band appears, and there are
two large pictorial initials at the beginning signed A. It
contains also "one of the beſt generall mappes of the world
onely, untill the comming out of a very large and most exact
terreſtrial Globe, collected and reformed according to
the neweſt, ſecretest, and lateſt diſcoueries
... compoſed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare
gentleman in his profeſſion...." This map was a close copy
of one engraved by Francis Hogenberg for Ortelius's _Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum_, published first in Antwerp in 1570. Like the
original it is called _Typus Orbis Terrarum_, but Hogenberg's
name is erased, and no other appears in its stead.

This volume is usually called the first edition of the
amplified work in three volumes, here facsimiled, which
Hakluyt began to issue nine years later. _The British
Librarian_ of William Oldys, that "oddest mortal that ever
wrote," gives a full synopsis of the contents of the latter
work, "this elaborate and excellent _Collection_, which
redounds as much to the Glory of the _Engliſh_ Nation, as
any Book that ever was publiſhed in it." He says:

"Tho' the firſt Volume of this _Collection_ does frequently
appear, by the Date, in the Title Page to be printed in 1599.
the Reader is not thence to conclude the ſaid Volume was
then reprinted, but only the Title Page, as upon collating the
Books we have obſerved; and further, that in the ſaid last
printed Title Page, there is no mention made of the _Cadiz_
Voyage; to omit which, might be one Reaſon of reprinting
that Page: for it being one of the moſt proſperous and
honorable Enterprizes that ever the Earl of Eſſex was
ingaged in, and he falling into the Queen's unpardonable
Displeaſure at this time, our Author, Mr. Hakluyt, might
probably receive Command or Direction, even from one of the
Patrons to whom theſe Voyages are dedicated, who was of the
contrary Faction, not only to ſupreſs all Memorial of that
Action in the Front of this Book, but even cancel the whole
_Narrative_ thereof at the _End_ of it, in all the Copies
(far the greateſt Part of the Impreſſion) which remained
unpubliſhed. And in that caſtrated Manner the Volume has
deſcended to Poſterity; not but if the Caſtration was
intended to have been concealed from us, the laſt Leaf of
the Preface would have been reprinted alſo, with the
like Omiſſion of what is there mentioned concerning the
Inſertion of this Voyage. But at laſt, about the middle of
the late King's Reign, an uncaſtrated copy did ariſe, and
the said Voyage, was reprinted from it; whereby many imperfect
Books have been made complete."

The cancellation "in the Front" refers to the title-page.
In the new page of the castrated edition the clause "And
laſtly, the memorable defeate of the Spaniſh huge Armada,
Anno 1588. and the famous victorie acheiued at the citie of
Cadiz, 1596." is made to read: "As alſo the memorable defeat
of the Spaniſh huge Armada, Anno 1588."; and the date is
changed to 1599. But, as Oldys remarks, through oversight or
indifference the reference in the preface still remains to
show that the edition is doctored, and not a new one. It
reads: "An excellent diſcourſe whereof, as likewiſe of
the honourable expedition vnder two of the moſt noble and
valiant peeres of this Realme, I meane, the renoumed Erle of
Eſſex, and the right honorable the lord Charles Howard,
lord high Admirall of England, made 1596, vnto the ſtrong
citie of Cadiz, I haue set downe a double epiphonema to
conclude this my firſt volume withall...." The reference
also remains in "A Catalogue of the Voyages," "39 The
honourable voyage to Cadiz, Anno 1596. [p.] 607." and at
page 606 the catchword "A briefe" still bears witness to the
curtailment of "A briefe and true report of the Honourable
voyage vnto Cadiz, 1596." The original leaves ended on page
619, with a large woodcut representing two winged figures
supporting a crown and rose. They have been twice reprinted,
but both reprints are easily distinguishable from the early
work.

The second volume was issued by the same printers in 1599, and
the third in 1600. Hakluyt is characterized on the title-page
of the first volume, as on that of the first edition, as
"Master of Artes, and sometime Student of Christ-Church in
Oxford," but in the second and third volumes he is called
"Preacher, and sometime student of Christ-Church in Oxford."
He had been made rector of Wetheringsett in Suffolk in 1590.

In its general make-up, the new work resembles the old one.
The archer head-bands have not been used, and only one of the
pictorial initials signed [symbol: A; or "SA" monogram],--that
at the beginning of the Dedication,--is retained in volumes
one and two. These pictorial initials belong to an alphabet
illustrating stories from Greek mythology. Mr. Pollard, in a
chapter on _Pictorial and Heraldic Initials_, states that the
first appearance of any of the set known to him occurs in a
proclamation printed by Berthelet, and dated 1546. He finds
that a similar monogram was used by Anton Sylvius, who worked
for Plantin from 1550 to 1573, but he is doubtful about
ascribing these initials to that artist.

The first and third volumes have the "The" of the title in a
long panel (made of type-metal ornament in the first case, and
a woodcut cartouche in the last one); the printer's ornaments
on the title-pages of the second and third volumes are alike,
and are the same as that in the first edition. "A Table
Alphabetical," printed at the end of the first edition, was
not undertaken for the second; but a new, engraved map of the
world, unsigned and without a title, is found in some copies
of the third volume. It was used also in two states.

This map is exceedingly rare, and interest attaches to it
for two reasons. It is the first map of the world engraved
in England, on Wright's (Mercator) projection, having been
published the year after Wright had explained the principles
of the projection in his _Certain Errors in Navigation_. A
legend in a cartouche on the engraving says: "Thou hast here
gentle reader a true hydrographical description of ſo much
of the world as hath beene hetherto diſcouered, and is comme
to our knowledge: which we have in ſuch ſort performed,
y^t all places herein ſet downe, haue the ſame poſitions
and diſtances that they haue in the globe...." The second
source of interest is this: the map is, without much doubt,
the one Shakespeare referred to in _Twelfth Night_ when he
made _Maria_ say of _Malvolio_, "he does ſmile his face into
more lynes then is in the new Mappe, with the augmentation of
the Indies."

A curious error has existed with regard to the map. The
reference in the 1589 volume, already quoted, has been taken
to mean that Hakluyt intended to issue a map by Molineux with
that work, but, that map not being ready in time, he used the
one from Ortelius. What more natural than that the new map in
the 1598 edition should be supposed to be Molineux's, now at
length finished? This was the conclusion jumped at, and the
plate is usually called "Molineux's map." As a matter of fact,
Hakluyt did not refer to Molineux as a map-maker, but as a
globe-maker. He was a friend of that rare gentleman, and he
knew that the mathematician was at work on a large terrestrial
globe embodying all the very latest geographical information
in the most exact way, according to Mercator's projection. He
used the Ortelius map in his book only until the globe should
be ready, when it could be easily adapted to the plane surface
of a map by the engraver.

The globe, measuring two and a half feet in diameter, was
issued in 1592, and is now preserved in the Library of the
Middle Temple.

Folio. Black letter.

COLLATION: Volume I, *, _six leaves; **, six leaves; A-Fff{4},
in sixes_.

Volume II, *, _eight leaves; A-Ccb, in sixes; Aaa-Rrrb, in sixes_.

Volume III, _(A), eight leaves; A-I, in sixes; K, eight leaves;
L-Cccc, in sixes_.

GEORGE CHAPMAN

(1559-1634)

Though Butter was the publisher of Dekker's _Belman of
London_, and, with John Busby, of Shakespeare's _Lear_, he is
chiefly to be remembered for two things, for his success as a
compiler and publisher of pamphlets of news,--a success which
entitles him to the place of father of the London press--and
for his connection with Chapman.

In 1609 (?) Samuel Macham brought out, in small folio form,
_Homer, Prince of Poetts, in Twelve Bookes of his Iliads_,
embellished with an engraved title-page by William Hole, who
was one of the earliest English engravers on copper-plates.
Inflated with his subject, the artist crowded the title into
a small central panel the better to present his conception of
Vulcan, Apollo, Achilles, Hector, and Homer, in a composition
which, if topheavy, was more dignified and better drawn than
many of the borders ascribed to him.

Under date of April 8, 1611, we find in the Stationers'
Register that Butter "Entered for his Copy by consente of
Samuell Masham, A Booke called Homers Iliads in English
contayning 24 bookes." With his right to print, he also
received the right to use the Hole frontispiece, which he had
reëngraved on a larger scale for the new book. The date of
issue is not given, but it could not have been later than
November 6, 1612, the date of the death of the Prince of
Wales, to whom the book is dedicated, and it was probably
published soon after the date of copyright. The printer's name
is also lacking; but reasons exist for thinking that more than
one worked on the book, and that there were several issues.
There are copies whose signatures agree with those of the
volumes of our issue, but these are printed with different
type, on poorer paper, and the initial letters and other
ornaments are of a much cruder sort.

After Chapman had published his translation of the Iliad, he
turned his attention to the Odyssey; and, as in the case of
the Iliad, he went to press with half of it first, Butter
being the publisher. The volume ends with the words "Finis
duodecimi libri Hom. Odyſſ. Opus nouem dierum," and begins
with one of the most charming and perfect title-pages of the
period, the greater pity therefore that it is unsigned.
Its composition shows the poet in the midst of a company of
laurel-crowned spirits, whose ethereal forms are expressed
in stipple, with legends which read: "Solus ſapit hic homo,
Reliqui vero," and "Umbræ mouentur." Above, the title is
supported by two cupids, and below are seated figures of
Athena, and Ulysses with his dog. The whole plate was very
delicately drawn.

The remaining twelve books having been finished, we find
Butter entering the whole twenty-four for copyright, November
2, 1614; and, although the volume is not dated, it was
probably issued soon afterward. The title reads: _Homer's
Odysses. Tranſlated according to y^e Greeke. By George
Chapman At Miki q^d viuo detraxerit. Inuida Turba Post obitum
duplici foenore reddet Honos. Imprinted at London by Rich:
Field, for Nathaniell Butter._

The same engraved title-page was used, but its fine lines had
now grown fainter, the stippled shades seeming to justify the
statement in the inscription. The dedication to the Earl of
Somerset, as it appeared with the first twelve books, was
somewhat altered in the opening lines, necessitating the
resetting of the first page and the consequent change of the
head-band and initial letter; but the rest of the first
half is precisely the same as in the first issue. The words
"Finis," etc., were dropped from the end, in some copies, and
a blank leaf marks the division of the first half from the
last.

The present book is made up of the complete Iliad, and the
complete Odyssey, sewn together. The enterprising Butter
made the engraved title of the Iliads answer for the general
title-page of this book also, only, of course, changing the
wording in the central panel. Some copies have the engraved
title of the Odyssey, but more lack it. Its omission was
probably due to its having become too faint from continued use
to be of service. Butter added one or two new features to some
copies of the volume, and among them a fine large portrait
of Chapman, which he printed in a very unusual place, on
the verso of the title-page. It represents the head of the
translator, surrounded by clouds, and bears on the circular
frame the inscriptions: _Haec est laurigeri facies diuina
Georgi_; _Hic Ph[oe]bi Decus est_; _Ph[oe]binumqz Deus_;
_Georgius Chapmanus Homeri Metaphrastes_. _Æta: LVII.
M.DC.XVI; Conscium Evasi Diem._ The date of the inscription
is usually given as the date of issue of the book. Below the
frame are ten lines beginning with two quotations, one in
Latin, and one in English, and followed by this interesting
statement: _Eruditorum Poetarum huius Æui, facile Principi,
Dno Georgio Chapman; Homero (velit nolit Inuidia) Rediuiuo.
I.M. Tessellam hanc_ Χαριϛήριον [Greek: Charistêrion] _DD._
It would be a gratifying thing to know the name of the friend
who thus added so much to the embellishment and interest of the
book. Could it have been John Marston?

The engraving is ascribed to Hole, though without any very
good reason, except that he had made the title-page of the
Iliad, some four years earlier. It seems hardly probable that
his awkward hand could have drawn the title for the Odyssey,
and, while the same holds true of the engraver of the
portrait, a comparison of the three plates perhaps would show
that Butter employed more than one engraver.

Besides the portrait, our publisher added after the
title-page, on a separate leaf, an engraved dedication "To the
Imortall Memorie, of the Incomparable Heroe, Henrye Prince
of Wales," who died in 1612. Two columns labelled "Ilias"
and "Odyssæa," bound with a band inscribed "Musar: Hercul:
Colum:," have below them lines ending:

"... Thow, dead. then; I
Liue deade, for giuing thee Eternitie

"Ad Famam.

"To all Tymes future, This Tymes Marck extend;
Homer, No Patrone founde; Nor Chapman, friend:
"Ignotus nimis omnibus;
Sat notus, moritur ſibi:"

This affecting tribute precedes the other dedication to the
same prince, issued with the Iliad when it first appeared.
Such constancy to the memory of a prince, now some years dead,
and from whom no favors could be expected, argues well for
Chapman's affections; but, on the other hand, one might see
in it a reason for believing that the work was issued before
1616.

Folio.

COLLATION: _Title-page and dedication, 2 ll.; *2,*3, 2 ll.;
A4-A6, A, 5 ll.; B-Z, in sixes; Aa-Ff, in sixes; Gg, 7 ll.;
A3-O, in sixes; R, 7 ll.; S-Z, in sixes; Aa-Hh, in sixes;
Ii, 7 ll._

THE HOLY BIBLE

Few books present greater difficulties to the bibliographer
than this, the first "Authorized" or King James Version of the
Bible. Many copies bearing the same date, and seemingly alike,
have distinct differences in the text, in the ornamental head-
and tail-pieces, and in the initial letters. But the most
striking difference lies in two forms of the title-page. One
of these, a copper-plate engraving, signed _C. Boel fecit in
Richmont_, represents an architectural framework having large
figures of Moses and Aaron in niches on either side of the
border and seated figures of St. Luke and St. John, with
their emblems, at the bottom: above are seated figures of St.
Matthew and St. Mark, and St. Peter and St. Paul holding the
Agnus Dei, while behind them are various saints and martyrs.
The title reads:

The style of Boel's work is quite like that of the Sadelers,
to whose school he belonged, and it resembles in its general
effect some of the title-pages made by those artists for
Plantin's famous Antwerp press.

The other title-page is seen in the facsimile. It is printed
with a woodcut border which represents above, the Evangelists
Matthew and Mark, the Adonai, Lamb, and Dove in cartouches,
while below are found St. Luke and St. John, the Lamb on the
altar, and the cherub's head, Barker's ornament. The tents and
shields of the Twelve Tribes are represented in twelve round
panels on the left side, and the Twelve Apostles, similarly
framed, on the right. The signatures RL [monogram
reverse-R&L] and CS [monogram over semi-circle] are seen
at the bottom of the title panel. This border, like the great
primer black letter of the text, had been previously used
by Christopher Barker, in an edition of the "Bishops Bible,"
published in 1585, and by Robert in 1602; afterward, in an
edition of the New Testament (Royal Version) published
in 1617, and also in other works. While more finished in
execution, the design is similar in idea to one often used
by Barker, notably in a Bible printed in 1593, and bears some
resemblance to a border found in Plantin's "Great Bible."

The copper-plate title is sometimes found with what is called
the first issue of the work, sometimes with the second, and
sometimes with the editions of 1613 and 1617. It has been
suggested that it was intended to be used with the woodcut
border always found with the New Testament in both issues, and
usually ascribed to the second, although "there is no ground
for supposing that it was always issued with it." That Boel
took the motive of the tents and shields of the Tribes for
a minor detail in his border, is a point worthy of notice
because this fact might, with some reason, be used to prove
that inasmuch as his engraving was made some time after the
unknown wood-engraver's border, it could hardly have appeared
with the first issue.

We quote the following from W. I. Loftie's _A Century of
Bibles_:

"Mr. Fry has compared together 70 copies of the Bible of 1611.
By observing how many of them were exactly alike he was able
to determine their order of publication. Twenty-three copies
were found to present the same peculiarities. Two only varied
from the 25 and from each other, in 8 leaves, 2 in one and 6
in the other. Of the remaining 45, 40 were mixed with leaves
from other editions, but 38 contained leaves of the same
edition. Mr. Fry's conclusions were as follows:--One issue is
unmixed except 2 copies in 25: the other is made up (1)
with reprints, (2) with parts of the first issue, (3) with
preliminary leaves from 3 other editions: he therefore infers
that the two issues were distinct and that the issue which
presented the fewest instances of admixture was the first. His
conclusions seem unassailable; it is therefore assumed to be
proved in this list, that the issue of which he examined 25
copies so nearly alike, is the first, and is entitled to the
honour of being called the _Editio Princeps_ of the version."

The chief differences in the collation of what is called the
second issue with the first are these: "The fifth leaf is
Sig. B. in the preliminary matter: Kalendar C, C2, C3, and
followers. In the first page of the Dedication OE is printed
for OF and in the eighth line CHKIST for CHRIST. In the 'Names
and order of the Bookes' there are three lines printed in red:
I Chronicles, is misprinted I Corinthians, and II Chronicles,
II Corinthians. The chief errors of the first issue are
corrected, but the repetition in Ezra iii. 5, remains. Exodus
ix. 13, Let my people goe that they may ſerve thee, _for_
serve me. S. Matthew xxvi. 36, Then commeth Judas with them
unto a place called Gethſemane, _for_ Then cometh
Jeſus. The initial P. in Psalm 112, contains a woodcut of
Walsingham's crest."

Robert Barker's name calls for more than passing notice, since
he it was who, more than any one else after the forty-seven
translators, was responsible for the production of the
Authorized Version. On January 3, 1599, the court of
assistants of the Stationers' Company recognized the letter
patent of Queen Elizabeth granting Robert Barker the reversion
for life, after his father's death, of the office of Queen's
Printer, with the right of printing English Bibles, Books of
Common Prayer, statutes and proclamations. Christopher Barker,
the father, who was also Queen's Printer, made an interesting
report in December, 1582, on the printing patents which had
been granted from 1558-1582, and in it he speaks of his own
rights. Mr. Edward Arber, in quoting the report, calls it a
masterly summary, whose importance and authority as a graphic
history of English printing, it would be hardly possible
to exaggerate. In "A note of the offices and other speciall
licenses for printing, graunted by her maiestie to diuerse
persons; with a coniecture of the valuation" he says: "Myne
owne office of her Maiesties Printer of the English tongue
gyven to Master Wilkes, (and which he had bought) is abbridged
of the cheefest comodities belonging to the office, as shall
hereafter appeare in the Patentes of Master Seres and Master
Daye: but as it is I haue the printing of the olde and newe
testament, the statutes of the Realme, Proclamations, and the
booke of common prayer by name, and in generall wordes, all
matters for the Churche."

If the monopoly of printing the Bible brought its gains it
also brought its risks. Christopher Barker in his report goes
on to speak of this:

"The whole bible together requireth so great a somme of money
to be employed, in the imprinting thereof; as Master Jugge
kept the Realme twelve yere withoute, before he Durst
adventure to print one impression: but I, considering the
great somme I paide to Master Wilkes, Did (as some haue termed
it since) gyve a Desperate adventure to imprint fouer sundry
impressions for all ages, wherein I employed to the value of
three thousande pounde in the term of one yere and a halfe, or
thereaboute: in which tyme if I had died, my wife and children
had ben vtterlie vndone, and many of my frendes greatlie
hindered by disbursing round sommes of money for me, by
suertiship and other meanes...."

Robert was not without a like experience. The King, it is
claimed, never paid a penny towards the great work. Indeed,
William Ball, writing in 1651, says: "I conceive the sole
printing of the bible, and testament, with power of restraint
in others, to be of right the propriety of one Matthew Barker,
citizen and stationer of London, in regard that his father
paid for the emended or corrected translation of the bible,
3,500 l.: by reason whereof the translated copy did of right
belong to him and his assignes."

Whether the great expense connected with its production ruined
him, or whether, as Mr. Plomer suggests, he had been living
beyond his means, Barker's last days were involved in
financial difficulties, and he died in the King's Bench
prison.

Some of the ornament in the book, particularly that used with
the coat-of-arms of the King, the genealogical tables, the
map, and some few head-bands and initial letters, again recall
the work done for Plantin, and lead us to think that that
great printer's books had not been without their influence
upon the Barkers. The Tudor rose, the thistle, harp and
fleur-de-lis are combined in different ways in initials and
head-bands; the head-band of the archers, which was afterward
used in the folio edition of Shakespeare's works, and is found
in many other books, appears; and a large number of unrelated
and commonplace initials and type-metal head-bands bring to
mind the fact that Barker had come into the possession of
material formerly belonging to John Day and Henry Bynneman.

Folio. Black letter. Double columns.

COLLATION: _A, six leaves; B, two leaves; C, one leaf; A2-A6;
D, four leaves; A-C, in sixes; two leaves without signatures;
A-Ccccc6, in sixes; A-Aa6, in sixes_.

BENJAMIN JONSON

(1573?-1637)

This book, especially as we see it in the copies printed on
large paper, is a handsome specimen of typography. It reflects
great credit upon its printer, Stansby, who was an apprentice
and then successor to John Windet, and himself a master
printer. Such work entitles him to a front rank among the
printers of the reign of James I.

Jonson is said to have prepared the plays for the press,
himself, and one or two matters of editing, which seem
unusually careful when compared with other folio collections,
certainly appear to show the author's hand. At the end of each
play, for instance, is a statement telling when it was
first acted, and by whom, whether the king's or the queen's
servants. The names of the actors are also given, as well
as the "allowance". The volume embraces nine plays, and
_Epigrammes_, _The Forest_, _Entertaynements_, _Panegyre_,
_Maſques_ and _Barriers_. There is no introductory note by
the printer, and we are not told how Stansby came into the
right to print those plays which had been previously issued by
other printers or publishers.

In some copies all of the plays have separate printed titles,
while in others there are one, two, or more wood-cut borders
showing a lion and a unicorn, a lily, rose and thistle, and a
grape-vine twined around columns at the side.

All of the works not included in the first were intended for
a second volume, which, however, did not appear until after
Jonson's death, in 1640, when it was printed for Richard
Meighen, the bookseller, by Bernard Alsop and Thomas Fawcet.
The title reads: _The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The second
Volume Containing These Playes, Viz._ _1 Bartholomew Fayre.
2 The Staple of Newes. 3 The Divell is an Asse_.... This title,
it will be seen, mentions only three plays, which are thought
to have been issued somewhat earlier than 1640, perhaps as
a supplement to the first volume. The book, as it is usually
bound, however, contains three more plays and a fragment of a
fourth.

There are variations in the imprint of the first volume,
some reading, _London, Printed by William Stansby_, and again
others, _London printed by W. Stansby, and are to be ſould
by Rich: Meighen_. The imprints of the large paper copies in
the British Museum and Huth libraries both read like that
of the copy facsimiled. The large paper copies, it should be
noted, are on whiter and finer paper of an entirely different
water-mark. The copies with Meighen's name show traces of the
erasure of our form; a fact leading to the supposition that
they are later in issue. This matter is complicated, however,
by certain striking variations in the text itself. The last
two pages of Meighen's copies, containing _The Golden Age_,
show a transposition of parts affecting the whole literary
value of the ending of the masque.

Mr. Walter Wilson Greg, in his _List of English Plays_, 1900,
gives the Stansby-Meighen copies the place of the first
issue, calling the Stansby copies a reissue, with the imprint
reëngraved.

It seems reasonable to suppose, in view of the fact that he
was the seller of the second volume also, that Meighen became
connected with Stansby after the first copies of the first
volume were published. The appearance of his name in the
imprint of Volume I. would mark the beginning of such
a partnership; and this partnership would naturally be
continuous, and not interrupted, as it would appear to be
if copies bearing Stansby's name alone came after the
Stansby-Meighen imprint, and before the 1640 volume.

"Guliel Hole fecit" is signed to the elaborate title-page
engraved on copper. This monumental structure, with
its representations of Tragicom[oe]dia, Satyr, Pastor,
Trag[oe]dia, Com[oe]dia, Theatrum, Plaustrum, and Visorium,
shows such a considerable knowledge of Roman antiquities that
we are inclined to think that Jonson himself may have had
something to do with the making of it. A similar thought
arises in looking at the pages engraved by Hole for Chapman's
Homer, and one would like to know how far that author, steeped
in his Classics, influenced the engraver. It may be a fair
speculation, how far Jonson and Chapman may have influenced
the development of book illustration.

It is a point worthy of notice that the execution of the
figures in this engraving is decidedly inferior to that of the
Chapman title.

Gerard Honthorst's portrait of Jonson, engraved by Robert
Vaughan, whose frontispieces and portraits are found in many
books of the period, is inserted in this copy. The engraving
was probably issued, in its first state, as a separate print.
In a second state it was prefixed to the second edition of
the first volume, _Printed by Richard Biſhop, and are to be
ſold by Andrew Crooke_, in 1640.

The famous lines,

"O could there be an art found out that might
Produce his shape soe lively as to Write,"

follow eight lines of Latin, beneath the oval frame.

Folio.

COLLATION: _Portrait and title-page, 2 leaves; A-Qqqq4, in sixes_.

ROBERT BURTON

(1577-1640)

In the preface, the author tells why he used the pseudonym
"Democritus Junior." Democritus, he says, as described by
Hippocrates and Diogenes Laertius, was "a little wearyiſh
olde man, very melancholy by nature, averſe from company in
his latter times, and much giuen to ſolitarineſſe," who
undertook to find the seat of melancholy. "_Democritus
Iunior_ is therefore bold to imitate, and becauſe he left it
unperfect, to proſecute and finiſh, in this Treatiſe."
In "The Concluſion of the Author to the Reader," three
leaves at the end of the volume, signed "Robert Burton," and
dated "From my Studie in Chriſt Church, Oxon, Decemb 5.
1620," he says:

"The laſt Section ſhall be mine, to cut the ſtrings of
_Democritus_ viſor, to vnmaſke and ſhew him as he is ...
_Democritus_ began as a Prologue to this Trage-comedie, but
why doth the Author end, and act the Epilogue in his owne
name? I intended at firſt to haue concealed my ſelfe,
but _ſecunde cogitationes_ &c. for ſome reaſons I haue
altered mine intent, and am willing to ſubſcribe...."

Later editions, and there were eight during Burton's lifetime,
omit the conclusion, and show other alterations. The success
of the book, as may be seen from this large number of
editions, was great. Wood says that Cripps, the bookseller,
made a fortune out of the sale of it, yet he received only a
half share of the profits; the other half, belonging to the
author, was made over by him in his will to members of the
college and to various Oxford friends. "If anie bookes be
lefte lett my executors dispose of them, with all such bookes
as are written with my owne handes, and half my _Melancholy_
copie, for Crips hath the other halfe."

In course of time the _Anatomy_ was almost forgotten, and
Lowndes tells us it owes its revival to Dr. Johnson, who
observed that it "was the only book that ever took him out of
bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise."

Lichfield and Short were university printers whose press will
be chiefly remembered in connection with the production of
this masterpiece. The book is ornamented with a few type-metal
head- and tail-pieces, and a large initial and a woodcut
head-band at the beginning.

Quarto.

COLLATION: _a-f4, in eights; A-Ddd4, in eights_.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(1564-1616)

The bibliographical history of this most famous book has been
written so completely by Mr. Sidney Lee that little remains to
be said. The following notes aim only at recounting the facts
suggested by a reading of the title-page.

_Venus and Adonis_, printed in 1593, and _Lucrece_, printed in
1594, were the only works of Shakespeare published during his
lifetime with his consent and coöperation; but sixteen of
his plays were printed in quarto size, by various publishers,
without his permission.

The plays here collected, in folio form, are thirty-six in
number, and include sixteen hitherto unpublished,--all the
plays, in fact, except _Pericles_. John Heming and Henry
Condell, friends and fellow-actors of the dramatist, were
professedly responsible for the edition, as appears in their
dedication to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery:

"... that what delight is in them, may be euer your L.L. the
reputation his, & the faults ours, if any be committed, by
a payre ſo carefull to ſhew their gratitude both to the
liuing, and the dead...." But the chief part of the real
editorship is thought to have devolved upon the publisher,
Edward Blount of The Bear, Paul's Churchyard, one of the firm
pecuniarily responsible for the enterprise. His name and that
of Isaac Jaggard, the printer, appear upon the title-page, as
the licensed printers, but in the colophon we read that the
book was "printed at the charges" of William Jaggard, printer
to the City of London, and father to Isaac, Ed. Blount, "I.
Smithweeke," or Smethwick, bookseller under the Dial, in St.
Dunstan's Churchyard, and William Aspley, bookseller of The
Parrots, Paul's Churchyard.

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