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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
certain that the Jesuits had a early printing es- tablishment in Macao. For an interesting ac count of the English missionary society press at Jlacao, see the year 1814, fost.
1593. Albert Hf.vndriesz, a printer at the Hague, styles himself printer to the states of Holland, and executed many classical volumes of great beauty.
1594. Robert Aqoas was a scholar, and a printer from the year 1558 to 1594, and. dwelt at the west end of 8t. Paul's church. Accord- ing to Maunsell's caUdogue, he seems to have been more of a bookseller than a printer. He had a relation, named Ralph Aggas, a surveyor, who published maps of several towns in England.
1594. The office of typographer royal, insti- tuted at Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, with certain privileges and a fixed salary from the government, the printing materials also being furnished by the king. The first printer who held this post was Anunders Olai.
1594. Writing tahUiwith a kalenderfor xxilli yearet, with nmdry neceuarye nda. Made at London hy Frauncii Adams, stationer or book- binder, dwellinge in Distaffe lane, neare Olde Fiskstrele, at the signe of the Aqua vite still, and are there to be sold. In this work it is stated, " Printing was found out at Mentz, 1459, and first brought to London by William Caxton, mercer." Oblong sixteens.
1694. In Jerom Wierix's Bible, published in Holland, in this year, there is a plate by John Wierix, lepreseniing the Feast of Dives, with Lazarus at his door. In the rich man's banquet- ing room there is a dwarf to contribute to the merriment of the company, according to the custom in this century, of rich people keeping dwarfs for their amusement.*
Jerom and John Wierix engraved a great number of plates, neat, but hard. John was bom in 1555. There was also an Anthony Wierix, an engraver, whose mark was A. W. Jerom's was H. I. W.
1594, June 1. Died, Christopher Marlow, the best of English poets before Shakspeare, whom Philips calls "a kind of second Shakspeare." Thomas Heywood styles him " the best of poets;" and Drayton has bestowed a high panegyric on him, in the Censure of the Poets, in these lines:
Next Marlow, bath'd in Thespian springs. Had in blm these translimarr things. That yoor first poets had; his raptures were All air and fire, which made hLs verses clear, For that fine madness still he did retain, Which rishtljr should possess a poet's brain.
Ben Jonson also speaks of " Marlow's mighty line;" and Warton says that his tragedies mani- fest traces of a just dramatic conception, over
• In Italy, fondness for dwarfs was carried to extrava- gance. " Being at Rome in the year IS66," says a French writer, "I was invited by cardinal VillclU to a feast, where we were served by no fewer than thirtyfourdwarfs, most of them horridly distorted." The same author adds, that Francis I. and Henry II. Itinfcs of France, had many dwarfs, and Charles II. <i England had JcOTy Hudson.
which it was left to Shakspeare's genius alone to triumph and predominate. He was born about 1562, though little is known of his family. He was educated at Bene't college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. 1583, and M. A. 1587; he tlien quitted the academic bower, and went on the stage, where he fell into a dissolute life, and practised the most epicurean indulgence, and at last, it is reported, came to an untimely end, in the following manner.
He fell deeply in love with a low girl, and had for his rival a fellow in livery, who looked more like a pimp than a lover. Marlow fired with jealousy, and having some reason to believe that bis mistress granted the fellow favours, rushed upon him to stab him with his dagger; but the footman being quick, avoided the stroke, and catching hold of Marlow's wrist, stabbed him with bis own weapon; and notwithstanding all the a.s.sistance of the surgery, he soon died of the wound. During his short life, he produced eight plays, besides miscellaneous poems, and wrought a great change in theatrical literature. He delighted in delineating the strong and tur- bulent passions. In the Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus,* he writes with a force and freedom unknown previously to our infant drama; and calling in the aid of magic and supernatural agency, produces a work full of power, novelty, and variety: and was designe<l to depict ambition in its most outrageous form. In the Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta,f he exhibits every good and humane feeling under subjection to the love of money.
The plays of Marlow are remarkably scarce, amounting to seven, six of which were in the Garrick collection. The play of Marlow's, which is not in the above collection, is called Dido, Queen of Carthage^ a copy of which was in the Malone collection.
1595. Died, Charles Yetsweirt, French secretary and clerk of the signet to oueen Eliza- beth. In lord Burghley's diary is the following notice, under the year 1594, "March 25, a pri- vilege granted to Charles Yetzweirt, for printing all books of the common law."
In the Herald's office there is this memoran- dum of him.
" Charles Yetsweirt, esq; her majesty's secre- tary for the French tongue, and one of the
- Written by Ch. M. London: printed by John Wright,
and are to be sold at his shop, without Newgate, at the sign of the Bible. I6l6. It is in black letter. Some former possessor of this copy lias filled up the initial If. and written JfarMjn. Sold at Wright's sale for .^-l 7«.
t As it was played before the Iting and queen. In his majesty's theatre, at Whitehall, by her majesty's servants, at the Cock Pit. Written by Christopher Mario. London: printed by J. B. for Nicholas Vavasour, and are to be sold at his shop in the Inner Temple, near the chureh. 1633.
t Played by the children of her mi^esty's chapel. Writ- ten by Christopher Marlow and Thomas Nash, gent. lX)ndon: printed by the widow Orwin, for Thomas Wood- cock, and arc to be sold at his shop in Paul's Church- yard, at the sign of the Black Boar. 1595.
There was no copy of this play in the collections of Farmer, Steevens, Pearson, or Dodd. There was one in the possession of Or. Wright, which produced the enor- mous sum of sixteen guinew.
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