406
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
had swallowed some of his own sauce, or taken his pap (offered to him) leith an hatchet. In another rare pamphlet from the same school, Patquil uf England,* he humoarously threatens to write " the Owle's Almanack, wherein your night labours be set down;" and " some fruitful Tolumes of the Lives of the Sainli, which, maugre your father's five hundred sons, shall be printed," with " hays, jiggs, and roundelays, and madrigals, serving for epitaphs for his father's hearse." The following extract may serve as a specimen of the language employed in this sin- gular warfare. Martin once met with an adver- sary who openly declared, "I profess rayling, and think it as good a cudgell for a Martin as a stone for a dogge, or a whip for an ape, or poison for a rat. Who would curry an ass with an ivory comb? Give this beast thistle for proven- der. I doe but yet angle with a sinken flie, to see whether Martins will nibble, and if I see that, why then I have worms for the nonce, and will give them line enough, like a trowte, till .they swallow both hook and line, and then, Martin, beware vour gills, for I'll make you daunce at the pole's end. Fill thy answer as full of lies as of lines, swell like a toade, hiss like an adder, bite like a dog, and chatter like a monkey, my pen is prepared, and my mind; and if you chaunce to find anie worse words than you broughte, let them be put in your Dad's dic-
- The Retume of the renowned Cavalien Ptuquite of
Snglandj from the other side the seas, and his meeting with Marforiust at London, upon the Royal Exchange, Where they encounter with a tittle household talk of Martin and Mariittism, discooering the scahbe that is hredde m England, and conferring U^ether about the speedj/e dispersing of the " Oolden Legende of the lAoet of the Saints."
Beneath tbii is a device cat in wood, of a caduceiu, with mottos; and below, these words.
If my breath be so hotte that I borne mymoath, suppose I iraa printed by Pepper AlUe, Anno Dom. list. *to. Ifi leaves.
The sqaibs aiBxed to the statne of Pasqnin. are osoally termed PuqoUls; but here that name is given to liim.
A counter-enfe given to Martin Junior, bj/ the ventu- rous, hardie. and renowned. Pasquil of England, Caeatiero: Not of old Martin's making, which newly knighted the saints in heaven with " Uppe, Sir Peter, and Sir Paule ."' but taietie dubbed for his service at home, for the defence of tits country, and for the cleane breaking of his staffe an Martinis face. Printed between the skie and the grounde, wylhin a mple of an oke, and not many fields off from the unpri- vileged preue of the ass^ignees of Martin junior. 1689; Quarto.
A whip for an ape t or Martin dtsptaied. With a Latin distich. MSj). Quarto.
Martin*s Months minde, that is, a certain report and true description of the deathe and Funeral of olde Martin Marprelate the Great, Makebate of England, and father of the/actions. Containing the cause of his death, the manner of his burial, and the right copies, both of his will, and such epitaphs, as by sundrie his discreet friends and other of Ms veil wishers mere framed for him.
Martin the ape, the drunlce, and the madde. The thre Martins are, whose works we haue had. If Martin Uie foorth come after Martins so euill. Nor man nor beast comes, bat Martin the Dcuiil.
A copy of this worit was otTered at £» is.
An almond for a parrot; or, an alms for Martin Mar. prelate, ^e. Mv Cuthbert Curryknaee. 1589. Quarto.
Uyrror for Martinists, and all other schismaticks, and friendly admonition to Marline Marprelate and his mates, both in 4to. printed by John Wolfe, in 1S90.
The principal writer of the above tracts was Thomas Ntab, for an accoont of whom see the year l600. Post.
tionarie. Farewell, and be hanged; and I pray God you fare no worse. You?s at an hour's warning."
If sedition has its prog^ress, it has also its decline; and if it could not strike its blow when strongest, it only puled and made grimaces, prognostics of weakness and dissolution. This is admirably touched in Pappe icith an Hatchet. " Now, old Martin appeared, with a wit worn into the socket, twinkling and pinking like the snuffe of a candle; quantum mutatut ah illo, how unlike the knave be was before, not for malice, but for sharpnesse! The hogshead was even come to the hauncing, and nothing could be drawne from him but dregs; yet the emptie caske sounds lowder than when it was full, and protests more in his waining than he could per- lonne in his waxing. I drew neere the sillie soul, whom I found quivering in two sheets of protestation paper (alluding to the work men- tioned in note, page 404.) O how meager and leane he looked, so crest falne that his combe hung downe to his bill, and had I not been sure it was the picture of Envie, I should have sworn it had been the image of Death: so like the verie anatomic of mischief, that one might see through all the ribbes of his conscience."
Men echo the tone of their age, yet still the same unvarying human nature is at work; and the Puritans, who in the reign of Elizabeth ima^ned it was impossible to go too far in the business of reform, were the spirits called Round- head* under Charles, and wlxo have got another nick-name in .our own days. These wanted a reformation of a reformation; they aimed at reform, and designed revolution; they would not accept toleration, because they had deter- mined on predominance. We know them by the name of Puritans, a nick-name obtained by their affecting superior sanctity; but they were often distinguished by the more humble appel- lative of Precisians. A satirist of their day, in Rythmes against Martin Marprelate, melts their attributes in one verse:
The sacred sect, and perfect pure precise.
Warner, in his Albion's England, describes them:
If ever England will in aoght prevent her own mishap. Against these Skomes (no term too gross) let England
shut the gap; With Kiddie heads— Their countrie's foes they helpt, and most their country
harm'd, If Hypocrites why Puritaines we term, be asked, in breefe, 'Tis but an ironised terme: Good fellow so spells theefe.
Elizabeth herself only considered them as " a troublesome sort of people;" even that great politician could not detect the political monster in a mere chrysalis of reform. Their history ex- hibits the curious spectacle of a great religious body covering a political one; and though crush- ed in the reign of Elizabeth, and beaten down in that of James, so furiously triumphed under Charles.
Few of our native productions are so rare as the MarUn Marprelate publications. They are not to be found m the public repositories of our
VjOOQ IC
