480
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
printed queen Elizabeth's last speech, to accom- pany Charles's. This was presented to the king by his own printer, John Bill, not from a politiciu motive, but merely by way of complaint, that another had printed, without leave or license, that which, as king's printer, he asserted was his own copyright. Charles does not appear to have been pleased with the gift, and observed, " you printers^ print anything." Three gentle- men of the bed-chamber, continues the writer, commended Mr. Bill very much, and prayed him to come oftener with such rarities to the Icing, because they mightdo some good.
1628. The Countat of Lincolnt?s Nurttry. This is a small but valuable tract, written by Elizabeth countess of Lincoln, and is addressed to her daughter-in-law, Bridget, countess of Lincoln. A judicious writer observes, this work is an excellent proof of her good sense, being full of fine arguments, and capable of convinc- ing any one, that is capable of conviction, of the necessity and advantages of mothers nursing their own children, — she herself being the mo- ther of seven sons and nine daughters. By her ladyship's speaking of it as the first work of hers ever printed, one would imagine she had written more, but nothing else has been found.
1629. In this year, Ben Jonson, the poet, was in great distress from sickness. Charles I. sent him a present of one hundred pounds, which, sir Walter Scott justly says, would be no trifling gift for a poor bard, even in the present day. Jonson acknowledged the royal generosity in a grateful epigram, which turns upon a decla- ration that Charles was possessed of both the gift of curing the king's evil, and the poet's evil — poverty ; but his gratitude seems to have been much of that kind which consists in a lively an- ticipation of future favours, for, in the very next year, we have him petitioning that his pension of a hundred merks may be made a hundred pounds.
The humbh petition of poor Ben, To thebett of monarch; mattert, and men, Kino Charles ;
Doth humbly show It,
To yonr m^esty, your poet:
That, whereas yonr royal father, James the blessed, pleased the rather. Of hla special grace to letters, To make all the muses debtors To his bounty, by extension Of a free poetic pension, A large hundred merks annuity, To be given me in gratuity, For done service, and to come ;
And that this so accepted sum. Or dispensed in books or bread,
iPor with both the muse was fed), lath drawn on me from the times All the envy of the rhymes. And the rattling pit-pat noise Of the less poetic boys, When their pop-guns aim to hit With their pellets of smaU wit Parts of me (they Judged) decayed. But we last out still uolayed.
Please your nut)esty to make. Of yonr grace for goodness' sake. Those yonr father's merks yonr poond* : Let their spite, which now abounds. Then go on and do its worst ; This would all their envy burst : And so warm the poet's tongue. You'd read a snake in his next song.
The king accordingly having received a sur- render of the patent ^r the former annuity, was pleased to grant a new one for one hundred pounds, and " one terce of Spanish wine yearly, out of our store of wines remaining in our cellars within the palace of Whitehall;" and this "*in consideration of the acceptable service done unto us and our said father, by the said Benjamin Jonson, and especially to encouraeg him to pro- ceed in those services of his wit and pen which we have enjoined unto him, and which we ex- pect from him." This patent is dated March 26, and its efficacy was shewn in about two months by an epigram on the queen then lying in on the Inrthofaprince, — afterwards Charles II.
16^. The secret bibliographical history of these times would show the extraordinary state of the press in the trade ol Biblet. The writer of a curious pamphlet exposes the combination of those called king's printers, with their con- trivances to keep up the price of bibles ; their correspondence with the Ixraksellers of Scotland and Dublin, by which means they retained the privilege in their own hands. Printing of Eng- lish bibles was an article of open trade ; every one printed at the lowest price, and as last as their presses would allow. Even thote who were dignified as " his majesty's printers" were among these manufacturers, and they got bibles printed cheaper at Edinburgh. In this vear, when folio bibles were wanted, the Cambridge printers sold them at ten shillings in quires ; on this the Londoners set six printing nouses at work, and, to annihilate the Cambridgians, printed a similar folio bible, but sold with it five hundred quarto Roman bibles, and five hundred fuarfo English, at five shillings a book ; which proved the ruin of the folio bibles, by keeping them down under the cost price. Another competition arose among those who printed English bibles in Holland, in duodecimo, with an English imprint, for half the price even of the lowest in London. Twelve thousand of these duodecimo bibles, with notes, fabricated in Holland, usually by our fugitive sectarians, were seized by the king's printers, as contrary to the statute.* Such was this shameful war of bibles — folios, quartos, and duodecimos, which were for some time suflered to be printed upon bad paper, and so corrupted that no books ever yet swarm^ with such innumerable errata. See \632post.
1629. The first motion relative to printing and publishing of books in the house of com- mons was made by Mr. Seldon ; — he moved to make a law to regulate printing and publishing, and to restrict the decrees of the star chamber.
1629. George Purslowe printed the fol- lowing curious book, Neuxs out of Purgatory. Onely such a Jest as his Jigge, fit for gentlemen to laugh at an houre, fee. Published by an old
- Scintilla, or a Light hroken into darke Wardmam; ef
tome Priniert, xteeping Stationere, and conMning Book- tellert; in which it ontjf a touch of their foreataXting and ingrouing of Booka in Pattentt, and raj/ring them to e*- ceuive prises. Left to the consideration or the high and honourable House of Parliament, note assembled, Lond o n : No where to be sold, but some where to be given. I6tl.
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