- 7 
 
 THE EARLIER HISTORY OF ENGLISH 
 BOOKSELLING.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 I'KINTED BY GILBERT AND R1V1NGTON, LIMITED, 
 ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL ROAD.
 
 Ex Labris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE 
 
 EARLIER HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLISH BOOKSELLING 
 
 WILLIAM ROBERTS 
 
 ' A little row of Naphtha-lamps, with its line of Naphtha-light, burns clear and 
 holy through the dead Night of the Past : they who are gone are still here : 
 though hidden they are revealed, though dead they yet speak.' 
 
 CARLYLE. 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON 
 
 Limited 
 
 >\. Jlunslan's gjousr 
 
 FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.G. 
 1889 
 
 \_All rights reserved}
 
 ! 1BKARY 
 
 owvsBsvnr o^- 
 
 TO THE 
 
 DOWAGER LADY HATHERTON 
 ZTbts IDolume 
 
 IS 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
 
 i 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IN planning a ' History of English Bookselling ' I 
 found myself compelled to adopt one of two alterna- 
 tives. In one, the History would have consisted of 
 a complete list of Booksellers, with exhaustive 
 bibliographies of each, and full extracts from the 
 Stationers' Registers, an account of the Company's 
 Masters and other officers, and verbatim reprints of 
 Charters granted at different times to the fraternity 
 to individual members as well as to the Company. 
 Biographical data of the earlier booksellers would 
 also have had to be considered, but it is scarcely 
 necessary to remind those who have interested them- 
 selves in the earlier aspects of literary activity that 
 biography is a singularly deficient element. If next 
 to nothing is known of Marlowe and Shakespeare, their 
 predecessors and their contemporaries, it is scarcely 
 reasonable to expect much information about the 
 lives of men who played a very subordinate part in 
 general history. Some private animosity or profes-
 
 viii Prejace. 
 
 sional jealousy often throws a little light upon their 
 history or methods of work, but it rarely amounts to 
 anything more than this. A ' History of Bookselling ' 
 on these lines, therefore, would not only be a portly 
 volume, but it is difficult to see how the matter could 
 be digested into a readable form. The appearance 
 of Mr. Arber's unparalleled monument of single- 
 handed labour, moreover, was another reason for dis- 
 carding a scheme which could, by no possibility, be 
 considered as enumerating every book published, 
 for fresh books of the early printers and booksellers 
 are constantly being discovered in public or private 
 libraries, the auction-room or the bookshop. To 
 attempt to say the last word on a subject with such 
 endless ramifications, would be ridiculous. 
 
 Of the second alternative, the reader has now an 
 opportunity of judging. I may, however, point out 
 that the present volume only brings my scheme up to 
 the earlier part of the last century. I have purposely 
 omitted chapters on several interesting phases such 
 as Booksellers' Signs, Sale Catalogues, and Retail 
 Catalogues, the wholesale and retail prices of certain 
 books, Booksellers as publishers of newspapers, and 
 many others, with which I purpose dealing fully in 
 a future volume, should the present instalment be 
 favourably received.
 
 Preface. ix 
 
 It is rather an extraordinary fact that so interesting 
 a section in literary history as Bookselling should have 
 so long remained undone. My own aim has been to 
 write a readable book on an interesting subject, taking 
 care, at the same time, to be as accurate as possible. 
 I cannot hope to have produced a work free of errors, 
 which would, perhaps, be unique in literary history. 
 Depending on statements at second-hand is too often 
 a matter of leaning on a broken reed, but it is fre- 
 quently the only one available. And even with the 
 splendid resources of the British Museum, and a 
 modest private collection (gleanings of several years 
 from various sources), of Bibliopoliana, there are 
 many points which I have not been able to clear up 
 satisfactorily. 
 
 The books which have been consulted -in the pro- 
 gress of the work are too numerous to be here speci- 
 fied, but the principal are Notes and Queries, Gentle 
 man's Magazine, Nichols' ' Literary Anecdotes,' Mr. 
 W. C. Hazlitt's admirable bibliographical works, Mr. 
 Ouaritch's equally useful catalogues, D'Israeli's works, 
 Timperley's 'Dictionary,' the Bibliographer, Mr. 
 Arber's ' Reprints,' Dunton's ' Life and Errors,' and 
 many more to which due acknowledgment is given in 
 the proper places. The British Museum ' Catalogue 
 of Early English Books ' has also been most useful.
 
 x Preface. 
 
 Very many facts, derived from the newspapers of the 
 earlier part of the last century, are now published for 
 the first time in book form. I need hardly mention 
 that I should at all times be grateful for any fresh 
 information relative to the fraternity as a body, or to 
 any of its individual members. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be pointed out that where 
 the Christian names of persons incidentally mentioned 
 are omitted in the body of the work, they will 
 generally be found in the Index, in which, also, a few 
 slips in the text detected too late for correction are 
 rectified. 
 
 January 5, 1889.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOOKSELLING BEFORE PRINTING i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE DAWN OF ENGLISH BOOKSELLING 18 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 BOOKSELLING IN THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE . . 46 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 BOOKSELLING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY . . 78 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 BOOKSELLING IN LITTLE BRITAIN . . . .116 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 BOOKSELLING ON LONDON BRIDGE . . . .130 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 OTHER BOOKSELLING LOCALITIES 140
 
 xii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JACOB TONSON r 5 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 BERNARD LINTOT . 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 EDMUND CURLL 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 JOHN DUNTON . 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THOMAS GUY
 
 THE EARLIER HISTORY OF ENGLISH 
 BOOKSELLING. 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BOOKSELLING BEFORE PRINTING. 
 
 CARLYLE has, truthfully we think, declared that 
 1 ten ordinary histories of kings and courtiers were 
 well exchanged against the tenth part of one good 
 History of Booksellers.' In the history of the whole 
 world no movement can be pointed at whose inception 
 involved so many issues, or whose importance has 
 proved so universal and so enduring, as the history 
 of books, which is practically the history of human 
 thought itself. Literature and its most primary cog- 
 nate never had separate existences, for in ages long 
 anterior to those of books, as we now understand the 
 term, we shall find traces of bookselling by way of 
 bartering one commodity for another, when money had 
 only a comparative value, or was almost unknown. 
 
 We shall confine ourselves, however, so far as pos- 
 sible, in this chapter to a brief consideration of the 
 origin and rise of bookselling in England. In the early 
 centuries of the Christian era, men had no time, in the 
 making and unmaking of towns, cities, and countries, 
 
 B
 
 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 to devote to literature, which indeed offered but few 
 attractions to those who could neither read nor write. 
 The cultivation of the soil, or the various methods of 
 offence and defence in the event of war, were almost the 
 only two alternatives, besides hunting and fishing, 
 which the early inhabitants of Great Britain possessed 
 to pass away the time. The seventh century, which 
 both Hallam and Guizot considered as the nadir of the 
 human mind in Europe, was only the intense darkness 
 which preceded almost heralded a bright and lumin- 
 ous dawn, for the eighth century is a splendid landmark 
 in the literary history of this country. Previous to this, 
 the quality of the manuscripts was generally inferior, 
 and the collectors few. Benedict Biscop (629-690) , may 
 be regarded as the first real and enthusiastic collector^ 
 and, in a sense, propagator of books. This famous 
 person, who founded the monastery of Wearmouth in 
 the year 674, made no less than five journeys to Rome 
 for the almost express purpose of collecting books, 
 besides commissioning his friends on various parts of 
 the continent to collect others for him. The Venerable 
 Bede (673-735), wno was greatly indebted to the 
 library formed by Benedict Biscop, was also a great 
 patron and purchaser of books, and was instrumental 
 in saving many a fine manuscript from destruction. 
 Boniface (680-755), the Saxon missionary, had suffi- 
 cient of the bibliomaniac element in him to make up 
 for half-a-dozen men. His demands for books were 
 simply insatiable, and there was scarcely any one of 
 note from whom he had not begged copies of some- 
 thing. One of his most constant friends seems to have 
 been the Abbess Eadburga, who sent him a number
 
 Bookselling before Printing. 3 
 
 of books transcribed either by herself or her scholars. 
 On one occasion he presented the Abbess with a silver 
 pen. The century to which we are referring was pro- 
 ductive of some very beautiful manuscripts, of which 
 a few are still in existence. Books not only largely 
 increased in numbers, but several libraries, private and 
 public, sprang into existence. 
 
 The monks may be regarded as our very earliest 
 booksellers. The preservation of literary treasures, 
 the making and disposal of books, were for many cen- 
 turies confined to the cloister. Whatever their faults 
 may have been and these were unquestionably 
 numerous it is only right and fair that we should 
 accord them the merit of preserving much of our early 
 literature and records. Among them were many who 
 possessed an artistic taste at once exquisite and 
 strangely out of harmony with the times, and an in 
 dustry which completely overcame all opposition. 
 The Benedictines more especially distinguished them- 
 selves in the beauty of their manuscripts, and to this 
 order, which was the most widely diffused, we may 
 attribute the preservation of many valuable works other 
 than religious, for in exhorting his brethren to read, 
 copy, and collect books, Benedict does not appear to 
 have laid down any stipulation as to whether the books 
 were to be heathen or the reverse. We may rest as- 
 sured that the monks did not inquire too particularly 
 into the question. The energy to which we have 
 referred, which also sometimes found a vent in the 
 committal of original thoughts to paper, or rather 
 parchment, cannot be regarded as wholly satisfac- 
 tory. Writing material was at certain periods both 
 
 B 2
 
 4 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 costly and difficult to obtain, and the over-zealous 
 monks did not hesitate to erase the writing on old 
 manuscripts and substitute their own notions. Of 
 these palimpsests or rescripts, as they are now called, 
 there are several in existence, and to this cause may 
 be attributed the loss of many a classic, and the exist- 
 ence of many more in a corrupted condition. Boc- 
 caccio, when travelling through Apulia, found all the 
 books in the library of Mount Cassino covered with 
 dust, and on examining these he discovered book after 
 book with entire sections cut out, and others without 
 any margins. He was informed that it was the work 
 of the monks, who did it to earn a penny, to make 
 little psalters for children ; with the white margins 
 they made mass books for women. There can be 
 hardly any doubt that the same or analogous causes 
 contributed to our own losses in England. 
 
 The greater number of manuscripts written prior to 
 the eleventh century fell into the hands of the Danes, 
 and perished in consequence. The Danish invasions of 
 the dying years of the tenth century resulted in the 
 destruction of fifty -three monasteries ; and William of 
 Malmesbury alludes to the ancient libraries of con- 
 ventual churches destroyed by these free-booters, 
 ' Ecclesiae in quibus numerosae a prisco bibliothecae 
 continebantur, cum libris a Danis incensae.' 
 
 A number of inaccuracies and misleading state- 
 ments concerning the books and literature of the 
 'dark ages' have been promulgated through the 
 works of Robertson and Warton. Most of these 
 were ably and categorically refuted by the late Rev. 
 S. R. Maitland, in the pages of the long-defunct
 
 Bookselling before Printing. 5 
 
 British Magazine. These refutations have been 
 published in book form under the title of ' The Dark 
 Ages.' The statements derived, by these writers, 
 from Latin and French authors, are often twisted 
 into meanings quite the reverse to what was originally 
 intended ; and they are, moreover, advanced as 
 examples of a general rule. But they are purely 
 exceptional cases. Books were, it is true, both dear 
 and scarce, but only so in a comparative point of 
 view. Robertson, quoting from ' Histoire Litteraire 
 de la France par des religieux Be'n&dictins,' &c., 
 states that ' the prices of books became so high, that 
 persons of a moderate fortune could not afford to 
 purchase them. The Countess of Anjou paid for a 
 copy of the Homilies of Haimon, Bishop of Halber- 
 stadt, two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, and 
 the same quantity of rye and millett.' And again, 
 quoting from another source, he says, ' Even so late 
 as the year 1471, when Louis XI. borrowed the 
 works of Rasis, the Arabian philosopher, from the 
 Faculty of Medicine in Paris, he not only deposited 
 as a pledge a considerable quantity of plate, but was 
 obliged to procure a nobleman to join with him as 
 a surety in a deed, binding himself under a great 
 forfeiture to restore it.' These two instances, while 
 interesting in themselves, along with- a number of 
 others so commonly cited, really do not prove that 
 books were so very expensive in early times, any 
 more than certain recent purchases of single volumes 
 at from 3OOO/. to SCXDO/. each illustrate the present 
 prices in literature. Unique books have, and always 
 will have, unique values. No book or manuscript
 
 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 volume which preceded the introduction of printing 
 has an exact counterpart. The quality and price 
 were more varied than is generally thought, and the 
 subject-matter was most usually of little moment 
 when compared with the extent to which it was illus- 
 trated or illuminated a work of the most important 
 and delicate nature. Many books, especially those 
 used in the Church Service, were, observes Mr. 
 Maitland, ' frequently written with great care and 
 pains, illuminated and gilded with almost incredible 
 industry, bound in, or covered with, plates of gold, 
 silver, or carved ivory, adorned with gems, and even 
 enriched with relics.' 
 
 The following extract from a letter of the thirteenth 
 century, addressed to Alphonsus, King of Naples, by 
 ' Parrome ' Antonius Bonoriia Becatellus refers to 
 the expense of books : ' You lately wrote to me 
 from Florence that the works of Titus Livius are 
 there to be sold in very handsome books, and that 
 the price of each book is 120 crowns of gold. 
 Therefore, I entreat your majesty, that you cause to 
 be bought for us Livy, which we used to call the 
 king of books/ Ames, the author of ' Typographical 
 Antiquities,' possessed a folio MS. of the ' Roman 
 de la Rose,' which was sold before the palace-gate at 
 Paris, about 1400, for forty crowns, or 33/. 6s. 6d. 
 In a blank leaf of this copy was written ' Cest lyvir 
 cost a palas du Parys quarante corones d'or, sans 
 mentyr/ 
 
 The value, extrinsic and intrinsic, of books during 
 the three or four centuries previous to the invention 
 of printing, is one of great importance and interest.
 
 Bookselling before Printing. 7 
 
 But the few and fragmentary facts which have been 
 handed down to us preclude the possibility of drawing 
 any very general inferences. Books in those days 
 were treasured up as heirlooms, and duly bequeathed 
 in a fittingly serious and even reverend manner. 
 From one source we learn that Thomas Walleworth, 
 a canon residentiary of York, and rector of Heming- 
 burgh, bequeathed to his chaplain or curate, ' parvum 
 Pontiforium meum, cum quo sepulchrum Domini 
 nostri Jesu Christi pereyre visitavi.' The EarJ 
 of Warren, in 1347, left to his son William a 
 bible which he had had ' made ' in France. A year 
 later, John de-Harpham, vicar of Outthorne, leaves to 
 Nicholas, an apothecary at Beverley, ' unum librum 
 de Phisica ;' and in 1349, the head of the house of 
 Percy bequeathed his daughter ' de natura animalium, 
 in gallico.' Examples of the jealous care with which 
 books were regarded can be multiplied ad infinitum. 
 Warton mentions several in his ' History of English 
 Poetry/ Among the constitutions given to the monks 
 of England by Archbishop Lanfranc, in the year 
 1072, the following injunction occurs : At the be- 
 ginning of Lent, the librarian is ordered to deliver a 
 book to each of the religious : a whole year was 
 allowed for the perusal of this book : and at the 
 returning Lent, those monks who had neglected to 
 read the books they had respectively received, are 
 commanded to prostrate themselves before the abbot, 
 and to supplicate his indulgence. Warton alludes to 
 this regulation as being parti)' occasioned by the low 
 state of literature which Lanfranc found in the 
 English monasteries. But, he adds, at the same
 
 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 time it was a matter of necessity, and is in great 
 measure to be referred to the scarcity of copies of 
 useful and suitable authors. The same writer points 
 out that when a single book was bequeathed to a friend 
 or relation, it was almost invariably with numerous 
 restrictions and stipulations. And ' if any person 
 gave a book to a religious house, he believed that so 
 valuable a donation merited eternal salvation, and 
 he offered it on the altar with great ceremony.' It 
 was, in addition to this, quite a frequent practice to 
 lend money on the deposit of a book, and the uni- 
 versities appear to have kept public chests for the 
 reception of these books. 
 
 Comparatively few books with valuable appendages 
 have come down to us. This fact is easily accounted 
 for. Valuable personal property, then as now, was 
 not regarded by everybody as sacred, and many 
 cases of forcible robbery might be cited. These 
 robberies were not always committed by the Philis- 
 tines. Circumstances often compelled the clergy to 
 strip their books of their valuable adornments. As, 
 for example, the heavy tax levied by William II. to 
 raise sufficient money to purchase Normandy. On 
 this occasion, Godfred, Abbot of Malmesbury, stripped 
 the valuable adornments from off twelve copies of 
 the Gospels. And again, William de Longchamp 
 pawned thirteen copies of the Gospels one of which 
 belonged to King Edgar, and was of great value in 
 order to contribute towards the redemption of 
 Richard I. Fires also were the cause of much 
 destruction, especially that of Hide Abbey, near 
 Winchester, in 1141, when we are told that 'the
 
 Bookselling before Printing. 9 
 
 monks got out of the ashes sixty pounds of silver and 
 fifteen pounds of gold, and various other things, which 
 they brought to the bishop.' But numerous robberies 
 were effected by monks and Abbots. 
 
 In several monasteries the transcription of books 
 gradually became regulated upon a strictly commer- 
 cial basis. The monies derived from the sales were 
 added to the revenues of the Abbey, and books re- 
 ceived in exchange were placed in the library. The 
 practice of exchanging duplicate copies was a frequent 
 one between the monasteries. From a statute date 
 1264 it would appear that the Dominicans were 
 strictly prohibited from selling their books. The 
 Scriptorium was an institution found in nearly every 
 monastery : the Scriptoria were on the same principle 
 but in smaller rooms. The monk most intimate with 
 the particular author, whose work was being tran- 
 scribed, dictated clearly and distinctly to a number 
 of writers, from whom great diligence and care were 
 exacted. The scribes were generally placed at 
 stated distances from each other, on long seats fitted 
 up for the purpose. The Armarian (custos librorum) 
 was responsible for all the manuscripts ; had to give 
 out the work, and also the material, such as knives, 
 parchment, &c. The original, or that of which 
 copies were taken, was always retained, and usually 
 one example at least of the ' copy.' And we can 
 well imagine the monks, in the long dreamy summer 
 afternoons, killing time by inscribing the names of 
 works in their possession, and sometimes delineating 
 a portrait of the author whom they most liked. 
 
 Transcribing by secular students dates back to the
 
 i o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 seventh century, but it did not take a decided stand 
 as a trade for some centuries afterwards. There were 
 nearly half-a-dozen sections. The stationarii were 
 those who copied, the librarii sold or lent, the relieurs 
 bound, the enlumineurs illustrated, and the parche- 
 mineurs sold parchment. Competition was the cause 
 of splitting the stationarii into more than one sec- 
 tion, the more noteworthy being designated notarii 
 and antiquarii. A strong professional jealousy was 
 the result The latter devoted their time more parti- 
 cularly to transcribing from, and renovating, old books. 
 But they did not confine their attention to their 
 speciality. And we learn from Astle that they 
 deprived ' the common scriptores of a great part of 
 their business, so that they found it difficult to gain 
 a subsistence for themselves and their, families.' In 
 consequence of this the ' scriptores ' sought more 
 expeditious methods of transcribing books ; ' they 
 formed the letters smaller, and made use of more 
 conjunctions and abbreviations than had been usual. 
 They proceeded in this manner till the letters became 
 exceedingly small and extremely difficult to be read.' 
 Whitaker ('Ancient Cathedrals of Cornwall,' ii. 321), 
 quoting from Gale, states that books were brought into 
 England for sale so early as the year 705. But 'the 
 trade ' had only an abstract form of existence for a 
 very long time afterwards, and then it was almost 
 solely confined to the monks. In the matter of 
 lending books, certain rules appear to have been 
 adopted. In most cases a security exceeding the 
 value real or fictitious of the book lent was 
 insisted upon. Where a monastery possessed dupli-
 
 Bookselling before Printing. 1 1 
 
 cates, it was not difficult to borrow, but if the book 
 happened to be unique it was rarely allowed off the 
 premises. The three most popular ' heathen ' books 
 were Boethius' ' Consolation of Philosophy,' Quintius 
 Curtius' ' History of Alexander the Great/ and the 
 ' Gesta Romanorum,' the last being perhaps the 
 most widely-read of the three. Each monk had a 
 lamp erected over his bed, so as to allow him to 
 study after retiring to rest. We may be sure that he 
 did not burn much midnight oil in perusing heavy 
 doctrinal treatises. 
 
 About the middle of the twelfth century it seems 
 that the manner of publishing new works was to 
 have them read over for three days successively, 
 before one of the universities, or other judges ap- 
 pointed by the public. 
 
 With the slow but sure march of progress, the demand 
 for books greatly increased. The universities soon 
 stepped in with a code of laws and regulations which 
 reserved to themselves the immediate supervision over 
 the public transcribers. The booksellers during the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were necessarily 
 men of judgment and learning, and the oath was 
 administered to them with great solemnity. Their 
 profits were subject to limitation. A charge of about 
 five per cent, was made to any one connected with 
 the university for the loan of certain books, whilst 
 citizens not university men made at a rate of nearly 
 one-third more. Stationers could not by any means 
 be denounced as drinking wine out of the skulls 
 of their authors in those times ; and we learn that 
 the prices allowed to stationers in 1 303 for the use
 
 1 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 of their copies was excessively small. A treatise on 
 the Gospel of Matthew, 37 pages, was lent for i sol ; 
 one on Mark, 20 pages, 17 deniers ; St. Thomas on 
 Metaphysics, 3 sols ; a treatise on Canon Law, 1 20 
 pages, 7 sols, and St. Thomas on the Soul, 19 pages, 
 
 13 deniers. It may be pointed out that a sol is now 
 equivalent to a halfpenny, and that a denier is a 
 twelfth part thereof. 
 
 French bookselling was for a very long period in 
 advance of that in this country. In 1259 the manu- 
 script vendors became so numerous that special 
 regulations were instituted respecting them. Censor- 
 ship of the press antedated printing by at least a 
 couple of centuries. Examiners were appointed by 
 the universities ; and this movement was an effective 
 counterpoise to the evil intentions of dishonest 
 traders. If an imperfect or corrupt copy was de- 
 tected, it was immediately confiscated, and no com- 
 pensation allowed. The booksellers could neither 
 buy books nor sell them without leave ; and they 
 were also compelled to expose a priced list of those 
 in their possession. As if all these restrictions were 
 light and unimportant, the bookseller was compelled, 
 by a French law of 1342, to lend out books to the 
 poor students, for which a merely nominal charge 
 was fixed by the university. 
 
 Scarcely anything is known respecting the laws 
 and regulations of bookselling in this country during 
 the eleventh, twelfth, and the greater part of the 
 thirteenth centuries, when literature experienced an 
 utter stagnation. The manuscripts were especially 
 inferior ; but the cause of this is not far to seek. The
 
 Bookselling before Printing. 13 
 
 tachygraphoi, or swift writers, not only employed a 
 number of contractions, abbreviations, and symbols, 
 but many of the commoner words were ' indicated 
 by single turns of the pen.' Some of these were 
 employed by the earlier printers. 
 
 The year 1276, when Henry III. was king, and 
 when Roger Bacon was living, is generally regarded as 
 synchronising with the revival of ' polite ' literature. 
 Among the notabilia of this period, the figure of 
 Richard de Bury (1281-1345) stands forth in bold 
 relief. An indefatigable book-collector, the personal 
 friend of Petrarch, and one of the most powerful men 
 in the kingdom, this man has an universal as well las 
 a particular interest. Not content with amassing an 
 immense collection, he employed numerous scribes, 
 bookbinders, and illuminators, to increase the facili- 
 ties for study. H is ' Philobiblon,' written shortly before 
 his death, is a delightful classic. ' We wished for 
 books, not bags,' he exclaims ; ' we delighted more in 
 folios than florins.' And again : ' O blessed God of 
 gods in Zion ! What a flood of pleasure rejoiced our 
 hearts as we visited Paris, the Paradise of the world ;' 
 for ' there are delightful libraries in cells redolent of 
 aromatics ; there are flourishing greenhouses of all 
 sorts of volumes ; there are academic meads trembling 
 with the earthquakes of Athenian peripatetics pacing 
 up and down ; there are the Promontories of Par- 
 nassus and the Porticoes of the Stoics . . . there 
 in very deed we scattered with an open treasury and 
 untied purse-strings ; we scattered money with a 
 light heart, and redeemed inestimable books with 
 dirt and dust.' Edward III. enabled him to 'oppose
 
 1 4 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 or advance, to appoint or discharge ; crazy quartos 
 and tottering folios, precious, however, in our sight 
 as well as in our affections, flowed in most rapidly 
 from the great and the small, instead of new year's 
 gifts and remunerations, and instead of presents and 
 jewels. Then the cabinets of the most noble monas- 
 teries were unlocked, caskets were unclasped, and 
 sleeping volumes which had slumbered for long ages 
 were roused up ; and those that lay hid in dark 
 places were overwhelmed with the rays of a new 
 light.' De Bury very properly denounces sloven- 
 liness in connection with book-usage, such as 
 holding a volume with unwashed hands ; handling 
 with dirty nails ; leaning upon them with greasy 
 elbows, and munching cheese or fruit over them ; 
 all of which practices he holds up to especial abhor- 
 rence. 
 
 In 1373, the University of Oxford issued a decree 
 forbidding any one selling books without a licence. 
 The abuses of the university regulations relative to 
 booksellers rendered this law necessary. The Rev- 
 H. Anstey's ' Munimenta Academica ' contains much 
 valuable information concerning the early history of 
 booksellers in Oxford, including ' a statute to prevent 
 the removal of valuable books' from the city. The 
 statute, in Latin, refers to the large number of book- 
 sellers in Oxford. These men, not being sworn to 
 the university, carried off several valuable books and 
 sold them, to the detriment of the ' sworn stationers.' 
 The statute, therefore, ' enacted ' that no bookseller, 
 unless duly sworn, should sell any book, whether his 
 own or not, exceeding half a mark in value, under
 
 Bookselling before Printing. \ 5 
 
 pain of certain specified penalties. In another place we 
 are informed that, as the duties of the university are 
 laborious and anxious, ' every one on gradation shall 
 give clothes to one of the stationers.' In a curious 
 indenture, dated 1459, ' between the University of 
 Oxford and the town, to determine what persons 
 shall be held to be of the privilege of the university,' 
 the list includes ' alle stacioners.' 
 
 It seems almost superfluous to state that tran- 
 scribing was but one of the many items which the 
 production of books involved. We quote a few 
 examples from the wardrobe account (1480), of Ed- 
 ward III., edited by Sir N. H. Nicolas as illustrating 
 the importance of binding, gilding and garnishing. 
 ' For vj unces and iij quarters of silk to the laces and 
 tasselsfor garnysshing of diverse Bookes, price the unce 
 xiiij */.,vij s. ~x.d. ob. ; for the making of xvj laces and 
 xvj. tassels made of the said vj unces and iij of silke 
 price in grete \}s. v\\d! These monies were paid to 
 Alice Claver, a 'sylkwoman.' And again, to Piers 
 Bauduyn, stacioner for bynding, gilding and dressing 
 of a booke called ' Titus Livius,' xxs. ; for bynding, 
 gilding and dressing of a booke of the Holy Trinitie, 
 xvjj. ; for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke 
 called ' Frossard/ xvjj. ; for bynding, gilding and 
 dressing of a booke called the Bible, xvjj. ; for bynd- 
 ing. gilding and dressing of a booke called * Le 
 Gouvernement of Kinges and Princes,' xvjs. ; for bynd- 
 ing and dressing of the three smalle bookes of Franche, 
 price in grete vjs. viiij. ; for the dressing of ij bookes 
 whereof oon is called ' La Forteresse de Foy ' and the 
 other called the 'Book of Josephus,' iijj. \\i]d.; and
 
 1 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 for bynding, gilding and dressing of a booke called 
 the ' Bible Historial,' xxs. 
 
 The dissolution of the monasteries entailed a 
 grievous loss to literature. Even Bale, who re- 
 garded the monks with anything but a favourable 
 eye, lamented the destruction. He would not, he 
 says, have been offended for the general wreck ' if the 
 chiefe monuments and most notable works of our 
 most excellent writers had been preserved.' If there 
 had been in every county in England but one library 
 for the preservation of noble works, he thinks it 
 would have been something towards the preservation 
 of learning for posterity. But to commit such a 
 wholesale destruction is a ' most horrible infamy.' 
 Many of those who purchased the monasteries re- 
 served the books, but not because of any love which 
 they bore towards learning ' some to serve theyr 
 jakes, some to scoure theyr candlestyckes, and some 
 to rubbe their boots.' Many books were sold to the 
 grocers and soapsellers, whilst several cargoes were 
 exported to foreign countries. Bale declared that he 
 knew a ' merchant man, whyche shall at thys tyme 
 be namelesse,' that bought the contents of two noble 
 libraries for forty shillings, that the leaves and manu- 
 scripts thus obtained he used intead of grey paper, 
 and that the material he secured lasted him for about 
 twenty years. In another place the same writer 
 remarked that he found several notable volumes of 
 antiquity, the titles, dates and commencements of 
 which he copied. Leland, also, was instrumental in 
 rescuing a number of chronicles and other books from 
 ruin.
 
 Bookselling before Printing. \ 7 
 
 We need not, however, traverse the innumerable 
 byepaths of literary enterprise, be it the persecution 
 of the authorities, the trials and triumphs of author- 
 ship, or the subterfuges and anomalies of bookselling. 
 In touching upon the subject of literary history, a 
 vast and boundless area at once appears before the 
 imagination. It is easy enough to begin, but most 
 difficult to know where and when to leave off, for the 
 ramifications are endless, and the interest intense. 
 Indeed, there is no history like unto the history of 
 books. The hopes, the aspirations, the achievements 
 and the results of the master-minds of the world can 
 in no wise be regarded as unimportant. And if book- 
 selling plays only a subordinate part in any or all of 
 these attributes, it is at all events a part which cannot 
 be ignored or overlooked. The influence of the book- 
 seller, since the time of Pomponius Atticus, has been 
 great, and it will be our duty in the following pages 
 to indicate in some small degree the part which he, 
 as a tradesman, has played in the past three or four 
 centuries of English History.
 
 1 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DAWN OF ENGLISH BOOKSELLING. 
 
 THE new birth the Genesis of modern history, 
 thought and movement the invention of printing, 
 had no greater influence upon any phase of life than 
 upon that of literary enterprise, with which, indeed, 
 it was synchronous. So closely allied as is the art of 
 printing with the practice of bookselling, our limits do 
 not permit of even a cursory view of the initial stages 
 of the former. It must suffice us, therefore, to state, 
 as a sort of landmark, that the first press appears to 
 have been erected at Mayence in 1445, and that one 
 was not introduced into this country until about 1477, 
 when Caxton set up at Westminster. Without enter- 
 ing on the debatable ground as to where or with 
 whom Caxton learned the art with which his name is 
 so closely identified, it will be enough to state that in 
 or about the year above mentioned he commenced a 
 'vertuous ocupacion and besynese ' in the Almonary 
 opposite the gatehouse of Westminster. 
 
 Caxton was wise and discreet. He knew full well 
 the pains and penalties to which his continental 
 brethren had been subjected, and he saw through the 
 thin veil of righteous hypocrisy. Then, as now, the 
 men who were loudest in advocating charity were
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. \ 9 
 
 the quickest to resent, and the severest to punish 
 those who attempted to put that estimable quality 
 into force. Religious vade-mecums were naturally the 
 best 'selling 1 books, and Caxton printed many such, 
 but he confined his attention principally to the pro- 
 duction and sale of the old romances and tales of 
 chivalry at that time so popular. The charm and 
 fascination of mediaeval England for students at 
 the present day cannot by any justification be 
 extended to the dreary stuff with which our fore- 
 fathers satisfied their mental appetites. Although we 
 know nearly everything connected with Caxton and 
 his books, thanks to the energy of Mr. William 
 Blades there is one particular phase of his booksell- 
 ing career of which we know scarcelv anything. We 
 have no clear records relative to the charges made for 
 the sixty or seventy books which he printed, pub- 
 lished and sold ; we have little means of arriving at 
 an approximate calculation as to which sold best, 
 although several of them ran into a second edition, 
 and, in the instance of The Golden Legendc' (1483) 
 a third was called for. But the amount of Caxton's 
 funeral expenses justify the conclusion that he was of 
 some considerable importance and wealth, which again, 
 might have been acquired through channels other than 
 bookselling. The demand for books at this'period was 
 not so much due to the increased supply as to the 
 great reduction in the prices. This reduction, soon 
 after printing was introduced, amounted to about 
 four-fifths. In the ' Privy Purse Expenses of Eliza- 
 beth of York,' 1503, we have the following entry : 
 ' Itm for a prymer and saulter, xx</.' 
 C 2
 
 2o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 a sum which Mr. Charles Knight pointed out would 
 then have bought half a load of barley, and was about 
 equal to the six days' wage of a labourer. As time 
 went on, and the people became more enlightened, 
 the demand for books increased, than which there was 
 no more effectual way of calling cheap books into 
 existence. 
 
 The first printers not only printed a book, but 
 finished it off in every respect, and then sold it. The 
 mechanical production was naturally a very tedious 
 process, and many specimens still in existence are 
 monuments of patience and artistic skill. The pecu- 
 liarities of early books were very numerous, and a few 
 of these are thus pointed out : All the ancient 
 printers, or at least those of the fifteenth century, 
 had only very small presses, and two folio pages, 
 little larger than two pages of foolscap, was the 
 largest surface they could print. It is probable, also, 
 that the system of laying down pages, or ' imposing ' 
 them, that we now have, was not then known. Their 
 mode of procedure was as follows. They took a 
 certain number of sheets of paper three, four, five, 
 or more and folded them in the middle, the quan- 
 tity forming a section. Three sheets, thus folded or 
 'quired,' is called a ternion; four sheets a quarternion, 
 and so on. Hence the first sheet would contain the 
 first two pages of the ternion and the last two pages 
 that is, pages i and 2 and n and 12. The second 
 sheet, lying inside the first, would contain pages 3 
 and 4 and 9 and 10 ; the third sheet having pages 5 
 and 6 and 7 and 8. If the reader will take three 
 slips of paper, and fold them in the same manner,
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 2 r 
 
 marking the number of the pages, the process will be 
 easily understood. It is obvious that when a system 
 of this kind was adopted, there was danger lest the 
 loose sheets should become disarranged, and not 
 follow in their proper order. To obviate such an 
 accident, there was written at the bottom of the first 
 page of each leaf a Roman numeral, as j, ij, iij, (i, 
 2, 3), and so on. This plan was originally adopted 
 by the scribes, and the printers merely imitated it. 
 But the book being made up of a number of quires, 
 there was a danger lest the quires themselves should 
 become disarranged. To prevent this there was at 
 the foot of each page written a letter of the alphabet. 
 The first sheet would bear the letter a, the second b, 
 and so on. When these two indications were pre- 
 sent, the binder could never be in doubt as to the 
 order of the different sheets. The first page of the 
 book was marked a j, the third page a ij, the fifth 
 page a iij, and so forth. The next quire presented 
 the letters b j, b ij, b iij, and so on. These indica- 
 tions at the feet of the pages are known as signatures. 
 When the page bears one of them it is said to be 
 ' signed,' and where there is no mark of the kind it 
 is said to be 'unsigned.' In the earliest books the 
 signatures were written with a pen, and the fact that 
 many copies which have been preserved do not now 
 bear signatures, is owing to the fact of their being 
 written so close to the margin that they have since 
 been cut off, while the book was being rebound. It 
 was many years after the invention of typography 
 that signatures were printed along with the matter 
 of the pages. The earliest instance we have of the
 
 2 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 use of printed signatures is in the ' Preceptorium 
 Divine Legis ' of Johannes Nider, printed at Cologne, 
 by Johann Koelhof, in 1472. It has, however, been 
 pointed out that the inventor of signatures was 
 Anthony Zarot, who introduced the art of printing 
 into Milan, and that they were inserted in an edition 
 of Terence printed by him in 1470. The point 
 is purely typographical. 
 
 Speaking of early bookbinding, Mr. Charles Knight 
 Observes that 'the board between which the leaves 
 were fastened, was as thick as the panel of a door. 
 This was covered with leather, sometimes embossed 
 with the most ingenious devices. There were large 
 brass nails, with ornamental heads, on the outside of 
 this cover, with magnificent corners to the lids. In 
 addition, there were clasps. The back was rendered 
 solid with paste and glue, so as to last for centuries. 
 Erasmus says of such a book, as for Thomas Aquinas' 
 Secunda Secunda, no " man can carry it about, much 
 less get it into his head." An ancient woodcut shews 
 us the binder hammering at the leaves to make them 
 flat, and a lad sewing the leaves in a frame, very 
 much like that still in use.' 
 
 The number of copies printed of each impression 
 could not have been large, probably not more than 
 a hundred or two at the outside of even very popular 
 books. The market experienced no glut for a long 
 period after Caxton. Caxton rarely undertook the 
 publication of a work unless he had some sort of 
 guarantee, or unless the persuasions of ' many noble 
 and divers gentlemen ' resolved themselves into some 
 tangible proof. In 1483, the scarcity of books
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 2 3 
 
 appears to have been so great that an Act of Parlia- 
 ment was passed to promote their importation from 
 foreign countries. 
 
 In addition to printing and selling, Caxton almost 
 invariably edited, rearranged, and sometimes wrote 
 or translated the works which he published, a 
 practice common with the earlier printers. The 
 'Noble Hystoryes of Kynge Arthur' (1485), for 
 example, was ' deuyded in to xxi bookes chapytred 
 and emprynted and fynysshed, in thabbey west- 
 mestre.' To nearly every book which he printed 
 Caxton added prefaces or prologues, explanatory or 
 otherwise, which are exceedingly characteristic. In 
 the case of 'the Boke Eneydos' (1490), he states 
 that 'this present book is not for a rude uplandish 
 man to labour therein, nor read it ; but only for a 
 clerke and a noble gentleman, that feeleth and under - 
 standeth in feats of arms, in love, and in noble 
 chivalry.' It may be pointed out here that the first 
 English book printed in England is generally con- 
 sidered to be ' The Dictes and notable wyse Sayenges 
 of the Phylosophers ' (1477), translated from the 
 French by Caxton's patron Earl Rivers. The first 
 book printed in English is ' The Recuyell of the 
 Historyes of Troye,' which is a translation from a 
 French traduction of a Latin work ; it was ' begonne 
 in Bruges in 1468 and ended in the holy cyte of 
 Colen 19 Sept. 1471.' The second edition of ' The 
 Game and Playe of the-Chesse/ without date, but 
 issued probably about 1481, was the first printed 
 book in the English language which contained wood- 
 cuts, but it was not printed in England.
 
 24 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 As a matter of fact, bookselling was in every way 
 subordinate to printing with Caxton and his more 
 immediate successors. His example was emulated by 
 his apprentices, Wynkyn de Worde (d. 1534), and 
 Richard Pynson (d. 1530). The former, with a 
 singular reverence for his master, invariably gives 
 Caxton's initials the precedence of his own name. 
 He published over 400 books, whilst his fellow- 
 labourer issued about half that number. De Worde 
 carried on business ' in flete strete, at the sygne of 
 the sonne agaynst the condyth.' A map of London 
 of the date of Elizabeth shows the conduit to have 
 been at the south end of Shoe Lane, Fleet Street. 
 Pynson's was farther up, being situated outside 
 Temple Bar. The two men printed, in several 
 instances, editions of the same books, but the spirit 
 of rivalry was at all times a friendly one. Pynson's 
 books are, as a general rule, superior in merit and 
 utility to those of Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde. 
 It may be pointed out that before the end of the 
 fifteenth century there were 71 printing presses in 
 Italy, 50 in Germany, 36 in France, 26 in Spain, 14 
 in Holland, 7 in Switzerland, 4 each in Austria and 
 Bohemia, and only 3 in England. But Ames and 
 Herbert have recorded the names of 350 printers 
 engaged in producing books in England and Scot- 
 land between 1471 and 1600; and it is computed 
 that this number issued about 10,000 publications. 
 
 From the earliest times the publication of books 
 has been a fearful bogey in the eyes both of court 
 and of church authorities. Book-censorship was 
 essentially an outcome of monarchism, whose chief
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 25 
 
 aim was to terrify where it could not subdue. Pro- 
 bably the oldest mandate for appointing a book- 
 censor was that issued by Berthold, Archbishop of 
 Mentz, which was dated January loth, 1486, and the 
 contending parties had ' high jinks ' of it for very 
 many years. So early as 1515, an Act of Parliament 
 was passed at Edinburgh, forbidding any one to print 
 or publish any books, ballads, songs, ' blasphematious ' 
 rhymes or tragedies, in Latin or English, until such 
 had been 'seen, viewed and examined by some wise 
 and discreet persons' duly appointed. England 
 appears to have enjoyed a certain amount of im- 
 munity from the obnoxious interference of the State 
 until 1526, when anti-popery books were condemned, 
 and those who sold them liable to the most severe 
 penalties ; this statute was repealed a few years after 
 by another law, which sought to suppress Catholic pub- 
 lications with the same rigour as had just previously 
 been evinced towards books propagating the Pro- 
 testant innovation. Dr. Furnivall has published, in 
 ' Political, Religious, and Love Poems/ a curious 
 'List of Books Proscribed in 1531,' dated the first 
 Sunday in Advent. It runs thus : ' These bokes 
 folowyng were opynly at poules crosse by the auto- 
 rite of my lorde of london vnder his Autentycal 
 scale, by the doctor that that day prechide, prohibite, 
 and straytely commaunded of no maner of man to be 
 vsed, bought, nor solde, nor to be red, vnder payne 
 of suspencion, and a greter payne, as more large 
 apperyth in for-sayde autoryte.' The list of thirty 
 books, includes ' a prologe ' to each of the five books 
 of Moses, the ' Revelation of Antechriste/ the New
 
 2 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Testament, with an Introduction to the Epistle to the 
 Romaynes, the Psalter and the Primer (the last three 
 in English), two works of Tyndale, and a ' boke of 
 thorpe or of John Oldecastelle/ In addition to 
 those specially named, the prohibition applied to 
 'alle other suspect bokes, both in Englissh and in 
 laten, as welle now printed or that here-after shall be 
 printed, and not here afore namyd.' 
 
 The Act of 25 Henry VIII., c. 15, sought to pre- 
 vent printers and booksellers from levying imposi- 
 tions. The fourth and last section of this statute 
 runs to the effect that if any complaint be made 
 either to the King, Lord Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, 
 or any of the Chief Justices, it should be inquired 
 into, and judgment meted out by the 'discretions' of 
 ' twelve honest and discreet persons.' The same 
 officials or functionaries had power also given them 
 to ' reform and reduce such inhancing of the prices of 
 printed books from time to time by their discretions, 
 and to limit prices as well of the books as for the 
 binding of them/ and where offenders are convicted, 
 the punishment laid down is that they ' lose and for- 
 feit for every book sold ' at an unfair price, the sum 
 of three shillings and fourpence, half of which was to 
 be given to the king, and the other half to the ag- 
 grieved party. A similar Act was passed 8 Anne, c. 
 19, 4, which enforced a penalty of five pounds for 
 every book sold at a higher price than the ' discreet ' 
 persons should affix to it. The latter Act was re- 
 pealed 12 George II., c. 36, 3, but the former is 
 actually still in force, for it has never been expressly 
 repealed.
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 2 7 
 
 The Stationers' Company took up the hue and cry. 
 Although this institution originated in 1403, its first 
 charter was not received until May 4, 1557, during 
 the reign of Mary. The number of ' seditious and 
 heretical books, both in prose and verse/ that were 
 daily issued for the propagation of ' very great and 
 detestable heresies against the faith and sound 
 Catholic doctrine of Holy Mother the Church/ be- 
 came so numerous, that the Government were only 
 too glad to ' recognise ' the Company, and to entrust 
 it with the most absolute power. The charter was to 
 1 provide a proper remedy/ or, in other words, to 
 check the fast-increasing number of publications so 
 bitter in their opposition to the Court religion. But, 
 stringent and emphatic as was this proclamation, its 
 effect was almost nil.' On June 6, 1558, another 
 rigorous Act was published from ' our manor of St. 
 James/ and will be found in Strype's ' Ecclesiastical 
 Memorials' (ed. 1822, iii., part 2, pp. 130, 131). It 
 had specific reference to the illegality of seditious 
 books imported, and others ' covertly printed within 
 this realm/ whereby ' not only God is dishonoured, 
 but also encouragement is given to disobey lawful 
 princes and governors.' This proclamation declared 
 that not only those who possessed such books, but 
 also those who, on finding them, do not forthwith 
 report the same, should be dealt with as rebels. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, how easy it was, in the 
 absence of any fine definition, for books of whatever 
 character to be proscribed. There was no appeal 
 against the decision of the Stationers' Hall represen- 
 tatives, who had the power entirely in their own hands.
 
 2 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 A few months after Mary's desperate and futile attempt 
 at checking the freedom of the press, a diametrically 
 objective change occurred, and with Elizabeth's acces- 
 sion to -the throne in November, 1558, the licensed 
 stationers conveniently veered around and were as 
 industrious in suppressing Catholic books as they had 
 been a few weeks previously in endeavouring to stamp 
 out those of the new religion. The irony of fate was 
 indeed hard upon the poor stationers ! 
 
 The Reformation contributed greatly to the demand 
 for printed books, for upon the dissolution of the 
 monasteries, the office of scribe was practically obso- 
 lete. The ecclesiastical authorities vainly hoped to 
 see the trade in printed books die a natural death, 
 and the revival of the old methods of diffusing know- 
 ledge. ' Under Henry VIII.,' observes D'Israeli, ' books 
 became the organs of the passions of mankind, and 
 were not only printed, but spread about ; for if the 
 presses of England dared not disclose the hazardous 
 secrets of the writers, the people were surreptitiously 
 furnished with English books from foreign presses.' 
 
 A few months after Elizabeth's accession an injunc- 
 tion was issued, in 1559, to the effect that no one 
 might print any book or paper whatsoever, unless the 
 same be first licensed. It was not long after she re- 
 newed the charter of the Stationers' Company, than 
 with characteristic perverseness she, in or about 1577. 
 upset it by making several grants quite upon her own 
 responsibility. John Jugge, her Majesty's printer, 
 secured the privilege of printing Bibles and Testa- 
 ments ; ' Richard Tothill the printinge of all kindes 
 Lawe bookes, which was common to all printers, who
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 29 
 
 selleth the same bookes at excessiue prices, to the 
 hindrance of a greate nomber of pore students.' John 
 Day, ABC's, and catechisms, ' with the sole selling of 
 them by the collour of a commission ;' James Roberts 
 and Richard Watkyns, all almanacs and prognosti- 
 cations ; Thomas Marshe, Latin books used in the 
 grammar schools ; Thomas Vautrollier, of all Latin 
 books other than latin school books ; ' one Bryde a 
 singing man/ all music books ; William Seres, salters, 
 primers and prayer books ; and ' Francis Flower a 
 gentleman beinge none of our companye hath privilidg 
 for printingeMtf Cramer and other thinges, and hathe 
 farmed it oute to some of the Companie for one hun- 
 dred poundes by the yere, which C li. is raised in the 
 inhaunsinge of the prices above th' accustomed order/ 
 The foregoing names occur in a list, probably drawn 
 up by a stationer, and presented to the Queen, first as 
 ' The griefs of the printers, glass-sellers and cutters 
 susteined by reson of privilidges. granted to privatt 
 persons,' but was ultimately modified into ' Complaint 
 of diuerse of their hyndrance by graunts ofprivelidges/ 
 The memorandum (which is reprinted in Arch&o- 
 logia, xxv. 101, and Bibliographer, vi), is followed by 
 a list of the names of all such Stacyoners and Printers 
 as are hindred by reson of the presaid Privilidges ' 
 to the number of thirty-five. Besides these there were 
 140 'thathan byne made free of the Stacyoners since 
 the begynnynge of the quenes maiesties reign that now 
 is, besides a great nomber of apprenticez ; ' in addition 
 to these there were ten others ' as do ly ve by book- 
 selling being free of other companies, and also hindered 
 by the said privilidges/
 
 3O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 The terrified stationers were much alarmed, and 
 accordingly drew up a petition which met with nothing 
 but a severe reprimand ' for daring to question the 
 Queen's prerogative.' But, ' approaching her Majesty 
 a second time much more humbly than before/ the 
 company was at length granted the exclusive right of 
 printing and selling psalters, primers, almanacks, 
 ABC's, the ' little Catechism/ and Nowell's English 
 and Latin catechism. Roger Ward, and John Wolf, 
 a fishmonger, treated the Queen's ruling with the 
 most supreme contempt, likewise the Stationers' Com- 
 pany. He ' printeth what he lysteth ' was the com- 
 pany's complaint. The memorandum describing the 
 officials' defeat is a choice piece of drollery ; ' comminge 
 to the house of one Roger Warde, a man who of late 
 hathe shewed himselfe very contemptuous againste 
 her Majesty's high prerogative, and offering to come 
 into his pryntinge house to take notice of what he did> 
 the saide Roger Warde faininge himselfe to be absente^ 
 hys wyfe and servants keepeth the dore shutt againste 
 them, and saide that none shulde come there to search.' 
 John Wolfe, who was perhaps an unmarried man ! 
 did not fare so well, for he paid the penalty of his 
 daring by way of imprisonment. In spite of decrees ) 
 and a host of means to bring transgressors to the bar 
 of judgment, the many so-called privileges of par- 
 ticular persons and bodies corporate were being con- 
 stantly infringed. The Queen's prerogative was re- 
 peatedly questioned, and frequently set at nought. 
 And with the dawn of the seventeenth century, the 
 ' rights ' of the monopolists existed only in name. 
 
 Another amusing episode in the early days of copy-
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 3 1 
 
 right may be related. Francis Reynault (or Reynold), 
 a Frenchman who fell under the displeasure of the 
 Inquisition for printing the Bible in English. He 
 had, at the time of the row, a number of primers in 
 English, which aroused the jealousy of the Stationers' 
 Company during the reign of Henry VIII. He was 
 frightened, and begged Coverdale and Grafton to 
 intercede with Cromwell to grant him a licence to sell 
 what he had already printed, and engaging to print no 
 more in England unless he had an Englishman to 
 correct the proofs for him. 
 
 The evolution of the bookseller from the typo- 
 grapher took place during the reign of Elizabeth, an 
 interesting fact which is proved from contemporary 
 evidence. In 1582, Christopher Baker, then Upper 
 Warden of the Stationers' Company committed to 
 paper a most interesting and valuable summary of the 
 Printing Patents granted up to that time by Elizabeth. 
 From this evidence we glean that in the reign of 
 Henry VIII. there were but few printers, which were 
 of p good credit and component wealth, at whichetyme 
 before, there was another sort of men, that were writers t 
 Lymners of bookes and dyverse thinges for the Church 
 and other vses called Stacioners ; which have and 
 partly to this daye do vse to buy their bookes in 
 grosse of the saide printers, to bynde them vp, and 
 sell them in their shops, whereby they well mayn- 
 tayned their families.' In the reign of Edward VI., 
 although printers greatly increased, it became so 
 costly an art that ' printers were dryven throughe 
 necessitie, to compound before [hand] with the 
 booksellers at so lowe value, as the printers them-
 
 3 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 selves were most tymes small gayners, and often 
 loosers.' 
 
 From a sixteenth century document in the Lans- 
 downe collection, we learn, ' that the booksellers being 
 growen the greater and wealthier nomber, have nowe 
 many of the best copies and keepe no printing house, 
 neither beare any charge of letter, or other furniture, 
 but onlie paye for the workmanship' (Archceologia 
 xxv.). An early example of the co-operative method 
 may be cited in 'The Four Sons of Aimon ' (1554), 
 which had been printed both by Caxton and Wynken 
 de Worde, and was again reprinted in 1554 by Wil- 
 liam Copland ; a certain number of copies were struck 
 off for particular stationers, with their names on the 
 imprint. Some copies have the name of John Waley, 
 and others that of Thomas Petet. 
 
 In noticing Arber's ' Transcripts of the Stationers' 
 Registers/ Mr. H. B. Wheatley has pointed out in the 
 Bibliographer that ' the number of copies that went 
 to make up an edition was fixed in the interest of the 
 workmen. The utmost recognized limit, irrespective 
 of the size, price or popularity of the book, was 1250, 
 so that the master-printer was put to the cost of re- 
 setting his book in type, even in cases where he was 
 certain of a larger sale ; and this circumstance accounts 
 for the slight variety in different editions of popular 
 books in those days. Double impressions of 2500 
 were allowed of primers, catechisms, proclamations, 
 statutes, and almanacs. Of the grammar and acci- 
 dence four double impressions, or 10,000 copies of each, 
 were allowed to be printed annually; but in 1587 it 
 was decided that should further impressions of these
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 33 
 
 be needed in any one year, they should consist of 
 1250 copies only.' 
 
 The war between the bookseller and the author 
 almost synchronised with the introduction of printing ; 
 and it still goes merrily on ! They appear to agree 
 only in regarding their interests as antagonistic. 
 Nearly every literary quarrel will be found to contain 
 a greater or lesser element of bibliopolic vagary. 
 And on the other hand, perhaps nothing can exceed 
 the abuse and scurrilous invective which have been 
 hurled at booksellers and publishers. For many 
 years after the invention of printing, the press was 
 chiefly employed in increasing the stock of literature 
 provided by classic authors, and the producers were 
 therefore trading on fairly safe ground. The selection 
 was not so much a matter of discrimination as of 
 taste or convenience. The supply almost regulated 
 the demand. The unhappy guerilla warfare between 
 the two parties commenced in real earnest so soon 
 as authorship by profession became an established, 
 if hopelessly miserable, fact. It should be remem- 
 bered that the early printers, such as Gutenberg, 
 Faust, Dolet, and Caxton were men emphatically 
 of 'light and leading.' They were followed, in 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by others 
 whose only remarkable trait was ignorance, and who 
 stuck at nothing to advance their own ends, and fill 
 their own pockets. They ridiculed the notion of 
 any other than a common right in literary property, 
 and cared nothing for an author's feelings, which, 
 indeed, they appear to have persistently ignored. 
 
 The horror with which eminent men refused to be 
 
 D
 
 34 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 classed as authors is almost proverbial, and only too 
 clearly indicates the status of the then professional. 
 The feeling is not even now obsolete. ' To say truth, 
 ma'am, 'tis very vulgar to print,' observed Sheridan's 
 Sir Benjamin Backbite, and there was a good deal 
 of force in the remark. The effusions of the dilet- 
 tanti were circulated among their friends in MS., 
 in which condition they remained until they fell into 
 the hands of some enterprising bookseller. The 
 poems of the noble but ill-fated Surrey, although 
 circulated in MS. during his lifetime, were not 
 printed until 1557. Sidney's ' Astrophel and Stella' 
 was never written with the intention of being pub- 
 lished, but two impressions of it issued from the 
 press in 1591, with a notice from its bookseller, 
 Thomas Newman. One of the most interesting ex- 
 amples of the 'horror' to which we have alluded 
 offers itself in 'England's Helicon' (1600), which is 
 a collection of poems by various writers, and pub- 
 lished by John Flasket. The curious address to the 
 reader refers to stationers making free with each 
 other's property, but Flasket was hoisted with his 
 own petard. By helping himself pretty freely to 
 other people's work he raised a perfect hornet's nest 
 around his own ears, and was compelled to paste 
 slips of paper over the names which he had cited. 
 
 A sort of 'half-and-half arrangement appears to 
 have obtained connection with Barnabe Googe's 
 ' Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes ' (1563), which 
 was ' imprinted at London, by Thomas Colwell, for 
 Raffe Newbery, dwelyng in fleetstrete a little aboue 
 the conduit in the late shop of Thomas Bartelet.'
 
 TJic Dawn of English Bookselling. 35 
 
 But we will let Mr. Googe tell the story in his own 
 way, but with the orthography modernized : ' A very 
 friend of mine, bearing as it seemed better will to my 
 doings than respecting the hazard of my name, com- 
 mitted them all together unpolished to the hands of 
 the printer. In whose hands during his absence 
 from the city till his return of late they remained. 
 At which time he declared the matter unto me : 
 shewing me, that being so far past, and paper pro- 
 vided for the impression thereof, it could not with- 
 out great hinderance of the poore printer be now 
 revoked. His sudden tale made me at the first 
 utterly amazed, and doubting a great while what 
 was best to be done, at length agreeing both with 
 necessity and his council, I said with Martial " iam 
 sed poteras tutior esse domi." ' There was none of 
 this reticence and modesty in M. Fra^ois De La 
 Mothe Le Vayer (1588-1672), who, upon being in- 
 formed by his bookseller of the slow sale of one 
 of his books, is reported to have said, ' I know a 
 secret to quicken the sale.' He procured an order 
 from the Government for its suppression, and as a 
 consequence the whole impression rapidly sold ! 
 
 Great movements are proverbially the outcome of 
 small causes. And such was the case when the con- 
 tumacious John Wolfe, upon 'being admonished that 
 he being but one so meane a man should not pre- 
 sume to contrarie her Highnesse governmante,' un- 
 ceremoniously retorted, ' Tush, Luther was but one 
 man, and reformed all the world for religion, and I 
 am that one man that must and will reforme the 
 government in this trade.' In spite of the fact that 
 
 D 2
 
 36 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 the opposition was bought off, and that on July i, 
 1 583, Wolfe was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' 
 Company by redemption, paying the usual fee of 
 3.?. 4*/., a great concession was made to the unlicensed 
 printers, by which any of them might, with the 
 authority of the master and wardens, reprint such 
 works as the owners did not care to reproduce, or 
 such as had long been out of print. For this privilege 
 the unlicensed individuals were to pay at the rate of 
 2.\ per cent, on the cost of the book. 
 
 Book entries appear to have occupied a very minor 
 place in the consideration of the Company, and were 
 inserted in the Register only when the fee of ^d. or 
 %d. was charged. The first copy entered on the 
 books is ' to William Pekerynge, a ballett called a 
 Rise and Wake, 4^.' The motive for entering was 
 perhaps more as an advertisement than anything 
 else. The fines levied by the Company (observes 
 Mr. Wheatley) in early days formed a very con- 
 siderable item in their revenue, and the amount 
 received from them was sometimes more than from 
 all other sources put together. Men were heavily 
 fined for not serving the office of warden, and on 
 August 1 8, 1578, Oliver Wilkes was fined 2Os. for 
 refusing to serve on the livery, with the option of 
 imprisonment if he did not pay the money. It is 
 more than passing strange that the leading men of 
 the fraternity were neither excused nor let off nomi- 
 nally. Richard Tottell, for example, was fined in 
 July, 1588, for keeping an apprentice two years un- 
 represented ; and in May, 1586, Christopher Barker, 
 the Queen's printer and elder warden, was also fined
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 37 
 
 for the same misdemeanour. William Norton, who 
 lived at the King's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 and who died in 1593, an original member of the 
 Company, and one of the first six who came on the 
 livery after the renewal of their charter, was fined 
 for keeping open shop, and selling books, on St. 
 Luke's Day, and also on Sundays, a practice for 
 which other minor lights had to pay penalties. 
 Several got into trouble for using 'undecent .lan- 
 guage.' This entry, under date March 7, 1591, 
 sufficiently explains itself: 'Thomas Gosson for his 
 copie, "A ballad of ayonge man that went a ivooy ing" 
 &c. Abel Jefifes to his printer hereof provyded alwayes 
 that before the publishing hereof the undecentness 
 be reformed.' This entry is struck through, and in 
 the margin is written, ' Cancelled out of the book for 
 the undecentness of it in diverse verses.' Four years 
 later Jeffes was again in hot water for printing 
 certain ' verye offensive ' things. 
 
 The rapidity with which books and pamphlets 
 multiplied during the sixteenth century caused each 
 successive Parliament and sovereign great consterna- 
 tion and alarm at the problematical consequences. 
 Laws, as we have seen, were passed, and indictments 
 framed, but all to very little purpose. The printer 
 disposed of his secretly-printed wares to the in- 
 numerable pedlers and chapmen, who, in their turn, 
 disseminated the proscribed literary merchandise in 
 various and remote parts of the country. Perforce, 
 the poor printer was made the scape- goat when 
 caught : he it was who pandered to the party that paid 
 him, irrespective of his own views. The bookseller
 
 38 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 was, by the very nature of his calling, an ' artful 
 dodger/ who, so soon as he detected danger ahead, 
 could gather up his goods and chattels, and, to use 
 an Americanism, ' make a retrograde movement for 
 a stratagetic purpose.' The printer was much more 
 heavily handicapped ; but where the supply fell 
 short of the demand, the people were supplied through 
 the medium of foreign presses and agencies against 
 which red-tapeism was quite powerless. The autho- 
 rities were baffled and befooled all along the line. 
 Webbe, in his ' Discourse of English Poetrie '(1586), 
 speaks of the 'innumerable sortes of Englysshe 
 bookes, and infinite fardles of printed pamphlets, 
 wherewith thys countrey is pestered, all shoppes 
 stuffed, and eury study furnished.' Generally the 
 authorship was a profound secret ; sometimes it was 
 an ' open ' one, and at others more or less distinctly 
 implied in the complimentary odes and sonnets of 
 friends and admirers added by way. of proem. It is 
 to such practices that we may trace many of the 
 existing doubts and uncertainties. But much of our 
 bibliographical confusion is attributable to another 
 cause, in which the luckless bookseller plays the 
 leading part. Anything that would ' sell ' he would 
 have printed without any compunction. Acting as 
 his own editor, he had only himself to blame for his 
 inaccuracies, and his back was broad enough to bear 
 any amount of curses that would in any case fall to 
 his share. A man who indulged in poetical frivolity 
 in his youth, and who in after years became famous, 
 was fair game for the bookseller, who would forthwith 
 not only collect and publish or republish those tenta-
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 39 
 
 tive efforts, but all others that could by any possible 
 means, fair or foul, near or remote, be fastened to 
 the same authorship. In some few instances this 
 energy has proved positively beneficial to posterity. 
 
 The history of the old printer-booksellers is a 
 very fascinating one : their quaint mannerisms, their 
 squabbles, fraternal and otherwise, their escapades, 
 and their triumphs over difficulties, all give colour to 
 by-paths which are almost as charming as the very 
 high road of literature itself. A knowledge of botany 
 adds tenfold to the interest of a country walk ; and to 
 the 'grubber ' among the black-letter quartos and folios 
 of three and four centuries since an imprint is much 
 more than an imprint, for it forms quite a little 
 chapter of a component whole. There is a mar- 
 vellous continuity, not individually, perhaps, but 
 certainly collectively, in the annals of bookselling, 
 from Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Pynson, to 
 Murray, Rivington, and Longman. Times have 
 changed, and we with them, but the fundamental 
 principle the propagation of knowledge remains 
 the same. Where they printed in tens, we print in 
 tens of thousands ; where they sought the exclusive 
 patronage of one or two great men, we appeal to a 
 circle which has no limits, to a clientele whose taste 
 is universal, and to a constituency in which every 
 person thinks and acts differently. 
 
 It is not necessary nor even desirable in such a 
 work as this to give a chronological account of the 
 vikings of literary enterprise-; but it will not be out 
 of place to indicate a few of the more important 
 points in the history of this wide- spreading subject.
 
 4O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Pugnacity, as we have seen, was a well-developed 
 element in the constitution of the early booksellers. 
 Before the advent of authorship by profession, they 
 relieved the monotonyof every-day life by quarrelling 
 among themselves. These trade differences have 
 many points of interest and even value to us, for 
 during their course some important evidence has 
 been unconsciously disclosed. Regard for the sacred 
 rights of property was not one of the articles in the 
 bookseller's creed. In or about 1525, for example, 
 Robert Redman assumed and altered one of the best 
 devices of Pynson, and also infringed upon his rights 
 to print law-books. The case is laid before the public 
 on October 12, 1525, at the end of an edition of 
 ' Lytyltons Tenures,' in a Latin letter. The Royal 
 Printer for such was Pynson was by no means 
 unpleasantly particular in his employment of adjec- 
 tives. ' Behold, I now give to thee, candid reader, a 
 Lyttleton corrected (not deceitfully) of 1 the errors 
 which occurred in him. I have been careful that not 
 my printing only should be amended, but also that 
 with a more elegant type it should go forth to the day : 
 that which hath escaped from the hands of Robert 
 Redman, but truly Rudeman, because he is the rudest 
 out of a thousand men, is not easily understood. 
 Truly I wonder now at last that he hath confessed it 
 his own typography, unless it chanced that even as 
 the Devil made a Cobbler a Manner, he made him a 
 Printer. Formerly this scoundrel did profess himself 
 a Bookseller, as well skilled as if he had started forth 
 from Utopia. He knows well that he is free who 
 pretendeth to books, although it be nothing more.'
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 4 1 
 
 In April, 1527, Redman made matters worse by 
 removing to the sign of the George, in St. Clement's 
 parish, the very house which Pynson had vacated. 
 In this year, also, Pynson made another onslaught 
 upon his rival in an edition of the ' Magna Charta.' 
 But the quarrel was probably* made up' in 1532, 
 when we find Redman occupying Pynson's residence 
 next to St. Dunstan's Church, and when, according 
 to Herbert's contention, Pynson retired from business, 
 and made over his stock to Redman. Henry Pep- 
 well, who died in 1539, was one of the most extensive 
 of the earlier publishers and booksellers. Ames was 
 of opinion that Pepwell acted as a sort of agent, at 
 the Holy Trinity, St. Paul's Churchyard, for works 
 printed abroad ; he bequeathed to Bermondsey 
 church in which parish he was born, 'a mass Ibook, 
 of five shillings value, for prayers to be made for his 
 soul.' 
 
 Richard Grafton, whose operations extend from 
 1537 to I S7 I > is one f tne rnost interesting persons 
 who combined the threefold functions of printing, 
 bookselling, and authorship, in the early days of 
 typography. In addition to Hardyng's ' Chronicles,' 
 which he reprinted, and to which he ' added a con- 
 tinuacion of the storie in prose to this our tyme, now 
 first imprinted, gathered out of diuerse and sondery 
 authours that haue write of the affaires of Englande ' 
 (1543), he also reprinted and continued Hall's 
 ' Chronicles '(15 50). Next to Grafton in chronological 
 sequence, but perhaps before him in importance, 
 comes John Day, whose name is so linked with 
 literary enterprise from 1546 to 1584. Bibles, ser-
 
 4 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 mons, and ABC's were all strong features with 
 Day. But he is a notable personage in many 
 respects ; he published books during the reigns of 
 Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. In the first of 
 the three reigns he established a reputation as a 
 printer of Bibles, and in the last he had the distinction 
 of being the only one in his trade who possessed Old 
 English characters, and with these Foxe's edition of 
 the Saxon Gospels was printed. John Foxe, of 
 ' The Book of the Martyrs ' fame, worked for Day as 
 author, translator, and editor. Day's motto was, 
 'Arise, for it is Daye.' Day issued, in 1560, the first 
 Church music-book in English, and a few months 
 previously (i.e. October 2, 1559) he was fined by the 
 Stationers' Company for printing without first having 
 obtained a licence. He commenced business at the sign 
 of the Resurrection, near the Holborn Conduit, and 
 removed in 1549 to a house adjoining the City wall, 
 Aldersgate. This latter place did not content the 
 industrious John, and so several of his friends pro- 
 cured from the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's a 
 lease of a little shop at the north-west door of the 
 church. This aroused the jealousy of rival trades- 
 men, who obtained from the Mayor and Aldermen 
 an injunction to prevent the design being carried out. 
 But the civic dignitaries had no right to interfere, 
 and a petition from the Archbishop to the Lord 
 Treasurer, it may be assumed, was effective ; but 
 the books in existence bearing the St. Paul's Church- 
 yard imprint are confined to the year 1578, and 
 limited to less than half-a-dozen works. William 
 Seres was Day's partner from 1546 to I5S> when
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 43 
 
 each acted independent of the other. Day died at 
 Walden, Essex, July 23, 1584. 
 
 William Middleton, whose shop was at the sign of 
 the George, next to St. Dunstan's Church, appears 
 to have succeeded Redman as a printer, after the 
 latter's wife married Ralph Cholmondley ; and 
 among his thirty or forty books, perhaps the most 
 notable is Heywood's ' Four P's ; a very merry 
 Enterlude of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Poticary, and 
 a Pedlar,' a posthumous production, dated 1569. 
 Herbert points out that there appear to have been 
 three early (English) editions of Froissart's ' Chronicle,' 
 one by Pynson, another with Pynson's name but 
 pirated, and a third by Middleton. There is still 
 another link between Redman and the booksellers of 
 a later period ; for Henry Smyth, on the authority of 
 Ames, was his son-in-law, and issued books at the 
 sign of the Holy Trinity, the most notable being an 
 edition of Littleton's 'Tenures' (1545). Richard 
 Tottell was one of the best known and most popular 
 of the sixteenth century booksellers, and his opera- 
 tions extend over nearly the whole of the last half of 
 that period. His shop was at the sign of the Hand 
 and Star, within Temple Bar ; and, in addition to 
 the licence already referred to, it may be pointed out 
 that in 1557 he published Tusser's 'A Hundrethgood 
 Pointes of Husbandrie ;' in 1562, Grafton's 'Abridge- 
 ment of the Chronicles of England ;' and in 1579, in 
 conjunction with Henry Binneman, Stowe's 'Sum- 
 mary.' He was Master of the Stationers' Company in 
 1578, and a few years afterwards he ' retired into the 
 country, when his son carried on the business for him.'
 
 44 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 And so we might go on, ad infinitum, giving the 
 names, the signs, and quoting the titles of the books 
 issued by the old printer-publishers ; but the list 
 would only have a very circumscribed interest, which, 
 as in the other cases, almost solely depends upon the 
 particular works for whose mechanical production 
 they were responsible. ' The literature of Protestant 
 England passed, about the time of James I., from the 
 exuberant delicious fancifulness of youth into the 
 sober deliberativeness of manhood. The age of 
 romantic chivalry, of daring discovery, of surpassing 
 danger was passing away. A time of wonderful 
 thoughtfulness, of strong research, of national 
 quiet had come. Learning had become common 
 to most educated persons. The most recondite 
 subjects in theology and among the Schoolmen, 
 the highest problems in nature, the subtlest in- 
 quiries into the human spirit, the first principles 
 of human society, every theory of national govern- 
 ment daunted not, but fascinated thinkers. Selden 
 owned, "All Confess there never was a more Learned 
 Clergy, no Man taxes them with Ignorance ;" and the 
 writings of Bacon, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Selden, 
 Hobbes, Prynne and others, represent the attainments 
 of many of the laity.' 1 
 
 But this healthy revival in literature coincided 
 with a curiously decisive retrograde movement in 
 bookselling. The earlier members of the fraternity 
 had been on the whole fairly honest and pretty well 
 educated, very much more so than the followers of 
 
 1 Arber : Introduction to Earle's ' Micro-cosmographie.'
 
 The Dawn of English Bookselling. 45 
 
 any other trade. The great new birth of the Refor- 
 mation called an innumerable quantity of booksellers 
 into existence, and the ranks of the trade were aug- 
 mented by the riff-raff of nearly every walk of life, 
 who not only had no characters to lose, but gloried in 
 the fact. They starved the authors who had nothing 
 but their wits to live on, and dragged to the very lowest 
 depths of degradation the struggling movement of 
 authorship by profession. They thieved from all 
 quarters, and then flaunted their stolen wares in the 
 very faces of the proprietors, who, as we have already 
 shewn, had no means of retaliation other than those 
 of a personally aggressive nature, and these, perhaps 
 for obvious reasons, do not appear to have been often 
 put into requisition. The booksellers, therefore, had 
 it all their own way.
 
 46 The Ear Her History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BOOKSELLING IN THE TIME OF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 I. 
 
 FEW men suffered so much from the vagaries of the 
 booksellers as Shakespeare, for they not only paid him 
 nothing for his ' copy ' which they stole, but edited 
 and improved him in a manner and with a degree of 
 effrontery which have no parallel in literary history. 
 Tradition throws a little light upon a few of these 
 methods, all of which, however, point to a clandestine 
 or surreptitious publication. Apart from the historical 
 importance of the subject, the publication of Shake- 
 speare's plays and poems may be taken as a sort of 
 index to the manner in which sundry other works 
 crept into a printed form of existence. All the lead- 
 ing authors were subjected to very similar treatment. 
 To commence with Shakespeare's first published 
 book, it may be pointed out that the plague of 1591-3 
 was not only instrumental in causing the London 
 theatres to be closed, but it afforded the great drama- 
 tist a little leisure, which he utilized in the composition 
 of 'Venus and Adonis.' This appeared in 1593, on 
 April 1 8, of which year it was duly enteredin the 
 Registers of the Stationers' Company by R. Field. It
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 47 
 
 was published probably by J. Harrison, of the White 
 Greyhound, St. Paul's Churchyard, who certainly 
 issued the editions dated 1594. 1596, and 1600. There 
 is a very interesting fact in connection with the print- 
 ing of this book. The printer, Richard Field, was a 
 fellow-townsman of Shakespeare's, and, granting the 
 assumption that he served his apprenticeship with 
 T.Vautrollier, it is satisfactory to know that he married 
 this man's daughter Jakin on January 13, 1588, and 
 that, when Vautrollier died in 1599, Field succeeded to 
 the business, occupied the same premises in Blackfriars, ^ ^ Yt 
 and adopted the same signs and marks of the Anchor. 
 That' one touch of nature' which, to use a quaint ex- 
 pression of Aubrey, ' this William ' described as making 
 * the whole world kin,' had a practical outcome here in 
 giving a fellow-townsman a ' turn,' and also again in 
 1594, when 'The Rape of Lucrece ' appeared. The 
 bookseller in this case, as in the former, was J.Harrison, 
 who, however, employed another printer P. Short 
 for the 1598 edition. There were two J. Harrisons, 
 father and son, who were rather extensive booksellers 
 in Shakespeare's time : the former commenced about 
 1 573, and appears to haveissued scarcelyanything after 
 1606, whilst the latter published books between 1611 
 and 1638. The elder (Mr. Fleay points out) resigned 
 his interest in the Shakespeare volumes, and appears 
 to have altered his place of business about 1599. W. 
 Leake whose operations extend from 1594 to far into 
 the first half of the seventeenth century, was publishingat 
 the Greyhound in St. Paul's Churchyard certain books 
 which Harrison had hitherto owned ; and after 1599, 
 the latter's imprints do not indicate his whereabouts
 
 48 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 in London. One of his books, Stowe's ' Summarie of 
 the Chronicles of England' (1604), a little i6moof over 
 500 pages, concludes with a list of errata laconically 
 designated ' faults escaped ' ! In 1602, when he issued 
 an edition of ' Venus and Adonis,' Leake had either 
 removed to another part of the Churchyard, or had 
 selected a new sign, which was that of the ' Holy 
 Ghost.' So far back as June 25, 1596, Leake had en- 
 tered this poem, and apparently retained all h,is rights 
 thereto until February 16, 1616, when W. Barret en- 
 tered it, and, in the following year, published an 
 edition. No fewer than eleven quarto editions of 
 'Venus and Adonis' appeared from 1593 to 1630. The 
 ' Passionate Pilgrim,' 1599, bore Leake's imprint ; and 
 at various periods of his career he either published or 
 sold Beaumont and Fletcher's ' King and No King,' and 
 ' Philaster/ Lilly's ' Euphues,' and, in 1637, Marlowe's 
 ' Hero and Leander,' when his shop was in Chancery 
 Lane, ' neere the Roules.' R. Jackson, who issued ' Lu- 
 crece ' in 1616 the year of Shakespeare's death had 
 a shop in the Conduit, Fleet Street, and we meet with 
 his name between 1590 and 1625 in connection with the 
 works of Ariosto, Greene, Gervase Markham, and also 
 Old Testament Proverbs and biblical Abridgments. 
 
 It is rather an interesting fact that, with one unim- 
 portant exception, neither of the printers nor booksellers 
 who were concerned in the volumes of ' Venus and 
 Adonis ' and ( Lucrece ' had anything to do with the plays 
 of the same author. For some time Andrew Wise, 
 of the Angel, St. Paul's Churchyard, appears to have 
 monopolized the publication of the plays, but as they 
 increased in number, and as the demand grew, this
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 49 
 
 monopoly was soon broken through. During 1597 
 three plays were printed. The first was an imperfect 
 and pirated version of ' Romeo and Juliet' The other 
 two were ' Richard II.' and Richard III.,' and both 
 were printed by Valentine Simmes for Andrew Wise. 
 The titles are masterpieces of windy rhodomontade, 
 and the following is an example : ' The Tragedy of 
 King Richard III., containing, His treacherous Plots 
 against his brother Clarence ; the pittieful murther of 
 his innocent nephewes ; his tyrannicall vsurpation ; and 
 the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued 
 death/ Professor Dowden points out that of ' Richard 
 II.' four quartos had appeared before the end of 1615, 
 and of 'Richard III.' seven quartos had been issued 
 prior to 1630. This would allow a period of eighteen 
 months for each issue. 
 
 'Romeo and Juliet' was first published in quarto form 
 in 1597, 'as it hath been often (with great applause) 
 plaid publiquely by the right Honourable the L[ord] 
 of Hunsdon his servants.' In 1596 it was entered for 
 E. White ; but the first quarto was made up partly 
 from copies of portions of the original play, partly from 
 recollection and from notes taken during the perform- 
 ance. And although Burby's edition of 1599 claims 
 to be 'newly-corrected, augmented, and amended, 1 
 this was only approximately correct. 
 
 Following the three plays of 1597, there came, in 
 the next year, two more. These were, the first part 
 of Henry IV.' and, ' Loves Labour Lost.' The former 
 was issued by Andrew Wise, and a second edition, 
 dated 1599, claims to be 'newly corrected by W. 
 Shakes-peare/ The latter, or ' Loves Labour Lost,' bore 
 
 E
 
 5O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 the imprint of Cuthbert Burbie or Burby, whose shop 
 was then situated near the Exchange. This particular 
 edition of ' Loves Labour Lost ' is very noteworthy, for 
 it was the first play upon which Shakespeare's name 
 occurs. Whether Mr. Burby was overburdened with a 
 desire to give credit where it was due, or whether he 
 considered the chances of sale enhanced by giving the 
 author's name, we cannot undertake to say, but perhaps 
 there was a modicum of the two causes at work. 
 Burby, on the whole, was a fairly generous fellow, for 
 in 1608 he gave 2O/. to the poor of the Stationers' 
 Company. Books bearing his imprint are to be found 
 ranging between the years 1592 and 1607. 
 
 Wise published, also in 1 598, editions of Richard II., 
 and ' Richard III.,' the former being printed by Valen- 
 tine Simmes, and the latter by T. Creede. In 1600 
 no fewer than six new plays of Shakespeare came out, 
 and, with two exceptions, bore the author's name. At 
 this period Wise appears to have taken William Aspley 
 into partnership in his business, either entirely, or only 
 so far as certain plays were concerned. They issued 
 conjointly the second part of ' Henry IV.' and ' Much 
 Ado About Nothing.' Professor Dowden points out 
 that the two parts of the former were written before 
 the entry of the first in the Stationers' Register, 
 February 25, 1597-8. The second play was entered 
 August 23, 1600, and a 'well-printed' edition ap- 
 peared, as already pointed out, in the same year. Two 
 rival editions of ' A Midsummer Night's Dream ' of 
 which the second was unquestionably pirated ap- 
 peared in 1600, the first by J. Roberts, and the second 
 by T. Fisher, whose shop was at the White Hart,
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 5 1 
 
 Fleet Street, and who issued a few books between 1 600 
 and 1602. That this ' strange and beautiful web 
 woven delicately by a youthful poet's fancy,' should 
 have been extremely popular and subjected to piracy, 
 is not to be wondered at. The 'Merchant of Venice, 
 which was entered in 1598, makes the fourth play bear- 
 ing the date 1600, and of this there were two rival 
 quartos, one of which was published by Laurence 
 Heyes, of the Green Dragon, St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 and the other by J. Roberts. The 1637 edition of 
 this play was published by Laurence ' Hayes.' ' Titus 
 Andronicus ' and ' Henry V.' complete the list of 1 600, 
 and these are the two exceptions on which Shake- 
 speare's name does not occur. ' Henry V.' was a sort 
 of red-rag to the booksellers, for at least three imper- 
 fect quartos appeared before the end of 1608. The 
 first was printed for ' Tho. Millington and John Busby. 
 And are to be sold at his [? their] house in Cauter 
 Lane, next the Powle head.' Both these men, with 
 E. White, T. Pavier, and H. Gosson, were the book- 
 sellers who industriously employed themselves in 
 foisting upon the public as the work of Shakespeare, 
 or in a garbled form, as the case may be, ' Pericles ' 
 the' True Tragedy of the Duke of York/ and 'Titus 
 Andronicus.' 
 
 The ' Richard III.' of 1602 was probably the last 
 Shakesperian play which bore the imprint of Wise and 
 Aspley. From this time forward their rights, or 
 supposed rights, to the publishing of Shakespeare's 
 plays were transferred to Matthew Law, of the Fox, 
 St. Paul's Churchyard, near St. Augustine's Gate. 
 Editions of several plays were issued by him up to 
 
 E 2
 
 5 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling 
 
 1615, but none other than those which had been pre- 
 viously published by Wise or Wise and Aspley. 
 Law, however, remained in business until 1626 ; 
 one of his earliest publications was Nash's ' Christ's 
 Tears over Jerusalem,' 1594, which J. Roberts had 
 issued the year before. 
 
 An imperfect report of the ' Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 is dated 1602. The ( rights' of this play were trans- 
 ferred on January 18, 1601-2, from T. Busbie to 
 Arthur Johnson, who accordingly and in due course 
 published it ; but his name does not occur again in 
 connection with Shakespeare. The second, or 1619, 
 quarto, Mr. Quaritch points out as being valuable to 
 the scholar from the fact that it contains in a great 
 measure a different text to that which appears in the 
 folio of 1623. 1 June, 1602, J. Roberts entered ' The 
 Revenge of Hamlett, Prince of Denmark, as yt latelie 
 was acted by the Lord Chamberlain his servants,' 
 and it duly came forth in 1603, printed for N. Ling, 
 under St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, and J.Trun- 
 dell. It was perhaps an imperfect report of the first 
 form of the play. In the year following, Roberts 
 printed and Ling published the second quarto of this 
 play, ' newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much 
 againe as it was/ and this later form Professor Dow- 
 den conjectures to be due to Shakespeare's revision of 
 his own work. In both instances the author's name 
 is given. Ling was a rather prolific tradesman from 
 1582 to 1607, and he published works of such well- 
 known men as Hayward, Nash, Sutcliffe, and Whit- 
 taker. On January 22, 1606-7, he entered ' Romeo 
 and Juliet,' ' Loves Labour Lost,' and the ' Taming of
 
 Bookselling in the Time oj Shakespeare. 53 
 
 the Shrew,' but he only produced the last-named. J. 
 Smethvvick, whose operations extend from 1600 to 
 1640, seems to have taken over Ling's business, and 
 also his shop in Fleet Street; at all events he en- 
 tered the three above-named plays (and also ' Hamlet '), 
 which were the property of Ling. His list of books 
 includes Burton's ' Censure of Simonie ' (1624), Dray- 
 ton's ' Poems,' Greene's ' Never too Late/ and also 
 certain works of Middleton and Nash, besides an 
 edition of ' Romeo and Juliet 5 in 1609, and one of 
 ' Hamlet' in 1611. 
 
 To Nathaniel Butter, of the Pied Bull, St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, near St. Augustine's Gate, belongs the 
 honour of first issuing ' Lear.' It was probably pub- 
 lished surreptitiously, but it bore Shakespeare's 
 name. It was entered November 26, 1607, but it 
 had been acted nearly a year previously. Two 
 quartos came out in 1608, both by Butter, ' one in 
 44 leaves in which the publisher's address was not 
 given on the title, and the other, 41 leaves, in which 
 it was. The latter is usually considered the earlier 
 of the two, but it is equally probable that the former 
 was the first issued. The number of leaves would be 
 an argument for this supposition ; as reprints in 
 ancient days were usually more compressed than the 
 originals' (Quaritch). There are few names more 
 distinct than that of Butter in the bookselling annals 
 of the first forty years of the seventeenth century, 
 but it is as the founder of the English newspaper 
 press that he is best remembered. In addition to 
 issuing works of Casaubon, Coke, Davies, Decker, 
 Tarleton, and very many others, he broke fresh
 
 5 4 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ground in August, 1622, when ' The Certain News 
 of the Present Week ' came forth It was a small 
 quarto of eighteen pages, and was edited by the 
 publisher, who, on June 7, 1622, made another 
 venture with * A Courant of News.' Butter's ex- 
 periments were very numerous. 
 
 From the fact that nearly all the quartos posterior 
 to 1600 are more or less surreptitious, it may be 
 inferred that some means were afterwards taken to 
 prevent publication, but unsuccessfully so up to and 
 including 1609. No new play appeared from this 
 date until the famous folio of 1623. In 1609, how- 
 ever, ' Pericles,' ' Troilus and Cressida ' and the 
 famous ' Sonnets ' were published. The first-named 
 was entered in 1608 by Edward Blunt or Blount, 
 and, as Professor Dowden points out, it came out 
 with a very ill-arranged text in the next year by 
 another bookseller, Henry Gosson, who had, it is 
 believed, surreptitiously obtained his copy. Al- 
 though only in part the work of Shakespeare, he is 
 credited with the entire performance ; five quartos 
 were issued before 1631, but the play was not in- 
 cluded in either of the first two folios nor in fact until 
 the third one, the rarest of all, dated 1664. ' Troilus 
 and Cressida' concludes the list of plays which 
 appeared during Shakespeare's lifetime. Its sponsors 
 were R. Bonian and H. Walley, ' at the Spred 
 Eagle in Paules Churchyeard, ouer against the great 
 North doore.' The very rare preface to this play is 
 most quaint and interesting, the writer prophesying 
 'And beleeue this, that when hee is gone, and his 
 Commedies out of sale, you will scramble for them,
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 55 
 
 and set up a new English Inquisition.' Bonian and 
 Walley, or Whalley, published several books in 
 conjunction with each other, notably Fletcher's 
 ' Gentle Shepherdess,' but the examples of their 
 books only cover a span of four or five years, i.e. 
 from 1607 to 1611. 
 
 On May 20, 1609, ' a book called Shakespeare's 
 Sonnettes ' was entered in the Stationers' Register 
 by Thomas Thorpe, and an edition was issued in 
 the same year, printed by ' G. Eld for T. T. and to 
 be sold by William Aspley ' or Apsley. Some 
 copies of this edition were ' sold by John Wright,' 
 dwelling at Christ Churchgate,' a fact accounted for 
 by the practice of selling books in sheets, which gave 
 each bookseller the opportunity of printing his own 
 title-page, which was sometimes done in a very 
 erratic fashion. The book presumably ' fell flat,' at 
 all events a second edition was not printed until 
 1640. The publication was quite unauthorized, and 
 the book is only another example of bookseller's 
 vagary, particularly when Thomas Thorpe assumed 
 the privilege of dedicating the work ' to the onlie 
 begetter, W. H.' It would be foreign to our purpose 
 to discuss the personality of W. H. which is, in fact, 
 as fast a secret as the identity of Junius or the Man 
 in the Iron Mask. But Mr. Thorpe was by no 
 means a man of one dedication : he performed this 
 office for ' St. Augustine, of the citie of God, with 
 the learned comments of lo. Lod. Vives. Englished 
 by J. H.' (1610), and this time it bore a more definite 
 address, viz. ' to the honourablest patron of the muses 
 and good mindes,' the Earl of Pembroke. Another
 
 5 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 example worthy of record appeared with Marlow's 
 ' First Book of Lucan ' (1600), upon which occasion 
 he addressed himself to Blount the Bookseller: 
 ' Blunt, I purpose to be blunt with you, and, out of 
 my dulness, to encounter you with a dedication in 
 memory of that pure elemental wit, Chr. Marlowe, 
 whose ghost or genius is to be seen walk the church- 
 yard in, at least, three or four sheets,' and so forth. 
 
 The most interesting bibliopolic phases of Shake- 
 speare's career terminate with the year 1609, to be 
 revived again to a certain extent, but in a totally 
 different direction, in 1623, when the first folio 
 appeared. The circumstances in relation to this 
 publication have been so often retailed, that they 
 are almost quite familiar to every one. For the sake 
 of continuity we will just indicate the leading points. 
 This, the first collected edition, was ' set forth,' or, 
 in other words, edited, by his ' friends ' and ' fellows,' 
 John Heminge and Henry Condell, and it was pub- 
 lished by the two leading booksellers, Isaac Jaggard 
 and Edward Blount. It contains all the dramatic 
 works usually found in modern editions except 
 ' Pericles.' The editors allude to the earlier quartos 
 as ' stolne and surreptitious,' and imply that their 
 edition is printed from Shakespeare's manuscript, of 
 which there is not a scrap in existence. But as a 
 matter of fact several of the plays were printed from 
 the quartos. The one great point of value attached 
 to this folio is that it contains eighteen plays of 
 which no quarto editions exist. The second foliOj 
 dated 1632, printed by Thos. Cotes for Robert Allot, 
 is a reprint of the first 'conjecturally emended, to
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 57 
 
 some extent, the emendations being more often 
 vrong than right' The third and rarest folio was 
 'printed for P. C.' in 1664, and contains seven plays 
 absent from the two preceding collections, but which, 
 with the exception of a portion of ' Pericles/ are not 
 by Shakespeare. The fourth is notable to us from 
 the fact that it is a sort of connecting link between 
 two ^reat men in English literary history. It came 
 out u 1685, under the auspices of Henry Herring- 
 man, \he publisher who issued a great number of 
 Dryderis works, and who assisted the poet in time 
 of need. 
 
 . 
 
 The literary history of nearly all the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth century authors, when it comes to deal 
 with the manner in which their works crept into print, 
 tells pretty much the same tale. No cause, in fact, 
 has resulted ia so much uncertainty and controversy 
 as the tricks of the booksellers, who can scarcely 
 be trusted even upon oath. Among many other 
 bad qualities popularly supposed to be inherent to the 
 bookseller is laziness. That trenchant satirist, Tom 
 Nash, delivers himself to the following effect in 
 ' Pierce Penilesse ' (1592) : ' If I were to paint Sloth 
 .... by St. John the Evangelist, I swear thatt I 
 would draw it like a stationer that I know, with his 
 thumb under his girdle, who, if a man come to his 
 stall to ask him for a book, never stirs his head, or 
 looks upon him, but stands stone still, and speaks 
 not a word, only with his little finger points back- 
 ward to his boy, who must be his interpreter ; and
 
 5 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 so all the day, gaping like a dumb image, he sits 
 without motion, except at such times as he goes to 
 dinner or supper, for then he is as quick as other 
 three, eating six times every day.' 
 
 There is a story in connection with the publication 
 of nearly every sixteenth century book, so thac it 
 becomes a difficult matter to decide what to indude 
 and what to omit. The wiser plan perhaps wAl be 
 to confine ourselves to the better known vriters. 
 When, for example, the first three books of the 
 ' Faerie Queene ' (1590) made no inconsiderable stir, 
 William Ponsonby, or Ponsonbie, upon his own sole 
 authority and quite without the poet's knowledge, 
 issued a collection of poems under the tite of ' The 
 Visions of Petrarch' (1591) as the work of Spenser. 
 It contained, inter alia, several pieces, slightly altered, 
 that appeared more than twenty years before as 
 ' devised by S. John Vander Noodt,' ind when no 
 reference of any kind is made to Spenser. 'A 
 Theatre,' &c. (1569), opens with six epigrammatic 
 sonnets which are identical with the first six in the 
 4 Visions,' and, moreover, eleven of tie fifteen sonnets 
 in ' A Theatre ' are among ' The Visions of Bellay ' 
 published with 'The Visions of Petrarch.' Prof. 
 Hales has pointed out that there ;s as little difference 
 between the two sets of poems as is compatible with 
 the fact that the old series is vritten in blank verse 
 and the other in rhyme. Why the bookseller should 
 have adopted such tactics we cannot even suggest, 
 and perhaps it would be an idle task to hazard con- 
 jectures. 
 
 That industrious antiquary, Anthony a Wood, had
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 59 
 
 an especial dislike to booksellers, and he complains 
 of its being the 'usual thing in those days to set a 
 great name to a book, or books, by which the shark- 
 ing booksellers or snivelling writers get bread.' 
 
 Most of the elder writers appear to have tried all 
 the leading booksellers, deeming, perhaps, one trans- 
 action with one individual quite sufficient. Robert 
 Greene, for example, had many, but Edward White 
 and Thomas Cadman were the principal ones. The 
 former, whose shop was ' at the little north door of St. 
 Paul's, at the sign of the Gun,' issued 'Morando' 
 in 1584, ' Euphues' in 1587, ' Perimedes, the Black- 
 smith,' in the following year, and ' Friar Bacon and 
 Friar Bungay' in 1594. John Busbie published 
 * Ciceronis Amor' (1597), ' Never Too Late' (1590), 
 and the second part of the latter, viz. ' Francesca's 
 Fortunes.' Thomas Cadman, whose shop was ' at 
 the great north door of St. Paul's, at the sign of the 
 Bible,' issued ' Planetomachia ' (1585), ' Pandosto ' 
 (1588), and 'The Spanish Masquerado ' (1589). 
 Greene's most valuable prose work, ' The Repentance 
 of Robert Greene' (1592), was published by Cuth- 
 bert Burby or Burbie, whose shop was the 'middle' 
 one in the Poultry, under St. Mildred's Church, in 
 1592 ; and who removed, in or about 1594, to near the 
 Royal Exchange, where he was carrying on business 
 in 1599. There is a reference in the address of the 
 4 Printer to the Gentlemen Readers ' to the death of 
 Robert Greene, ' whose pen in his lifetime pleased you 
 as well on the stage as in the stationers' shops.' But 
 William Ponsonby, Thomas Woodcock, and Roger 
 Warde, among others, published one or more works
 
 60 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 of this prolific writer, whom Anthony Wood charges 
 with ' that high and loose course of living which poets 
 generally follow.' 
 
 George Peele, who, according to Collier, was the 
 son of Stephen Peele, a ballad-writing bookseller, 
 was likewise a man of many publishers. William 
 Barley, of Gratious Street, sold several of his works, 
 including ' Edward I.' (1593). William Wright, whose 
 shop was adjoining St. Mildred's Church, in the 
 Poultry, issued Peelers 'Farewell to Norris and Sir 
 Francis Drake ' (1589). Peele's ' The Honour of the 
 Garter' (1593 ?) bore the imprint of J. Busbie, ' King 
 David' (1599) that of A. Islip, 'Merry Conceited 
 Jests' (1627) that of F. Faulkner, and 'Alcazar* 
 that of R. Bankworth. It will be seen, therefore, 
 that Peele's knowledge of the London booksellers 
 was extensive. The same may be said of Thomas 
 Nash ; but many of his pamphlets bear no imprint at 
 all, or, what is just as bad, a bogus one : their tone 
 and character rendered this amount of secrecy most 
 essential. His ' Anatomic of Absurditie ' (1590) was 
 issued by Thomas Hackett ; ' Christ's Teares ' (i 593), 
 by J. Roberts ; ' Have with you to Saffron-Walden ' 
 (1596), by J. Danter; 'Lenten Stuffe' (1599), by 
 N. Ling ; and ' Summer's Last Will and Testament ' 
 (1600), by Walter Burre. W. Jones, C. Burbie, and 
 Richard Jones also published for Nash. The last- 
 named, perhaps more than any other, will always be 
 associated with the satirist's name. Indeed, he almost 
 deserves to be reckoned among the smaller lights of 
 literature. His dedications form quite a feature in 
 literary by-paths. In 1590 he produced the first two
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 6 1 
 
 editions of Marlowe's ' Tamburlaine the Great,' but 
 the edition dated 1592 is more particularly interesting 
 to us from the address of Jones, or Jhones, or Johnes. 
 * I have/ he said, ' purposely omitted and left out 
 some fond and frivolous gestures, digressing, and, in 
 my poor opinion, far unmeet for the matter, which I 
 thought might seem more tedious unto the wise than 
 any way else to be regarded, though haply they have 
 been of some vain-conceited fondlings greatly gaped 
 at, what time they were shewed upon the stage in 
 their graced deformities : nevertheless, now to be 
 mixtured in print with such matter of worth, it would 
 prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a 
 history.' In the same year he exercised his talents 
 in connection with Nash's ' Pierce Penilesse : his 
 Supplication to the Devil.' And as this ' Address 
 to the Gentlemen Readers ' is short, as well as cha- 
 racteristic, we cannot refrain from quoting it : 
 'Gentlemen, In the Author's absence I haue been 
 bold to publish this pleasaunt and wittie discourse of 
 " Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Diuell ;" 
 which title, though it may seeme strange, and in 
 it selfe somewhat preposterous, yet if you vouchsafe 
 the reading, you shall finde reason, as well for the 
 Authour's vncouth nomination, as for his vnwonted 
 beginning without epistle, proeme, or dedication : al 
 which he hath inserted conceitedly in the matter ; 
 but lie be no blab to tell you in what place. Bestow 
 the looking, and I doubt not but you shall finde 
 dedication, epistle, and proeme to your liking. 
 Yours bounden in affection, R. J.' In 1591 he 
 wrote an introduction to N. Breton's 'The Bower of
 
 62 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Delights.' There are nearly a hundred books in 
 existence with Jones's imprint, embracing the last 
 thirty years of the sixteenth century. He kept a 
 shop at the seuth-west door of St. Paul's Church, 
 and, according to Timperley, lived at the sign of 
 the Rose and Crown, near Saffron Hill, in Holborn ; 
 and at the upper end of .Fleet Lane, over against 
 St. Sepulchre's Church, at the sign of the Spread 
 Eagle. 
 
 In prosecuting an inquiry into the general state of 
 bookselling just three hundred years ago, a frequent 
 and not altogether explicable circumstance is that in 
 relation to the different imprints which appear in 
 some cases in the same year on one work. 'There 
 was practically no such thing as copyright ; and the 
 moment a manuscript left the author's hand, and 
 found its way into the printing-office, all claim on 
 the part of the author ceased. If one bookseller had 
 sufficient confidence to publish a poem or a play, and 
 it proved successful, the chances were a thousand to 
 one that rival tradesmen would offer rival copies. 
 We may take, as a by no means extreme example, 
 Marlowe's ' Hero and Leander,' of which Taylor, the 
 Water Poet, repeated verses as he plied his boat on 
 the Thames. The first and second editions were 
 printed in 1598 for Edward Blount. John Flasket, 
 of the Black Bear, in St. Paul's Churchyard, pub- 
 lished an edition in 1600, and another six years 
 afterwards. In 1609, Blount and W. Barret appear 
 to have gone into partnership, and to have succeeded 
 Flasket at the Black Bear ; for at this address they 
 issued two editions, one in 1609 and the other in
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 63 
 
 1613. In 1629, Richard Hawkins, of Chancery Lane, 
 and eight years later William Leak, of the same 
 quarter, were publishers of distinct editions of this 
 work. In fact, it is most difficult to say to whom the 
 copyright belonged, or if, indeed, one had more 
 right to it than another. 
 
 George Chapman had almost a fresh bookseller for 
 every new pamphlet or play. One of his earliest 
 works ' Skia Nuktos' (1594) was issued by William 
 Ponsonby ; and more than one bore the imprints of 
 both William Aspley and the ingenious Thomas 
 Thorpe. Walkley, Bonian and Walley, John Budge, 
 Lisle, and George Norton are among the best-known 
 members of the fraternity who published for Chap- 
 man. Thorpe, Ling, and Stansby published some of 
 Ben Jonson's works. 
 
 The last few years of the sixteenth century were 
 notorious for the publication of a vast quantity of 
 scurrilous literature. In 1599 most of this was 
 committed to the flames by order of Whitgift and 
 Sancroft, but the effect of this was not perceptible 
 upon the slippery sharp-shooters. As an example of 
 the attacks upon private vices, we quote one of the 
 introductory epigrams which occur in ' The Scourge 
 of Folly' (circa 1611) of John Davies, of Hereford : 
 
 ' At stacioners shops are lyes oft vendible, 
 Because such shops oft lye for gains untrue : 
 But truth doth lye there oft contemptible ; 
 Unsold, sith old ; but lyes are often new. 
 Then should my booke sell well, sith full of lyes, 
 Ah, would they were : Nay, sure they leazings bee 
 In saying such and such do villanies ; 
 When none so nam'd commit such villany.
 
 64 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 But I use namelesse names, because their shame 
 Should light on nobody that beares the blame.' 
 
 We may be sure that Richard Redman, located at 
 * ye West Gate of Paules,' the vendor of Davies's book, 
 declined the soft impeachment so far as he was per- 
 sonally concerned. Nash has a contemptuous reference 
 in 'Pierce Penile.-se' to the inferior writings of the 
 time : ' Who can abide a scurvie pedling poet to 
 plucke a man by the sleeue at eurie third step in Paules 
 Churchyard, and when he comes in to survey his wares 
 there's nothing but purgations and vomits wrapt vp in 
 wast paper.' Barnaby Rich, in his preface to the 
 courteous and friendly reader, in ' A New Description 
 of Ireland ' (1610), says, ' One of the diseases of this 
 age is the multitude of books, that doth so overcharge 
 the world that it is not able to digest the abundance 
 of idle matter that is every day hatched and brought 
 into the world, that are as divers in their forms as their 
 authors be in their faces. It is but a thriftless and a 
 thankless occupation, this writing of books : a man 
 were better to sit singing in a cobbler's shop, for his 
 pay is certain a penny a patch ! but a book-writer, if 
 he get sometimes a few commendations of the judicious, 
 he shall be sure to reap a thousand reproaches of the 
 malicious.' 
 
 Doubtless Michael Drayton was of Rich's opinion 
 on the subject of authorship. Writing to the friend 
 so well known to us through the medium of rare Ben 
 Jonson,' Drayton exclaims, ' I thank you, my dear 
 sweet Drummond, for your good opinion of Polyol- 
 bion. I have done twelve books more, that is, from
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 65 
 
 the i8th book, which was Kent (if you note it), all the 
 east parts and north to the river of Tweed ; but it 
 lieth by me, for the booksellers and I are in terms ; 
 they are a company of base knaves, whom I scorn and 
 kick at.' Considering the elephantine ponderosity of 
 Drayton's books, it was not at all surprising that he 
 and the booksellers were ' in terms ' and that they got 
 no further. However, three years later the second 
 part actually put in an appearance, but in the mean- 
 time his natural enemies had been dealing hardly by 
 him. The preface is despairingly, and we might al- 
 most say savagely, inscribed ' To any that will read it.' 
 From this source we learn that the stationers, who were 
 concerned at the slow sale of the former part, had left 
 out the epistle to the readers ! But we will relate the 
 incident in Drayton's own words. He complains of 
 the cold reception which the first portion of his great 
 work met, and that he not only failed to receive the 
 encouragement which his friends predicted, but that 
 he had been subjected to base detraction, and so forth. 
 ' Such a cloud/ he laments, ' hath the devil drawn over 
 the world's judgment. Some of the stationers that 
 had the selling of the first part of this poem, because 
 it went not so fast away in selling as some of their 
 beastly and abominable trash (a shame both to our 
 language and our nation), have despightfully left out 
 the epistle to the readers, and so have cousened the 
 buyers with imperfect books, which those that have un- 
 dertaken the second part have been forced to amend 
 in the first, for the small number that are yet remain- 
 ing in their hands.' Even in ' the good old times ' of 
 slow travelling, slow eating, and slow reading, a poem 
 
 F
 
 66 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 which ran into about 30,000 lines was scarcely likely 
 to be read by everybody. ' Where art thou, Michael ? ' 
 was the cheery inquiry of John Davies of Hereford, 
 and under the accumulation of miseries, Echo might 
 well have answered, ' where indeed ? ' 
 
 If, however, precedent goes for anything, the book- 
 seller might have justified himself by citing more than 
 one instance. William Turner, in the dedication to 
 Elizabeth of his ' New Herbal ' (1568), complains of a 
 crafty, covetous and Popish printer, not satisfied with 
 suppressing the author's name and leaving out the 
 preface, but furnishing his own preface and publishing 
 as if it were the production of his own brain ! Another 
 example may be found in the case of an exceedingly rare 
 little work, ' A Petite Palace of Petties his Pleasure ' 
 (1576). The printer-publisher, ' R. B.,' supplied the 
 address ' to the gentle Gentlewomen,' and also that to 
 ' all readers.' It is with a charming naivete that he 
 describes his manner of procedure. After the book had 
 been in his ' custodie ' for some time, he was ' eftsoones 
 ernestly sollicited to publish ' it, which he at length 
 resolved to do. ' I have,' he goes on to say, ' put the 
 same in printe, vsing my discretion in omitting sutch 
 matter as in the Aucthores iudgement might seeme 
 offenciue ; ' urging, as a plea, that the printer may 
 sooner offend in printing too much than in publishing 
 too little. But the old booksellers did not confine 
 themselves to editing and prefatory or dedicatory 
 writing. They had a strong partiality for title-pages, 
 which after all are not unimportant in the by-ways of 
 bookmaking. The great aim, of course, was to obtain 
 an attractive ' nomination/ which more often than not
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 67 
 
 was half the battle towards selling out an edition. 
 Whether the title had an immediate or remote reference 
 to the subject-matter does not appear to have been 
 considered material, or in fact whether it had refer- 
 ence to anything at all in particular. Who, for example, 
 could divine the burthen of Yates" ' Castel of Courtesie, 
 whereunto is adjoyned the Hold of Humilitie, with the 
 Chariot of Chastitie thereunto annexed' (1582), or 
 Gascoigne's 'The Droome of Doome's Day' (1576), or 
 Breton's ' A Flourish upon Fancy' (1577), or many 
 hundreds- of others that might be named ? Clearly 
 the bookseller was in most cases solely responsible 
 for the titles ; and if the first was not satisfactory a 
 second or a third was brought into requisition. Dec- 
 ker, in the ' Strange Horse-race ' (1613), observes that 
 ' The titles of books are like painted chimnies in great 
 country-houses, make a shew afar off, and catch travel- 
 lers' eyes ; but coming near them, neither cast they 
 smoke, nor hath the house the heart to make you 
 drink.' John Houghton, when starting his ' Collection 
 for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade ' (i682) } 
 cautions the booksellers to send him no new titles to 
 old books for they ' will be rejected.' But the worthy 
 John, who was an F.R.S., must have been very ' green ' 
 if he thought the trade would heed his warning ! 
 
 The old booksellers employed metaphors in quite a 
 
 distinct fashion, and so the expression a ' good book ' 
 
 is not understood to necessarily indicate a ' high ' toned 
 
 religious or otherwise intrinsically meritorious work ; 
 
 it simply meant one that sold well. 1 The term, 
 
 which is still employed, is a very old one, and is re- 
 
 1 See Connoisseur, January 31, 1754. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ferred to by Ben Jonson in his poem to his book- 
 seller : 
 
 ' Thou, that mak'st gaine thy end, and wisely well 
 Call'st a book good, or bad, as it doth sell, 
 Use mine so, too : I give thee leave. But crave 
 For luck's sake, it thus much favours have, 
 To lie upon thy stall, till it be sought ; 
 Not offered, as it made suit to be bought : 
 Nor have my title-leaf on post, or walls, 
 Or in cleft-sticks, advanced to make calls 
 For termers or some clerk-like serving-man, 
 Who scarce can spell th' hard names : whose knight scarce 
 
 can ; 
 
 If, without these vile arts, it will not sell, 
 Send it to Bucklersbury, 2 there 'twill well.' 
 
 The following, a preliminary sonnet, ' Ad Bibliopo- 
 lam/ from Henry Parrot's ' The Mastive, or young- 
 whelpe of the Olde Dogge,' (printed for R. Meighen 
 and Thos. Jones, 1615), is sufficiently apropos to be 
 quoted here : 
 
 ' Printer, or stationer, or what ere thou proove, 
 Shalt mee record to Time's posteritie, 
 He not enjoine thee, but request in love 
 Thou so much deigne my Book to dignifie, 
 As first it bee not with your ballads mixt ; 
 Next, not at Play-houses mongst Pippins solde ; 
 Then that on posts, by th' eares it stand not fixt 
 For every dull-mechanicke to beholde ; 
 Last, that it come not brought in pedlars' packs 
 To common fayres of countrey, towne or citie, 
 Sold at a Booth mongst pinnes and Almanacks. 
 Yet on thy hands to lye thou'lt say 't wer pittie : 
 
 Let it be rather for tobacco rent, 
 
 Or butchers' wares, next cleansing week in Lent.' 
 
 2 A famous street in London, noted in Ben Jonson's time for 
 chemists and herbalists. See ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' iii. 3.
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 69 
 
 Like so many other apparently modern institutions, 
 the practice of selling books of words at the theatre 
 before the play began is a very old one. In the pre- 
 face to William Fennor's ' Descriptions ' (1616), we 
 learn that books other than those bearing directly 
 upon the entertainment, were sold at the theatre. ' I 
 suppose' 'this Pamphlet will hap into your hands 
 before the play begin, with the importunate clamour, 
 " Buy a New Booke " by some needy companion/ 
 
 It has been pointed out that in the time of Shake- 
 speare, the price of the copy of a play to the book- 
 sellers was about twenty nobles, or 61. i$s. ^d. The 
 patron to whom the play was dedicated paid about 
 forty shillings for such an honour. These figures are 
 represented at the present day by about five times as 
 much. Undoubtedly, the law of supply and demand 
 operated, and the more popular the play, the greater 
 the demand for copies, and small probability was 
 there of the successful author being content to receive 
 the ordinary honorarium. 
 
 One of the most important facts in connection with, 
 the trade during the time of Shakespeare is that in 
 1595 the first Catalogue of books was published. 
 It was compiled by a bookseller named Andrew 
 Maunsell, who commenced business in or about 1 570, 
 at the sign of the Parrot, St. Paul's Churchyard. 
 Very few books were printed by him, but he had an 
 extensive connection as a publisher. He ' undertook ' 
 at least two of Churchyard's books, dated 1578 and 
 1579, respectively. The catalogue is of great value, 
 bibliographically speaking ; and its title runs as 
 follows : ' The first part of the Catalogue of English
 
 70 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 Printed Books : which concerneth such matters of 
 divinitie as have bin either written in our owne tongue, 
 or translated out of anie other language : and which 
 have bin published to the Glory of God, and edifica- 
 tion of the Church of Christ in England. Gathered 
 into alphabet, and such method as it is, by Andrew 
 Maunsell, bookseller. Unumquodque propter quid. 
 London : printed by John Windet for Andrew 
 Maunsell, dwelling in Lothburie, 1595.' There were 
 three dedications, the first to Queen Elizabeth, the 
 second to the clergy, and the third to the Master, 
 Wardens and Assistants of the Stationers' Company 
 in particular, and all other printers and booksellers 
 in general. This last dedication is of especial literary 
 and bibliopolic interest. 'Seeing' (observes Maun- 
 sell) ' many singular books, not only of divinity, but 
 of other excellent arts, after the first impression, so 
 spent and gone, that they lie even as it were buried 
 in some few studies : I have thought good in my 
 proper estate to undertake this most tiresome business, 
 hoping the Lord will send a blessing upon my labours 
 taken in my vocation ; thinking it as necessary for 
 the bookseller (considering the number and nature of 
 them) to have a. catalogue of our English books, as 
 the apothecary his Dispensatorium, or the school- 
 master his Dictionary. By means of which my poor 
 travils, I shall draw to your memories books that 
 you could not remember ; and shew to the learned 
 such books as they would not think were in our own 
 tongue ; which I have not slighted up the next way, 
 but have to my great pains drawn the writers of any 
 special argument together, not following the order of
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 71 
 
 the learned men that have written Latin catalogues, 
 Gesner, Simler, and our countryman, John Bale. 
 They make their alphabet by the Christian name, I by 
 the surname : they mingle divinity, law, physic, &c., 
 together ; I set divinity by itself ; they set down 
 printed and not printed, I only printed. Concerning 
 the books which are without authors' names, called 
 Anonymi, I have placed them either upon the titles 
 they be entitled by, or else upon the matter they en- 
 treat of, and sometimes upon both, for the easier 
 finding of them.' The second part of this catalogue, 
 relating to books on mathematics, arithmetic, geo- 
 metry, astronomy, astrology, music, war, navigation, 
 physic and surgery, appeared shortly after the first, 
 and it likewise had three dedications. The first was 
 to the Earl of Essex, the second to the Professors 
 of Mathematics, Physic and Surgery, and the third, 
 as in the former part, was addressed to the Stationers' 
 Company. The third and perhaps the most valuable 
 part never appeared : it was to have dealt with books 
 on grammar, logic, rhetoric, law, history, poetry, &c. 
 The first part is composed of [viii.] 123 folio pages, 
 and the second, which was printed by J. Roberts, of 
 [vi.j 27 pages. 
 
 III. 
 
 The imprint of a book is almost invariably an 
 important and frequently an accurate guarantee of 
 merit, and not only is this the case at the present 
 moment, but something very analogous existed in 
 times which have long since become merged in the 
 dim obscurity of the past In writing the literary
 
 72 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 account of a particular person or epoch, historians, 
 almost without an exception, pass over in silence the 
 part which booksellers played, and apparently con- 
 sider it not only as beneath notice but as altogether 
 superfluous. The essentially interwoven connection 
 between bookselling and authorship is so great that 
 the influence of the author must be taken side by 
 side with the operations of the bookseller. We are 
 in the present day startled with an extraordinary 
 theory in connection with certain plays ostensibly 
 the work of Shakespeare. And without entering 
 upon debatable ground, we may serve a useful purpose 
 in giving a brief account of the works which Bacon 
 issued during his lifetime, and as sort of balance to 
 our somewhat exhaustive account of the first publica- 
 tion of the works of Shakespeare, who, indeed, might 
 have echoed the sentiments of the author of ' The 
 Ant and the Nightingale, or Father Hubbard's Tales,' 
 which was sold by Jeffrey Charlton ' at his shop at the 
 North Doore of Paules' (1604). 'I never' (observes 
 the writer) ' wisht this book better fortune than to 
 fall into the hands of a true spelling printer, and an 
 honest stitching bookseller.' 
 
 In 1597, Humfrey Hooper, whose shop was at 
 the ' blacke Beare in Chauncery Lane,' brought out 
 the first edition of the famous ' Essays.' There were 
 only ten subjects dealt with in this extremely quaint 
 volume of 32 leaves (excepting the title-page and 
 dedication). ' To labour the staie of them/ observes 
 Bacon in the address to his brother, ' had bin trouble- 
 some, and subject to interpretation ; to let them passe 
 had beene to adueture the wrong they mought
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 73 
 
 receiue by vntrue coppies, or by some garnishment, 
 which it mought please any that should set them 
 forth to bestow upon them.' The second edition 
 appeared in the following year, and, like the first, 
 it bore the imprint of Hooper, who, from the very 
 few examples of his publications now existing, we 
 may assume was a young publisher that Bacon 
 wished to assist. In 1596 he had published Dr. John 
 Wood's 'Practicae Medicinae.' Editions of the 
 ' Essays ' followed upon one another with compara- 
 tive rapidity, at least one appearing in 1604 and 
 another in 1606, and then again in 1612 and 1624. 
 Spedding doubted whether Bacon had anything to 
 do with either of the issues of 1598, 1604, and 
 1606, which are said to be merely reprints without 
 additions or alterations, except some changes in the 
 spelling and the substitution of an English translation 
 of the ' Meditationes Sacrae ' from the original Latin. 
 Whether John Beale's issue of 1606 was authorized 
 or not we have no means of determining, but it is 
 quite certain that Isaac Jaggard published pirated 
 editions in 1606, 1612, and 1624. Jaggard's shop 
 was at the sign of the ' Hand and Starre, near Temple 
 Bar, Fleet Street,' and for a quarter of a century 
 there were few more prolific booksellers than he. 
 His publications include Carew's ' Survey of Cornwall ' 
 (1602), Fairfax's translation of Godfrey of Bulloigne ' 
 (1600), the first volume of an English version of 
 Boccaccio, and the famous first folio of Shakespeare 
 (1623). In the last instance, as we have already seen, 
 Blount, another bookseller, divided the undertaking, 
 and in most other cases the pecuniary responsibilities
 
 74 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 were shared by friendly rivals. The first and only 
 complete edition of the ' Essays ' published in Bacon's 
 lifetime was printed for Hanna Barret and John 
 Whittaker (1625), whose shop was at the sign of the 
 King's Head in St. Paul's Churchyard. Hanna 
 Barret was probably the widow of William Barret, 
 who published several works notably the produc- 
 tions of Montaigne, Bishop Hall, Sandys, and Bacon 
 between the years 1608 and 1624. Hanna Barret 
 either retired from business or died in 1625, for we 
 do not after that date meet with any examples of her 
 publications. 
 
 'A Briefe Discourse, touching the Happie Union 
 of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland' (1603), 
 was printed for Fcelix' Norton, whose shop was 'at 
 the signe of the Parot ' in St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 and were also to be sold by William Apsley. Apsley 
 published books between 1599 and 1630, including 
 the productions of Decker, Casaubon, Chapman, and 
 Shakespeare. The year 1604 saw two more books 
 of Bacon brought forth, each by a different book- 
 seller. First, the 'Certain Considerations touching 
 the better pacification and edification of the Church 
 of England,' bore the imprimatur of Henrie Tomes 
 surely an appropriate surname for a bookseller! 
 and secondly, ' Sir Francis Bacon : his Apologie/ 
 was entrusted to Matthew Lownes, whose shop was 
 situated in that happy hunting-ground of booksellers, 
 St. Paul's Churchyard. The first edition of the former 
 book is described as excessively rare ; and of Henry 
 Tomes nothing more is known than that his shop 
 was 'over against Graies Inne Gate, in Holburne,'
 
 Bookselling in the Time of Shakespeare. 75 
 
 and that he published some books between 1604 and 
 1607, the most interesting and curious of which is 
 perhaps ' The Commendation of Cocks and Cock- 
 fighting, wherein is shewn that cock-fighting was 
 before the coming of Christ' (black letter, 1607). 
 Matthew Lownes sold many books, often in conjunc- 
 tion with Isaac Jaggard, from 1596 to 1625 ; he was 
 the son of Hugh Lownes of Rode, in Astbury, 
 Cheshire, and was born about 1568. He died pro- 
 bably in 1625, in which year his widow gave io/. 
 to the Stationers' Company as a remembrance of the 
 departed Matthew. 
 
 The ' Advancement of Learning,' or as it was first 
 called, ' The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon, of the 
 proficiencie and advancement of Learning, divine 
 and humane' (1605) was also printed for Tomes. 
 The first part consists of 45 leaves, and the second 
 of 118; as was then sometimes the custom, each 
 leaf had only one number, instead of two, as at the 
 present time. An edition of this book was printed 
 in 1629 for W. Washington, and another in 1633 
 for T. Huggins, of Oxford, neither of whom was 
 particularly noted as a bookseller. 
 
 'De Sapientia Veterum,' better known as the 
 ' Wisdom of the Ancients ' (1609), next calls for 
 notice, and this very carefully and beautifully printed 
 little duodecimo was produced by Robert Barker, 
 who enjoyed the honour of being his Majesty's 
 printer, was granted, on July 19, 1603, a special 
 licence for printing all statutes, and who, moreover, 
 was one of a large family of printers. A translation 
 of ' De Sapientia Veterum,' was printed in 1619 for
 
 76 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 John Bill, who, from 1604 to 1630, had something 
 more or less to do with a great number of books, and 
 whose assigns continued in business until 1642. In 
 addition to this, John Bill was the 'sponsor' of 
 Bacon's greatest work, viz., the ' Instauratio Magna,' 
 which appeared, in folio, during 1620. This book 
 embodied an attempt to build up a new philosophy, 
 and, as the ' Novum Organum ' is but one part of a 
 stupendous whole, it is therefore only a fragment, but 
 it is the most carefully written of all Bacon's philo- 
 sophical works. In 1622, the ' Historia Ventorum ' 
 the first published part of the ' Historia Naturalis,' 
 which was to be the third division of the ' Instauratio ' 
 was printed for Matthew Lownes and William 
 Barret ; and in the following year the ' Historia 
 Vitae et Mortis ' was printed for Lownes solely, to 
 both of whom reference has already been made. The 
 ' History of the Reign of Henry VII.' was another of 
 Bacon's works that came out in 1622, in folio, and this, 
 like the ' Historia Ventorum,' was printed for Lownes 
 and William Barret. 
 
 Bacon's ' Translation of certaine Psalmes into 
 English Verse,' a quarto of 22 pages, or 1 1 leaves, 
 dedicated to Herbert of ' The Temple ' fame, 
 appeared during the year 1625, under the auspices 
 of Hanna Barret and Richard Whittaker, as did 
 also^ in the same year, the ' Apophthegmes, new and 
 old.' 
 
 William Lee, of the Turk's Head, Fleet Street, 
 appears to have obtained the right of publishing 
 ' Sylva Sylvarum ' in perpetuity, for not only does 
 the first edition (1627) bear his name, but the fifth
 
 Bookselling in the Time oj Shakespeare. 77 
 
 of 1639, and the seventh of 1658. In 1629 appeared 
 the 'Advertisement Touching an Holy Warre,' 
 which, although written seven years previously, 
 came forth with the name of Humphrey Robinson ; 
 and the next year the ' Assigns of John More, Esq.,' 
 published ' The Elements of Common Law.' The 
 history, from our standpoint, of Bacon's posthumous 
 publications is naturally unimportant when com- 
 pared with that of the books which appeared during 
 his lifetime.
 
 78 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BOOKSELLING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 THE history of mankind is said to be made up of 
 continuous generations : each possessing, where it is 
 really alive, its separate characteristics. The history 
 of bookselling, strictly speaking, has also such a 
 sequence, but the claim to homogeneity can only 
 be admitted when the subject is viewed as a whole. 
 From the earliest times, booksellers sprang up with 
 mushroom uncertainty and irregularity, and, again 
 like fungoid growth, they passed into nothingness. 
 In many instances their very names are buried in 
 the depths of obscurity, and no amount of delving 
 amid the strata of literary rubbish will bring them 
 to the surface. In other cases, again, their names 
 and the parts they played stand out clear and distinct 
 in the records, not merely of literary by-paths, but of 
 the broader and greater literature whose importance 
 is national in character and universal in scope. 
 Here and there we shall find instances of a son 
 and occasionally of a grandson carrying on the 
 business without break, but as a general rule the 
 connections formed by one man either died with him 
 or were transferred to a stranger. Still, the primary
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 79 
 
 chain, whose links commenced with Caxton, is un- 
 broken, for the great stream of books, in spite of 
 foreign complications and internal dissensions, knows 
 of no stoppage. 
 
 Leaving the first dozen years or so out of the 
 question, the Restoration must be regarded as a 
 radiating point of literary enterprise. The contri- 
 butions of the later dramatists, such as Massinger 
 and Ford, were followed up by Milton's, and later on 
 by Dryden's. These two men practically span the 
 cycle of the seventeenth century, for Milton was born 
 in 1608, and the prolific pen of Dryden ceased in 
 1701. They are the two most distinct portraits in 
 the whole gallery of the period, and beside them all 
 others fade into insignificance. 
 
 The accession of James I. marks the commence- 
 ment of a new and very much inferior era in English 
 literature, which is in striking contrast to that which 
 immediately preceded it. The state of bookselling 
 in the seventeenth century is necessarily analogous to 
 its foster-parent, literature. It made but very little 
 advancement, and contributed not one iota to the 
 amelioration of authorship by profession, which, if 
 anything, retrograded. The howl of the author may 
 be reckoned in an inverse ratio to the comfort and 
 opulence of the tradesman. 
 
 We get a little insight into the proceedings of 
 certain booksellers from George Wither's ' The 
 Schollers Purgatory discovered in the Stationers 
 Commonwealth, Imprinted for the honest Stationers ' 
 (1625). It seems that the stationers opposed the 
 publication of the ' Hymns and Songs of the Church '
 
 8o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 (which was issued for the ' Assignes of G. Wither ' in 
 1623), in spite of the interesting fact that publication 
 was commanded by the king. Wither likens some 
 of the booksellers to the silent Smith of Ephesus, 
 and in commenting on the Marge expense in this 
 work/ he observes 'the bookseller hath not only 
 made the printer, the binder, and the claspmaker a 
 slave to him ; but hath brought authors, yea, the 
 whole commonwealth and all the liberal sciences into 
 bondage.' If there is any truth at all in his charges, 
 the Stationers' Company was a conglomeration of 
 corruption, but the animadversions of an avowed 
 satirist cannot always be accepted as gospel truth. 
 From his shewing, however, the Company could 
 settle upon any of its members a perpetual interest 
 in books registered by them, even if the first copies 
 were purloined from the author and printed without 
 his leave. ' They annex additions to old books, and 
 increase the price,' though the ' matter be altogether 
 impertinent.' ' Good God,' exclaims the disgusted 
 and somewhat profane author, ' how many dung- 
 botes full of fruitless volumes doe they yearely foist 
 upon his Majesty's subjects, by lying Titles, insinua- 
 tions and disparaging of more profitable books ! How 
 many hundred reames of foolish prophane and sense- 
 less ballads do they quarterly disperse abroade? 
 And how many looo/.'s do they yearly pick out of 
 the purses of ignorant people, who refer the choice 
 of their books to the discretions and honesties of 
 these men ! ' Wither, like so many other authors, 
 rarely employed one publisher twice. F. Bnrton 
 issued the first two editions of 'Abuses Stript and
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 8 1 
 
 Whipt/ 1613 and 1614, whilst T. Snodham, Geo. 
 Norton, N. Okes and J. Budge, were publishers at 
 one time or another for Wither. 
 
 John Lilburne, who was by trade a bookbinder, 
 played the part of hero with quite a creditable dignity. 
 He was found guilty of publishing numerous seditious 
 books, notably one of Prynne's. Not content with 
 having him whipped at a cart's tail from the Fleet 
 Prison to Westminster, the authorities placed him in 
 the pillory for two hours, and from this undignified 
 position he was thrown into the Fleet Prison, where 
 he was kept until he conformed to the rules of the 
 court. Further, he had to pay 5OO/. to the king, and 
 give security for his behaviour. But ' Freeborn 
 John/ as his friends nicknamed him, was not to be 
 put down, for he not only underwent the sentence 
 'with undismayed obstinacy/ but uttered many 
 speeches against the bishops, circulated innumerable 
 pamphlets, from the pillory, and, last of all, when the 
 Star Chamber ordered him to be gagged, he defied 
 them. Indeed, Judge Jenkins is reported to have 
 declared, 'if there was none living but he, John 
 would be against Lilburne, and Lilburne against 
 John.' He died August 29, 1657. Prynne was not 
 much more fortunate than Lilburne, for a contem- 
 porary writer alludes to Prynne being in the pillory 
 at Cheapside, and that while he stood there ' they 
 burnt his huge volume under his nose, which had 
 almost suffocated him.' Michael Spark, in and about 
 the year 1644, sold most of Prynne's books at ' the 
 Blue Bible in Green Arbour/ Spark was fined 
 5<x>/., and for ever prevented from selling books 
 
 G
 
 8 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 through his connection with Prynne's ' Histrio- 
 mastix,' a stupendous quarto of over 1000 pages. 
 
 The industrious operations of Mr. Nathaniel 
 Butter, ' the great newspaper-monger ' (to whom 
 reference has already been made), and others of the 
 trade who scrupled not at utilizing another man's 
 idea, gave no inconsiderable impetus to the book- 
 selling trade. Their trashy, stale, and almost invari- 
 ably inaccurate news served a certain purpose, even 
 if that purpose were antagonistic to enlightenment. 
 It fostered and encouraged a taste for a higher class 
 of literature, and so created, or rather extended, the 
 desire for pamphlets and treatises on the burning 
 topics of the day. The newspaper press, such as it 
 was, was foully inferior. In reflecting upon the 
 anomalies of the 'newspaper' news, Ben Jonson, in 
 'The Staple of News' (1625), makes an interesting 
 reference to stationers. 
 
 ' P.jun. See divers men's opinions ! unto some 
 The very printing of them makes them News ; 
 That ha' not the heart to believe anything, 
 But what they see in print. 
 
 Fitt. I, that's an error 
 Has abus'd many ; but we shall reform it, 
 As many things beside (we have a hope) 
 Are crept among the popular abuses. 
 
 Cymb. Nor shall the stationer cheat upon the time, 
 By buttering over again 
 
 Fitt. Once in seven years, 
 As the age doats 
 
 Cymb. And grows forgetful o' them 
 His antiquated pamphlets, with new dates, 
 But all shall come from the mint. 
 
 Fitt. Fresh and new-stamp'd
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 83 
 
 Cymb. With the office-seal, staple commodity. 
 
 Fitt. And if a man will assure his News, he may ; 
 Twopence a sheet he shall be warranted, 
 And wave a policy for't. 
 
 * * ' * * * 
 
 P.jun. What are your present clerk's habilities ? 
 How is he qualified ? 
 
 Cymb. A decay'd stationer 
 He was, but knows News well ; can sort and rank 'em. 
 
 Fitt. And for a need can make 'em. 
 
 Cymb. True Paul's bred, 
 I' the churchyard.' 
 
 Much commotion was caused in England during 
 1629 by the want of large folio Bibles. To meet 
 this the Cambridge printers printed an edition which 
 they sold at ten shillings in quires. The king's 
 printers at once set six printing-houses at work, and 
 printed the folio Bible in the same manner, and sold 
 it with 500 quarto Roman Bibles and 500 quarto 
 English at five shillings each, so as to overthrow the 
 Cambridge printers, and keep it entirely in their own 
 hands. This, with a great quantity of other valuable 
 information respecting the state of bookselling during 
 the earlier half of the seventeenth century, we learn 
 from a very remarkable and noteworthy pamphlet, 
 ' Scintilla; or, A light broken into dark Warehouses 
 of some Printers, sleeping Stationers, and combining 
 Booksellers' (1641). It contains certain observations 
 upon the monopolists of seven several patents and 
 two charters. Their proceedings are declared to be 
 ' anatomised and laid open in a breviat, in which is 
 only a touch of their forestalling and ingrossing of 
 books in patents and raising to excessive prices.' The 
 imprint is not the least curious fact in connection 
 
 G 2
 
 84 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 with this book, which declares itself to be printed 
 ' not for profit, but for the common weles good : and 
 no where to be sold, but somewhere to be given.' 
 The ' epistle to the reader ' is emphatic and brief. 
 ' Courteous Reader (or otherwise), if thou lookest for 
 the reason of writing this book, here it is, and so 
 Anonimous leaves thee. Non Nobis Solum, nati 
 summ, sed partim patriae.' The writer complains 
 that the Church Bibles, which in former times were 
 sold (in quires) for thirty or even twenty-five shillings, 
 had been raised to forty, and that, from the impres- 
 sion of 3000, the booksellers netted an extra profit of 
 1 5oo/. ' Those of a thinner sort have been sold at 
 i/. in quires ; Partners have bought them cheaper 
 buying a quantity, and those partners sold them 
 severally at seventeen and six, not stocking or com- 
 bining as they do now.' The Cambridge large folio, 
 of the best paper, sold at \l. ios., was raised to 2/. ; 
 the medium folio from I/. 2s. 6d., or even less, was 
 surcharged with an extra 73. 6d., whilst the thin 
 paper edition, usually sold at i6s., was raised to I/. 
 The London quarto Bible, in Roman type, with notes, 
 had formerly been sold for Js., 'but now with no 
 notes ios.' ' There hath been at least 12,000 of these 
 Bibles with notes printed in Holland and sold very 
 reasonably ; and many brought from thence hither, 
 and they have been seized by the King's printers, and 
 the parties that imported them not only lost them, 
 but were put in purgatory, and then glad to lose 
 their Bibles and all cost to get off; and then the 
 monopolists sold them again, and so kept all others 
 in awe.' The London octavo edition was raised from
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 85 
 
 3-r. $d. (in quires) to 4^., whereas the cheaper issue 
 had nine more sheets than the more expensive one. 
 Of this edition 'there have been 10,000 printed in a 
 year.' The duodecimo Holland Bible, sold at 2s. in 
 quires, was better than the London one of 1639, sold 
 at double the price. 
 
 But the monopolists did not stop at enhancing the 
 prices of Bibles. They advanced Rclton's ' Statues ' 
 from i/. los. to I/. iSs. 6d. The Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge ' Grammars ' were raised from $d. to &/., the 
 yearly impression being 20,000. Camden's ' Greek 
 Accedence ' ' by chance a year ago broke loose from 
 the stake of the monopolist, and was sold at 6s. in the 
 pound cheaper than they sell them, but they have by 
 a combination tied him to the stake again.' The 
 monopolists prevented the printing of the Concord- 
 ance, and seized the imported copies, which, however, 
 they sold again, and pocketed the profit. 'But a 
 touch of this ; for it is too tart, and I verily believe 
 picks the subjects pockets, that eats brown bread to 
 fill the sleeping stationers belly with venison and 
 sacke, and robs the commonwealth.' The writer 
 urged that the Statute of 25 Henry VIII., c. 15, con- 
 cerning prices be put into force, and that there be at 
 least 20 or 24 Assistants to the Company, and that 
 none be twice Master. As things were then, some six 
 or eight of the eldest members of the Company com- 
 bined and carried everything their own way, aiming 
 solely at furthering their own interests. A sort of 
 sequel to this valuable pamphlet was published, but 
 the earlier is that of most particular interest. 
 
 On September 30, 1647, it was enacted that no person
 
 86 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 should make, print, or sell, publish or utter, or cause 
 to be made, &c., any book, pamphlet, treatise, ballad, 
 libel, or sheet of news whatever unless licensed. For 
 infringement, the printer would be fined 20^., or in 
 default as many days, and the bookseller just half 
 that amount. Early in the following year a Scot- 
 tish Act was passed which dared printers, under the 
 penalty of death, to print unlicensed books. A new 
 era, which had been formulating since 1640, began, 
 and the War of Pamphlets had established itself in 
 dead earnest. The battle raged loud and fierce, and 
 nearly every one who could write at all joined in the 
 fray. ' Diurnals ' and ' Mercuries ' came into exist- 
 ence, first occasionally, then weekly, and then bi- 
 and tri-weekly. The law of which an abstract has 
 just been given called into existence a new and 
 formidable, if scurrilous and unscrupulous, army of 
 scribblers, whose very raison-d? etre was to controvert 
 that which every one knew to be an infamous and 
 tyrannical law. The following example is a scornful 
 protest : ' The Kentish Fay re, or the Parliament 
 sold to their best worth/ which was ostensibly 
 ' printed at Rochester, and are to be sold to all 
 those that dare to buy them.' The vital questions 
 of the day engrossed the sole attention of the 
 pamphleteers, and a great deal of that of the book- 
 seller, who knew the class of literature most likely 
 to go down, and who had very many means of 
 getting rid of his stock. Then, as now, an author 
 tried the experiment of publishing his own books, 
 and the result was not a satisfactory one. The 
 trouble, however, appears to have been not so much
 
 ' Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 87 
 
 a matter of getting purchases as one of obtaining the 
 money for those sold. No better example could be 
 instanced than John Taylor's 'The Carrier's Cosmo- 
 graphy' (1637), the full title of which is a matter of 
 146 words. Three reasons are given for publishing 
 this book, the first of which is the benefit which it 
 would confer upon the general public, the second to 
 express gratitude to those who paid for his previous 
 books, and the third because of those who could pay 
 him, but would not : ' I am well pleased,' Taylor 
 candidly admits, 'to leave them to the hangman's 
 tuition, as being past any other man's mending, for 
 I would have them to know, that I am sensible of 
 the too much loss that I do suffer by their pride and 
 cousenage ; their not being so many and my charge 
 so great, which I paid for paper and printing of those 
 books, that the base dealing of those sharks is in- 
 supportable.' The famous N. Butter issued several 
 of Taylor's books, and H. Gosson issued a few 
 also. 
 
 The year 1648 is a landmark both in political and 
 in literary history, for on December 23 of that year 
 (according to tradition) Richard Royston, the royal 
 bookseller, of the Angel, Ivy Lane, received the 
 manuscript of ' Eikon Basilike ; the Pourtraioture 
 of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and Sufferings/ 
 which was published before the 3Oth of the follow- 
 ing month, when his Majesty was beheaded. Nearly 
 50 editions appeared by the end of 1649. Another 
 book may be here mentioned, not only because it 
 appeared a few years afterwards, but because of a 
 similarly unbounded popularity and the impene-
 
 88 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 trable uncertainty surrounding its authorship. We 
 refer to * The Practice of Christian Graces, or the 
 Whole Duty of Man/ which was printed by 'T. 
 Garthwait at the little North door of S. Paul's, 
 1658.' In 1659 Garthwait issued another edition 
 with a new engraved title, inscribed ' The Whole 
 Duty of Man.' 
 
 The publication of London's Catalogue forms an im- 
 portant incident in the annals of bookselling. It is en- 
 titled ' A Catalogue of the most vendible Books in 
 England, orderly and alphabetically digested ' (1658). 
 There are nearly 30 sections. It is dedicated ' to 
 the gentry, ministers of the Gospel, and others of a 
 peculiar choice, to the wise, learned and studious in 
 the northern counties of Northumberland, bishop- 
 prick of Durham, Westmoreland and Cumberland.' 
 There is a very interesting introduction relative to 
 the use of books ; and the ' Epistle to the Reader ' 
 concludes thus : ' And though the wise man saies, 
 that of writing books there is no end (which I think 
 is meant of such as are writ to no end), yet I hope 
 this reducement of many into one, may prove of 
 some good advantage, and to some good end, and 
 that without prejudice to Solomon's text.' The en- 
 tries are full, as may be seen from this example : 
 ' The Life of Tamerlane the Great, his Warres 
 against the great Duke of Moso, King of China, 
 Bajazet the great Turk, the Sultan of ^Egypt, the 
 King of Persia, &c., wherein are rare examples of 
 Heathenish piety, mercy, justice, humility, tempe- 
 rance, &c. 8vo.' As a slight and to some extent 
 approximate indication of the annual publications, we
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 89 
 
 may point out that in London's Supplement, dating 
 from August I, 1657, to June I, 1658, the number 
 of books on divinity was 63, on history 26, on law 9, 
 on physic and chirurgery 8, and on poetry 4. 
 
 Few books of the seventeenth century possess so 
 much interest as the first edition of Walton's ' Com- 
 plete Angler ' (1653). An advertisement of the book 
 runs as follows : ' There is published a Booke of 
 Eighteen-pence, called the Compleat Angler, or the 
 Contemplative Man's Recreation. Being a Dis- 
 course of Fish and Fishing, Not unworthy the 
 perusal. Sold by Richard Marriot, in St. Dunstan's 
 Churchyard, Flete-Street.' This very rare book is 
 now valued at 52 ! Richard Marriot published 
 several editions of this book up to and inclusive of 
 the year 1671, and also the first collected edition of 
 the ' Lives ' (1670). The second part of the ' Com- 
 plete Angler ' was printed for R. Marriot and H. 
 Brome, 1676. John Marriot, whose shop was 
 in St. Dunstan's Churchyard, Fleet Street, sold 
 various editions of Donne's poems, notably ' Poems 
 by J. D., with Elegies on the Author's Death,' the 
 first edition, dated 1633, that of 1635, and also the 
 ' Poems/ ' to which is added divers copies under his 
 own hand never before in print,' of 1650. All these 
 were anonymous. Richard Marriot published 
 Donne's ' Letters to Several Persons of Honour ' 
 (1651). The famous * Temple* of George Herbert 
 was printed and published at Cambridge. 
 
 The practice of one author having many pub- 
 lishers continued far into the seventeenth century, 
 for on the title-pages of Thomas Heywood we find,
 
 9O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 to quote a few examples, H. Lownes, of the Star, 
 Bread Street Hill, and close to Milton's father's 
 house ('Edward IV.,' 1613); N. Butter ('Rape of 
 Lucrece,' 1630, and 'If You Know Not Me/ 1639) ; 
 R. Ra worth, of Old Fish Street, near ' Saint Mary 
 Maudlin's Church ' (' The English Traveller,' 1633), 
 and Adam Islip (' Hierarchic of the Blessed Angells,' 
 1635). Raworth and Islip were printers rather than 
 booksellers ; but N. Okes, and subsequently J. Okes, 
 printed by far the greater number of Heywood's 
 books. John Ford was no exception to the rule, for 
 H. Seile, of the ' Tiger's Head,' Fleet Street, over 
 against St. Dunstan's Church, issued ' The Lover's 
 Melancholy' in 1629, and 'Fancies Chast and Noble' 
 eight years afterwards ; H. Shephard, of the Bible, 
 Chancery Lane, 'The Ladies Triall,' 1639; Hugh 
 Beeston, whose shop was near the Castle, Cornhill, 
 'Love's Sacrifice,' 1633 ; Richard Collins, of the 
 Three Kings, St. Paul's Churchyard, ' 'Tis Pity,' &c., 
 1633; whilst ' J. B.' published that tragedy of tragedies, 
 'The Broken Heart,' 1633. T. Randolph's ' Hey for 
 Honesty ' (1650) may be noted here as furnishing 
 another example of a bookseller writing a dedication. 
 ' Reader, this is a pleasant comedy, though some may 
 judge it satirical, 'tis the more like Aristophanes, the 
 father ; besides, if it be biting, 'tis a biting age we 
 live ; then biting for biting.' No doubt the readers 
 were duly thankful for this rather superfluous infor- 
 mation ; but perhaps it was more to the point when 
 the stationer declared * Tom Randal, the adopted son 
 of Ben Jonson, being the translator hereof, followed 
 his father's steps. They both of them loved sack
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 91 
 
 and harmless mirth, and here they shew it ; and I, 
 that know myself, am not averse from it neither. 
 This I thought good to acquaint thee with. Fare- 
 well. Thine, F. J.' Some of Randolph's books 
 were printed out of London, such as ' Poems, with 
 the Muses Looking Glass' (1638), which was printed 
 at the University Press of Oxford, and ' The 
 Jealous Lovers" (1634), which came from the kin- 
 dred institution at Cambridge. ' Aristippus ' (1630) 
 was printed for John Harriot. 
 
 We have already made an incidental reference to 
 the War of Pamphlets which commenced in 1640 ; 
 and perhaps, so far as we are concerned, the most re- 
 markable fact in connection with that episode is the 
 untiring industry with which George Thomason, a 
 bookseller, formed a collection of these ' books of an 
 hour.' The period embraced is one of twenty years, 
 and the aggregate'result 'about 30,000 pieces, uniformly 
 bound in 2000 volumes and accompanied by twenty 
 folio volumes of catalogue.' The collection was 
 amassed with the utmost secrecy, and with the aid of 
 a few faithful servants. At first, as the volumes were 
 completed they were buried in boxes. As the number 
 increased, this method became no longer feasible- 
 After constant removals, giving the army of either 
 party as wide a berth as possible, Thomason at last 
 contrived a very ingenious dodge : he placed the 
 volumes in his warehouse, in the form of tables round 
 the room, covered with canvas. On one occasion, 
 Thomason was dragged from his bed and imprisoned 
 for seven weeks, but the one object and anxiety of his 
 life remained undiscovered. When the Royalist cause
 
 92 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 was thoroughly broken up at the execution of Charles, 
 a fictitious sale was made to the University of Oxford, 
 where the collection would be in much less jeopardy 
 than whilst it remained in the possession of a private 
 individual. Thomason died in 1666, his collection still 
 being at Oxford, in trust, to be sold for the benefit of 
 his children. But a sale was not really effected until 
 over a century afterwards, and not until several at- 
 tempts had been made to dispose of the incubus. In 
 1762 the nation purchased of the Mearne family this 
 very remarkable collection, which is now in the 
 British Museum under the general title of the King's 
 Pamphlets. 
 
 We can hardly realize the times when there were no 
 literary papers for the twofold object of indicating the 
 best books and of advertising all kinds of literary 
 merchandise. Under such conditions the public had 
 to find out for itself the best literary food, or to trust 
 to the recommendation of friends. But he would not 
 be a successful bookseller who had fewer than half-a- 
 score methods of getting rid of his ware. An old 
 advertising dodge was to place hand-bills of the titles 
 and general scope of new publications close to the 
 play-bills posted on the outside of the theatres, and in 
 such positions publicity followed as a matter of course. 
 Robert Heath, in his ' Epigrams ' (1650), refers to this 
 custom in the address 
 
 'To MY BOOKSELLER. 
 
 ' I have common made my book ; 'tis very true ; 
 But I'd not have thee prostitute it too ; 
 Nor show it barefaced on the open stall 
 To tempt the buyer ; nor poast it on each wall 
 And corner poast, close underneath the Play
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 93 
 
 That must be acted at Black-Friers to-day ; 
 Nor see some Herring-cryer for a groat 
 To voice it up and down with tearing throat ; 
 Nor bid thy 'prentice read it and admire, 
 That all i' the shop may what he reads inquire ; 
 No : profer'd wares do smel : I'd have thee know 
 Pride scorns to beg : modestie fears to wooe.' 
 
 But selling books was not the only source of re- 
 venue tothe bookseller. The circle of bookbuyers has 
 always been much smaller than that of readers, and those 
 who from force or choice came in the latter category sim_ 
 ply paid a small subscription which entitled them to read 
 at the booksellers' shops the most recent publication. 
 If the perusal were not completed in one day, the reader 
 noted the page at which he left off, and returned 
 again and again until the book was finished. This 
 curious practice, which was much in vogue during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, had its origin in 
 ancient Rome. We are told that the celebrated French 
 publisher, M. Ladvocat. always kept five or six copies of 
 ' his Poets ' upon the counter, and several chairs ready, 
 so that any respectable person could come in and read 
 without being at all obliged to buy. Another method, 
 once very popular, of disposing of books was in the form 
 of lotteries, especially during the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century. Ogilby, the author of ' Itinerarum 
 Angliae, or Book of Roads,' was a famous promoter of 
 book-lotteries, as witness several advertisements in the 
 Gazette during May 1668 ; he appears to have utilized 
 Vere Street Theatre, where ' all persons concerned * 
 were invited to 'repair on Monday, May 18, and see 
 the volumes, and put in their money.' The ' first and 
 greatest prize ' included an Imperial Bible (valued at
 
 94 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 25/.), illustrated editions of Virgil, Homer, and 
 Fables, besides other books, the aggregate value of the 
 prize being 5i/. The prizes gradually decreased in 
 value down to the two last Nos. 35 and 36 each of 
 which was valued at 4/. The tickets were $s. each. 
 Raffles for books were very common in the earlier 
 years of the eighteenth century ; and Swift in his 
 'Journal to Stella,' under date April 27, 1711, speaks 
 of having lost 4/. "js. at play with a bookseller, and got 
 but half-a-dozen books. 
 
 To return, however, to the more concrete phases of 
 bookselling. The two booksellers who will for all time 
 be associated with Milton are Humphry Moseley and 
 Samuel Simmons. In the latter part of 1645, when 
 Milton was nearly forty years of age, and when the 
 Civil War was at its height, Moseley, who was then one 
 of the leading booksellers and publishers of dramatic 
 and poetical works in London, issued ' Poems, both 
 English and Latin.' This is noticeable from the fact 
 that it is the first book bearing Milton's name, and 
 also on account of its being the first collective edition 
 of poems by him. It is an octavo of over 200 pages, 
 and was ' sold at the Sign of the Princes Arms, in 
 Paules Churchyard.' Moseley's preface, ' The Stationer 
 to the Reader,' is of much interest, and if ever there 
 was a piece of bibliopolic sophistry written, it is this. 
 ' It is not,' observes the philanthropic Moseley, ' any 
 private respect of gain, Gentle Reader (for the slight- 
 est Pamphlet is now-a-days more vendible than the 
 works of learnedest men), but it is the love I have to 
 our own language that hath made me diligent to col- 
 lect and set forth such pieces, both in Prose and Verse,
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 95 
 
 as may renew the wonted honour and esteem of our 
 English tongue.' He speaks of 'these ever-green 
 and not to be blasted laurels,' and thinks that ' I 
 shall deserve of the age by bringing into the light as 
 true a birth as the muses have brought forth since our 
 famous SPENSER wrote.' The circumstances which 
 attended the publication of ' Paradise Lost ' are pretty 
 well known, and so we need scarcely enter into the sub- 
 ject with any great degree of minuteness. Samuel 
 Simmons, whose shop was next door to the Golden 
 Lion in Aldersgate Street, purchased ' Paradise Lost ' 
 from Milton at the rate of 5/. per impression. Milton 
 himself only received two payments, and in 1680, six 
 years after the poet's death, Simmons acquired the 
 copyright in perpetuity for 8/. from Milton's widow. 
 In writing harrowing accounts of the hardships and 
 under-payments of authors, fifth-rate journalists would 
 do well to remember that these sums are represented 
 by about four times the amount in our present cur- 
 rency. So that it is, in effect, inaccurate to state that' 
 ' Paradise Lost ' was sold for iSL Each of the three 
 first impressions, it may be pointed out, was reckoned 
 at 1300 copies, although Simmons had the option of 
 going as high as 1 500 in the actual printing. There 
 are very many subjective points in connection with 
 this famous book to which we must allude. ' Why/ 
 asks Professor Masson, ' though Simmons had acquired 
 the copyright in April 1667, and had entered the copy- 
 right as his in the Stationers' Books in August 1667, 
 is his name kept out of sight in all the title-pages prior 
 to that of 1668 . . . which is the first with preliminary 
 matter the preceding title-pages shewing no prin-
 
 96 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ter's'name, but only the names of the three booksellers 
 at whose shop copies might be had ? ' Mr. Masson 
 suggests that Simmons was timid about publishing a 
 book written by one ' whose attacks on the Church 
 and defences of the execution of Charles I. were still 
 fresh in the memory of all, and some of whose pamph- 
 lets had been publicly burnt by the hangman after 
 the Restoration.' The first edition of 'Paradise 
 Lost ' is a very creditably printed work in small quarto, 
 of 342 pages where the Argument and other pre- 
 liminary matter is absent, or 356 pages where this 
 extraneous matter is present. The selling price of 
 the volume was three shillings, which is now repre- 
 sented by at least half-a-guinea. One of the later 
 impressions of 1668 contains a very interesting three- 
 line advertisement : ' The Printer to the Reader. 
 Courteous Reader, There was no Argument as first 
 intended to the Book, but for the satisfaction of many 
 that have desired it, is procured. 6". Simmons? When 
 'Paradise Regained ' was finished, ' Paradise Lost ' had 
 been in circulation for four or five years, and a new 
 edition was, for some cause or other, delayed by Sim- 
 mons. This appears to have induced Milton to trust 
 his sequel into other hands, and accordingly John 
 Starkey, of the Mitre, Fleet Street, near Temple Bar, 
 was entrusted with the new work. From the fact that 
 the imprint declared it to be 'printed by J. M. for 
 John Starkey ,'&c. (1671), Professor Masson assumes 
 that the book was printed on Milton's own account 
 but this does not by any means follow. It wus a very 
 general rule for the printers to indicate their names 
 by initials only on title-pages, and the two ' J. M.'s
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 97 
 
 may therefore be merely a coincidence. Had it been 
 ' printed for J. M./ there would be more reason for 
 concluding that Milton bore the whole cost of the 
 mechanical part. With it was first issued ' Samson 
 Agonistes.' A second edition did not appear until 
 1680, and this is in many respects inferior to the earlier, 
 although issued by the same publisher. Eight years 
 aftenvards a third edition came out under the auspices 
 of a new publisher Randal Taylor. It will perhaps 
 not be out of place to correct two very commonly 
 accepted errors, perpetrated by De Quincey in his re- 
 view of Schlosser's ' Literary History of the Eighteenth 
 Century/ in reference to ' Paradise Lost/ He ob- 
 serves : ' Then came a fellow, whose name was either 
 not on his title-page, or I have forgotten it [who put 
 the 'Paradise Lost' in rhyme]. Him succeeded a 
 droller fellow than any of the rest. A French book- 
 seller had caused a prose French translation to be 
 made of the ' Paradise Lost/ without particularly 
 noticing its English origin, or at least not in the title- 
 page. Our friend, getting hold of this as an original 
 French romance, translated it back into English 
 prose as a satisfactory novel for the season.' The 
 French version, 'The State of Innocence: and 
 Fall of Man. Described in Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 Render'd into Prose. With Historical, Philoso- 
 phical and Explanatory Notes. From the French 
 of the Learned Raymond De St. Maur. By a Gentle- 
 man of Oxford. London : Printed for T. Osborne, 
 in Gray's-Inn, and J. Hilyard, at York. MDCC.XLV./ 
 was a paraphrase, evidently intended to assist 
 French students of the original poem ; and the 
 
 H
 
 98 The Earlitr History of English Bookselling. 
 
 translator gives St. Maur's preface, which precludes 
 the supposition that he took it for ' an original French 
 romance.' 
 
 The two Humphreys Moseley and Robinson 
 published several things conjointly, and the following 
 ' epigram ' to these worthies from Sir Aston Cokain's 
 * Poems' (1658) will be read with interest : 
 
 ' In the large Book of Plays you late did print 
 In Beaumont and in Fletcher's name, why in't 
 Did you not justice ? Give to each his due ? 
 For Beaumont of these many writ in few : 
 And Massinger in other few : the main 
 Being sole issues of sweet Fletcher's brain. 
 But how came I, you ask, so much to know ? 
 Fletcher's chief bosom-friend inform'd me so, 
 And print their old ones in one vol. too : 
 For Beaumont's works and Fletcher should come forth 
 With all the right belonging to their worth.' 
 
 In 1661, 'The Beggars' Bush ' of Beaumont and 
 Fletcher was issued by Humphrey Robinson and 
 Anne Moseley at their respective shops, and ten 
 years later 'young Mr. Robinson gave io/. to the 
 Company of Stationers to be bestowed upon a piece 
 of plate in memory of his father.' In addition to his 
 self-imposed task of editing Milton, Moseley, in 1650, 
 published Robert Heath's ' Clarastella,' together with 
 poems occasional, elegies, epigrams, satires, &c. The 
 'Stationer' in his address to 'the Reader' coolly 
 apologizes for his presumption in publishing the 
 .book without the author's knowledge and consent, 
 and urges as a plea of justification, 'the gallantness 
 and ingenuity ' of the author, whom he describes as 
 a gentleman ' so eminent in everything, that I could
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 99 
 
 not imagine but that the meanest of his recreation 
 (for such is this) might carry much in it worthy of 
 public view, besides, the approbation of some friends 
 hath heightened my desire of publishing it ; who, 
 upon their revising it, do assure me it is a sweet 
 piece of excellent fancie and worthy to be called the 
 author's own issue.' Heath was abroad when this 
 volume appeared. Moseley issued, inter alia, Sir 
 Walter Raleigh's 'Apologie' (1650), which was, it 
 seems, first published in the ill-fated author's ' Judi- 
 cious and Select Essayes,' and this likewise was first 
 published by Moseley, and contained a dedicatory 
 epistle to Sir Walter's son, Carew, from the pen of 
 the energetic bookseller. 
 
 The Great Fire of London, which commenced on 
 September 2, 1666, destroyed buildings covering 
 between four and five hundred acres, and extended 
 from the Tower to the Temple Church, involving 
 amongst the general wreckage the destruction of 
 books and literary property to the value of about 
 I5o,ooo/., according to Pepys' calculation, or nearly 
 200,000!. to Evelyn. R oughly speaking at our present 
 valuation, the amount would be very close upon 
 r,ooo,ooo/. sterling. Most of the booksellers, whose 
 stock fed the flames, were, as Pepys puts it, ' utterly 
 undone,' and ' my poor Kirton,' from being a sub- 
 stantial tradesman with about Sooo/. to fall back 
 on, was made 2000!. or 3<DOO/. worse than nothing. 
 Writing on September 27 to Sir Samuel Tuke 
 from ' Sayes Court,' Evelyn observes that, soon after 
 the fire had subsided, the other trades went on as 
 merrily as before, ' only the poor booksellers have been 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 indeed ill-treated by Vulcan; so manynoble impressions 
 consumed, by their trusting them to ye churches,' 
 and he further speaks of this loss as ' an extraordinary 
 detriment to the whole republic of learning.' Two 
 months after the letter from which we have just 
 quoted, Evelyn writes to the Lord High Chancellor, 
 Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, in 
 this strain : ' I did the other day in Westminster 
 Hall give my Lord Cornbury, your lordship's son, 
 my thoughts briefly concerning a most needful re- 
 formation for the transmitting a clearer stream for 
 the future from the press, by directing to immaculate 
 copies of such books as being vended in great pro- 
 portions do for want of good editions amongst us 
 export extraordinary sums of money, to our no lesse 
 detriment than shame : And I am so well satisfied of 
 the honour which a redress in this kind will pro- 
 cure even to posterity (however small the present 
 instance may appear to some in a superficial view) 
 that I think myself obliged to wish that your Lordship 
 may not conceive it unworthy of your patronage. 
 The affair is this : Since the late deplorable confla- 
 gration, in which the Stationers have been exceedingly 
 ruined, there is like to be an extraordinary penury 
 and scarcity of classic authors, &c., used in grammar 
 schools, so as of necessity they must suddenly be 
 reprinted. My Ld. may please to understand, that 
 our booksellers follow their own judgement in printing 
 the ancient authors according to such text as they 
 found extant when first they entered their copy.' 
 Evelyn names certain authors who have been in this 
 way reprinted in a corrupt form, and vouchsafes this
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 101 
 
 explanation : ' The cause of this is, principally the 
 Stationer driving as hard and cruel a bargain with 
 the Printer as he can : and the Printer taking up any 
 smatterer in the tongues, to be the less loser ; an 
 exactness in this no ways importing the stipulation : 
 by which means errors repeat and multiply in every 
 edition, and that most notoriously in some most 
 necessary school-books of value, which they obtrude 
 upon the buyer, unless men will be at reasonable rates 
 for foreign editions.' To prevent all this abuse, 
 Evelyn suggested that, first, it should be decided 
 which particular text be in future followed ; secondly, 
 that a Censor be appointed ; and thirdly, that the 
 expense of the two be borne by the Company. 
 
 At last the grievance became so serious, that 
 on May 12, 1680, a Proclamation was issued for sup- 
 pressing the printing and publishing of unlicensed 
 news-books and pamphlets, which were characteristic 
 for inaccuracy and wilful perversion of news. All 
 persons whatsoever were thereby prohibited from 
 printing or publishing any news-letters or pamphlets 
 without his Majesty's authority. James II. had not 
 succeeded to the throne more than three months 
 when an order, dated May 21, 1685, was issued to 
 the Stationers' Company by the Censor of the press, 
 Sir Roger L' Estrange. This document referred to 
 the intolerable freedom of the press, and authorized 
 regulations by which law-books were to be licensed 
 by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Keeper, the Lord 
 Chief Justice, or by some one appointed by them; 
 historical books by the Secretary of State, or deputy ; 
 books of Heralds by the Earl Marshal ; divinity, 
 
 UBKAK) 
 DMIVERSIT OF OA 
 
 SANTA RARRAPA
 
 1 02 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 physics, philosophy, arts and sciences, either by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London. 
 The Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors to have sole 
 jurisdiction in this matter in their respective Univer- 
 sities. The Stationers' Company had strict orders to 
 see that this law was enforced, and that no unlicensed 
 book be entered or published at their Hall. Clarendon, 
 writing from Dublin Castle to the Earl of Rochester, 
 March 14, 1685-6, speaks of the trashy news-letters 
 circulating throughout the kingdom, and that he has 
 ordered the prohibition of all such until properly 
 licensed. 
 
 We have already described the first two important 
 book-catalogues, and the short reference to the Great 
 Fire brings us to a third of these lists. It was entitled 
 ' A General Catalogue of Books, printed in England 
 since the dreadful fire, 1666, to the end of Trinity 
 term, 1676 ;' and its publisher was Robert Clavel, 
 who had, in 1658 and 1659, issued from the Stag's 
 Head, near St. Gregory's Church, -in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, William Chamberlayne's 'Love's Victory' 
 and ' Pharomida.' The ' Catalogue/ which was con- 
 tinued every term till 1700, is a thin folio, and includes 
 an abstract of the bills of mortality. The books are 
 classified under their respective headings of divinity, 
 history, physic and surgery, miscellanies, chemistry, 
 poetry, and so forth, and the publisher's name of 
 each book is given. From this valuable publication 
 we learn that the number of books printed in England, 
 from 1666 to 1680, was 3550: of which 947 were 
 divinity, 420 law, and 135 physic, so that two-fifths 
 of the whole were professional books, 397 were
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 103 
 
 school-books, and 253 were on subjects of geography 
 and navigation, including maps. On the average of 
 the fourteen years, the total number of works pro- 
 duced annually was 253 ; but deducting reprints, 
 pamphlets, single sermons, and maps, the average 
 would be much under one hundred. This (points 
 out one writer) will show an increase upon a former 
 period, namely, from 1471 and 1660, when the 
 average number of distinct works published each 
 year in this country was seventy-five. But as a 
 matter of fact very many more than are here in- 
 dicated were published, but as the means even in 
 Clavel's time of ascertaining an approximate esti- 
 mate of the actual number printed were very slender, 
 so it is now simply impossible to obtain anything 
 nearer than the foregoing figures. Clavel has been 
 very rightly described as ' an eminent bookseller/ 
 and Dunton summarizes his virtues in the following 
 manner : ' Mr. Robert Clavel is a great dealer, 
 and has deservedly gained himself the reputation 
 of a just man. Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, used 
 to call him the honest bookseller. 1 He has been 
 Master of the Company of Stationers [1698 and 
 1699], and perhaps the greatest unhappiness of his 
 life was his being one of Alderman Cornish's jury. 
 He printed Dr. Comber's works.' It seems, however, 
 with reference to the last statement, that Henry 
 Brome, of the Gun, St. Paul's Churchyard, shared 
 the publication of certain of Dr. Comber's works : 
 at all events the two booksellers are more often than 
 not found sharing the expense of certain publications, 
 1 Ergo, were all the others the reverse ?
 
 1 04 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 and old books bearing their imprint are even now 
 commonly met with. The Brome family was con- 
 nected with the printing and publishing trades from 
 the early part of the sixteenth century ; and in 1591, 
 ' the Widdowe Broome ' published one of Lilly's 
 works. Henry Brome may be almost regarded as 
 ' cheery Mr. Cotton's ' bookseller, for in addition to 
 publishing the second part of the ' Complete Angler ' 
 (1676), he issued Cotton's ' The Planter's Manual' 
 (1675), and his 'Catalogue of some books printed for 
 and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful fire of 
 London, to 1675,' includes Cotton's ' Virgil's Travesty/ 
 which was sold at is. 6d. ; ' Lucian's Dialogues Bur- 
 lesques ' and ' The Fair One of Tunis/ each sold at 
 2s. 6d. ; and ' Horace, with a song at every Act/ for 
 which Mr. Brome asked the small sum of one shilling. 
 Of a more ambitious nature was ' The Commentaries 
 of M. Blaiz d'Montluck/ &c., a folio volume priced 
 at 14-r. ; and ' The Life of the Great Duke of Es/ 
 pernon ' was another of Cotton's books which occurs 
 in a list which brings Brome's publications down to 
 a more recent date by three years (i.e. 1568). He 
 likewise ' undertook ' books in conjunction with T. 
 Bassett, to whom the great Jacob Tonson was ap- 
 prenticed, and so, as we have already endeavoured to 
 demonstrate, there is a strong and unmistakable 
 continuity in the annals of bookselling, if not of a 
 primary, then at least of a secondary nature. 
 
 Few books have attained so universal and per- 
 manent a fame as the first of all allegories, ' The 
 Pilgrim's Progress.' To Nathaniel Ponder, of the 
 Peacock, in the Poultry, near the church, belongs the
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 105 
 
 honour of having acted as sponsor to this immortal 
 book. It appears that Bunyan was released from 
 prison in 1676, and came up to London with the MS. 
 of his great work in 1677. Ponder's was a 'new 
 name on Bunyan's title-pages, but it was destined 
 frequently to reappear during the next ten years.' 
 On December 22, 1677, Ponder 'entered then for his 
 copy by virtue of a licence under the hand of 
 Mr. Turner, and which is subscribed by Mr. Warden 
 Vere, one book or copy intituled The Pilgrim's 
 Progress from this world to that which is to come, 
 delivered in ye Similitude of a Dream by John 
 Bunyan, \]d' Dr. John Brown, the latest and 
 perhaps most exhaustive of Bunyan's biographers, 
 states that the book was licensed February 18, 1678, 
 and ' therefore early in the year was in the hands 
 of that public which so quickly and for so long was 
 to give it hearty welcome.' It was published at 
 is. 6d., and printed in small octavo on yellowish- 
 grey paper, and extended to 232 pages in addition to 
 title, author's apology, and conclusion. ' A living 
 artist,' observes Dr. Brown, 'has given us an ideal 
 sketch of Nathaniel Ponder's shop at the time he 
 first sent forth the book. A scholar is coming out 
 from under the sign of the Peacock, and a peasant, 
 whip in one hand and money in the other, going in ; 
 while near the shop door are a gay gallant and a fair 
 lady, schoolboys, and grave men, all intently reading 
 that story of the Pilgrim they have just purchased over 
 the counter within. The picture is true to the time 
 then, and true to the time now.' Ponder published 
 eleven editions of ' Paradise Lost,' the twelfth (1689)
 
 io6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 being printed for Robert Ponder, and the fourteenth 
 was ' printed for W. P., and sold by Nat. Ponder, 
 in London House Yard, near the west end of St. 
 Paul's Churchyard' (1695). On May 10, 1676, 
 Ponder was committed by the Court at Whitehall 
 the king being present to the gatehouse, for print- 
 ing an unlicensed pamphlet, tending to the sedition 
 and defamation of the Christian religion. He was 
 discharged on the 26th ; was ordered to pay due 
 fees, and to enter into a bond of 5OO/. From one of 
 Bonder's later lists, we glean the interesting informa- 
 tion that both parts of ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and also 
 ' Grace Abounding/ were sold at one shilling each ; 
 whilst for three other works, 'A Treatise of the Fear 
 of God,' 'The Life and Death of Mr. Badman,' and 
 ' The Doctrine of Law and Grace Unfolded,' the 
 price of is. 6d. each was asked. But Bunyan's second 
 part of ' The Pilgrim's Progress ' was not the only 
 one that appeared from the Poultry, inasmuch as 
 Thomas Malthus, of the Sun, issued a ' second part ' 
 in 1683 by T. S.' Query, was this the ' T. S.' for 
 whom Ponder published ' Divine Breathings ' at or 
 about the same time ? Bunyan's second part did not 
 appear until 1684, and only reached a new edition two 
 years afterwards. Dunton has the following ' sugary ' 
 notice in his crack-brained memoirs: 'Nathaniel 
 (alias Bunyan} Ponder. He has sweetness and enter- 
 prise in his air, which plead and anticipate in his 
 favour.' Had Dunton not beslobbered nearly the 
 whole of his fraternity in a like manner, it would 
 have been an interesting question, How much was he 
 paid for this puff ?
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 107 
 
 Butler's booksellers, like those of Bunyan, were 
 comparatively few, in spite of the enormous popu- 
 larity of his one great book, ' Hudibras.' The 
 first part was printed for Richard Marriot (already 
 noticed), whose shop was under St. Dunstan's Church 
 in Fleet Street, and it appeared in 1663 ; and about 
 the same time the Public Intelligence contained the 
 following warning to the public against a literary 
 piracy : ' There is stolen abroad, a most false and 
 imperfect copy of a poem called ' Hudibras,' without 
 name either of printer or bookseller, as fitting so lame 
 and spurious an impression. The true and perfect 
 edition, printed by the author's original, is sold by 
 Richard Marriot, under St. Dunstan's Church, in 
 Fleet-street ; that other nameless is a cheat, and will 
 but abuse the buyer as well as the author, whose 
 poem deserves to have fallen into better hands.' The 
 second part appeared in 1664, under the auspices of 
 John Martyn and James Allestry, at the Bell, St. 
 Paul's Churchyard, and the title-page contains a very 
 curious emblem of the house. Ten years later, the 
 copyright appears to have been partly in the posses- 
 sion of Martyn and partly of Hcrringman, or at all 
 events they issued editions conjointly. The third 
 and last part was issued by Simon, of the Star, at 
 the west end of St. Paul's Churchyard, in 1678. 
 
 Francis Kirkman and Richard Head were two of 
 the few author-booksellers who ' adorned ' the latter 
 half of the seventeenth century, and perhaps it would 
 be difficult to instance two greater scamps in the book- 
 selling or any other trade. Kirkman (with Henry 
 Marsh) published Nevill's comedy, ' The Poor Scholar,'
 
 1 08 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 in 1662, when he was living at the Prince's Arms, in 
 Chancery Lane. He published ' Lust's Dominions ' 
 as a play of Marlowe's, which it was not, and ascribed 
 'The Countrie Girle ' (1647) to Anthony [Tony] 
 Brewer, solely from the initials ' T. B/ which appear 
 on the title-page. In 1652 he translated 'the sixt 
 part' of 'Amadis de Gaule' from the French, and 
 also, nearly twenty years later, the second and third 
 parts of ' Beliaris of Greece' (1671-2). In 1673 
 he brought out 'The Unlucky Citizen,' and a very 
 curious and wretchedly printed little book called 
 'The Wits' about 1670. He entered into partnership 
 with Head on two occasions, and was assisted by 
 him in writing and publishing plays, farces, and 
 drolls. The two were well-met, and both appear to 
 have been intimately acquainted with the lowest type 
 of men and women, a result being seen in the scan- 
 dalous character of their books. Head was drowned 
 when crossing over to the Isle of Wight in 1678. 
 
 With a view, perhaps, of continuing the work of 
 Maunsell, London, and Clavel, the Mercurius Libra- 
 rius was published in 1680, the second number being 
 dated April 22. It seems to have been the first 
 periodical publication that anticipated the Publishers' 
 Circular of the present day. ' All booksellers ' (so 
 ran the notice) ' that approve of the design of pub- 
 lishing this catalogue weekly, or once in fourteen 
 days at least, are desired to send in to one of the 
 undertakers any book, pamphlet, or sheet they would 
 have in it, so soon as published, that they may be 
 inserted in order as they come out : their books shall 
 be delivered to them back again upon demand. To
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 109 
 
 shew they design the public advantage of the trade, 
 they will expect but 6d. for inserting any book ; nor 
 but \2d. for any other advertisement relating to the 
 trade, unless it be excessive long.' This 'undertaking ' 
 had a very short life, and the next of its kind 
 made its appearance on October 7, 1680, under the 
 designation of Weekly Advertisement of Books. It 
 was printed by R. Everingham, ' and annexed to the 
 city mercury, from the office of the Royal Exchange, 
 No. 250.' The sixth number, dated November nth, 
 contains the following caution : ' It is not unknown 
 to booksellers, that there are two papers of this nature 
 weekly published ; which, for general satisfaction, we 
 shall distinguish. That printed by Thomas James is 
 published by Mr. Vile, only for the lucre of \2d. per 
 book. This printed by Robert Everingham is pub- 
 lished by several booksellers, who do more eye the 
 service of the trade, in making all books as public as 
 may be, than the profit of insertions. All men are, 
 therefore, left to judge who is most likely to prosecute 
 these ends effectually ; whether a person that is no 
 bookseller, nor hath any relation to that trade, or 
 those who have equal ends with all others of the 
 trade, in dispersing the said papers both in city and 
 country. All titles to be inserted in this paper are 
 either to be left with Robert Everingham, a printer, 
 or to be delivered to Mr. Orchard, a porter.' Ever- 
 ingham printed numerous books and pamphlets during 
 the last two decades of the seventeenth century, the 
 most notable example being an edition (1690) of 3000 
 Bibles and 1000 New Testaments in 8vo, for the use 
 of the Highlands of Scotland, and the Irish people
 
 1 10 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 generally. Dunton refers (in 1705) to this printer 
 as being in partnership with one Whitledge, and 
 observes : ' I employed them very much, and looked 
 upon them to be honest and thriving men ; had they 
 confined themselves a little sooner to household love, 
 they might possibly have kept upon their own bottom ; 
 however, so it happened that they loved themselves 
 into journeymen printers again.' 
 
 Dryden was the central literary figure of the latter 
 part of the seventeenth century ; and so in a some- 
 what similar manner may Henry Herringman be 
 regarded in bibliopolic circles. It may therefore be 
 not uninteresting to consider how and when these two 
 men became connected. Dryden's unfortunate elegiac 
 ode to Cromwell, which was printed for William 
 Wilson, and ' sold at Well-Yard, near Little Bartho- 
 lomew's Hospital,' 1659, was* the incipient cause of 
 his taking to hack-work. For, by endeavouring to 
 obliterate the memory of these verses, he wrote 
 ' Astrae Redux ' which was issued by Herringman 
 in 1660, which severed him for ever from the sup- 
 port of Cromwell's Lord Chancellor, Pickering, from 
 whose rooms of state Dryden removed to lodge in 
 the house of Herringman, which was in the New 
 Exchange. From this spot he continued to corre- 
 spond with several noblemen. Herringman was at 
 this time one of the leading London publishers, and 
 was, in addition to this, a personal friend of Davenant, 
 and most of the wits of the day were not only his 
 customers, but also his visitors. It was probably at 
 this shop that Dryden became introduced to the 
 leading literary men of the period. In 1668 Her-
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 1 1 1 
 
 ringman issued three plays of Dryden, ' Indian 
 Emperor,' ' Secret Love,' and ' Sir Martin Mar-all,' 
 besides the essay on ' Dramatic Poetry ' ; and in the 
 year following ' The Rival Ladies ' and ' The Wild 
 Gallant' came forth from the same house. These 
 were succeeded in 1670 by 'Tyrannick Love ' and ' The 
 Tempest.' Pepys has an entry, under date of June 
 22, 1668, which is worth quoting: 'To the King's 
 playhouse, and saw an act or two of the new play, 
 ' Evening Love,' again, but like it not. Calling this 
 day at Herringman's, he tells me Dryden do himself 
 call it but a fifth-rate play.' This play does not 
 appear to have been printed by Herringman until 
 1691. In the meantime he had issued, among others, 
 ' Aurenge-Zebe,' 1676, 'All for Love/ 1678. In 1667 
 Herringman issued ' Annus Mirabilis,' and another 
 edition in 1688, which was 'sold by J. Tonson.' 
 With the flight of James II., and the downfall from 
 the Poet-Laureateship, Dryden appears to have 
 worked almost solely for Jacob Tonson, although for 
 long after this period Herringman still published the 
 plays of Dryden which he had previously issued, and 
 Tonson's name occurs in many instances on these 
 as one of the booksellers. One of Herringman's 
 last publications appears to have been Etherege's 
 1 She Would if She Could' (1693) ; not long afterwards 
 he retired, and lived ' handsomely and hospitably ' at 
 Carshalton, where (according to Professor Morley) he 
 and his wife Alice, after fifty-eight years of wedded 
 life, died within six weeks and two days of each other 
 in 1703, two years after Dryden's decease. 
 
 Richard Bentley, who traded largely in plays, and
 
 1 1 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 whose shop was for a long time at the Post House, 
 in Russel Street, Covent Garden, was another of the 
 few publishers who either employed, or was employed 
 by, Dryden. The connection was short and unhappy. 
 In 1675 Bentley issued 'The Mistaken Husband/ 
 with the statement that it was revised by Dryden, 
 who, however, denied having had anything to do with 
 it. Although, as Mr. Saintsbury points out, Dryden 
 spoke of Bentley with considerable bitterness after- 
 wards, his name occurs frequently among the book- 
 sellers mentioned on the title-pages of Dryden's plays, 
 down, in fact, to 1693. Dryden and Lee's ' CEdipus ' 
 appears to have been solely 'undertaken' by him, and of 
 which he issued editions in 1682 and 1692. A writer 
 in Notes and Queries states that about 1682 Bentley 
 issued a series of 'Modern Novels' to which he 
 gave his name and that he was also the publisher 
 of the first edition of Bishop Gibson's translation of 
 Camden's ' Britannia/ - Dryden, in a letter of 
 2 Gibson appears to have encountered "great difficulties in 
 bringing out his edition of Camden. He was greatly exer- 
 cised to avoid ' a storm upon the booksellers' heads.' They 
 were apparently a long time in arriving at a decision to under- 
 take this new edition, and a further delay arose on account of 
 paper : a large quantity was anticipated from Genoa, which 
 they expected would ' fitt their business.' Gibson consoled 
 himself with the reflection that ' the work is so generally known, 
 and their reputation in order to any future undertakings does 
 so much depend upon this, that I am confident the honour of 
 the one of 'em, and their interest of the other will put it out of 
 all danger of miscarrying.' In November, 1694, arose the dif- 
 ficulty, to whom should the new edition be dedicated ? How- 
 ever, the edition duly appeared in 1695, but it did not 'go off' 
 as was anticipated ; and in 1723 a new title-page was printed 
 for the remainder.
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 113 
 
 February 1695-6 speaks of ' Bentley, who cursed 
 our Virgil so heartily.' 
 
 It was not a usual practice for an author to 
 dedicate a play to his bookseller, and perhaps for 
 very obvious reasons. In the prefatory epistle, 
 ' To my friend the Stationer/ to ' The Innocent 
 Usurper' (1694), Banks speaks in high terms of 
 Bentley's generosity 'to a good poet,' which said 
 generosity was, it appears, meted out ' suitable to the 
 author and his book.' And it is not going out of 
 the way to suppose, from some of his remarks, that 
 Mr. Banks was fishing, not for compliments, but 
 for something much more substantial. Evelyn, 
 writing on January 20, 1696-7, to Dr. Bentley, in 
 reference to the ' copy ' of ' Silva.' alludes to it as 
 being ' in the hands of Chiswell and your namesake, 
 Mr. Bentley (Booksellers), who have sold off three 
 impressions, and are now impatient for the fourth.' 
 Bentley, also, seems to have been one of the earliest 
 booksellers who advertised in the periodical press, as 
 witness The Present State of Europe for January 1697, 
 and possibly earlier. ' The New World of Words, or 
 a Universal English Dictionary,' is the subject of one 
 of these advertisements, but it was also sold by three 
 other booksellers. 
 
 Booksellers, as we have already seen, did not con- 
 fine themselves to selling books. Sir Robert Filmer's 
 'Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings ' (1680), 
 was printed and sold by ' Walter Davis, bookbinder, 
 in Amen Corner.' This work has a more than passing 
 interest, inasmuch as it called forth Locke's ' Treatise 
 on Civil Government ' (1690). It is, however, a far 
 
 I
 
 1 14 TkeEarlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 cry from bookish matters to quack medicines, and yet 
 the step was much more often than not taken by the 
 old booksellers. Indeed, with many, books and pills 
 are equally important items. It is not so common 
 an incident to find booksellers offering not only a 
 particular ' medical ' work, but also the medicines 
 which it recommended. Salmon's ' Select Physical 
 and Chyrurgical Observations,' ' from my house at 
 the Blew Balcony by the Ditch side, near Holborn 
 Bridge, December 7, 1685,' contains the following 
 announcement : ' Whereas, Dr. William Salmon, 
 the author of this treatise, being some time gone 
 beyond sea, These are to give notice that all persons 
 that have an occasion for any of his medicines men- 
 tioned in his catalogues or books, may be supplied by 
 John Hollier, with whom the Dr. formerly lived.' 
 Mr. Hollier, it seems, ' may be spoken ' with at the 
 shop of Thomas Passinger, the bookseller, at the 
 Three Balls on London Bridge. Booksellers' shops, 
 likewise, appear to have been general receptacles 
 for letters : several of John Ray's letters to Hans 
 Sloane were directed to be left at 'Mr. Wilkinson's, 
 a Bookseller at the Black Boy over against St. 
 Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street/ in 1689. 
 
 The literary cause celebre of the dying years of the 
 seventeenth century owes its origin to a bookseller. 
 The contest between Bentley single-handed and Boyle 
 backed by all the wit and learning of Oxford has 
 been happily termed a splendid one. Thomas 
 Bennett, of the Half-Moon, in St. Paul's Church- 
 yard, was the bookseller who detained the MS. 
 ' Phalaris ' much longer than was at all necessary, and
 
 Bookselling in the Seventeenth Century. 1 1 5 
 
 so set the scholars at loggerheads. Bennett secured 
 more attention perhaps than he deserved, but 
 Bentley's letters to him are unique of their kind. 
 Dunton refers to his worthy as ' very much devoted 
 to the Church, has a considerable trade in Oxford, 
 and prints for Dr. South and the most eminent Con- 
 formists.' Atterbury was his friend and patron, and 
 preached his funeral sermon in 1706, in which his 
 religious and moral qualities were eloquently spoken 
 of. Among the many interesting incidents which 
 this quarrel occasioned, not the least was the book- 
 seller's own vindication, a tedious and somewhat 
 incoherent defence, entitled ' A Short Account of 
 Dr. Bentley's Humanity and Justice,' &c., 1699. 
 Bennet makes an elaborate attempt to justify himself, 
 but not successfully so. 
 
 I 2
 
 1 1 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BOOKSELLING IN LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 THERE is scarcely anything in the annals of book- 
 selling so remarkable as the comparatively narrow 
 compass in which the trade has thrived. Until 
 within the past few years, it was almost entirely 
 confined to a radius of half-a-mile, taking St. 
 Paul's Cathedral as the starting-point, and for over 
 three hundred years there were very few migratory 
 symptoms observable. Little Britain and London 
 Bridge are the only two localities in which the trade 
 has become entirely obliterated. The former is one 
 of the very many quaint and old-world-like nooks 
 that lie off the main thoroughfares- of the Metro- 
 polis, where the antiquary may for a while ponder 
 over the legends and stories of the place when in 
 the zenith of its fame, and where everything is con- 
 secrated into Religion by the footprints of Time. 
 Even within the past few years Little Britain has, 
 however, undergone changes which are improve- 
 ments only from a utilitarian point of view. The 
 street is narrow, and the houses high, and if there is, 
 here and there, a remnant or an architectural sug- 
 gestion of an old-world time, with its wigs, its
 
 Bookselling in Little Britain. 117 
 
 coaches, its three-corner hats and its sleepy com- 
 placency, there is, we regret to say, much too much 
 of the nineteenth century element to permit the 
 lover of the past to linger long in his day-dream. 
 Even Washington Irving's charmingly fancical sketch 
 of the locality comparatively recent as it is only 
 serves to demonstrate the mutability of things, for, 
 other than by caretakers, the street is uninhabited : 
 Mr. Skryme, the undertaker with his quaint song, 
 and the Lambs, they, or their prototypes, have long 
 since passed into the inevitable unknown. 
 
 In the time of Edward II., the mansion of John, 
 Duke of ' Bretagne ' or Brittany, and Earl of Rich- 
 mond, was the centre of attraction of the neighbour- 
 hood, around which the elite of the capital gathered 
 with all its finery and its wit But slowly and also 
 surely the neighbourhood lost its aristocratic attrac- 
 tions, and so in due course the old family mansions 
 of nobility became converted into dwelling-houses for 
 well-to-do tradesmen ; and the next step was in the 
 direction of shops, mostly booksellers. The street 
 itself is bounded on the west by Christ Church 
 School and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on the 
 north by Smithfield and Long Lane, and on the east 
 by Aldersgate Street, whilst Bull-and-Mouth Street 
 separates it from the purlieus of Newgate. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to determine when the 
 locality became the habitat of booksellers. If not 
 actually the first, then certainly the first eminent 
 printer-bookseller who resided here was John Day, 
 or Daye, to whom reference has already been made 
 on page 42. We may, however, here quote a
 
 1 1 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 passage from Stowe's ' Survey,' in which, referring to 
 the old city gate called Aldersgate, it is stated : 
 ' John Daye, stationer, a late famous printer of many 
 good bookes, in our time dwelled in this gate, and 
 built much upon the wall of the citie, towards the 
 parish church of St. Anne.' But Day's new build- 
 ings did not preserve the old gate, which was rebuilt 
 in 1617. 
 
 Alexander Lacy was living in Little Britain in 
 1566, when he printed 'The Poor Man's Benevolence 
 to Afflicted Church.' Owen Rogers, who was made 
 free of the Stationers' Company in 1555, lived in the 
 immediate vicinity, his shop being at the Spread 
 Eagle, ' neare vnto great saint Bartelmewes gate.' 
 Owen Rogers is not only worthy of note from the 
 fact that he printed and published ' The Vision of 
 Pierce Plowman, newlye imprynted after the authours 
 olde copy' (1561), but also because he appears to 
 have been an obstreperous member of the Company, 
 and was often fined for printing other men's copies 
 without licence. Anthony Scoloker, who printed, 
 about 1548, several books in conjunction with 
 William Seres, such as ' A brefe Chronycle concern- 
 ing Sir Johan Oldcastell,' resided in St. Botolph's 
 parish, without Aldersgate. At about this time also, 
 Richard Lant, who became one of the Stationers' 
 Company in 1547, dwelt in the Old Bailey, and also 
 in Aldersgate Street. Lant appears to have been 
 another of those who had peculiar and convenient 
 notions relative to the sacred rights of property. A 
 contemporary speaks of him as setting his name to 
 that notable work, ' The Rescuynge of the Romishe
 
 Bookselling in Little Britain. i [9 
 
 Fox' (1545), 'not as the maker, but as the putter 
 forth of it by hys prynt,' and adds, ' He is well con- 
 tented to be under that vengence which hangeth 
 over Babylon, to get a little money. And whereas 
 he hath joyned his prynces auctoryte unto that, ad 
 imprimendum solum, to bring hym also under the 
 same curse of God, he hath playd no honest mannys 
 part, no more than hath some other of his fellowes.' 
 John Audeley lived in ' Little Britain-street without 
 Aldersgate-street,' and in 1575 he issued ' A godly 
 Sermon/ which he declares to have been made in 
 1338, 'and found out, being hyd in a wall, which 
 sermon is here set forth from the old copy.' Nearly 
 ten years before this, however, i.e. June 29, 1566, 
 he printed certain ordinances decreed by the Court 
 of the Star-chamber, for ' the reformation of divers 
 disorders in printing and uttering of books.' 
 
 One of the most interesting figures in the annals 
 of Little Britain is that of Richard Smith, the book- 
 hunter. He was one of the ' Secondaries ' of London 
 from 1644 to 1655, an office worth to him 7oo/. a 
 year, which he resigned to devote himself entirely 
 to book-collecting. Was there everanother such a 
 man ? Anthony a Wood describes him as ' infinitely 
 curious and inquisitive after books/ and that ' he was 
 constantly known every day to walk his rounds 
 amongst the booksellers' shops (especially in Little 
 Britain).' He left an interesting obituary list of 
 certain of his bibliopolic friends, which is reprinted 
 in Willis 1 Current Notes, February 1853 ; and of 
 these Cornelius Bee who, in 1660, issued 'Critici 
 Sacri/ and who dwelt in Little Britain is perhaps the
 
 1 2 o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 only one of any importance : he died, according to 
 Smith, on January 2, 1671, and was 'buried at St. 
 Bartholomew's, without wine or wafers, only gloves 
 and rosemary.' 
 
 Three years before the Great Fire of London, in 
 1663, Sorbiere made the following observation: 'I 
 am not to forget the vast number of booksellers' 
 shops I have observed in London ; for besides those 
 who are set up here and there in the City, they have 
 their particular quarters, such as St. Paul's Church- 
 yard and Little Britain, where there is twice as many 
 as in the Rue Saint Jacque in Paris, and who have 
 each of them two or three warehouses.' 1 The book- 
 selling zenith of Little Britain was attained in the 
 seventeenth : century ; it may be said to have com- 
 menced with the reign of Charles I., and to have 
 begun a sort of retrogression with the Hanoverian 
 succession. Its importance may be inferred from a 
 newspaper published in this district in 1664, which 
 states that no less than 464 pamphlets" were published 
 here during four years. It was a sort of seventeenth 
 century combination of the Paternoster Row and 
 Fleet Street of the present day. It is the place where, 
 according to a widely circulated tradition, an Earl 
 of Dorset accidentally discovered, when on a book- 
 hunt in 1667, a work hitherto unknown to him, 
 entitled ' Paradise Lost/ He is said to have bought 
 a copy, and the bookseller begged him to recom- 
 mend it to his friends, as the copies lay on his hand 
 like so much waste paper. The noble Earl (so runs 
 this same tradition) showed his copy to Dryden 
 1 'Journey to England,' p. 16.
 
 Bookselling in Little Britain. 121 
 
 who is reported to have exclaimed, ' This man cuts 
 us all out, and the ancients too.' Though this 
 anecdote, like a great many others, has been proved 
 to be apocryphal, certain it is as we have seen 
 the poem is in a way connected with the neighbour- 
 hood, inasmuch as Simmons' shop was in Aldersgate 
 Street. 
 
 Roger North, in his 'Life of the Right Hon. 
 Francis North,' - has an oft-quoted reference to Little 
 Britain. From this interesting account we learn that 
 during the latter part of the seventeenth century it 
 was a plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned 
 authors, and that men went thither as to a market. 
 The trade of the place was, in consequence, an impor- 
 tant one, the shops being large, and much resorted to 
 by literary personages, wits, men-about-town, and 
 fashionable notabilities generally. The booksellers 
 then were men of intellect. But referring, by way of 
 contrast, to the place during the earlier half of the 
 eighteenth century, he laments that ' this emporium 
 is vanished, and the trade contracted into the hands 
 of two or three persons, who, to make good their 
 monopoly, ransack, not only their neighbours of the 
 trade that are scattered about the town, but all over 
 England, ay, and beyond sea, too, and send abroad 
 their circulators, and in this manner get into their hands 
 all that is valuable. The rest of the trade are content 
 to take their refuse, with which, and the fresh scum of 
 the press, they furnish one side of the shop, which 
 serves for the sign of a bookseller, rather than a real 
 one ; but instead of selling, deal as factors, and pro- 
 - Edit. 1826, iii. 293, ct seq.
 
 122 The Earlier History of Eng lish Bookselling . 
 
 cure what the country divines and gentry send for; 
 of whom each hath his bookfactor, and, when wanting 
 anything, writes to his bookseller and pays his bill. 
 And it is wretched to consider what pickpocket work, 
 with the help of the press, these demi-booksellers 
 make. They crack their brains to find out selling 
 subjects, and keep hirelings in garrets, at hard meat, 
 to write and correct by the groat ; and so puff up 
 an octavo to a sufficient thickness ; and there is six 
 shillings current for an hour and half's reading, and 
 perhaps never to be read or looked upon after. One 
 that would go higher, must take his fortune at blank 
 walls, and corners of streets, or repair to the sign of 
 Bateman, Kings, and one or two more, where are best 
 choice, and better pennyworths. I might touch 
 other abuses, as bad paper, incorrect printing, and 
 false advertising ; and all of which and worse are to be 
 expected, if a careful author is not at the heels of them/ 
 The house of Bateman is worthy of an important 
 chapter in the bookselling annals of Little Britain, and 
 the best-known member (Christopher) of the family 
 is described in the usual sugared style of John Dunton : 
 ' There are few booksellers in England (if any) that 
 understand books better than Mr. Bateman, nor does 
 his diligence and industry come short of his know- 
 ledge. He is a man of great reputation and honesty.' 
 Nichols states that Bateman would allow no person to 
 look into books in his shop, and when asked a reason 
 for this extraordinary rule, he answered, ' I suppose 
 you may be a physician or an author, and want some 
 recipe or quotation ; and, if you buy it, I will engage 
 it to be perfect before you leave me, but not after, as
 
 Bookselling in Little Britain. 123 
 
 I have suffered by leaves being torn out, and the 
 books returned, to my very great loss and pre- 
 judice.' Bateman's shop was a favourite resort of 
 Swift, who several times speaks of it in \us Journal to 
 Stella : ' I went to Bateman's, the bookseller, and 
 laid out eight and forty shillings for books. I bought 
 three little volumes of ' Lucian,' in French, for our 
 Stella, and so, and so' (January 6,1710-11); and 
 again: 'I was at Bateman's, the bookseller, to see a fine 
 old library he has bought, and my fingers itched as 
 yours would do at a china-shop' (July 9, 1711). 
 Saturday, when Parliament was not sitting during 
 the winter, was the market-day with the booksellers 
 of Little Britain; and at the time of Swift's writing 
 the above, the frequenters of this locality included 
 such worthies as the Duke of Devonshire, Edward 
 Earl of Oxford, and the Earls of Pembroke, Sunder- 
 land.and Winchelsea. After the 'hunt' they often 
 adjourned to the ' Mourning Bush ' in Aldersgate, 
 where they dined and spent the remainder of the 
 day, in bookish gossip, no doubt. 
 
 Another famous Little Britain bookseller was 
 Robert Scott, whose sister was the Hon. and Rev. 
 Dr. John North's ' grandmother's woman.' Scott was 
 a man of ' good parts,' and was in his time, says 
 Roger North, the ' greatest librarian in Europe ; for 
 besides his stock in England, he had warehouses at 
 Frankfort, Paris, and other places, and dealt by 
 factors/ When an old man, Scott ' contracted with 
 one Mills, of St. Paul's Churchyard, near io,ooo/. 
 deep, and articled not to open his shop any more. But 
 Mills, with his auctioneering, atlasses, and projects,
 
 124 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 failed, whereby poor Scott lost above half his means. 
 . . . He was not only an expert bookseller, but a very 
 conscientious, good man, and when he threw up his 
 trade, Europe had no small loss of him.' 
 
 The most celebrated family of booksellers, perhaps, 
 who lived in Little Britain, was that of Balland, or 
 Ballard, as the original name appears by the auction 
 catalogues. The family was connected with the trade 
 for over a century, and was noted, says Nichols, ' for 
 the soundness of their principles in Church and State.' 
 One Henry Ballard lived at the sign of the Bear 
 without Temple-bar, over against St. Clement's 
 Church, in 1597, but whether he was an ancestor of 
 the family in question is not certain. Possibly he 
 was. Thomas Ballard, the founder of the booksell- 
 ing branch, was described by Dunton, in 1705, as 'a 
 young bookseller in Little Britain, but grown man 
 in body now, but more in mind : 
 
 " His looks are in his mother's beauty drest, 
 And all the Father has inform'd the rest." ' 
 
 Samuel Ballard, for many years Deputy of the 
 Ward of Aldersgate Within, died August 27, 1761, 
 and his only son, Edward, January 2, 1796, aged 
 88, in the same house in which he was born, having 
 outlived his mental faculties. He was the last of the 
 profession in Little Britain. 
 
 Dorman Newman was a well-known bookseller, 
 whose shop was at ' The Chyrurgeons Armes,' near 
 the Hospital gates, and in 1667 he issued the * Life 
 and Death of Thomas Woolsey.' Some years later 
 1690 he published the Sfercurius Reformatus ;
 
 Bookselling in Little Britain. 125 
 
 he is included in Dunton's ' picture gallery.' He 
 was, observes John, ' a considerable dealer, but has 
 been unfortunate,' and ' since his misfortunes is 
 turned preacher.' Hugh Newman served his time 
 with his relative Dorman, and his business relations 
 with Dunton were both extensive and cordial. 
 
 Moses Pitt, who published a book, in Latin, on 
 Logarithms in 1668 ; and John Williams, of the 
 Cross Keys Court, who published a great number of 
 funeral sermons in and about 1672, were two minor 
 lights during the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury. Few Little Britain booksellers and publishers 
 shared a wider popularity than George Conyers, 
 whose name is sometimes spelt ' Coniers/ and now 
 and then seen abbreviated into ' G. C.' He appears 
 to have removed from the Ring on Ludgate Hill, 
 where he was from 1685 to 1689, an d probably later, 
 to the Gold Ring in Little Britain. His aim was 
 to publish royal guides to nearly every subject under 
 the sun, and, as a much less costly expedient, instead 
 of engaging authors to write, he paid hacks to con- 
 dense standard works into a small compass. We 
 have now before us a quaint little i6mo, undated, 
 which is composed of four distinct examples of these 
 abridgements, three of which were sold at a shilling 
 apiece, and the fourth at eighteen pence. Their 
 titles sufficiently indicate their aim and scope : ' The 
 Way to Save Wealth, showing how a Man may 
 Live Plentifully for Twopence a Day ' (72 pp. ; 
 Markham's 'The Compleat Husbandman' (38 pp.) ; 
 'The Husbandman's Jewell* (52 pp.) ; and 'Every 
 Man his own Gauger' (68 pp.). The illustrations
 
 126 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 are few, and of course rude. Those whose notions 
 are ultra-economic may be referred to the first- 
 named of these books, in which will be found at 
 all events directions how to make a hundred noble 
 dishes of meat ' without either flesh, fish, or fowl,' 
 how to make shoes and coals last long, how to save 
 soap in washing, and cloth in cutting out a shirt, 
 all of which must have been very valuable to the 
 poor people of the period, but a perusal of the 
 directions leads us to think that mystification 
 rather than enlightenment would ensue. Another 
 of Conyers' little books was ' 1000 Notable Things, 
 directing how to read and write, and indite letters, 
 to speak any language in a short time as fluent as 
 a native.' Among other books which this publisher 
 described and sold as ' so diverting and instructive 
 that they will help the meanest capacity to be able 
 to discuss on all subjects whatsoever,' may be named 
 the ' History of Winds and Storms,' the ' Florist's 
 Vade-Mecum, or Book for Gardeners,' ' Collins' 
 Arithmetick,' and the ' Compleat Fisher, with cuts.' 
 Conyers contributed a guinea to William Bowyer's 
 relief fund in 1712, and for 33/. he sold his shares 
 in certain books to Lintot (see p. 152, note). Dunton, 
 of course, has a reference to him, but it is in a very 
 off-hand fashion : he gives an eulogistic account of 
 one Harrison, and then declares ' this is also the 
 character of G. Conyers, in Little Britain.' Bowyer, 
 it may be mentioned, commenced his long and useful 
 career as a printer at the White Horse in Little 
 Britain, his first work being ' A Defence of the 
 Vindication of King Charles the Martyr/ 1699, but
 
 Bookselling in Little Britain. 127 
 
 by the end of that year he had removed to White- 
 friars. 
 
 John Nicholson, of the King's Arms, Little Britain, 
 was another extensive bookseller whose name is 
 frequently found in conjunction with that of Robert 
 Knaplock, of St. Paul's Churchyard, and Samuel 
 Ballard. Their lists included a large number of quaint 
 and curious little books, such as Eachard's ' Gazet- 
 teer/ Rapin's critical works, Wiseman's ' Chirurgery,' 
 ' all the novels of Mr. John Boccace/ with cuts, ' The 
 Solitary Gardener,' and ' The Life of Gusman de 
 Alfrache, done from a curious edition/ and so forth. 
 Perhaps the most important book in the lists of 
 Nicholson and Knaplock was Stebbing's edition of 
 Sandford's ' Genealogical History of the Kings and 
 Queens of England' (1707), a folio of nearly 900 pages. 
 The book was issued by subscription, and there 
 were large as well as small paper copies to be had. 
 He was, also, one of the booksellers who, in 1704, 
 contributed towards the production of John Harris' 
 ' Lexicon Technicum.' Aaron Ward was publishing 
 books at the King's Arms in 1737, and T. Ward at 
 the same address in 1749. A. Ward and Daniel 
 Midwinter issued Peter Bayle's ' Dictionary ' in six- 
 penny parts. J. Ford, of the Angel, made a spe- 
 ciality, in a small way, of Isaac Watts' books ; and 
 Geo. Wilcocks, of the Green Dragon, J. Oswald, of 
 the Rose and Crown, J. Newton, of the Rose Tree, 
 Thos. Bickerton, and J. Sprint 3 were all eminent 
 
 3 There were three Sprints who acted as booksellers : Ben- 
 jamin, Samuel, and his son John. Samuel printed for Steele
 
 128 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Little Britain booksellers during the first quarter of 
 the eighteenth century. Nearly all the lanes and 
 alleys immediately contiguous to Little Britain had 
 its bookseller. In Duck Lane there were several, 
 one of the best known being J. Clarke, of the 
 Golden Ball, who was agent for the London Maga- 
 zine, and whose list appears in the Grub Street 
 Journal, of June I, 1732, and on other occasions. 
 
 It was from the Dolphin in Little Britain that 
 Samuel Buckley, with another, published the first 
 seven volumes of the original Spectator, faom. March i, 
 1711, onwards. The circulation at the outset 
 was 3000 daily, which increased as time went on, 
 but by the close of its career had dwindled down 
 to about 10,000 per week. A half-share of four 
 volumes, and three more, was assigned to Buckley 
 by Steele and Addison on November 10, 1712, for 
 575/. ; two years later Buckley reassigned his share 
 to Jacob Tonson, jun., for 5oo/. Buckley, who died 
 September 8, 1741, likewise printed and pub- 
 lished the Daily Courant, the Monthly Register, and 
 Steele's Englishman. He appears to have removed 
 from Little Britain about 1716 to Amen Corner, 
 whilst W. Wilkins, the printer of the Whitehall 
 Evening Post, the London Journal, and The English- 
 man, was living at Buckley's old address shortly 
 after this. 
 
 Little Britain is not only famous as a spot of pil- 
 grimage for all patriotic Americans for here Ben- 
 jamin Franklin obtained much of his technical 
 
 ' and other eminent authors ; ' both are described by Dunton, 
 the last as ' the handsomest man in the Stationers' Company.'
 
 Bookselling iu Little Britain. 129 
 
 knowledge but it has another sort of interest from 
 the fact that in it once resided Tom Rawlinson, the 
 ' Tom Folio ' of the Tatler, No. 158, who stuffed four 
 chambers in Gray's Inn so full of books, that his bed 
 was removed into the passage. 
 
 Although a few years before Nichols published his 
 ' Literary Anecdotes/ two booksellers, ' who used to 
 sport their rubric posts close to each other,' resided 
 in Little Britain, its glory as a bookselling locality 
 has departed nearly a century and a half. The 
 trade migrated to Paternoster Row then in- 
 habited in a great measure by mercers, haberdashers, 
 and lacemen and other quarters in the vicinity of 
 St. Paul's. At the present moment the place main- 
 tains an air of eminent respectability and business- 
 like sobriety, which is somewhat oppressive and 
 irritating to those who have associated the senti- 
 mental side of human progress with its history. 
 
 K
 
 1 30 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BOOKSELLING ON LONDON BRIDGE. 
 
 LONDON BRIDGE, as it now stands, is not at all 
 suggestive of bookselling, which has nothing in com- 
 mon with the busy and crowded thoroughfare. For 
 convenience' sake, we may mention that the first 
 stone structure was commenced in 1176, the architect 
 being a priest of St. Mary Colechurch, in the Poultry, 
 named Pious Peter, who died before its completion, 
 and was buried in a fine chapel that stood thereon. 
 The most singular features of the old bridge, observes 
 Mr. Smiles, in his ' Lives of the Engineers/ were its 
 upper platform, consisting of two rows of houses with 
 a narrow roadway between, the chapel and draw- 
 bridge, and the turreted battlements at either end. 
 The length of the roadway was 926 feet, and from 
 end to end it was enclosed by the lofty timber 
 houses, which were held together by arches crossing 
 overhead from one range to the other, and thus 
 keeping the whole in position. The streets were 
 narrow, dark, and dangerous. There were only three 
 openings along it on either side, provided with 
 balustrades, from which a view of the river and its 
 shipping might be obtained, as well as of the rear of
 
 Bookselling on London Bridge. 131 
 
 the houses themselves, which overhung the parapets 
 and completely hid the arches from sight. 1 
 
 The books exposed for sale on the bridge were 
 strictly special in form and size, but in point of 
 subjects there was scarcely any limit. ' There 
 appear to have been no tall folios, no heavy 
 classics, ancient and modern ' (writes a correspondent 
 of Notes and Queries], ' no brain-racking metaphysical 
 disquisitions, no political squibs. There was little 
 that rose above the chap-book. The slender duo- 
 decimo mostly contained " things easy to understand," 
 suited to the taste of light readers and male learners 
 of all opinions ; but, due allowance being made for 
 the literary licence of those times, there does not 
 appear to have been much in these catchpennies 
 that was low or scandalous. . . . There were Cocker's 
 Dictionary and Arithmetic, 'A Treatise on Thistles/ 
 Gervase Markham's 'Horse Leech' and 'Accom- 
 plished Jockey,' Lambert's 'Countryman's Treasure,' 
 and a handful of shabby abridgments of popular 
 romances to be read aloud at night in chimney 
 corners. For country girls in quest of service in 
 ' Lunnon ' there was ' The Compleat Servant Maid,' 
 and for sailors about to embark at Pepper's-alley 
 stairs there were the ' Seaman's Kalender ' and the 
 4 Mariner's Jewel/ For the humbler clergy there 
 were an epitome of ecclesiastical history, a scrap or 
 
 1 Peter Cunningham refers to some ' capital views ' of London 
 Bridge by Norden in the time of Charles I. ; by Vertue, in 
 1747-8 ; by Boydell, in 1751 ; and by W. James (a picture at 
 Hampton Court), circa 1756. Hogarth has introduced the 
 ruinous old houses in his ' Marriage a la Mode ' (the view from 
 the window). 
 
 K 2
 
 132 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 two of acrid religious controversy, and a few books 
 on divinity, which, although of light and pocketable 
 bulk, afforded a great amount of heavy reading. 
 For visitors to town there were handbooks of London, 
 and various disquisitions upon criminals and London 
 cheating. Most of these publications must originally 
 have been of very low price, and must have been 
 published in large editions, as even now few of them 
 are very rare or costly.' 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain the exact or even 
 approximate date at which bookselling established 
 itself on London Bridge. The church built in 1209, 
 to which reference has already been made, was some 
 years afterwards turned into a dwelling-house, occu- 
 pied by tradespeople. In a patent roll of the ninth 
 year of Edward I. (1280) mention is made of innu- 
 merable people dwelling on the bridge. We are 
 justified, therefore, in assuming that so desirable a 
 coign of vantage would not be neglected by the 
 vendors of paternosters, and other religious para- 
 phernalia calculated to smooth the road to heaven. 
 The history of the bridge as a bookselling rendezvous 
 may be safely said to date back to a time long before 
 printing was introduced. But it is not until the 
 middle of the sixteenth century that we have record 
 of booksellers inhabiting this spot. Their numbers 
 were of course few, and their names are almost en- 
 tirely lost in oblivion. From the commencement of the 
 seventeenth century their numbers and names assume 
 a more definite, and their existence a more concrete, 
 form. But in no single instance does the celebrity of 
 a London-bridge bookseller in any sense compete
 
 Bookselling on London Bridge. 133 
 
 with that of a Tonson or of a Lintot. The reason 
 of this has been already indicated : they issued no 
 works of any material importance ; they had no poet 
 in their ' employ ; ' they aspired to no ' original 
 translations by the most eminent hands ;' they sought 
 not the influential patronage of the great, and they 
 had no friends at the Court. If they published no 
 original work, they at least had no occasion for sub- 
 terfuge and lying to dispose of their wares. Most of 
 their ' editing ' and boiling down must have been 
 done by themselves, assisted occasionally, perhaps, 
 by a stray hack who knew a little Latin and less 
 Greek, and whose time was spent either in the beer- 
 shop, the sponging-house, or the jail. Deficient of 
 literary merit as are these little ' bridge books,' they 
 will always be worth collecting as literary curiosities, 
 whilst to the student of the times, manners, and 
 customs their value is very considerable. 
 
 The Looking Glass, the Three Bibles, and the 
 Angel are the signs most frequently seen on the 
 imprints of ' bridge books.' The first one appears to 
 have been a particular favourite, for, whilst it was 
 never unemployed, it was at one time used by two 
 distinct booksellers. One of these, Thomas Norris, 
 flourished on the bridge between 1690 and 1721, 
 when probably he removed to Little Britain, where 
 he or at all events a namesake was in 1724, as 
 appears from Samuel Negus' list of printers and 
 newspaper publishers, Norris being included among 
 those 'said to be High Flyers.' He subscribed to 
 William Bowyer's relief fund. His business was an 
 extensive and varied one, and his books were occa-
 
 134 TJie Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 sionally illustrated in a rough-and-ready sort of 
 fashion. They are, of course, of the usual duodecimo 
 form, and catchpenny titles. As an indication of 
 the way in which Mr. Norris tempted his visitors to 
 part with the coveted coin, we may as well quote a 
 few of these ' nominations,' which are decidedly quaint 
 and explanatory. His list included ' The Garden of 
 Love's Craftiness,' for the elegant and sentimental 
 young gentleman ; ' England's Witty and Ingenious 
 Jester,' for the retailer of small talk and stale fun ; 
 William Grismond's, the ' Fisherman's Daughter's 
 Garland,' the ' Verteous Maiden's Garland/ the 
 ' Politick Sailor's Garland,' the ' Ladies' Sorrowful 
 Garland,' the 'Weeping Swain's Garland,' and 
 probably a great many other ' garlands ' for other 
 and equally special purposes. No doubt Mr. Norris 
 kept a stock of these sort of things on hand for any- 
 thing in the way of a calamity or disaster that might 
 occur. The ' garlands ' run from one to four leaves 
 each. 
 
 James Hodges, of the Looking Glass ' over against 
 St. Magnus Church/ is the best known of all the 
 bridge booksellers. He has a political as well as a 
 trade history. He was constantly producing books 
 between the years 1720 and 1757, and was perhaps 
 the most active and enterprising of the fraternity in 
 the locality. Another interesting feature about him 
 is that he was the third bookseller who occupied the 
 same premises in succession. J. Blare, who flourished 
 circa 1688 1^04, at the ' Looking Glass/ was suc- 
 ceeded by F. Hodges, who, we presume, was the 
 father of the energetic James. J. Hodges was a
 
 Bookselling on London Bridge. 135 
 
 member of the Common Council for Bridge Ward, 
 and was one of the Court of Assistants of the 
 Stationers' Company. He made a famous speech on 
 April 15, 1757, m ^e City Senate, on moving the 
 Freedom of the City to Pitt, and this oration is said 
 to have commenced in this fashion : ' History, the 
 key of knowledge, and experience, the touchstone of 
 truth, have convinced us that the country owes the 
 preservation of its most excellent constitution to the 
 frequent fears, jealousies, and apprehensions of the 
 people/ Hodges was a very popular man, and in 
 the year following 1758 he was knighted on pre- 
 senting an address to George II. He died at Bath 
 in October, 1774. Hodges' books, for the most part, 
 are of the usual bridge class, but he was probably the 
 first bookseller who published novels on London 
 Bridge. One of the best known, but perhaps not the 
 earliest, was 'Matrimony' (1755) in two volumes, 
 which, as with many others, B. Collins of Salisbury 
 either printed or had a partnership interest. Sermons 
 also were published or sold by Hodges, who likewise 
 was one of the very few who advertised his wares in 
 the newspapers. A list of some of his books appears 
 in the Grub Street Journal .February 15, 1732. 
 The following is an example of Hodges' windy 
 titles : 
 
 ' The Traveller's Pocket-Companion ; or, a Compleat Descrip- 
 tion of the Roads, in Tables of their Computed and Measured 
 Distances, by an Actual Survey and Mensuration by the Wheel, 
 from London to all the considerable Cities and Towns in Eng- 
 land and Wales ; together with the Mail-Roads, and their 
 several Stages, and the Cross-Roads from one City or eminent 
 Town to another. With Directions what Turnings are to be
 
 136 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 avoided in going or returning on Journeys, and Instructions for 
 riding Post. To which is annexed, A New Survey-Map, which 
 shews the Market-Days, and remarkable Things ; the whole 
 laid down in a Manner that Strangers may travel without any 
 other Guide. Also an Account of the Expences of sending a 
 Letter or Pacquet by Express from the General Post-Office, 
 without Loss of Time, to any Part of Great Britain. By a 
 Person who has belonged to the Publick Offices upwards of 
 Twenty Years. London : Printed for the Author, and sold by 
 J. Hodges, at the Looking-Glass over-against St. Magnus's 
 Church, London Bridge. 1741. Price bound One Shilling 
 and Sixpence.' 
 
 Arthur Bettesworth was another of the better 
 known bridge booksellers, but he only resided in 
 this locality during the earlier part of his career. 
 His sign was the ' Red Lion ' or ' Red Lyon.' He 
 was publishing on the bridge in 1712. After a time 
 he removed to Paternoster Row, still retaining his old 
 sign. He was a prominent member of two bookselling 
 ' congeries/ and was succeeded by Charles Hitch, his 
 son-in-law and partner. Hitch was on the Commission 
 of the Peace for the county of Essex. "and was Master 
 of the Stationers' Company in 1758, to which Com- 
 pany he bequeathed a sum of twenty guineas to 
 purchase a pair of silver candlesticks. He died 
 September 20, 1764. 
 
 William Pickering, who flourished on the bridge 
 'under St. Magnus Church' between 1556 and 1571, 
 was, suggests Mr. Gray in Notes and Queries, pro- 
 bably succeeded by Hugh Astley, 1588 1608. Henry 
 Gosson, the fourth (remarks the same writer), ' had a 
 shop on London Bridge circa 1610 1628. Gosson's 
 house must have been situated at the southern part 
 of the bridge, and in 1635 we find him 'on London
 
 Bookselling on London Bridge. 137 
 
 Bridge, near to the gate.' 2 He is not noticed as 
 being one of those who had their places burnt, 
 according to Nehemiah Wallington's ' Records of the 
 Mercies of God/ quoted by Thomson, nor, indeed, 
 are any booksellers mentioned in that list. His still 
 being on the bridge after the fire seems to confirm 
 this. ' In 1608, a namesake or possibly the same 
 person was carrying on business at the Tun, in 
 Paternoster Row ; one of his publications, which was 
 printed by Robert Raworth, being ' The Contention 
 between the Brethren.' Most of his books were, of 
 course,' broadsides, ballads and the like, often printed 
 in black-letter type, and occasionally ' adorned with 
 cuts.' One of the most curious was perhaps ' The 
 Old, Old, very Old Man,' i. e. Thomas Parr, who 
 lived, it is stated, over 150 years, and who died 
 November 15, 1635. This tract, the scope of which 
 is set forth in 1 50 words, comprising its title-page, 
 was written by John Taylor, and is reprinted in 'The 
 Harleian Miscellany' (vol. vii.). 
 
 H. Tracy, of the Three Bibles, made a speciality 
 not only of school-bo'oks, but also of a balsam ' lately 
 brought from Chili, a Province of America.' Of him 
 Dunton says, ' His religion is not confined to the 
 church, any more than the shop. His behaviour in 
 his family is grave and exemplary ; his devotion con- 
 stant ; his care over his household is tender and im- 
 partial ; and to his servants he seems a father rather 
 than a master/ He published, inter alia, Dyche's 
 
 2 Stephen Powell had a shop ' on London Bridge neere to the 
 gate,' in 1635, when he published ' An Essay of Drapery,' which 
 had an engraved title-page.
 
 1 38 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ' Youth's Guide to the Latin Tongue,' and Roger 
 Rea's ' The Sector and Plain Scale compared ;' the 
 former at five shillings, and the latter at eighteen- 
 pence. 
 
 Stanley Crowder deserves some mention in con- 
 nection with this chapter, as being probably the last, 
 if not the only bookseller who remained on London 
 Bridge prior to the final clearing out. Crowder, who 
 died May 23, 1795, was an apprentice of Sir James 
 Hodges, and for many years after quitting the bridge 
 did a large wholesale trade at the Aldine Chambers, 
 Paternoster Row. Proving at last unsuccessful, he 
 applied for and obtained the office of Clerk of the 
 Commissioners of the Commutation and Window 
 Tax for the City of London. 3 Some of the better 
 known bridge booksellers were : John Tap, of St. 
 Magnus Corner, 1610; Charles Tyus, of the Three 
 Bibles, in the middle of the bridge, 1659, and pro- 
 bably succeeded by Thomas Passinger, who, at all 
 events, had the same sign in use shortly afterwards 
 and whose name is occasionally seen in company 
 with that of Charles Passinger ; John Williamson 
 was at the ' Sun and Bible in the low buildings on 
 London Bridge' in 1678; and in addition to those 
 previously mentioned as having the Looking Glass 
 as a sign, we may mention that it was also used by 
 Ed. Midwinter, 1721, and T. Harris, 1741-4, the last- 
 named of whom became a bankrupt in December, 
 1745. This list is, of course, very far from com- 
 plete ; and for lengthy catalogues of the bridge 
 
 3 An interesting reference to Crowder occurs in the Aldine 
 Magazine, December, 1838.
 
 Bookselling on London Bridge. 139 
 
 booksellers the reader is referred to Notes and Queries, 
 sixth series, fifth, sixth and seventh volumes. 
 
 The bridge, which had passed through so many 
 storms, received in a manner of speaking a severe 
 blow in 1633, when many of its houses were burnt. 
 The great fire of 1666 also destroyed a number. 
 Still more were burnt in 1727, and thenceforward its 
 decay was rapid and its removal inevitable. In 1757 
 most of the houses and shops were reckoned among 
 the things that were. In December, 1760, ' notice 
 was given to the people on the west side of London 
 Bridge to quit their premises by the 25 th of March 
 next/ with a view to the demolition of the build- 
 ings.' The toll was abolished on March 27, 1781 ; 
 the gate at the Southwark end disappeared in 1766. 
 The famous old bridge itself ceased to exist in 1832, 
 and the stones of which it was constructed were, it is 
 said, used to build or rebuild Ingress Hall, near 
 Greenhithe, and the tough pieces of iron which held 
 the stones together were converted into razors and 
 pen-knives as mementos. Sic transit gloria mundil
 
 1 40 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OTHER BOOKSELLING LOCALITIES. 
 
 THE history and associations of the immediate 
 vicinity of St. Paul's Cathedral are indissolubly inter- 
 woven with the annals of bookselling. Literature and 
 Paternoster Row are almost synonymous terms. The 
 dull and narrow thoroughfare, with its nomenclature 
 abbreviated into ' The Row/ is the most famous 
 bookselling quarter in London, we had almost 
 said in the world. The derivation of the term is 
 ascribed to various causes, one of which points to the 
 fact that funereal processions on their way to St. 
 Paul's began their pater noster at the commencement 
 of the Row. The most probable theory, however, is 
 that which connects the place with the rosary or 
 paternoster makers, who resided and did a great 
 business here until the Reformation. Dr. Brewer, 
 quoting from an unstated source, alludes to 'one 
 Robert Nikke, a paternoster maker and citizen, in 
 the reign of Henry IV.' As a literary emporium the 
 antiquity of 'the Row' is unquestionable. 
 
 From Stow's ' Survey of London ' (edit. Strype), 
 we learn that 'this street, before the fire of London 
 (1666), was taken up by eminent mercers, silkmen
 
 Other Bookselling Localities. 141 
 
 and lacemen ; and their shops were so resorted to 
 by the nobility and gentry, in their coaches, that 
 oft-times the street was so stopped up that there was 
 no room for foot-passengers.' After the great con- 
 flagration, most of the tradesmen removed to the 
 vicinity of Covent Garden, whilst others again in- 
 habited this place so soon as new buildings were 
 erected. Near the east end there were 'stationers 
 and large warehouses for booksellers, well situated 
 for learned and studious men's access thither, being 
 more retired and private.' 'After dinner,' on June I, 
 1665, observes Pepys, ' I put on my new camelott 
 suit, the best that I ever wore in my life, the suit 
 costing me above 24^. In this I went with Creed to 
 Goldsmiths' Hall, to the burial of Sir Thomas Viner, 
 which Hall, and Haberdashers' also, was so full, that 
 we were fain for coolness to go forth to Pater Noster 
 Row, to choose a silk to make me a plain ordinary 
 suit/ An 'extract from a periodical of 1705' has a 
 reference to the ' semptresses of Paternoster Row ' 
 which points to the conclusion that collateral branches 
 of the drapery trade lingered in the Row for a much 
 longer period than is generally thought. At this 
 present moment there is, we believe, but one existing 
 representative of this trade in ' the Row.' 
 
 For a century or more the famous locality has been 
 almost entirely inhabited by booksellers or stationers, 
 such as the Longmans, Cookes, Harrisons, Hoggs, 
 Rivingtons, Baldwins, and very many others, whose 
 careers would each need a lengthy chapter. There 
 are records, however, which prove that the Row was 
 a regular bookselling locality in the middle of the
 
 142 The Ea rlier His to ry of English Bookselling. 
 
 sixteenth century. Henry Denham, for example, 
 was living at the Star, in Paternoster Row, in 1564, 
 and for several years afterwards ; he adopted the 
 Latin motto of ' Os homini sublime dedit/ In 
 1570 he published George Tuberville's 'Epitaphs, 
 Epigrams, Songs and Sonnets.' It was not until the 
 latter part of the last century, however, that 'the 
 character of the trade in the Row became changed 
 from old bookselling, or the issuing only of large and 
 important new works by the principal houses, to 
 general publishing, and particularly of periodicals. 
 The issuing of works in weekly numbers was more 
 particularly confined to Cooke, Hogg and Harrison. 
 These all stood prominent as publishers of what have 
 been called ' Paternoster row Numbers,' namely 
 Family Bibles, with notes, editions ofFoxe's 'Book of 
 Martyrs,' and the works of Flavius Josephus ; new and 
 complete Histories of England, Histories of London, 
 Life of Christ, and various other denominations of 
 works, which, years back, more than now, were chiefly 
 purchased by the more intelligent of the working 
 classes, and were seen in the shape of handsomely 
 bound folios in several of their houses. However it 
 may be customary to kick the ladder down when we 
 find we no longer want it, these sort of publications, it 
 must be confessed, greatly contributed to lay the 
 foundation of that literary taste and thirst for know- 
 ledge which now pervade all classes. To give such 
 works as we have mentioned all the attraction pos- 
 sible, the title-pages were copious to an extreme ; 
 enumerating the whole contents of the book, the 
 authors were generally called esquires, and had two
 
 Other Bookselling Localities. 143 
 
 or three high-sounding Christian names.' ' Among 
 the booksellers of Paternoster Row, no one had a 
 higher reputation or a more extensive business than 
 William Taylor, who resided at the Ship, during the 
 first quarter of the last century. And of all his 
 undertakings, or part undertakings, none was more 
 famous or more signally successful than ' Robinson 
 Crusoe.' Taylor published the first part on April 25, 
 1719, and the second on August 20, in the same year. 
 His catalogue is a matter of 16 pages, the subjects 
 being divided into three sections folio, quarto, and 
 octavo and duodecimo and including nearly every 
 conceivable class of literature. Of the first part of 
 Defoe's immortal book, four editions were sold in as 
 many months. 
 
 When the bibliopolic glory of Little Britain and 
 its immediately contiguous neighbourhood departed, 
 some of its rays were transferred to St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, which, in its turn, has been gradually 
 deserted by booksellers during the past century, 
 until, at the present moment, there is only one firm 
 left. Its halcyon days, however, were previous to 
 the Fire. The booksellers' shops were mostly on 
 the north side. ' It was,' observes Mr. Treloar, ' at 
 the 'White Greyhound' that John Harrison first 
 published Shakespeare's poems ; at the ' Fleur de 
 Luce and the Crown ' appeared the first edition of 
 the ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' and the ' Green 
 Dragon,' the ' Fox,' the ' Angel,' the ' Spread Eagle/ 
 the ' Gun,' and the ' Red Bull ' are all associated 
 
 1 Timperley's ' Dictionary of Printers ' (1839), p. 838.
 
 1 44 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 with the publications of the great dramatist." 2 ' Who,' 
 exclaims Tom Nash in Pierce Penilesse/ ' can abide 
 a scurvy pedling poet to plucke a man by the 
 sleeve at evrie third step in Paules Churchyard, and 
 when he comes in to survey his wares, there's 
 nothing but purgations and vomits wrapt vp in wast 
 paper ? " 
 
 The following list includes most of the principal 
 ' churchyard ' booksellers, with signs and approxi- 
 mate dates, who lived in the seventeenth century : 
 M. Atkins, the Half Moon,' 1674 ; Robert Allot, 
 the ' Black Bear,' 1629 ; William Apsley, the ' Parrot,' 
 1622; John Bartlett, 'The Golden Cup' in the 
 Goldsmith's Row in Cheapside ; 1610-40; Walter 
 Burne, the 'Crane/ 1614; William Birch, the 'Pea- 
 cock,' ' at the lower end of Cheapside,' 1678 ; John 
 Budge, ' at the great South doore of Paul's/ 1609; 
 Henry Brome, the ' Gun,' who first published 
 Milton's ' Character of the Long Parliament and 
 Assembly of Divines' (1681) ; Robert Bostock, 
 the ' King's Head,' 1645 ; Walter Kettilby, the 
 ' Bishop's Head/ 1678 ; and Joshua Kirton, of the 
 ' King's Arms/ who possesses the distinction of having 
 been Mr. Pepys' bookseller, and who is thus referred 
 to in the ' Diary/ under date November 2, 1660 : 
 ' In Paul's Churchyard I called at Kirton's, and 
 there they had got a masse book for me, which I 
 bought, and cost me \2s., and, when I come 
 home, sat up late, and read in it with great pleasure 
 to my wife, to hear that she was long ago acquainted 
 with it.' And we have already seen to what extent 
 - ' Ludgate Hill, Past and Present.'
 
 Ot/ier Bookselling Localities. 145 
 
 poor Kirton was the loser by the great Fire. Henry 
 Kyrkham was living 'at the little North-dore of 
 Paul's Church, at the sign of the ' Black Boy ' in 
 *593 5 Richard Moore's shop was at the 'Seven 
 Stars ;' Giles Calvert's at the ' Black Spread Eagle,' 
 from 1547; and John Wolfe's in ' Paules Chayne,' 
 whence appeared ' Quip for an Upstart Courtier,' in 
 1592. Jefiferie Chorlton, who did a large trade in 
 sensational executions, arraignments, and the like, 
 had a shop ' adjoining the great North door of Paules,' 
 circa 1607. And so we might go on ad infinitum 
 enumerating the various booksellers, all distinguished 
 in some way or another for being associated with a 
 particular book or author, whilst many of those 
 named in the foregoing list have already been re- 
 ferred to in previous chapters. 
 
 Among bookselling localities, none was more 
 unique than Westminster Hall. This historical place 
 is a vast parallelogram, standing north and south, 
 290 feet long and 68 feet broad. The place is redo- 
 lent with associations, what with Parliaments, corona- 
 tion revelries, and impeachments. And of the 
 last-named none was more famous than that of 
 Warren Hastings (February, 1788 April, 1795). 
 ' The place,' says Macaulay in his brilliant essay, 
 'was worthy of such a trial. It was the great hall 
 of William Rufus, the hall which had resounded 
 with acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings, 
 the hall which had witnessed the just sentence of 
 Bacon, and the just absolution of Somers, 3 the hall 
 
 3 This is more poetical than true. The proceedings against 
 Bacon and Somers took place, not in Westminster Hall, but in 
 
 L
 
 1 46 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 where the eloquence of Strafford had for a moment 
 awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with 
 just resentment, the hall where Charles had con- 
 fronted the High Court of Justice with the placid 
 courage which has half redeemed his fame.' 
 
 The Hall was occupied by shops, stationers and 
 otherwise, for a period of at least 200 years. A 
 very early instance, which would place the term at a 
 much longer span, is referred to in the Gentleman's 
 Magazine of 1853, the object being a copy of the 
 c Legenda Aurea,' which was either bequeathed to 
 the parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, by Caxton 
 himself, or given by his executors. Machyn's ' Diary ' 
 records the fact that in 1556 a 'boye that sold papers 
 and printed books ' was killed in Westminster Hall 
 by being hit under the ear with a stone thrown by 
 ' a hosier's boy above London Stone,' the said book- 
 seller being a poor scholar of Westminster School. 
 Nearly forty years after, Nash exclaimed, ' Looke to 
 it, you booksellers and stationers, and let not your 
 shop be infested with any such goose gyblets, or 
 stinking garbadge as the jygs of newsmongers ; and 
 especially such of you as frequent Westminster Hall, 
 let them be circumspect what dunghill papers they 
 bring thether : for one bad pamphlet is inough to 
 raise a dampe that may poysen a whole towne, or 
 at the least a number, of poore clyents, that have 
 no money to prevent il aire by breaking their fasts 
 ere they come thether." 
 
 Referring to this place, Tom Browne, in his 
 
 the old House of Lords (Jesse's ' Literary and Historical 
 Memoirs of London,' i. 394).
 
 Other Bookselling Localities. 147 
 
 'Amusements' (1700) says, ' on your left hand you 
 have a nimble-tongued, painted sempstress, with her 
 charming treble, invite you to buy some of her knick- 
 knacks, and on your right a deep-mouthed cryer, 
 commanding impossibilities, viz., silence to be kept 
 among women and lawyers.' This describes (says a 
 writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for November, 
 1853) the situation of the shops or stalls, as ranged 
 along the blank wall on the southern side of the 
 Hall. Some years later, they occupied not only the 
 whole of that side, but such portion of the other as 
 was not occupied by the Court of Common Pleas, 
 but which then sat within the Hall itself, as did the 
 Chancery and King's Bench at its further end. 
 Gravelot's print of the Hall during term-time shows 
 this arrangement to have been followed, a print, by- 
 the-way, which had, in the original engraving, some 
 verses appended at foot, in which the legal pro- 
 clivities of ' fools ' who ' fall out ' are hardly hit. 
 Another interesting point may be here noted : the 
 stationers and booksellers in the Hall were emphati- 
 cally a privileged class, inasmuch as they were 
 exempt from the pains and penalties in the statutes 
 in force relative to licences and regulation of the 
 press. Here, as elsewhere, there were plenty of 
 inferior books obtainable ; Mr. Pepys, writing on 
 October 26, 1660, and referring to some purchases 
 made in the Hall, remarks, ' among other books, one 
 of the life of our Queen, which I read at home to 
 my wife, but it was so sillily writ that we did nothing 
 but laugh over it.' 
 
 For convenience, the stalls were distinguished 
 L 2
 
 1 48 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 by certain signs. One of the very early issues of 
 'Paradise Lost' (1668) contains the name, among 
 others, of H. Mortlock, of the 'White Hart' in 
 Westminster Hall, who also had a shop at the Phoenix, 
 St. Paul's Churchyard. Raleigh's 'Remains' (1675) 
 was one of the books printed for Mortlock, who was 
 in all probability succeeded by Benjamin Barker, 
 whose name occurs on Raleigh's ' Three Discourses ' 
 (1702) as being at the 'White Hart.' Mortlock pro- 
 bably acquired interest in some of the books sold 
 previously by William Shears, Jun., who, like Mort- 
 lock, and several others, had a shop in addition to 
 the stall in the Hall. 
 
 Few of the Hall booksellers were more prolific 
 than he who bore the horticultural cognomen of 
 Matthew Gilliflower. His sign was the Spread 
 Eagle and the Crown, and perhaps one of his earliest 
 part-ventures was the 'Refined Courtier' (1679). 
 ' Both his eyes/ remarks Mr. Dunton, ' were never at 
 once from home ; for one kept house, and observed 
 the actions of men, while the other roamed abroad 
 for intelligence. He loved his bottle and his friend 
 with an equal affection. He was very tetchy upon 
 some occasions : yet thriving was part of his character. 
 He printed L'Estrange's ' ysop,' Lord Halifax's 
 'Advice to his Daughters,' and many excellent 
 copies.' C. King and Stagg were two of the leading 
 booksellers in the Hall during the earlier years of 
 the last century, for nearly every ' proposal ' had 
 their names, whilst they are included among the 
 ' unprejudic'd booksellers' who acted as agents for 
 the Gentleman's Magazine during the first year of
 
 Other Bookselling Localities. 149 
 
 its existence. The former published that grimly 
 humorous piece of satire, ' Neck or Nothing. A. 
 Consolatory Letter from Mr. D nt n to Mr. 
 C rll upon his being Tost in a Blanket' (1716). 
 Fox, of the ' Half Moon and Seven Stars,' is de- 
 scribed by Dunton as 'a refined politician . . . to his 
 knowledge in trade, he has joined no vulgar erudi- 
 tion, which all his modesty is not able to conceal.' 
 B. Toovey, whose name occurs, with seven others, 
 in the imprint of The Life of Henry VIII.,' by Mr. 
 
 W. Sh , dedicated to Colley Gibber, Esq., 1758 ; 
 
 James Collins and J. Renn were other tradesmen 
 who sold books in this place. 
 
 Early in the reign of George III. the traders were 
 ousted from Westminster Hall, but perhaps it was not 
 until 1834 that the last traces of their existence here 
 were swept away. ' The interior of Westminster Hall,' 
 says the Gentleman 's Magazine (September, 1834), 
 ' which has so long remained in a dirty and mutilated 
 state, is to be cleaned and repaired.'
 
 1 50 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 JACOB TONSON. 
 
 JACOB TONSON is a clear and distinct figure in the 
 annals of English literature. There is, perhaps, no 
 name recorded in literary history of one who contri- 
 buted so little directly, and yet is so inseparably con- 
 nected with certain and important parts of that his- 
 tory, than the subject of the present chapter. Appear- 
 ing on the scene at a time whsn the fast develop- 
 ing business of publishing needed men with more 
 judgment and discretion than the then drunken and 
 ignorant printer, Tonson has, by sheer industry and 
 good common sense, left a name and fame far greater 
 and perhaps more honourable than any of his book- 
 selling contemporaries. Basil Kennett wrote in Sep- 
 tember, 1696, "Twill be as impossible to think of 
 Virgil without Mr. Dryden, as of either without Mr. 
 Tonson/ and that prognostication has to a great 
 extent been fulfilled. It is a common thing to refer 
 in disparaging terms to Tonson, who is described, in 
 particular, in Mr. Hamilton's ' Poets Laureate/ as ' of a 
 coarse and vulgar disposition, and treated authors 
 with but little courtsey ' (p. 98). This is but one 
 instance of a large number that could be quoted in
 
 Jacob Tonson. 151 
 
 support of a proposition which is not only absurd, but 
 is absolutely a mis-statement of facts, as will be shewn 
 in the course of this biography. One of the com- 
 monest of ' literary anecdotes ' is concerning Dryden's 
 quarrel with Tonson, but there are no records to justify 
 such a term. That there were bickerings it is not 
 denied, but what of them ? Johnson (' Lives of the 
 Poets : ' Dryden) said, referring to the earlier part of 
 Tonson's career, 'the general conduct of traders was 
 much less liberal in those times than in our own ; 
 their views were narrower, and their manners grosser. 
 To the mercantile ruggedness of that race, the deli- 
 cacy \sic\ of the poet was sometimes exposed.' In 
 regard to the statement with reference to delicacy : 
 had Dryden possessed much of this most useful 
 element in a general way, it is passing strange that it 
 should only have manifested itself when transacting 
 business with Tonson. Delicacy was anything but a 
 characteristic failing among literary men of Dryden's 
 time. The relative charge of grossness may be cir- 
 cumstantially true, but as Jacob was in such constant 
 association with many of the highest men of the 
 period, he could not have been much more gross in 
 his manners than his ' betters.' Count Cavours were 
 indeed few then, while purity and extreme delicacy 
 were charges never preferred against the members of 
 the boisterous, devil-may-care Kit Cat Club. In spite 
 of their occasional bickerings, Dryden seems to have 
 had very considerable confidence in his bookseller, 
 with whom his rents are to be left, and through whom 
 messages are sent to his wife when the poet is absent. 
 Jacob Tonson was the son of a barber-surgeon of
 
 152 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 that name who resided and carried on business in 
 Holborn, and who died in 1668. Jacob was born 
 probably in the year 1656, being fourteen years of age 
 when he was apprenticed, on June 5, 1670, to 
 Thomas Bassett, 1 a bookseller. The Great Fire of 
 London, which was really an ill wind that subse- 
 quently blew a great deal of good to printing and 
 bookselling, probably influenced the elder Jacob in 
 apprenticing his two sons, Richard and Jacob, to the 
 latter trade. Beside these two, it may be mentioned, 
 there were three sisters, and to each of these five 
 children their father bequeathed a legacy of a hundred 
 pounds when the age of twenty-one was attained, 
 Jacob Tonson was admitted a freeman of the Company 
 of Stationers, December, 20, 1677, and, according to 
 John Nichols, commenced business, 'as his brother 
 Richard had done the year before. 5 
 
 Scarcely anything is known of Richard. The 
 brothers seem to have had as little business connection 
 with each other as possible, and it is rare to find their 
 names in juxtaposition. One exception is Dryden's 
 'The Spanish Friar,' 1681, which was 'printed for 
 Richard and Jacob Tonson, at Gray's Inn Gate, in 
 Grays Inn Lane, and at the ' Judge's Head ' in Chan- 
 cery Lane.' One of Richard's first publications must 
 
 1 Bassett's shop probably was in Little Britain. In 1718-19 
 ' it appears from Lintot's Account Book (' Lit. Anec.' viii. 293-5) 
 that the latter purchased of Thomas Ballard 'a fourth of a half 
 of the several shares of all the copies formerly belonging to Mr. 
 Thos. Bassett, deceased (except his Law copies), ' in all 133 
 books.' According to another entry, Lintot bought of George 
 Conyers 'a fourth share of the several Law copies and trials 
 belonging to Mr. T. Bassett, deceased,' &c., in all 109 books.
 
 Jacob Tonson. 153 
 
 have been Charles D'Avenant's 'Circe,' which was 
 published in 1667, a second edition of this tragedy 
 was issued in 1685, also by Richard; but the third 
 edition was printed for Jacob Tonson in 1703. In 
 1677, Richard entered into a contract with another 
 bookseller, Benjamin Shirley, to bear a portion of the 
 expense in publishing ' The Life of the Valiant and 
 Learned Sir Walter Raleigh,' an octavo of 243 pages ; 
 r.nd what seems to have been an abridgment of this 
 appeared ten years later, purporting to be ' the third 
 edition,' in which his name still figures on the title- 
 page. Richard also sold in 1678 Rymer's ' Tragedies 
 of the Last Age/ a work which received so much atten- 
 tion at the hands of Dryden ; and Sedley's ' Antony 
 and Cleopatra ' (1677), Otway's 'Cleopatra/ S. Por- 
 dage's ' Siege of Babylon ' (1678),' The Art of Making 
 Love/ &c., were issued with Richard Tonson's name as 
 bookseller. Although he published several other 
 books, he took but a subordinate part in his calling. 
 We do not know the date of his death ; and in the 
 absence of absolute proof it is fair to conjecture 
 that his shop in Gray's Inn Gate was taken about 1698 
 or 1699 by his brother Jacob. 
 
 Jacob's debut in trade circles seems to have been 
 characteristically careful ; and for the first year or two 
 he contented himself with being simply the retailer of 
 plays, books, and the like, issued by his more opulent 
 and more experienced confreres. With a hundred 
 pounds as capital, and a shop under the sign of The 
 Judge's Head, in Chancery Lane, close to the corner 
 of Fleet Street, Jacob could not afford to make great 
 speculations. He cultivated the habits of prudence
 
 154 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 and patience, and was at length rewarded by securing 
 the copy of Dryden's ' Troilus and Cressida,' one of 
 the many attempts at adapting or improving Shake- 
 speare, of which Dryden himself never thought much, 
 and which was probably played at Dorset Gardens 
 about April, 1679. The play itself was preceded by 
 a discourse on the grounds of criticism in tragedy, 
 to which, Dr. Johnson suspects, Rymer's book had 
 given occasion. Dryden demanded twenty pounds 
 for the copyright, but prudent Jacob hesitated to give 
 this sum for even a play of the great Mr. Dryden, 
 and consequently shared expenses and profits with 
 Swalle, the play coming out probably late in 1679. 
 The importance of this transaction was great, and 
 the connection between Dryden and Tonson was only 
 broken by the poet's death. Dryden's previous con- 
 nection with Herringman has already been referred to. 
 
 Charles Knight states that in 1681 there was an 
 indefatigable collector of the fugitive poetry, especially 
 political, which formed the chief staple of many book- 
 sellers' shops, and the most vendible commodity of 
 the noisy hawkers. Mr. Narcissus Luttrell recorded 
 according to his custom of marking on each sheet 
 and half-sheet of the ' Sibylline Leaves ' the day he 
 received it that on the I7th of November he received 
 a copy of the first part of ' Absalom and Achitophel,' 
 'from his friend JacobTonson.' The bookseller must 
 have made a large sum out of this poem, for, being 
 issued at 2d., its popularity and sale were immense. 
 
 Perhaps nothing so important had as yet transpired 
 to bring Tonson into notoriety as the first volume of 
 the Miscellany, which was issued in 1684. For some
 
 Jacob Tonson. 155 
 
 time previous the poet and the bookseller had been 
 on excellent terms ; for the former, in acknowledging 
 a present of two melons from the latter, and speaking 
 of the new project for issuing the famous Miscellany, 
 observes : ' Since we are to have nothing but new, I 
 am resolved we will have nothing but good, whom- 
 ever we displease.' This is an excerpt from a letter 
 dated September, 1684, and the first volume came 
 out shortly afterwards. The project was so entirely 
 successful that imitators were soon in the field, and, 
 among these one of the earliest was Herringman's, or 
 was, at least, issued in his name. Dryden refers to 
 this publication in one of his letters, and states that 
 most of the pieces therein given have been printed 
 before. Nothing of the kind had, as Malone points 
 out, been attempted for many years. The work was 
 purported to be the production of the ' most eminent 
 hands.' 
 
 The most celebrated imitation was, of course, the 
 Pope-Lintot one. Writing to Wycherley, May 20, 
 1709, Pope observes : ' This modern custom of appear- 
 ing in miscellanies is very useful to the poets, who, 
 like other thieves, escape by getting into a crowd, 
 and herd together like other banditti, safe only in 
 their multitude.' He further quotes ' a good descrip- 
 tion of these kind of collections ' from Strada. In 
 the same letter he remarks : ' I can be content with 
 a bare saving game, without being thought an eminent 
 hand (with which title * Jacob has graciously dignified 
 
 Some editions read, ' which little Jacob,' but we are inclined 
 to think the word in this context to be the correct one. Pope, 
 in this case, was speaking of the 6th vol. of Tonson's Miscellany.
 
 156 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 his adventurers and volunteers in poetry). Jacob 
 creates poets, as kings sometimes do knights, not for 
 their honour, but for their money.' ' You will make 
 Jacob's Ladder raise you to immortality,' observes 
 Wycherley, in his reply to Pope. 
 
 The second volume of the Miscellany was issued in 
 1685, and the third in 1693. Tonson had now, as 
 Knight remarks, ' become a sharp tradesman,' So 
 far as we know, only one of Tonson's letters has been 
 preserved, and as this is valuable and curious in many 
 respects, it is here given. As will be seen, it was written 
 prior to the publication of the third Miscellany, and pro- 
 bably late in 1692. It is exceedingly characteristic : 
 
 ' You may please, sir, to remember that upon my 
 first proposal about the third Miscellany, I offered 
 fifty pounds, and talked of several authors, without 
 naming Ovid. You asked if it should not be guineas 
 and said I should not repent it ; upon which I imme- 
 diately complied, and left it wholly to you what, and 
 for the quantity too : and I declare it was the farthest 
 in the world from my thoughts that by leaving it to 
 you I should have the loss. Thus the case stood, when 
 you went into Essex. After I came out of Northamp- 
 tonshire I wrote to you, and received a letter dated 
 Monday, Oct. 3, '92, from which letter I now write 
 word for word what follows : " I am translating about 
 600 lines, or somewhat less, of the first book of the 
 Metamorphoses. If I cannot get my price, which 
 shall be twenty guineas, I will translate the whole 
 book, which coming out before the whole translation 
 will spoil Tate's undertakings. 'Tis one of the best 
 I have ever made, and very pleasant. This, with Hero
 
 Jacob Tonson. 157 
 
 and Leander, and the piece of Homer (or, if it be not 
 enough, I will add more), will make a good part of a 
 Miscellany." 
 
 ' Those, sir, are your very words, and the only ones 
 in that letter relating to that affair ; and the Monday 
 following you came to town. After your arrival you 
 showed Mr. Motteaux what you had done (which he 
 told me was to the end of the story of Daphnis) and 
 demanded, as you mentioned in your letter, twenty 
 guineas, which that bookseller refused. Now, sir, I 
 the rather believe there was just so much done, by 
 reason the number of lines you mention in your letter 
 agrees with the quantity of lines that so much of the 
 first book makes ; which upon counting the Ovid I 
 find to be in the Latin 566, in the English 759 ; 
 and the bookseller told me there was no more de- 
 manded of him for it. Now, sir, what I entreat you 
 would please to consider of is this : that it is reason- 
 able for me to expect at least as much favour from 
 you as a strange bookseller, and I will never believe 
 that it can be in your nature to use me the worse for 
 leaving it to you ; and if the matter of fact as I state 
 it be true (and upon my word what I mention I can 
 show you in your letters) then pray, sir, consider how 
 much dearer I pay than you offered it to the other 
 bookseller ; for he might have had to the end of the 
 story of Daphnis for twenty guineas, which is in your 
 translation, 759 lines ; and then suppose twenty guineas 
 more for the same number, 759 lines ; that makes for 
 forty guineas 1518 lines ; and all that I have for fifty 
 guineas are but 1446, so that, if I have no more, I pay 
 ten guineas above forty, and have seventy-two lines
 
 158 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 less for fifty, in proportion, than the other bookseller 
 should have had for forty, at the rate you offered him 
 the first part. This is, sir, what I shall take as a great 
 favour if you please to think of. I had intentions of 
 letting you know this before ; but till I had paid the 
 money, I would not ask to see the book [which he 
 acknowledges to have received from Dryden in an 
 earlier 'part of this same letter, with which it is re- 
 turned] nor count the lines, lest it should look like a 
 design of not keeping my word. When you have looked 
 over the rest of what you have already translated, I 
 desire you would send it ; and I own that if you don't 
 think fit to add something more, I must submit : 
 'tis wholly at your choice, and I left it entirely to you ; 
 but I believe you can't imagine I expected so little ; 
 for you were pleased to use me much kindlier in 
 Juvenal, which is not reckoned so easy to translate as 
 Ovid. Sir, I humbly beg your pardon for this long 
 letter, and upon my word I had rather have your good- 
 will than any man's alive ; and whatever you are 
 pleased to do, will always acknowledge myself, Sir, 
 your most humble obedient Servant, Jacob Tonson/ 
 A few extracts from this letter are common to every 
 ' general reader,' and are often levelled against Tonson 
 himself, as proving his mercenary qualities. It is 
 simply a business letter, one that any shrewd man, 
 with an eye to ' No. I ' might write. It would have been 
 
 :t In the 'Sullen Lovers' (1668) of Shadvvell one of the 
 characters complains that his bookseller has refused him twelve- 
 pence a line, when the intrinsic worth of some verses is at least 
 worth ten shillings, and all can be proved to be worth three 
 shillings ' to the veriest Jew in Christendom.'
 
 Jacob Tonson. 159 
 
 surprising indeed if Tonson had allowed a rival trades- 
 man to out-distance himself in a bargain without utter- 
 ing a word of protest ; especially when that bargain was 
 one spontaneously offered by the poet himself. Dryden 
 admits Tonson's soft impeachment, when he wrote, on 
 August 30, 1693 : ' I am much ashamed for myself, 
 that I am so much behind-hand with you in kindness. 
 Above all things I am sensible of your good-nature, in 
 bearing me company to this place [somewhere in 
 Northamptonshire], wherein, besides the cost, you 
 must needs neglect your own business ; but I will en- 
 deavour to make you some amends, and therefore I 
 desire you to command me something for your 
 service.' In 1689 all Dryden's emoluments from the 
 Government were taken away, so that he could hardly 
 afford to be very independent. 
 
 The publication of Dryden's translation of Virgil 
 was perhaps the most important incident in Tonson's 
 career. This arduous task was commenced in 1694, or 
 late in 1693, and was actually finished by the close of 
 1696, although, upon his own admission to Tonson, 
 he considered the task as one which would require 
 seven years to translate ' exactly/ Tonson issued the 
 translation of Virgil in July, 1697. It was of course 
 published by subscription, although its success was 
 from the first almost a foregone conclusion. A hun- 
 dred and two five-guinea subscribers' had each his 
 arms printed at the foot of the 102 plates ; whilst the 
 two-guinea subscribers figured in the list of names 
 only. The proportion in which the subscriptions were 
 divided between Dryden and Tonson are not now 
 known ; Malone thinks the poet had so/, for each
 
 1 60 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 book of the vEneid, a sum which some biographers 
 conjecture to have been paid for every two books. 
 Pope has stated that ' Dryden cleared every way 
 about I2OO/. by his Virgil' (Spence : Singer's Ed. 
 p. 198). 'Virgil was one of the first books that had 
 anything of a subscription, (and even that was a good 
 deal on account of the prints, which were from Ogilby's 
 plates touched up') 4 (ibid.}. There are several most 
 interesting letters to Tonson from the poet during the 
 progress of his great work. Arranging for a Coffee- 
 house or tavern the almost invariable rendezvous for 
 such transactions Dryden writes : ' Be ready with the 
 price of paper, and of the books. No matter for any 
 dinner ; for that is a charge to you, and I care not for 
 it. Mr. Congreve may be with us, as a common friend.' 
 Much of the translating is done in the country, hence 
 the necessity for epistolary communication. ' Some 
 kind of intercourse,' writes Dryden, October 29, 1695, 
 ' must be carried on betwixt us, while I am translating 
 Virgil. Therefore I give you notice, that I have done 
 the seventh Eneid in the country [i.e. at Burleigh, 
 the seat of the fifth Earl of Exeter], and intend some 
 few days hence to go upon the eighth : when that is 
 finished, I expect fifty pounds in good silver ; not such 
 as I had formerly. I am not obliged to take gold, 
 neither will I ; nor stay for it beyond four-and-twenty 
 hours after it is due. I thank you for the civility of 
 your last letter in the country ; but the thirty shillings 
 upon every book remains with me, you always in- 
 
 4 This refers to Virgilii Opera, per |Joh. Ogilvium edita et 
 adornata. Lond., 1658. This work was issued in royal folio, 
 with plates after Lombart, Faithorne, Hollar, &c.
 
 Jacob Tonson. 161 
 
 tended I should get nothing by the second subscrip- 
 tions, as I found from first to last.' Not long after 
 this letter, Dryden writes thanking Tonson for his 
 kindnesses, ' being very sensible that I have not 
 hitherto deserved them.' A passage from the letter 
 to Tonson, dated February, 1695-6, further illustrates 
 the debased character of the coinage at that period, 
 and the general mistrust which it occasioned. ' I 
 shall lose enough by your bill upon Mr. Knight/' 
 for after having taken it all in silver, and not in half- 
 crowns neither, but shillings and sixpences, none of the 
 money will go ; for which reason I have sent it all 
 back again, and as the less lost will receive it in guineas 
 at twenty-nine shillings each. 'Tis troublesome to be 
 a loser, but it was my own fault to accept it this way.' 
 In this same letter the writer expresses regret that 
 Tonson ' will not allow anything towards the notes,' 
 and, apparently growing petulant towards the end of 
 the epistle, exclaims, ' Upon trial I find all of your 
 
 5 ' Probably a goldsmith, and well known afterwards as the 
 cashier of the Southsea Company.' Malone. 
 
 6 Dryden's complaint about bad money is frequent in his 
 letters to Tonson, and the incident has afforded Macaulay 
 material for some comment on the coinage of that time. There 
 is absolutely no foundation for the legend that Tonson wanted to 
 cheat Dryden by paying him in debased coin. In 1695, pro- 
 bably in April, Dryden writes : ' You know money is now very 
 scrupulously received ; in the last which you did me the favour 
 to change for my wife, besides the clipped money, there were at 
 least forty shillings brass.' It has been observed by one writer 
 that the gold and silver coinage remained in a depreciated state 
 until the new coinage took place under the care of Charles Mon- 
 tague, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The value of a guinea was 
 fluctuating and uncertain. 
 
 M
 
 1 62 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 trade are sharpers, and you not more than the others ; 
 therefore I have not wholly left you. Mr. Aston does 
 not blame you for getting as good a bargain as you 
 could, though I could have got a hundred pounds 
 more.' 
 
 All men of light and leading subscribed to the 
 Virgil. It was a known secret that its dedication 
 to King William would be a good stroke of business, 
 and Jacob Tonson, ardent Whig as he was, was ex- 
 ceedingly anxious to bring about this consummation. 
 But Dryden had had enough of political and religious 
 somersaulting. Writing to his two sons at Rome, 
 where they were employed in the Pope's household, 
 under date Sept. 3, 1697, Dryden observes: 'He 
 [Tonson] has missed of his design in the dedication, 
 though he had prepared the book for it, for in every 
 figure of Eneas he has caused him to be drawn like 
 King William, with a hooked nose,' Malone tran- 
 scribed from the Harleian MSS. two verses occasioned 
 by this circumstance : 
 
 1 TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE NEXT EDITION OF DRYDEN'S 
 
 VIRGIL. 
 ' Old Jacob by deep judgment sway'd, 
 
 To please the wise beholders, 
 Has placed old Nassau's hook-nosed head 
 On poor Eneas' shoulders. 
 
 ' To make the parallel hold tack, 
 
 Methinks there's little lacking ; 
 One took his father pick-a-pack, 
 And t'other sent his packing.' 
 
 The principal plays and poems which Tonson pub- 
 lished for Dryden are : ' Troilus and Cressida ' (1679),
 
 Jacob Tonson. 163 
 
 ' Spanish Fryer' (1681, with R. Taylor), ' Threnodia ' 
 (1685), 'King Arthur' (1691), 'Alexander's Feast' 
 (1697). On January 12, 1 686-7, ' Mr. Jacob Tonson 
 enters this caveat that no person enter the poem 
 called The Hind and ye Panther.' Tonson also pub- 
 lished that unhappy attempt, 'Britannia Rediviva" 
 (1688). During the last ten or dozen years of the 
 seventeenth century, Tonson acted as 'sponsor' for 
 a large number of publications, and partly shared, in 
 addition, the responsibility of much other literature 
 than that on the imprint of which his name alone 
 appeared. He had become a great figure in the pub- 
 lishing line, and few poets except, perhaps, the 
 ultra-Tories were there whose productions were not 
 issued more or less under the direction of Jacob. In 
 1696 we find Dryden negotiating with Tonson for the 
 publication of his son's play ; and at about the same 
 period Tonson issued Ch. Hopkins' ' Boadicea ' 
 (1697) an d 'Friendship Improved ' (1700). He had 
 for several years partly published Congreve's and 
 Otway's plays. Mr. John Dennis, 'the renowned 
 critick,' and Sir Richard Steele (the latter at that 
 time plain Mr.) had each entrusted some work to 
 Jacob, who, in addiHon to sundry poetical effusions, 
 could also supply his customers with Jeremy Collier's 
 translation of Tully's ' Five Books of Morals ; or, the 
 Final End of Man ;' with ' The Art of Making Love,' 
 which went through two or three editions ; and with 
 Dr. Lister's account of his ' Journey to Paris in 1658.' 
 Tate's 7 ' Monumental Poem,' in memory of Sir 
 
 7 Swift, with exquisite irony, says, ' Nahum Tate, who is 
 ready to take oath that he has caused many reams of verse to be 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 G. Treby, once Chief Justice of H.M.'s Court of 
 Common Pleas, also bore Jacob's name, as did the 
 ' Reports ' of Sir Peyton Ventris ; the opera 'Arsinoe/ 
 by Clayton ; and a great many others. Mr. Robert 
 Bell, in his excellent edition of Dryden's poems, 
 points out that, according to an entry in the 
 Stationers' books, made by Tonson, in April, 1686, 
 Dryden had completed, by James the Second's com- 
 mand, a translation of Varilla's 'History of Heresies ;' 
 but its publication was suppressed, in consequence 
 of the credit of its author being destroyed by the 
 appearance of Burnet's ' Reflections.' Witty Mr. 
 Prior, too, was reckoned among Jacob's authors ; 8 
 and in September, 1695, Prior, writing from Hague, 
 sends the bookseller the ' Ode sur la Prise de Namur, 
 par les armes du Roy, 1'annee 1692. Par Monsieur 
 Boileau Despreaux,' which, with the English version, 
 ' An English Ballad, on the Taking of Namur by the 
 Kingof Great Britain, 1695,' appears in mostcollections 
 of Prior's poems. Basil Kennett, brother of the more 
 famous White Kennett, Bishop of Peterboro', writes 
 Tonson, some time during 1696, in this strain : ' I 
 
 published, whereof both himself and his bookseller (if lawfully 
 required) can still produce authentic copies, and therefore 
 wonders why the world is pleased to make such a secret of it.' 
 
 8 Dryden was ' Jacob's poet ' just as much as Pope was 
 ' Lintot's poet,' and Byron, Murray's. Byron relates that 
 Murray was congratulated by a .brother publisher upon having 
 such a poet as himself. ' As if,' says the noble writer, ' one 
 were a packhorse, or ass, or anything that was his,' or, as Mr. 
 Packwood, who replied to some inquiry after ' Odes and 
 Razors,' exclaimed, 'Lord, sir, we keeps a poet.' ' " Childe 
 Harold " and " Cookeries " is much wanted,' an Edinburgh 
 bookseller wrote Mlirray.
 
 Jacob Tonson. 165 
 
 wish I could contribute anything to fill up an odd 
 page ; but have no copy that would deserve the 
 meanest place in a collection of your making. How- 
 ever, if you continue your commands, rather than 
 disobey them, I will venture on some little attempt 
 or other, not to serve you, but to show my unfitness 
 for your service.' 
 
 Either in 1697 or 1698 Jacob Tonson removed his 
 sphere of operations from the Judge's Head 9 to 
 Gray's Inn Gate. The reason of this removal may or 
 may not have been from the most common of causes 
 'more commodious premises/ We have already 
 intimated the possibility that Jacob succeeded to the 
 business his brother Richard had carried on at Gray's 
 Inn Gate. So far, we have not been able to trace 
 Richard's name as bookseller later than about 1690; 
 and even at this date his publications are very few, 
 and include nothing of any importance. Jacob 
 remained at Gray's Inn Gate for twelve or thirteen 
 years. 
 
 Tonson's name will for ever be associated with the 
 production of Milton's ' Paradise Lost.' and also with 
 Shakespeare's works, as well as Dryden's. Sir 
 Godfrey Kneller's portrait of Tonson, with a folio 
 copy of ' Paradise Lost ' in his hands, is probably 
 well known. Dryden, with the author's permission, 
 it is said, turned Milton's story into an opera, entitled 
 ' The .State of Innocence,' which was published in 
 1674, the year in which Milton died. Simmons did 
 not long retain the sole ownership of Milton's poem, 
 
 9 John Bayley was living at this address in 1708, when he 
 issued C. Goring's ' Irene,' and S. Billingsley in or about 1730.
 
 1 6 6 The Ea rlier History oj English Bookselling. 
 
 but transferred his entire interest to Brabazon 
 Aylmer, another bookseller, for 25/. Aylmer had 
 not long enjoyed this copyright before he offered it 
 to Tonson. Jacob hesitated much before closing any 
 agreement, even after Dryden had told him that 
 ' Paradise Lost ' was one of the greatest poems ever 
 produced in this or any other country. The times 
 ' were not propitious to blank verse upon a sacred 
 subject,' and Jacob was not at all certain about the 
 proposed speculation turning up trumps. However, 
 on August 17, 1683, he purchased half of the copy- 
 right, and the remaining half on March 24, 1690, 
 Aylmer making a fairly good bargain out of the 
 transaction. But four or five years passed before 
 Tonson took steps to realize this outlay, and, after 
 issuing proposals for bringing out the poem by sub- 
 scription, the fourth edition of ' Paradise Lost' appeared 
 in 1688, in folio, with a portrait by White, illustra- 
 tions, and a list of more than 500 subscribers, including 
 most of the eminent men of the day. Dryden was 
 among them, and wrote the following lines, which 
 were printed by way of motto under the portrait of 
 the poet : 
 
 ' Three poets in three distant ages born, 
 Greece, Italy, England did adorn, 
 The first in loftiness of mind surpassed ; 
 The next in majesty ; in both the last. 
 The force of nature could no further go ; 
 To make a third she joined the former two.' 
 
 Tonson soon discovered the great value of the 
 literary property which he had acquired. The fifth, 
 or Tonson's second, edition appeared also in a large
 
 Jacob Tonson. 167 
 
 folio in 1692, and a sixth in 1695. The last is 
 remarkable from the fact that it contains the first, 
 and also one of the best, commentary on the poem, 
 which was made by a Scotch schoolmaster, then 
 resident in London, named Patrick Hume. The 
 famous essays of Addison's, in the Spectator, also 
 acted as a considerable impetus in the sale of this 
 work, although its greatness was an acknowledged 
 fact long before their appearance. Tonson himself 
 had published at least six editions making nine in 
 all before Addison called the attention of his readers 
 to this remarkable poem. Tonson probably made 
 many thousands of pounds out of ' Paradise Lost,' 
 which, indeed, according to Spence (Singer's Ed., 
 p. 261), Jacob verbally admitted having made more 
 out of than any other poem. For more than half a 
 century the Tonsons held undisputed and exclusive 
 right in Milton's poems ; and although the tacit 
 acknowledgment held good until 1750, when other 
 publishers also issued editions of Milton's poems, it 
 was not until 1767 that the connection between 
 Milton and the Tonsons finally ceased. In that year, 
 Jacob Tonson, tertius, the grandnephew of the first 
 bookselling Jacob, and the last bookseller of the 
 name, died. 
 
 The last work of any note which Tonson published 
 for Dryden was ' The Fables/ which the poet finished 
 in December, 1699. Dr. Johnson gives the following 
 agreement made respecting this last work : 
 
 ' I do hereby promise to pay John Dryden, Esq., 
 on order, on the 25th of March, 1699, the sum of two 
 hundred and fifty guineas, in consideration of ten
 
 1 68 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 thousand verses, which the said John Dryden, Esq., 
 is to deliver to me, Jacob Tonson, when finished, 
 whereof seven thousand five hundred verses, more or 
 less, are already in the said Jacob Tonson's posses- 
 sion. And I do hereby promise, and engage myself, 
 to make up the said sum of two hundred and fifty 
 guineas, three hundred pounds sterling, to the said 
 John Dryden, Esq., his executors, administrators, or 
 assigns, at the beginning of the second impression of 
 the said ten thousand verses. 
 
 ' In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand 
 and seal, this 2oth day of March, i69f . 
 
 JACOB TONSON. 
 ' Sealed and delivered, being 
 first duly stampt, pursuant 
 to the Act of Parliament for 
 that purpose, in the pre- 
 sence of 
 
 ' BEN. PORTLOCK, 
 ' WILL. CONGREVE.' 
 
 Dr. Johnson also gives Dryden's receipt, dated 
 March 24, 1698, the witness to which was Charles 
 Dryden. The doctor also points out that the con- 
 tract manifestly relates to the volume of ' Fables',' 
 ' which contains above twelve thousand verses, and 
 for which, therefore, the payment must have been 
 afterwards enlarged.' The work was issued in folio, 
 and contains Dryden's remarkable song, the second St. 
 Cecilia Ode, commonly known as ' Alexander's Feast.' 
 
 Dryden died in May, 1700. The Post-boy of April 
 30, announced that ' John Dryden, Esq., the famous
 
 Jacob Tonson. 169 
 
 poet, lies a-dying,' and according to Mr. Saintsbury, 
 ' at three o'clock the next morning he died very quietly 
 and peacefully.' Tonson's first and only great patron 
 had been connected, with him for a period of over 
 twenty years. 
 
 But apart from his close association with the works 
 of Dryden, Milton, and Shakespeare, Jacob Tonson's 
 immortality is assured through his connection with 
 the famous Kit-Cat Club. This club was formed 
 about 1688 by the leading Whigs of the day, and was 
 held in Shire Lane, now Lower Serle's Place, the 
 chief object of the members being to ensure the Pro- 
 testant succession to William the Third. The title 
 was derived from the cognomen of Christopher Cat, 
 a pastry-cook, whose mutton pies. were considered 
 very excellent, and in which commodity, it seems the 
 Kit-Cats largely indulged. The toasts, however, were 
 said to be in honour of old cats and young kits. 
 Ward, the scurrilous author of a ' Secret History of 
 Clubs' (1709), states that the club was founded by ' an 
 amphibious mortal, chief merchant to the Muses,' 
 by which he refers of course, to Jacob Tonson, whom 
 he also describes as waiting hopefully in his shop for 
 the coming of some more of ' his new profitable chaps, 
 who, having more wit than experience, put but a 
 slender value as yet upon their maiden performances.' 
 Tonson, it seems, not satisfied with standing the usual 
 ' whet ' to his authors, willingly provides pastry to eat 
 therewith ; still not being contented, he proposes a 
 weekly meeting, where not only the feast could be 
 discussed, but prospective poems, and other literary 
 merchandise also. This ' generous proposal was
 
 1 70 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 very readily agreed to by the whole poetic class, and 
 the cook's name being Christopher, for brevity called 
 Kit, and his sign the ' Cat and Fiddle,' they very 
 merrily derived a quaint denomination from puss and 
 her master, and from thence called themselves the Kit- 
 Cat Club. Tonson was secretary to the club, which 
 migrated from Shire Lane to the ' Fountain Tavern,' 
 in the Strand, and from thence, at the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century, to a small house adjoining 
 the mansion of Barnes Elms, near Barnes ; Count 
 Heidegger, the founder of Italian Operas, resided in 
 the mansion. Charles Knight states that ' George 
 the Second was here entertained with displays of fire- 
 works and illuminated lamps, but the ' boets and 
 bainters,' who were not in good odour with the 
 Hanoverian dynasty, conferred a lustre upon Barnes 
 Elms which did not go out so quickly as Heidegger's 
 fireworks.' Sir Richard Phillips, in ' A Morning's 
 Walk from London to Kew ' (1817) describes the ap- 
 pearance at that time of the famous house in which the 
 Kit- Cats formerly revelled. Phillips says, ' I found 
 the Kit-Cat club-room nearly as it existed in the days 
 of its glory. It is eighteen feet high, and forty feet 
 long by twenty feet wide. The mouldings and orna- 
 ments were in the most superb fashion of its age, but 
 the whole was falling to pieces, from the effects of the 
 dry-rot. My attention was chiefly attracted by the 
 faded cloth-hanging of the room, whose red colour 
 once set off the famous portraits of the club that hung 
 around it. Their marks and sizes were still visible, 
 and their numbers and names remained as written in 
 chalk, for the guidance of the hangers. Thus was I,
 
 Jacob Tonson. 171 
 
 as it were, by these still legible names, brought into 
 personal contact with Addison, Steele and Congreve 
 and Garth and Dryden, 1 and with many hereditary 
 nobles, remembered only because they were patrons 
 of those natural nobles.' The portraits of tne members 
 of the Kit-Cat were painted by Kneller, and are still 
 in the possesssion of the descendant of the Tonson 
 family, residing at Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire. In 
 addition to those mentioned by Phillips, the others of 
 the more famous painted by Kneller, and known by 
 name at least, even to the present generation, are, 
 Robert Walpole, William Pulteney, Vanbrugh, Con- 
 greve, Arthur Mainwaring, Francis Lord Godolphin, 
 &c. The number of portraits is forty-two or forty- 
 three. They are on canvas somewhat smaller than a 
 three-quarters, but more than a half-length ; a size 
 which, according to Nichols, has ever since been de- 
 nominated as Kit-Cat from this circumstance. The 
 canvas is sufficiently long enough to admit a hand 
 the size being 36 in. long by 28 in. wide. A splendid 
 volume under the title ' Kit-Cat Club/ done 
 from the original paintings of Sir Godfrey Kneller, 
 by Mr. Faber, sold by J. Tonson in the Strand, 
 and F. Faber at the ' Golden Head, in Blooms- 
 bury Square,' was published in 1735 ; contain- 
 ing an engraved title-page and dedication, and 43 
 portraits, beginning with Sir Godfrey Kneller, and end- 
 ing with Mr. Tonson, who is represented in a gown 
 and cap, holding in his right hand a volume lettered 
 
 1 It is to be very much doubted whether Dryden ever frater- 
 nized with the Kit-Cats, Tory as he was. His portrait, moreover, 
 does not appear among the engraved series.
 
 1 7 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ' Paradise Lost.' The portraits were re-engraved in 
 1821, and were issued with illustrative text under the 
 title of Memoirs of the Celebrated Persons composing 
 the Kit-Cat Club/ a production which the Quarterly 
 Review stigmatizes as ' one of the most blundering 
 pieces of patchwork that the scissors of a hackney 
 editor ever produced.' 
 
 The Kit-Cats came in for the usual share of abuse 
 from the Tories, and Tonson in particular was singled 
 out as the chief object of attack. One of these, 
 ' Faction Displayed,' 2 1704,13 remarkable in embody- 
 ing a triplet which had been written by Dryden 
 to Tonson, when the former had sent to the latter for 
 some money, which was refused. Dryden, it is said 
 by Malone, wrote the following and sent them to 
 Tonson with the message : ' Tell the dog that he who 
 wrote these lines can write more :' 
 
 'With leering look, bull-fac'd and freckled fair, 
 With two left-legs, and Judas-coloured hair, 
 With frowzy pores that taint the ambient air.' 
 
 The lines were not, of course, intended by Dryden to 
 appear in print. In 'Faction Displayed,' the author of 
 which is not known for certain, but was presumably 
 William Shippen, further allusion to Tonson is made 
 under the thin disguise of Bibliopolo, and following 
 Dryden's triplet come these lines (Tonson appears on 
 the scene just as the assembly of faction's ' darling 
 votaries ' is about to adjourn) : 
 
 ' Sweating and puffing for awhile he stood, 
 And then broke forth in this insulting mood ; 
 
 2 See Malone's Dryden, i. pt. i. iii. ; Notes and Queries, 6th, 
 S. X., 514, and XI. 37.
 
 Jacob Tonson. 173 
 
 " I am the touchstone of all modern wit ; 
 Without my stamp in vain your poets write ; 
 Those only purchase ever-living fame, 
 That in my Miscellany plant their name. 
 Nor therefore think that I can bring no aid, 
 Because I follow a mechanic trade : 
 I'll print your pamphlets, and your humours spread. 
 I am the founder of your lov'd Kit-Cat, 
 A club that gave direction to your state ; 
 'Twas there we first instructed all our youth, 
 To talk profane, and latfgh at sacred truth : 
 We taught them how to toast, and rhyme and bite, 
 To sleep away the day, and drink away the night." 
 Some this fantastic speech approv'd, some sneer'd, 
 The wight grew choleric, and disappear^!.' 
 
 Another satire on the society, entitled ' The Kit- 
 Cats : a poem,' is attributed to Sir Richard Blackmore. 
 In this poem Tonson is frequently referred to as Bocai, 
 a transposition of his Christian name. It is a lengthy , 
 tedious piece, from which a couple of lines might be 
 fairly applied to the poet himself, 
 
 ' More had he said, but strove in vain to keep 
 His falling eyelids ope, and fell down fast asleep,' 
 
 had we not known that Blackmore wrote half a dozen 
 epics, and was not, consequently, of a very sleepy 
 disposition. Under the circumstances, Jacob was 
 naturally open to all sorts of attacks, insinuations and 
 libels, even when the charges had no foundation in 
 fact. Be that as it may, Jacob was an indispensable 
 member of the society. When in Paris in 1703, the 
 ' proud ' Duke of Somerset writes him, ' Our club is 
 dissolved till you revive it again, which we are 
 impatient of.' Vanbrugh, also, is anxious for Tonson's
 
 1 74 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 return, and on June 15, 1703, writes in this strain: 
 ' The Kitt-Catt wants you, much more than you ever 
 can do them. Those who are in town are in great 
 desire of waiting on you at Barnes-elms ; not that they 
 have finished their pictures neither ; tho', to excuse 
 them (as well as myself), Sir Godfrey has been most 
 in fault. The fool has got a country house near Hamp- 
 ton Court, and is so busy about fitting it up (to receive 
 nobody), that there's no getting him to work.' Singer 
 in his edition of Spence's Anecdotes,' quotes a charac- 
 teristic anecdote from ' Richardsoniana ' (1776), said to 
 have been derived from Pope. Old Jacob Tonson got 
 a great many fine pictures, and two of himself, from 
 Kneller, by a judicious use of ' soft soap.' Sir 
 Godfrey was very covetous, but then he was very vain, 
 and a great glutton ; so he played these passions 
 against the other ; besides telling him he was the 
 greatest master that ever was, sending him every now 
 and then, a haunch of venison, and dozens of excellent 
 
 claret. ' O my G , man' (said he once to Vander 
 
 Gutcht), ' this old Jacob loves me, he sends me good 
 things ; the venison was fat ! Old Geekie, the 
 surgeon, got several fine pictures of him too, and an 
 excellent one of himself ; but then his praises were as 
 fat as Jacob's venison ; neither could be too fat for 
 Sir Godfrey.' 
 
 Jacob's rise in the world, among the big-wigs, was 
 not without its drawbacks, if we may believe Nicholas 
 Rowe's 3 inscription, published in 1714, in the form of 
 a dialogue between Congreve and Tonson : 
 
 3 Tonson had published Rowe's ' Fair Penitent ' in 1703, and 
 his ' Ulysses' in 1706.
 
 Jacob l^onson. 175 
 
 ' While, in your days of reputation, 
 You for blue garters had not such a passion, 
 While yet you did not live, as now your trade is. 
 To drink with noble lords, and toast their ladies, 
 Thou, Jacob Tonson, were to my conceiving 
 The cheerfullest, best, honest fellow living.' 
 
 In the arrangement of the Kit-Cat portraits Tonson 
 and Vanbrugh appear side by side, a circumstance 
 which probably causes Rowe to put the following 
 words into the mouth of the bookseller : 
 
 ' I'm in with Captain Vanbrugh at the present, 
 A most sweet-natured gentleman and pleasant ; 
 He writes you comedies, draws schemes, and models, 
 And builds duke's houses upon very odd hills.' 
 
 In 1703 Jacob Tonson made a journey to Holland 
 for the purpose of purchasing suitable paper and get- 
 ting engravings made for his noble edition of Caesar's 
 ' Commentaries,' which appeared in royal folio with 87 
 plates, in 1712, and under the editorial care of Dr. 
 Samuel Clarke. This edition, which John Nichols 
 describes as ' perhaps the most magnificent work that 
 has been issued from the English press,' is still com- 
 mercially valuable. When at Amsterdam, Jacob's 
 letters were sometimes addressed to him at ' Mr. 
 Morris', the English house near the Fishmarket,' and 
 sometimes to him at ' Mr. Valcks, on the Dam, near 
 the Stadhouse.' The stay seems to have lasted two 
 or three months. The ostensible object of his journey 
 was much doubted by the opposite political party, as 
 will be seen by the letter addressed to Jacob by Van- 
 brugh, dated June 15, 1703, from which an extract 
 has already been quoted : ' The Tory's (even the
 
 1 76 The Earlier History of EnglisJi Bookselling. 
 
 wisest of them) have been very grave upon your going 
 to Holland ; they often say (with a nod) that Caesar's 
 ' Commentaries' might have been carried through with- 
 out a voyage to Holland ; there were meanings in 
 that subscription, and list of names -may serve for 
 farther engagements than paying three guineas a piece 
 for a book ; in short I could win a hundred pounds 
 if I were sure you had not made a trip to Holland, 
 which you may possibly hear sworn when' you arrive 
 home again ; so I'd advise you to bring a very exact 
 journal, well attested.' Jacob Tonson, therefore, was 
 obviously a man of considerable note in the political 
 as well as the literary world. 
 
 Tonson is said to have removed from Gray's Inn 
 Gate to ' Shakespeare's Head/ over against Catherine 
 Street, in the Strand, about the year 1712. The third 
 great epoch in Tonson's career was undoubtedly the 
 projecting of an edition' of Shakespeare, edited by N. 
 Rowe in 1709-10, with Charles Gildon's critical re- 
 marks. The edition was in 7 vols. octavo, and was 
 the first of the great dramatist issued with illustra- 
 tions, which, as Dibdin truly remarks, were sufficiently 
 characteristic : e.g., that to Hamlet in the closet scene 
 with the Queen, who is dressed like Queen Anne. In 
 1714 a I2mo edition in 9 vols. was issued, ' and then 
 ' expired without a struggle/ says Dibdin in his 
 ' Library Companion.' 
 
 The following sums, 'taken from the books of the 
 late Mr. Tonson/ were paid for Shakespearian 
 editorial work at various times: To Rowe, $61. los. ; 
 Hughes (for correcting the press and making an 
 index to Mr. Rowe's I2mo edition), 28/. 7s. ; Pope,
 
 Jacob Tonson. 177 
 
 2I7/. 12s. ; Fenton (for assisting Pope, and correcting 
 for the press), 3O/. 14^. ; Gay (also for similar assist- 
 ance), 35/. 17 's. 6d. ; Whalley (for correcting proofs 
 of Pope's I2mo edition), I2/. ; Theobald, 65 2/. ior. ; 
 Warburton, 5OO/. ; Johnson, for two editions, 475/. ; 
 Capell, 3OO/. Nearly a quarter of a century had 
 passed since the fourth folio appeared, and a popular 
 edition was a safe speculation. We have scarcely 
 any facts concerning the number of copies printed. 
 Of Pope's in six volumes only 750 copies were 
 worked off, the subscription price being six guineas. 
 Theobald's was larger ; the number of volumes issued 
 is stated to be 12,860, or rather less than 2000 copies. 
 
 Naturally, Addison's ' Cato ' bore Jacob Tonson's 
 imprint ; for the copyright of which IO7/. los. was paid, 
 April 7, 1713. Spence records a statement of Pope's 
 that Tonson did not like Addison. ' He had a quarrel 
 with him, and after quitting the Secretaryship, used 
 frequently to say of him, ' One day or other, you'll 
 see that man a bishop ! I'm sure he looks that way ; 
 and indeed, I ever thought him a priest in his heart.' 
 
 Two or three very interesting letters from Addison 
 to Tonson were first printed in the Gents. Mag. for 1834, 
 concerning an edition of a translation of Ovid's ' Meta- 
 morphoses,' which was produced in 1717, and held the 
 field until the appearance of Beloe's edition in 1791. 
 As an instance of the esteem in which Tonson was 
 held, it is only necessary to point out that Addison, 
 in endeavouring to secure the help of Dr. Haines in 
 the Ovid, was informed by the doctor ' that he did 
 not know how to deny Mr. Tonson any request that 
 he made.' The Tonsons, also, must have made a very 
 
 N
 
 1 78 The Earlier History of English Bo)kselling. 
 
 large sum out of the octavo editions of the Tatler,. 
 the Spectator, and the Guardian, of each of which 
 periodicals they issued numerous and large editions. 
 
 In i7i9Tonson spent some months in Paris/ where 
 he gained a considerable sum by adventuring in the 
 Mississippi Scheme. Good-fortune, like ill-luck, rarely 
 comes singly, for, as some recompense for his attach- 
 ment to the Whigs, and probably through the influence 
 of the Duke of Newcastle and Secretary Craggs, 
 Tonson secured a grant to himself, and his nephew 
 and namesake, a son of his elder brother Richard, of 
 the office of Stationer, Bookbinder, Bookseller, and 
 Printer, to some of the principal public boards and 
 great offices, for the term of forty years. In 1720 old 
 Jacob seems to have left the entire business in the 
 charge of his nephew, who, in 1733, obtained from Sir 
 Robert Walpole a further grant of the employment 
 just specified for forty years more, to commence at 
 the expiration of the former term. This lucrative 
 appointment was enjoyed by the Tonson family ortheir 
 assigns till the month of January, 1800. But, accord- 
 ing to Nichols (' Lit. Anec.' viii. 45 3), .this appointment 
 could not have been actually in the possession of the 
 
 4 This fact give us an opportunity of quoting, not only two 
 interesting examples of the ' Society news ' of our forefathers, but 
 also of illustrating the extraordinary inconsistency of statements 
 that appeared simultaneously. ' We hear J acob Tonson, senior, 
 bookseller, is dead at Paris,' was a statement that appeared in 
 Read's Weekly Journal, of Saturday, October 17, 1719. 'Mr. 
 Jacob Tonson, sen., is so well recovered of his illness at Paris, 
 that his nephew, Mr. Jacob Tonson, jr., will return with the next 
 pacquet,' was one of the items which was published in The 
 Orphan Revived of the same date as the previous extract !
 
 Jacob Tonson. 1 79 
 
 Tonson family for very long after it was first acquired. 
 Because we are told, at the reference just given, that 
 John Mount and Thomas Sage 'purchased the re- 
 maining term in old Jacob Tonson's Patent for sup- 
 plying many of the public offices (the Stamp-office 
 among the rest), with stationery, &c., upon the death of 
 the younger Jacob Tonson, the other brother Richard 
 not choosing to continue the business.' 
 
 The fall of the Whig ministry in the latter part of 
 1710 was necessarily the occasion for much ' shuffling ' 
 of cards with respect to Governmental appoint- 
 ments, and its effect upon Tonson, though not quite 
 serious, may be gathered from Swift's 'Journal to 
 Stella,' of July 2, 1711 : " Mr. Addison and I have 
 at last met again. I dined with him and Steele 
 to-day, at young Jacob Tonson's. The two Jacobs 
 think it is I who have made the Secretary take from 
 them the printing of the Gazette, which they are going 
 to lose, and Ben Tooke and another are to have it. 
 Jacob came to me t'other day to make his court ; 
 but I told him it was too late, and that it was not my 
 doing. I reckon they will lose it in a week or two ' 
 Steele was the Gazette writer, and purposely kept it 
 ' very weak and very insipid.' Jacob's connection with 
 the Gazette was as (nominally) the printer, he being, 
 as appears from his Will, in partnership with John 
 Watts. 
 
 Tonson's name was taken as a guarantee by the 
 book-buying public. He seems to have done best, 
 however, with his republications. In 1702, a couple of 
 years after the poet's death, he issued the ' Works of 
 the late famous Mr. Dryden,' in 4 vols. folio, the sale 
 
 N 2
 
 1 8o The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 of which was considerable. The ' new editions ' 
 which he published in the subsequent twenty years 
 were numerous. In 1702, also, he had issued Cowley's 
 'Works.' One of the latest editions of Dryden was 
 the six-volumed one in I2mo, that came out in 
 1/25. This contained the Dramatic works only ; 
 the illustrations are after Gravelot, and the dedication 
 to the then Lord Chamberlain, the Duke of New- 
 castle, is from Congreve's pen. This particular 
 edition is curious, inasmuch as, although bearing 
 Tonson's general imprint, several of the plays have on 
 their title-pages the names of the booksellers in whom 
 the copyright was at that time vested. M. Poulson 
 occurs on the ' Kind Keeper,' and on ' GEdipus ;' G. 
 Strahan and B. Motte on ' Don Sebastian ;' and a 
 small dialogue at the end of the last volume bears 
 Motte's name. Speaking of Denham, Dibdin says, 
 ' The neatest edition of his works, with which I am 
 acquainted, is that of Tonson, of 1719 ; and there be 
 those who love to possess the edition of Donne's 
 poems, of the same date, and by the same printer.' 
 Tonson issued the poems of Waller in 1711, with 
 illustrations, and of this edition, Dibdin no partial 
 judge speaks in high praise. Among other im- 
 portant works that came from the Tonsons, was 
 Tasso's ' Jerusalem Delivered' (1724), in two quarto 
 volumes, and an edition of Beaumont and Fletcher in 
 ten volumes, which is still held in high esteem. In 
 1734-5, ' J. Tonson, and the rest of the proprietors,' 
 published an edition of the plays six in number 
 attributed to Shakespeare. ' The History of Sir John 
 Oldcastle ' contains the following curious 'advertise-
 
 Jacob Tonson. 181 
 
 ment : ' 'J. Tonson, and the other proprietors of 
 the copies of Shakespeare's plays, designing to finish 
 their edition now publishing, with all speed give 
 notice, that with the last play they will deliver gratis 
 general titles to each volume of the whole work, so 
 that each play may be bound in its proper place,' 
 &c., &c. ' N. B. Whereas one R. Walker has pro- 
 posed to pirate all Shakespear's plays, but through 
 ignorance of what plays are Shakespear's, did in several 
 advertisements propose to print ' CEdipus King of 
 Thebes ' as one of Shakespear's plays ; and has since 
 printed Tate's ' King Lear ' instead of Shakespear's, 
 and in that and Hamlet has omitted one half of the 
 genuine edition printed by J. Tonson and the other 
 proprietors ; the world will therefore judge how likely 
 they are to have a complete collection of Shake- 
 spear's plays from the said R. Walker.' With re- 
 ference to Shakespeare ; it is exceedingly probable 
 that the very last speculation into which the Tonsons' 
 firm entered was the edition of Capell,in ' ten sprucely 
 printed crown octavo volumes.' Indeed, it is almost 
 a certainty that the last bookselling Tonson died 
 before the work was actually out of the printers' hands. 
 Capell's dedication was dated November 9, 1767, 
 whilst Jacob Tonson the third died in March of the 
 same year. It may be assumed, however, that 
 his younger brother took a little interest in the busi- 
 ness for a short time after his decease. 
 
 After a life of unwearied exertion, honest trading, 
 and unflagging zeal, old Jacob Tonson died in 1736, 
 having principally resided on his estate in Hereford- 
 shire since about 1720. His nephew, Jacob Tonson
 
 1 8 2 The Ea rlier History of English Bookselh rig. 
 
 secundus, predeceased him by four months only, dying 
 at Barnes, November 15, 1735. Nichols gives cur- 
 rency to the anecdote, which he strongly doubts, 
 relating to the death-bed scene of Jacob Tonson. 
 Jacob is reported to have said, ' I wish I had the 
 world to begin again,' and having been asked why 
 he expressed such a wish, replied, ' Because then I 
 should have died worth a hundred thousand pounds, 
 whereas now I die worth only eighty thousand 
 pounds.' This anecdote was probably manufactured 
 by some libellous person who, perhaps, had a grudge 
 against the bookseller. But the same anecdote is 
 also related of the younger Jacob Tonson, in which 
 case, however, it is still less authentic, for he died 
 worth at least the hundred thousand pounds which 
 was to have consummated his earthly bliss. The 
 Will of the younger Jacob was written by himself, 
 and fills 27 pages. ' After having devised his estates 
 in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, 
 and bequeathed no less a sum than 34,ooo/. to his three 
 daughters and his younger son Samuel, and disposed 
 of his patent, he mentions his uncle, old Jacob 
 Tonson, to whom he leaves fifty guineas for mourning ; 
 but knowing his love of quiet and retirement, he says 
 he would not burthen him with the office of executor 
 of his Will. He, however, recommends his family to 
 his uncle's care, and exhorts all his children to 
 remember their duty to their superiors and in- 
 feriors, tenderly adding, " and so God bless you 
 all ! " ' 
 
 Lingering for a moment or two over the character 
 cf old Jacob Tonson, the barber- surgeon's s6n, we
 
 Jacob Tonson. 183 
 
 find it to be indubitably that of a thorough trades- 
 man, not perhaps of a hero, but certainly of a generous, 
 hearty, and good man with a plentiful sprinkling of 
 the worldly in his composition. From his very 
 earliest associations, excepting the occasional bicker- 
 ings of Dryden, the correspondence which have been 
 preserved prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that 
 Jacob was esteemed by all the great men with whom 
 he came in contact. Congreve's letters to the old 
 bookseller are all couched in the most friendly and 
 amiable terms. When in France in 1719, Vanbrugh, 
 speaking of a visit to Cleremont, writes; November 
 5, in this strain : ' There was much talk about you ; 
 and I do assure you, with no small regard and affec- 
 tion from everybody. Mr. Spence was there, who 
 gave us a very agreeable and friendly account of you, 
 and joined heartily with us, in drinking round your 
 health, and your return.' Surely this is not the 
 language of a sycophant, whose officiousness was to 
 be substantially rewarded ! When at Hazle, near 
 Ledbury, in Herefordshire, in 1722, Vanbrugh writes 
 (June 1 8): ' You have regaled me with the best sider 
 I ever drank since I was born ; but if you had sent 
 me a bit of a letter along with it, I should have 
 thought it better still.' Indeed, nearly all letters to 
 him contain acknowledgment of some kindness 
 received or good office performed by Jacob. Pope him- 
 self, who ran amuck nearly every one, seems to have 
 been on friendly if not very intimate terms with him. 
 In 1706 Tonson endeavoured to secure the right of 
 publishing Pope's works, and wrote : ' I remember I 
 have formerly seen you in my shop, and am sorry I
 
 1 84 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 did not improve my acquaintance with you. If you 
 design your poem 5 for the press, no one can be more 
 careful in printing it, nor no one can give greater 
 encouragement to it than, Sir,' &c. Pope's pastorals 
 were published in Tonson's Miscellany, 1709. Not- 
 withstanding the fact that Pope finally went over to 
 Lintot, Spence records several anecdotes which can- 
 not but lead us to conclude that the two were on 
 excellent terms. For example: 'Ay, Mr. Tonson, 
 he was ultiimis Romanorum ' (with a sigh) : speak- 
 ing of poor Mr. Congreve, who died a year or 
 two before. (Section 1728-30.) On March 20, 
 1730-1, Gay writes to Swift, ' Lord Oxford, Lord 
 Bathurst, he [Pope] and I dined together at Barnes 
 with old Jacob Tonson.' And yet Jacob does not 
 quite escape from Pope's immortal satire, which was 
 published only about three years previous to the 
 dinner of which Gay speaks. In the Dunciad, as it 
 now stands Lintot is charged with . emulating ' left- 
 legged Jacob,' but before Jacob's death the reading 
 was either ' with steps unequal ' or ' with legs ex- 
 panded.' We have already seen the origin of the 
 epithet ' left-legged,' and it may be taken for granted 
 that old Tonson 's gait was an awkward one. He is 
 also described as short and stout. Apropos of 
 Tonson's legs the following anecdote is related : 
 ' The figure of Charles the First by Vandyke in the 
 Walpole collection has a singular defect ; both the 
 gauntlets being drawn for the right hand. When 
 this picture was in the Wharton collection, old 
 Jacob Tonson, who had remarkably ugly legs, was 
 6 Tonson saw a Pastoral of Pope's in MS.
 
 Jacob Touson. 185 
 
 finding fault with the two gauntlets, when Lady 
 Wharton, said; ' Mr. Tonson, why might not one man 
 have two right hands as well as another two left legs ? ' 
 This particular incident is said to have given rise to 
 Pope's remark. 
 
 John Dunton delivers himself concerning Jacob in 
 this manner : ' He was bookseller to the famous 
 Dryden, and is himself a very good judge of persons 
 and authors ; and, as there is nobody more compe- 
 tently qualified to give their opinion upon another, 
 so there is none who does it with a more severe 
 exactness, or with less partiality ; for, to do Mr- 
 Tonson justice, he speaks his mind upon all occa- 
 sions, and will flatter nobody.' 
 
 But little now remains to be said of the Tonson 
 family. After the deaths of the uncle and his 
 nephew, the title of 'J. and R. Tonson ' was still 
 used until up to and including the year 1767. 
 Old Jacob died either unmarried or issueless. 
 Seventeen days after the decease of his nephew he 
 made his will, in which he confirmed a settlement 
 that he had made on him, and appointed his great 
 nephew, Jacob Tonson, the eldest son of the second 
 Jacob, his executor and residuary legatee. This, 
 remarks Nichols, must have been an immense acces- 
 sion to what he already had derived from his father, 
 who devised all his estates in Herefordshire, Glouces- 
 tershire, and Worcestershire, in what is called strict 
 settlement, to his sons, Jacob, Richard, and Samuel, 
 successively ; and the whole benefit of his patent 
 between the two elder, whom he also made his 
 residuary legatee.
 
 1 86 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 The third Jacob Tonson, to whom Johnson ap- 
 plies the epithet of 'amiable,' served as High 
 Sheriff for the county of Surrey in 1750 ; and in 
 1759 paid the customary fine for being excused 
 serving in a similar capacity for the city of London 
 and the county of Middlesex,,his father and great- 
 uncle both having paid the same fine in 1734. ' He 
 carried on his trade, in the same shop which had been 
 possessed by his father and great-uncle, opposite 
 Catherine Street 6 in the Strand, but, some years 
 before his death, removed tq a new house on the 
 other side of the way, near Catherine Street, where 
 he died without issue, March 31, 1767.' ('Lit. 
 Anec.' i. 297.) He is the subject of a very eulogistic 
 and deserved reference by Stevens in his edition of 
 Shakespeare, published in 1778, a notice which 
 concludes in these words : ' He was the last com- 
 mercial name of a family which will be long remem- 
 bered, and if Horace thought it not improper from 
 Quintilian's dedication to Trypho, let it not be 
 
 6 Speaking of ' Shakespeare's Head,' Charles Knight remarks : 
 ' That house, No. 141, was remarkable as the shop of three of 
 the most eminent amongst the old booksellers. Here the elder 
 Jacob might have looked out upon the 'furies of the football 
 war,' which Gay so well describes in his 'Trivia.' Here, Andrew 
 Millar concluded, over many a hospitable entertainment in his 
 upper rooms (for the old days of booksellers' bargains at taverns 
 were over), his treaties with Fielding and Thomson, with Hume 
 and Robertson. Here Thomas Cadell smiled with honest exul- 
 tation as he wrote to Gibbon to tell him how wonderful was the 
 success of ' The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.' Illus- 
 trious shadows flitted about that house, which, long since rebuilt, 
 is now (1865) an insurance office.'
 
 Jacob Tonson. 187 
 
 thought that we disgrace Shakespeare by appending 
 to his works the name of Tonson.' 
 
 The younger brother Richard survived Jacob only 
 a few years, dying in 1772. ( By his father's Will, 
 the estate at Water-Oakley, in the parish of Bray, 
 near Windsor, was directed to be sold, and the pro- 
 duce to be considered as a part of his personal pro- 
 perty ; but, either by agreement with his family or 
 by purchase,' it came solely into his possession. 
 He was M.P. for Windsor at the time of his decease. 
 The eldest daughter of the second Jacob was mar- 
 ried to Alderman Baker, father to Sir William 
 Baker, M.P. for Hertfordshire, and the lineal de- 
 scendant of Tonson still resides at Rayfordbury, 
 Hertfordshire.
 
 1 8 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BERNARD LINTOT. 
 
 ACCORDING to an entry in his Bible, published in 
 Notes and Queries, 6th S. ii. 293, it appears that 
 Barnaby Bernard Lintott, the son of John Lintott, 
 a Horsham yeoman, was born at Southwater, Hor- 
 sham, Sussex, on December i, 1675. There were 
 seven children, besides the famous bookseller, their 
 names and dates of birth being duly registered in 
 the Bible in question, which was in the possession of 
 a descendant, Mr. J. P. Fletcher. Lintot, as he 
 afterwards spelt his surname, was bound apprentice 
 at Stationers' Hall, to Thomas Lingard, December 
 4, 1690, and was subsequently 'turned over' to 
 John Harding, whom John Dunton graphically 
 describes as ' of a lovely proportion, extremely well 
 made, as handsome a mien,' &c., as any of his 
 neighbours. He was 'made free' March 18, 1699.' 
 Lintot dispensed with the less elegant Christian 
 name of Barnaby at the. commencement of his 
 apprenticeship. 
 
 1 ' He was Renter- Warden in 1715 ; elected into the Court of 
 Assistants 1722-3, and served the office of Under Warden 'in 
 1729 and again in 1730; but died before the Upper Wardenship 
 came to his turn.' (' Lit. Anec.' viii. 161).
 
 Bernard Lintot. 189 
 
 Nichols states that, soon after the date given, 
 Lintot commenced business as a bookseller at the 
 sign of the ' Cross Keys,' between the Temple 
 Gates, and instances the ' Examen Miscellaneum,' 
 1702, a collection of prose and verse, in 189 pp., as 
 the earliest publication that was issued bearing 
 Lintot's name. Some of his earlier work is dated 
 from ' The Cross Keys,' in St. Martin's Lane, near 
 Long Acre, and at least four years before the date 
 given by Nichols appears as a bookseller. This will 
 be seen by consulting the 1698 editions of Settle's 
 ' Empress of Morocco/ and also Crowne's ' Caligula.' 
 With regard to the situation of Lintot's shop, Cun- 
 ingham, in his ' Handbook of London,' describes 
 Nando's as a ' Coffee house in Fleet Street, east 
 corner of Inner Temple Lane, and next door to the 
 shop of Bernard Lintot, bookseller.' Mr. E. F. 
 Rimbault points out (N. & Q. 1st S. vi. 326) that 
 ' if Lintot's shop was between the Temple Gates, as he 
 himself tells us, it could not have been next door to 
 Nando's.' But, rightly or wrongly, Cuningham was 
 justified in stating that the ' Cross Keys ' was next to 
 Nando's, as will appear from the title-page of Far- 
 quhar's ' Beaux Stratagem,' Gibber's ' Perolla and 
 Izadora' (1706) and several other plays. 
 
 Lintot's first bookselling decade was unmarked by 
 anything approaching notoriety, and he seems to 
 have made a steady but slow and perhaps sure pro- 
 gress in his trade. In 1703 he published Lady 
 Chudleigh's ' Poems on Several Occasions, 1 and 
 Thomas Baker's comedy, ' Tunbridge Wells.' Law- 
 books and the drama formed the staple of his stock,
 
 1 90 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 and but few of either section were issued on his own 
 responsibility. Mrs. Centlivre and Colley Gibber 
 each had some plays brought out with Lintot's name 
 attached, either as part proprietor or bookseller. 
 Lintot's shop has been described as the 'constant 
 morning lounge of literary men.' He published 
 'The Lawyer's Fortune/ by Lord Grimstone (1705). 
 E. Smith's 'Phaedra and Hippolitus' (1708), a 
 tragedy which had quite an ephemeral success, and 
 also work from the pens of such as Gay, Farquhar, 
 William King, Fenton, Parnell, &c. Mr. John 
 Dennis, also, gave Lintot ' a turn,' or, perhaps, ac- 
 cording to the custom of those days, the case was 
 the other way about, and in 1704 ' Liberty Asserted ' 
 is printed for George Strahan, of the ' Golden Bull,' 
 against the Royal Exchange, and Bernard Lintot, 
 at the Middle Temple Gate. But in this particular 
 case, perhaps, Strahan purchased the whole of the 
 copyright from Dennis, and afterwards sold half of it 
 to Lintot for the modest sum of jl. ^s. From Lin- 
 tot's account-book (' Lit. Anec.' viii. 293 304), we 
 find that Dennis was paid 2i/. icxr. for ' Appius and 
 Virginia/ whilst his two essays the one on Public 
 Spirit and the ' Remarks on Pope's Essay/ combined, 
 only fetched 3/. 4s. 6d. 
 
 Toland was the most learned and perhaps also 
 the most unfortunate of all Lintot's hack writers. 
 He was at once a political, polemical, and miscel- 
 laneous writer and antiquary, and not very distin- 
 guished at either. An Irishman by birth and a 
 Roman Catholic by persuasion, he gravitated to- 
 wards freethinking, and in 1696 published a work
 
 Bernard L intot. 1 9 1 
 
 entitled 'Christianity not Mysterious,' which con- 
 tains nothing of any note, but the title-page, which so 
 frightened the Church magnates that it was ordered 
 to be burnt by the hangman. One of Toland's 
 works was among Lintot's first venture, viz. ' The 
 Art of Governing by Parties ' (June 12, 1701), for 
 which he paid 2O/. Toland, whom D'Israeli describes 
 as 'a great artificer of title-pages, covering them 
 with a promising luxuriance, and in this way recom- 
 mended his works to the booksellers,' had no fewer 
 than thirteen different works issued through Lintot 
 in as many years. (Nichol's ' Literary Anecdotes,' 
 viii. p. 302, 303). Toland received io/. 15^. for his 
 pamphlet on ' Naturalizing the Jews ' (1714), and was 
 to receive a similar sum when Lintot sold 2000 
 copies. The agreement, published by D'Israeli, runs 
 thus : 'Whenever Mr. Toland calls for ten guineas, 
 after the first of February next, I promise to pay 
 them, if I cannot show that 200 copies remain unsold.' 
 In the account-book already mentioned there are 
 several entries made of agreements entered into 
 between Tonson and Lintot, ranging from the year 
 1717 to 1725, including, notably, three or four of 
 Steele's plays. One entry may be here given as ex- 
 emplifying the mutability of literary fame : ' 1722, 
 Oct. 24. A copy of an agreement for purchasing 
 250 of the Duke of Buckingham's works afterwards 
 jockeyed by Alderman Barber and Tonson together' 
 Lintot, says D'Israeli, ' utters a groan over the Duke 
 of Buckingham's works. Who can ensure literary 
 celebrity ? No bookseller would now regret being 
 jockeyed out of his Grace's works ! '
 
 192 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Gay, as already mentioned, was one of ' Lintot's 
 authors/ and it is highly interesting to learn that 
 within about four years he received 43/. for ' Trivia,' 
 43/. 2s. 6d. for 'Three Hours after Marriage,' and 75/. 
 for the c Revival of the Wife of Bath' (1717), for 
 which, in 1713, a first sum of 25/. had been paid. 
 Theobald, also had some transactions with Lintot, 
 and under date April 21, 1714, we have the follow- 
 ing entry : ' Articles signed by Mr. Theobald to 
 translate for B. Lintot the twenty-four books of 
 Homer's f Odyssey ' into English blank verse. Also 
 the four tragedies of Sophocles, called ' QEdipus 
 Tyrannus/ ' CEdipus Coloneus,' ' Trachiniae,' and 
 ' Philoctetes,' into English blank verse, with explana- 
 tory notes to the twenty-four books of the ' Odyssey,' 
 and to the four tragedies. To receive for translat- 
 ing every 450 Greek verses, with explanatory notes 
 thereon, the sum of 2/. los. To translate likewise 
 the satires and epistles of Horace into English 
 rhyme. For every 120 Latin lines so translated, the 
 sum of i/. is. 6d. These articles to be performed, 
 according to the time specified, under the penalty of 
 5O/., payable by either party's default in perform- 
 ance. Paid in hand 2/. ios.' In the original book, 
 the foregoing entry has a line drawn through it, and 
 D'Israeli suggests that perhaps Lintot submitted to 
 pay Theobald for not doing- the ' Odyssey ' when 
 Pope undertook it. 
 
 We have not space to give all the entries, interest- 
 ing as they are, in full here. But those relating to 
 William King are too important to be passed over 
 ' Here, too,' says D'Israeli, ' we find that the facetious
 
 Bernard L intot. \ 9 3 
 
 Dr. King threw away all his sterling wit for five 
 miserable pounds/ The account-book enumerates 
 eight, of which the following are the more im- 
 portant, their respective values being in parenthesis : 
 ' Art of Cookery,' 1708-9 (327. 5*.) ; ' Useful 
 Transactions,' 2 pt. i. 1708-9 (5/.) ; 'Art of Love/ 
 1708-9 (32/. 5-y.) ; 'Transactions,' pt. ii. 1709 (5/.) ; 
 and the 'History of Cajamai,' 1709-10 (5/.). The 
 following is a list of the most noteworthy works 
 which Lintot acquired at various times, and the 
 prices he paid for them : Centlivre's ' Busybody,' 
 1709 (io/.) ; Gibber's 'Love's Last Shift,' a third 
 interest, 1701 (3/. 4^. 6*7.) ; ' Perollaand Izadora,' 1705 
 (36/. us.); 'Double Gallant,' 1707 (i6/. 2s. 6d.)\ 
 'Lady's Last Stake,' 1707 (327. $s.) ; 'Venus and 
 Adonis,' 1707 (5/. js. 6d. ; 'Comical Lover,' 1708 
 (io/. 15.?.) ; ' Cinna's Conspiracy,' 1712 (i3/.) ; ' Non- 
 juror,' 1718 (I05/.) ; D'Urfey's 'Modern Prophets,' 
 1709 (61. gs.) ; Farquhar's ' Beaux Stratagem,' 1706 
 (30/.) j 'Recruiting Officer,' 1705 (i6/. 2s. 6d). Fen- 
 ton was paid in all 34/. 14^. $d. The ' Accomplished 
 Conveyancer,' in three vols., was bought for IO5/. 
 from Jacob, and Lintot seems to have secured a 
 number of other legal works from the same source. 
 N. Rowe's 'Jane Shore,' 1713 (5O/. 15^.) ; and 'Jane 
 Grey/ 1715 (757. 5*.) ; and Settle's 'The City 
 Ramble,' 1711 (37. los.) ; Smith's 'Phaedra and Hip- 
 polytus/ 1705-6(507.) ; J. Moore Smyth's ' The Rival 
 Modes/ 1726 (1057.) ; Steele's 'Lying Lover/ 1703-4 
 
 (2l7. IOS.) 
 
 One of Lintot's earlier publications was Tom 
 * Dr. King's famous banter on the Royal Society. 
 
 O
 
 1 94 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 D'Urfey's 'Tales, Magical and Comical,' 1704, which 
 was dedicated to the then Duke of Argyle in the usual 
 fulsome strain. This publication is rather notable 
 from the fact that it is alluded to in Dunton's 'character ' 
 of Lintot, whom John describes thus : * He lately 
 published a collection of Tragic Tales, by which I per- 
 ceive he is angry with the world, and scorns it into the 
 bargain ; and I cannot blame him : for D'Urfey (his 
 author) both treats and esteems it as it deserves : too 
 hard a task for those whom it flatters ; or perhaps for 
 Bernard himself should the world ever change its 
 humour, and grin upon him. However, to do Mr. 
 Lintot justice, he is a man of very good principles, and 
 I dare engage will never want an author of Sol-Fa s so 
 long as the playhouse will encourage his comedies.' 
 
 Although Lintot had to some extent emulated 
 Jacob Tonson's successful Miscellany publication in 
 1709, when the ' Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany 
 Poems ' came out under the general editorship of 
 Fenton, it was not until three years after (1712), that 
 Lintot actually and obviously imitated his more famous 
 rival. The contributors to Fenton's, or the Oxford and 
 Cambridge, collection of poems included Prior, Philips, 
 Sir John Denham, ' Mr. Milton,' Otway, etc., so that 
 from this fact it may be safely inferred that Lintot's 
 name as a publisher was pretty well known. 
 
 The year 1712 witnessed the publication of The Mis - 
 cellaneous Poems and Translations, by Several Hands. 
 This volume contains two poems addressed to Lintot, 
 apparently congratulating him on the appearance of 
 his Miscellany. One, entitled 'Verses designed to be 
 3 D'Urfey was a music-master.
 
 Bernard L intot. 195 
 
 prefixed before Bernard Lintot's New Miscellany, 
 1712,' is attributed to Swift, and is here given with 
 the exception of the last line : 
 
 ' Some Colinaeus praise, some Bleau ; 
 Others account them so so ; 
 Some Plantin to the rest prefer, 
 And some esteem old Elzevir; 
 Others with Aldus would besot us : 
 I, for my part, admire Lintottus. 
 His character's beyond compare, 
 Like his own person, large and fair. 
 They print their names in letters small, 
 But LINTOT stands in capital : 
 Author and he with equal grace 
 Appear, and stare you in the face. 
 Stephens prints Heathen Greek, 'tis said, 
 Which some can't construe, some can't read. 
 But all that comes from Lintot's hand 
 Ev'n Rawlinson might understand. 
 Oft in an Aldus or a Plantin 
 A page is blotted, or leaf wanting : 
 Of Lintot's books this can't be said, 
 All fair, and not so much as read. 
 Their copy cost them not a penny 
 To Homer, Virgil, or to any ; 
 They ne'er gave sixpence for two lines 
 To them, their heirs, or their assigns. 
 But Lintot is at vast expense, 
 And pays prodigious dear for sense. 
 Their books are useful but to few, 
 A scholar, or a wit or two : 
 Lintot's for general use are fit,' &c. 
 
 This poem was reprinted in the last volume of 
 the Miscellanies (1732), issued by B. Motte. The 
 second and longer congratulatory poem is entitled 
 ' On a Miscellany of Poems. To Bernard Lintot/ and 
 
 O 2
 
 1 96 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 is described by Nichols as being ' by a nameless but 
 not inelegant bard, perhaps Dr. William King, of the 
 Commons.' It was, however, by Gay, and appears 
 as ' Epistle XIII.,' in his volume of poems. After 
 describing the way in which a skilful cook would so 
 manipulate his materials as to please every guest, to 
 ' feast at once the taste, the smell, and sight,' Gay goes 
 on to say : 
 
 ' So, Bernard must a Miscellany be 
 Compounder of all kinds of poetry ; 
 The Muses' Olio, which all tastes may fit, 
 And treat each reader with his darling wit. 
 Would'st thou for Miscellanies raise thy fame, 
 And bravely rival Jacob's mighty name. 
 Let all the Muses in the piece conspire,' 
 
 and so on, concluding with the following couplet : 
 
 ' So long shall live thy praise in books of fame, 
 And Tonson yield to Lintot's lofty name.' 
 
 In 1714 the Miscellanies were reprinted. This 
 work is remarkable from the number of Pope's earlier 
 poems which it contains, such as ' The Rape of the 
 Lock/ 4 ' Windsor Forest,' ' An Essay on Criticism,' a 
 translation of book I, of Statius' ' Thebais,' verses to the 
 author of the poem entitled ' Successio,' ' St. Cecilia's 
 Ode,' and two or three others. Among the authors 
 whose contributions appear in this work, which was 
 printed for Lintot, and ' William Lewis in Russell Street, 
 Covent Garden/ were Dryden, Broome, Southcote, 
 Edmund Smith, Fenton, and Betterton. Lewis, it 
 
 4 Spence states that Pope said with reference to the ' Rape of 
 the Lock,' ' I published the first draught of it (without the 
 machinery) in a Miscellany of Tonson' meaning Lintot.
 
 Bernard Lintot. \ 97 
 
 may be mentioned, was an early friend of Pope's and 
 was a Roman Catholic bookseller ; he also published 
 the ' Essay on Criticism,' 1711. 
 
 In 1710 or 1711, Lintot grievously vexed the great 
 Dean of St. Patrick's by publishing ' Noah's Dove,' a 
 sermon by ' Tho. Swift, formerly Chaplain to Sir 
 William Temple.' The ' Journal to Stella/ under date 
 November 7, 171 1, has the following entry : ' A book- 
 seller has reprinted, or new-titled, a sermon of Tom 
 Swift's, printed last year, and published an advertise- 
 ment calling it Dr. Swift's sermon.' 
 
 Of the many not unimportant works which Lintot 
 issued, perhaps John Urry's edition of Chaucer claims 
 a place in the first rank. This edition, although it 
 is of little commercial value at the present day, 
 possesses some interest to bibliographers. The incep- 
 tion of the task began late in 1711, probably at the 
 instigation of Dean Aldrich, and was continued with 
 such ardour that on July 20, 1714, Urry was granted 
 a patent for the exclusive right of printing the work. 
 On December 17 of the same year he entered into 
 an arrangement with Lintot, by which he himself 
 was to have one-third of the proceeds, Christ Church 
 College, Oxford, one-third, whilst the remaining 
 portion was to accrue to Lintot, who was to pay for 
 paper, copper-plates, and all incidental expenses. 
 On January 19, 1714-15, Lintot issued the 'Pro- 
 posals ' for publishing the works ' of the celebrated 
 and ancient English poet ' by subscription, which 
 included the following five proposals : ' (i) This work 
 is intended to be printed in one volume folio, and 
 will contain near two hundred and twenty sheets.
 
 198 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 (2) The cuts shall be engraved by the best gravers, 
 and printed at the head of each Tale. (3) The price 
 to subscribers will be thirty shillings for one com- 
 plete book in sheets, fifteen to be paid in hand, the 
 remainder upon delivery of each book. (4) A small 
 number will be printed on a fine royal paper, which 
 will be fifty shillings, half to be paid in hand ; and 
 (5) This work will be put into the press on Lady-day 
 next, and is intended to be published the Christmas 
 following. Subscriptions are taken in by the under- 
 taker, Bernard Lintot, between the Temple Gates, 
 assignee to Mr. Urry, and most booksellers in Lon- 
 don and in the country.' But Urry died on March 
 19 following, his executor and intimate fellow- 
 student, William Broome, undertaking the task, sign- 
 ing an agreement with Lintot to that effect on 
 August 16, 1715. The agreement recites Urry's 
 intention to apply part of the profits towards building 
 Peckwater Quadrangle. Broome assigns his right to 
 the Glossary and licence to Lintot for remainder of 
 the term ; the Dean and Chapter and Mr. Broome to 
 deliver to Lintot a complete copy of Chaucer and 
 Glossary, and to correct it, or get it corrected. Lintot 
 was to print 1250 copies, 250 on royal paper and 
 1000 on demy, at his own charge, and to furnish a 
 number of copies not exceeding 1500. The net 
 result of this publication would be, at the rate stated, 
 2I25/., which would give Lintot 7oS/. 6s. $d. The 
 work was printed off early in 1719, but two years 
 elapsed before the ' New Glossary ' was finished, and 
 it was 1721 when the work came forth, having been 
 seven years in hand.
 
 Bernard Lintot. 199 
 
 It is the publication of Pope's rendering of Homer's 
 * Iliad ' that has prevented Lintot from being con- 
 signed to dim obscurity. Indeed, the episode itself 
 was undoubtedly the greatest and most important 
 event in the career of each man ; perhaps, also, it was 
 the happiest and most profitable. Arrangements 
 were entered into between Pope and Lintot for the 
 issuing of ' Proposals for a Translation of Homer ' 
 in 1714. The edition was to be in six volumes, 
 printed on the finest paper, in a ' new Dutch letter,' 
 whilst ornaments were to be specially designed for the 
 work. Lintot agreed to pay Pope not only 2<x>/. for 
 each volume, but undertook to gratuitously supply the 
 poet with the copies for his subscribers. The sub- 
 scribers paid a guinea a volume, and as 575 sub- 
 scribers took 654 copies, Pope received a grand total 
 of 532O/, 4s. od. But several wealthy persons paid a 
 much larger sum than the price stated. These figures 
 do not quite agree with the entries in 'Lintot's Account- 
 Book,' where the sum of 2I5/. is written as paid for each 
 volume at its completion. ' Of the quartos,' said Dr. 
 Johnson, ' it was, I believe, stipulated that none should 
 be printed but for the author, that the subscriptions 
 might not be depreciated ; but Lintot impressed the 
 same pages upon a small folio, and paper perhaps a 
 little thinner ; and sold exactly at half the price, for 
 half a guinea each volume, books so little inferior to 
 the quartos, that, by fraud of trade, those folios, being 
 afterwards shortened by cutting away the top and 
 bottom, were sold as copies printed for the subscribers. 
 Lintot printed some on royal paper in folio for two 
 guineas a volume ; but of this experiment he re-
 
 2OO The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 pented, as his son sold copies of the first volume with 
 all their extent of margin for two shillings. It is 
 unpleasant to relate that the bookseller, after all his 
 hopes and all his liberality, was, by a very unjust and 
 illegal action, defrauded of his profit. An English 
 edition of the " Iliad " was printed in Holland, in 
 duodecimo, and imported clandestinely for the grati- 
 fication of those who were impatient to read what 
 they could not yet afford to buy.' Lintot had, 
 consequently, no alternative but to issue a duodecimo 
 edition, which possessed the grand advantage over 
 the pirated edition in having the notes subjoined to 
 the text in the same page. 
 
 The Postboy of December 25, 1714, contained this 
 announcement, directed to the subscribers to the 
 forthcoming translation : ' Whereas it was proposed 
 that the first volume of the translation should be 
 published by the beginning of May next, the editor 
 intends it shall be delivered two months sooner than 
 the time promised.' But for some reason, apparently 
 unexplained, this promise was not performed, and 
 on April 7, 1715, Gay facetiously writes thus to 
 Congreve : ' Mr. Pope's " Homer " is retarded by the 
 great rains that have fallen of late, which causes the 
 sheets to be long a-drying. This gives Mr. Lintot 
 great uneasiness, who is now endeavouring to engage 
 the curate of the parish to pray for fair weather, that 
 his work may go on.' However, the Postboy of 
 June 4 announced that ' the first volume is now 
 finished, and will be ready to be delivered to them 
 upon producing their receipts, or paying the subscrip- 
 tion money, on Monday, the 6th day of June next,
 
 Berna rd L intot. 201 
 
 by Bernard Lintot, bookseller, at the Cross Keys, 
 between the Temple Gates in Fleet Street, where the 
 several pieces of Mr. Pope may be had.' 
 
 This was all well and good ; but the Postboy of 
 June 7th contained a startling advertisement, which 
 ran as follows : ' To-morrow will be published the 
 first book of " Homer's Iliad," translated by Mr. 
 Tickell. Printed for Jacob Tonson at Shakespeare's 
 Head, against Katherine Street, in the Strand.' To 
 this attempt at rivalry we shall refer again presently. 
 
 Nichols states that, according to Bowyer's account- 
 books, no more than 660 were printed for the sub- 
 scribers in quarto ; but besides that number Lintot 
 printed of vol. i. in folio for ordinary sale, 250 on 
 large paper, and 1750 on small paper. Of the 
 following volumes the same number of large copies, 
 but only 1000 of the small. Of the first duo- 
 decimo edition 2500 were printed, which were soon 
 sold, and another edition of 500x3 was immediately 
 printed. 
 
 The Postman of March 24, 1716, announced the 
 completion of the second volume of Pope's version of 
 ' Homer's Iliad," which was then ready for delivery 
 to subscribers. The third was issued in the autumn 
 of 1717, and the fourth in the spring of the follow- 
 ing year. The Postboy of March 16, 1719, in an- 
 nouncing the fact that the fifth volume ' now lies 
 finished at the press,' also advertised that ' Mr. Pope, 
 having made a greater progress in the remainder 
 than he expected, or promised, hereby gives notice, 
 that he shall deliver the whole to the subscribers 
 by the beginning of next winter.' From Lintot's
 
 2 O2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 account-book it would seem that the fifth volume 
 appeared some time in October, 1718, when the 
 stipulated sum was handed over to the poet. These 
 apparently irreconcilable facts may be explained by 
 presuming that Lintot paid his money when he 
 received the last consignment of ' copy ;' and, as will 
 also be seen by the account-book, the royal paper 
 copies of vol. v. were not finished until the first week 
 in April, 1719. Indeed, .with the exception of the 
 first volume, some months elapsed between the pay- 
 ment for and the receipt of the gratis copies of each 
 issue. The Whitehall Evening Post of May 14, 1720, 
 announces : ' This day Mr. Pope's " Homer," the two 
 last volumes (the whole work being now complete) 
 will be delivered to the subscribers/ &c. 
 
 A brief reference must be made here to Tickel's 
 projected translation, and of which only the first 
 volume appeared. It was well known for at least 
 twelve months before the work actually put in an 
 appearance, that Pope was engaged in translating 
 Homer's 'Iliad ; ' Tickel's work in that direction seems 
 to have been kept remarkably close. It may be 
 suggested that Tonson's cupidity had something to do 
 with the preparation of a rival translation, but that is 
 very unlikely. The actual cause was in all proba- 
 bility political jealousy. The almost simultaneous 
 appearance of rival translations of Homer by the 
 leading poets 5 of the two political parties, issuing from 
 the shops of the two leading booksellers of the day, 
 would to a dead certainty render a comparison certain 
 
 5 We are assuming that Addison was largely concerned with 
 Tickel's version.
 
 Bernard Lintot. 203 
 
 and quite fatal to one of the two candidates. Pope 
 knew this, and advertises to some extent more than 
 he originally promised by professing to have added : 
 ' A critical preface, an essay on the life, writings and 
 learning of Homer .... a map of Greece, a geogra- 
 phical table of the towns,' &c. But doubt did not long 
 exist, and on June 10, 1715, Lintot writes to Pope 
 thus : ' You have Mr. Tickel's book to divert one 
 hour. It is already condemned here, and the malice 
 and juggle at Button's is the conversation of those 
 who have spare moments from politics.' Thus we 
 see the Tickel-Addison-Tonson combination quite 
 smashed and destroyed in two or three days. 
 
 The next big contract between Lintot and Pope was 
 a translation of the ' Odyssey,' in five volumes, a work 
 which was completed in 1725 or 1726, with the help of 
 Broome and Fenton. Lintot paid in one way or 
 another, over 42OO/., of which rather more than 35<x>/. 
 fell to Pope's share, Broome received 5OO/. (ioo/. of 
 which was for notes), and Fenton 2OO/. This under- 
 taking was not so brilliant a success as the former ; 
 the bookseller pretended to have discovered some flaw 
 in the agreement, or in the manner in which Pope had 
 carried it out, and threatened the poet a suit in 
 Chancery. But the threat was not carrie d into effect. 
 It had, however, the very natural consequence of es- 
 trangement between the two, and Lintot became en- 
 rolled at a later date among the heroes of the ' Dunciad.' 
 In addition to the sums which Lintot paid Pope for 
 the Homeric renderings, the following will be read 
 with interest : For the nine poems inserted in the 
 Miscellany of 1714, already referred to, Lintot paid
 
 2 O4 Th e Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 him 88/. 14.$-. ; ' Temple of Fame,' (Feb. i, 1714-5), 
 32/. 5^. ; additions to the ' Rape of the Lock,' (Feb. 
 20, 1713-4), 1 5/; and the ' Key to the Lock,' (April 30, 
 1715), io/. 15^. On the ground of payment we 
 think Pope had nothing to grumble at. 
 
 In the great frost of January and February, 1715-16, 
 the Thames was one solid block of ice, and shops of 
 almost every description were erected on its surface, 
 and Lintot is recorded as having had a stand erected 
 there. 
 
 There is an amusing anecdote told by Dr. Young 
 himself, recorded in Spence's ' Anecdotes,' which may 
 be placed here : Tonson and Lintot were both can- 
 didates for the printing of some work of Dr. Young. 
 He answered both their letters in the same morning, 
 and in his hurry misdirected them. When Lintot 
 opened that which came to him, he found it begin : 
 ' That Bernard Lintot is so great a scoundrel, that,' 
 &c. It must have been very amusing, adds the Doctor, 
 to have seen him in his rage, he was a great sputter- 
 ing fellow. Tonson was described, much to his sur- 
 prise, no doubt, as an old rascal. But neither Lintot 
 nor Tonson made much out of Young, for the two 
 names are absent from the title-pages of the Doctor's 
 publications which we have examined. 
 
 Lintot on more than one occasion emulated Tonson's 
 bold experimenting. This was the case, but in a very 
 minor degree, with Shakespeare's works. At about 
 the time Tonson issued Rowe's edition, Bernard pub- 
 lished an edition of Shakespeare's poems in two 
 volumes, which Malone rather unjustly consigned to 
 oblivion as ' full of errors.' The first volume appeared
 
 Bernard Lintot. 205 
 
 on August 3, 1709, and was announced in the fifty- 
 second number of the Tatler. It contains ' Venus and 
 Adonis,' ' Rape of Lucrece/ ' Passionate Pilgrim,' and 
 sonnets to sundry notes of music. The second volume 
 came out about February, 1710-11, and contains 154 
 sonnets, and the ' Lover's Complaint.' Probably Con- 
 greve acted in some degree as editor of this work, 
 which Lintot announced, in the Postboy, as ' correctly 
 printed literatim,' and that ' some of these miscellanies 
 were printed from an old edition which Mr. Congreve 
 obliged me with ; others from an ingenious gentleman 
 of the Middle Temple, who is pleased to leave his old 
 copy with me to shew any person that has a mind to 
 gratify his curiosity therewith.' 
 
 After Pope's Homer, perhaps nothing has conduced 
 so much to handing down Lintot's name to posterity 
 as Pope's famous letter to the Earl of Burlington. 
 Nichols (' Lit. Anec.' viii. 304), considers this letter to 
 have 'been written between September, 1715, when 
 Lord Lansdown was committed to the Tower, and 
 February 1716-17, when he was released.' 
 
 4 MY LORD, If your "mare could speak, she would 
 give an account of what extraordinary company she 
 had on the road ; which, since she cannot do, I will. 
 
 1 It was the enterprising Mr. Lintot, the redoubtable 
 rival of Mr. Tonson, who, mounted on a stone horse 
 (no disagreeable companion to your Lordship's mare) f 
 overtook me in Windsor Forest. He said, he heard 1 
 design'd for Oxford, the seat of the Muses, and would, 
 as my bookseller, by all means, accompany me hither. 
 
 ' I ask'd him where he got his horse ? He answerM, 
 he got it of his publisher : " For that rogue my printer "
 
 206 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 (said he) "disappointed;me : I hoped to put him in good 
 humour by a treat at the tavern, of a brown fricassee 
 of rabbits, which cost two shillings, with two quarts of 
 wine, besides my conversation. I thought myself, 
 cock-sure of his horse, which he readily promised me^ 
 but said that Mr. Tonson had just such another design 
 of going to Cambridge, expecting there the copy of a 
 
 new kind of Horace from Dr. , and if Mr. Tonson 
 
 went, he was pre-engaged to attend him, being to have 
 the printing of the said copy." ' 
 
 Shortly afterwards, when the ingenious publisher 
 had made some remarks concerning a printer's devil 
 who followed, and to whom Pope entrusted a small 
 bag containing three shirts and an Elzevir Virgil, 
 Lintot once more began, as follows : 
 
 ' " Now, damn them ! what if they should put it 
 into the newspapers how you and I went together to 
 Oxford ? what should I care ? If I should go down 
 into Sussex, they would say I was gone to the 
 Speaker. But what of that ? If my son were but 
 big enough to go on with the business, by G d, I 
 would keep as good company as old Jacob." 
 
 ' " The lad," continued Lintot, " has fine parts, but 
 is somewhat sickly, much as you are I spare for 
 nothing in his education at Westminster . . . ." 
 
 'As Mr. Lintot was talking, I observed he sat 
 uneasy on his saddle, for which I expressed some 
 solicitude. " Nothing," says he, " I can bear it well 
 enough ; but since we have the day before us, methinks 
 it would be very pleasant for you to rest awhile 
 under the woods." When we were alighted, " See here, 
 what a mighty pretty Horace I have in my pocket !
 
 Bernard Lintot. 207 
 
 what if you amus'd yourself in turning an ode, till 
 we mount again ? Lord ! if you pleased, what a 
 clever miscellany might you make at leisure hours ! " 
 " Perhaps I may," said I, " if we ride on : the motion is 
 an aid to my fancy, a round trot very much awakens 
 my spirits, then jog on apace, and I'll think as hard as 
 I can." Silence ensued fora full hour ; after which Mr. 
 Lintot lugg'd the reins, stopp'd short, and broke out, 
 " Well, sir, how far have you gone ? " I answer'd, 
 " Seven miles." " Zounds, sir, I thought you had done 
 seven stanzas. Oldisworth, in a ramble round 
 Wimbleton-hill, would translate a whole ode in half 
 this time." 
 
 1 " Pray, Mr. Lintot, now you talk of translators, 
 what is your method of managing them ?" " Sir," 
 reply'd he, " those are the saddest pack of rogues in 
 the world ; in a hungry fit, they'll swear they under- 
 stand all the languages in the universe : I have 
 known one of them take down a Greek book upon 
 my counter, and cry, ' Ay, this is Hebrew, I must 
 read it from the latter end.' By G d, I can never 
 be sure in these fellows, for I neither understand 
 Greek, Latin, French nor Italian myself. But this is 
 my way ; I agree with them for IQS. per sheet, with 
 a proviso that I will have their doings corrected by 
 whom I please." ' 
 
 When asked by Pope how he dealt with critics, 
 Lintot replies : ' " I can silence the most formidable 
 of them : the rich ones for a sheet a-piece of the 
 blotted manuscript, which costs me nothing ; they'll 
 go about with it to their acquaintance, and pretend 
 they had it from the author, who submitted to their
 
 2 oS The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 correction : this has given some of them such an air, 
 that in time they come to be consulted with, and 
 dedicated to as the top criticks of the town. As for 
 the poor criticks, I'll give you one instance of my 
 management, by which you may guess the rest. A 
 lean man, that look'd like a very good scholar, came 
 to me t'other day ; he turn'd over your Homer, shook 
 his head, shrugg'd up his shoulders, and pish'd at 
 every line of it : ' One would wonder,' says he, ' at 
 the strange presumption of some men ; Homer is no 
 such easy task, that every stripling, every versifier ' 
 He was going on, when my wife call'd to dinner : 
 ' Sir/ said I, 'will you please to eat a piece of beef 
 with me?' 'Mr. Lintot,' said he, ' I am sorry you 
 should be at the expense of this great book, I am 
 really concern'd on your account.' ' Sir, I am much 
 oblig'd to you : if you can dine upon a piece of beef, 
 together with a slice of pudding.' ' Mr. Lintot, I do 
 not say but Mr. Pope, if he would condescend to 
 advise with men of learning ' * Sir, the pudding is 
 upon the table, if you please to go in.' My critick 
 complies, he comes to taste of your poetry, and tells 
 me in the same breath, that the book is commend- 
 able, and the pudding excellent." " 
 
 ' " Now sir," concludes Mr. Lintot, " in return for the 
 frankness I have shown, pray tell me is it the opinion 
 of your friends at Court, that my Lord Lansdown 
 will be brought to the bar or not." ' Mr. Pope informs 
 the officious bookseller that he heard he (Lansdown) 
 would not, and what is more, hoped it. But Mr. 
 Lintot looked at it from a purely business point of 
 view, and if Lansdown did not come before the bar,
 
 Bernard Lintot. 209 
 
 all friend Bernard could say was that he should lose 
 the printing of a very good trial. 
 
 If this letter is really authentic, and it is necessary 
 at all times to take Pope's statements with a very 
 big grain of salt, Lintot was decidedly not a ' genteel 
 man.' We may, however, assume that he was not a 
 bad-hearted one, for he subscribed five guineas to 
 the relief fund got up in aid of Bowyer, the printer, 
 who suffered so greatly from the fire of January 30, 
 1712. 
 
 ' George for Britain,' a ' poem ' by one Lady Piers, 
 was a handsomely printed octavo work of 44 pp. 
 It was a timely production of Lintot's, if it had no 
 other merit, for it was issued in 1714, the year of 
 George the First's succession to the English throne. 
 From John Nichols' quotations, the obnoxious 
 flattery of the period must have very nearly reached 
 its culminating point in this ' poem.' 
 
 Lintot's two efforts in the Miscellany direction 
 were followed by one in 1717, and also by another in 
 1726. The former was entitled 'Poems on Several 
 Occasions,' and contained contributions from the 
 Duke of Buckingham, Wycherley, N. Rowe, Garth, 
 Lady Winchelsea, and ' other eminent hands.' It 
 was dedicated to the Earl of Orrery by Fenton, who 
 was for some time the earl's tutor. The 1726 pub- 
 lication, in 2 vols. duodecimo, was entitled ' Mis- 
 cellaneous Poems, Translations, and Imitations,' and 
 the collection was formed by Lintot himself. The 
 contributors included Buckingham, Gay, Pope, 
 Betterton, Dryden, King, Smith, Dibben, Fenton, 
 Yalden, Rowe, Southcote, Broome, Ward and Daniel. 
 
 P
 
 2 1 o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 This was probably the Miscellany at which Pope 
 waxed so wroth in a letter to Christopher Pitt, 6 July 
 23, 1726: f If I have any [merit] in me, it really 
 consists in an earnest desire to promote and produce, 
 as far as I can, that of others. But as to my being 
 the publisher, or in any way concerned in reviewing 
 or recommending of ' Lintot's Miscellany/ it is what 
 I never did in my life, though he (like the rest of his 
 tribe), makes a very free use of my name. He has 
 often reprinted my things, and so scurvily, that, 
 finding he was doing so again, / corrected the sheets 
 as far as they went, of my own only.' 
 
 Nichols suggests a very plausible theory which in 
 absence of a better may be accepted. He says, 
 ' perhaps Mr. Pope conceived that Lintot had risen 
 above his proper level, for it appears that early in 
 1726, having, by successful exertions in business, 
 acquired a decent competence, and made some addi- 
 tions to his paternal inheritance in Sussex, he was 
 desirous of tracing the origin of his family.' He there- 
 fore consulted Humphrey Wanley, who had then the 
 custody of the Earl of Oxford's heraldic manuscripts, 
 and in whose diary is the following memorandum : 
 'Jan. 3-1, 1725-6. Young Mr. Lintot, the bookseller, 
 came enquiring after arms, as belonging to his father, 
 mother, and other relations, who now, it seems, want 
 to turn gentle folks. I could find none of their 
 names.' 
 
 One of the few lucrative Government appointments 
 which fell to Lintot's share was the printing of the 
 Votes, in conjunction, however, with Jacob Tonson 
 6 Of whom see Gibber's ' Lives of Poets,' v. 298 307.
 
 Bernard Lintot. 211 
 
 and William Taylor, when the Hon. Spencer Comp- 
 ton was Speaker of the House of Commons, in 1715. 
 The appointment held good until 1727. A name- 
 sake, of whom little is known, Joshua Lintot, Jacob 
 Tonson, Timothy Goodwin, and John Roberts, 
 printed them from 1708 until 1710, whilst Sir Richard 
 Onslow was Speaker. 
 
 The very natural sequence of running across Pope's 
 path followed Lintot, as well as every one else : he 
 became enrolled in the ' Dunciad.' But, as Nichols 
 justly points out, the principal delinquency Pope 
 urged was that his late bookseller was a stout man, 
 clumsily made, not a very good scholar, and that he 
 filled his shops with rubric posts. Nothing is in- 
 sinuated against Lintot's general character. Lintot 
 makes his debut in the first book, thus : 
 
 ' Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast 
 Of Curll's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post.' 
 
 (Lines 39, 40.) 
 
 In the famous race described in the second book, 
 in honour of the Goddess of Dulness, Lintot and 
 Curll are the two rival competitors : 
 
 ' But lofty Lintot in the circle rose : 
 The prize is mine : who 'tempt it are my foes ; 
 With me began this genius, and shall end.' 
 He spoke: and who with Lintot shall contend ? 
 Fear held them mute. Alone, untaught to fear, 
 Stood dauntless Curll : Behold that rival here ! 
 The race by vigour, not by vaunts is won, 
 So take the hindmost, hell (he said), and run, 
 Swift as a band the bailiff leaves behind, 
 He left huge Lintot and outstripped the wind. 
 P 2
 
 2 1 2 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 As when a dab-chick waddles through the copse 
 On feet and wings, and flies, and wades, and hops. 
 So lab'ring on, with shoulders, hands and head, 
 Wide as a windmill all his figure spread, 
 With arms extended Bernard'vows his state, 
 And left-legg'd Jacob seems to emulate.' 
 
 Curll, however, wins the race. 
 
 Nichols quotes an extract from a ' poem ' entitled 
 ' Lintot's Lamentation,' which appeared in ' Gulliver- 
 iana,' (1728) : 
 
 ' Well, then, all human things, henceforth, avast ! 
 Sawney the great is quite cut down at last. 
 But I must say, this judgment was due to him, 
 For basely murthering Homer's sacred poem ; 
 Due too, for dropping me, and running mad, 
 To fall so foul on every friend he had. 
 " So Fate and Jove require," and so, dear Pope, 
 Either thy razor set, or buy a rope.' 
 
 But little now remains to tell concerning Bernard 
 Lintot. He retired on an easy fortune in 1730, to 
 Horsham, not far from Cuckfield, in Sussex, for 
 which county he was nominated High Sheriff in 
 November, 1735, but died on February 3 following, 
 before he had actually entered on the duties of the 
 office, to which his son, Henry, was appointed in his 
 room, two days after his father's death. Henry's 
 residence at that time was Southwater, two miles 
 from Horsham. 
 
 From the entries published in Notes and Queries, 
 referred to at the commencement of this sketch, we 
 learn that Lintot's wife ' Katherine ' was born by 
 Temple Bar on January 2, 1664, that the marriage 
 took place 'at St. Bartholomys by Smithfield' on
 
 Bernard Lintot t 2 1 3 
 
 October 13, 1700, and that some time in 1703 'My 
 son Henry was. born.' Nichols incorrectly gives this 
 last date as 'about August, 1709.' Henry Lintot 
 was admitted to the freedom of the Company of 
 Stationers, by patrimony, September I, 1730, and 
 obtained the Livery on the same day. Henceforth, 
 until the death of his father, the business was carried 
 on in the joint names of Bernard and Henry Lintot. 
 The latter does not seem to have been much of a 
 business-man, although .he obtained the patent of 
 Law Printer about 1748. In 1754 he was elected 
 into the Courts of Assistants of his Company. In 
 1730 Henry was married to Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Sir John Aubrey, Bart., of Llantrythed, in Glamor- 
 ganshire, and by whom he had two children, ' born 
 by Temple Barr,' (i) Aubrey Lintot, born 1731, died 
 April 26, 1735, and (2) Catherine, born in 1732. 
 Henry's wife died of consumption on January 21, 
 1734. He married a second time ; and died suddenly, 
 December 10, 1758. His widow survived until 
 January 31, 1763. On October 20, 1760, Cathe- 
 rine Lintot 7 married Sir Henry Fletcher, 8 at Oxford 
 Chapel.' Henry Lintot, like his father before him, 
 came in for some hard words, but in the present 
 instance we shall only quote one example, extracted 
 from a letter of Warburton's dated June 20, 1744 : 
 4 You will oblige me with telling me that beast 
 
 ' She had a fortune of 45,ooo/. 
 
 " This entry is as transcribed in N. and Q., but at the time of 
 marriage her husband was a captain in the employ of the East 
 India Company, and was not created a baronet until 1782, after 
 which perhaps the entry quoted was only made.
 
 214 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Lintot's steps. I would do him all reason while he 
 acts with decency and justice, and shall never print 
 any part of his property with my notes and com- 
 mentary without his leave ; but if he acts like a 
 rogue, I have but one word with him, the Chancery 
 and Mr. Murray.' 
 
 It is equally uncertain how long Henry Lintot 
 remained in the trade, and the date at which he 
 finally abandoned it 
 
 One of the latest books we have noticed that 
 contains his name is the ' Collection of English Pre- 
 cedents,' by James Harvey, Esq. (3rd ed.) ' In the 
 Savoy: printed for Henry Lintot, Law Printer to 
 the King's most Excellent Majesty, and sold by J. 
 Shackburgh,' at the Sun between the two Temple- 
 gates, Fleet Street, 1751.' 
 
 There are several descendants of the Lintots still 
 living, notably Sir Henry Fletcher, Bart., of Clea 
 Hall, Whitchavcn, Cumberland. 
 
 This person was in business as a printer or bookseller quite 
 twenty years previous to 1751, but his whereabouts is not quite 
 certain.
 
 - 5 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
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 ^dL His 
 Iwieod.be is 
 
 '. tbe OBly OBC of tii* ear.jer DoolcscBcfS wbo is 
 a wcbe IB the vane 
 
 Heh 
 
 of 
 
 and bMiognphos as the fate Mr. W. J. 
 'Carfl Papers wil in 
 
 Jobs Nitbok vas tie first to caB ioto 
 
 MicaB^avnfftBiaXBOBi tbai C*rfl mas 
 be mas raig<>^ Nicbols vay tralf otr 
 tbat OviTs eorarjr 'has been transmitted to 
 wiA an obloovv BKVC severe tbaa be 
 
 Cofi, or to attcapt to : 
 pas a hero or a cBartyr. Hevasnedikcrtheoaeaor 
 tke otfcer. He was. H OMSt be boocsdy ailillcd. a 
 
 "gas aLsoltfteiy ao limit. Bat witii 
 al tbis. bis is a
 
 2 1 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Mr. Thorns has pointed out that ' to form a just 
 estimate of the character of Curll, the then state of 
 literature and the law must be taken into account. 
 We must remember how great were the restraints on 
 the liberty of the press which existed in his days, 
 when, 
 
 ' Ear-less on high stood pillory'd Defoe ; ' 
 
 how uncertain was the law of libel ; and how heavy 
 the' penalties for publications which were adjudged 
 libellous. How undefined, or rather worse than un- 
 defined, how degraded, was the position of the mere 
 author by profession : and, as a consequence of this state 
 of things, what strange shifts were occasionally adopted 
 to escape the risks which then awaited both authors 
 and publishers, and adopted, too, by men of far higher 
 social position than Edmund Curll.' 
 
 1 Nearly everything connected with Curll is charac- 
 terized by more or less mystery. Hrs birth, parentage, 
 and early career are shrouded in almost impenetrable 
 gloom. The ' New and General Biographical Diction- 
 ary/ 1798, states that he 'was born in the west of Eng- 
 land/ but gives no authority by which the remark can be 
 verified. The question of Curll's parentage is one of 
 importance, which has been considerably enhanced by a 
 stray observation. In Curll's ' History of the Stage/ 
 1741, compiled perhaps in part by Betterton, whose 
 name appears on the title-page, mention is made of the 
 fatality which happens to the shedders of blood, and 
 among other examples is the following : ' The last 
 instance I shall produce is in the case of the late Lord 
 Chief Justice Pine, of Ireland, who, when he was a
 
 Edmund Curll. 217 
 
 student of Lincoln's Inn, in these walks killed the 
 eldest son of one of the finest gentlemen in England, 
 I beg to be excused naming him because he was my 
 near relation.' This was not perhaps altogether an 
 empty boast. It has been suggested (Gents. Mag., 
 1858, 2,), and we are, after careful consideration and 
 inquiry, strongly inclined to think that Curll really 
 did claim relationship with the family of Dr. Walter 
 Curll, who was born at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, who 
 was at one time lord almoner to Charles the First, and 
 successively Bishop of Rochester (1628), of Bath and 
 Wells (1629), an d of Winchester (1632). We have it on 
 the authority of Anthony Wood ('Athenae Oxon ') that 
 this eminent and worthy man died in reduced circum- 
 stances in the summer of 1647, leaving a widow and 
 several children. At Edmund's death in 1747 he was 
 seventy-two years of age, and was consequently born 
 in 1675. No theory is more plausible than that these 
 children were compelled to shift for themselves, and 
 that Edmund, the much-abused bookseller, was a 
 grandson to the good Bishop. Another coincidence 
 which is, to say the least, curious, lies in the fact that 
 one of his biographical publications was a ' Life ' of the 
 Bishop. The Curll family had for some time main- 
 tained a good social position, for in the list of counsel 
 practising at the Bar in the time of James the First we 
 find the name of ' E Curll ' (Foss* ' Judges of England,' 
 vi. 36). A few more links, missing as yet, are required 
 either to clinch or to disprove the connection between 
 the Bishop and the bookseller. 
 
 From the biographical dictionary already referred 
 1 See also Collier's ' Annals of the Stage,' i. 320, n.
 
 2 1 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 to we further learn that ' after passing through several 
 menial capacities [he] arrived at the degree of a book- 
 seller's man. He afterwards kept a stall, and then took 
 a shop in the purlieus of Covent Garden.' Curll's 
 master, it seems, was 'Mr. Smith, by Exeter Ex- 
 change/ an incident gleaned, as so many others have 
 been gleaned, through the outcome of a quarrel. 
 Curll's antagonist had advised, in connection with the 
 bookseller's advertisement of a quack medical book, 
 ' The Charitable Surgeon,' that his opponent's ' next ad- 
 vertisement, for the satisfaction of the publick, might 
 be a certificate under the hand of Mr. Smith, by Exeter 
 Change, his master, signifying, that he served him 
 honestly during the whole of the time for which he 
 was bound 'prentice to him.' The author of London's 
 Medicinal Informer' (the rival publication), Curll's an- 
 tagonist, quaintly concludes : ' but he has not, as yet, 
 that I know of followed my advice.' Mr. Solly (JV. 
 and Q, 6th S., x. 204) has suggested that this Mr. 
 Smith, ' was Richard Smith who had a shop at the 
 sign of the Angel and Bible without Temple Bar,' that 
 it was not unlikely that he was succeeded by Curll, 
 and also that in the process of transfer, the sign of the 
 shop was altered to 'the Peacock/ Mr. Solly draws 
 his inferences from the fact that Capt. Bladen's edition 
 of Caesar's ' Commentaries ' was originally printed in 
 
 1705, for Richard Smith, whilst the second edition 
 was issued by Curll in the latter part of 1705 or else in 
 
 1706, at which period it is assumed that Smith re- 
 signed in favour of his apprentice. We have unim- 
 peachable evidence that Curll was in business in 1706 
 and in 1707, and that, moreover, he published books
 
 Edmund Citrll. 2 19 
 
 in each of these years. It is not easy, therefore, to 
 reconcile these facts with a statement of Curll's own, 
 which he makes in ' An Apology for the writings of 
 Walter Moyle, Esqr/ 1727, where, speaking of Dod- 
 well, 2 he says : * As to Mr. Dodwell, I had above 
 twenty years intimate correspondence with him, and 
 always believed him to be a learned and very pious 
 man he truly was, what the poet asserts : 
 
 ' Stiff in opinions, mostly in the wrong, 
 Was everything by starts, and nothing long.' 
 
 The first book I ever printed was the present of a 
 manuscript he made me, in defence of his now suffi- 
 ciently exploded doctrine of the Divine Immortalizing 
 Spirit transferred by Baptism.' This was an octavo* 
 price 2s. 6d., published in 1708. Curll made no entries 
 ofhis books in the Stationers' Company Registers 
 until 1710, a fact, however, of but little moment. 
 But this slight inconsistency of Curll's need not occa- 
 sion surprise. From 1706 to 1708 Curll issued, among 
 other books, and generally in part proprietorship with 
 some other bookseller, 'A Letter to Mr. Prior/ 1706* 
 occasioned by the Duke of Marlborough's victory at 
 Ramilles; 'Prince Eugene, an Heroic Poem/ 1707* 
 a translation of Boileau's ' Lutrin,' 1708, and Dodwell's 
 work already referred to, ' An explication of a famous 
 passage in the Dialogue of St. Justin the Martyr with 
 Tryphon, concerning the immortality of Human Souls/ 
 1708 (2s. 6d.}. ' Muscipula ' was also issued from the 
 Peacock without Temple Bar, in 1709. 
 
 Three distinct and important episodes distinguish 
 
 Henry Dodwell, 16411711, a learned theological writer.
 
 2 2 o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Curll's career in 1710. First, he removed to the 
 premises just vacated by J. Bosvill, at the Dial and 
 Bible, against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street ; 
 secondly, he was already in hot water ; and, thirdly, 
 he published several books, the titles of which have 
 been at least preserved, and in the compilation of 
 which he must have had some share. (See N. and Q., 
 6th S., xi. 381.) 
 
 The quarrel was an interesting one, and plainly 
 showed that Curll was not only a man not easily put 
 down, but that his education, for the time, must have 
 been unusually good. Curll, like Newbery and many 
 others, sold pills and powders for physical purposes, 
 as well as food and medicine for mental. ' The 
 Charitable Surgeon' (vide ante, p. 21 8) was 'reckoned 
 up ' in a ' scurrilous pamphlet ' as quackery, etc. 
 Mr. Curll does not trouble himself much about the 
 attack made upon his book perhaps for obvious 
 reasons but he takes exception to his opponent's 
 logic. ' Whether,' says Curll, ' he can read or write 
 is a query; but he has given the world a demon- 
 stration that he can't cast account ; for he says the 
 medicines sold at my shop come to between 3/. and 
 4/. a packet, which the author advises to be taken 
 forty days, and will at that rate cost the patient 
 about 2O/. ; but I am of the opinion that physick for 
 forty days at los. per dose amounts to I2O/. So 
 much for his arithmetical learning. And for his 
 grammatical, though he pretends in his book to 
 understand Greek, I have five guineas in my pocket, 
 which if John Spinke [the antagonist] can English so 
 many lines out of any school-book, from " Sententia
 
 Edmund Curl/. 221 
 
 Puerilis" to Virgil, he shall be entitled to.' This 
 advertisement appeared in The Supplement newspaper 
 of April 8, 1709, and was quoted in 'London's Medicinal 
 Informer' (1710), the author of which was, it seems, 
 the redoubtable Mr. Spinke. Taking him at his 
 word, Spinke ' attended this ingenious E. Curll,' the 
 day following that on which the challenge appeared, 
 'and in his shop Englished the first five lines of 
 Virgil's first Eclogue, and made a demand for the 
 said five guineas ; ' but he does not say whether he 
 got them, so we may fairly conclude that the money 
 was duly handed over. Even at this early period 
 Curll's name was ' up ' as the propagator of objection- 
 able literature. Mr. Spinke grimly admits that if 
 * The Charitable Surgeon ' were a scandalous book, 
 ' then sure E. Curll would not sell it ! ' 
 
 Among the works issued partly or solely by Curll 
 in 1710 were: 'A Complete Key to the Tale of a 
 Tub,' a sixpenny pamphlet of 36 pp., which pro- 
 fessed to give some account of the authors, in 
 addition to an explanation as to the occasion 
 and design of writing it. ' A Search after Principles, 
 in a free conference between Timothy and Philatheus 
 concerning the present times,' issued by Morphew, 
 was one of the many productions in which Curll had 
 a hand. The British Museum has a copy containing 
 this statement in what is presumably Curll's own 
 handwriting, which is, by the way, very neat : ' This I 
 wrote at Farmer Lambert's, at Wanstead, in Surrey, 
 whither I went with Mr. Gosling. 3 E. CURLL.' 
 
 3 A brother bookseller ; the two were partners in numerous 
 literary ventures.
 
 222 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ' The Meditation upon a Broomstick, and Somewhat 
 Beside of the same Author ' (pp. 30, price 6d.) , also 
 contains a manuscript note, which states that the 
 poems included in this volume viz. ' Baucis and 
 Philemon/ ' Mrs. Harris's Petition/ ' To Mrs. Biddy 
 Floyd/ and 'The History of Vanbrugh's House' 
 were ' given and by John Cliffe, Esq., who had them 
 of the Bp. of Kilolla, in Ireland, whose daughter 
 he married, and was my lodger. E. CURLL.' The 
 Sacheverell controversy called forth, in 1710, three 
 books from Curll, viz. f The Case of Dr. Sacheverell ' 
 (pp. 32) and ' Some Considerations/ &c. (pp. 40). 
 In the absence of anything proving the contrary, 
 Curll's claims to the authorship of these and other 
 works may be considered as genuine. The third 
 work, ' Some Account of the Family of Sacheverell/ 
 was entered in the books of the Stationers' Company, 
 Sept. 13, 1710. This may have been, also, the 
 work of the bookseller. ' The White Crow/ entered 
 in the books of the Stationers' Company, Dec. 
 4, 1710, and published by Curll, professed to be an 
 ' enquiry into some new doctrines broached by the 
 Bishop of Salisbury [Dr. Burnet] in a pair of Sermons 
 uttered in that Cathedral on the 5th and 7th days of 
 November last, 1710 ; and his Lordship's Restauration 
 Sermon, last 29th of May.' Betterton's ' The Amorous 
 Widow ' was printed for A. Bettesworth, of the Red 
 Lion, London Bridge ; R. Gosling, of the Mitre and 
 Crown; and E. Curll, in 1710. ' Callipaedia ; or 
 the Art of Getting Pretty Children/ translated by 
 N. Rowe, was one of Curll's early publications, which
 
 Edmund Cur II. 223 
 
 was also issued by Tonson, and one or two other 
 leading booksellers. 
 
 'The year 1716,' observes Mr. Thorns, 'was an 
 unlucky year for Edmund Curll. The spring of it 
 witnessed his first quarrel with Pope ; and in the 
 autumn 
 
 " Himself among the storied chiefs he spies, 
 As from the blanket high in air he flies," 
 
 when the Westminster scholars avenged themselves 
 upon him in a most characteristic manner for mis- 
 printing an oration delivered by one of their body.' 
 The war between Pope and Curll was one of the 
 most protracted in literary history. It arose through, 
 comparatively speaking, nothing. Dignity was not 
 one of Pope's failings. In March or April, 1716, 
 James Roberts, who was for a long period connected 
 more or less with Curll, but with whom, it seems, he 
 subsequently quarrelled, issued a volume entitled, 
 4 Court Poems,' which contained ' The Basset Table,' 
 an eclogue, ' The Drawing-Room,' and ' The Toilet.' 
 These were alleged to be ' published faithfully as 
 they were found in a pocket-book, taken up in West- 
 minster Hall the last day of the Lord Winton's 
 trial.' 4 Curll was responsible for the publication of 
 this work, and wrote the ' advertisement by the book- 
 seller.' This curious piece of preface relates that the 
 poems in question had been submitted to the inspec- 
 tion of the literati of St. James' Coffee House, by 
 whom they were attributed to the pen of a ' Lady of 
 
 4 The Earl of Winton or Wintoun was convicted of high 
 treason, March 17, 1716.
 
 224 The Ear lief History of English Bookselling, 
 
 Quality/ whilst the 'poetical jury' at Button's 
 ' brought in a different verdict,' the ' foreman ' strenu- 
 ously insisting that 'Mr. Gay was the man.' But 
 these two decisions were insufficient, and the book- 
 seller resolved to call in an umpire, and accordingly 
 chose 'a gentleman of distinguished merit/ who 
 answered : ' Sir, depend upon it, these lines could 
 come from no other hand than the laudable trans- 
 lator of Homer.' This was quite enough for Pope, 
 who, perhaps not alone, manufactured the infamous 
 ' Full and True Account of a Horrid and Barbarous 
 Revenge by Poison on the Body of Mr. Edmund 
 Curll,' which, with the ' Circumcision,' surpassed in 
 foulness and indecency anything published by Curll 
 himself ; a fact which some of Pope's apologists deem 
 proper to overlook. According to Pope, 'the said 
 Mr. Edmund Curll, on Monday, the 26th instant, 
 published a satirical piece, entitled " Court Poems," ' 
 and on 'the Wednesday evening, between the hours 
 of ten and eleven, Mr. Lintot, a neighbouring book- 
 seller, desired a conference with Mr. Curll, about 
 settling a title-page, inviting him at the same time to 
 take a whet together. Mr. Pope, who is not the only 
 instance how persons of bright parts may be carried 
 away by the instigation of the devil, found means to 
 convey himself into the same room, under pretence 
 of business with Mr. Lintot, who, it seems, is the 
 printer of his " Homer." This gentleman, with a 
 seeming coolness, reprimanded Mr. Curll for wrong- 
 fully ascribing to him the aforesaid poems. He 
 excused himself by declaring that one of his authors 
 (Mr. Oldmixon by name) gave the copies to the
 
 Edmund Curll. 225 
 
 press, and wrote the preface. Upon this Mr. Pope, 
 being to all appearances reconciled, very civilly 
 drank a glass of sack to Mr. Curll, which he as civilly 
 pledged ; and though the liquor, in colour and taste 
 differed not from common sack, yet it was plain, by 
 the pangs this unhappy stationer felt soon after, 
 that some poisonous drug had been secretly infused 
 therein.' It would be difficult to match what follows 
 for foulness ; and whether Pope intended it for 
 humour or for satire, it will be difficult to find a 
 more deplorable failure, if we except ' Dr. Norris's 
 Narrative.' 
 
 Through this 'account,' however, we have at least 
 one interesting fact concerning Curll's movements 
 that would, perhaps, have been otherwise overlooked. 
 We learn that Curll had a shop, depot, or agency of 
 some sort at Tunbridge Wells. In a frenzied address 
 to his books, Curll is made to say, ' To my shop at 
 Tunbridge ye shall go, by G , and thence be 
 drawn, like the rest of your predecessors, bit by bit, 
 to the passage-house.' This was written in 1716. 
 In connection with this Tunbridge Wells branch, a 
 correspondent in N.. & Q., 6th S., ii. 484, cites the 
 following advertisement, 'dated July 15, 1712,' but 
 without indicating its source : 
 
 ' By Edmund Curll, Bookseller, at his shop on the 
 walk at Tunbridge Wells. Gentlemen and Ladies may 
 be furnish'd with all the new Books and Pamphlets 
 that come out ; also French and Italian Prints, Maps, 
 &c. Where may be had Mr. Rowe's Translation of 
 " Callipaedia, or the Art of getting Beautiful Children." 
 A Poem in 4 Books. Price 4^. The Royal Paper, 
 
 Q
 
 226 The Ear Her History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ?s. 6d. Catalogues are delivered gratis at Waghorn's 
 and Brown's Coffee-House on the Walk..' 
 
 To return, however, to the unfortunate ' Court 
 Poems/ Mr. Thorns thought it evident that Pope had 
 circulated some libellous statement concerning Old- 
 mixon before March 31, 1716, from an advertise- 
 ment that appeared in the Flying Post, or the 
 Postmaster of that date, in which Oldmixon declared 
 that he never saw ' or heard of the title or preface to 
 them till after the poems were published.' ' Witness, 
 E. Curll.' ' The True and Full Account,' preposterous 
 as it is in its present state, probably had its origin in a 
 hoax resembling in some way that elaborated by Pope 
 on Dennis. The ' Account,' although not published 
 until some years afterwards, was not only written at 
 the time, but amused all the wits about town for a 
 long period, much to Curll's chagrin. Probably 
 Curll made only verbal objection to the ' Account ' 
 so long as it remained in manuscript state, but when 
 this embryo stage was departed from, and smarting 
 under the accumulated insults of an unsparing 
 antagonist, Curll gives his version of the transaction 
 in ' The Curliad,' which, professing to be 'a hypercritic 
 upon the Dunciad variorum,' was issued at a shilling 
 in 1729- (April 25). The title-page of this fierce 
 onslaught contains the following remarks, which have, 
 at least, the equivocal merit of candour : 
 
 ' Pope has less Reading than makes Felons 'scape, 
 Less human Genius than God gives an Ape.' 
 
 Dunciad, b. i. v. 235-6. 
 
 ' O may his Soul still Fret upon the Lee, 
 And naught attune his Lyre but Bastardy ;
 
 Edmund Cur II. 227 
 
 May unhang'd Savage all Pope's Hours enjoy, 
 And let his spurious Birth his Pen employ.' 
 
 ' Incerti Auth.' 
 
 Curll gives in ' The Curliad ' a circumstantial and 
 perhaps correct account of how the original ' Court 
 Poems ' came into his hands. He stigmatizes the 
 1 Account ' as false, and proceeds : ' About the year 
 1715, Mr. Joseph Jacobs (late of Hoxton, the founder 
 of a remarkable sect called the Whiskers) gave to 
 Mr. John Oldmixon three poems at that time handed 
 about, entitled " The Basset Table," The Toilet," and 
 " The Drawing- Room." ' These pieces were printed in 
 octavo, and published by Mr. James Roberts, near the 
 Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, under the title of 
 " Court Poems." The profit arising from the sale was 
 equally to be divided between Mr. John Oldmixon, 
 Mr. John Pemberton (a bookseller of Parliamentary 
 note in Fleet Street, tho' he has not had the good 
 fortune to be immortalized in the " Dunciad ") and 
 myself. And I am sure my brother Lintot will, if 
 asked, declare this to be the same state of the case I 
 laid before Mr. Pope, when he sent for me to the 
 Swan Tavern in Fleet Street to enquire after this 
 publication. My brother Lintot drank his half-pint 
 of old hock, Mr. Pope his half-pint of sack, and I the 
 same quantity of an emetic potion (which was the 
 punishment referred to by our commentator), but no 
 threatenings past. Mr. Pope, indeed, said that satires 
 should not be printed (tho' he has now changed his 
 mind). I answered, they should not be wrote, for if 
 they were, they would be printed. He replied, Mr. 
 Gay's interest at Court would be greatly hurt by pub- 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 lishing these pieces. This was all that passed in our 
 Triumvirate. We then parted. Pope and my brother 
 Lintot went together to his shop, and I went home 
 and vomited heartily.' 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the 'Account' had 
 some sort of foundation in fact. The ' Court Poems ' 
 were constantly before the public, being reprinted for 
 6d. among several other poems, in 1719, and it is 
 included in the fourth volume of Curll's edition of 
 'Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence,' in I2mo, 1736. 
 In 1716, E. Smith, of Cornhill, issued in a broad-side 
 form the well-known verses addressed by Pope ' To 
 the ingenious Mr. Moore, Author of the Celebrated 
 
 Worm -Powder.' 
 
 ' Moore's Worms. 
 For the learned Mr. Curll, Bookseller, 
 
 Who, to be reveng'd on Mr. Pope for his Poisonous Emetick, 
 gave him a Paper of Worm Powder, which caused that Gentle- 
 man to void a strange sort of Worms.' . 
 
 Of this ' poem ' there are twelve verses, of which 
 the first four and concluding three alone are here 
 given : 
 
 ' Oh learned CURLL ! thy skill excels 
 Ev'n Moore's of Abchurch Lane ; 
 He only genuine worms expels, 
 
 To crawl in print for gain. 
 From a Wit's brain thou mak'st worms rise, 
 
 (Unknown in the worm-evil) 
 Fops, silkworms, beaus, and butterflies, 
 
 With that old worm the Devil. 
 Ev'n Button's bookworms shall, with these, 
 
 (Like these with dust decay'd) 
 In Grub-street rubbish rest in peace, 
 Till Curlls their peace invade.
 
 Edmund Cur II. 229 
 
 For booksellers vile vipers are, 
 
 On brains of Wits they prey : 
 The very worms they will not spare, 
 
 When Wits to worms decay. 
 
 * * # * * 
 
 Ah, Curl! !* how greedy hast thou fed 
 
 (E'er worms gave food to thee) 
 Upon the late illustrous dead, 
 
 With worms of thy degree. 
 
 Why did the venom of a prude 
 
 Allure thy vicious taste ? 
 Safer thou'dst feast on maggots crude, 
 
 Or with Tom D'Urfey fast. 
 
 For see ! thy meagre looks declare 
 
 Some poison in thee lurks: 
 Let Bl[ackmo]re ease thy restless care, 
 
 Or who shall print his works? ' 
 
 Curll's fracas with the indignant scholars of West- 
 minster was not the least of the scrapes into which 
 his ill-timed and ill-appreciated energy landed him. 
 On Sunday, July 8, 1716, the learned and witty 
 Robert South, Prebendary of Westminster, and Canon 
 of Christ Church, Oxford, was gathered unto his 
 fathers. ' Four days after his decease (says Mr. 
 Thorns), his corpse, having for some time lain 
 in a decent manner in the Jerusalem Chamber, was 
 brought thence into the College Hall, where a Latin 
 oration was pronounced over it by Mr. John Barber, 
 then Captain of the King's Scholars. Of this 
 funeral discourse Curll would appear, by some 
 means or other, to have obtained a copy ; and, 
 
 * ' Famous for printing the Lives and Last Wills of great 
 men.'
 
 230 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 "did th' Oration print 
 Imperfect, with false Latin in't."' 
 
 Curll's ' seasonable ' but luckless publication was 
 in octavo form of 17 pages, the full title being, ' The 
 Character of the Rev. and Learned Dr. Robert South. 
 Being the Oration spoken at his Funeral on Monday, 
 July xvi. 1716, in the College-Hall of Westminster. 
 By Mr. Barber.' The irate scholars determined upon 
 having revenge, and to this end decoyed the unsus- 
 pecting Curll into the Dean's Yard, on the pretence 
 of giving him a perfect copy of the oration. The 
 reception he met with is graphically told in a letter 
 that appeared at the time in the St. James's Post : 
 'King's College, Westminster, August 3rd, 1716. 
 Sir, You are desired to acquaint the public that a 
 certain bookseller near Temple-bar, not taking 
 warnings by the frequent drubs that he has under- 
 gone for his often pirating other men's copies, did 
 lately, without the consent of Mr. John Barber, 
 present Captain of Westminster School, publish the 
 scraps of a Funeral Oration, spoken by him over the 
 Corpse of the Rev. Dr. South. And being on 
 Thursday last fortunately nabbed within the limits of 
 Dean's Yard, by the King's Scholars there, he met 
 with a college salutation, for he was first presented 
 with the ceremony of the blanket, in which, when the 
 skeleton had been well shook, he was carried in 
 triumph to the school ; and after receiving a gram- 
 matical construction for his false concords, he was 
 reconducted to Dean's Yard, and on his knees asking 
 pardon of the aforesaid Mr. Barber for his offence, he
 
 Edmund Cur IL 231 
 
 was kicked out of the yard, and left to the huzzas of 
 the rabble.' Poor Curll ! 
 
 This episode was undoubtedly very fruitful in 
 lampoons, the most noteworthy of which is that 
 attributed to Samuel Wesley, 8 and entitled ' Neck or 
 Nothing, a consolatory Letter from Mr. D nt n to 
 Mr. C rll, upon his being Tost in a Blanket,' &c. 
 ' Prefixed is a plate, divided into three compartments : 
 the first exhibits Curll being " presented with the 
 ceremony of the blanket." In the second, he is pro- 
 strated on a table receiving a flagellation where one 
 wound, 'tis said, 
 
 "hurts honour more 
 Than twenty when laid on before.'' 
 
 In the third he is on his bended knees between two 
 files of the Westminster scholars,' asking pardon of 
 the aforesaid Mr. Barber.' The whole of this poem 
 is given in Mr. Thorns' ' Curll Papers,' but we can 
 only afford space here for a few of the more salient 
 passages. 
 
 ' Lo ! I that erst the glory spread 
 
 Of Worthies, who for Monmouth bled, 
 
 In letters black, and letters red ; 
 
 To thee, Dear Afun, Condolence write, 
 
 As sufFrer from the Jacobite : 
 
 For just as they were martyrs, so 
 
 A glorious Confessor art thou ; 
 
 Else should this matchless pen of mine 
 
 Vouchsafe thee not a single line ; 
 
 Nor wave its politicks for this, 
 
 Its dark and deep discoveries, 
 
 6 See 'Memoirs of the Society of Grub Street,' i., p. 16 ; and 
 M &* Q., 6th S., passim.
 
 232 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 Nor for a moment should forbear 
 To charge the faction in the rear. 
 Could none of thy poetick band 
 Of mercenary wits at hand, 
 Fortell, or ward the coming blow, 
 From garret high, or cellar low? 
 
 For hat and gloves you call'd in haste, 
 And down to execution pass'd. 
 Small need of hats and gloves, I trow ; 
 Thou mightst have left thy breeches too ! 
 
 To see thee smart for copy-stealing, 
 My bowels yearn with fellow-feeling. 
 Have I alone oblig'd the press 
 With fifteen hundred treatises, 
 Printers and stationers undone, 
 A plagiary in ev'ry one ? 
 
 I sweat to think of thy condition 
 
 Before that barb'rous Inquisition. 
 
 Lo ! wide-extended by the crowd, 
 
 The Blanket, dreadful as a shroud, 
 
 Yawns terrible, for thee, poor M.un, 
 
 To stretch, but not to sleep upon. 
 
 " Confess," quo' they, ".thy rogueries. 
 
 What makes you keep in garret high 
 
 Poor bards tied up to Poetry ? '' 
 
 " I'm forc'd to load them with a clog, 
 
 To make them study : '' " Here's a rogue 
 
 Affronts the school, we'll make thee rue it:" 
 
 " Indeed, I never meant to do it ! " 
 
 " No ? didst thou not th' Oration print 
 
 Imperfect, with false Latin in't?" 
 
 'Tis vexatious, Mun, I grant, 
 
 To hear the passing truants taunt, 
 
 And ask thee at thy shop in jeer, 
 
 " Which is the way to Westminster ? " 
 
 Why, POPE will make an epic on't ! 
 BERNARD will chuckle at thy moan,
 
 Edmund Cur II. 233 
 
 And all the booksellers in town, 
 From TONSON down to BODDINGTON. 
 Fleet Street and Temple- Bar around, 
 The Strand and Holborn, this shall sound : 
 For ever this shall grate thine ear : 
 " Which is the way to Westminster ? " ' 
 
 The affair was by no means allowed to rest v/ith a 
 squib or lampoon or two, for up to very nearly the time 
 of his death, good care was taken that Mr. Curll 
 should not forget his excursions into space. 
 
 Pope's version of Homer afforded Curll an ex- 
 cellent pretext for attacking the poet, and accordingly 
 on April 5, 1716, an advertisement appeared in the 
 Flying Post, announcing that ' this day is published 
 the Second part of Mr. Pope's Popish Translation of 
 Homer. The subscribers having made great com- 
 plaint that there were no pictures in the First part : 
 This is to give notice, that to this Second part there 
 is added a spacious map of the Trojan tents and 
 rivers finely delineated. Translated into copper from 
 the wooden original, as you have it in the learned 
 Dr. Fuller's " Pisgah Sight," being the true travels of 
 Moses and the Children of Israel from the land of 
 Goshen to the land of Canaan. With an exact scale. 
 Sold by E. Curll,' &c. The same issue contains 
 another of Curll's advertisements, which stated that 
 ' next week will be published, an excellent new ballad, 
 called " The Catholic Poet, or Protestant Barnaby's 
 Lamentation." To the tune of " Which nobody can 
 deny." 
 
 ' Tho' of his wit the Catholick has boasted, 
 Lintot and Pope by turns shall both be roasted." '
 
 2 34 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Mr. Curll did not think he had ' laid it on ' strong 
 enough, and five days later, April 10, the same 
 journal contained the following notice : ' To prevent 
 any farther imposition on the public, there is now 
 preparing for the press, by several hands, " Homer 
 Defended," being a detection of the many errors 
 committed by Mr. Pope in his pretended Translation 
 of Homer, wherein is fully proved that he neither 
 understands the original, nor the author's meaning, 
 and that in several places he has falsified it on 
 purpose. To which is added, a specimen of a Trans- 
 lation of the First Book of the Odysses, which has 
 lain printed by Mr. Lintott some time, and which he 
 intends to publish, in order to prejudice Mr. Tickell's 
 excellent version. Any gentlemen who have made 
 observations upon Mr. Pope's Homer, and will be 
 pleased to send them to Mr. Curll .... shall have 
 them faithfully inserted in this work.' 
 
 Much of the defamatory literature sent into the 
 world by the ' Grubeans ' on the appearance of Pope's 
 Homer has been buried in oblivion, but among 
 Curll's publications were ' An Epilogue to a Puppet- 
 show at Bath, concerning the said Iliad, by Geo. 
 Ducket, Esq.,' and ' Remarks upon Mr. Pope's Trans- 
 lation of Homer, by Mr. Dennis, 1717.' This latter, 
 which also contained two letters concerning ' Windsor 
 Forest,' and the ' Temple of Fame,' was issued by 
 Curll in a modified form as ' The Popiad,' without 
 author's or publisher's name, in 1728. But Curll 
 was not the only bookseller who, by issuing libels 
 on Pope prior to 1728, competed for a position in 
 ' The Dunciad.'
 
 Edmund Curll. 235 
 
 A more serious danger threatened Curll in 1716 
 than his ' differences ' with Pope and the Westminster 
 scholars. He was summoned to the Bar of the 
 House of Lords to answer to a charge of violating 
 the order of the House. The official order for 
 printing and publishing the account of the protracted 
 trial of Lord Wintoun, which was brought to a close 
 March 19, 1715-6, was given to Jacob Tonson, who 
 duly executed the work. Its price was prohibitive, 
 and Sarah Popping published a popular account of 
 the transaction for twopence. On April 13 an order 
 was made to ' forthwith attach the said S. Popping.' 
 Sarah, it appears, was indisposed, but their lordships 
 were informed that ' a person is attending the door 
 who can give an account concerning the said Paper.' 
 This 'person ' was one Elizabeth Cape, who, by some 
 means or other, implicated Curll and Pemberton as 
 the chief promoters of this outrage upon their lord- 
 ships' privileges. On Tuesday, April 17, Sarah 
 Popping presented a petition to the House, by which 
 it appears that, during her illness, Messrs. Curll and 
 Pemberton issued the account of Lord Wintoun's 
 Trial without her knowledge, and placed her name as 
 publisher on the- title-page entirely upon their own 
 responsibility, and without her consent. On Thursday, 
 April 26, their lordships ordered that Sarah Popping 
 and John Pemberton be forthwith discharged out of 
 custody, without paying any fees ; whilst poor Curll, 
 with his usual share of ill-luck, was condemned to 
 'be continued in the custody he is now in.' Fate 
 was indeed hard upon Edmund, for, still in durance 
 vile, on Wednesday, May 2, Daniel Bridge, a
 
 236 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 printer in Paternoster Row, proved that he received 
 the copy of the account of Lord Wintoun's Trial from 
 E. Curll, and that he printed the same. On the 
 following Tuesday (May 8) the unfortunate pair 
 presented a joint petition praying for release, which, 
 however, was not granted them until the following 
 Friday, when, on their knees, they received a reprimand 
 from the Lord Chancellor for their offence, and were 
 discharged, after paying their fees. 
 
 But yet another quarrel needs recording. We find 
 him in 1716 at loggerheads with Desaguliers, who in 
 1715 had employed Curll to publish a work entitled 
 ' Fires Improved,' which professed to detail a ' new 
 method of building chimneys so as to prevent their 
 smoaking.' It was a translation from the French, 
 and Curll was allowed a share in the profits. In 
 order to promote its sale, Curll ' puffed it off in a very 
 gross manner,' which induced the irate author to 
 publish a disclaimer in Steele's Town Talk, in which 
 Desaguliers informed the public that whenever his 
 name hereafter was or should be printed with that 
 egregious flatterer Mr. Curll's, either in an advertise- 
 ment or at the title-page of a book, except that 
 of " Fires Improved," he entirely disowned it.' 
 
 Neither the heaped-up insults of Pope, nor the 'orders' 
 of the lords, spiritual and temporal, nor the blanketings 
 of the scholars, had much permanent effect upon 
 Curll, for in eleven days from his dismissal from the 
 custody of the Black Rod, we find him busy getting 
 through the press a new edition of Erdeswick's 
 ' Survey of Staffordshire,' for the loan of Thoresby's 
 manuscript copy of which the bookseller spontane-
 
 Edm u nd Cu rll. 237 
 
 ously offers two copies when it is finally published. 
 We may turn aside for a short time from the in- 
 cessant turmoil in which Curll was concerned, and 
 consider some of the really useful work which he 
 executed. 
 
 The Topographical works which Curll published are 
 for the most part valuable even at the present day, 
 and as few of his publications were issued in sizes 
 larger than octavo, and at a correspondingly cheap 
 rate, he was, apart from personal considerations, 
 really instrumental in placing desirable literature 
 in the hands of those whose purses were not long 
 enough to bear the expense of the then costly and 
 bulky folios and quartos. The following list, chiefly 
 derived from Nichols' ' Lit. Anec.' v. 491, will prove 
 that Curll's publications were not uniformly objec- 
 tionable : ' History and Antiquities of Winchester," 
 1715 ; ditto of Hereford, 1717 ; ditto of Rochester, 
 1717-23 ; ditto of the Churches of Salisbury and 
 Bath, 1719-23; 'Inscriptions on the Tombs in 
 Bunhill-Fields,' 1717 ; Aubrey's 'History of Surrey, 1 
 1719, 5 vols.; Norden's ' Delineations of Northampton- 
 shire/ 1720; 'History and Antiquities of Glaston- 
 bury/Oxford, 1722; and a ' Chorographical Description 
 or Survey of the County of Devon,' &e., collected by 
 the travail of Tristram Ridson, of Winscot, Gent/ 
 1714. The price of each volume averaged about 
 7s. 6d. Curll had a sort of certificate from the well- 
 known antiquary, Browne Willis, who wrote to say 
 that 'Mr. Curll, having been at great expense in 
 publishing these books (now comprised under the 
 title of " Anglia Illustrata/' in 20 volumes), and
 
 238 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 adorning them with draughts of monuments, maps, 
 &c., deserves to be encouraged by us all, who are 
 well-wishers to this study ; no bookseller' and was 
 Mr. Willis here quietly satirical ? ' in town having 
 been so curious as he.' Mr. Curll is of course duly 
 grateful for this tribute, which, he states in a P.S., 
 ' was given upon a journey to Oxford, and has been 
 greatly serviceable to me.' 
 
 A spirit of rivalry now and then prompted Curll to 
 undertake some work which he would not have other- 
 wise thought of. To this cause may be safely ascribed 
 the reprint of Surrey's ' Songs and Sonnetts ' issued 
 by Tottell in 1567, &c. An edition of Surrey was 
 issued in 1 7 1 7 by W. Mears, of the Lamb, and J. Brown, 
 of the Black Swan, within Temple Bar, and under the 
 editorial care of George Sewell, M.D. Probably Curll 
 got wind early of this undertaking, for he was not long 
 in getting a rival edition in the market, but he omitted, 
 in his haste perhaps, entirely those of ' Uncertain 
 Authors ' reprinted in Sewell's. The ' advertisement ' 
 to Curll's publication, dated April 13, 1717, andsigned 
 ' Vale,' one of Curll's several noms-de-plume, states : 
 ' In order to give the publick as correct an edition as I 
 could of these valuable poems, I procured among my 
 friends these several editions, printed in the years 1565, 
 1567, arid 1569, all which I found very full of typo- 
 graphical errors, but the most correct was that of 1567, 
 from which this edition is printed. . . . When I had 
 made the edition of 1 567 as correct as I could from the 
 other two, I heard of another copy in the Bodleian 
 Library in Oxford, among Mr. Selden's books, 
 wherein were many considerable amendments, sup-
 
 Edmund Cur II . 239 
 
 posed to be made by that eminent person : which I got 
 collated by a learned gentleman there,' &c. 
 
 It does not appear that Curll was in very bad odour 
 with the fraternity as a whole : it was the authors who 
 c could not stand ' Curll, or vice versd. Readers of the 
 ' Account ' of Curll's poisoning will observe that Pem- 
 berton is referred to as his partner. The connection 
 between the two booksellers was probably not so close 
 as the modern acceptation of the term would infer, but 
 it lasted, off and on, for a term of several years. From 
 Lintot's Account-Book, we find that Curll and Pem- 
 berton were paid, March 4, 1714-5, the sum of 3/. 4^. 6d. 
 for ' half of Noy's ' Rights of the Crown/ and on Janu- 
 ary 5, 1715-6, they were again paid 4/. 6s. for a half- 
 share in West on ' Treasons/ It was a very common 
 thing at this period for two or three booksellers to 
 conjointly bear the expense and share the profits of 
 any considerable work, and then to sell, in sheets, by 
 auction or otherwise, a certain number of copies to 
 various booksellers, whose names appeared on the 
 title-page, and who bound their own copies. 
 
 It will be also interesting to learn that the scale of 
 remuneration which Curll allowed ' his authors ' was 
 not quite so beggarly as has been imagined. Ed. 
 Holdsworth was paid five guineas for, and allowed 
 fifty copies of, ' Muscipula ' (May 30, 1709) ; Susannah 
 Centlivre, twenty guineas each for her three plays, 
 1 The Wonder,' ' The Cruel Gift,' and ' The Artifice ' 
 (May 18, 1715) ; John Durant Breval, four guineas 
 for ' The Art of Dress,' a poem (Feb. 13, 1716) ; Charles 
 Beckingham, fifty guineas for ' King Henry IV. of 
 France,' and the translation ofRapin's 'Christus Patiens '
 
 2 4O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 (Nov. 13, 1719) ; Robert Samber, four guineas for, 
 and twelve copies of, ' The Praise of Drunkeness' (Feb. 
 2o, J 723) ; Thomas Stackhouse, ten guineas for 'The 
 Life of Bishop Atterbury ' (Sept. 16, 1723) ; Thomas 
 Cooke, 5/. for writing Marvel's ' Life/ &c. (April, 1726) ; 
 and John Clarke received two payments of one guinea 
 each in part of the copy-money of two novels, ' The 
 Virgin Seducer,' and ' The Batchelor's Keeper ' (Oct., 
 1726). 
 
 Curll's famous quarrel with Mist dates from about 
 April 5, 1718, when the Weekly Journal or Satur- 
 day Post afterwards rechristened Misfs Journal, con- 
 tained an elaborate article on Curll and Curlicism. 
 Curll was not a handsome man, unless overwhelming 
 contemporary evidence be false. After a passage on 
 the ' sin of Curlicism,' Mr. Mist's correspondent, ' H.,' 
 goes on in this manner: 'There is indeed but one 
 bookseller eminent among us for this abomination, and 
 from him the crime takes the just denomination of 
 Curlicism. The fellow is a contemptible wretch a 
 thousand ways : he is odious in his person, scandalous 
 in his fame ; he is marked by Nature, for he has a 
 bawdy countenance, and a debauched mien ; his 
 tongue is an echo of all the beastly language his shop 
 is filled with, and filthiness drivels in the very tone of 
 his voice. 
 
 ' But what is the meaning that this manufacturer of 
 
 is permitted in a civilized nation to go unpunished, 
 
 and that the abominable Catalogue is unsuppressed, in 
 a country where religion is talked of (little more God 
 knows !)?.... How can our Stamp Office take twelve 
 pence a-piece for the advertisement of his infamous
 
 Edmund Curll. 24 r 
 
 books, publishing the continued increase of lewd 
 abominable pieces of bawdry, such as none can read 
 even in miniature, for such an Advertisement is to a 
 book. How can these refrain informing the govern- 
 ment what mines are laid to blow up morality, even 
 from its very foundation, and to sap the basis of all 
 good manners, nay, and in the end, of religion itself? 
 ' Where sleep the watchmen of Israel, that not one 
 divine of the Church of England not one teacher 
 among the dissenters has touched this crying curse ? 
 O Bangor ! O Bradbury ! how much better had the 
 kingdom of Christ been established, had you attacked 
 the agents of hell that propagate the kingdom of the 
 devil, instead of snarling about who are, and who are 
 not, vested with effectual power to act this way or that 
 way in the Church, or in the State ? How much more 
 like "preachers of righteousness" had ye appeared, if, 
 as far as became you, ye had laboured to establish our 
 youth in virtue and piety, and so suppressed the spread- 
 ing abominable vices by the agency of the printing- 
 
 press 
 
 ' In a word, Mist, record it for posterity to wonder 
 at, that in four years past of the blessed days we live 
 in, and wherein justice and liberty are flourishing and 
 established, more beastly unsufferable books have 
 been published by this one offender, than in thirty 
 years before by all the nation ; and not a man, clergy- 
 man or other, has yet thought it worth his while to 
 demand justice of the government against the crime 
 of it, or so much as to caution the age against the 
 mischief of it. 
 
 ' Publish this, Mist, as you value your promise, and 
 
 R
 
 242 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 remember you'll be honoured with having put the 
 first hand to correct a crime which begins to make 
 us scandalous to our neighbours, and, in time, if 
 not prevented, will make us detestable among all the 
 Christian nations of Europe. Your friend, H.' 
 
 Curll was a Whig, and Mist was a Tory. It goes 
 without saying that political animosities prompted the 
 attack. So long as the Whig government could de- 
 cently refrain from prosecuting an adherent possess- 
 ing some amount of influence, as Curll did, they would 
 naturally do so. Curll zealously promoted the Hano- 
 verian succession, which was consummated nearly 
 four years before Mist's attack, and the Whigs had the 
 laughing side. Curll's reply was entitled ' Curlicism 
 Display'd, or an Appeal to the Church. Being just 
 Observations upon some Books published by Mr. Curll.' 
 It was in the form of ' a letter to Mr. Mist' (6d.}. Curll 
 commences thus : 
 
 ' Mr. Mist, 
 
 ' Your journal is now become the oracle of a 
 discontented party, wTiose fruitless schemes and many 
 disappointments make them kick against the pricks, 
 and who like the deluded multitude of old had rather 
 consult the Devil than not hear some responses in 
 favour of their wandering (pretended) monarch : 
 
 " Restless he rolls about from place to place, 
 But will not look an army in the face." 
 
 Your superannuated letter-writer was never more 
 out than when he asserted that CURLICISM was but 
 of four years' standing. Poor Wretch ! he is but a 
 mere novice in Chronology, and I do sincerely assure
 
 Edmund Curll. 243 
 
 you, Mr. Mist, that CURLICISM (since it must be so 
 called) dates its original from that ever memorable 
 aera of the reign of the first monarch of the Stuartine 
 race.' 
 
 After this short bit of introductory, Curll defends 
 several of his publications, specifying at considerable 
 length their nature and their origin. Following Mr. 
 Thorns' excellent example, we shall not enter into 
 that phase more fully than by quoting a representative 
 example : ' The first piece of CURLICISM that ap- 
 peared was that remarkable Tryal between Robert 
 Earl of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard, who, 
 after eight years' marriage, commenced a suit against 
 him for impotency.' Curll concludes his defence 
 with the following : 
 
 ' Thus, Mr. Mist, I have impartially laid before 
 you and the world a full account of the books I have 
 printed, which give your religion mongers so much 
 uneasiness. I shall, in the next place, reduce all their 
 trifling objections under four heads, and prove them 
 false in every particular. 
 
 1 i. The first charge against me is, " That I am the 
 inventor and introducer of a set of books into the 
 world upon such subjects as were never before known 
 to be brought under the pen." 
 
 ' 2. " That no nation would permit the publication 
 of such books but our own.' 
 
 'As to the first of these calumnies, I think I stand 
 pretty clear, by the concurrent testimonies of the 
 canonists and civilians, from the original institution 
 of the law of nature and nations. And as to the 
 latter, whenever any of these points have been de- 
 
 R 2
 
 244 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 bated in our own kingdom, the main support of the 
 charge, as well as the judgment given, have been 
 wholly confirmed by precedents cited from the eccle- 
 siastical institutions, and the authority of the Fathers 
 themselves. 
 
 ' 3. The other articles of the charge against me, 
 are, " That these books would not have been suffered 
 to be printed four years ago ;" when (if we may believe 
 your old gentleman) none but persons of exemplary 
 piety and virtue, such as the Ormonds, the Marrs, 
 the Bolingbrokes, &c., and their agents the Swifts, 
 the Oldisworths, the Sacheverells, &c., shared the 
 royal favour, and defended that Church which has of 
 late been so much in danger. 
 
 ' 4. And lastly, " That these books are now printed 
 by the connivance of the present government." 
 
 ' To which it is sufficient to answer, "That the five 
 volumes of the Cases of Impotency and Divorce were 
 all printed in the reign of her late so pious Majesty ; 
 and that these books, which have given such grievous 
 offence, were so far from appearing in public, by the 
 connivance of this, or indeed any former government, 
 that most of them were published by the immediate 
 command and authority of the government itself." 
 
 ' And now, Mr. Mist, having made good my promise, 
 and refuted every particular of the charge against me, 
 with relation to the publishing these books, I am 
 farther to assure your old man, that they cannot by 
 the laws of nature and nations be termed bawdy 
 books, since they treat only of matters of the greatest 
 importance to society, conduce to the mutual happi- 
 ness of the nuptial state, and are directly calculated
 
 Edmund CurlL 245 
 
 for antidotes against debauchery and unnatural lewd- 
 ness, and not for incentives to them. For which 
 reason I shall not desist from printing such books, 
 when any occasion offers, nor am I either concerned 
 or ashamed to have them distinguished by the face- 
 tious name of " CURLICTSM." 
 
 ' This, I think, Mr. Mist, an unexceptionable answer 
 to the allegations of your antiquated letter-writer ; 
 and to prevent one objection, which he might other- 
 wise possibly hereafter make, I shall frankly acknow- 
 ledge to him, that as considerable a person as he may 
 seem in the eyes of your admirers, nothing which 
 either he or you could say of me, should have moved 
 me to vouchsafe a reply, had not an opportunity 
 thereby offered itself to me of publishing to the world 
 the contents at large of these several pieces, which 
 have of late been so severally inveighed against, and 
 of demonstrating to your correspondent in particular 
 (who I take for granted never read a syllable in either 
 of them beyond the title-page 7 ) that his zeal has 
 been employed against such books, as are not only 
 inoffensive, but very useful ; and that his indignation 
 against what he calls Curlicism, proceeds from a 
 partial infatuated bigotry, and an implicit spirit of cen- 
 soriousness, into which he has been led by what I call 
 Mysticism and Poperycism. Whether he be really an 
 old fellow, or only affects a formal gravity, to give 
 his arguments the greater weight among the rabble 
 of malcontents, to whose service alone his pen is de- 
 
 1 ' Ay, there's the rub.' Mr. Curll's title-pages were the chief 
 objection. They were foully suggestive, whilst the books were, 
 in many cases, comparatively pure.
 
 2 46 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 voted I shall however be glad to see him in town, 
 whither I suppose he is coming to some employment 
 under you, either to solve cases of conscience, which 
 your tattered customers are continually furnishing 
 you with, or to strengthen your political reasonings 
 and zealous insinuations against the government, 
 with quotations from the fathers of the first four 
 centuries, in which sort of learning the gentleman 
 seems to me to be chiefly remarkable ; and like the 
 rest of his regular brethren in Christianity, to be 
 passionately fond of their venerable errors, for the 
 sake of their antiquity, and peremptorily to condemn 
 the profane politeness of the classics, as much as he 
 does the damnable conscientious sincerity of our 
 modern prevailing freethinkers. 
 
 ' Notwithstanding our present difference, Mr. Mist, 
 I am willing to give you a piece of wholesome friendly 
 advice : whereas you publicly declared in my presence, 
 before several witnesses, who will attest it upon oath, 
 that the first letter against me was inserted designedly 
 to reflect on His Majesty under my cover ; and like- 
 wise, that as for any passages in your Journal, whether 
 they should be true or false, they equally conduce to 
 the interest of the cause in which you are embarked, 
 and to the reputation of your paper amongst the 
 party your only constant readers. And whereas on 
 another occasion you have made your boast, that 
 whenever the government has thought fit to take 
 an action of you, you have always brought them to 
 your own terms, I wish you would accept the advice 
 of a generous enemy, and take particular care lest 
 your repeated insolences and treasonable glances on
 
 Edmund Cur II. 247 
 
 your indulgent superiors, should at length, contrary 
 to their innate and unexampled clemency, prevail 
 with them to put a stop to such flagrant enormities, 
 and oblige them for once to bring you to their terms. 
 
 ' Having thus given the world an impartial account 
 of the books I have printed, which is the sole design 
 of this letter ; and being therefore resolved to enter 
 into no future debate, either with yourself or your 
 champion correspondent, I shall conclude all in the 
 words of a late eminent and learned controvertist 
 [the Dean of Chichester] : " I now submit what I 
 have said to the reader's judgment : whatever your 
 letter-writer may be, the world, I am persuaded, is 
 tired of such altercations, as I am sure I am." 
 E. CURLL, Fleet Street, May 26, 1718.' 
 
 The importance and interest of the subject, and 
 the rarity of the pamphlet from which the foregoing 
 is extracted, must be our excuse for the length of the 
 excerpt. But notwithstanding his expressed deter- 
 mination not to notice any further attack from Mist, 
 or his ' old man,' we find Curll once more in the heat 
 of a combat, with 'An Answer to Mr. Mist's Journal 
 of the Twenty Eighth of January, 1726.7.' Misfs 
 Journal, we may mention, persistently attacked Curll. 
 
 Curll was nothing if not singular, and so we find 
 in his lists of publications the most devout sermons 
 issued in company with indecent tales and poems. 
 All was grist for the mill, however, that came in his 
 way. Next to his almost insane, and quite insatiable 
 desire of publishing 
 
 ' The speeches, verses, and last wills of Peers,' 
 may be classed his restless attempts at securing the
 
 248 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ' copy ' of some controversial Bishop's work, or that 
 of any other eminent divine. He had a peculiar 
 weakness for eminent persons, but more especially 
 for Bishops. In 1718 he published a couple of works 
 espousing Hoadly, the originator of the once famous 
 but now forgotten Bangorian controversy. Each of 
 these works was written by Nicholas Amhurst, the 
 conductor of Terr&-Filius, a periodical issued twice 
 weekly, January to June, during 1721, and subse- 
 quently of the Craftsman. The titles of Amhurst's 
 two poems were ' Protestant Popery, or The Con- 
 vocation,' and 'A Congratulatory Epistle from His 
 Holiness the Pope to the Rev. Dr. Snape.' Both 
 were anonymous publications, and were attributed 
 to George Sewell who, however, inserted a denial 
 in the Evening Post. 
 
 Pope, in his ' Narrative ' of the method by which his 
 letters had been published, says, ' Mr. Pope's friends 
 imagined that the whole design of E. Curll was to get 
 him to look on the edition of Cromwell's Letters, 
 and so print it as revised by Mr. Pope, in the same 
 manner as he sent an obscene book to a reverend 
 Bishop, and then advertised it as corrected and revised 
 by him.' The obscene publication referred to was 
 Rochester's ' Poems,' of which Curll issued several 
 editions. But Curll denies Pope's account, and 
 offered a hundred guineas if this ' narrative writer ' 
 can 'produce any such advertisement.' Curll's ex- 
 planation of the transaction is, that he offered to give 
 Dr. Robinson, Lord Bishop of London, an interleaved 
 edition of Rochester, and ' whatever his Lordship saw 
 amiss, if he would be pleased to strike out any lines
 
 Edmund Curll. 249 
 
 or Poems therein, such leaves should be reprinted, 
 and rendered conformable to his Lordship's opinion.' 
 Upon being made acquainted with Curll's proposition, 
 the Bishop smiled, and informed Henry Hoare, the 
 medium, ' Sir, I am told that Curll is a shrewd 
 man, and should I revise the book you have brought 
 me, he would publish it as approved by me.' 8 
 Where two such men as Pope and Curll volunteer 
 as many different stories of one transaction, it is not 
 an easy matter to decide which is telling the truth, 
 but in the present instance perhaps Curll's version is 
 the more correct. 
 
 Between the years 1721-4, Curll struck up a 
 correspondence with Bishop Kennett and Sir Robert 
 Walpole. That with the former arose from the 
 natural desire <|f publishing, after purchasing the 
 copyright, of his Lordship's Translations of Erasmus's 
 ' Praise of Folly,' first published in 1683, and Pliny's 
 'Panegyric/ 1686. Curll writes the Bishop, Nov. 
 4, 1721, to inform him of his intention, and also to 
 offer him the opportunity of revising the publications. 
 A prompt reply, dated Nov. 6, was received, in 
 which the Bishop of Peterborough desires to know 
 of whom the copyrights were purchased, as the 
 author had only invested the original booksellers 
 with the right of a single impression ; winding up 
 with a very broad hint ' that property and privilege 
 are valuable things,' and discountenancing altogether 
 the bookseller's project. The following day Curll 
 
 8 A story identical with this is related of Wilkes and the 
 ' Essay on Women,' and also of Samuel Foote and ' The 
 Minor.'
 
 250 The Ear Her History of English Bookselling. 
 
 was again 'at' his Lordship, and, in a rather lengthy 
 epistle, which need not be here quoted, makes a 
 general defence against the charge of publishing 
 indecent books, a charge which he ascribes to 
 rumour only, ' or some idle paragraphs, inserted 
 against me in that sink of scandal, Misfs Journal, 
 wherein the best ^characters have been traduced.' He 
 further obliges his Lordship with his catalogue, which 
 ' will in some measure convince your Lordship, that I 
 have been ready, and shall always be, to promote any 
 work of religion or learning, as any other person of our 
 profession.' But Mr. Curll did not obtain Kennett's 
 sanction, and the reissue was not undertaken. 
 
 The year 1721 opened inauspiciously for Curll, and 
 in the latter part of January we see him again at 
 loggerheads with the members of the House of 
 Lords. The Daily Journal of Monday, January 22, 
 contained an advertisement announcing the speedy 
 publication of the ' Works ' of John Sheffield 
 Duke of Buckinghamshire, prose and verse, with a 
 ' true copy of his last Will and Testament/ On 
 Tuesday, Jan. 23, Curll attended, ' according to 
 order/ the House of Lords ; he came out of the 
 threatened conflict without hurt, but their lordships 
 anticipated any future contacts by adding to the 
 Standing Orders of the House the resolution that if 
 the works, life, or last Will of any Lord of that 
 House be published without the consent of his heirs, 
 executors, administrators, or trustees, ' the same is a 
 Breach of the Privilege of this House.' This order 
 was vacated July 28, 1845. 
 
 Like many other skirmishers, Curll professed a
 
 Edmund Curll. 251 
 
 devoted attachment to his party when in power ; but 
 this devotion has almost invariably personal gain 
 for its ulterior object. In 1723, Curll and Henley 
 (who seven years later started The Hyp-Doctor to 
 further Walpole's cause) seem to have gleaned some 
 information respecting a projected fifth volume of 
 Mrs. Manley's ' Atalantis,' which never seems to have 
 appeared, but the design of which was ' to give an 
 account of a sovereign and his ministers who are 
 endeavouring to overturn that Constitution which 
 their pretence is to protect ; to examine the defects 
 and vices of some men who take a delight to impose 
 upon the world by the pretence of public good, whilst 
 their true design is only to gratify and advance them- 
 selves.' These, according to Curll, writing to Walpole 
 from the Strand, on March 2, 1723-4, were Mrs. Man- 
 ley's own words. Curll's patriotism was not un- 
 diluted, for within a few lines of the above quotation 
 he says, ' As your Honour was formerly pleased to 
 promise me your friendship, I now hope to feel the 
 effect of it for what I can, without vanity, call my 
 unwearied diligence to serve the Government, having 
 in a manner left off my business for that purpose. 
 Mr. Goode told me, that I might depend upon having 
 some provision made for me, and that he had named 
 something in the Post-Office to your Honour for my 
 purpose. And I hope that, either in that or some of 
 the many others over which your Honour presides, 
 I shall be thought on.' And also, in a P.S, ' Lord 
 Townshend assured me he would recommend me to 
 your Honour for some provision in the Civil List. 
 In the Stamp Office,' Mr. Curll modestly suggests,
 
 252 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 ' I can be serviceable.' His patriotism and devotion 
 not only availed him nought, for none of the 
 Government offices had the advantage of his zeal, 
 but were probably an additional if unexpressed 
 reason for the Government prosecution of a couple 
 of years later. 
 
 This prosecution was commenced in November, 
 1725, the trial itself having taken place on the 3Oth 
 of that month. The whole transaction was a very 
 singular one, inasmuch as Curll was indicted for the 
 publication of certain libels, whereas the books 
 ' were made the subject of prosecution because they 
 were obscene.' Why it had taken so long for the 
 Government to arrive at the conclusion that Curll 
 was a proper object for prosecution, it would be very 
 difficult to say, but the episode is only one of the 
 many erratic movements made by English Govern- 
 ments. Of the five books held up to execration, the 
 larger number had been in circulation at least a 
 couple of years before receiving this gratuitous 
 advertisement at the hands of His Majesty's custo. 
 dians of morals and good manners. The title-pages 
 of these books, however, sufficiently indicate their 
 nature, and are as follows : (i) ' The Translation ' of 
 Meibomius, and ' Tractatus de Hermaphroditus/ 1718; 
 (2) 'Venus in the Cloister, or the Nun in her 
 Smock,' which was ' done out of French by Mr. 
 Samber, of New Inne' (who also 'did' 'One Hun- 
 dred Court Fables' from the French of Le Motte 
 for Curll in 1721); (3) ' Ebrietatis Encomium' (vide 
 ante, p. 240), 1723; (4) 'Three New Poems,' Le. 
 ' Family Duty,' ' The Curious Wife,' and ' Bucking-
 
 Edmund Cur II. 253 
 
 ham House ;' and (5) ' De Secretis Mulierum,' 1725. 
 Apparently nothing daunted by this unexpected 
 difficulty, which, if his political services to his party 
 were of any value at all, ought never to have arisen, 
 the ill-starred object of the prosecution published 
 ' The Humble Representation of Edmund Curll,' 
 Bookseller and Citizen of London, concerning five 
 books complained of to the Secretary. Mr. Thorns 
 states that ' Curll was found guilty, but moved an 
 arrest of judgment, on the ground that the offence 
 was not a libel ; but if punishable at all, was an 
 offence contra bonos mores, and punishable only in 
 the spiritual courts.' The case is reported at con- 
 siderable length in Strange's ' Reports,' and con- 
 cludes thus : ' Curll not having attended me in time, 
 I acquainted the Court I was not prepared : and my 
 want of being ready proceeding from his own neglect, 
 they [the Judges] refused to indulge him to the next 
 turn. And in two or three days they gave it as 
 their unanimous opinion, that this was a temporal 
 
 offence In this case they gave Judgment for 
 
 the King. And the defendant was afterwards set in 
 the pillory, as he well deserved.' 
 
 But even here Curll bore up with becoming forti- 
 tude, and came off in flying colours, as will be seen 
 from the ' State Trials ' (xvii. p. 160) : 
 
 ' This Edmund Curll stood in the pillory at 
 Charing Cross, but was not pelted nor used ill ; for 
 being an artful, cunning (though wicked) fellow, he 
 had contrived to have printed papers dispersed all 
 about Charing Cross, telling the people that he 
 stood there for vindicating the memory of Queen
 
 254 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Anne ; which had such an effect on the mob, that it 
 would have been dangerous even to have spoken 
 against him : and when he was taken out of the 
 pillory, the mob carried him off, as it were in 
 triumph, to a neighbouring tavern.' 
 
 Another prosecution was commenced in May or 
 June, 1726, and this time it was occasioned through 
 purely political motives, which the Government might 
 have anticipated, but unwisely omitted doing. It 
 transpires from what Curll says in ' The Curliad,' that 
 during a five months' imprisonment in 1726, in the 
 King's Bench, one of his fellow-prisoners was John Ker 
 of Kersland, Esq., ' revered by Queen Anne.' Ker re- 
 solved to publish his ' Memoirs and Secret Negocia- 
 tions ' at the Courts of Great Britain, Vienna, Hanover, 
 &c., and desired his fellow-prisoner, the bookseller, to 
 examine his papers. ' I returned them to him/ says 
 Curll, ' after I had gone carefully through them, with a 
 very short answer, but my real opinion, that the facts 
 they contained, were too true to be borne. However, he 
 pressed me to engage in the affair, which I told him 
 I durst not venture at, unless he would give me leave 
 to communicate his intentions to the ministry. This 
 he most readily acquiesced in, adding withal, that he 
 intended to put himself under the patronage of Sir 
 Robert Walpole. Upon which the contents of all his 
 manuscripts were accordingly transmitted to the 
 Secretary of State, neither from whom, nor from his 
 patron, did Mr. Ker ever receive any the least 
 countermand to his intended purpose.' The first 
 volume was issued in May, 1726, and a few days 
 afterwards the author was served with a warrant in
 
 Edmund Cur II. 255 
 
 which his book was called a ' scandalous and a 
 seditious libel.' Ker generously took the sole re- 
 sponsibility, but was unable to obey the warrant, 
 being confined to his bed through lameness ; and as 
 he died in July, nothing came of the prosecution so 
 far as he was personally concerned. Curll was 
 naturally pounced upon, whether culpable or no. 
 According to promise, the second and third volumes 
 of Ker's ' Memoirs ' were published ' upon Oath.' 
 And soon after this, says Edmund in ' The Curliad,' 
 ' a warrant was issued out against me for publishing 
 the three volumes, an information was filed against 
 me, and a true copy of the said Information I both 
 printed and translated, that my Crime might not be 
 forgotten. For this misdemeanor I was likewise 
 fined twenty marks and the corporal punishment of 
 (what the Gentlemen of the long Robe are pleased 
 jocosely to call) mounting the Rostrum for one hour, 
 which I performed with as much alacrity as Mr. 
 Pope ever pursued his spleen against Mr. Theobald ; 
 and tho' he is pleased to say that this machine 
 will lengthen the face of any man, tho' it were ever 
 so comely, yet will it not make the crooked straight. 
 However, I have always been of opinion, that it is the 
 Crime, not the punishment, or the shape of a man, 
 which stamps his ignominy.' 
 
 It would be difficult, if Curll's account be true, as 
 there is every reason to suppose it is, to instance a 
 more diabolical piece of injustice. His motives for 
 publishing the work were probably purely mercenary, 
 but it is most obvious that the persecution was ani- 
 mated throughout by the desire to suppress, not
 
 256 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 obscene books, but Ker's ' Memoirs,' in which there 
 were certain statements not very palatable to those 
 in power. The ministerial bungling is now patent to 
 all ; but it had the one good feature of extensively 
 advertising the book, which ran through at least three 
 editions within a few months. 
 
 We shall do no more than refer to Curll's publishing, 
 in six volumes, the ' Cases of Impotence and Divorce,' 
 attributed to the pen of Sir Clement Wearg, whilom 
 Solicitor-General, which caused a declamatory letter 
 to be inserted in the London Journal, Nov. 12, 1726, 
 signed ' A. P.' 
 
 The charge which held ground for so long a time 
 against Curll, that he starved William Pattison to 
 death, has been sufficiently exploded. The scandalous 
 statement was first circulated in print by Pope, and 
 so far from starving him, it is certain that Curll not 
 only provided him with an asylum in his own house, 
 but defrayed the expenses of medical attendance. 
 Pattison's 'Poetical Works' were printed in 1728 for 
 ' H. Curll,' and published at 6s. ; whilst to the post- 
 humous ' Memoir ' it appears that Pope and Eusden, 
 among others, were subscribers. 
 
 Reference has already been made to Curll's insa- 
 tiable desire for publishing the last Wills of peers, 
 which caused Arbuthnot to wittily observe to Swift that 
 Curll was ' one of the new terrors of death ;' but from 
 an announcement in 'An Impartial History, &c., of Mr. 
 John Barber,' 1741, we learn that the Lives and last 
 Wills and Testaments of no less than thirty-one more 
 or less eminent persons were published by him, and 
 included those of Tillotson, Atterbury, Burnet (Bishop
 
 Edm und Cur II. 257 
 
 Walter), Curll, Halifax, Talbot, Price, Congreve, Addi- 
 son, Prior, Locke, Tindal, South, Partridge (the 
 astrologer), John Gay, Wilks, Ashmole, Walter Moyle, 
 William King, Mrs. Manley, &c. 
 
 The only one of these publications which involved 
 Curll in a lengthy correspondence was that of Dr. 
 Matthew Tindal, which was alleged to have been 
 altered by Eustace Budgell in his own favour. The 
 controversy between Budgell and Pope, in which Curll 
 also figures, is of much too abstract a character to be 
 here fully discussed. It must, therefore, suffice us to 
 say that a very short time only elapsed between 
 Tindal's death and the publication by Curll of 'A 
 True Copy of the Last Will and Testament .... of 
 Matthew Tindal,' 1733, which was perhaps followed 
 shortly afterwards by ' Memoirs of the Life and 
 Writings of Matthew Tindal.' Curll's energy was 
 naturally offensive to Budgell, who, in the Bee of 
 October 6, characterized Curll's 'Life of Dr. 
 Tindall ' as a ' scandalous imposition upon the 
 public.' ' The person who wrote and published this 
 senseless piece of stuff, was a fellow whose character 
 all mankind are acquainted with ; who, we are 
 credibly informed, has been obliged several times to 
 walk about Westminster Hall with a label about his 
 neck, and has once already stood in the pillory. We 
 are sorry to see ourselves obliged to stain our pens 
 with the name of such a creature, yet since it must 
 out, we will name at once the most perfect com- 
 pendium of impudence and wickedness by naming 
 CURLL the bookseller.' The ' Memoirs ' are dedi- 
 cated by 'E. C.,' September 10, 1733, to Mrs. 
 
 s
 
 258 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Lucy Price, relict of Mr. Justice Price, and it is from 
 this lady that Curll obtained his materials. Much 
 literary warfare, arising chiefly on side-issues, was the 
 outcome of the contact between Budgell and Curll ; 
 and on one occasion, it is said, that when the former 
 was passing through Fleet Street, he met a shabby 
 fellow, who set upon him in the open street, calling 
 him the rogue who scribbled in the Bee, the villain 
 who wrote against the Government, and the fellow 
 that forged a Will. This pugnacious person is stated 
 to be Henry Curll, who was, if this rumour be true, 
 on the high way to rivalling his father in notoriety. 
 Mr. Budgell is reported to have retired into a shop, 
 whilst Henry challenged him to fight, and further 
 promised that if he and his father caught him in 
 Burleigh Street, he should never more get out of it. 
 Probably the entire story was a fabrication. 
 
 Concerning Henry and his movements scarcely 
 anything is known. Nichols quotes an advertise- 
 ment from the Daily Post of August 7, 1730, which 
 announced that ' Henry Curll, bookseller, in Bow 
 Street, Covent Garden, leaving off business at Michael- 
 mas next, hereby gives notice, that the following books 
 may (till that time) be had at his house above men- 
 tioned, at the following prices, after which they will 
 be raised ; ' and then comes an enumeration of the 
 topographical works named ante, p. 237. Henry is 
 said to have kept a separate shop in Henrietta Street. 
 (See Post Boy, July 26, 1726.) 
 
 Curll's frequent removals from one shop to another 
 can scarcely be regarded as indications of success. 
 Duringrather less than forty years he had in succession
 
 Edmund Cur II. 259 
 
 no fewer than seven habitations. The first was at the 
 Peacock, without Temple Bar, but from here he seems 
 to have moved in 1710 to the Dial and Bible against 
 St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street, where he 
 remained for ten years, having published Hale's 
 ' Discourse of the Several Dignities and Corruptions ' 
 'next the Temple Coffee-house ' in 1720. He then 
 tried Paternoster Row, where, in 1720, he published 
 Jacob's ' Lives of the Poets; ' but this locality seems 
 to have soon disgusted him, as he did not remain 
 there more than a year or so. Humphrey Broad- 
 bent's ' Domestick Coffee-man,' 1722, was dated from 
 ' against Catherine Street ' in the Strand, and the 
 stay at this locality was one of six or seven years. 
 The Daily Post, February 7, 1729-30, contained 
 an advertisement from Curll of the publication of 
 some original MSS. in the Heralds' Office and the 
 Bodleian Library, in three volumes octavo, which 
 were ' Printed only for E. Curll, at his Literatory, in 
 Bow Street, Covent Garden, next door to Will's 
 Coffee-house.' In 1733 we find him publishing, inter 
 alia, ' The Life of that Eminent Comedian, Robert 
 Wilks, Esq./ at Burghley Street, in the Strand ; but 
 about a couple of years later he again removed to 
 the vicinity of Covent Garden, in Rose Street, and at 
 the sign of Pope's Head, and he seems to have re- 
 mained here to the end of his busy, if not prosperous, 
 life. 
 
 Mr. Curll's intentions in the famous Miscellany line 
 were no doubt good enough from one point of view. 
 But his efforts were not highly praised by some ; for 
 instance, Swift writes, May 14, 1711, 'That villain 
 
 S 2
 
 2 6o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Curl has scraped up some trash, and calls it Dr. Swift's 
 " Miscellanies/' with the name at large, and I can get 
 no satisfaction of him.' This feeling of animosity 
 was heightened as time went on, so that on August 
 30, 1716, he says : c I had a long design upon the 
 ears of that Curl, when I was in credit, but the rogue 
 would never allow me a fair strike at them, although 
 my penknife was ready drawn and sharp.' Curll's 
 scheme of making up a ' Miscellany ' that would 
 appeal to a wide circle was simple enough, and, it 
 must be confessed, dishonest enough. He was con- 
 stantly on the alert in the hope of picking up some- 
 thing smart or smutty in the way of verse, and if it 
 bore the remotest resemblance to any work of Swift, 
 or Pope, or Gay, or indeed of anybody else of note, the 
 piece in question was duly secured. The particular 
 Miscellany to which Swift alludes in the above extract 
 was probably ' A Meditation upon a Broom-Stick, 
 and somewhat beside, of the same Author,' which was 
 issued in 1710 from the Dial and Bible, against St. 
 Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street. This was again 
 published, in 1711, with six other tracts by Swift, under 
 the generic title of ' Miscellanies,' by Dr. Jonathan 
 Swift. And this rule of including something stale 
 among that which was new was almost always ob- 
 served by Curll, perhaps as much from force of 
 circumstances as from choice. When Pope and 
 Swift published their own authorized ' Miscellanies in 
 Prose and Verse,' (1727), Curll brought out 'Miscel- 
 lanea ' in five volumes, and the last one of these Mr. 
 Curll modestly declares, in the dedication to Dr. 
 Towne, to be 'the pin-basket of my collections for
 
 Edmund Cur II. 261 
 
 the year seventeen hundred and twenty-six.' Many 
 of the pieces in these volumes, labelled ' by Dr. Swift," 
 and ' by Mr. Pope/ were not written by either, as Curll 
 must have very well known. (See Antiquarian 
 Magazine, vii. 157 and 268.) 
 
 ' The Dunciad 'appeared in 1727, and that Curll re- 
 ceived plenty of attention will be quite understood, for 
 of all Pope's enemies none was more pertinacious than 
 the bookseller. The honour of the most frequent 
 reference is about equally divided between Curll and 
 John Dennis, the critic. Of all the Dunces, Curll takes 
 precedence, being mentioned, in connection with his 
 'chaste press,' in the fortieth line of Book I. The 
 second book opens with these lines : 
 
 ' High on a gorgeous seat, that far outshone 
 Henley's gilt tub, or Fleckno's Irish throne, 
 Or that whereon her Curls the public pours, 
 All-bounteous, fragrant grains and golden show'rs, 
 Great Gibber sate.' 
 
 Pope, in a note, explains the reference to Curll, 
 whom, he says, ' stood in the pillory at Charing Cross, 
 in March 1727-8,' which Curll states was in February 
 and not March. Perhaps even Pope wrote nothing 
 more ' beastly ' than that concerning the bookseller 
 which follows the quotation given ante, pp. 211-212. 
 Pope's note to this last reference is one of the most 
 characteristic in the whole poem. It is much too good 
 to be omitted here, particularly as the greater part of 
 it is not included in most modern editions of Pope's 
 ' Works.' ' We come to a character of much respect, 
 that of Mr. Edmund Curll. As a plain repetition of 
 great actions is the best praise of them, we shall only
 
 262 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 say of this eminent man, that he carried the trade 
 many lengths beyond what it ever before had arrived 
 at ; and that he was the envy and admiration of all 
 his profession. He possessed himself of a com- 
 mand over all authors whatever ; he caused them to 
 write what he pleased ; they could not call their very 
 names their own. He was not only famous among 
 these ; he was taken notice of by the State, the Church, 
 and the Law, and received particular marks of dis- 
 tinction from each. 
 
 ' It will be owned that he is here introduced with all 
 possible dignity : He speaks like the intrepid Diomed ; 
 he runs like the swift-footed Achilles ; if he falls, 'tis 
 like the beloved Nisus ; and (what Homer makes to 
 be the chief of all praises) he is favoured of 'the Gods ; 
 he says but three words, and his prayer is heard ; a 
 Goddess conveys it to the seat of Jupiter : Though he 
 loses the prize, he gains the victory ; the great Mother 
 herself comforts him, she inspires him with expedients 
 she honours him with an immortal present (such as 
 Achilles receives from Thetis, and ^Eneas from Venus) 
 at once instructive and prophetical : After this he is 
 unrivalled and triumphant. 
 
 ' The tribute our author here -pays him is a grace- 
 ful return for several unmerited obligations : Many 
 weighty animadversions on the public affairs, and 
 many excellent and diverting pieces on private persons 
 has he given to his name. If ever he owed two verses 
 to any other, he owes Mr. Curll some thousands. He 
 was every day extending his fame, and enlarging his 
 writings : Witness innumerable instances ; but it shall 
 suffice only to mention the " Court Poems," which he
 
 Edmund Cur II. 263 
 
 meant to publish as the work of the true writer, A 
 Lady of Quality ; but being first threatened, and after- 
 wards punished for it by Mr. Pope, he generously 
 transferred it from her to him, and ever since printed 
 it in his name. The single time that he ever spoke to 
 C. was in that affair, and to that happy incident he 
 owed all the favours since received from him/ 
 
 It can hardly be a matter of surprise if the' favours ' 
 increased rather than diminished after the appearance 
 of ' The Dunciad,' considering that Pope remarked of 
 his old enemy, 
 
 ' Obscene with filth the miscreant lies bewray'd, 
 Fall'n in the plash his wickedness had laid: 
 Then first (if poets aught of truth declare) 
 The catiff vaticide conceiv'd a pray'r,' &c. 
 
 In the same book (the second), the bookseller is 
 again referred to as the ' shameless Curll.' In a note 
 to the I42nd line of Book II., re the expression ' his 
 rueful length of face ' used in the context, Pope grimly 
 remarks, after a quotation from Misfs Journal^ to 
 the effect that a decrepid person or figure of a man 
 are no reflections upon his genius : 'This genius and 
 man of worth, whom an honest man should love, is Mr. 
 Curll. True it is, he stood in the Pillory, an incident 
 which will lengthen the face of any man, tho' it were 
 ever so comely, therefore is no reflection on the natural 
 beauty of Mr. Curll.' Concerning those ' damn'd to 
 Fame,' in the third book, we read : 
 
 ' Some strain in rhyme ; the Muses, on their racks, 
 Scream like the winding of ten thousand jacks : 
 Some free from rhyme or reason, rule or check, 
 Break Priscian's head, and Pegasus's neck ;
 
 264 The Earlier History oj English Bookselling. 
 
 Down, down they larum, with impetuous whirl, 
 The Pindars, and the Miltonsof a Curl.' 
 
 This famous satire called forth from Curll's press or 
 shop ' A Compleat Key to the Dunciad,' [which ran 
 through several editions ; ' The Popiad,' of Dennis ; 
 4 The Curliad,' by Curll, who also assisted in collecting 
 materials for ' The Female Dunciad,' which contained 
 'TheMetamorphosis of Mr. Pope into a Stinging Nettle/ 
 by Mr. Foxton, who was not honoured with a place in 
 ' The Dunciad,' and who was, perhaps, angry in conse- 
 quence ; ' The Dunciad Dissected,' by Curll, and Mrs. 
 Thomas (' Corinna ') ; ' Remarks on the Dunciad,' by 
 Dennis, in addition to several others not enumerated. 
 Nearly all of the foregoing were issued in a popular 
 form and at a popular price. 
 
 The last great literary battle that took place between 
 Pope and Curll was concerning the publication of the 
 former's letters, a transaction which for its involved 
 trickery has scarcely any rival in literary annals. 
 The squabble really originated in 1727, when Curll 
 gave Mrs. Thomas, a cast-off mistress of Henry 
 Cromwell, the sum of ten guineas for some letters 
 which Pope had in his early career addressed to this 
 distant relative of the whilom Lord Protector. Pope's 
 poetical fame was still at its zenith, and from this and 
 other circumstances the unauthorized publication of 
 his letters made a stir, and naturally sold well. This 
 was highly gratifying to Pope's vanity, but he pre- , 
 tended to be angry. In 1728, his old enemy and rival, 
 Lewis Theobald, edited the posthumous works of 
 Wycherley, which furnished Pope with a groundless
 
 Edmund Cur II. 265 
 
 pretext for publishing the dramatist's correspondence. 
 This was another example of his insatiable vanity. 
 
 From the success which his volume of Pope's letters 
 had met with, Curll made the utmost efforts to obtain 
 a further supply. He advertised, and gave it to be 
 understood that he neither wanted to know nor cared 
 where the letters came from, so long as he could get 
 them. This offer was too generous ; for he was im- 
 posed upon by purchasing some epistolary communi- 
 cations addressed by Voitureto Mdlle. Rambouillet as 
 Pope's to Miss Blount. Curll's project received unex- 
 pected assistance from an extraneous quarter. But 
 previous to this Pope had received Lord Oxford's 
 sanction to allow the Wycherley letters to be deposited 
 in his library, a fact to be duly mentioned in the pre- 
 face. Pope further told Oxford that he had given his 
 bookseller instructions to say that copies of the letters 
 had been obtained from his Lordship, a process which 
 would at once appear as if Oxford and the bookseller 
 were the sole and ' authorized ' persons responsible 
 for the publication. But this was hardly good enough, 
 even for the weak, good-natured son of Queen Anne's 
 famous minister. Another dodge was tried, and 
 success was the result. After begging the return of 
 his letters from various friends, upon various pretexts, 
 he employed some one, a mysterious P. T., whose 
 identity is still involved in the most complete obscu- 
 rity, to sell them to Curll with a view to publication. 
 P. T. wrote Curll in 1733, offering a collection of letters, 
 ' from the early days of Pope to the year 1727.' The 
 matter remained in abeyance for some time. In 
 March, 1735, he writes thus to Pope : 'Sir, To con-
 
 266 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 vince you of my readiness to oblige you, the enclosed 
 is a demonstration. You have, as he says, disobliged 
 a gentleman, the initial letters of whose name are P. T. 
 I have some other papers in the same hand, relating to 
 your family, which I will show, if you desire a sight 
 of them. Your letters to Mr. Cromwell are out of 
 print ; and I intend to print them very beautifully, in 
 an octavo volume. I have more to say than is proper 
 to write ; and if you will give me a meeting, I will 
 wait on you with pleasure, and close all differences 
 between you and yours, E. CURLL.' 
 
 This was a splendid opportunity for Pope, and the 
 only return Curll got for his honest and well-meaning 
 attempt at conciliation was an insulting advertisement 
 in the Daily Post Boy, couched in these terms : 
 ' Whereas A. P. hath received a letter from E. C, 
 bookseller, pretending that a person, the initials of 
 whose name are P. T., hath offered the said E. C. to 
 print a large Collection of Mr. P.'s letters, to which 
 E. C. required an answer : A. P. never having had, 
 nor intending to have, any private correspondence 
 with the said E. C., gives it him in this manner : 
 That he knows no such person as P. T. ; that he 
 believes he hath no such collection ; and that he 
 thinks the whole a forgery, and shall not trouble 
 himself at all about it.' Curll replied, denying he had 
 endeavoured to correspond with Mr. Pope, and 
 affirms that he had written to him by direction. 
 
 The shadowy P. T. once again looms in the fore- 
 ground, and accuses Curll of having betrayed him ' to 
 Squire Pope, but you and he both shall soon be con-
 
 Edmund C^trll. 267 
 
 vinced it was no forgery.' And further, as Curll had 
 not complied with the request to advertise, P. T. had 
 the letters printed at his own expense, and offers to 
 sell Curll some copies, an offer which it is almost 
 needless to say was accepted. Still P. T. himself 
 holds back. According to Dr. Johnson, ' Curll said, 
 that one evening a man in a clergyman's gown, but 
 with a lawyer's band, brought and offered for sale a 
 number of printed volumes, which he found to be 
 Pope's epistolary correspondence ; that he asked no 
 name, and was told none, but gave the price de- 
 manded, and thought himself authorized to use this 
 purchase to his own advantage/ This ' short, squat ' 
 go-between assumed the name of R. Smith, or 
 Smythe, and 240 copies of the work were delivered. 
 
 On May J2, 1735, the Daily Post contained the 
 following advertisement : ' This day are published, 
 and most beautifully printed, price 5^., Mr. Pope's 
 " Literary Correspondence for Thirty Years," from 
 1704 to 1734, being a collection of Letters regularly 
 digested, written by him to the Earls of Halifax and 
 Burlington ; Craggs, Trumbull, Digby, Edward Blount, 
 Addison, Congreve, Wycherley, Walsh, Steele, Gay, 
 Arbuthnot, etc. With the respective answers of each 
 correspondent. Printed for E. Curll in Rose Street, 
 Covent Garden ; and sold by all the booksellers. 
 N.B. The original manuscripts (of which affidavit is 
 made) may be seen at Mr. Curll's House, by all who 
 desire it.' But, to quote D'Israeli, ' at this moment 
 Curll had not received many books, and no MSS. The 
 advertisement produced the effect designed ; it roused 
 public notice, and it alarmed several in the House of
 
 2 68 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Lords. Pope doubtless instigated his friends there. 
 The Earl of Jersey moved, that to publish letters of 
 Lords was a breach of privilege ; and Curll was 
 brought before the House. This was an unexpected 
 incident; and P. T. once more throws his dark shadow 
 across the path of Curll to hearten him, had he wanted 
 courage to face all the lords. P. T. writes to instruct 
 him in his answers to their examination, but to take 
 the utmost care to conceal P. T. ; he assures him that 
 the lords could not touch a hair of his head if he 
 behaved firmly ; that he should only answer their 
 interrogatories by declaring he received the letters 
 from different persons ; that some were given, and 
 some were bought.' 
 
 On the very same day as that on which Curll's 
 advertisement appeared in the Daily Post Boy, the 
 following entry (reprinted by Mr. Thorns) was 
 made on the Lords' Journal: 'Die Lunae, 12 Maij, 
 1735. Books Printed for Curll to be seized. Notice 
 was taken to the House of at\ Advertisement printed 
 in the newspaper intituled The Daily Post Boy, Mon- 
 day, May 12, 1735, in these words (videlicet),' and 
 then follows the advertisement already quoted. After 
 it had been read by the Clerk, it was ordered ' that 
 the Gentleman Usher of the Black. Rod attending 
 this House, do forthwith seize or cause to be seized 
 the impression of the said Book ; and that the said E. 
 Curll, together with J. Wilford, at the Three Flower 
 de Luces behind the Chapter House near St. Paul's, 
 for whom the said newspaper is said to be Printed, do 
 attend this House to-morrow/ Accordingly ' to- 
 morrow,' Tuesday, May 13, the two ' attended.' A
 
 Edmund CurlL 269 
 
 postponement until the following day was agreed 
 upon, after a special Committee had been formed. On 
 Wednesday the examination actually took place, 
 although their lordships were unable to discover any- 
 thing tending towards a breach of their privileges ; 
 but Pope's friend, Lord Hay, pointed out that the 
 copy of the book under examination which he had, 
 had, on the I i/th page, a letter from Mr. Jervas which 
 contained an abuse of the Earl of Burlington, but 
 that letter the Committee were unable to find in 
 the copy before them. When questioned as to whether 
 the book delivered to the Committee contained the 
 whole of what he published, Curll said that the par- 
 ticular book was more than he published, for this had 
 a preface and a title-page, which he never saw before 
 he came before the Committee. There were, he said f 
 two parcels sent to him; the first he received himself, 
 and the other parcel was left at his house with his 
 wife, when he was not at home, which he had not 
 opened when they were seized ; those that he had sold 
 had not the title and preface. Their lordships entered 
 into a categorical examination as to the methods by 
 which he came possessed of the letters, but adjourned 
 the inquiry until ' to-morrow morning, 10 o'clock.' 
 
 The Committee met with no better success on 
 Thursday, May 15, and proposed to report to the 
 House that as they had not found any letter of a 
 lord printed in the said book, they conceive that the 
 printing of it is not contrary to the Standing Order, 
 and are of opinion that the said Books should be 
 delivered back to the said Curll. This Report was 
 agreed to, and Curll once more came ofF in flying
 
 2 7O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 colours. On the same day, and just previous to his 
 last appearance before the Lords, Curll writes this 
 letter to 'the Rev. Mr. Smith:' 'Dear Sir, lam 
 just going to the Lords to finish Pope. I desire you 
 to send me the sheets to perfect the first fifty books, 
 and likewise the remaining three hundred books ; and 
 pray be at the Standard Tavern this evening, and I 
 will pay you twenty pounds more. My defence is 
 right ; I only told the lords I did not know from 
 whence the books came, and that my wife received 
 them. This was strict truth, and prevented all further 
 inquiry. The lords declared they had been made 
 Pope's tools. I put myself on this single point, and 
 insisted, as there was not any Peer's letter in the 
 book, I had not been guilty of any breach of privilege. 
 I depend that the books and the imperfections will be 
 sent, and believe of P. T. what I hope he believes 
 of me/ 
 
 This letter apparently irritated the reverend non- 
 entity and his associate P. T., for they charge Curll 
 with endeavouring to betray them to the Lords. 
 Again Curll was duped, and promptly on Friday, 
 May 1 6, 1735, he answers the charges preferred 
 against him thus: 'Sir, ist, I am falsely accused. 
 2. I value not any man's change of temper ; I will 
 never change my veracity for falsehood, in owning 
 a fact of which I am innocent. 3. I did not own 
 the books came from across the 'water, nor ever named 
 you ; and as you told me everybody knew you in 
 Southwark, I bid him make a strict inquiry, as I am 
 sure you would have done in such an exigency. 
 4. Sir, I have acted justly in this afifair, and that is
 
 Edmund Curll. 271 
 
 what I shall always think wisely. 5. I will be kept 
 no longer in the dark; P. T. is Will-d-the- Wisp ; 
 all the books I have had are imperfect ; the first fifty 
 had no titles nor prefaces ; the last five bundles seized 
 by the Lords contained but thirty-eight in each 
 bundle, which amounts to one hundred and ninety, 
 and fifty, is in all but two hundred and forty books. 
 6. As to the loss of a future copy, I despise it, nor 
 will I be concerned with any more such dark sus- 
 picious dealers. But now, Sir, I'll tell you what I will 
 do : when I have the books perfected which I have 
 already received, and the rest of tJte impression, I will 
 pay you for them. But what do you call this usage ? 
 First take a note for a month, and then want it to 
 be changed for one of Sir Richard Hoare's. My 
 note is as good, for any sum I give it, as the Bank, 
 and shall be as punctually paid. I have always said 
 gold is better than paper. But if this dark converse 
 goes on, I will instantly reprint the whole book ; 
 and, as a supplement to it, all the letters P. T. ever 
 sent me, of which I have exact copies, together with 
 all your originals, and give them upon oath to my 
 Lord Chancellor. You talk of trust P. T. has not 
 reposed any in me, for he has my money and notes 
 for imperfect books. Let me see, Sir, either P. T. or 
 yourself, or you'll find the old Scots proverb verified, 
 Nemo me impune lacessit. Your abused humble 
 
 servant, E. CURLL. P.S. Lord I attend this 
 
 day. Lord Delawarr I sup with to-night. Where 
 Pope has one lord, I have twenty.' 
 
 Pope had but little right to expect any leniency 
 from the hardly-used bookseller, but he had the
 
 2 72 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 sympathetic assurances from those of his friends who 
 could not see through his duplicity. For example, 
 Swift, writing to Lady Betty Germain, on June 8, 
 !735> says: 'I detest the House of Lords for their 
 indulgence to such a profligate villain as Curll.' 
 
 Curll's circumstantial account of the transaction 
 concerning letters is to some extent strengthened 
 by what Dr. Johnson records, and the great lexi- 
 cographer had but little respeci. for Curll, whom he 
 designates ' a rapacious bookseller, of no good fame.' 
 In speaking to Henry Lintot upon the subject, ' he 
 declared his opinion to be, that Pope knew better 
 than anybody else how Curll obtained the copies, 
 because another parcel was at the same time sent to 
 himself, for which no price had ever been demanded, 
 as he made known his resolution not to pay a porter, 
 and consequently not to deal with a nameless agent' 
 
 It was now Curll's place to take up the offensive, 
 which he did with commendable alacrity. ' He has,' 
 exclaimed Edmund, ' a knack at versifying ; but in 
 prose I think myself a match for him.' The next 
 ' move ' was the following advertisement, which Mr. 
 Thorns quaintly describes as ' saucy ' : 
 
 1 E. CURL TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 ' From Pope's Head in Rose Street, 
 
 ' Covent Garden, July 26, 1735. 
 
 ' Mr. Pope having put me under a necessity of 
 using him as he deserves, I hereby declare that the 
 first volume of his " Letters," which I published on 
 the 1 2th of May last, was sent me ready printed by 
 himself, and for six hundred of which I contracted
 
 Edmund Ciirll. 273 
 
 with his agent, R. Smythe, 9 who came to me in the 
 habit of a clergyman. I paid the said R. Smythe 
 half the sum contracted for, and have his receipt in 
 full for three hundred books, tho' it has since, by 
 him, been honestly owned that he delivered me but 
 two hundred and forty books, and these all imper- 
 fect. For this treatment I shall have recourse to a 
 legal remedy. Mr. Pope, in the Grub Street Journal 
 (a libel 1 wherein he has been concerned from its 
 original), the Daily Journal, and the Daily Post Boy, 
 declared these letters to be forgeries, and complained 
 of them to the House of Lords ; which falsehood 
 was detected before the most august assembly ; and 
 upon my acquittal, he publishes a very idle narrative 
 of a robbery committed upon two manuscripts one 
 in his own, and the other in the Earl of Oxford's 
 library. This fallacy being likewise exposed, he now 
 advertises he shall with all convenient speed publish 
 some " Letters " himself, particularly relating to his 
 
 9 Upon his own confession, it appears that James Worsdale, 
 a painter, actor, and author, personated the Rev. Mr. Smythe, 
 and was employed by Pope. 
 
 1 Mr. Curll might have been excused had he spoken in much 
 stronger terms of this witty newspaper, in which he was con- 
 stantly satirized. The fourth number contained a letter, ascribed 
 in the most serious strain to Curll, in which he is represented as 
 applying for the post of bookseller to the Society. The fifteenth 
 number contains a ' defence ' of his manner of trading, and also 
 the decision at which the learned members had arrived to 
 appoint Capt. L. Gulliver as ' the most proper person to fill 
 the place ' of bookseller. The joke was carried still farther, 
 for in No. 24, Mr. Curll is reported as resenting his disappoint- 
 ment at not being chosen, and had, since his rejection, spoken 
 very disrespectfully of them. 
 
 T
 
 274 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 correspondence with the Bishop of Rochester. But 
 the public may be assured that, if any letters Mr. 
 Pope himself, or any of his tools, shall think fit to 
 publish, are the same, or any way interfere, with 
 those I have published, that the same shall be 
 instantly reprinted by me.' 
 
 Then follows the ' contents ' of his second volume 
 of Pope's correspondence, and an announcement of 
 a third to be ' published next month/ the whole 
 winding up with : ' I know not what honours Mr. 
 Pope would have conferred on him : 1st, I have 
 hung up his head for my sign; and, 2ndly, I have 
 engraved a fine view of his house, gardens, &c., from 
 Mr. Rijsbrack's painting, which will shortly be pub- 
 lished. But if he aims at any farther artifices, he 
 never found himself more mistaken than he will in 
 trifling with me. E. CURLL/ 
 
 Curll did not stop at the third volume, for no less 
 than six were issued at intervals ; but several of these 
 were composed for the most part of stale tracts and 
 poems, which ' fell flat.' Still, the six volumes had the 
 generic title of ' Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence.' 
 Pope probably more than once regretted that his 
 vanity involved him in a scuffle with Curll, and 
 he was, it may be inferred, only speaking the truth 
 when, in a letter to Hugh Bethel, dated June 17, 
 1728, he wrote : 'After the publication of my boyish 
 letters to Mr. Cromwell, you will not wonder if I 
 should forswear writing a letter again while I live.' 
 But although he makes substantially the same obser- 
 vation in several other letters, his correspondence 
 does not seem to have fallen off. The quarrel had
 
 Edmund Curll. 2 75 
 
 not much abated when Orrery wrote to Swift, March 
 1 8, 1736-7: 'Curll, like his friend the devil, glides 
 through all key-holes, and thrusts himself into the 
 most private cabinets.' 
 
 It will be quite unnecessary in this place to do more 
 than to refer to the light which the late Mr. Dilke 
 has thrown upon this subject of Pope's letters, and 
 the trickery which has now become patent. Pope's 
 own ' authorized ' version was little more than a 
 reprint of Curll's, and each alike contained a great 
 number of falsifications, by Pope, which have been 
 detected by comparing the exact copies of the 
 originals which Caryll took before returning the 
 letters addressed to him by the poet, according to 
 Pope's request. 
 
 On October 29, 1735, we again find Curll 'on the 
 rampage.' Stephen Duck, in a letter to Spence, re- 
 cords an interview he had with Curll, who visited the 
 ' thresher poet ' in company with some one else. The 
 visitors inquired how the subscription was getting on 
 for the new edition of his poems. Duck replied, as 
 well as he could wish. ' Immediately one of the 
 persons (who had more than an ordinary ill aspect) 
 answered, that if I did not get a licence my book would 
 be pirated in a week after 'twas published. I answered, 
 that I did not see how even a licence would secure a 
 man's property just now, when printers and book- 
 sellers, in defiance of all justice and honesty, pirated 
 everything they could lay hands on : I added that I 
 had been informed Mr. Pope's works which he had sold 
 to Gilliver had not escaped this fate. As I mentioned 
 your friend Mr. Pope, the gentleman put on a more 
 
 T 2
 
 276 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 terrible countenance, and with a particular emotion 
 told me that I " talked quite out of my province, and 
 that I knew nothing of Pope or Gilliver either, and 
 that Gilliver had no more to do with Mr. Pope's works 
 than he himself, or any other person." He then told 
 me, with an air of insolence, that his name was Curl, 
 and should be very glad to see me in Covent Garden.' 
 
 A few years later, in 1740 or 1741, we have still 
 another example of Curll's restless desire of getting 
 hold of something new. Mrs. Pilkington, in her 
 ' Memoirs' (ii. p. 158), records an interesting fact to 
 the effect that, when living in lodgings near White's 
 Chocolate House about 1741, her landlady announced 
 to her one morning that there was ' an ugly squinting 
 old fellow ' who requested an interview. When 
 admitted, he informed the impecunious Mrs. Pilking- 
 ton that a Mr. Clark had lately died at St. Edmonds- 
 bury and left her a legacy of 5oo7., which she could 
 obtain by waiting on Counsellor Clark, of Essex 
 Street, Strand. This was delightful news, which was, 
 however, nullified by the ' old fellow ' asking her to 
 dine with him at Richmond. She refused to do that, 
 whereupon he confessed that the windfall was a 
 fabrication, and that his chief object of the visit was, 
 being about to publish a life 2 of Alderman Barber, to 
 whom her husband had been chaplain, he wished to 
 embellish it with some letters of Dean Swift, which 
 he had heard were in her possession. 
 
 We have had occasion already to lay before the 
 reader a fact against which there can be no appeal, 
 namely, that beauty was not one of Mr. Curll's natural 
 2 Vide ante, p. 256.
 
 Edmund Cur II. 277 
 
 endowments. But nothing that we have previously 
 quoted surpasses in graphic minuteness the record 
 which Thomas Amory, in a mad work entitled ' The 
 Life of John Buncle ' (1756), has bequeathed to a grate- 
 ful posterity. ' Curll was,' he says, ' in person very tall 
 and thin an ungainly, awkward, white-faced man. 
 His eyes were a light grey large, projecting, goggle 
 and purblind. He was splay-footed and baker-kneed.' 
 
 ' He had,' continues candid Mr. Amory, ' a good 
 natural understanding, and was well acquainted with 
 more than the title-pages of books. He talked well 
 on some subjects. He was not an infidel, as Mrs. 
 Rowe represents him in one of her letters to Lady 
 Hartford (afterwards Duchess of Somerset). He 
 told me it was quite evident to him that the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testaments contained a 
 real revelation : there is for it a rational, a natural, a 
 traditionary, and a supernatural testimony, which 
 rendered it quite certain to him. He said he no 
 more doubted the truth of the Christian religion than 
 he did the existence of an independent supreme 
 Creator ; but he did not believe the expositions given 
 by the divines 
 
 ' He was a debauchee to the last degree, and so 
 injurious to society, that by filling his translations 
 with wretched notes, forged letters, and bad pictures, 
 he raised the price of a four-shilling book to ten. 
 Thus, in particular, he managed Burnet's " Archaeo- 
 logy." And when I told him he was very culpable 
 in this and other articles he sold, his answer was, 
 What would I have him to do ? He was a book- 
 seller ; his translators in pay lay three in a bed at
 
 278 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 the Pewter Platter inn, in Holborn, and he and they 
 were for ever at work to deceive the public ! He 
 likewise printed the lewdest things. He lost his ears 
 for " The Nun in her Smock," and another thing. As 
 to drink, he was too fond of money to spend any in 
 making himself happy that way ; but at another's 
 expense he would drink every day till he was quite 
 blind, and as incapable of self-motion as a block. This 
 was Edmund Curll. But he died at last as great 
 a penitent (I think in the year I/48) 3 as ever expired. 
 I mention this to his glory. 
 
 ' As Curll knew the world well, and was acquainted 
 with several extraordinary characters, he was of great 
 use to me at my first coming to town, as I knew 
 nobody nor any place. He gave me the true charac- 
 ters of many I saw ; told me whom I should avoid, 
 and with whom I might be free. He brought me to the 
 playhouses, and gave me a judicious account of every 
 actor. He understood these things well. No man 
 could talk better on theatrical subjects. He brought 
 me likewise to Sadler's Wells ; to the night-cellars, 
 and to Tom King's, the famous night-house in Covent 
 Garden. As he was very knowing and well known 
 at such places, he soon made me as wise as himself in 
 these branches of learning ; and, in short, in the space 
 of a month I was as well acquainted in London as if 
 I had been there for years. My kind preceptor spared 
 no pains in lecturing. But what of all things I 
 thought most wonderful was the company I saw at 
 Sieur Curll's. As he was intimate with all the high, 
 &c., in town, many of them frequented his shop to 
 3 It was in 1747.
 
 Edmund Curll. 2 79 
 
 buy his dialogues and other lively books. Some of 
 these girls he often asked to dine with him, and then 
 I was sure to be his guest.' 
 
 It is to be feared that much of Amory's narrative 
 is correct, as he probably had no reason to vilify his 
 old friend and cicerone. Probably, also, he drew upon 
 his vivid imagination for some of the particulars, as it 
 is exceedingly unlikely that a man like Curll would 
 make such a weak statement when taxed about some 
 of his ' culpable ' articles. Amory perhaps got hold 
 of a part of a fact, and supplied the other half him- 
 self. However that may be, it is simply impossible 
 to reconcile his with Eliza Heywood's description 
 (quoted in a note to the second book of 'The Dun- 
 ciad '). This person, like Curll, had no character to 
 lose. She celebrated Curll's undertakings for re- 
 formation of manners, and declares herself ' to be 
 so perfectly acquainted with the sweetness of his 
 disposition, and that tenderness with which he con- 
 sidered the errors of his fellow-creatures, that, though 
 she should find the little inadvertencies of her own 
 life recorded in his papers, she was certain it would 
 be done in such a manner as she could not but 
 approve.' 
 
 But we must now bring our memoir of Edmund 
 Curll to a close. Like many other men who, from 
 one cause or another, were constantly before the notice 
 of the public in their early and middle age, Curll, 
 the plucky enemy of Pope and Swift, the publisher 
 of books good and bad, the smart stationer, the im- 
 placable opponent, and indomitable man of business, 
 spent the last few years of his life in comparative
 
 2 8 o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 obscurity, relinquishing his trade only at his death. 
 He published but few books during his last seven 
 years ; among these perhaps the most notable was ' A 
 History of the English Stage' (1741), which, although 
 Thomas Betterton's name appears as author on the 
 title-page, was, as we have already suggested, com- 
 piled partly by Curll himself, who, at all events, 
 wrote the dedication to the Duke of Grafton. The 
 last work which he entered on the books of the 
 Stationers' Hall Company, August 20, 1746, was 
 ' Achates to Varus. An epistle describing some 
 wonderful appearances that ensued from a touch of 
 Ithuriel's Spear, together with a large preface in the 
 style and manner of some distinguished authors.' 
 
 Edmund Curll died on December n, 1747, and 
 if not quite ' unknelled, uncoffined, arid unknown/ at 
 least unwept and uncared-for.
 
 28l 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 JOHN DUNTON. 
 
 SINGULARITY is one of the most obvious charac- 
 teristics of the old booksellers, viewed in the light of 
 the present age, but in no individual, perhaps, is it so 
 strongly apparent as in John Dunton, the eccentric 
 'dipper into a thousand books,' who 'formed ten 
 thousand projects, six hundred of which he appears 
 to have thought he had completely methodized.' 
 
 Dunton is the only bookseller of his period whose 
 scribbling propensities resulted in giving to the 
 world, among other things, an autobiography ; but 
 his cacoethes scribendi, howsoever great a gain to 
 English literature, was without doubt the greatest 
 curse that beset this ' crack-brained ' bookseller, for 
 throughout his life it prevented him making progress 
 in his calling, besides involving him in all manner of 
 squabbles. ' The Life and Errors of John Dunton ' is 
 one of the most singular and interesting books pub- 
 lished during the last century, which was so prolific 
 in queer literature. From this we gather a very 
 minute and detailed account of the future bookseller, 
 told in a way that, but for the physical impossibility, 
 would almost lead one to believe that the narrator 
 had recollected every circumstance of his career,
 
 282 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 dating from the time and hour of his nativity. He 
 modestly justifies this method when he naively 
 suggests that there is nothing so small in itself 
 which it is not interesting to know concerning a 
 great man ! 
 
 Before going any farther, it will be well to state 
 that John Dunton was born at Graffham, Hunting- 
 donshire, on May 14, 1659, of which place his 
 father, the Rev. John Dunton, was rector. The Rev. 
 John was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 and married a daughter, Lydia, of Mr. Daniel Carter, 
 of Chesham ; but she died on March 3, 1660, and 
 her husband is said to have made a vow not to marry 
 again for the space of seven years. He went into Ire- 
 land, whilst at an early age his son, the more famous 
 John, was placed under the tuition of William Read- 
 ing, a schoolmaster of Dungrove, near Chesham. 
 The elder Dunton returned to England in 1669, 
 when he obtained the rectory of Aston Clinton, 
 where he married a second time, and took his son 
 under his own immediate tuition, intending him for 
 the Church. The Rev. John Dunton died Nov. 
 24, 1676, aged 48, and was interred in Aston 
 chancel. He is described by his son as ' wonder- 
 fully fitted out by nature, and furnished with the 
 acquirements for all the good ends of a useful life.' 
 
 Dunton's first appearance in this world did not by 
 any means presage that striking restlessness which 
 in after years made things so lively for the com- 
 munities with which he came into contact. In fact, 
 the excellent midwife was at first in great distress, 
 being under the impression that he was still-born, 
 but her joy was correspondingly great at young
 
 John Dunton. 283 
 
 hopeful showing signs of life when sprinkled with a 
 little cold water. ' The first appearance I made/ 
 John candidly and perhaps accurately admits, 'was 
 very mean and contemptible ; and, as if nature had 
 designed me to take up only some insignificant and 
 obscure corner in the universe, I was so diminutive a 
 creature that a quart pot could contain the whole of 
 me with ease.' 
 
 ' From such beginnings mighty things arise ; 
 So small a star can brighten all the skies.' 
 
 ' In this condition,' he goes on, ' and long before I 
 had any articulate use of my tongue, I gave the 
 world sufficient evidence of a child of Adam, and the 
 certain tokens of corrupt nature and passion were 
 more and more apparent as I made advances in age 
 and strength.' But the incidents of John's career 
 before he became apprenticed to bookselling are not 
 particularly interesting. The several accidents which 
 befell him are much the same as other adventurous 
 little boys are in the habit of meeting with : for 
 example, he once fell into a pool of water, and the 
 world would have been deprived of his valuable 
 services but that, ' as Providence would have it, my 
 cousin, John Reading, was lying on the bank and 
 saved me.' Upon another occasion he unwillingly 
 tried the digestive qualities of a leaden bullet, and 
 when his sorrowing family and friends had given up 
 all hopes of him, ' behold ! up it bolted.' The ' third 
 danger that my childish curiosity exposed me to ' 
 was the result of chewing a bearded ear of corn, 
 which stuck in his throat, and which he could not 
 get rid of. But even in this dilemma his luck did not 
 desert him, for ' some of my relations, viz. Malmesey
 
 284 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 of Chesham, Aunt Reading, her daughter Anne, Mrs. 
 Mary Gossam, Sarah Randal, &c., &c., who were 
 walking in the fields, found me, speechless and gasp- 
 ing, and with much difficulty set me to rights again.' 
 It gives him a sort of mournful pleasure to admit 
 that it was easier for him to tell a lie than to utter 
 the truth ; whilst he is proud rather than ashamed 
 to own that cowardice was one of his youthful charac- 
 teristics, certainly an attribute which did not entirely 
 desert him in after life. 
 
 We have already said that John was designed for 
 the ministry. His father seems to have desired that 
 the dignity of ' Reverend ' should be inherited by the 
 'John Duntons, 3 for he himself was the third in suc- 
 cession whose talents had been employed, successfully, 
 we hope, in calling sinners to repentance. But John 
 Dunton the fourth of that ilk was found to be too 
 volatile for this purpose ; he was, moreover, a bad 
 scholar, for, although he acquired Latin easily enough, 
 the natural difficulties of Greek were too much for 
 him. Added to these disqualifications, even at the 
 early age of fourteen or so, he contracted an addi- 
 tional one by forming ' a silent passion for a virgin 
 in my father's house,' which ' quite unhinged all my 
 resolutions of study.' 
 
 At the age of fifteen, John Dunton was apprenticed 
 to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller, of London, whom he 
 subsequently describes as ' my honoured master,' . . . 
 ' the most eminent Presbyterian bookseller in the 
 three kingdoms, and now chosen Master of the 
 Company of Stationers.' So placed, he should, as 
 he truly observes, have at least an opportunity of
 
 John Dunton. 285 
 
 becoming skilled in ' the outside of erudition the 
 shell and casks of learning.' The confinement to 
 which he was now naturally subjected he felt at first 
 to be very irksome ; so much so, indeed, that once 
 he fairly bolted, and made for his father's place in the 
 country. The error of this movement was duly im- 
 pressed upon him, and the lad returned to his master, 
 after a few days' absence, with a determination to 
 learn the intricacies of his trade, and his application 
 to business thenceforth during his apprenticeship 
 seems to have been commendable. The most note- 
 worthy incident in his career when under Mr. Park- 
 hurst was a joke perpetrated by a fellow-apprentice, 
 who was evidently a bit of a wag, and knew John's 
 failing in the matter of female-veneration. This 
 young gentleman forged a letter to him in the name 
 of a certain ' young virgin ' then lodging with Park- 
 hurst : it ran as follows : ' Dear Sir, We have 
 lived some time together in the same family, and 
 your distant conversation has given me a little im- 
 patience to be a little better acquainted with you. 
 I hope your good nature will not put any construc- 
 tions upon this innocent address to my disadvantage ; 
 and should you discover it, it would certainly expose 
 yourself at the expense of your SUSSANAH S ING.' 
 ' I was strangely surprised at this billet-doux? says 
 John, as well he might have been, considering the 
 slender acquaintanceship. But ' so licentious and ex- 
 travagant ' was his folly that he gave her a billet the 
 same day, in which he made an appointment to meet 
 her in Grocer's Garden the next evening. She was 
 likewise surprised in turn, but, evidently like Barkis,
 
 286 The Earlier History of Eng lish Bookselling. 
 
 was quite 'willin'/ for she duly attended, but, 
 of course, expressed denial of inditing a letter. 
 ' However, this romantic courtship gave both of us a 
 real passion ; but my master making a timely dis- 
 covery of it, sent the lady into the country ; and 
 absence cooled our passions for us, and by little and 
 little we both of us regained our liberty/ Thus 
 ended love-affair number two. But another and 
 perhaps rather more important event needs chroni- 
 cling. During his apprenticeship he made himself 
 conspicuous as principal leader of the Whig ap- 
 prentices, and on one occasion addressed Sir Patience 
 Ward, the Lord Mayor, but the young bloods were 
 snubbed with the healthy advice to ' go home and 
 mind your business, boys.' When his term of ap- 
 prenticeship expired, John entertained a hundred 
 apprentices to celebrate a 'funeral for it,' which he 
 afterwards described as ' no more than a youthful 
 piece of vanity.' 
 
 When he commenced business on his own account 
 as bookseller, he took only ' half a shop, a warehouse, 
 and a fashionable chamber/ At this juncture, he re- 
 marks, printing was ' the uppermost in my thoughts, 
 and hackney authors began to ply me with 'Specimens' 
 as earnestly, and with as much passion and concern, 
 as the watermen do passengers with oars and scullers. 
 ' I had some acquaintance with this generation in my 
 apprenticeship, and had never any warm affection for 
 them ; in regard I always thought their great concern 
 lay more in how much a sheet, than in any generous 
 respect they bore to the commonwealth of learning ; 
 and, indeed, the learning itself of these gentlemen lies
 
 John Dunton. 287 
 
 very often in as little room as their honesty ; though 
 they will pretend to have studied you six or seven 
 years in the Bodleian Library, to have turned over the 
 Fathers, and to have read and digested the whole com- 
 pass both of Human and Ecclesiastic History : when, 
 alas ! they have never been able to understand a single 
 page of Saint Cyprian, and cannot tell you whether 
 the Fathers lived before or after Christ. And as for 
 their Honesty, it is very remarkable : they will either 
 persuade you to go upon another man's Copy, to steal 
 his thought, or to abridge his book, which should have 
 got him bread for his life-time. When you have en- 
 gaged them upon some project or other, they will write 
 you off three or four sheets perhaps ; take up three or 
 four pounds upon an urgent occasion ; and you shall 
 never hear of them more. I have offered thus much, as 
 a character of these scribblers, that may give the caution 
 to booksellers, and take off a most wretched scandal 
 from the trade in general. However, though I have 
 met with temptations enough of this nature, to grow 
 rich by knavery, and a learned kind of theft, yet this I 
 can say for myself (and I neither have, nor shall be 
 too lavish in my own praise), that I never printed 
 another's Copy, went upon his project, nor stole so 
 much as his title-page, or his thought/ 
 
 And again : ' A man should be well furnished with 
 an honest policy, if he intends to set out in the world 
 now-a-days. And this is no less necessary in a book- 
 seller than in any other tradesman ! for in that way 
 there are plots and counterplots, and a whole army of 
 hackney authors that keep their grinders moving by 
 the travail of their pens. These gormandizers will eat
 
 288 The Earlier History of English Bookselling . 
 
 you the very life out of a Copy so soon as ever it ap- 
 pears ; for, as the times go, original and abridgement 
 are almost reckoned as necessary as man and wife ; 
 so that I am really afraid that a bookseller and a good 
 conscience will shortly grow some strange thing in 
 the earth. I shall not carry the reflection any farther, 
 but only make this simple remark, that he who designs 
 to be the best Christian, must dip himself the least in 
 business.' 
 
 Dunton's first venture was ' The Sufferings of Christ,' 
 by the Rev. Mr. Doolittle ; it was a successful one, and 
 fully answered the publisher's end, for, by 'exchanging it 
 through the whole trade, it furnished my shop with all 
 sorts of books saleable at that time ;' but its publication 
 also brought several of Mr. Doolittle's pupils to Mr. 
 Dunton's shop. His second venture was ' Daniel in 
 the Den, or the Lord President's Imprisonment and 
 Miraculous Deliverance,' by Mr. Jay, Rector of Chin- 
 ner; it was dedicated to Lord Shaftesbury, and published 
 upon the occasion of his being acquitted by an 'igno- 
 ramus ' jury. This work, being seasonable, sold well. 
 These successes gave Dunton ' an ungovernable itch to 
 be always intriguing that way.' The next thing he 
 printed was a sermon by the Rev. John Shower, at the 
 funeral of Mad. Anne Barnardiston, and this ran 
 through three editions. He now determined to 
 publish a collection of funeral discourses preached by 
 his father, which were entitled ' The House of Weep- 
 ing.' 
 
 His next move comes under quite a different cate- 
 gory. His female friends not only urged upon John the 
 importance of getting married, but they carried their
 
 John Dunton. 289 
 
 friendship even farther by pointing out the most de- 
 sirable young ladies of their acquaintance who would 
 take John ' for better for worse.' There does not ap- 
 pear to have been the slightest supposition that either 
 of the young ladies would refuse him, or if any was so 
 expressed at the time, he has dishonestly omitted to 
 say so. Mrs. Seaton recommended Miss Sarah Day, 
 of Greenwich, but without any result ; ' another person ' 
 proposed Miss Sarah Doolittle, in addition to whose 
 natural endowments there would be the chance of get- 
 ting her father's 'Copies ' for nothing ; ' his Book on the 
 Sacraments, you know,has sold to the twentieth edition, 
 which would have been an estate for a bookseller.' 
 But the claims of ' Sam. Crook ' were too strong, and 
 John stood no chance. At last, however, he met with 
 Dr. Annesley's daughter, by whom he was 'almost 
 charmed dead ' when he saw her in her father's meet- 
 ing-place. But she was pre-engaged, so his friends 
 advised him to ' make an experiment upon her elder 
 sister/ Elizabeth, and the result was marriage, a con- 
 summation which took place on August 3, 1682, in 
 All-hallows' Church. By this marriage he became 
 brother-in-law of Samuel Wesley, the father of John 
 Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He had now de- 
 serted his old quarters, and took a shop at the Black 
 Raven, in Princes Street, and carried on business pros- 
 perously till the universal damp upon trade which fol- 
 lowed Monmouth's defeat ' in the West. ' Dear Iris ' 
 soon gave an early specimen of her prudence and dili- 
 gence by acting in the capacity of cash-keeper, and 
 managed the business, which left her ' Philaret ' to his 
 1 Monmouth was defeated at Sedgmoor on July 6, 1685. 
 
 U
 
 290 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ' rambling and scribbling humours.' These were golden 
 days for John and his wife, for they frequently visited 
 their relations in the country together. But as a bright 
 summer's day soon fades, so their happiness was short- 
 lived. Having 5oo/. owing him in New England, he 
 determined to make a voyage thither, and, in 1685, he 
 found the fleet bound for that country lying at Graves- 
 end. He procured stowage for his ' venture in two 
 ships, that Neptune might have two throws at me, to 
 make rny ruin complete/ The name of the ship in 
 which he himself took passage was the Susannah and 
 Thomas, Captain Thomas Jenner, a ' rough covetous 
 tarpaulin/ in command. Very sick, very miserable, and 
 very cowardly is the bookseller on his tempestuous 
 voyage. On one occasion he seems to have indulged 
 in bragging, which he very soon repented, when, in a 
 time of danger, the men called out, c Where is Mr. Dun- 
 ton, that was so valiant over-night ? ' ' This, I confess/ 
 says John, 'put me into a cold sweat, and I cried, 
 " Coming ! coming ! I am only seeking my ruffles/'- 
 a bad excuse, you know, is better than none. I made 
 my appearance at last, but looked nine ways at once ; 
 for I was afraid death might come in amongst the 
 boards, or nobody knew where. This is the only in- 
 stance I can give, when my courage failed me/ Al- 
 though regretting the loss, value 5oo/., of one of the 
 two ventures in a storm, he ' cannot enough admire 
 the good providence that saved ' himself. They were 
 over four months at sea, and were reduced to great 
 straits more than once. 
 
 He arrived safe at Boston in March, 1685-6, and 
 opened a bookseller's shop, which he stocked with
 
 John Dunton. 291 
 
 the books contained in the second venture. He was, 
 he admits, as welcome to the booksellers of Boston 
 as ' sour ale in summer,' they looking upon his gain 
 as their loss. No sooner had he arrived than he sent 
 home a ' whole packet ' of letters to dear Iris, and he 
 duly transcribes one in his ' Life and Errors ' for the 
 benefit of his readers. Whilst in America he visited 
 a number of places, such as Harvard College, the 
 town of Salem, where he opened another warehouse 
 for his books ; Wenham, and also Ipswich, where he 
 had an opportunity of seeing much of the customs of 
 the Indians. He enters into a very particular account 
 concerning those he met, especially the ' maids, wives, 
 and widows,' nearly all of whom he describes in the 
 most glowing and flattering terms ; but there are 
 some exceptions, to one only of which we shall refer. 
 
 Mrs. D he mentions as ' having a bad face and 
 
 a worse tongue ; and has the report of being a Witch. 
 Whether she be one or no, I know not, but she has 
 ignorance and malice enough to make her one,' &c. 
 But, notwithstanding all his charms, and we may be 
 sure he had many, the American ladies all found him 
 a ' true platonick.' 
 
 After a sojourn of several months, he once more 
 turned his face towards home, and minutely describes 
 his leave-taking. ' So soon as ever my friends were gone 
 off to shore, our Captain ordered all his guns to fire, 
 which were accompanied with huzzas, and shouts, and 
 shaking of hats, till we had lost all sight of our 
 friends.' And hereupon he drops down into verse : 
 
 ' Kind Boston, adieu ; part we must, though 'tis pity, 
 But I'm made for mankind, and all the world is my city. 
 U 2
 
 292 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Look how on the shore they hoop and they hollow, 
 Not for joy I am gone, but for grief they can't follow.' 
 
 John's modesty does not even stop here, for he likens 
 himself to Ulysses for the troubles he had undergone, 
 but it will be a little difficult to find any great re- 
 semblance in the two wanderers' travels. He was 
 sore afraid that his unexpected presence would prove 
 fatal to his Penelope, so he commissioned his sister 
 Mary to inform his wife that ' there was a gentleman 
 waiting for her ' at the Queen's Head Tavern, in Spital- 
 fields, who would give ' some account of Philaret.' 
 About an hour afterwards she came, and ' at the first 
 interview we stood speechless, and gazing upon each 
 other, whilst Iris shed a flood of tears,' presumably of 
 joy. His father-in-law received him with every mark 
 of kindness and respect, and poor John expected 
 nothing but ' a golden life of it for the future ;' but 
 his hopes were soon withered, for he was ' so deeply 
 entangled for my sister-in-law ; I was not suffered to 
 step over the threshold in ten months, unless it was 
 once under disguise.' He then relates a most amusing 
 story, quite characteristic of the man. ' My confine- 
 ment growing very uneasy to me, especially on Lord's- 
 days, I was extremely desirous to hear Dr. Annesley 
 preach ; and immediately this contrivance was started 
 in my head, that dear Iris should dress me in woman's 
 cloaths, and I would venture myself abroad under 
 those circumstances. To make short of it, I got 
 myself shaved, and put on as effeminate a look as my 
 countenance would let me ; and being well-fitted out 
 with a large scarf, I set forward ; but every step I 
 took, the fear was upon me that it was made out of
 
 John Dunton. 293 
 
 form,' &c. He got to the meeting, heard the sermon, 
 and was returning home 'through Bishopsgate-street, 
 with all the circumspection and the care imaginable 
 (and I then thought I had done it pretty well), 
 when an unlucky rogue cried out, " I'll be hanged if 
 that ben't a man in a woman's cloaths." This put me 
 into my preternaturals indeed, and I began to scour 
 off as fast as my legs would carry me : there were at 
 least twenty or thirty of them that made after me ; 
 but, being acquainted with all the alleys, I dropped 
 them, and came off with honour.' 
 
 Finding his enforced retirement becoming more 
 and more wearisome, he determines to make a trip to 
 the Continent, and spends, accordingly, several months 
 in Holland, Flanders, Germany, &c., and stayed four 
 months at Amsterdam, whence he travelled to Cleves, 
 Rhineberg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Mentz, &c., and 
 returned to London via Rotterdam on November 
 15, 1688. On the day the Prince of Orange came 
 to London, Dunton opened shop at the Black Raven 
 in the Poultry. 
 
 According to his own account, he here published 
 no less than 600 books in a very short space of time. 
 Dunton's experience must have been quite unique in 
 the annals of bookselling, for of this great number 
 he only repented of seven. The most noteworthy of 
 these unfortunate ' specs. 1 was ' A Voyage around the 
 World ; or, a Pocket Library divided into several 
 Volumes ; the first of which contains the rare Ad- 
 ventures of Don Kainophilus, from his cradle to his 
 1 5th year, 1691.' This book is remarkable on account 
 of its rarity, for two pieces of excellent poetry which
 
 294 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 it contains, and also in being probably the first of the 
 long catalogue of his lucubrations. It has called 
 forth some very interesting remarks from D'Israeli : 
 ' It is a low rhapsody ; but it bears a peculiar feature, 
 a certain whimsical style, which he affects to call his 
 own, set off with frequent dashes, and occasionally a 
 banter on false erudition. These cannot be shewn 
 without extracts. I would not add an idle accusation 
 to the already injured genius of Sterne ; but I am 
 inclined to think he might have caught up his pro- 
 ject of writing Tristram's life in " twenty-four cock- 
 rambling " volumes ; have seized on the whim of 
 Dunton's style ; have condescended even to copy out 
 his breaks and dashes. But Sterne could not have 
 borrowed wit or genius from so low a scribbler. The 
 elegant pieces of poetry were certainly never com- 
 posed by Dunton, whose mind had no elegance, and 
 whose rhymes are doggrel.' 
 
 The six other books which Dunton repented having 
 published are ' The Second Spira,' ' The Post-boy 
 robbed of his Mail/ ' The New Quevedo/ ' The 
 Pastor's Legacy,' ' The Heavenly Pastime,' and ' The 
 Hue and Cry after Conscience.' These he heartily 
 wished he had never seen, and advised all those who 
 had them to burn them. We may as well here quote 
 the titles of a dozen of his more successful publica- 
 tions, as indicating the general character of his works : 
 ' The Morning Exercises,' Malebranche's ' Search after 
 Truth ' translated by Sault, Coke's ' Detection of the 
 Court and State of England,' Lord Delamere's 
 ' Works,' Dr. Burthogg's ' Essay on Reason,' Bishop 
 Barlow's ' Remains,' ' The Life and Death of the
 
 John Dunton. 295 
 
 Reverend Mr. John Elliot/ ' The Bloody Assizes,' 
 Joseph Stephens' ' Sermons,' ' Tradgedies of Sin ' by 
 Jay, Showers' ' Mourner's Companion,' and Madame 
 Singer's ' Poems.' ' The History of the Edict of 
 Nantes,' translated by several hands, attracted the 
 attention of King William's Consort, and pleased 
 her very much ; it 'was the only book to which she 
 ever granted her Royal License.' The License is 
 dated June 30, 1693. 
 
 In 1692, having been 'put in possession of a 
 considerable estate upon the decease of my cousin 
 Carter, the Master and Assistants of the Company of 
 Stationers began to think me sufficient to wear a 
 Livery, and honoured me with the cloathing.' The 
 first year he wore livery, Sir William Ashhurst was 
 Lord Mayor, and ' I was invited by our Master and 
 Wardens to dine with his Lordship.' The entertain- 
 ment was a generous one. ' The world now smiled 
 upon me. I sailed with wind and tide, and had 
 humble servants enough among the booksellers, 
 stationers, printers, and binders ; but especially my 
 own relations, on every side, were all upon the very 
 height of love and tenderness, and I was caressed 
 almost out of my five senses.' 
 
 ' I have, it is true, been very plentifully loaded 
 with the imputation of " Maggots," &c. And what is 
 the reason ? Why, because I have usually started 
 something that was new ; whilst others, like footpads, 
 ply only about the high-roads, and either abridge 
 another man's book, or one way or other contrived 
 the very life and soul out of the Copy, which perhaps 
 was the only subsistence of the first proprietor. I
 
 296 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 once printed a book, I remember, under the title 
 of " Maggots," 2 but it was written by a dignitary of 
 
 the Church of England My first project was 
 
 ^o. Athenian Gazette. As the Athenian Society had 
 their first meeting in my brain, so it has been kept 
 ever since religiously secret ; ' and he then enters into 
 a lengthy account of what he terms this ' true dis- 
 covery,' which may be summarized as follows : The 
 real origin of the 'venture' arose out of some 
 thoughts which were caused by a 'very flaming 
 injury loaded with aggravations,' and whilst labouring 
 under a consequent perplexity, he was one day walking 
 with Mr. Larkin and Mr. Harris over St. George's 
 Fields, when on a sudden he made a stop and said, 
 'Well, Sirs, I have a thought I'll not exchange for 
 fifty guineas ! ' Naturally his companions desired 
 to be enlightened, but in vain. ' The first rude hint 
 of it was no more than a confused idea of concealing 
 the Querist, and answering his question.' When he 
 arrived home he brought the idea into form, and 
 hammered out a title for it, 'which happened to be 
 extremely lucky.' He consulted his friend Mr. Rd. 
 Sault (ante, p. 294) upon the matter ' over a glass of 
 wine,' and that gentleman offered very freely ' to 
 become concerned.' The design was well advertised, 
 and the two at once ' settled to it ' with great diligence, 
 and produced by their own unaided efforts the first and 
 second numbers of the Athenian Gazette. The first 
 was published March 17, 1689-90. It appeared on 
 Tuesdays and Saturdays, and was a ' newspaper ' only 
 
 * ' Maggots, or Poems on Several Subjects never before 
 handled,' 1685. This was by Samuel Wesley.
 
 John Dunton. 297 
 
 in the sense of advertisements. Each number con- 
 sisted of a folio leaf printed on both sides. The 
 matter consisted solely of questions on almost every 
 conceivable subject, with answers according to the 
 then state of knowledge on each particular phase. 
 The project created a great sensation, so much so 
 that its jubilant originator was overloaded with letters, 
 sometimes finding several hundreds for him at Mr. 
 Smith's coffee-house in Stocksmarket, ' where we 
 usually met to consult about matters.' An additional 
 helpmate was found by Sault in the person of Dr. 
 Norris, ' the greatest prodigy of learning he [Sault] had 
 ever met with.' To ' oblige authority ' the title was 
 altered to Atlienian Mercury, and finding its popularity 
 increasing every week, and with this the impatience 
 of the querists, the Rev. Samuel Wesley, already 
 mentioned as author of ' Maggots/ joined the staff. 
 
 Dunton's grand success soon created imitators, and 
 ' Mr. Brown and Mr. Pate began to ape our design ' 
 by publishing the Lacedemonian Mercury \ which John 
 determined upon blowing up, ' one way or other.' The 
 first step taken was to advertise that all the questions 
 answered in the Lacedemonian Mercury should be 
 answered over again in the Athenian Mercury, with 
 amendments, and with the life of Tom Brown, the 
 chief antagonist. ' This news startled them pretty 
 much. At that time I was altogether unacquainted 
 with Mr. Brown. However, one evening he comes to 
 me with all the civility imaginable, and desires to 
 take a glass with me.' Dunton, with his Athenian 
 confreres, adjourned to the Three Cranes, and a good- 
 tempered chat probably ensued, although Mr. Sault
 
 298 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 was inclined to be a bit pugnacious at first. Another 
 imitator was the London Mercury, which commenced 
 a short-lived career on February I, 1691-2, to the 
 authors of which Dunton's sign of a raven suggested 
 the humorous idea of presenting their readers with 
 a head-piece composed of Dunton's 'bird of dire 
 presage bearing on its back Minerva's favourite 
 attendant, the sapient, grave, and solemn owl.' The 
 Athenian Mercury did not escape adverse criticism ; 
 but in spite of the difficulties it prospered, and Gildon 
 wrote 'A History of the Athenian Society,' to which 
 were prefixed several poems by such as Motteaux, Foe, 
 Richardson, and Tate. ' Mr. Swift, a country gentle- 
 man, sent an Ode to the Athenian Society, which, being 
 an ingenious poem, was prefixed to the fifth supple- 
 ment of the A thenian Mercury' This was a peculiarly 
 ill-starred move of the morose Dean of St. Patrick's, 
 for it called forth from Dryden the famous but true 
 prognostication, ' Cousin Swift, you will never be a 
 poet/ Dunton occasionally received communications 
 for his paper from Sir William Temple, and several 
 other men of eminence. The Athenian Mercury con- 
 tinued until it had swollen to twenty volumes folio, 
 the last number being issued on February 8, 1695-6. 
 ' A choice collection 01" the most valuable questions 
 and answers' that appeared in the Athenian Mercury 
 were reprinted in three volumes, and ran through 
 several editions in the course of Dunton's lifetime. 
 Dunton's Mercury was a sort of seventeenth-century 
 Notes and Queries. 
 
 His second project was the Athenian Spy, the 
 curious aim of which was to advocate the superior
 
 John D union. 299 
 
 claims of platonic courtship and platonic matrimony. 
 The third project for the promotion of learning was 
 'A Supplement to the Athenian Mercury afterwards 
 rechristened the Complete Library, which existed 
 for ten months, when it was driven out of the field 
 by M. Lecrose's ' The Works of the Learned.' The 
 Post A ngel forms project number four. It commenced 
 in January, 1701, and had upon its cover the follow- 
 ing motto from Cowley : 
 
 ' Only that Angel was straight gone ; even so 
 (But not so swift) the morning glories flow, 
 (Quick post) that with a speedy expedition 
 Flies to accomplish his divine commission, 
 God's winged herald, Heaven's swift messenger, 
 'Twixt Heaven and Earth the true interpreter.' 
 
 ' I don't know,' observes Mr. Dunton, ' what welcome 
 this "Angel " will have, or how I came to write upon 
 the subject, for I knew nothing of it till I dreamt of 
 it, and I fell to write it as soon as I wak't.' ' Post 
 Angels' Dunton defines as invisible inhabitants of the 
 middle regions, who are continually employed about 
 us either as friends or foes. This unlucky ' brat/ 3 as 
 he calls it, was continued by him until June 1702, 
 when, changing hands, and, to some extent, character, 
 it expired ' in the clutches of the sheriffs officers/ 
 
 We. shall do no more than name what he terms his 
 fifth, sixth, and seventh projects respectively : ' The 
 New Practice of Piety,' in imitation of Browne's 
 
 3 The reader will find a full account of this most curious 
 periodical, with numerous amusing extracts, in the Gentleman's 
 Magazine for June, 1857, pp. 670$.
 
 3OO The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 ' Religio Medici,' ' The Female War/ and ' The 
 Post-boy robbed of his Mail.' 
 
 His eighth 'project' was of quite a different 
 class to any others. It was entitled ' The Night 
 Walker ; or, Evening Rambles in Search after Lewd 
 Women, with the various Conferences held with 
 them.' Perhaps a more insane idea, to be carried 
 out in such a novel fashion, never filtered itself 
 through the human imagination. His chief object 
 was to extirpate lewdness from London, a scheme, 
 observes Nichols, highly creditable to the schemer, 
 had it been practicable. ' Armed with a constable's 
 staff, and accompanied by a clerical companion, he 
 sallied forth in the evening, and followed the wretched 
 prostitutes home, or to a tavern, where every effort 
 was used to win the erring fair to the paths of virtue ; 
 but these, he observes, were ' perilous adventures/ as 
 the Cyprians exerted every art to lead him astray in 
 the height of his spiritual exhortations. 
 
 ' The Merciful Assizes ; or, a Panegyrick on the 
 late Lord Jeffreys' Hanging so many in the West,' 
 he describes as his last project, among many others 
 left unmentioned. In ' The Bloody Assizes ' (ante, 
 p. 295), of which Dunton sold over six thousand 
 copies, Jeffreys is 'made a very cruel man ;' but, by 
 an inherent spirit of contrariness, he ventures 'to praise 
 that nonsitchman, George Lord Jeffreys,' and cites 
 two justifications, one in which a ' witty author ' 
 ' defended the bloody Nero,' and the other ' An 
 Apology for the Failures of Dr. Walker.' ' The 
 Merciful Assizes ' had a good sale, and the author's 
 friend, George Larkin, 'was pleased to explain the 
 project by an ingenious poem.'
 
 John Dunton. 301 
 
 At or about the death of ' dear Iris,' which occurred 
 on May 28, 1697, John got into difficulties, which in- 
 creased as time went on. Probably the loss of her was 
 to some extent the cause of his decline ; for, apart 
 from of her husband's constant endearments, she was 
 presumably a good wife. His grief, however, was not 
 very protracted ; for, although he wrote ' A Compre- 
 hensive View of the Life and Death of Iris,' and put 
 about twenty of their relations into mourning, he 
 was not long before he married another, whose 
 ' Duntonian ' appellation was ' Valeria.' This lady's 
 mother was probably a bit mean in parting with her 
 cash ; for upon an occasion when John was hard up, 
 he applied to her, but without success. A parting 
 thereupon took place between John and his wife, of 
 whom, however, he always speaks in affectionate 
 terms. John inundated his mother-in-law with 
 pamphlets, in which her injustice was shown up in a 
 truly terrible light. The only one of these squibs of 
 which the title need be quoted here is ' The Case of 
 John Dunton with Respect to Madame Jane Nicholas, 
 of St. Albans, his Mother-in- Law, 1700.' 
 
 Not long after the death of his first wife he made 
 a trip to Ireland, landing at Dublin in April, 1698, 
 with a cargo of books, most of which he disposed of by 
 auction ; but he did not seem to be more welcome to 
 the fraternity at Dublin than in America. Those at 
 the former place he dressed off in ' The Dublin 
 Scuffle ; being a challenge sent by John Dunton, 
 citizen of London, to Patrick Campbel, bookseller in 
 Dublin ; together with the small skirmishes of bills 
 and advertisements. To which is added the Billet 
 Doux sent him by a citizen's wife in Dublin, tempting
 
 302 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 him to lewdness, with his answers to her. Also some 
 account of his conversation in Ireland, intermixed 
 with particular characters of the most eminent per- 
 sons he conversed with in that kingdom, but more 
 especially in the city of Dublin. In several letters to 
 the spectators of this scuffle. With a poem on the 
 whole encounter, " I wear my pen as others do their 
 sword," Oldam.' This queer publication, with its 
 long-winded explanatory title, was dedicated to the 
 Hon. Colonel Butler, a member of the House of 
 Commons, in Ireland, and was dated from London, 
 February 20, 1698-9. 'To those that are angry with 
 me/ observes John, concerning his Irish scuffle, ' I 
 answer here (with the ingenious Montaigne) " that 
 constancy is not so absolutely necessary in authors as 
 in husbands ; " and for my own part, when I have my 
 pen in my hand, and subject in my head, I look 
 as mounted my horse to ride a journey ; wherein, 
 although I design to reach a town by night, yet will 
 I not deny myself the satisfaction of going a mile or 
 two out of my way, to gratify my senses with some 
 new and diverting prospect.' In his ' Farewell ' to his 
 acquaintances in Dublin, friends and enemies, dated 
 from Dublin, Monday morning, December 26, 1698, 
 he has the satisfaction of announcing the disposal of 
 the ' venture of books I brought into this country, 
 maugre all opposition.' His receipts were about 
 I5OO/. It is said that a clergyman told Mr. Penny, 
 an English gentleman, that Dunton had done more 
 service to learning, by his three auctions, than any 
 one single man that had come into Ireland for the 
 previous three hundred years.
 
 John Dunton. 303 
 
 Perhaps of all the books he published, the one 
 best known at the present day, at least by name, is 
 'The Life and Errors of John Dunton, late citizen of 
 London, written by himself in solitude. With an 
 Idea of a New Life; wherein is shewn how he'd 
 think, speak, and act, might he live over his days 
 again : intermixed with the new discoveries the 
 author has made in his travels abroad, and his private 
 conversation at home. Together with the lives and 
 characters of a thousand persons now living in 
 London, &c. Digested into seven stages, with their 
 own respective ideas.' 
 
 ' He that has all his own mistakes confess'd, 
 Stands next to him that never has transgress'd ; 
 And will be censured for a fool by none 
 But they who see no errors of their own. 
 
 Foe's Satyr upon himself? 
 
 This work, which was published in 1705, is perhaps 
 the maddest of all mad books, than which certainly 
 never a more eccentric passed the bookbinder's hands. 
 But its value to all students of the literary history of 
 the eighteenth century can hardly be over-estimated. 
 The principal classes with which it deals are 
 licensers of the press, booksellers, and book auc- 
 tioneers ; and, as Mr. G. L. Craik once truly observed, 
 1 never certainly, before or since, were all the graces, 
 both of mind and body, so generously diffused among 
 any class of men as among these old London book- 
 sellers.' Dunton's vagaries are scarcely ever to be 
 trusted, especially when he has the ' biographicalizing ' 
 fit on.
 
 304 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 The bad booksellers, &c., are about one per cent., 
 but when dealing with them, John does not spare 
 them. For instance : ' Mr. Fuller is not only a 
 villain, but he is known to be so. He has something 
 peculiar in his face that distinguishes him from the 
 rest of mankind. However, he has been such a 
 mystery of iniquity that the world had much ado to 
 unriddle him. His books are so honest and innocent 
 that you would think it was impossible that any 
 mischief should be lodged in his heart. . . . His 
 penitence and his confession . . . neither signify a 
 farthing.' It is highly probable that Mr. Fuller was 
 gathered unto his fathers before he had an oppor- 
 tunity of reading Dunton's character of him, or else a 
 second 'scuffle' would have to be chronicled in Dun- 
 ton's career. 
 
 Sir Roger L'Estrange comes at the head of the 
 characters, as one of the licensers with whom Dunton 
 had done business. He is characterized as 'a man 
 that betrays his religion and country in pretending 
 to defend it ; that was made surveyor of the press, 
 and would wink at unlicensed books if the printer's 
 wife would but smile on him/ Mr. Fraser gets a 
 better character for a like employment, in which he 
 was engaged for several years, and during that period 
 he licensed for Dunton the Athenian Mercuries, 'The 
 Works of the Learned/ ' The Royal Voyage,' and 
 ' such a numerous company of other books, as advanced 
 his fees, for bare licensing, to thirty pounds per annum, 
 which I paid him for several years together.' Than 
 Fraser, also, ' no man was better skilled in the 
 mystery of winning upon the hearts of booksellers,
 
 John Dunton. 305 
 
 nor were the Company of Stationers ever blessed 
 with an honester Licenser.' We have no space in 
 which to quote further selections from these amusing 
 characters, which, moreover, have been freely drawn 
 upon in the course of this book. But his ingenious 
 generalization of his country confreres certainly 
 deserves a little room, as showing the brief and 
 emphatic manner in which a ' great ' man can deal 
 with a heterogeneous subject : ' Of three hundred 
 booksellers now trading in country towns, I know 
 not of one knave or blockhead amongst them all.' 
 
 A short time previous to his writing his ' Life,' 
 Dunton, from the unsuccessful results that attended 
 his later efforts, had moved out of the bookselling 
 trade ; but nothing, except the positive absence of 
 pens, ink, and paper, or some other equally insur- 
 mountable difficulty, could keep the hero of the 
 Dublin scuffle from publishing his projects and 
 notions. To most of these he placed his name. 
 One of the most curious was his series of 'Athenian 
 Catechisms,' the first volume of which included 
 twenty numbers, and contained a catechism for each 
 of the following classes, among others : The Atheist, 
 Player, High Flyer, Bigoted Dissenter, Occasional 
 Conformist, Nonconformist, Lady's (for paint and 
 patches), (Late) Pamphleteer's, Coffee-house and 
 Political. 
 
 ' Whipping-post ; or, a Satire upon Everybody,' 
 was published in 1706, a few months after the ap- 
 pearance of ' The Life and Errors.' It contained a 
 ' panegyrick on the most deserving gentlemen and 
 ladies in the three kingdoms ; the Living Elegy, or 
 
 x
 
 306 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 Dunton's Letter to his few creditors ; with the 
 character of a summer friend, and also the secret 
 history of the weekly writers, in a distinct challenge 
 to each of them.' This work was sold by, and printed 
 for, B. Bragg, of the Black Raven, in Paternoster Row. 
 The Sacheverell controversy, which, commencing 
 soon after the assize sermon preached at Derby on 
 August 14, 1709, and another at St. Paul's Cathedral 
 on November 5, raged so furiously for a time, was 
 one which Mr. Dunton was hardly likely to keep out 
 of, and his eager and restless brain gave birth to at least 
 three pamphlets : ' The Sacheverellite Plot,' written 
 by the unknown author of ' Neck or Nothing,' and 
 which forms part of another pamphlet, ' The Im- 
 peachment, or Great Britain's Charge,' both issued 
 about 1710. The third one had a much more charac- 
 teristic name than either of the others, being ' The 
 
 Bull-baiting, or Sach 11 dress'd up in Fireworks, 
 
 lately brought over from the bear-garden in South- 
 wark ; and expos'd for the diversion of the citizens 
 of London at six-pence a-piece. By John Dunton, 
 author of the answer to Dr. Kennett, intituled "The 
 Hazard of a Death-bed Repentance." Being remarks 
 on a scandalous sermon bellow'd out at St. Paul's 
 on the fifth of November last before the Right 
 Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, 
 
 by Dr. Sach 11,' 1709. On the 44th page of this 
 
 peculiar pamphlet Dunton further promises ' The 
 
 Second Bull-baiting, or Sach 11 dressed up 
 
 again in Fireworks,' but this never seems to have 
 been issued. J. Morphew was the bookseller of The 
 Bull-baiting.'
 
 John Dunton. 307 
 
 At the end of the last-mentioned publication is an 
 announcement of a forthcoming work, ' Athenianism,' 
 at that time going through the press. Its sub-title, as 
 is usual, runs to some length, and is as follows : ' The 
 New Projects of Mr. John Dunton, author of the 
 essay intituled "The Hazard of a Death-bed Repent- 
 ance ;" being six hundred distinct treatises (in prose 
 and verse) written with his own hand ; and is an 
 entire collection of all his writings, both in manuscript 
 and such as were formerly printed. To which is 
 added " Dunton's Farewell to Printing/' in some 
 serious thoughts on those words of Solomon, "Of 
 making many books there is no end ; and much study 
 is a weariness of the flesh." With the author's 
 effigies, to distinguish the original and true copies 
 from such as are false and imperfect.' The purchaser 
 is further advised that the true copies have the wood- 
 cuts engraved by Knight and Vander Gucht. To 
 this work, published by Morphew in 1710, is pre- 
 fixed an heroic poem upon Dunton's projects by the 
 Athenian Society. This volume as John Nichols 
 truly observes, is a strange mixture of sense and folly, 
 containing some good articles in prose and verse, a 
 few of a licentious turn, and some deeply tinctured 
 with insanity, a misfortune under which Dunton ap- 
 pears to have long laboured. 
 
 Dunton is also accredited with the authorship of 
 ' The Preaching Weathercock,' which was 'written 
 against William Richardson, once a dissenting teacher;' 
 and ' Mordecai's Memorial, or, There's nothing done 
 for him : a just representation of unrewarded services,' 
 1716. 'Athenian Sport,' for John could never get 
 
 X 2
 
 308 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 over the idea of his being an Athenian, or, ' Two 
 thousand paradoxes merrily argued to amuse and 
 divert the age,' appeared in 1 707 ; and in the follow- 
 ing year he had published ' The Hazard of a Death- 
 bed Repentance/ which he so often quotes as being a 
 production of his own pen. Lowndes mentions the 
 following four pamphlets as being written by Dunton: 
 ' Stinking Fish/ ' Queer Robin/ ' State Weathercocks/ 
 and ' The Mob War/ A work for a long period 
 associated with the name of Lord Somers, but 
 which there seem to be good reasons for assigning 
 to Dunton, is ' The Judgment of Kingdoms and 
 Nations, concerning the rights, power, and prero- 
 gatives of kings, and the rights, etc., of the people/ 
 It was published by T. Harrison, of the Royal Ex- 
 change, Cornhill, 1710. Dunton's own copy, with 
 his autograph, is referred to at length in ( Censura 
 Literaria/ vi. 247-250. This pamphlet has affixed 
 to it sometimes the Sacheverell tract, ' The Impeach- 
 ment ' (ante, p. 306). ' Neck or Nothing/ in a letter 
 to the Earl of Oxford, appeared in 1713, and called 
 forth some banter, to be presently quoted, from Swift 
 in his ' Public Spirit of the Whigs/ It should not be 
 confounded with another publication, with the same 
 primary title, referred to on page 23 1 . Both an ' Essay 
 on Death-bed Charity/ exemplified in Mr. Thomas 
 Guy, bookseller ; Madame Jane Nicholas, of St. 
 Albans, and Mr. Fr. Bancroft, draper ; and ' Religio 
 Bibliopolae, or religion of a bookseller/ appeared in 
 1728. 
 
 One of his later projects forms another illustration 
 of political ingratitude. In ' An Appeal to George I.,'
 
 John Dunton. 309 
 
 which he considered as ' in some sense ' his ' Dying 
 Groans from the Fleet Prison, or a Last Shift for 
 Life,' he claims to have had the most distinguished 
 share in bringing about the Hanoverian succession, 
 the Pretender, he says, having sworn that ' John 
 Dunton is the first man he will hang at Tyburn if 
 ever he ascends the British throne, for his having 
 writ forty books to prove him a Popish impostor, and 
 all his adherents either fools, knaves, or madmen.' 
 But not only did no good come of this ' Appeal,' but 
 the ' literary gentlemen ' retained by the Government 
 in power taunted an already wretched man with 
 poverty, and the ' high-flyers ' among the Ministry 
 exhibited their consummate high-breeding in heap- 
 ing reproaches and insults upon poor old Dunton's 
 head. 
 
 The last half-score years or more of Dunton's life 
 were spent in great misery, which was fearfully 
 enhanced by the maudlin, incoherent state in which 
 his diseased intellect had placed him. It is not pos- 
 sible to entertain any great admiration for this quixotic 
 scribe, but who can read the following, 4 which 
 appeared on the title-page of what was perhaps his 
 last work, without feeling a certain amount of sym- 
 pathy and kindly consideration towards the author 
 in his senile and lonely condition ? 
 
 ' Upon this Moment depends Eternity ; or, Mr. 
 John Dunton's serious thoughts upon the present and 
 future state, in a fit of sickness that was judged 
 mortal ; in which many new opinions are started and 
 
 4 Quoted in ' Lit. Anec.,' v. 83, where it is stated that this 
 advertisement appeared on October 17, 1723.
 
 3 1 o The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 proved ; in particular this, That the sincere practice of 
 known duties, or dying daily to this life and world, 
 would of itself resolve the most ignorant person in 
 all the abstruse points of the Christian religion being 
 a new directory for holy living and dying ; composed 
 of the author's own experience in religion, politics, 
 and morals, from his childhood to his sixty-third year 
 (but more especially during his dangerous disease in 
 Ireland in the year ninety-eight, when his life was 
 despaired of) ; and completed in twenty essays upon 
 such nice and curious points in divinity as were never 
 handled before. To which is added, The Sick Man's 
 Passing-bell, to remind all men of that death and 
 eternity to which they are hastening. Containing, 
 i. God be merciful to me a Sinner; or, Dunton at 
 confession, in which he .discovers the secret sins of 
 his whole life, with his resolution in what penitent 
 manner (by the help of God) he'll spend the short 
 time he has yet to live. 2. Dunton's Legacy to his 
 Native Country ; or, a dying farewell to the most re- 
 markable persons and things both in Church and 
 State, with his last prayer (or those very petitions to 
 Almighty God) with which he hopes to expire. 3. A 
 Living Man following his own Corpse to the Grave ; or, 
 Dunton represented as dead and buried, in an essay 
 upon his own funeral ; to which is added (for the 
 oddness and singularity of it) a copy of his last Will 
 and Testament ; his living elegy wrote with his own 
 hand, and the epitaph designed for his tombstone in 
 the new burying-place. Together with, 4. The real 
 Period of Dunton's Life; or, a philosophical essay upon 
 the nature of the grand climacteric year sixty-three, in
 
 John Dunton. 3 1 1 
 
 which (as few persons outlive that fatal time) he ex- 
 pects to be actually buried with the best of wives 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Annesley, alias Dunton ; with their 
 reasons for sleeping together in the same grave till 
 the general resurrection, as contained in two letters 
 that passed between Mr. Dunton and his wife a few 
 days before she died. The whole directory and pass- 
 ing-bell submitted to the impartial censure of the 
 Right Reverend Father in God, William Lord Bishop 
 of Ely. By Mr. John Dunton, a member of the 
 Athenian Society, and author of the essay intituled 
 " The Hazard of a Death-bed Repentance." 
 
 " We are all seiz'd with the Athenian itch, 
 News, and new things do the world bewitch." 
 
 Dr. Wild. 
 
 Printed for S. Popping, in Paternoster Row, price 
 is. 6d' 
 
 Truly religious melancholia had set its hard and 
 uncanny grip upon the hero of six hundred books ! 
 
 Dunton has not been damned to everlasting fame by 
 the satirists of his day. His own individuality was so 
 strong as to have dispensed with extraneous help. 
 Even Pope has only an incidental reference to ' Dun- 
 ton's modern bed' (Dunciad, ii. 1. 144), which is, how- 
 ever, an obvious hint at the old bookseller's poverty ; 
 for ' a shaggy tapestry,' which the poet declares to be 
 worthy of being ' spread on Codrus old,' will at once 
 call to the reader's mind Codrus' poverty as described 
 by Juvenal. From Swift, however, he gets some 
 characteristic banter, which he was silly enough to 
 consider as praise. In his ' Public Spirit of the Whigs '
 
 312 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 (1714), the Dean grimly states that among the present 
 writers on the Whig side, he only knows of three of 
 any great distinction. These are Ridpath, the author 
 of the Flying Post, Dunton, and Steele, author of 
 * The Crisis.' ' Mr. Dunton/ Swift goes on to say, ' hath 
 been longer and more conversant in books than any 
 of the three, as well as more voluminous in his pro- 
 ductions : however, having employed his studies in so 
 great a, variety of other subjects, he hath, I think, but 
 lately turned his genius to politicks. His famous track. 
 *' Neck or Nothing," must be allowed to be the shrewd- 
 est piece, and written with the most spirit, of any that 
 hath appeared from that side since the change of Minis- 
 try : it is indeed a most cutting satire upon the Lord 
 Treasurer and Lord Bolingbroke ; and I wonder none 
 of our friends ever undertook to answer it. I confess, 
 I was at first of the same opinion with several good 
 judges, who from the style and manner suppose it to 
 have issued from the sharp pen of the Earl of Not- 
 tingham ; and I am still apt to think it might receive 
 his Lordship's last hand.' But in 1704, in the intro- 
 duction to ' The Tale of a Tub,' Swift refers to Dunton 
 in a manner which is unmistakably the reverse of 
 flattering. Speaking of ' oratorical machines,' the 
 pulpits, and the early publication of orators' speeches, 
 which he looks ' upon as the choicest treasury of our 
 British eloquence/ Swift continues/ 1 am informed, that 
 worthy citizen and bookseller, Mr. John Dunton, hath 
 made a faithful and a painful collection, which he 
 shortly designs to publish in twelve volumes in folio, 
 illustrated with copper-plates: a work highly useful 
 and curious, and altogether worthy of such a hand ! '
 
 John Dunton. 313 
 
 The 'praise' contained in the 'Public Spirit of the 
 Whigs/ coming as it does from the * Reverend and 
 Learned Dr. Jonathan Swift, though a great Jacobite,' 
 is gratefully welcomed as clearing the object of it from 
 ' the undeserved slander of being crazed in his intel- 
 lectuals.' 
 
 Dunton died in 1733, but where and under what 
 precise circumstances, are not now known.
 
 3 1 4 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THOMAS GUY. 
 
 THOMAS GUY, the philanthropic bookseller, and 
 founder of Guy's Hospital, was, according to Maitland 
 ('History of London,' 1739), born in the north-east 
 corner-house of Pritchard's Alley, two doors east of 
 St. John's Churchyard, in Fair Street, Horsleydown, 
 Southwark, in the year 1645, but the exact date does 
 not seem to have been discovered. Mr. Knight, in his 
 ' Shadows of the Old Booksellers,' observes that Fair 
 Street which still exists, is at the eastern extremity 
 of Tooley Street, where Horsleydown begins, and at a 
 short distance from the Thames. The ' Downs where 
 horses once grazed, and where, probably, the child 
 Thomas Guy once played, is now built over/ 
 
 His father, dying when Thomas was eight years 
 old, was a lighterman and coal-dealer, and after his 
 decease, the widow and her children left London for 
 her native place in Staffordshire, Tamworth. A writer 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1784, p. 430, says that 
 Tamworth was the place of young Guy's birth. Mrs. 
 Guy,, who married a second time shortly after the re- 
 moval, took precaution, according to Maitland, 'to have 
 her children carefully educated, and at a proper age put 
 her son Thomas apprentice.' His education from be-
 
 Thomas Guy. 315 
 
 tween the ages of eight and fifteen was in all likelihood 
 obtained in Tamworth. He was bound apprentice on 
 September 2, 1660, to John Clark, a bookseller in the 
 porch of Mercers' Chapel. After his apprenticeship 
 had expired, he, in 1668, became a Freeman of the 
 City of London, and of the Stationers' Company, and 
 commenced business with a capital of about 2OO/. His 
 first shop was at ' the little corner-house of Lombard 
 Street and Cornhill.' The house, sometimes termed 
 ' Lucky Corner ' in more recent years, was a new one, 
 for the Great Fire which raged a couple of years before 
 he set on in business had devastated nearly all the sur- 
 rounding structures. Guy's shop was hard by ' Stocks' 
 Market,' which was for centuries a trading rendezvous 
 of butchers and fishmongers, and its denomination is 
 said to have arisen from the Stocks, a form of pun- 
 ishment to which we were compelled to allude in our 
 account of Mr. Curll's life and adventures. It is upon 
 this area that the present Mansion House stands. 
 ' Many persons,' remarked Mr. Knight, in 1865, ' now 
 living will remember this little corner-house, when it 
 was occupied by a noted lottery-office keeper, and 
 scarcely a passer-by failed to fancy the lucky member 
 that looked out upon him with seductive eyes out of 
 that shop-window. When Guy settled here it must 
 have been a capital situation, for the ruins of Sir 
 Thomas Gresham's Exchange had been cleared away, 
 and new dwellings had sprung up with the rapidity 
 which the exigencies of trade never fail to command. 
 Within a year after our Thomas had taken up his 
 position, the second Exchange was opened with great 
 pomp ; and it stood through all the changes and re-
 
 3 1 6 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 volutions of thrones and institutions, of laws and 
 commerce, till it was burnt down in 1838' (January 
 10). In the course of the improvements which were 
 made in the neighbourhood of Cornhill and Lombard 
 Street about 1833 or 1834, Guy's little corner-shop 
 once for all became a thing of the past. 
 
 Guy was admitted a Liveryman of the Company 
 of Stationers in 1673. His progress for some time 
 was probably satisfactory. He seems to have been a 
 bookseller, pure and simple, confining himself almost 
 exclusively to retailing the publications of his more 
 adventurous associates. He was not what we should 
 now understand by the term 'publisher,' such as 
 Tonson, Lintot, Curll, and Dunton. Apparently he 
 reserved his energy for the purpose of directing it 
 into a channel as yet unworked by his rivals. The 
 extreme rarity of coming across a. work bearing Guy's 
 imprint has already been remarked in Notes and 
 Queries (4th S. vi.), where only two examples are 
 quoted, viz. a devotional book entitled 'Jacob's 
 Ladder,' by Jo. Hall, B.D., pth edition, ' London, 
 printed by F. Collins for Thos. Guy, at the Oxford 
 Arms in Lumbar Street, 1 1698.' The other, a small 
 quarto, is ' Death's Vision represented in a Philo- 
 sophical Sacred Poem/ an anonymous production, 
 ' London, printed for Thomas Guy, at the Oxford Arms 
 in Lumbar Street, 1709-' 
 
 But this absence of his name as bookseller or 
 
 publisher is not confined to general literature : it 
 
 applies with equal, if not even greater, force to what 
 
 he must have sold many thousands of during his 
 
 1 That is, Lombard Street.
 
 Thomas Guy. 317 
 
 career, we refer, of course, to the Bible. It is not 
 known for certain at what period Guy commenced to 
 devote his attention to producing better editions than 
 those which were in circulation in the middle and 
 latter part of the seventeenth century. It will not be 
 necessary to quote here any of the innumerable 
 inaccurate and stupid blunders. Barker's octavo of 
 1631, and Field's Pearl edition of 1653, showed how 
 much a carefully printed edition was needed. Guy 
 was aware of this fact, and was not slow in making 
 capital out of it. A monopoly in the printing of the 
 Bible had been granted to the Barker family by 
 Queen Elizabeth, and their right remained undisturbed 
 for about ninety years. This monopoly was not 
 synonymous either with excellence or correctness. A 
 long-suffering British public did on one or two oc- 
 casions complain, particularly when, in 1631, Barker 
 omitted the seventh commandment entirely : for 
 this disgraceful and wanton slipshod method of going 
 to work, Barker is said to have been fined 3OO/., 
 which he compounded by presenting a set of rich 
 types to one of the Universities. 
 
 Maitland, in his capital article on the Hospital, 
 referring to about the period when Guy had settled 
 into business on his own account, observes that ' the 
 English Bibles printed in this kingdom being very 
 bad, both in the letter and paper, occasioned divers 
 of the booksellers in this city to encourage the print- 
 ing thereof in Holland, with curious types and fine 
 paper, and imported vast numbers of the same, to 
 their no small advantage. Mr. Guy, soon becoming 
 acquainted with this profitable commerce, became a
 
 3 1 8 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 large dealer therein. But this trade proving not only 
 very detrimental to the public revenue, but likewise to 
 the King's printer, all ways and means were devised 
 to quash the same ; which being vigorously put in 
 execution, the booksellers, by frequent seizures and 
 prosecutions, became so great sufferers, that .they 
 judged a further pursuit thereof inconsistent with 
 their interest.' 
 
 In addition to the King's printer, the Oxford 
 University had also a claim upon the copyright, or 
 rather right of publication, of the Bible. It was to 
 the syndics of the University that he applied for an 
 assignment of their privilege, which, after a time, it 
 appears they granted. His next move was to buy a 
 quantity of new type, and have his own Bibles printed 
 in London. The project was highly successful. He 
 was now a prosperous man of business. As time 
 went on he was chosen Sheriff of London, but he paid 
 the fine of 5OO/. consequent upon his refusal to act in 
 this capacity. 
 
 Government securities of various sorts brought 
 many thousands of pounds to the coffers of Guy. 
 Nichols states that Guy realized large sums of money 
 by purchasing seamen's tickets in the wars of Queen 
 Anne, which are so frequently referred to in Pepys' 
 * Diary' during the first six or seven months of 1668 ; 
 but Mr. Knight correctly points out that at the time 
 this scandalous subterfuge was being prosecuted by 
 an unscrupulous and dishonest Ministry, Guy was 
 still an apprentice. The practice of paying seamen 
 by ticket passed into desuetude in the reign of Charles 
 the Second ; but it was not, apparently, until 1757,
 
 Thomas Guy. 319 
 
 that a proposal was made in Parliament, by ' Mr. 
 Grenville, brother to Earl Temple,' to bring in a 
 bill ' for the encouragement of seamen .employed in 
 his Majesty's Navy, and for establishing a regular 
 method for the punctual, speedy, and certain pay- 
 ment of their wages, as well as for rescuing them 
 from the arts of fraud and imposition ' (Smollet, 
 'Hist, of Eng.'). In 1758, a bill to that effect was 
 passed in the Commons, and, after the usual delay, 
 recrimination, and jealous regard to rights and 
 privileges, the House of Lords finally accepted it, and 
 it then passed into law. Pepys has no reference 
 in his ' Diary ' to seamen's tickets later than July 17, 
 1668, and it is exceedingly unlikely that Guy specu- 
 lated at that early date. What the other Government 
 securities were in which, upon the authority of 
 Maitland, Guy speculated, we need not stop to 
 inquire. 
 
 In 1695, Thomas Guy, the Whig, first entered Par- 
 liament as member for Tamworth, for which place he 
 sat in all Parliaments from the third of William III. 
 to the first of Queen Anne. Guy and penuriousness 
 have been popularly synonymous for a long period, 
 but like many other popular notions, the inconsis- 
 tencies are strong and numerous. He was what we 
 should now call stingy, and nothing more. He is 
 represented as acting as his own servant, whilst he 
 obtained his dinner from a cookshop, using his 
 counter as a table, and an old newspaper as a table- 
 cloth. Mr. Knight remarks upon this, that the Caro- 
 lian newspapers were only about the size of an 
 ordinary dish, and could scarcely have been used as
 
 3 2O The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 table-cloths. This anecdote was probably concocted 
 years after Guy's death, as the reference to news- 
 paper would seem to indicate. He is also described 
 as being very careless about his personal appearance. 
 But these statements are both apocryphal. An amus- 
 ing story is that told concerning Guy and his servant, 
 to whom he had promised marriage. In October, 
 1671, as Mr. Knight points out, an order was issued 
 to the effect that all the streets within the City were 
 to be paved round or causeway-fashion ; the foot- 
 pavements were to be provided at the expense of the 
 occupier of each house. A fine would be inflicted 
 upon those who did not carry out the order within a 
 certain period. When the paviors were doing the 
 portion which fell to Guy's share to have done, the 
 prospective Mrs. Guy noticed a broken place which 
 they had not repaired, and directed them to mend it. 
 They answered, that Mr. Guy had requested them 
 not to go so far. She persisted in having it mended, 
 adding, ' Tell him I bade you, and I know he will not 
 be angry.' But in this she was mistaken, for Guy was 
 very much annoyed at finding his orders exceeded, 
 and renounced his matrimonial scheme. Guy's cha- 
 racter was thus delineated by John Dunton in 1705 : 
 ' Mr. Thomas Guy, in Lombard Street,' .... enter- 
 tains a very sincere respect for English liberty. He 
 is a man of strong reason, and can talk very much to 
 the purpose upon any subject you will propose. He 
 is truly charitable, of which his Almshouses for the 
 poor are standing testimonies.' 
 
 Already Guy had ' come out ' as a philanthropist, 
 and his private acts of charity are described as many
 
 Thomas Guy- 321 
 
 and great, especially to his poor relations. He 
 frequently (according to the memoir prefixed to the 
 annual syllabus of Guy's Hospital Medical School) 
 accomplished the discharge from prison, and rein- 
 statement in business, of Insolvent Debtors, who at 
 that time were liable to very harsh treatment He 
 was constantly ready to advance money, without 
 charge for interest, to enable young men, whom he 
 knew to be deserving, to start in business. When he 
 met with such (so runs the same memoir) diseased 
 and friendless subjects as wanted the help of an 
 Hospital, he used to send them to St. Thomas' (of 
 which Institution he was a Governor), with directions 
 to the Steward to supply them at his expense with 
 clothes and such other necessaries as are not pro- 
 vided by the Hospital. Among his more public acts 
 of benevolence the following may be mentioned : He 
 made large benefactions to the Stationers' Company, 
 and to Christ's Hospital. He built, maintained during 
 his life, and endowed by his Will, Almshouses, and a 
 Free Library at Tarmvorth, and was a great bene- 
 factor to this town generally. In 1707 he built 
 and furnished three wards on the north side of the 
 outer court of St. Thomas' Hospital, for the reception 
 of sixty-four patients, and gave to those wards zoo/, 
 yearly, for eleven years immediately preceding the 
 foundation of his own hospital. Some time before 
 his death, he removed the frontispiece of this 
 hospital which stood over the gateway in the 
 Borough, and erected it fronting the street ; he also 
 enlarged the gateway, rebuilt two large houses on its 
 sides, and erected a fine iron gate between them. 
 
 Y
 
 322 The Earlier History of English Bookselling. 
 
 This work cost him 3<DOO/. As an example oi his 
 charity, the following anecdote was communicated to 
 the Saturday Magazine of August 2, 1834: The 
 munificent founder of Guy's Hospital was a man of 
 very humble appearance, and of a melancholy cast of 
 countenance. One day, while pensively leaning over 
 one of the bridges, he attracted the attention and com- 
 miseration of a by-stander, who, apprehensive that he 
 contemplated self-destruction, could not refrain from 
 addressing him with an earnest entreaty not to let this 
 misfortune tempt him to commit any rash act ; then 
 quickly placing in his hand a guinea, with the 
 delicacy of genuine benevolence, he hastily with- 
 drew. Guy, roused from his reverie, followed the 
 stranger, and warmly expressed his gratitude, but 
 assured him he was mistaken in supposing him to 
 be either in distress of mind or of circumstances, 
 making an earnest request to be favoured with the 
 name of the good man, his intended benefactor. 
 The address was given, and they parted. Some 
 years after, Guy, observing the name of his friend 
 in the bankrupt list, hastened to his house, brought 
 to his recollection their former interview, found upon 
 investigation that no blame could be attached to 
 him under his misfortunes, intimated his ability and 
 also his intention to serve him, entered into imme- 
 diate arrangements with his creditors, and finally 
 re-established him in a business which ever after 
 prospered in his hands, and in the hands of his 
 children's children, for many years in Newgate Street. 
 But it was in the infamous South Sea transactions 
 that Guy made the bulk of his immense fortune. ' In
 
 Thomas Guy. 323 
 
 the year i/io/ observes Maitland, 'when the debt of 
 the navy was increased to divers millions, an Act of 
 Parliament was made to provide for the payment of 
 that and other men's dues from the Government by 
 erecting the South Sea Company, into which the 
 creditors of divers branches of the National Debt 
 were empowered to subscribe the several sums due to 
 them from the public.' Guy, possessing such securities 
 to the amount of several thousands of pounds, sub- 
 scribed the same into the South Sea Company, it 
 being the condition that the subscribers should re- 
 ceive an annual interest of six per cent, upon their 
 respective subscriptions, until the same was discharged 
 finally. This bubble lasted for ten years. Maitland 
 tells the story with sufficient clearness : ' It no sooner 
 received the sanction of Parliament than the national 
 creditors from all parts came crowding to subscribe 
 into the said company the several sums due to them 
 from the Government, by which great run one hun- 
 dred pounds of the company's stock that before was 
 sold at one hundred and twenty pounds (at which 
 time Mr. Guy was possessed of forty-five thousand 
 and five hundred pounds of the said stock), gradually 
 rose to above one thousand and fifty pounds. Mr. 
 Guy, wisely considering that the great rise of the 
 stock was owing to the iniquitous management of a 
 few, prudently began to sell out his stock at about 
 three hundred (for that which probably at first did 
 not cost him above fifty or sixty pounds), and con- 
 tinued selling till it arose to about six hundred, when 
 he disposed of the last of his property in the said 
 company.' 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 It is clear from this that the charge of stock-jobbing 
 cannot be preferred against Guy, and in selling out 
 he only followed the example of Sir Robert Walpole 
 and several others. The bubble, as every one knows, 
 burst in 1720, and many hundreds of families were 
 completely wrecked. It would indeed have been a 
 very queer sort of charity if Guy, foreseeing the ulti- 
 mate bursting of the South Sea scheme, wilfully 
 entered into it with the intention of fraud before 
 him, and to have spent the proceeds he thus acquired 
 in raising an everlasting monument to his name in 
 the shape of an Hospital. But it does not appear 
 to be understood with sufficient clearness that Guy 
 was no stock-jobber ; although, on the other hand, 
 we do not hear that he refunded any of the money 
 which he received from the infatuated individuals to 
 whom he sold at different times his shares. Maitland 
 relates that those best acquainted with Guy averred 
 that he got more money in the space of three months, 
 by the execution of the South Sea scheme, than what 
 the erecting, furnishing, and endowing of the Hospital 
 amounted to. 
 
 The idea of erecting a hospital at some time or 
 other he had perhaps entertained for a long period. 
 With this sudden and unexpected addition to his 
 wealth in 1720, he at once commenced carrying his 
 idea out by purchasing of the President and Governors 
 of St. Thomas' Hospital, Southwark, a lease of a piece 
 of ground opposite to that hospital, for a term of 999 
 years, for a ground-rent of 3O/. per annum. This piece 
 of ground was covered with small, old, and ill-tenanted 
 houses, which were pulled down in 1721, and, erecting
 
 Thomas Guy. 325 
 
 a house for his own residence, the foundation of the 
 hospital bearing his name was laid in the spring of 
 1722. Tliis 'vast fabric was completed before the 
 death of its founder,' which occurred December 27, 
 1724. The only motive, says one writer, that induced 
 Guy to erect this Hospital in-so low and close a situa- 
 tion was his design of putting it under the manage- 
 ment and direction of the Governors of that of St. 
 Thomas, but by the advice of his friends he altered 
 his resolution ; it was then, however, too late to think 
 of choosing another situation, for the building was 
 raised to the second story, but he rendered the place 
 as agreeable as possible by its elevation above the 
 neighbouring streets. The expense of erecting and 
 furnishing the hospital amounted to 18,7937. i6.f., the 
 greater part of which was spent before Guy's death. 
 He endowed it with a sum of 21 9,4997., which, to- 
 gether with the cost of erection, &c., amounted to 
 238,2927. i6s., which was up to that time the largest 
 amount left by one person to a single institution. 
 
 On August 5, 1717, he offered to the Stationers' 
 Company, through the medium of his friend Richard 
 Mount, the sum of iooo7., to enable them to add $o7. 
 a year, by quarterly payments, to the poor mem- 
 bers and widows, in augmentation of the quarterly 
 charity; also noo7., to be paid quarterly to such 
 charitable uses as he should appoint by his Will in 
 writing; and a further sum of 15007., to have 757. a 
 year paid quarterly for another charitable purpose, 
 to be appointed in a like manner ; in default of such 
 appointments the sum of 1257. to be paid annually 
 by the Company to St. Thomas' Hospital. And,
 
 326 The Earlier History of English Bookselli ng, 
 
 writes Nichols, no appointment having been made, 
 the same is now regularly paid to the Hospital. 
 
 On September 24, 1724, Guy made his Will. He 
 died on December 27 following, at the age of eighty 
 years. In little more than a week afterwards Guy's 
 Hospital was opened, and on Thursday, January 6, 
 1725, sixty patients were admitted. On April 6 
 of the same year the first Committee of Governors 
 was held, and three days afterwards two physicians 
 and two surgeons were formally appointed. 
 
 By his Will he bequeathed numerous legacies and 
 annuities to a great number of his near and distant 
 relations. To the Almshouses at Tamworth for four- 
 teen poor men and women, and for their pensions, as 
 well as for the putting out of poor children appren- 
 tices, Guy left I25/. a year. To Christ's Hospital he 
 left 4OO/. per annum in perpetuity. The residue of 
 his estate he left for the endowment of his own 
 hospital, and to provide for the maintenance in it of 
 four hundred patients. The sum of 7S,589/. was left 
 to be divided up in slated portions among his younger 
 relations and executors. He also bequeathed a 
 further sum of iooo/. for discharging poor prisoners 
 within the city of London and the counties of Middle- 
 sex and Surrey who could be released for the sum of 
 5/. ; by which sum, and the good management of his 
 executors, there were over 600 persons set at liberty 
 from the several prisons within the prescribed radius. 
 
 The Governors of his charity, in pursuance of the 
 powers entrusted to them by Parliament, erected a 
 noble monument of the founder, at a cost of iooo/., 
 in the chapel, from a design of Bacon. A copy of
 
 Thomas Guy. 327 
 
 the inscription appeared, with some other interesting 
 particulars concerning Guy, in the Gentleman's 
 Magazine, vol. 54, p. 430. It runs as follows : 
 
 ' Underneath are deposited the remains of Thomas Guy, a 
 citizen of London, member of Parliament, and the sole founder 
 of this hospital in his life-time. It is peculiar to this beneficent 
 man to have persevered, during a long course of prosperous 
 industry, in pouring forth to the wants of others all that he had 
 earned by labour or withheld from self-indulgence. Warm with 
 philanthropy, and exalted by charity, his mind expanded to those 
 noble affections which grow but too rarely from the most elevated 
 pursuits. After administrating with extensive bounty to the 
 claim of consanguinity, he established this asylum for that stage 
 of languor and disease to which the charities of others had not 
 reached, he provided a retreat for hopeless insanity, and rivalled 
 the endowments of kings.' 
 
 From the Annual Report and Syllabus of Guy's Hos- 
 pital Medical School, 1886-7, we are enabled to give a 
 few further particulars, which will bring the present 
 sketch, so to speak, down to date. Guy's Hospital 
 was the first of the London Hospitals designed and 
 built for the special purposes which it fulfils. The 
 original building is at present occupied by the sur- 
 gical wards and operating theatre, the surgery, the 
 library, and various offices. The east wing was com- 
 menced in the year 1738 : it contains the Treasurer's 
 house, the Governors' court-room and offices, and, as 
 at present arranged, the Superintendent's residence, 
 and the House-Surgeons' and Dressers' rooms. It 
 was not until more than thirty years later that the 
 west wing was added, which now contains the chapel 
 and the residences of the chaplain and the matron. 
 
 In 1744 the Lunatic House was built for the 
 accommodation of twenty confirmed lunatics, in
 
 328 The Earlier History of English Bookselling, 
 
 accordance with directions contained in Guy's Will. 
 In 1859, the Governors of the Hospital, in the exer- 
 cise of their discretion, provided for the reception of 
 the then inmates elsewhere, and converted this house 
 to general hospital purposes. It now contains the 
 clinical wards and room, electrical department, 
 private rooms for ovariotomy and other special cases, 
 the House-Physicians' rooms, &c. 
 
 But, although additions were thus made to the 
 original building, it would appear that during many 
 years the internal arrangements and management of 
 the Hospital were so far defective or faulty that the 
 beneficent intentions of the founder were but imper- 
 fectly fulfilled. In 1797, Mr. Harrison was appointed 
 Treasurer. He assumed and maintained until nearly 
 the period of his death the almost absolute control 
 and direction of the affairs of the Hospital, which 
 was brought into a state of the highest efficiency. 
 On February 8, 1828, William Hunt, merchant and 
 citizen of London, a friend of Harrison's, and for 
 many years an influential Governor of Guy's, added 
 a codicil to his Will, by which, after providing for 
 certain bequests and annuities, he left the residue of 
 his property to the Treasurer and Governors of Guy's 
 Hospital, for the benefit and purposes of the institu- 
 tion, on condition that, ' within three years after his 
 decease, they should enlarge, extend, finish, and fit 
 up such other buildings adjoining the said Hospital ; 
 and also finish and provide the same with beds and 
 all other conveniencies necessary to receive and enter- 
 tain therein at least one hundred more persons than 
 were provided for by the said Thomas Guy.' Hunt
 
 Thomas Guy. 329 
 
 died September 23, 1829, and was buried in the 
 chapel vault on October 2. His estate realized 
 about 2OO,ooo/., of which 1 8o,ooo/. came to the funds 
 of the Hospital. Three windows of stained glass 
 have been placed in the chapel by the Governors, 
 commemorative of this munificent benefaction. In 
 compliance with the conditions of Hunt's bequest, 
 some temporary buildings, named together Hunt's 
 House, were speedily prepared, at a cost of 35OO/., 
 and on December 23, 1830, the first patients were 
 received into them. These buildings were removed 
 when the new wards were built some years after- 
 wards, and which are now known as 'The New 
 Building, or Hunt's House.' 
 
 In 1768 it was resolved that the barrier between 
 Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals be taken down, 
 and that the pupils of each avail themselves of the 
 advantages afforded by the other institution. This 
 union of the two schools lasted until 1825.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ' An BIBLIOPOLAM,' 68. 
 Addison, Joseph, 128, 161, 171, 
 
 177, 179, 203, ., 204, 257, 
 
 267. 
 
 'Advancement of Learning,' 75. 
 Aldine Afagazine, The, 138, . 
 Aldrich, Dean, 197. 
 Allestry, James, 107. 
 Allot, Robert, 56, 144. 
 Alphonsus, King of Naples, 6. 
 ' Amadis de Gaul,' 108. 
 America, Dunton in, 290. 
 Amhurst, N., 248. 
 Amory, Thomas, 277 279. 
 ' Anglia Illustrata,' 237. 
 Anjou, Countess of, 5. 
 Anstey's ' Munimenta Academica,' 
 
 . ! * 
 
 Antiquarian Magazine, 261. 
 
 Antiquarii, The, IO. 
 
 Arbuthnot, John, 256, 257. 
 
 ' Art of Making Love,' 163. 
 
 Ashmole, Elias, 257. 
 
 Aspley, or Apsley, W., 50, 51, 52, 
 
 55 63, 74, 144. 
 Astle, Thomas, 10. 
 Astley, Hugh, 136. 
 ' Atalantis, Mrs. Manley's, 251. 
 Athenian Gazette, The, 296. 
 Athenian Mercury, The, 297 299. 
 Athenian Spy, 298. 
 Athenianisin, 307. 
 Athenian Society, The, 298. 
 ' Athenian Sport,' 307. 
 Atkins, M., 144. 
 
 Atterbury, Bishop, 115, 240, 256. 
 
 Aubrey, John, 237. 
 
 Audeley, John, 119. 
 
 Authors, The status of early, 33. 
 
 Aylmer, Brabazon, 166. 
 
 BACON'S (Lord), booksellers, 72 
 
 77- 
 
 Baker, Alderman, 187. 
 Baker, Thomas, 189. 
 Bale, John, on the Monasteries, 
 
 1 6. 
 Ballards of Little Britain, The, 124, 
 
 127, 152. 
 Bancroft (not Bancroft), Archbishop, 
 
 63. 
 Bangorian Controversy, The, 241, 
 
 248. 
 
 Banks, John, 113. 
 Bankworth, R., 60. 
 Barber, Alderman, 256, 276. 
 Barber, John, 229, 230, 256. 
 Barker, Benjamin, 148. 
 Barker, Christopher, 31, 36. 
 Barker, Robert, 75." 
 Barlow's (Bishop) ' Remains,' 294. 
 Barret, Hanna, 74, 76. 
 Barret, W., 48, 62, 74, 76. 
 Bartelet, Thomas, 34. 
 Bartlett, John, 144. 
 Bassett, T., 104, 153, and note. 
 Batemans of Little Britain, The, 
 
 122. 
 
 Bath, ' Churches ' of, 237. 
 Bayle, Peter, 127.
 
 332 
 
 Index. 
 
 Bayley, John, 165, . 
 
 Beale, John, 73. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, 48, 98, 
 
 1 80. 
 
 Beckingham, Charles, 239. 
 Bede, the Venerable, 2. 
 Bee, Cornelius, 119. 
 Bee, The, 257, 258. 
 Beeston, Hugh, 90. 
 ' Beliarus of Greece,' 108. 
 Beloe's 'Ovid' 177. 
 Benedict Biscop, 2. 
 Benedictines, The, 2. 
 Bennet, Thomas, 114, 115. 
 Bentley, Richard (bookseller), in 
 
 113- 
 
 Bentley, Dr. Richard, 113 115. 
 
 Bethel, Hugh, 274. 
 
 Bettesvvorth, Arthur, 136, 222. 
 
 Betterton, Thomas, 196, 209, 216, 
 222, 280. 
 
 Bibles, 8385, 109, 317. 
 
 Bickerton, Thomas, 127. 
 
 Bill, John, 76. 
 
 Billingsley, S, 165, . 
 
 Binneman, Henry, 43. 
 
 Birch, William, 144. 
 
 Blackmore, Sir Richard, 173. 
 
 Bladen, Captain, 218. 
 
 Blare, J., 134. 
 
 ' Bloody Assizes,' The, 295, 300. 
 
 B.ount, or Blunt, Edward (book- 
 seller), 54, 56, 62, 73. 
 
 Blount, Edward, 267, 
 
 Blount, Miss, and Pope, 265. 
 
 Boccaccio, 5, 73, 127. 
 
 Boethius' 'Consolation of Philo- 
 sophy,' n. 
 
 Boileau, 219, 164. 
 
 Bonian, R., 54, 63. 
 
 Boniface, St., 2. 
 
 Book, A 'Good,' 67. 
 
 Books, prices paid for, 5, 6, 83, 88 ; 
 with valuable appendages, 8 ; 
 peculiarities and sizes of 
 early, 20 22 ; licenser of, 26 ; 
 proscribed in 1531, 25 ; sedi- 
 tious and heretical, 27 ; fines 
 for selling on Sunday, 37 ; un- 
 licensed, 86 ; various methods 
 for disposing, 93 ; lotteries, 93; 
 
 burnt at the Great Fire, 99 ; 
 
 printed in England, 1471 
 
 1660, 103 ; 1666 1680, 102 ; 
 
 dedicated to booksellers, 113; 
 
 and quack medicines, 114. 
 Bookbinding, early, 22 ; and gilding 
 
 and garnishing 15. 
 Book-borrowing in ancient times, 
 
 5, 12. 
 
 Bookseller, ' Epigram to my,' 92. 
 BOOKSELLING BEFORE PRINTING, 
 
 18-45. 
 
 Bookselling in France, 12. 
 
 BOOKSELLING, THE DAWN OK 
 ENGLISH, 18 45. 
 
 BOOKSELLING IN THE TIME OF 
 SHAKESPEARE, 46 77. 
 
 BOOKSELLING IN THE SEVEN- 
 TEENTH CENTURY, 78 115. 
 
 BOOKSELLING IN LITTLE BRITAIN, 
 116 129. 
 
 BOOKSELLINGON LONDON BRIDGE, 
 
 130139- 
 BOOKSELLING LOCALITIES, OTHER, 
 
 140 149. 
 
 Bostock, Robert, 144. 
 Bosvil, J., 220. 
 Bowyer, William, 201, 209. 
 Boyle -v. Bentley, 114. 
 Bragg, B., 306. 
 Breton, N., 61, 67. 
 Breval, J. D., 239. 
 Brewer, Anthony, 1 08. 
 Bridge, Daniel, 235. 
 Broadbent, Humphrey, 259. 
 Brome, H., 89, 104, 144. 
 Brome, ' The Widdowe,' 104. 
 Broome, W., 196, 198, 203. 
 Brown, Dr. John, 105. 
 Brown, J., 238. 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, 299. 
 Browne, Tom, 146. 
 Bryde, ' A Singing Man," 29. 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 191, 209, 
 
 250. 
 
 Buckley, Samuel, 128. 
 Budge, John, 63, 81, 144. 
 Budgell, E., 257258. 
 Buncle, 'Life' of John, 277279. 
 Bunhill Fields, 237. 
 Bunyan, John, 104 107.
 
 Index. 
 
 133 
 
 Burbie, or Burby, C., 49, 50, .59, 
 
 60. 
 
 Burley, William, 60. 
 Burlington, Earl of, 205, 267, 269. 
 Burnet, Bishop, 164, 222, 256, 277. 
 Burre, Walter, 60, 144. 
 Burthogg's ' Essay on Reason,' 294. 
 Burton, F., 80. 
 
 Burton's ' Censure of Simonie,' 53. 
 Bury, Richard de, 13 14. 
 Busbie, T., 52. 
 Busby, John, 51, 59, 60. 
 Butler, Samuel, 107. 
 Butter, Nathaniel, 52, 82, 87, 90. 
 
 CADELI., T., 186, n. 
 
 Cadman, T., 59. 
 
 Caesar's ' Commentaries,' 75, 176, 
 
 218. 
 
 Calvert, Giles, 145. 
 Cambridge printers and the Bible, 
 
 83- 
 
 Camden, W., 112. 
 
 Camden's 'Greek Accedence,' 85. 
 
 Campbel (Patrick), and Dunton, 
 301. 
 
 Cape, Elizabeth, 235. 
 
 Capell.E., 177, 181. 
 
 Caryll, John, 275. 
 
 Casaubon, I., 53, 74. 
 
 Catalogues, Maunsell's, 69 ; Lon- 
 don's, 88 ; Clavel's, 102, 103. 
 
 'Cato,' Addison's, 177. 
 
 Caxton, W., 18, 19, 22 24, 32, 
 146. 
 
 Censorship of the Press, 24, 100, 
 101. 
 
 Centlivre, Mrs., 190, 193, 239. 
 
 Chamberlayne, William, 102. 
 
 Chapman, G., 63, 74. 
 
 Charlton, Jeffrey, 72, 145. 
 
 Chaucer, G., 197. 
 
 4 Childe Harold and Cookeries,' 
 164, >. 
 
 Cholmondley, Ralph, 43. 
 
 Chudleigh, Lady, 189. 
 
 Cibber, Colley, 149, 189, 190, 193. 
 
 Clarke, John, author, 240. 
 
 Clarke, John, of Duck Lane, 128. 
 
 Clarke, John, Guy's master, 315. 
 
 Clarke, Dr. Samuel. 175. 
 
 Clavel, Robert, 102, 103. 
 
 Cocker's ' Arithmetic,' 131. 
 
 Coinage, Debased character of, 161. 
 
 Coke, Sir E., 53, 294. 
 
 Collier, Jeremy, 165. 
 
 Collins, B., 135. 
 
 Collins, James, 149. 
 
 Collins, Richard, 90. 
 
 Colton, Charles, 104. 
 
 Colwell, Thomas, 34. 
 
 Comber, Dr., 103. 
 
 ' Complete Angler,' The, 89. 
 
 Condell, Henry, 56. 
 
 Congreve, W., 160, 168. 171, 174, 
 
 183, 184, 205, 257, 267. 
 Connoiseur, The. 67, . 
 Conyers, George, 125 127, 152. 
 Cooke, Thomas, 240. 
 Copland, William, 32. 
 ' Corinna,' see THOMAS, MRS. 
 Cornbury, Lord, 100. 
 Cornwall, Carew's ' Survey ' of, 73. 
 Cotes, Thomas, 56. 
 ' Court Poems,' The, 223, 224, 227, 
 
 228, 262. 
 Cowley, A., 180. 
 Craftsman, The, 248. 
 Craggs, James, 178, 267. 
 Craik, Mr. G. L., 303. 
 Creede, T., 50. 
 Crowder, Stanley, 138. 
 Crowne, John, 189. 
 Cromwell, Henry, 264, 266, 275. 
 Cunningham, P., 131, n. , 189. 
 CURLL, EDMUND, 211, 215280. 
 Curll, Henry, 256, 258. 
 Curll, Bishop Walter, 217, 257. 
 ' Curliad,' The, 226, 254, 255, 264. 
 Curlicisism, 240, et. seq, 
 ' Curll Papers,' by W. J. Thorns, 
 
 25- 
 
 Daily Cotirant, The, 128. 
 Daily Journal, The, 273. 
 Daily Post, The, 258, 259, 267. 
 Daily Post Boy, The, 266, 268, 273. 
 Danish Invasions, 4. 
 Danter, J. , 60. 
 D'Avenant. Charles. 153. 
 Davies, John, of Hereford. 63, 66. 
 Davis, Walter. 113.
 
 334 
 
 Index. 
 
 Day, John, 29, 41, 42, 117 nS. 
 
 Decker, T., 53, 67, 74- 
 
 Dedications, 90. 
 
 Defoe, Daniel, 143. 
 
 Delamere, Lord, 294. 
 
 Delawarr, Lord, 271. 
 
 Denham, Henry, 142. 
 
 Denham, Sir John, 180, 194. 
 
 Dennis, John, 163, 190, 234, 261, 
 264. 
 
 De Quincey, T., 97. 
 
 Desaguliers and Curll, 236. 
 
 Devon, ' Survey' of, 237. 
 
 Dibben, T., 209. 
 
 Dibden, T. F., 176,180. 
 
 Digby, Hon. R., 267. 
 
 Dilke, C. W., 275. 
 
 D'Israeli, I., 191, 267. 
 
 1 Diurnals,' 86. 
 
 Dodwell, Henry, 219. 
 
 Donne, John, 89. 
 
 Doolittle, Rev., 288. 
 
 Dorset, Earl of, 1 20. 
 
 Drayton, M., 53, 64, 65. 
 
 Dryden, Charles, 168. 
 
 Dryden, John, 79, no 112, 120, 
 150 169, 174, 180, 183, 196, 
 298. 
 
 ' Dublin Scuffle,' The, 301. 
 
 Duck, Stephen, 275. 
 
 Ducket, Geo., 234. 
 
 Duck Lane, Booksellers in, 128. 
 
 ' Dunciad," The, 211, 261 264; 
 Key to the, 264 ; the ' Female,' 
 264 ; ' Dissected,' 264 ; Den- 
 nis's ' Remarks ' on, 264. 
 
 ' Duke of York,' the true tragedy 
 of, 51. 
 
 DUNTON, JOHN, 103, 106, no, 
 
 115, 122, 124, 125, 137, 148, 
 
 149, 185, 188, 194, 281313, 
 320. 
 
 Dunton, Rev. John, 281. 
 D'Urfey, T., 193, 194- 
 Dyche's ' Youth's Guide,' 137. 
 ' Dying Groans from the Fleet 
 Prison,' 309. 
 
 EACHARD, L , 127. 
 Eadburga, The Abbess, 2. 
 Earle's ' Micro-cosmographie,' 44. 
 
 < Eikon Basilike,' The, 87. 
 Eld, G., 55. 
 
 Elizabeth and her Book Grants, 28. 
 ' England's Helicon,' 34. 
 Englishman, T^hz, 128. 
 Erasmus's ' Praise of Folly,' 249. 
 Erdeswick's ' Survey of Stafford- 
 shire,' 236. 
 
 ' Essays ' of Bacon, 72. 
 Etheridge, Sir George, in. 
 Eusden, L., 256. 
 Evelyn, John, 99, 100, 113. 
 Everingham, Robert, 109. 
 
 FABER, F., 171. 
 
 ' Faction Displayed,' 172. 
 
 Fairfax, E., 73. 
 
 Farquhar, G., 189, 190, 193. 
 
 Faulkener, F., 60. 
 
 Fennor, W., 69. 
 
 Fenton, E., 177, 190, 193, 194, 196, 
 
 203, 209. 
 
 Field, R., 4647. 
 Filmer, Sir Robert, 113. 
 Fire, The Great, 99, 152. 
 Fisher, T., 50. 
 Flasket, John, 34, 62. 
 Fleet Street, 120. 
 Fletcher, Sir Henry, 213, 214. 
 Fletcher, J. P., 188. 
 Flower, Francis, 29. 
 Flying Post, The, 314. 
 'Folio,' Tom, 129. 
 Foote, Samuel, 249. 
 Ford, John, 79, 90. 
 Foxe's ' Book of Martyrs,' 42, 143. 
 Foxton's ' Metamorphosis of Mr. 
 
 Pope,' 264. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 128. 
 Froissart's ' Chronicles,' 43. 
 
 GARTH, SIR SAMUEL, 171, 209. 
 
 Garthwait, T., 88, 
 
 Gascoigne, G., 67. 
 
 Gay, John, 177, 184, 186, ., 190, 
 
 192, 196, 200, 209, 224, 227, 
 
 257, 260, 267. 
 Gazette, The, 179. 
 Germain, Lady Betty, 272. 
 ' Gesta Romanorum,' 11. 
 Gibbon, E., 186, n.
 
 Index. 
 
 335 
 
 Gibson's edition of Camden. 112 
 Gildon, Charles, 176. 
 Gilliflower, Matthew, 148. 
 Gilliver, Lawton, 275, 276. 
 Glastonbury, ' History ' of, 237. 
 Godfrey, Abbot of Malmesbury, 8. 
 Godolphin, Francis Lord, 171. 
 Goodwin, Timothy, 211. 
 Googe's ' Eglogs, Epytaphes and 
 
 Sonettes,' 34. 
 Gosling, R., 221, 222. 
 Gosson, H., 51, 54, 87, 136. 
 Gosson, T., 37. 
 Grafton, R., 41, 43. 
 Greene, R., 48, 53, 59. 
 Grimstone, Lord, 190. 
 Grub Street Journal, The, 128, 273. 
 Guardian, The, 178. 
 ' Gulliveriana/ 212. 
 GUY, THOMAS, 308, 314329. 
 Guy's Hospital, 317. 
 
 HACKETT, THOMAS, 60. 
 
 Haimon, Bishop of Halberstadt, 5. 
 
 Hale's ' Discourse,' &c., 259. 
 
 Halifax, Earl of, 267. 
 
 Hall, Bishop, 74. 
 
 HallJ., B.D., 316. 
 
 ' Hamlet,' 52, 53. 
 
 Harding, John, 188. 
 
 Hardyng's 'Chronicles,' 41. 
 
 Harris, John, 127. 
 
 Harris, T., 138. 
 
 Harrison, John (i6th cent.), 47. 
 
 Harrison, John (igth cent.), 142. 
 
 Harrison, T., 308. 
 
 Harvey, James, 214. 
 
 Hawkins, Richard, 63. 
 
 Hayes, Laurence, 51. 
 
 Head, Richard, 107. 
 
 Heath, Robert, 92, 98. 
 
 Henley, John, 251. 
 
 Heminge, John, 56. 
 
 ' Henry IV.,' 49, 50. 
 
 'Henry V.,' 51. 
 
 ' Henry VIII.,' 149. 
 
 Herbert, G., 89. 
 
 Hereford, ' History and Antiquities 
 
 of,' 237. 
 Herringman, IT., 51, 107, no ill, 
 
 155- 
 
 ' Hey for Honesty,' 90. 
 
 Heywood, Eliza, 279. 
 
 Ileywood, John, 43. 
 
 Heywood, T., 89, 90. 
 
 Hilyard, J., 97. 
 
 ' Histriomastix,' 82. 
 
 Hitch, C., 136. 
 
 Hoare, Henry, 249. 
 
 Hodges, F., 134. 
 
 Hodges, Sir James, 134 136, 138. 
 
 Hogg, Alexander, 142. 
 
 Holdsworth, E., 239. 
 
 Hollier, John, 114. 
 
 Homer, 192, 199 203, 233. 
 
 1 Homer defended,' 234. 
 
 Hooper, Humfry, 72, 73. 
 
 Hopkins, C., 163. 
 
 Horace, 192. 
 
 1 loughton, John, 67. 
 
 ' Hudibras,' 107. 
 
 Huggins, T., 75. 
 
 Hughes, 176. 
 
 Hume, Patrick, 167. 
 
 Hyde, Lord Clarendon, 100, 101. 
 
 Hyp- Doctor ; The, 251. 
 
 I LAY, LORD, 269. 
 ' Iliad,' The, see HOMER. 
 Imprint of a Book, The, 71. 
 Irving. Washington, 117. 
 Islip, Adam, 60, 90. 
 
 JACKSON, R., 48. 
 
 Jacob, Giles, 259. 
 
 Jacobs, Joseph, 227. 
 
 Jaggard, Isaac, 56, 73, 75. 
 
 James, Thomas, 109. 
 
 Jay, Rev., 288. 
 
 Jeffes, Abel, 37. 
 
 Jeffreys, Judge, 300. 
 
 John de Ilarpham, 7. 
 
 Johnson, Arthur, 52. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 167, l/", 179, 267, 
 
 272. 
 Jones, Johnes, or Jhones Richard, 
 
 60, 61, 62. 
 Jones, Thos., 68. 
 Jones, \V., 60. 
 
 Jonson, Ben, 63, 64, 68, 82, 90. 
 Jugge, John, 28.
 
 336 
 
 Index. 
 
 KENNETT, Basil, 150, 164. 
 Kennett, White (Bishop), 164, 249, 
 
 250, 306. 
 
 Ker, John, 254256. 
 Kettilby, Walter, 144. 
 King, C., 148. 
 King, Dr. W., 190, 192, 193, 196, 
 
 209, 257. 
 
 Kirkman, F., 107, 108. 
 Kirton, Joshua, 99, 144, 145. 
 Kit-Cat Club, 151, 169175. 
 Knaplock, Robert, 127. 
 Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 165, 171, 
 
 174. 
 
 Knight, Charles, 22, 186. 
 Kyrkham, Henry, 145. 
 
 Lacedemonian Mercury, The, 297. 
 
 Lacy, Alexander, 118. 
 
 Ladvocat, M., 93. 
 
 La Mothe le Vayer, M. F. de, 35. 
 
 Lanfranc, Archbishop, 7. 
 
 Lansdown, Lord, 205. 
 
 Lant, Richard, 118. 
 
 Law, Matthew, 51, 52. 
 
 Leake, W., 47, 48, 63. 
 
 ' Lear,' 53. 
 
 Lee, N., 112. 
 
 Lee, W., 76. 
 
 1 Left-Legged Jacob,' 184. 
 
 ' Legenda Aurea,' 146. 
 
 Leland, John, 16. 
 
 L' Estrange, Sir Roger, 101, 148, 
 
 34- 
 
 Lewis, William, 196. 
 Library, The Complete, 299. 
 Librarii, The, 10. 
 Lilburne, John, 81. 
 Lilly's ' Euphues,' 48. 
 Ling, N., 52, 53, 60, 63. 
 Lingard, Thomas, 188. 
 LINTOT, BERNARD, 126, 152, iSS 
 
 214, 224, 227, 234, 239. 
 Lintot, Henry, 210, 212214, 272. 
 Lintot, John, 188. 
 Lintot, Joshua, 21 1. 
 Lintot, Katherine, 212. 
 Lisle, Laurence, 63. 
 Lister's 'Journey to Paris,' 163. 
 ' Literary Anecdotes,' see NICHOLS, 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 Literary Quarrels, 33. 
 
 ' Literatory,' Curll's, 259. 
 
 LITTLE BRITAIN, BOOKSELLING 
 
 IN, 116 129, 133. 
 Littleton's ' Tenures/ 43. 
 Lock, John, 113, 257. 
 LONDON BRIDGE, BOOKSELLING 
 
 ON, 133139. 
 
 London Magazine, The, 128. 
 London Mercury, The, 298. 
 London Journal, The, 128, 256. 
 London, W., 88, 89. 
 Lotteries of Books, 93, 94. 
 Louis XI., 5. 
 
 1 Loves Labour Lost,' 49, 52. 
 Lownes, Hugh, 75, 90. 
 Lownes, Matthew, 74, 75, 76. 
 Luttrell, Narcissus, 154. 
 
 MACAU LAY, Lord, 145, 161, . 
 Machyn's ' Diary,' 146. 
 'Maggots,' 296. 
 Mainwaring, Arthur, 171, 
 Maitland, Rev. S. R., 4, 6. 
 Maitland, W., 314, 317. 
 Malebranche's 'Search after Truth,' 
 
 294. 
 Malone, - E., 159, 161, ., 162, 172, 
 
 204. 
 
 Malthus, Thomas, 106. 
 Manley, Mrs., 251, 257. 
 Markham, Gervase, 48, 138. 
 Marlborough, Duke of, 219. 
 Marlow, C., 48, 56, 62, 108. 
 Marriot, John, 89, 91. 
 Marriot, Richard, 89, 107. 
 Marsh, Henry, 107. 
 Marsh, Thomas, 29. 
 Martyn,John, 107. 
 Marvel, Andrew, 240. 
 Massinger, P., 79. 
 Masson, Professor, 95, 96. 
 Maunsell, Andrew, 69, 70. 
 Mears, William, 238. 
 Medical books, Quack, 218. 
 Medicines sold by Booksellers, 114, 
 
 220. 
 
 Meighen, R., 68. 
 ' Merchant of Venice,' 51. 
 Mercurius Librarius, 108. 
 Mercury's, 86.
 
 Index. 
 
 337 
 
 ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' The 
 
 52. 
 
 Middleton, W., 43. 
 ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' 50. 
 Midwinter, D., 127. 
 Midwinter, Ed., 138. 
 Miller, Andrew, 186, n. 
 Miller, Simon, 107. 
 Millington, T., 51. 
 Mills and Scott, 123. 
 Milton, John, 79, 90, 94 98, 144, 
 
 165, 194- 
 
 Mists Journal, 240247, 250, 
 263. 
 
 Miscellanies, Tonson's, 154, 155, 
 156158, 184 ; Lintot's 155, 
 194196, 203, 209; Curll's 
 259261 ; Fenton's 194. 
 
 Monasteries, Dissolution of, 16. 
 
 Monks as booksellers, 3. 
 
 Montaigne, 74. 
 
 Monthly Revinv, The, 128. 
 
 Moore, Richard, 145. 
 
 1 Moore's Worms, 228. 
 
 More, John, 77. 
 
 Morphew, John, 221, 306, 307. 
 
 Mortlock, H., 148. 
 
 Moseley, Humphry, 94, 98, 99. 
 
 Motteaux, P., 298. 
 
 Motte, B., 180, 195. 
 
 Mount, John, 179. 
 
 Moyle, Walter, 219, 257. 
 
 ' Much Ado About Nothing,' 50. 
 
 Murray, John, 164, n. 
 
 'Muscipula,' 219, 239. 
 
 NASH, T., 52, 57, 60, 6r, 64, 144, 
 
 146. 
 ' Neck or Nothing,' 149, 231, 306, 
 
 308, 312. 
 Newbery, R., 34. 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 178. 
 Negus, Samuel, 133, 134. 
 Nevill, Henry, 107. 
 Newman, Dorman, 124. 
 Newman, Hugh, 125. 
 Newman, Thomas, 34. 
 News, Ben Jonson's ' Staple ' of, 
 
 82. 
 
 Newsletters, 101, 102. 
 Newspapers, 54, 113, 319. 
 
 Newton, J., 127. 
 
 Nichols, John, 129, 171, 175, iSi, 
 
 l $Si !89, 191, 196, 211, 215, 
 
 237- 
 
 Nicholson, John, 127. 
 Nikke, Robert, 140. 
 Norden's Northamptonshire, 237. 
 Norriss, Thomas, 133. 
 Norris', Dr., 'Narrative,' 225. 
 North, Francis, 121. 
 North, Dr. John, 123. 
 North, Roger, 121 123. 
 Norton, Foelix, 74. 
 Norton, George, 81. 
 Norton, W., 37. 
 Notarii, The, 10. 
 
 Noy*s ' Rights of the Crown,' 239. 
 ' Novum Organum," 76. 
 
 OGILBY'S ' Book on Roads,' 93. 
 
 Okes, J. t 90. 
 
 Okes, N., 8l, 90. 
 
 Oldisworth, W., 207. 
 
 Oldmixon, J., 224, 226, 227. 
 
 ' Oratorical machines,' Swift on, 
 
 312- 
 
 Orrery, Earl of, 209, 275. 
 Osborne, T., 97. 
 Oswald, J., 127. 
 Otway, T., 153, 194- 
 Ovid, 156, 157, 158, 177. 
 Oxford, bookselling at, 14. 
 Oxford, the Pope-Lintot journey to, 
 
 205 209. 
 
 PAMPHLETS, the war of, 91, 101. 
 1 Paradise Lost,' 95 97, 120, 14^, 
 
 165167, 172. 
 Parchemineurs, The, 10. 
 Parkhurst, Thomas, 284. 
 Parnell, T., 190. 
 Parr, Thomas, 137. 
 ' Parrome,' 6. 
 
 Partridge, the Astrologer, 257. 
 Parrot, Henry, 68. 
 1 Passionate Pilgrim,' The, 48. 
 Passinger, Charles, 138. 
 Passinger, Thomas, 114, 138. 
 Paternoster Row, 120, 140 14;. 
 Pattison, W., 256. 
 Pavier, T, 51. 
 
 Z
 
 333 
 
 Index. 
 
 Peele, George, 60. 
 
 Peele, Stephen, 60. 
 
 Pekerynge, William, 36. 
 
 Pemberton, John, 227, 235, 237. 
 
 Pepwell, II , 41. 
 
 Pepys, Samuel, 99, in, 141, 144, 
 
 147, 318, 319. 
 ' Pericles,' 51, 54. 
 Petet, Thomas, 32. 
 ' Petite Palace ot Pettie's Pleasure,' 
 
 A, 66. 
 
 ' Philobililon,' 13. 
 Philips, J., 194. 
 Phillips, Sir Richard, i/o, 171. 
 Pickering, W., 136. 
 ' Pierce Penilesse,' see NASH, 
 
 THOMAS. 
 Piers, Lady, 209. 
 'Pier Plowman,' 1 18. 
 ' Pilgrim's Progress,' 104 106. 
 Pilkington, Mrs., 276. 
 Pitt, Christopher, 210. 
 Pitt, Moses, 125. 
 Pillory, Prynne in the, 8 1 ; Curll 
 
 do., 253. 
 
 Plays, prices paid for, 69. 
 Pliny's ' Panegyric,' 249. 
 Ponder, Nathaniel, 104 106. 
 Ponder, Robert, 106. 
 Ponsonby, or Posonbie, William, 
 
 58, 59, 63- 
 Pope, Alexander, 155, 177, 184, 
 
 196, 199, 211, 223228, 233 
 
 236, 248, 2/19, 255, 256, 260 
 
 276, 311. 
 
 1 Popiad,' The, 234. 
 Popping, Sarah, 235, 311. 
 Pordage, S., 153. 
 Powell, Stephen, 137, . 
 Portlock, W., 168. 
 Post Angel, The, 299. 
 Postboy, The, 258. 
 1 Postboy robbed of his mail,' 294, 
 
 300. 
 
 Poulson, M., 1 80. 
 Press, Censorship of the, 24. 
 Price, Mrs. Lucy, 258. 
 Printers, The early, 20. 
 Printing patents, 32. 
 Prior, M., 164, 194,219, 257. 
 Proscribed books, 25, 27. 
 
 Prynne, W., 81, 82. 
 
 ' P. T.' and Pope, 265268, 270, 
 
 271. 
 
 Publishers' Circular, The, 108. 
 Pulteney, William, 171. 
 Pynson, Richard, 24, 40, 43. 
 
 QUARITCH, Mr. B., 22, 53. 
 Quintius Curtius, II. 
 
 RAFFLES, book, 94. 
 
 Raleigh, Carew, 99. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Waller, 09, 148, 153. 
 
 Rambouillet, Mdlle., 265. 
 
 Randolph, T. , 90, 91. 
 
 ' Rape of Lucreece,' 47, 48. 
 
 Rapin's works, 127, 239. 
 
 Rasis, 5. 
 
 Rawlinson, Tom, 129. 
 
 Raworth, R., 90, 137. 
 
 Ray, John, 114. 
 
 Rea, Roger, 138. 
 
 Redman, R., 40, 41, 43, 64. 
 
 Reformation (the) and books, 28. 
 
 Relieurs, The, 10. 
 
 ' Religio Bibliopolae,' 308. 
 
 ' Religio Medici,' 300. 
 
 Reun, J.j 149. 
 
 Reynault, or Reynold, Francis, 31. 
 
 Rich, Barnaby, 64. 
 
 ' Richard III.' 49, 50, 51. 
 
 Richardson, W., 307. 
 
 ' Richardsoniana,' 174. 
 
 Ridpath, Geo., 312. 
 
 Ridson, T., 237. 
 
 Rimbault, E. F., 189. 
 
 Roberts, James (i6th centuiy book- 
 seller), 29, 50, 52, 60. 
 
 Roberts, James (i8th century book- 
 seller), 223, 227. 
 
 Roberts, John, 211. 
 
 Robinson, Bishop of London, 248. 
 
 ' Robinson Crusoe,' 143. 
 
 Robinson, Humphrey, 76, 98. 
 
 Rochester, ' History,' &c., of, 237.^ 
 
 Rochester's ' Poems,' 248. 
 
 Rogers, Owen, 118. 
 
 ' Romeo and Juliet,' 49, 52, 53. 
 
 Rowe, N., 174, 175, 176, 193, 204. 
 209, 222, 225. 
 
 Royston, Richard, 87.
 
 339 
 
 Kymer, T., 153, 154. 
 
 SACHEVERELL, Henry, 222, 306. 
 
 Sadler's Wells Theatre, 278. 
 
 Sage, Thomas, 179. 
 
 St. Maur, Raymond de, 97, 98. 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, 140. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, BOOK- 
 SELLING IN, 143, 145. 
 
 Salisbury, Churches of, 237. 
 
 Salmon, Dr. William, 114. 
 
 Samber, Robert, 240, 252. 
 
 Sandford's .' Genealogical History,' 
 127. 
 
 Sandys, G., 74. 
 
 Sault, R., 294, 296, 297. 
 
 Schlosser^s 'Literary History, 1 97. 
 
 Scoloker, Anthony, 118. 
 
 Scott, Robert, 123. 
 
 1 Scintilla,' 83, 85, 101. 
 
 Scribes at work, 9. 
 
 Scriptorium, The, 9. 
 
 ' Secunda Secundze,' 22. 
 
 Sedley, Sir Charles, 153. 
 
 Seile, H., 90. 
 
 Selden, John, 238. 
 
 Seres, William, 29, 42, 118. 
 
 Settle, Elkanah, 189, 193. 
 
 Sewell, George, 238, 248. 
 
 Shad well, T., 158, . 
 
 SHAKKSPEARE, BOOKSELLING IN 
 THE TIME OK, 46 77- 
 
 Shakespeare, W., 149, 165, 176, 
 177, 181, 204. 
 
 Shears, W., jun., 148. 
 
 Shepherd, H., 90. 
 
 Shippen, W., 172. 
 
 Shirley, Benjamin, 153. 
 
 Short, P., 47. 
 
 Shower, Rev. John, 288. 
 
 Sidney's ' Astrophel and Stella,' 34. 
 
 Signatures, 21. 
 
 Simmes, Valentine, 49, 50. 
 
 Simmons, Samuel, 94 96, 121, 165. 
 
 Simon, See MILLER, SI.MN. 
 
 Sloane, Hans, 114. 
 
 Smethwick, J., 53. 
 
 Smith, E. (author), 190, 193, 196, 
 209. 
 
 Smith, E. (bookseller), 228. 
 
 Smith, Richard (book-hunter), 119. 
 
 Smith, Richard (bookseller), 2 1 8. 
 
 Smith, J. Moore, 193. 
 
 Smyth, Hy., 43. 
 
 Smythe, or Smith (R.) and Pope, 
 
 267, 270, 271, 273, and note. 
 Snodham, T.. 81. 
 ' Society News ' in the iSth century, 
 
 178, n. 
 
 Solly, Professor Edward, 215, 218. 
 ' Sonnets ' of Shakespeare, 54, 55. 
 Sophocles, 192. 
 Sorbiere's 'Journey to England,' 
 
 120. 
 
 Southcote, or Southcott, 196, 209. 
 Spark, Michael, 8l. 
 Spectator, The, 128. 167, 178. 
 Spence, Joseph, 167, 174, 177, 183, 
 
 196, 204. 
 
 Spenser, Edmund, 58, 95. 
 Spinke, John, 220, 221. 
 Sprint, Benjamin, 127. 
 Sprint, J., 127. 
 Stackhouse, Thos., 240. 
 Stagg, J-, 48- 
 Stansby, W., 63. 
 Star-chamber, 81, 119. 
 Starkey, John, 96. 
 Stationarii, The, 10. 
 Stationers'^ Company, The, 27 30, 
 
 31, 32, 36, 79. 
 Stebbing's edition of Sandford's 
 
 History,' 127. 
 Steele, Sir R., 127, 128, 163, 171, 
 
 179- 193- 236, 312. 
 Steme, L., 294. 
 Steevens, G-, 186. 
 Stow, John, 43, 48, 118, 140. 
 Strahan, Geo., 1 80, 190. 
 Surrey, Aubrey's ' History' of, 237. 
 Surrey's ' Poems,' 34, 238. 
 Swall, Abel, 154. 
 Swift, Dean, 94, 123, 179, 195, 197, 
 
 222, 256, 259, 260, 261, 276, 
 
 298, 30^, 311- 
 Swift, Tho., 197. 
 
 TACHYGRAPHOI, The, 13. 
 ' Tale of a Tub,' 221, 312. 
 ' Taming of the Shrew,' 52. 
 Tap, John, 1*8.
 
 Index. 
 
 Tarleton, Richard, 53. 
 
 Tasso, 1 80. 
 
 Tate, N., 153, 163, 298. 
 
 Taller. The, 178. 
 
 Taylor, John, 137. 
 
 Taylor, John, ' the Water poet,' 62, 
 
 87. 
 
 Taylor, Randal, 97, 163. 
 Taylor, \V., 143, 211. 
 Temple, Sir W., 298. 
 Terrtz-Filius, 248. 
 Theobald, L., 177, 191, 252, 264. 
 Theatres, Selling books at, 69. 
 Thomason, George, 61. 
 Thomas, Mrs. (' Corinna '), 264. 
 Thorns, W. J., 215, 216, 226, 253. 
 Tickel, T., 201203, 234. 
 Thorpe, Thomas, 55, 63. 
 Tillotson, Archbishop, 256. 
 Tindal, M., 257. 
 Titles of books, 67, 245. 
 ' Titus Andronicus,' 51. 
 Toland, John, 190, 191. 
 Tomes, Henrie, 74, 75. 
 TONSON, JACOB, I., 104, in, 150 
 
 187, 191, 196, 204, 206, 210, 
 
 211, 223. 
 Tonson, Jacob, II., 178, and note, 
 
 179, 182. 
 
 Tonson, Jacob, III., 167, 186. 
 Tonson, Richard, I., 152, 153, 165, 
 
 178. 
 
 Tonson, Richard, IT., 185, 187. 
 Tonson, Samuel, 182, 185. 
 Tooke, Ben., 179. 
 Topographical works published by 
 
 Curll, 237. 
 
 Tothill, R., 28, 36, 43, 238. 
 Towne, Dr., 260. 
 Tracy, H., 137. 
 
 Transcribing by secular students, 9. 
 Translators, Curll's, 276, 277. 
 ' Troilus and Cressida,' 54. 
 Trumbull, Sir W., 261. 
 Trundell, J., 52. 
 Tuberville, George, 142. 
 Tuke, Sir Samuel, 99. 
 Tully's ' Five Books of Morals,' 163. 
 Turner, "William, 66. 
 Tusser's ' Husbandrie,' 43. 
 Tyus, Charles, 138. 
 
 UNIVERSITIES (the), and book- 
 selling, u, 14. 
 Urry, John, 197, 198. 
 
 VANBRUGH, Sir John, 171, 173, 
 
 175, l8 3- 
 
 Vander Gucht, 174,307. 
 Vandyke's 'Charles I.,' 184. 
 Varilla's ' History of Heresies,' 164. 
 Vautrollier, T., 29, 47. 
 Ventris, Sir Peyton, 164. 
 ' Venus and Adonis,' 46, 48. 
 Virgil, Eryden's, 150, 159, 160. 
 Virgil, Ogilby's, 160, anin-te. 
 'Visions of Bellay,' The, 58. 
 ' Visions of Petrarch,' The, 58. 
 Vives, lo. Lod., 55. 
 Voiture, 2, 65. 
 
 WALEY, John, 32. 
 Walker, R., 181. 
 Waller, Edmund, 180. 
 Walleworth, Thomas (canon of 
 
 York), 7. 
 
 Walley, or Whalley, H., 54, 63. 
 Wallington, Nehemiah, 137. 
 Walpole; Sir Robert, 171, 249, 251, 
 
 254- 
 
 Walton, I., 89. 
 Walsh, W., 267. 
 Wanley, Humphrey, 210. 
 Warburton, W., 177, 213. 
 Ward, Aaron, 127. 
 Ward, Edward, 169. 
 Ward, Sir Patience, 286. 
 Ward, T., 1 27. 
 Ward, Dr., 209. 
 Warde, Roger, 30, 59. 
 Warren, Earl of, 7. 
 Washington, W., 75. 
 Watkyns, R., 29. 
 Watts, Isaac, 127. 
 Watts, John, 179. 
 Wearg, Sir Clement, 256. 
 Webbe's ' Discourse of English 
 
 Poetrie,' 38. 
 
 Weekly Advertisement of Be oks, 109. 
 Weekly Journal or Saturday Post. 
 
 See MIST'S JOURNAL. 
 Wesley, Samuel, 231, 289, 296, n.
 
 Index. 
 
 341 
 
 WESTMINSTER HALL, BOOKSELL- 
 ING IN, 145149, 257. 
 
 Westminster Scholars and Curll, 
 229 233. 
 
 West on ' Treasons,' 239. 
 
 Whalley, Peter, 177. 
 
 ' Whipping-Post,' Dunton's, 305. 
 
 ' Whiskers,' The, 227. 
 
 Whitaker, Rev. J., 10. 
 
 White, E., 49, 51, 59. 
 
 Whitehall Erening Post, 128. 
 
 Whitgift, Archbishop, 63. 
 
 Whittaker, John, 74. 
 
 WhUtaker, Richard, 76. 
 
 ' Whole Duty of Man,' The, 88. 
 
 Wilcocks, Geo., 127. 
 
 Wilford, J., 218. 
 
 Wilkes' ' Essay on Women,' 249, . 
 
 Wilkes, Oliver, 36. 
 
 Wilks, Robert, 257, 259. 
 
 Wilkinson, Mr., 114. 
 
 Wilkins, W., 128. 
 
 Williams, Jbhn, 125. 
 
 William II., heavy tax levied by, 8. 
 
 William III., 162. 
 
 William de Longchamp, 8. 
 
 Williamson, John, 138. 
 
 Willis, Browne, 237, 238. 
 
 Willis' Current Notes, 1 19. 
 
 Wills and last Testaments published 
 
 by Curll, 256, 257. 
 Wilson, William, 1 10. 
 Winchelsea, Lady, 209. 
 Winchester, 'History,' &c., of, 237. 
 Windet, John, 70. 
 Wintoun, Lord, 235, 236. 
 ' Wisdom of the Ancients,' 75. 
 Wise, Andrew, 4852. 
 Withers, Geo., 79, 80, 8 1. 
 Wolfe, John, 30, 35, 36, 145. 
 Wood, Anthony a, 58, 119, 217. 
 Wood, Dr. John, 73. 
 Woodcock, Thomas, 59. 
 Wright, John, 55. 
 Wright, William, 60. 
 Writing materials, 3. 
 Wycherley, W., 209, 264, 265, 267. 
 Wynkyn de Worde, 24, 32. 
 
 YALDEN, T., 209. 
 Yates, James, 67. 
 Young, Edward, 204. 
 
 ZAROT, Anthony, inventor of sig- 
 natures, 22. 
 
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