Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature — A Reader’s Guide

s some facts with regard to the sources of the romance. He says:

"After that I had accomplysshed and fynysshed dyuers hystoryes as wel of contemplacyon as of other hyſtoryal and worldly actes of grete conquerours & prynces, and also certeyn bookes of ensaumples and doctryne, Many noble and dyuers gentylmen of thys royame of Englond camen and demaunded me many and oftymes, wherfore that I haue not do made & enprynte the noble hystorye of the saynt greal, and of the moost renomed crysten Kyng, ... kyng Arthur....

Th[=e]ne al these thynges forsayd aledged J coude not wel denye, but that there was suche a noble kyng named arthur, and reputed one of the ix worthy, & fyrst & chyef of the crysten men, & many noble volumes be made of hym & of his noble knyztes in frensshe which I haue seen & redde beyonde the see, which been not had in our maternal tongue, but in walsshe ben many & also in frensshe, & Somme in englysshe but nowher nygh alle, wherfore such as haue late ben drawen oute bryefly in to englysshe, I haue after the symple connynge that god hath sente me, vnder the fauour and correctyon of al noble lordes and gentylmen enprysed to enprynte a book of the noble hystoryes of the sayd kynge Arthur, and of certeyn of his knyghtes after a copye vnto me delyuerd, whyche copys Syr Thomas Malorye dyd take oute of certayn bookes of frensshe and reduced it in to Englysshe, And I accordyng to my copye haue doon sette it in emprynte...."

The volume is printed without folios, head-lines, or catchwords, in the type known as No. 4, already referred to under the _Confessio_. The initial letters are printed from wood.

Only two copies are known; one perfect, from which the facsimile of the title-page was taken, the other an imperfect one, which belonged to Earl Spencer's collection. The British Museum possesses only a fragment. Our copy, like that of the _Confessio_, was one of the nine Caxtons belonging to the Fairfax library. In the list of 1756, it was valued at two pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence; in 1885 it sold for one thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds.

COLLATION: _432 leaves, one of which is blank_.

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

4. The | booke of the common praier | and adminiſtracion of the | Sacramentes, and | other rites and | ceremonies | of the | Churche: after the | uſe of the Churche of | Englande. | Londini, in officina Richardi Graftoni, | [Two lines] Anno Domini. M.D.XLIX | Menſe Martij. [Colophon] Excuſum Londini, in edibus Richardi Graftoni | Regij Impreſſoris. | Menſe Junij M.D.xlix. | Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum ſolum.

We know very little about the preparation of the book. An Act, dated January 22, 1549, entitled "An Act for uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm" speaks of the commissioners who had been appointed, and had first met at Windsor in May, 1548, as follows: "Whereof His Highness by the most prudent advice ... to the intent a uniform, quiet, and godly order should be had concerning the premisses, hath appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops, and other learned men of this realm to consider and ponder the premisses." The same Act goes on to say "the which at this time by the aid of the Holy Ghost, with one uniform agreement is of them concluded, set forth and delivered to his highness, to his great comfort and quietness of mind, in a book entituled,--

"_The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Use of the Church of England._"

Richard Grafton, the printer of our copy, was originally a prosperous London merchant. His zeal for religion led him to associate himself with Edward Whitchurch, another merchant, in causing Matthews's Bible to be translated and printed in 1537, in publishing the Coverdale Bible of 1535, and again in printing the Cranmer Bible of 1540. He turned printer eventually, and his books are counted among the best specimens of the book-making of the period. He and his friend, who also became a typographer, received a patent from Henry VIII in 1543 for printing "bookes of diuine service, that is to say, the masse booke, the graill, the antyphoner, the himptnell, the portous, and the prymer, both in Latyn and in Englyshe of Sarum use," all of which had formerly been printed abroad. In 1546, Grafton was appointed printer to Prince Edward, afterward Edward VI, and in 1547 printer to the King. When the _Prayer Book_ came to be put to press there was therefore no question of who should be chosen to do the work.

Ames says that Grafton and Whitchurch continued friends and partners for many years, but it is a fact, as Dibdin points out, that while up to 1541 their names appear together upon title-pages, after that date there are usually two issues of each work, part having Grafton's name in the imprint, and part Whitchurch's. This is true of the Cranmer Bible, and the same thing is found in connection with the_ Prayer Book_. It is not known whether the separation is due to some economic arrangement agreeable to both printers, or whether they may have quarreled. To the names of these two printers of the first edition, however, should be added another, that of John Oswen of Worcester, formerly of Ipswich, who by virtue of a license from Edward VI was printer of "every kind of book, or books, set forth by us, concerning the service to be used in churches, ministration of the sacraments, and instruction of our subjects of the Principality of Wales, and marches thereunto belonging ... for seven years, prohibiting all other persons whatsoever from printing the same."

All issues of this edition differ more or less in general style and appearance. The most marked dissimilarity in the volumes issued by the London printers lies in the special woodcut title-page used by each. Grafton's beautiful border (repeated for "A Table" and "Kalendar") shows, above a Doric frieze supported by pilasters, a view of the Council Chamber with King Edward, surrounded by his advisers, and at the bottom the printer's punning mark, on a shield upheld by two angels. It is as fine a piece of work as anything of the period. Grafton afterward used the same border for his edition of _A Concordance of the Bible_, printed in 1550. The Whitchurch copies have a woodcut border very similar in character to those in use twenty years later, which have the appearance of being related to some of the borders drawn for Plantin. This border consists of caryatids representing Roman soldiers with shields, supporting the royal coat-of-arms, and below, satyrs and loves with another coat-of-arms in a cartouche, and the initial _E_ in a tablet on one side, and _W_ on the other.

The earliest known copy printed by Oswen, a quarto, has a colophon which reads: ¶ _At Worceter by_ ¶ | _Jhon Oſwen_. ¶ _They be also to ſell at Shreweſburye._ | (_Imprinted the xxiiii. day of May._ | _Anno. M.D.XLIV._ The title is framed by a border made up of five woodcut panels, carelessly arranged; and some of the initial letters are ornamented.

Another copy, dated July 30, is in folio. The title-page is here bordered with ten woodcuts, having between the inner and outer sets the rubricated text: "Let euerye soule submyt hym ſelfe unto the aucthorite of the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be, are ordained of God whoſoeuer therefore reſiſteth power: reſiſteth the ordinance of God. Rom. XIVI." A royal coat-of-arms, which in the quarto was placed before the order of Matins, here heads the title, printed in red. Every other line following is also rubricated. In Grafton's copy the "Te Deum Laudamus," "The Song of Zacharias," and "The Letany," occur at the end of the book but are not in the table of Contents.

The statement made in the Act that the work had been concluded, set forth, and delivered, must apply, it is thought, to the manuscript, since no printed copy is known dated earlier than March. A copy printed by Whitchurch has the date March 7, 1549, and another by Grafton is dated the eighth; other copies are dated in May, June and July. The book was used in the London churches on Easter Day, April 21, 1549, and was ordered, as we have seen, to be used in all churches after the Feast of Pentecost, which fell upon June 9 in 1549.

From the requirements of its use, we may infer that the edition must have been a large one. We are sure of the price of the volume from the following note, added at the end of the book: "The Kynges Maieſtie, by the aduyſe of his moſte deare vncle the Lorde Protector and other his highnes Counſell, ſtreightly chargeth and commaundeth, that no maner of perſon do ſell this preſent booke vnbounde, aboue the price of .ii. Shyllynges the piece. And the ſame bounde in paſte or in boordes, not aboue the price of three ſhylleynges and foure pence the piece. God ſaue the Kyng." The price differs in different volumes. A copy of Oswen's May 24th issue sets the price at two shillings and twopence for unbound copies, and three shillings eightpence for bound copies.

Folio. Black letter and Roman.

COLLATION: _183 leaves, including title-page. Sig. A-Y, AA-f._

5. The Vision | of Pierce Plowman, now | fyrſte imprynted by Roberte | Crowley, dwellyngin Ely | rentes in Holburne. | Anno Domini | 1505. Cum priuilegio ad im | primend[~u] ſolum. [Colophon] ¶ Imprinted at London by Roberte | Crowley, dwellyng in Elye rentes | in Holburne. The year of | Our Lord M.D.L.

Before appearing with this work as a publisher, Robert Crowley was by no means unknown to the reading world as a writer; nor was it probably a mere printer's venture that led him to select such a work as this for publication, but sympathy with the tendency of the book itself. He had been educated at Oxford, and received early the strong bent toward the doctrines of the Reformation which prompted the writing of his first three books, whose titles indicate something of his leaning in the religious controversies of the day: _The Confutation of the miſhapen Aunſwer to the miſnamed, wicked Ballade, called the Abuſe of y^e bleſſed ſacram[=e]t of the aultare ... that Myles Hoggard ... hath wreſted.... Compiled by Robert Crowley. Anno. 1548_; _The confutation of .xiii Articles, wherunto Nicolas Shaxton ... ſubſcribed and ... recanted ... at the burning of ... Anne Aſkue_, in [1548] and _An informacion and Peticion agaynſt the oppreſſours of the Pore Commons of this Realme_, in [1548]. We may picture to ourselves with what relish so controversial and partisan a soul must have prepared for the press, and then watched through it, what Ellis calls "the keenest ridicule of the vices of all orders of men, and particularly of the religious."

Crowley's career as a printer was only an incident in a life devoted to championing the new doctrines of Protestantism. The three books mentioned were printed by Day and Sere; and Herbert thinks that it may have been in their office that our printer-writer learned the trade which he followed for three years only. Considering the fact that his press was situated in Ely Rents, where William Sere also dated his books in 1548, and thereabouts, this seems very probable. But from Crowley's use of the excellently designed and really charming woodcut border with Edward Whitechurch's cipher at the bottom and his symbol of the sun at the top, we may almost infer that he was on equally familiar relations with that printer, established at The Sun, over against the Conduit. We may add that William Copeland of The Rose Garland also used, at a later date, a similar compartment in several of his books.

One might expect Crowley, serious and scholarly in his tastes, to be a careful editor; and his researches to find his author's name, as revealed in "The Printer to the Reader," prove that he was such an one, even if, for some reason or other, he did not choose to place the name upon the title-page. He says:

"Beynge deſyerous to knowe the name of the Autoure of this moſt worthy worke, (gentle reader) and the tyme of the writynge of the ſame: I did not onely gather togyther ſuche aunciente copies as I could come by, but alſo conſult ſuch m[=e] as I knew to be more exerciſed in the ſtudie of antiquities, than I myselfe haue ben. And by ſome of them I haue learned that the Autour was named Roberte langelande, a Shropshere man borne in Cleybirie, aboute .viii. myles from Maluerne hilles.... So that this I may be bold to reporte, that it was fyrſte made and wrytten after the yeare of our lord .M.iii.C.L. and before the yere ,M,iiiiC, and .ix which meane ſpaſe was .lix yeares. We may iuſtly c[=o]iect therfore, y^t it was firſte written about two hundred yeres paſte, in the tyme of Kynge Edwarde the thyrde...."

The year after _The Vision_ was published our printer was ordained a deacon, and, later, made vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where he preached and wrote until his death. He published no less than twenty-two volumes, eight of which he printed himself, thus taking his place, along with Caxton, at the head of the list of printer-authors which includes such names as Wolfe, Baldwin, Richardson and Morris.

Dibdin calls the vellum copy of _The Vision_ which belonged to Earl Spencer unique, but the copy here collated would deprive it of that distinction, even if there were not another in the British Museum.

A comparison of several copies of the book reveals the fact that in most of them the date on the title-page has been written in to correct the printer's error.

There were three other impressions issued during 1550, two of them said to be "nowe the ſeconde tyme imprinted," and the third with the printer's name spelled "Crowlye" on the title-page. Rev. W. W. Skeat in his edition of _The Vision_ says:

"But all three impressions are much alike. The chief differences are, that the two later impressions have many more marginal notes, a few additional lines, and also 6 additional leaves between the printer's preface and the poem itself, containing a brief argument or abstract of the prologue and of each of the Passus. The first impression is the most correct; also the third impression is much less correct than the second, and considerably inferior to it."

Quarto. Black letter.

COLLATION: , _two leaves; A-GgI_, in fours. Folioed.

RAPHAEL HOLINSHED or HOLLINGSHEAD

6. 1577. | The Firſte volume of the | Chronicles of England Scot | lande, and Irelande. | Conteyning, | The deſcription and Chronicles of England, from the | Firſte inhabiting vnto the conqueſt | [Six lines] Faithfully gathered and ſet forth, by | Raphaell Holinſhed. | At London, | Imprinted for George Biſhop. | God ſaue the Queene.

1577 | The | Laſte volume of the | Chronicles of England, Scot- | lande, and Irelande, with | their deſcriptions. | Conteyning, | The Chronicles of Englande from William Con- | querour vntill this preſent tyme. | Faithfully gathered and compiled | by Raphaell Holinſhed. | At London, | Imprinted for George | Biſhop. | [Printer's mark] God ſaue the Queene.

The first edition is known as the Shakespeare edition, because it was used by the great poet, in common with all the Elizabethan dramatists, in the preparation of his historical plays.

That Holinshed used the adjective _faithfully_ in its true sense may be seen by a reference to the dedication of the book to Sir William Cecil, Baron of Burleigh, whose coat-of-arms appears on the back of the title-page. Here he gives an interesting account of the inception and fortunes of the work, with an incidental side-light upon the relations of printer and professional writer:

"Where as therefore, that worthie Citizen Reginald Wolfe late Printer to the Queenes Maiestie, a man well knowen and beholden to your Honour, meant in his life time to publiſh an vniuerſall Coſmographie of the whole worlde, and therewith alſo certaine perticular Histories of euery knowen nation, amongſt other whome he purpoſed to vſe for performance of his entent in that behalfe, he procured me to take in hande the collection of thoſe Histories, and hauing proceeded ſo far in the ſame, as little wanted to the accompliſhment of that long promiſed worke, it pleased God to call him to his mercie, after .xxv yeares trauell ſpent therein, so that by his vntimely deceaſſe, no hope remayned to ſee that performed, which we had so long trauayled aboute: thoſe yet whom he left in trust to diſpoſe his things after his departure hence, wiſhing to the benefite of others, that ſome fruite might follow of that whereabout he had imployed ſo long time, willed me to continue mine endeuour for their furtherance in the ſame, whiche although I was ready to do, ſo farre as mine abilitie would reach, and the rather to anſwere that trust which the deceaſſed repoſed in me, to ſee it brought to ſome perfection: yet when the volume grewe ſo great, as they that were to defray the charges for the Impreſsion, were not willing to go through with the whole, they reſolued first to publiſhe the Histories of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande, with their deſcriptions, whiche deſriptions, becauſe they were not in ſuch readineſſe, as thoſe of forreyn countreys, they were enforced to uſe the helpe of other better able to do it than I."

Reginald Wolfe, so well known and highly esteemed, was a German by birth, and trained in his craft in the office of the Strasburg master Conrad Neobarius, whose device of _The Brazen Serpent_ he afterward adopted. Edward VI appointed Wolfe royal printer in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as bookseller and stationer, with an annuity of 26s. 8d.

We find the names of his executors and the chief promoters of the history in the entry on the Registers of the Stationers' Company, under date of July 1, 1578: "Receyued of master harrison and master Bisshop for the licensinge of Raphaels Hollingshedes cronycles XX^s and a copy," which, by the way, Mr. Arber remarks to be the largest fee he had met with. Some copies bear the imprint of one, some of the other; and there are still others with the names of John Harrison (there were four publishers of this name), Lucas Harrison and John Hunne, who were also probably among them "that were to defray the charges for the impression."

No printer's name appears in either volume, but the figure of a mermaid upon the title-pages, and a larger mark of two hands holding a serpent upon a crutch at the end of the first volume, show it to have been from the press of Reginald Wolfe's apprentice and successor, Henry Bynneman of The Mermaid, in Knight Rider Street. Boy and man knowing his master's hopes and fears for his _Universal Cosmographie_, acquainted with the long travail put upon it, and so properly desirous, like the rest, to see some fruit born of it, who could have done the work so well and faithfully as he?

In the preface to the second volume we are told that it was intended to bring out the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their descriptions, in one volume, and the descriptions and abridgements of the histories of other countries in another; but that the chronicles of England growing very voluminous it was deemed best to defer printing the histories of the other countries, and to divide the material on hand into two volumes. Here, however, a new difficulty presented itself; the history of England after the Conquest was found to equal in length all the other matter, and, if allowed to follow after the early history of the Island, in its proper order, would make the volumes very unequal in size; so it was given a volume by itself, with the pagination continuing that of the English history in the first volume. The other histories have separate title-pages, paginations, and indexes.