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HISTORY OF PRINTING.

"The art of reading," sajrs lord Kaimes, " made a very slow progress : to encourage that art in England the capital punishment for mur- der was remitted if the criminal could but read; which in law language is termed benefit of elergy. One would imagine that the art must hare made a very rapid progress when so greatly favoured; but there is a signal proof of the contrary; for so small an edition of the Bible as six hundred copies, translated into English in the reign of Henry VIII. was not wholly sold off in three years." — Sketches, vol. i. page 105.

1530. Tindall having translated the Penta- teuch, or Five Book* of Motet, and going to Hamburg to print it, the vessel in which he sailed was shipwrecked, and his papers lost, so that he was compelled to recommence his la- bour; in which he was assisted by Miles Cover- dale, and at length, it was published in a small octavo. It seems, by the difference of the type, to have been printed at several presses. To each of the books, a prologue is prefixed. In the margin are some notes; and the whole is orna- mented with ten wood-cuts. In some copies there is added at the end, " Emprinted at Marl- borow in the land of Hette by me Hans Luft the yere of our Lord mcccccxxx. the xvii daye of January." In 1531, Tindall translated and pub- lished the prophecy of Jonas, to which he pre- fixed a prologue, full of invective against the church ot Rome.

1530. Richard Fawkes. Bagford imagined that this person, whose name is also spelled Faukes, Fakes, and Faques, was a foreigner who printed in Syon monastery, at the same time that one Myghel Fawkes worked in con- junction with Robert Copland in 1535; but perhaps it is more than probable that he was a relative of William Faques treated of at page 214, ante. He was it has been ascertained, the second son of John Fawkes, of Famley Hall, in Yorkshire, Esq.; and it is said by Herbert, although without any apparent support, that Wyer was his servant. But few of his volumes are now remaining, and they are of very con- siderable rarity. The residences of Faques were in Duresme, or Durham Rents, which he calls, " in the suburbes of the famous cyte of London without Temple barre," and at the sign of the A. B. C. in St. Paul's Church Yard. He pub- lished in all eight books, in the last of which is " and be for to sell in St. Martyn's parish at ye signe of ye St. John Euangelyst by R. Fawkes." The device of Fawkes is a parallelogram, surrounded by double lines, of which the outer one is the thickest, and within them are some figures. On each side of the shield is an unicorn regardant, and beyond them the trunks of two trees running up the margin of the cut, from which issue the richest flowers and foliage spreading over their heads: the back ground is thickly stellated. There is also a variation of this device, in which the R. F. are connected by a bow knot entwining round each letter.

1530. The Assembly of Foides. Imprinted in london in fUte stretc at the sygne of the Sonne

agayrut the condyle, by me Wynkyn de Worde. The 24 day of January in the yere of our lorde 1530. Folio. Title on a ribbon, under which is a wood cut of a man sitting thoughtfully in his library, and above it the words — " Herefolowetli the Assemble of foules veray pleasauntand com- pendyous to rede or here compyled by the pre- clared and famous Clerke Geifray Chaucer." On the reverse is the following address —

" ROBERT COPLANDE SOKE PRINTER TO NEW FANGLERS.

Newes, newes, newes, haue jt ony newes

Myne eres ake, to heie yoo call and crye

Ben bokes made with whyateiynge and whewea

Ben there not yet ynow to yonr fiaaitasye

In fayth nay I trow and yet hane ye dayly

Of matera ladde, and eke of apes and onles

Bat yet for your pleasure, thus moche do wyU I

Aa to lette you here the puxlament of fooles «

Chancer is deed the which this pamplilete wnte

So ben hia heyres in all stiche besynesse

And cone is also the famoos dailie Lydgate

And so is yonge Hawes, god theyr eonles adrcaae

Many were the Tolnmes that they made more and lease

Theyr bokes ye lay ap, tyll that the lether monies

Bat yet for yoor myndes tills boke I wyll imprease

That is in titnle the parlament of fonles.

So many lemed at leest they saye they be

Was nener sene, doynge so fewe good werkea

Where is the time that they do spende trow ye

In prayers i — ^ye, where? — in feldes and parkes

Ye but where by beconunon all the clerkes I

In Blouthe and ydleneue theyr tyme defbnlea

For lacke of wrylynges conteynynge mond sperkes

I must imprynt the parlament of fonles

Dytees. and letters tiiem can 1 make myselfe

Of suche ynowe ben dayly to me brought

Olde moral bokes stond styll upon the shelfe

I am in fere they wyll neuer be bought

Tryfles and toyes they ben the thynges so sought

Theyr wyttes tryndle lyke these flemyshe boules

Yet gentyl clerkes foUowe hym ye ought

Tat dyd endyte the parlament of fonles."

The poem then commences in seven-line stan- zas, and at the end — "■ Thus endeth the congre- gacyon of Foules on saynt Valentyne's day." After this follows the " Lenvoy of Robert Cop- lande boke prynter."

Layde upon shelito, in Icues all to tome

With Letters, dynune, almost defaceddene

Thy hyllyuM rote, with wormes all to wome

Thou lay, that pyte it was to sene

Bounde with olde qnayres, for age all hoorae and frene

Thy mater endormed, for lacke of thy presence

But nowe arte losed, go shewe forth thy sentence.

And where thon become so ordre thy language

Tliat in excuse thy prynter ioke thou hane

Whiche hathe the ke|^ from ruynous domage

In snoweswyte paper, thy mater for to saue

With thylke same langage that Chaucer to the gave

In termes olde, of sentence clered newe

Than methe muche sweter, who can his mynde auewe

And yf a lonener happen on the to rede Let be the goos with his lewde sentence Unto the turtle and not to her to take hede For who so chaungeth, true loue dotli offence Loue as I rede is floure of excellence And loue also is rote of wretehednesse Thus be two loues, scrypture bereth wytnesae.

Finis. " Imprynted, &c." as before.

1531. The English bishops exerted all their influence to prevent the importation and circu- lation of Tindall's translation. In this year, a royal proclamation was issued, at the requisi- tion of the clergy, for totally suppressing this