PR 
 
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 (Qarnell Intoetstty %Iibrarg ' 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 3036.B63 
 
 Shakspere and typography; ''.f '"S,?.^,.™."''' 
 3 1924 013 163 468 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013163468 
 
SHAKSPERE 
 
 TYPOGRAPHY; 
 
 BEING AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW SHAKSPERE'S PERSONAL CONNECTION 
 WITH, AND TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE OF, 
 
 THE ART OF PRINTING. 
 
 - ALSO, ■ ■ , 
 
 REMARKS UPON SOME COMMON TYPOGRAPHICAL 
 
 ERRORS, 
 
 ®ttk tefza&l "^txtna to the "SEcxt et §hak0p«re. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BLADES. 
 
 LONDON^ 
 TRUBNER & Co., 8 & 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1872. 
 i? ' 
 
/^, 6 \^S'7^ 
 
 Blades, East, and Blades, Printers, Abchurch Lane, London 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SHAKSPERE, THE MANY-SIDED. 
 
 Page. 
 Conflicting opinions concerning Shakspere's early occupation ... 3 
 
 Shakspere a Butcher 4 
 
 Schoolmaster 4 
 
 Woolman 4 
 
 Skewer- Sharpener 5 
 
 Farmer 5 
 
 Street Arab 6 
 
 Lawyer 7 
 
 Surgeon and Anatomist 10 
 
 Chemist 10 
 
 Physiologist , . . 11 
 
 Psychologist 11 
 
 Mad Doctor 11 
 
 Prophet II 
 
 Soldier ;.. la 
 
 Sailor ...'. 13 
 
 Musician 13 
 
 Botanist ..: 14 
 
 Entomologist 15 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Shakspere an Ornithologist 15 
 
 Zoologist 16 
 
 Ethnologist 16 
 
 Alchemist 17 
 
 Sorcerer i^ 
 
 Shakspere's Religion 17 
 
 Roman Catholic 18 
 
 Protestant 19 
 
 Bible-Reader ; ip 
 
 Churchman 19 
 
 Atheist 20 
 
 Lord Bacon ao 
 
 A myth 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SHAKSPERE IN THE PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 Shakspere's employment for four years unknown ...'. 25 
 
 Vautrollier, Printer 26 
 
 Field, Printer 26 
 
 Shakspere and Vautrollier 27 
 
 Vautrollier's Publications 29 
 
 Musical 30 
 
 Religious 30 
 
 Italian ; 31 
 
 French 32 
 
 Latin 32 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 ^ CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TECHNICALITIES OF PRINTING, AS USED 
 BY SHAKSPERE. 
 
 Page. 
 Shakspere's use of Technical Terms 39 
 
 Reprints 41 
 
 Title-Pages 44 
 
 Preface 44 
 
 Type Founding ; 46 
 
 Nonpareil 47 
 
 Imprints 48 
 
 Broadside 48 
 
 Punctuation 49 
 
 Quoins ... 51 
 
 Locking-up 52 
 
 Register j3 
 
 Printers' Devil j3 
 
 Old MSS ; J4 
 
 Horae 5j 
 
 Restrictions upon the Press ^6 
 
 Shakspere's Kisses , j8 
 
 APPENDIX.— Bibliography 63 
 
 ON SOME COMMON TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS, 
 WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE TEXT 
 OF SHAKSPERE. 
 
 Diagram opposite 71 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The First Chapter of this Tractate is designed to 
 show, in a succint manner, the numerous and con- 
 tradictory theories concerning Shakspere's special 
 knowledge, the evidence for which has been created 
 by "selecting" certain words and phrases from the 
 mass of his writings. 
 
 The Second and Third Chapters, erected on a 
 similar basis of "selection," are intended to prove that 
 Shakspere had an intimate and special ■ knowledge of 
 Typography. 
 
 Old Printers can still call to mind that period ot 
 our history when a stalwart Pressman, on his way to 
 work, ran considerable risk in the streets of London 
 of being seized by another kind of pressmen, viz., the 
 Press-gang, and forced nolens volens into the service of 
 the King. Some readers (not Printers) may think that 
 I have exercised over quotations from Shakspere's 
 works a similar compulsion, by pressing into my ser- 
 vice passages whose bearing is by no means in a typo- 
 graphical direction. They may even go so far as 
 
Vm PREFACE. 
 
 to Strain somewhat the self-accusation of FalstafF 
 
 (Henry IV, iv, a), and bring against me the charge 
 
 that 
 
 " I have misused the King's press most damnably," 
 
 by printing such evidences. . , 
 
 I can only reply that if, notwithstanding a careful 
 consideration of the proofs here laid before him, 
 the reader should consider my case "not proven," - 
 I must submit with all humility to his penetration 
 and judgment. 
 
 At the same time, since my proofs that Shakspere 
 was a Printer are at least quite as conclusive as the 
 evidence brought forward by others to demonstrate 
 that he was Doctor, Lawyer, Soldier, Sailor, Catholic, 
 Atheist, Thief, I would claim as a right that my 
 opponent, having rejected my theory that he was a 
 Printer, should be consistent, and at once reject all 
 theories which attribute to him special knowledge, 
 and repose upon the simple belief that Shakspere, 
 the Actor and Playwright, was a man of surpassing 
 genius, of keen observation, and never-failing memory. 
 
 W. B. 
 
CHAPTER ^I. 
 
 SHAKSPERE, THE MANY-SIDED. 
 
SHAKSPERE, THE MANY-SIDED. 
 
 "Once an Actor, always an Actor" is an adage Conflicting 
 
 ■' ° opinions con- 
 
 embodying a general truth : it was so with cerningShaks- 
 
 •' '-' •-' pere's early 
 
 Shakspere, for, from the time that he first occupation. 
 became connected with the Stage, there is no 
 question of his occupation. But as to his 
 employment in a profession or a trade before 
 he joined the company ' at the Blackfriars' 
 Theatre, many curious and contradictory beliefs 
 have been entertained. Equally curious, and 
 equally contradictory, are the opinions of 
 numerous writers, that Shakspere made certain 
 branches of Science or of Natural History a 
 special study, and that such pursuits may be 
 traced throughout his works. The great variety 
 of these attributions, and the confidence with 
 which they have been advocated, are perfectly 
 bewildering ; and as they have not hitherto 
 been placed in juxtaposition, they are brought 
 together here as an interesting addition to the 
 Curiosities of Literature, as well as a fitting 
 prelude to a new theory. 
 
 B 2 
 
Writers 
 quoted. 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Butcher. 
 
 Stakspere a 
 Schoolmaster. 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Woolman. 
 
 In noting the conflicting conclusions arrived 
 at, it would have been more satisfactory to have 
 always quoted the verba ipsissima of the various 
 writers. This has been done in many instances ; 
 but when such a course would have necessitated 
 a tedious prolixity, the meaning of the author 
 has been given with strict impartiality. Never- 
 theless, should the reader wish to see for himself 
 what has been written on the special knowledge 
 of Shakspere, he will find a tolerably complete 
 list of books in the Appendix hereto. 
 
 As to the Poet's early occupation, Aubrey, 
 the learned gossip and antiquary, says, " Shak- 
 spere, like his father, was a butcher, and exer- 
 cised his father's trade;" and then adds a 
 statement which evidently takes its origin from 
 the Poet's future occupation as an Actor, " but , 
 when he killed a calf he would do it in a high 
 style, and make a speech.'* 
 
 From flaying calves to flaying boys may 
 not be so great a step as it appears, and the 
 same legendary writer a little fiirther on makes 
 Shakspere a " Schoolmaster in the country," 
 who drove grammar into little boys with the 
 help of the birch. Are there not frequent 
 references in his plays, to "Schools," to 
 "School-boys," to "Schoolmasters," to "School- 
 days," and even to " breeching Scholars ? " 
 
 Betterton, the actor, says that Shakspere's 
 father was " a considerable dealer in wool," and 
 
" that he could give his son no better education 
 than his own employment." This statement, 
 like the circumstantial assertions of Aubrey, 
 rests upon nothing firmer than vague tradition. 
 
 Perhaps, however, no one has hitherto sup- Shakspere a 
 
 ^ ^ Skewer-sharp- 
 ported a most ungrateful theory upon so slight ener. 
 
 a foundation as Dr. Farmer, in his criticism 
 
 upon the passage : — 
 
 " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will." 
 
 Hamlet, , v. ii. 
 
 These the Doctor takes as merely technical 
 expressions, and proceeds as follows : — " A 
 wool-man, butcher, and dealer in skewers, lately 
 observed to me that his nephew (an idle lad) 
 could only assist him in making them ; ' He 
 could rough-hew them, but I was obliged 
 to shape their ends' To shape the ends of 
 wool-skewers, i. e. to point them, requires a 
 degree of skill ; any one can rough-hew, them. 
 Whoever recollects the profession of Shakspere's 
 father will admit that his son might be no 
 stranger to such terms. I have frequently seen 
 packages of wool pinned with such sjcewers." 
 
 After this it is refreshing to find that the Shakspere a 
 " immortal bard " who is made into a butcher's 
 boy by Farmer, is proved a farmer by Smith, 
 who thus discourses. " Shakespere shows such 
 a deep insight into country customs and pur- 
 suits, such an intimate knowledge indeed of 
 
Shakspere a 
 Farmer. 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Street-arab. 
 
 horticultural processes and the business of a 
 farm, that I feel I cannot be far wrong in 
 believing him to have pursued much of his youth 
 in country farm-houses." Charles Knight too, 
 was of the same opinion, and in his Life of 
 Shakspere, thus expresses himself — " That 
 Shakspere was a practical farmer, we have little 
 doubt." 
 
 It is a great fall from a "farmer," to a street- 
 arab, who, touching his cap, cries out as he runs 
 "hold your horse your honour?" Listen to the 
 story as first published in Dr. Johnson's Pro- 
 legomena. 
 
 " In the time of Elizabeth, coaches being 
 yet uncommon, and hired coaches not at all in 
 use, those who were too proud, too tender, or 
 too idle to walk, went on horseback to any dis- 
 tant business or diversion. Many came on 
 horseback to the play, and when Shakspere fled 
 to London, his first expedient was to wait at 
 the door of the playhouse, and hold the horses 
 of those that had no servants, that they might 
 be ready again after the performance. In this 
 ofiice he became so conspicuous for his care 
 and readiness, that in a short time every man as 
 he alighted, called for Will Shakspere, and 
 scarcely any other waiter was trusted with a 
 horse while Will Shakspere could be had. This 
 was the first dawn of better fortune, and 
 time Shakspere found higher employment," 
 
 m 
 
Malone,' however, appears to have been the Shakspere a 
 
 ~ . . Lawyer. 
 
 first critic, who by selecting certain passages, 
 evolved the special employment of Shakspere's 
 youth from the internal evidence of his works. 
 Quoting a few legal expressions, and devoting 
 several pages to their elucidation, he argues 
 that Shakspere must have, been an articled clerk 
 in a lawyer's office. Under Lord Campbell's 
 hands this modest claim becomes fully developed 
 into an octavo volume, and his Lordship there 
 propounds the theory that Shakspere was 
 articled to an attorney in his native town of 
 Stratford, that he visited London several times 
 on his master's business, and that on one of 
 these occasions he may have been introduced 
 to the " green-room," at Blackfriars, by one of 
 his countrymen connected with that theatre. 
 Each play is then ransacked for passages in 
 which legal words or phrases are used, and 
 explanatory comments made. A few of these 
 quotations are v.ery pertinent; but many of them 
 are not more convincing, nor more to the point 
 than the following : — " Making a testament," — 
 " a poor and broken bankrupt," — " Time is the 
 old Justice that examines such offenders," — 
 " hearing a matter between party and party," — 
 " the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."* 
 
 * Lefs kill all the Lawyers. Jack Cade evidently 
 represents here the strong antipathy which the bulk of the 
 people felt towards "Men of Lawe," In Ca:cton's timej 
 
■ shakspere a Any casc tnust be a poor one to stand in need 
 '''"^^''' of evidence so manifestly weak as this, evidence 
 
 of a kind which might be multiplied to almost 
 . any extent; but as more pains and ingenuity 
 have been spent over the legal aspect of Shak- 
 spere's works than upon any of the other claims 
 made upon his behalf, it may be well to 
 examine the foundations upon which they are 
 raised. 
 
 In criticising by-gone times, one of the 
 commonest errors is to judge the past by the 
 light of the present. In considering Shakspere's 
 legal acquirements we should take our stand 
 upon the state of London Society in Shakspere's 
 time, especially with regard to the social position 
 of lawyers. The absence of Government stamps 
 and fees rendered law cheap ; lawyers were 
 plentiful as blackberries, because most of the 
 common arrangements of life were settled by 
 
 a century before Shakspere, Lawyers were equally plentiful, 
 equally hungry, and equally hated. In the second edition 
 of " The Game and Playe of the Chess," printed about 
 1480, Caxton seizes the opportunity, where Lawyers are 
 mentioned, to interpolate the French text, fi;om which he 
 was translating, with the following diatribe : — " Alas ! and 
 in England, what hurt do the Advocates, Men of Law, and 
 Attornies of Court, to the common people, as well in tlie 
 spiritual law as in the temporal : how turn they the law 
 and statutes at their pleasure, how eat they the people, 
 how irnpoverish they the community. I suppose that in 
 all Christendom are not so many Pleaders, Attornies, and 
 Men of the Law as be in England only." 
 
them. It was the fashion for the wits of all the Shakspere a 
 Inns of Court ( " the Three-crane, Mitre, and 
 Mermaid men," as Ben Jonson calls them,) to 
 regularly frequent the taverns, where all comers 
 had free admission. Here. Shakspere, with his 
 " thousand 'scapes of wit," would be sure of 
 a welcome ; here, too, he would become familiar 
 with all the legal jargon of the day ; and as the 
 lawyers formed no inconsiderable portion of the 
 habitual frequenters of the theatre, as well as 
 of the tavern, he would naturally play upon 
 their professional tendencies whenever his sub- 
 ject afforded an opportunity. 
 
 Were an. author now-a-days to introduce 
 many legal terms or references, it would be 
 displeasing to his audience, the average English- 
 man now being much less acquainted with 
 legal phraseology than the Englishman of three 
 centuries ago. Had it not suited the popular 
 taste of his day, Shakspere would have avoided 
 them ; but tha1» legal allusions were enjoyed, is 
 shown by their adoption by other Authors and 
 Poets of the same period ; and, therefore, when 
 we find legal technicalities often used by Shaks- 
 pere it is only what we might expect. Ben 
 Jonson, Shakspere's friend, who has never been 
 metamorphosed into a lawyer,, has many legal 
 phrases in his comedies: no single play of 
 Shakspere's has so many as are in "Bar- 
 tholomew Fair," where the whole introduction 
 
10 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Surgeon and 
 Anatomist 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Chemist. 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Physiologist. 
 
 is cast in a legal mould, and legal ''points" 
 abound. 
 
 But if Shakspere was a lawyer, he must 
 certainly have also studied medicine. " He 
 was a surgeon," exclaims Wadd, and had a 
 minute knowledge of Anatomy. Who out of 
 an hospital ever heard of such a list of surgical 
 diseases as Thersites runs over to Petroclus in 
 "Troilus and Creside." His tact in Symptom- 
 atology is very evident : in truth he seems often 
 to be giving a prognosis. As to his chemical 
 knowledge, had he served a seven years' appren- 
 ticeship to an Apothecary, his acquaintance 
 with the properties of chemicals could not have 
 been more correct. In fact, we cannot avoid 
 the conclusion, that the intimate knowledge 
 displayed by the Bard of Avon in Physic, in 
 Surgery, in Pharmacy and Physiology, proves 
 that he must have acquired his medical know- 
 ledge from practical experience." "That is 
 true," says Brown, "and whoever has studied 
 closely the anatomy of man will admit the 
 following instance to be a crucial test: 
 
 ' And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee.' 
 
 (flamlet, iii. ii.) 
 
 Shakespeare must inevitably have been ac- 
 quainted with the peculiar mechanism — the 
 ginglimoid structure — of the human knee, or 
 he could not have written this line." It is 
 indeed from technical terms and their appro-r 
 
II 
 
 priate use that the student of any special llj^'^!??^""^. ^ 
 phase of Shakspere's knowledge has acquired his 
 strongest convictions. " Yes," adds Bucknill, 
 in a clever aphorism-, " technical expres- 
 pressions are the trade marks of the mind," and 
 " it would be difficult to point to any great 
 author, not himself a physician, in whose works' 
 the healing art is referred to more frequently and 
 more respectfully than in those of Shakspere. 
 But I must bear still stronger testimony than 
 this; for the extent and exactness of his 
 psychological knowledge have surprised and Shakspere a 
 
 ■ 1 1 T 1 r ■ Psychologist 
 
 astonished me. 1 can only account for it on &Mad-dootor. 
 one supposition, namely, that abnormal condi- 
 tions of mind had attracted Shakspere's diligent 
 observation, ana had been a favorite study.". 
 (Mad Folk, p. ix.) , In fact, " I have arrived at 
 the fullest conviction that the great dramatist 
 had been a diligent student of all medical know- 
 ledge existing in his time." 
 
 The great German critic, Schlegel, arrived at 
 conclusions very similar. He says, " Of all 
 the Poets, Shakspeare alone has pourtrayed 
 the mental diseases, melancholy, delirium, and ' 
 lunacy, with such inexpressible and in every 
 respect definite truth, that the Physician may 
 enrich his observations from them in the same 
 manner as from real cases." 
 
 r 
 
 You do scant justice to the Poet's genius, shakspere a 
 interposes Kellogg ; " Shaksperfe was not only '°^ ^ ' 
 
12 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Prophet. 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Soldier. 
 
 abreast of all the science and knowledge of his 
 day, but was actually ahead of it ; his medical 
 insight was positively prophetical, for a very com- 
 plete physiological and psychological system 
 could he educed from the writings of Shakspere, 
 a system in complete accordance with that which 
 we now possess, as the resiilt of scientific research 
 and experiment during the last two centuries. 
 As an instance, there are several passages which 
 shew that even before Harvey, our Poet was 
 well acquainted with the great discovery of the 
 circulation of the blood." 
 
 Talking of "blood," was Shakspere ever 
 
 a soldier ? " Certainly," replies Thoms, " I feel 
 
 morally certain that at some period of his life 
 
 ^ Shakespeare must have seen military service, and 
 
 ' in a pitched battle heard 
 Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang.' 
 
 {Taming of the Shrew.) 
 
 For incomplete as my examination of Shake- 
 speare's dramatic writings has been, I have from 
 such examination gathered enough to convince 
 me that in discoursing of military matters 
 Shakespeare was no 'bookish theoric,' that mere 
 prattle without practice was not all his soldier- 
 ship. Indeed, after reading my -essay upon 
 this subject, I think few of my readers will 
 deny that I have succeeded in my endeavour 
 to establish the fact that Shakespeare was a 
 Soldier," 
 
13 
 
 Shakspere's intimate acquaintance not only siiakspere a 
 with the sea, but with nautical life and phra- 
 seology has often been noticed ; especially is it 
 observable in the "Tempest," where the nautical 
 terms are used with such propriety, and the 
 instructions to the sailors follow in such correct 
 sequence and phraseology, that were not sailors, 
 as a rule, averse from scribbling, we shoiild 
 certainly have had a long monograph on the 
 nautical knowledge displayed in his works. 
 
 While the foregoing remarks were being Shakspere a 
 
 ° ° . . practical Mu- 
 
 penned, an article appeared in the Musical sician. 
 Standard, (N.S., Vol. II., No, 397,) bearing the 
 signature of John Wilson, in which attention is 
 drawn to the Poet's intimate acquaintance with 
 both -the theory and practise of Music. 
 Quoting several passages to support his theory, 
 Mr. Wilson declares his conviction that 
 " Shakspere's writings plainly show that not 
 only did he love and enjoy 'the art divine,' but 
 that he must have made the natural grounds 
 and principles of harmony his especial study." 
 And here I shall not be divulging a literary 
 secret if I state that Dr. Rimbajilt, the well- 
 known authority upon all matters connected 
 with the history of music, has collected abund- 
 ance of material for a special monograph upon 
 the' musical knowledge of Shakspere. 
 
 Having collated a few opinions on Shak- 
 spere's means of obtaining his livelihood, having 
 
14 
 
 seen him at work as butcher, woolman, skewer- 
 sharpener, farmer, lawyer's clerk, surgeon, 
 physician, mad-doctor, anatomist, soldier, sailor, 
 and musician, let us now see what treatment 
 has been meted out to the dramatist by 
 naturalists, philosophers, and divines. 
 Botanut ^ ^ Farren, the actuary, seenis to have been the 
 
 first to notice Shakspere's exquisite taste and 
 botanical knowledge in his treatment of flowers. 
 " The plants," he says, " forming Lear's crown 
 are all admirably descriptive or emblematic of 
 the sorrows and variety of diseases under which 
 he labours. The coronet wreath of the lovely 
 Ophelia is another example, the whole of it 
 being an exquisite specimen of emblematic or 
 picture writing." Many other writers have 
 followed in Farren's footsteps and pursued stiU 
 further the road he indicated. C. A. Brown 
 perceives, in Perdita's "Account of the streaked 
 Gilliflowers," that the Poet, "from his own 
 practical researches into the Laws of Nature," 
 was fully aware of the art, said to be discovered 
 only within these few years, which is called 
 caprification by Botanists. " No one," says 
 Patterson, who is himself a botanist, "can 
 question the thorough knowdedge of Shakspeare 
 in this branch of science." Compare his notices 
 of flowers with any other poets'; they, and 
 notably Milton, string together in their descrip- 
 tions, the blossoms of springs and the flowers 
 
15 ' 
 
 of summer, but Shakspeare places in one group s^aicspere an 
 those only which may be found in bloom at the 
 same time. And then consider his knowledge 
 of insects and their habits, his remarks upon 
 which are borne out by the discoveries of 
 modern science. With what scorn he makes 
 Bolingbroke behold "the caterpillars of the 
 Commonwealth," and with what exquisite 
 poetry he pourtrays hidden affection by an 
 entomological simile, 
 
 " She never told her love. 
 But let concealment, like a vcorm i'the bud. 
 Feed on. her damask cheek." 
 
 Does he notice the glow-worm, the various 
 beetles, dragon-flies, crickets, bees, butterflies, 
 moths, gnats, spiders, it is always with the 
 same minute knowledge of their habits and 
 structure. Truly he was born an Entomologist. 
 AH you have said about Botany and Ento- 
 mology, says Harting, is most interesting, and 
 is in close analogy with my own experience; 
 " that Shakespeare was both a Sportsman and a 
 Naturalist there is much evidence to show; and 
 being myself extremely attached to the study of 
 birds and their habits, it is impossible for me 
 to read all that Shakespeare has written in con- 
 nection with Ornithology, without being; struck Shakspere an 
 
 °-" _ ° Ornithologist. 
 
 with the extraordinary knowledge which he has 
 displayed in that particular branch of Natural 
 History." There are many passages in the 
 
i6 
 
 shakspere an Plays which to one unacquainted with the 
 
 Ornithologist. •' u i i, n 
 
 habits of animals and birds would be wholly 
 unintelligible, but which are otherwise found 
 to contain the most beautiful and forcible 
 metaphors. Especially is Shakspere learned in 
 Falconry, " the accurate employment of terms 
 used exclusively in that pursuit, proving that 
 our Poet had much practical knowledge on the 
 subject; as where the Moor, compares his 
 suspected wife to a haggard* falcon — " Othello," 
 Act III, s. 3, and the hawking scene in Act II 
 of the Second Part of " King Henry VI." 
 Shakspere a Who can tell the amount of special know- 
 
 Zoologist. - 
 
 ledge which Fennell would have educed from 
 the Poet's writings, had he received more 
 encouragement? Unfortunately his proposed 
 work, in twenty parts, on Shakspere's knowledge 
 in all branches of Natural History, stopped 
 with " Part I.— Zoology.— Man." 
 Shakspere an From the individual to the race is a natural 
 progression, and readers, who wish to know the 
 breadth and depth of Shakspere's views on 
 Ethnology, may see in the " Literary Gazette," 
 for 1859, -ho^ *^^ Poet's sole intention in 
 writing for the stage was to afford the world a 
 comprehensive and philosophical view of the 
 various races of Man. It was probably the 
 
 * By "haggard" is meant a wild-caught and unre- 
 claimed mature hawk. 
 
 Ethnologist. 
 
1 7, 
 
 same writer who worked out a similar idea in shakspere an 
 an octavo volume of 388 pages, entitled " New 
 Exegesis of Shakespeare on the principle of 
 Races." " Shakspere," writes the author, " took 
 the principal diversities of race in Europe — 
 namely, the Italian, the Teutonic, the Celtic, 
 and the Hebrew— as especially illustrated in 
 'Othello,' 'Hamlet,' 'Macbeth,' and the 
 'Merchant of Venice,' to serve him as the 
 genus and types of his new creations." Dickens 
 has told us of the Yankee who was con- 
 vinced that Shakspere was an American : to 
 our present author he stands revealed by a 
 series of deductions as a Celt and a Welchman. 
 Nor is this the only ethnological surprise for 
 his readers, to whom the hidden secret is 
 disclosed, that the mysterious island in " The 
 Tempest " was intended by the Poet to 
 epitomise the History of England. 
 
 In Folk-lore, Demonology, and the Black shakspere an 
 
 A..CI-1 ^L L .^u Alchemist and 
 
 Art, Shakspere seems to have been at home : sorcerer. 
 witness the Essays of Thorns and Dr. Bell. 
 Nathaniel Holmes says that, " Shakspeare 
 understood the whole machinery of Astrology, -' 
 Alchemy, Witchcraft, and Sorcery ; and that not 
 merely in the sense of popular tradition, but as 
 the written literature of the day." 
 
 Let us now turn to the domains of Religion shakspere's 
 and Politics. Here, if anywhere, one would expect ^ ^ '^°"' 
 to find Shakspere's Plays a complete blank; for, 
 
 c 
 
i8 
 
 Shakspere's 
 Religion. 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Roman Catho- 
 lic. 
 
 it is well known that these are the two subjects 
 which were forbidden a place upon the stage of 
 Shakspere's time. The celebrated petition of 
 "Her Majesty's Poor Players," dated 1589, 
 in which Shakspere's name occurs, makes a 
 special merit that they have never brought into 
 their plays " matters of state and religion." 
 Yet, on these very subjects, where one might 
 expect a general level of opinion among the 
 critics, we find more astounding theories, and 
 more torrents of invective than ever. 
 
 To believe that Protestantism could by any 
 possibility have nourished so great a genius as 
 Shakspere is to believe an absurdity, says a 
 writer in " The Rambler." " Shakspere was 
 not the first fruits of Protestantism, but one 
 of the last legacies of Catholicity, The real 
 question is not what he was when he wrote, but 
 what he was when he was educated. We award 
 to Catholicistn what we believe to be its due — 
 the credit df having nursed the genius, and 
 filled the mighty soul of Shakspere. A large 
 number of Queen Elizabeth's subjects, who 
 pstensibly conformed, were really attached to 
 the antient faith ; and' the whole of Shakspere's 
 Plays may be searched, and searched in v^in for 
 any passage reflecting upon, or sneering at, the 
 religious doctrines and ceremonies of Catho- 
 licity. In truth, Shakspere's Poetry is full 
 of lateiit Catholicity, and utterly antagonistic 
 
to Puritanism ; again and again he refers sarcas- Shakspere a 
 
 ,, 1 -n ■ 1 1 • Roman Catho- 
 
 tically to the ruri,tan character, and in a tone Uc. 
 which no one imbued with Bible-reading Pro- 
 testantism could possibly adopt." 
 
 Dr. Vehse's opinion was the exact opposite shakspere a 
 of this. "Above all," he says, "was Shakspere aWMg. 
 a thorough Protestant in the matter of private 
 judgment and self-reliance. Especially was 
 he opposed to the stiff external formalities of 
 Priestcraft, as displayed by the Romish Church 
 of his time. The great apostle of self-govern- 
 ment in religion, he was in politics an aristocratic 
 whig." 
 
 We have just seen the sneer with which shakspere a 
 Roman Catholics deny that Shakspere was a ' ^'^^ ^^' 
 Bible-reader ; on the other hand, Bishop 
 Wordsworth has written a thick volume 
 on Shakspere's knowledge of the Bible, • 
 showing how deeply he had studied Holy 
 Writ — how fully he recognised the glorious 
 truths of redemption, and how clearly his 
 religious views were founded upon the teaching 
 of the Scriptures. He is convinced that " the 
 mind of Shakspere was little affected by the 
 Calvinistic or Puritanical leaven" which sur- 
 rounded him, and that he was a good Church- shakspere a 
 of-England man. The Rev. J. Eaton argues '"'^'^ ™^"' 
 strongly for the Poet's biblical knowledge. " It 
 is pleasant to fancy the delight with which 
 young Shakspere must have feasted on the 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 Shakspere a 
 Churchman. 
 
 Shakspere 
 "saved 
 through faith." 
 
 Shakspere an 
 Atheist. 
 
 Shakspere was 
 Lord Bacon. 
 
 Bible." Again, " in storing his mind, Shakspere 
 went first to the word and then to the works of 
 God." Many other writers have devoted them- 
 selves to the task of illustfatiftg Shakspere's 
 religious views ; we will only mention Fritzart's 
 "War Shakspeare ein Christ?" as showing 
 the various Christian aspects of his dramatic 
 works, and the tract by Cosmopolite, " Was 
 Shakespeare a Christian ?" in which it is stated 
 the great Poet " may safely be numbered among 
 the people who are saved through faith in Jesus 
 Christ," and then turn for a minute to the reverse 
 side of the picture. 
 
 In a work of great critical ability and 
 research, Mr. Birch has done his best to prove 
 Shakspere an unprincipled debauchee and an 
 atheist. His language is often too painful to 
 quote ; and he takes all the vicious sentiments 
 throughout Shakspere's Plays as correct repre- 
 sentations of the Poet's own wicked heart. 
 " In no other writings in the world," he 
 declares, "are solemn subjects made perpetual 
 topics of merriment, and their author not una- 
 nimously voted graceless and faithless." Again 
 "Shakespere parodies Jesus himself, and his 
 most pointed jests are upon the Cross." 
 
 Extremes meet; and having made Shaks- 
 pere play all the parts in life's great drama, the 
 natural re-action was to hustle him off the stage 
 of his own genius and writings, and to prove 
 
21 
 
 him a mere stalking horse. The opinion, first shaksperewas 
 started in America, that Shakspere was not 
 Shakspere, but that Lord Bacon was the real 
 writer of the plays attributed to him has been 
 maintained with much learning, but has not 
 met with many adherents in thi^ country, 
 although Lord Palmerston and Lord Brougham 
 are said to have adopted it. The difficulty of 
 understanding how it was possible for the half- 
 taught son of a country butcher to acquire so 
 much knowledge is dwelt upon, and the perfect 
 agreement of the Shaksperian and Baconian 
 philosophy is shown. " The bare proposition," 
 says Holmes, " that this man with only such a 
 history as we possess of his life, education, 
 studies, and pursuits, could have produced the 
 matchless works we know by his name, may 
 justly strike us as preposterous and absurd." 
 
 Having disposed of Shakspere's personality, Shakspere a 
 by turning him into somebody else, the ultima 
 Thule is total negation ; and so with one- more 
 quotation from another American writer, we 
 will conclude this chapter. " That such a 
 Man as William Shakspere, who helped to 
 steal sheep, and lay intoxicated with his com- 
 , paniohs under a crab-tree near Stratford-on- 
 Avon, and performed other very ordinary 
 achievements ; that such a man may have lived 
 we do not pretend to deny. Our business is 
 to prove that such a great writer, dramatist, 
 
22 
 
 shaksperea universal gcnius, poet, and doctor of human 
 nature, as Shakspere is supposed to have been, 
 did not exist. In other words, we are to combat 
 and disprove the Shakspere of history and 
 literature" 
 
 That our enumeration embraces all the 
 "quirks and quiddities" which have been pub- 
 lished concerning Shakspere is not for a minute 
 supposed. His works present an exhaustless 
 field for research ; and perhaps, after all, no 
 higher tribute could be paid to his genius than 
 these numerous and contradictory opinions 
 which if they prove nothing more prove this — 
 that he is indeed "all things to all men." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SHAKSPERE IN THE PRINTING 
 OFFICE. 
 
25 
 
 SHAKSPERE IN THE PRINTING 
 OFFICE. 
 
 In November, 1589, the company acting at Shakspere's 
 the Blackfriars Theatre thought it would be forfou^ears 
 
 J ... ... unknown. 
 
 advantageous to their mterests to send in to 
 the Privy Council a memorial, certifying that 
 ■ they had never given cause of displeasure by 
 introducing upon the stage " matters of State 
 or Religion." The actors who s"igned this 
 memorial styled themselves "Her Majesty's 
 Poor Players," and among them appears the 
 name of William Shakspere. We here meet 
 the Poet's name for the first time after he had 
 left his home at Stratford-on-Avon, abput four 
 years previously. What his employment had 
 been in the intervening period is a question 
 which few of his biographers have cared to 
 ask, and which not one has answered. 
 
 It is usually supposed that immediately - 
 upon his arrival in London he became in some 
 way associated with the Stage, — but there is no 
 evidence of this. On the contrary, we shall 
 
26 
 
 VautroUier the 
 Printer. 
 
 Field the 
 Printer. 
 
 A native of 
 
 Stratford-on- 
 
 Avon. 
 
 give reasons for believing that coming to -Lon- 
 don poor, needy, and in search- of employment, 
 he was immediately taken into the service of 
 VautroUier the Printer. 
 
 Thomas Vautrollier, entitled in his 
 patents " typographus Londinensis, in claustro 
 vulgoBlackfriers commorans," was a Frenchman 
 who came to England at the commencement 
 of Queen Elizabeth's reign. He was admitted a 
 brother of the Stationers' Company in 1564, 
 and commenced business as Printer and Pub- 
 lisher in Blackfriars, working in the same pre- 
 mises up to the time of his death, which 
 occurred in 1588. His character as a scholar 
 stands high, and his workmanship is excellent. 
 He had a 'privilege, or monopoly, for the print- 
 ing and sale of certain books, as all the chief 
 Printers then had. Shordy before his death he 
 married his daughter to Richard Field, who for 
 this reason, and because he succeeded to the 
 premises and business of the widow, is erro- 
 neously supposed by Ames to have served his 
 apprenticeship to Vautrollier. But why bring 
 in the name of Richard Field ? The reply is 
 important. Field was Shakspere's own towns- 
 man, and being of about the same age and social 
 rank, the boys probably grew up together as 
 playfellows. Field's father, Henry Field, was a 
 Tanner at Stratford-on-Avon, and HaUiwell 
 says " a friend of Shakspere's family." Early 
 
27 
 
 in 1579 young Field came up to London, and Field a native 
 
 at Michaelmas was apprenticed for seven years on-Avon. 
 
 to George Bishop, Printer and Publisher. 
 
 Being in the same trade as Vautrollier, Field 
 
 would naturally become acquainted with him ; 
 
 and in 1588, a year after he was out of his 
 
 time, he married VautroUier's daughter. Here, Married the 
 
 , , . . T , T ^ daughter of 
 
 then, we seem to have a missmg Imk supplied VautroiUer. 
 in the chain of Shakspere's history. In 1585 
 Shakspere came up to London in a " needy " 
 state. To whom would he be more likely to 
 apply than to his old playmate Richard Field. 
 Field, a young man nearly out of his appren- 
 ticeship, on terms of intimacy with Vautrollier, 
 could do nothing better than recommend him 
 to the father of his future wife. Once intro- 
 duced we may be sure that Shakspere, with his 
 fund of wit and good humour, would always be 
 a welcome guest ; and that this friendly feeling 
 was maintained between him arid the Vautrol- 
 lier-Field families receives confirmation from 
 the fact that Richard Field, who succeeded 
 to the shop and business soon after the death The first to 
 
 - , . ^ , . , 11 I print Shak- 
 
 of his father-in-law, actually put to press the spere's poems. 
 two first printed works of the great Poet, the 
 "Venus and Adonis," 1593, and the "Lucrece," 
 
 1594- 
 
 Here then, in VautroUier's employ, perhaps Shakspere and 
 as a Press-reader, perhaps as an Assistant in the 
 shop, perchance as both, we imagine Shakspere 
 
28 
 
 Vautrollier's 
 Widow. 
 
 shakspere and to havc Spent about three years upon his first 
 
 Vautrollier. . , . , ,• ™ , , . t,, , 
 
 arrival in the metropous. Placed thus in Black- 
 friars, close to the Theatre, close to the 
 Taverns, close to the Inns of Court, and in 
 what was then a fashionable neighbourhood, 
 Shakspere enjoyed excellent opportunities of 
 acquiring a knowledge of men and manners. 
 
 Field did not succeed Vautrollier imme- 
 diately upon his death. His widow endea- 
 voured for some time to carry on the business 
 alone; but -for some unknown reason the 
 Stationers' Company withheld their license j 
 and after a fruitless effort to obtain it, she was 
 succeeded by her son-in-law. These business 
 changes would probably be the occasion of 
 which Shakspere eagerly availed himself to join 
 the Players at the neighbouring theatre. 
 
 The Sonnets, although not printed until 
 1609, are generally acknowledged to be among 
 Shakspere's earliest efforts, and we cannot help 
 imagining that Sonnet XXIV was written while 
 in the employment of VautroUier ; or at any 
 rate, while the shop, hung round with prints, 
 was fresh in the Poet's memory. May be some 
 of their warmth was inspired by the charms of 
 the buxom widow herself who was apostro- 
 phised by the Poet when wishing her 
 
 " To find where your true image pictured lies. 
 Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still. 
 That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes." 
 
 Sonnet xxiv. 
 
 The Sonnets. 
 
29 
 
 At any rate, we have here . in three lines as The Sonnets, 
 many metaphors, and all derived from just such 
 employment as we suppose Shakspere at that 
 time to have been engaged in. 
 
 Then, again, to a Printer's widow, not over 
 young, what more telling than the following 
 reference ? 
 
 " Or what strong hand Can hold Time's swift foot back ? 
 Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid ? 
 O, none, unless this miracle have might, 
 That in Hack ink my love may still shine bright.'* 
 
 Sonnet Ixvi. 
 
 Note here, that the jet black ink which 
 every body admires in old manuscripts w(as 
 much too thick for a running hand, and had 
 long been superseded by a writing fluid which, ■ 
 in the i6th century, was far from equalling the 
 bright gloss of Printing Ink. 
 
 Before turning to the internal evidence 
 supplied by Shakspere's writings in support of 
 our theory, let us glance at the list of works 
 printed and published by VautroUier, and see if Vautroiiier's 
 
 £1, , ;^ , ~ , . . „ Publications 
 
 ohakspere reflected any trace ot their influence and 
 
 1 • -J Shakspere. 
 
 upon his mind. 
 
 From Herbeft's "Typographical Anti- 
 quities" we find that in the "Shop" would 
 be the two following works : — 
 
 A brief Introdvctipn to Music. Collected by Music. 
 P. Ddamote, a Frenchman ; Licensed. 
 
 London, 8vo., 1574. 
 
3° 
 
 VautroUier's 
 publications 
 and Shak- 
 spere. 
 
 P. IT,, ante. 
 
 Religion. 
 
 Discursus Cantiones ; quce ah argumento 
 sacrce vocantur, quinque et sex partivm. Autoribus 
 Thoma Tallisio et Guilielmo Birdo. Cum 
 Privilegio. London, oblong quarto, 1575. 
 
 Delamote's Introduction, as well as the 
 Sacred Songs by Tallis and Bird, were Vautrol- 
 lier's copyright, and we have already seen how 
 intimate an acquaintance Shakspere had with 
 music. Might not the above works have 
 been the mine from which he obtained his 
 knowledge? 
 
 Of religious works,, Vautrollier printed and 
 published several, all in accordance with the 
 principles of the great Reformation, and the 
 writer who argued that from his intimate know- 
 ledge of the tenets of Calvin, Shakspere must 
 have been himself a Calvinist, would have 
 found sufficient explanation of his special 
 knowledge in the following books from Vau- 
 troUier's press : — 
 
 The New Testament, with diversities of 
 Reading and profitable ' annotations. An epistle 
 by J. Calvin, prefixed. 4to., 1575 '• 
 
 Institvtio Christiance Religionis, Joanne 
 Caluino authore. Svo., London, 1576: and 
 
 The Institution of Christian Religion (not 
 in Herbert's Ames) written in Latine, by 
 Mr. John Calvine, and translated into English 
 by Thomas Norton: Imprinted at London, by 
 Thomas Fautrollier. 8vo., 1578. 
 
31 
 
 This last contains an Epistle to the Reader by- 
 John Calvin, as well as an address headed 
 Typographus Lectori : of each of the above 
 works several- editions were published. 
 
 In one of his pedantic speeches Holofernes shakspen 
 exclaims : — 
 
 •es 
 knowledge of 
 Italian. 
 
 " Venetia ! Venetia ! 
 
 Chi non te vede non ti pretia. 
 Old Mantuan ! Old Mantuan ! who understandeth thee 
 not, loveth thee not." 
 
 Loves Labour Lost, iv, 2. 
 
 Where did Shakspere learn his Italian, which, 
 although then a court language, he quotes but 
 rarely, and in an awkward manner ? Surely at 
 second-hand, and probably quoting the phrases 
 current at the period, or still more probably 
 from conning in his spare moments : — 
 
 ^n Italian Grammer, written in Latin by 
 M. Scipio Lentulo : and turned into Englishe by 
 Henry Grantham. Typis Tho. Vautrolerij . 
 
 London, i6mo., 1578. 
 This was put to press again in 1587. In 
 VautroUier's "shop" he would also have often 
 in hiis hands : — 
 
 Campo di Fior ; or else the Flourie field 
 offoure Languages, for the furtherance of the 
 learners of the Latine, French, English, but 
 chiefiy of the Italian tongue. Imprinted at 
 London, by Thos. Vautrollier, dwelling in the 
 Black Friers by Ludgate. i6mo., 1583. 
 
3^ 
 
 Shakspere's 
 knowledge of 
 Italic. 
 
 And French. 
 
 And Latin. 
 
 Here, again, we have a very extensive Italian 
 vocabulary upon all common subjects quite 
 sufficient for an occasional quotation ; as to 
 the plots taken from Italian sources, such as 
 "Romeo and Juliet," it seems to be now generally 
 admitted that Shakspere in every instance 
 followed the English translations. 
 
 But Shakspere kne\y also a Uttle French, 
 and uses a few colloquial sentences here and 
 there. In one play indeed, Henry V, iii. 4, 
 there is a short scene between the Princess and 
 her attendant, in alternate French and English, 
 which reads almost like a page of a Vocabu- 
 lary. Shakspere's knowledge of Latin was 
 apparently about the same in extent ; and for 
 the uses to which he has applied both tongues, 
 the Flourie Field of Four Languages, already 
 quoted as the source of his Italian, would be 
 quite sufficient. If not, he had the oppor- 
 tunity of tonsulting under his master's roof-- 
 
 A Treatise on French J^erhs. 8vo., 1 5 80. 
 
 A most easie, perfect, and absolute way to 
 learne the Frenche tongue. Svo., 1581 ; and 
 
 Phrases Linguce Latince. 8vo., 1579, 
 
 the last compiled from the writings of that 
 great Printer, Aldus Manutius. 
 
 Some of Shakspere's biographers have main- 
 tained rthat he must have been acquainted with 
 Plutarch and other classical writers, because he 
 quotes from their works. Dr. Farmer in his 
 
33 
 
 masterly essay, oh the learning of Shakspere, VautroUier's 
 has shown that the Poet took all his quotations, and Shaks- 
 even to the blunders, from the edition of ^^'^ ' 
 Plutarch, in English, printed and published by 
 VautroUier, a year or two before we suppose 
 that Shakspere entered into his service : — 
 
 , PlutarcKs Lives, from the French of Amyott, Plutarch. 
 by Sir Tho. North. Licensed. ^ Folio, 1579. 
 Moreover, VautroUier, who was a good 
 scholar, appears to have had a great liking for 
 Ovid. He printed Ovid's Metamorphoses, Ovid's Ovid, 
 Epistles, and Ovid's Art of Love. Now it is a 
 notable fact that although Shakspere, unlike 
 contemporary writers who abound in classical 
 allusions, scarcely ever mentions a Latin poet, 
 and still more seldom a Greek poet, yet he 
 quotes Ovid several times : — 
 
 " As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured." 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, \, i. 
 
 " Tit. Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so ? 
 Luc. Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses." 
 
 Titus, iv, I. 
 
 " I am here with thee and thy goats as the most 
 capricious poet, honest Ovid was among the Goths." 
 
 ' As you Like It, iii, 3 . 
 
 " Ovidius Naso was the man," 
 
 Love's Labour Lost, w, a. 
 
 Of Cicero's Oration VautroUier issued cicero. 
 several editions, and had the privilege "ad 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 VautroUier's imprimendum solum" granted him ; and to this 
 
 Publications .1 ■, • 01 1 
 
 and shaks- work also, on at least two occasions, bhakspere 
 ^"^' refers : — 
 
 " Hath read to thee 
 Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator." 
 
 Titus, iv, I. 
 
 Guicciardini. 
 
 ' Sweet TuUy." 
 
 2 Henry VI, iv, i. 
 
 The fact to be noted with reference to 
 these classical quotations is this : Shakspere 
 quotes those Latin authors, and those only, of 
 which VautroUier had a " license ; " and makes 
 no reference to other and popular writers, such 
 as Virgil, Pliny, Aurelius, and Terence, editions 
 of whose works VautroUier was not allowed to 
 issue, but all of which, and especially the last, 
 were great favorites in the sixteenth century, as 
 is shown by the numerous editions which 
 issued from the presses of VautroUier's feUow- 
 craftsmen. 
 
 Among other publications of VautroUier 
 was an English translation of Ludovico Guicci- 
 ardini s Description of the ■ Low Countries, 
 originaUy printed in 1567. In this work is one 
 of the earliest accounts of the invention of 
 printing at Haarlem, which is thus described 
 in the Batavia of Adrianus Junius, 1575. 
 "This person (Coster) during his afternoon 
 walk, in the vicinity of Haarlem, amused him- 
 self with cutting letters out of the bark of the 
 
2,5 
 
 beech tree, and with these, the characters being 
 
 inverted as in seals, he printed small sentences." 
 
 The idea is cleverly adapted by Orlando : — 
 
 " these trees shall be my hooks. 
 And in their larh$ my thoughts I'll character." 
 
 As You Like It, iii, 2. 
 
 Lastly, it would be an interesting task to Treatise of 
 
 1 14 /r 1 -n 11 r c^-\ 1 Melancholy. 
 
 compare the Mad Folk of Shakspere, most 
 of whom have the melancholy fit, with 
 
 A Treatise of Melancholie-: containing the 
 Causes thereof and Reasons of the strange Effects 
 it worketh in our Minds and Bodies. 
 
 London, 8vo., i^%6. 
 This was printed by Vautrollier, and pro- 
 bably read carefully for press by the youthful 
 Poet. 
 
 The disinclination of Shakspere to see his 
 plays in print has often been noticed by his 
 biographers, and is generally accounted for by 
 the theory that reading the plays in print 
 would diminish the desire to hear them at the 
 theatre. This is a very unsatisfactory reason, 
 and not so plausible as the supposition that, 
 sickened with reading other people's proofs for 
 a livelihood, he shrunk from the same task on 
 his own behalf. His contemporaries do' not 
 appear to have shared in the same typographical 
 aversion. The plays of Ben Johnson and 
 ■ Beaumont and Fletcher were all printed in the 
 life-time of their authors. Francis Quarles 
 
 D 2 
 
3^ 
 
 had the satisfaction and pride of seeing all his 
 works in printed form, and showed his appre- 
 ciation and knowledge of Typography by the 
 following quaint lines, which we quote from 
 the first edition, literatim: — 
 
 " On a Printing-house. 
 '"T'HE world's a Printing-house: our words, our thoughts, 
 
 Our deeds, are Characters of sev'rall sizes: 
 Each Soule is a Compos'terj of whose faults 
 The Levits are Correctors: Heav'n revises; 
 Death is the common Press; fro whence, being driven. 
 Ware gatherd Sheet by Sheet, & bound for Heaven." 
 
 From Divine Fancies, 1632, lib. iv, p. 164. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE TECHNICALITIES OF 
 PRINTING, AS USED BY SHAKSPERE. 
 
39 
 
 THE TECHNICALITIES OF PRINTING, 
 AS USED BY SHAKSPERE. 
 
 Nature endows no man with knowledge, and Shakspere's 
 altnougn a quick apprehension may go far technical 
 towards making the true lover of Nature a 
 Botanist, Zoologist, or Entomologist, and 
 although the society, of "Men of Law," of 
 Doctors, or of Musicians may, with the help 
 of a good memory, store a man's mind with 
 professional phraseology, yet the opportunity of 
 learning must be there; and no argument can 
 be required to prove that, however highly en- 
 dowed with genius or imagination, no one 
 could evolve from his internal consciousness 
 the terms, the customs, or the working imple- 
 ments of a trade with which he was unacquainted. 
 If, then, we find Shakspere's mind familiar with 
 the technicalities of such an art as Printitig — 
 an art which, in his day, had no such connecting 
 links with the common needs and daily pleasures 
 of the people, as now — if we find him using 
 its terms and referring frequently to its customs. 
 
40 
 
 shakspere's our claims to Call him a Printer stand upon 
 technical a firmer base than those of the Lawyer, the 
 
 Doctor, the Soldier, or the Divine; and we 
 have strong grounds for asking the reader's 
 thoughtful attention to some quotations and 
 arguments, which, if ilot conclusive that 
 Shakspere was a Printer, afford indubitable 
 evidence of his having beconie at some period 
 of his career practically acquainted with the 
 details of a Printing Office. We propose, then, 
 to carefully examine the works of the Poet for 
 any internal evidence of Typographical know- 
 ledge which they may afford. 
 
 But here, at the outset, we are met by 
 obvious difficulties. Would Shakspere, or any 
 poet have made use of trade terms and 
 technical words, or have referred to customs 
 peculiar to and known by only a very small 
 class of the community in plays addressed to 
 the general public? They might have been 
 familiar enough to the mind of the writer, but 
 would certainly have sounded very strange in 
 the ears of the public. Shakspere was too 
 artistic and too wise to have committed so 
 glaring a blunder. His technical terms are used 
 unintentionally, and with the most charming 
 unconsciousness. Therefore, when we meet 
 with a word or phrase in common use by 
 Printers, it is so amalgamated with the context, 
 that although some other form of expression 
 
41 
 
 would have been chosen had not Shakspere ShaUspere's 
 
 , -r, . lit 1 "5^ °f techni- 
 
 been a rrinter, yet the general reader or hearer cai terms. 
 is not struck by any incongruity of language. 
 
 What simile could be more natural for a 
 Printer-poet to use or more appropriate for the 
 public to hear than this: — , 
 
 "Your mother was most true to wedlock, prince ; t 
 For she did print your royal fatlier off, * yt „«/ i^O'H-w."^ 
 
 Conceiving you." ^XxiuU S^ ifv+W/-. 
 
 Winter's Tale, v, r. ^ 
 
 Here, surely, the Printer's daily experience of 
 the exact agreement between the face of the 
 type and the impression it yields must have 
 suggested the image. 
 
 Printers in Shakspere's time often had Printeis' 
 patents granted them by which the monopoly ™°"°p° ^' 
 of certain works was secured ; and unscrupulous 
 printers' frequently braved all the pains and 
 penalties to which they were liable by pirating 
 such editions. It is this carelfessness of con- 
 sequences which is glanced at by Mistress Ford . 
 when debating with Mistress Page concerning 
 the insult put upon them by the heavy old 
 Knight, Sir John Falstaff: — 
 
 "He cares not what he puts into the Press when he 
 would put us two." 
 
 Merry Wives, ii, i. 
 
 What printer is there who has put to press Reprints, 
 a second edition of a book working page for 
 page in a smaller type and shorter measure but 
 
42 
 
 shakspere's will recognisc the Typographer s reminiscences 
 
 useoftechni- . ° . . -"^ . . . ^ , , , 
 
 cai terms. in the following descnption or Leontes babe 
 by Paulina : — 
 
 " Behold, my Lords, 
 Although the print be little, the whole matter 
 And copy of the father . . . 
 The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger." 
 
 Winter's Tale, ii, 3. 
 
 Is it conceivable that a sentence of four lines 
 , containing five distinct typographical words, 
 three of which are especially technical, could 
 have proceeded from the brain of one not in- 
 timately acquainted with Typography. Again, 
 would Costard have so gratuitously used a 
 typographical idea, had not the Poet's mind 
 been teeming with them ? 
 
 '4 1 X I >> Av " I will do it sir in print." 
 
 Love's Labour Lost, iii, i. 
 
 The deep indentation made on the re- 
 ceiving paper when the strong arm of a lusty 
 pressman had pulled the bar with too great ' 
 vigour is glanced at here : — 
 
 " Think when we talk of horses that you see them 
 Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth." 
 
 Henry V, Chorus. 
 
 The frequency with which the words print 
 or imprint are used is very noticeable. 
 
 " The story that is printed in her blood." 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing, iv,j. 
 
43 
 
 "i love a ballad in print." Shakspere's 
 
 Winter's Tale, i\, 4. "se of techni- 
 cal terms. 
 
 " She did print your royal father off conceiving you." 
 
 Winter s Tale, w, i. 
 
 " You are but as a form in waXj by liim imprinted." 
 
 Midsummer- Night' s Dream, \, i. 
 
 " His heart . . . with your print impressed." 
 
 Love's Labour Lost, ii. i. 
 
 " I will do it, sir, in print." 
 
 Love's Labour Lost, iii, i. 
 
 " This weak impress of love." 
 
 Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii, 2. 
 
 " To print thy sorrows plain." 
 
 Titus Andronicus, iv, i. 
 
 " Sink my knee i' the earth ; 
 Of thy deep duty, more impression show." 
 
 ' Coriolanus, \, 3. 
 
 " Some more time 
 Must wear \i\e print of his remembrance out." 
 
 Cymheline, ii, 3. 
 
 " The impressure." 
 
 ■ Twelfth Night, ii, 5. 
 
 " He will print them, out of doubt." 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, ii, i. 
 
 "We quarrel in print, by the book." 
 
 As You Like It, v, 4. 
 
44 
 
 Shakspere's 
 use of techni- 
 cal terms. 
 
 " Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow." 
 
 Lear, i, 4. 
 
 " His sword death's stamp. 
 
 Coriolanus, ii, 2. 
 
 Title-pages. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 First Press in 
 England. 
 
 Hear how deftly Title-pages are treated : — 
 
 " Sim. Knights, 
 To say you're welcome were superfluous. 
 To place upon the volume of your deeds. 
 As in a title-page, your worth of arms. 
 Were more than you expect, or more than's fit." 
 
 Pericles, ii, 3. 
 
 Hear, too, Northumberland, who thus addresses 
 the bearer of fearful news : — 
 
 " This man's brow, like to a title-leaf. 
 Foretells the nature of a tragic volume." 
 
 a Henry IV, i, i. 
 
 Evidently Shakspere had a good idea of what 
 a Title-page should contain. 
 
 From Title to Preface is but a turn of the 
 leaf, and its introductory character is thus 
 noticed :— 
 
 " Is but a Preface of her worthy praise. 
 The chief perfections of that lovely dame." 
 
 I Henry VI, v, 5. 
 
 We must not forget a well-known passage 
 about the introduction of Printing to England, 
 which has caused much discussion. It is 
 where Jack Cade accuses Lord Saye : — 
 
45 
 
 " Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of Shakspere's 
 
 use of tech 
 cal terms. 
 
 the realm in erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, useoftechni- 
 
 before, our forefathers had no other books but the score 
 and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used ; and, 
 contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast 
 built a paper-mill." 
 
 a Henry VI, iv, 7. 
 
 The early-invented fable of Faustus, and 
 the assistance given him by the Devil in the 
 multiplication of the first printed bibles (cer- 
 tainly a most short-sighted step on the part of 
 his Satanic Majesty) had got fixed in the 
 minds of the populace, and created among the 
 ignorant a prejudice against the Printing-press, 
 and it was to this feeling Jack Cade appealed. 
 All our Chroniclers .place the erection of a introduction 
 Printing-press in England some years too early, England. 
 but no one except Shakspere has put the date 
 so far back as 1450, the date of Jack Cade's 
 insurrection : it is simply a blunder ; but it was 
 the Printing-press and its introduction to this 
 country that was in the, Authors brain, and the 
 exact date of that event was unknown, being 
 probably as difficult to arrive at then as it is 
 
 * The exact date was probably as difficult to arrive at 
 then as now. The arrival of William Caxton in England 
 may, with a certainty of being near the truth, be placed in 
 1475-6, the date 1474 given by most writers being a mis- 
 conception of the language used by Caxton in the Preface 
 to the Chess-book. The Art on its first introduction was 
 
46 
 
 Shakspere's 
 use of techni- 
 cal terms. 
 
 Type- 
 founding. 
 
 We have already noticed in how simple a 
 
 manner originated that grand discovery which, 
 
 instead of one perishable manuscript, produced 
 
 numberless printed books, and thus enabled 
 
 mankind to perpetuate for ever the knowledge 
 
 they had gained. The real superiority of the 
 
 Press over the pen was the easy multiplication 
 
 of copies, and this was the idea in the Poet's 
 
 brain when he wrote : — 
 
 " She carved thee for her seal and meant thereby 
 Thou shouldst pnre/ more nor let that copy die." 
 
 Sonnet xi. 
 
 Type-founding has in these days arrived at 
 such perfection, that most of the blemishes 
 and faults common in Shakspere's time are 
 
 looked upon suspiciously by the people, few of whom 
 could read, its chief patrons being a few of the more 
 educated among the nobles and the rich burghers of 
 London. Another mistake is to suppose that Caxton 
 printed in Westminster Abbey. His printing-office was 
 -a tenement to the south-east of tlie Abbey Church ; its 
 sign was the "Red-pale," and Caxton rented it of the 
 Abbot. There is evidence to show that Caxton and the 
 Abbot were on distant terms of amity— none to show that 
 the Jlcclesiastic encouraged or patronised the Printer, not- 
 withstanding Dean Stanley's assertions in a sermon lately 
 preached by him in Westminster Abbey. The only occa- 
 sion upon which Caxton mentions the Abbot is to this 
 effect— that the Abbot, not being able himself to read a 
 passage in an old MS., sent it to Caxton, with a request 
 that he would translate it. (See The Life and Typography 
 of William Caxton, by William Blades, a vols., 4to. 
 London, 1861-63.) 
 
47 
 
 now unknown. Under the old system of hand Shakspere's 
 
 use of techni- 
 
 moulds a type founder was sure when com- cai terms. 
 mencing work to cast a certain number of 
 imperfect letters, because until the mould by 
 use got warmed, the liquid metal solidified too 
 soon, and the body or shank of the type was 
 shrunk, and became no inappropriate emblem 
 of an old man's limbs whose hose would be 
 
 " A world too wide for his shrunk shank," 
 
 As You Like It, ii, 7. 
 
 The names of the various sizes of _ type in Nonpareil. 
 the sixteenth century were few compared with 
 our modern list ; Canon, Great Primer, Pica, 
 Long Primer, and Brevier almost complete the 
 catalogue ; and however familiar Shakspere may 
 have been with their names, it is difficult to 
 imagine any scene in which these technical 
 names could be introduced with propriety. Yet, 
 of one. Nonpareil, a new small type first in- 
 troduced from Holland about 1650, and which 
 for its beauty and excellence was much admired, 
 Shakspere seems to have conceived a most 
 favorable idea. Prospero, praising his daughter, 
 calls her "a Nonpareil" {Tempest, Act iii. 
 Scene 2) ; Olivia is the " Nonpareil of beauty" 
 {Twelfth Night, Act \, Scene 5), and Posthumus 
 speaks of Imogen as the "Nonpareil of her 
 time" {Cymbeline, Act ii. Scene 5). 
 
 The exactitude and precision of everything 
 
48 
 
 Shakspere's 
 use of techni- 
 cal terms. 
 
 connected with tlie arrangement of printing 
 from types is curiously hinted at by Touchstone, 
 when describing the preciseness of the Courtiers' 
 quarrels : — 
 
 " We quarrel in print by the book." 
 
 As You Like It, v, 4. 
 
 that is, no step was taken except according to 
 acknowledged rules. 
 Imprints. It ofteu happens when a book comes to its 
 
 last' sheet that the text runs short, and two or 
 three blank or vacant pages remain at the end. 
 In the middle of one of these it .is usual to 
 place the typographer's imprint. What com- 
 positor is there who has rejoiced in snch. fat 
 pages* but will not at once recognise the 
 following allusion : — 
 
 " The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear. 
 And of this book this learning mayst thou taste." 
 
 Sonnet Ixxvii. 
 
 Broadsides. 
 
 People with a grievance write now-a-days 
 to the Newspapers, in hope of redress. In 
 Shakspere's time the only method to make 
 wrongs public and to show up abuses was by 
 
 * Fat Pages. "Fat" as a conventional word is not con- 
 fined to Printers. " A fat living" is a phrase not unknown 
 among churchmen^ and is used in the same sense by the 
 compositor, who charges the master -printer for the fat 
 pages, in which no work appears, at the same rate as if 
 they were full. 
 
49 
 
 the Broadside, in prose or rhyme, passing from shakspere's 
 
 hand to hand. Many of these have survived cai terms! "' 
 
 to the present day, and are treasured up as Brbadside. 
 
 curious relics of a by-gone age. They were 
 
 frequently libellous and grievously personal, 
 
 and hence the point of Pistol's remark : — 
 
 " Fear we broadsides ? " 
 
 a Henry IV, ii, 4. 
 
 We must not think here that the naval 
 " broadside" — a volley of guns from the broad- 
 side of a ship — is meant. Shakspere does not 
 use the word once in that sense, nor was it a 
 conversational word in his time. That Pistol 
 was indeed thinking of a printed broad sheet 
 is evident from the whole sentence, which, 
 although composed of disjointed exclamations, 
 continues with the following expressions, both 
 strongly suggestive of the Composing room or 
 Reader's closet : — 
 
 " Come we to full points here ? and are etceteras 
 nothing ? ' ' 
 
 a Henry IV, ii, 4. 
 
 " Come we to fuU points here?" This Punctuation. 
 question is often a puzzler for both Com- 
 positor and Reader. Indeed, few things cause 
 more disagreements between Author and 
 Printer than the very loose ideas held by the ■ 
 former concerning punctuation. Some writers, 
 like Dickens in his early days, insist upon 
 ornamenting their sentences with little dashes 
 
5° 
 
 Shakspere's and big dashcs, with colons where commas 
 
 use of techni- i • i 
 
 cai terms. shomd be, and with 
 
 " Points that seem impossible." 
 
 Pericles, v, i. 
 
 In vain does the Printer declare that in altering 
 the Author's unregulated punctuation, 
 
 " I^To levelled malice infests one comma," 
 
 Timon, i, i, 
 
 the irate Author exclaims, that he 
 
 " Puts the period often from his place," 
 
 Lucrece, 1. 565, 
 
 and adds, follow 
 
 " My /)omf and period . . . ill or well." 
 
 Lear, iv, 7. 
 
 " You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent." 
 
 Love's Labour Lost, iv, 2. 
 
 " Wherefore stand you on nice points ?" 
 
 3 Henry VI, iv, 7. 
 
 The Printer has no resource but compliance, 
 which, however, unless the affront be very 
 severe, will soon 
 
 " Stand a comma 'tween their amities," 
 
 Hamlet, v, 2, 
 
 and thus heal the breach, and end all happily 
 with mutual 
 
 " Notes of Admiration." 
 
 Winter's Tale, v, a. 
 
51 
 
 "And are etceteras nothing?" What a shakspere's 
 typographical question! and probably the only technical 
 occasion on which so unpoetical a figure has 
 done duty in any drama. The &c. makes an 
 insignificant appearance in either MS. or type, 
 and yet how often it stands for whole pages 
 of matter. Hence the point of the question. 
 
 If a book is folio, and two. pages of type Quoins. 
 have been composed, they are placed in proper 
 position upon the imposing stone, and en- 
 closed within an iron or steel frame called a 
 "chase," small wedges of hard wood termed 
 " coigns" or " quoins" being driven in at op- 
 posite sides to make all tight. . 
 
 " By the four opposing coigns. 
 Which the world together joins." 
 
 Pericles, iii, i. 
 
 This is just the description of a forme in 
 folio where two quoins on one side are always 
 opposite -to two quoins on the other, thus to- 
 gether joining and tightening all the separate 
 stamps. In a quaint allegorical poem, published 
 anonymously about the year 1 700, in which 
 the mystery of man's redemption is symbolised 
 by the mystery of Printing, the author com- 
 mences thus : — 
 
 " Great blest Master Printer, come 
 Into thy Composing-room ; " 
 
 and after " spiritualising " the successive opera- 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 Shakspere's 
 use of techni- 
 cal terms. 
 
 Locking up. 
 
 tions of the workman thus touches upon the 
 
 quoins: — 
 
 " Let the Quoins be thy sure Election, 
 Which admits of no Rejection j 
 With which our Souls being joined about. 
 Not the least Grace can then fall out." 
 
 Here, the idea of joining together by quoins 
 so that nothing shall fall out, is just the same 
 as in the couplet quoted from Shajcspere. 
 
 The tightening of these quoins by means 
 of a wooden-headed mallet, 
 
 (" There is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet," 
 
 3 Henry IF, ii, 4), 
 
 is called " locking up," an exclusively technical 
 term. The expression, however, occurs in 
 " Measure for Measure," IV, 2, 
 
 " Fast locked up, in sleep," 
 
 where the idea conveyed is the same. 
 
 The "Forme" worked off and the metal 
 chase removed, leaving the pages " na,ked," 
 affords the Poet the following simile, which, 
 although not carrying to the popular ear any 
 typographical meaning, was doubtless suggested 
 by Shakspere's former experience of the work- 
 shop : — 
 
 "And he but naked though locked up in steel." 
 
 2 Henry VI, iii, 2. 
 
 The primary idea of " locking up " had, doubt- 
 less, reference to " armour ; " the secondary to 
 
53 
 
 printing, as shown by the use of the word shakspeie's 
 
 ' - use of techni- 
 
 " naked. cal terms. 
 
 The forme then went to the Press-room, Register. 
 where considerable ingenuity was required to 
 make " register ;" that is, to print one side so 
 exactly upon the other, that when the sh^et was 
 held up to the light the lines on each side 
 would exactly back one another. The accuracy 
 of judgment required for this is thus glanced 
 at: — 
 
 " Eno. But let the world rank me in register 
 A master-leaver and a fugitive." 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra, iv, 9. 
 
 When the green-eyed Othello takes his Printers' 
 wife's hand and exclaims : — 
 
 " Here's a young and sweating devil," 
 
 Othello, m, 4, 
 
 we fail at first to catch the idea of the Poet in 
 calling a hand a " devil ;" but take the word as * 
 synonymous with "messenger," and we see at 
 once how the moist plump palm of Desdemona 
 suggested to the intensely jealous husband the 
 idea of its having been the lascivious messen- 
 ger of her impure desires. In this sense of 
 " messenger," the word " devil " has a special 
 fitness ; for it is, and always has been among 
 Printers, aiid Printers only, another word for 
 "errand-boy." In , olden times, when speed 
 was required, a boy stood at the ofF-side of the 
 
54 
 
 Shakspere's prcss, and as soon as the frisket was raised, 
 cai terms. whipped the printed sheet off the tyrnpan. 
 When not at work, he ran on messages be- 
 tween printer and author, who, on account of 
 his inky defilement, dubbed him " devil." All 
 Printers' boys go now by the same name : — 
 
 " Old Lucifer, both kind and civil. 
 To ev'ry Printer lends a Devil ; 
 But balancing accounts each winter. 
 For ev'ry Devil takes a Printer." 
 
 Moxon, in 1683, quotes it as an old trade 
 word, and it was doubtless the same in Shak- 
 spere's time, a century earlier, as it is now two 
 centuries later. But where could Shakspere 
 have picked up the word if not in the Printing- 
 office ? 
 Old MSB. Any one accustomed to collate old MSS. 
 
 must have noticed how very seldom the copyist 
 would^ in transcribing, add nothing and omit 
 nothing. If what the scribe considered a good 
 idea entered his mind while his pen was travel- 
 ling over the page, he was a very modest pen- 
 man indeed, if he did not incorporate it in the 
 text. From this cause, and from genuine 
 unintentional blunders, the texts of all the old 
 authors' had become gradually very corrupt — 
 a source of great trouble to the early Printers. 
 With this in his mind Shakspere defines it as 
 one of the qualities of Time 
 
 " To blot old books and alter their contents." 
 
 LucrecBj 1. 948. 
 
55 
 
 Many of Vautrollier's publications must owmss. 
 have been printed from discolored old manu- 
 scripts ; and these papers Shakspere, if he read 
 " proof" for his employer, would have to study 
 carefully. Does he call this to mind in Sonnet 
 XVII :— 
 
 " My papers yellowed with their age." 
 
 Was it, after admiring some beautifully illurai- Horas. 
 nated Horae, that he wrote : — 
 
 " O that record could with a backward look. 
 E'en of five hundred courses of the sun ; 
 Show me your image in some antique book. 
 Since mind at -first in character was done." 
 
 Sonnet lix. 
 
 Does the Poet refer to its wonderfully bur- 
 nished gold initials, and the red dominical 
 letters which he must often have. seen in the 
 printed calendars, when he exclaims in tones of 
 adrhiration : — 
 
 " My red dominical— my golden letter ! " 
 
 ^ Love's Labour Lost, v, 2. 
 
 The old calendar had a golden number and a 
 dominical letter, but not a golden letter, which 
 last must refer specifically to the practice of 
 gilding important initials. " Golden Letters " 
 are mentioned in "King John," III, i, and in 
 "Pericles," IV, 4, while the red initials, which 
 were common to both manuscripts and printed 
 books of the fifteenth century, are made by 
 
s^ 
 
 Shakspere the death warrant of the unfortunate 
 Clerk of Chatham, against whom is brought 
 'the fatal accusation that he 
 
 " Has a book in his pocket with red letters in t." 
 
 2 Henry VI, iv, 2. 
 
 Restrictions In Shakspere's time, as we have already 
 
 Press. noticed (p. 41, ante), the press laboured under 
 
 great restrictions. All books with a profit- 
 able circulation were monopolised by favored 
 stationers or printers who held special patents 
 or licenses from the Crown. Thus Reynold 
 Wolfe, in 1543, held a monopoly of all books 
 printed in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. Seres 
 was privileged to print all psalters, primers, and 
 prayer books; Denham might print the New 
 Testament in Welch ; others held grants for 
 scholastic or legal books, for almanacs, and even 
 for broadsides, or as the grant says " for any 
 piece of paper printed on one side of the sheet 
 only." In these favored books it was customary 
 to place the patent granting the monopoly at 
 the end, as a " caveat " for other printers, and 
 occasionally the phrase " Cum privilegio ad im- 
 primendum solum " would appear in a con- 
 spicuous part of the title. Among the printers 
 in London, who secured such special privileges, 
 was VautroUier, Shakspere's presumed employer. 
 " In the sixteenth year of Elizabeth, 19th June, 
 1574," says AmeS, " a patent or license was 
 
SI 
 
 granted him which he often printed at the end Restrictions 
 of the New Testament;" this was a monopoly Press. 
 of Beza's New Testament which VautroUier had 
 the privilege " ad imprimendum solum," for the 
 term of ten years. We have already seen the 
 curious connection between the products of 
 VautroUier's press and the writings of Shak- 
 spere, and we now plainly perceive what was 
 floating in the Poet's brain when he placed 
 the following speech in Biondello's mouth, who 
 urges Lucentio to marry Bianca, while her father 
 and the pedant are discussing the marriage 
 treaty. 
 
 " Luc. And what of all- this ? 
 
 Bion. I cannot tell ; expect they are busied about a 
 counterfeit * assurance : Take you assurance of her cum 
 privilegio ad imprimendum, solum : to the church j-^-take 
 the priest, clerk, and some sufficient honest witnesses." 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, yv, 4. 
 
 These protective privileges, " ad imprimendum 
 solum," instead of a benefit were a great hin- 
 drance to the growth of Printing. Many 
 master-printers even then felt them to be so, 
 
 * This word "counterfeit " in the sense of "reprint " 
 or " duplicatej" is certainly not used now-a-days by 
 English printers ; yet I find this in Marahren's Parallel 
 List of technical Typographical terms : — " Counterfeitj to, 
 or to Reprint, v., Nachdrucken. — Re-imprimer." With 
 Bibliographers the word is still retained j e.g. " Lyons 
 counterfeits of the Aldine editions." 
 
58 
 
 Restrictions 
 upon tlie 
 Press. 
 
 Kisses. 
 
 and by all legal and sometimes illegal means, 
 
 tried to procure the abolition of laws which 
 
 were oppressive and restrictive. They saw 
 
 works of merit die out of memory for want 
 
 of enterprise in the patentee — they saw folly, 
 
 in the shape of a Star-chamber, controlling 
 
 skill ; or as Shakspere himself expresses it, 
 
 ■ "Art made tongue-tied by authority. 
 
 And Folly (doctor-like),t controlling skill." 
 
 Sonnet Ixvi. 
 
 Shakspere abounds in kisses of every hue, 
 
 from shadowy, frozen, and Judas kisses, to 
 
 holy, true, gentle, tender, warm, sweet, loving, 
 
 dainty, kind, soft, long, hard, zealous, burning, 
 
 and even the unrequited kiss : — 
 
 " But my kisses bring again 
 Seals of love, but seal'd in vain." 
 
 Measure for Measure, iii, i. 
 
 •The " burning " kiss might be thought pas- 
 sionate and even durable enough for any 
 extremity — yet Shakspere prefers, perhaps from 
 an unconscious association of ideas, the dura- 
 bility of which Printing is the emblem when 
 he makes the Goddess of Love exclaim : — 
 
 " Pure lips, sweet seals on my soft lips imprinted." 
 
 Venus and Adonis, 1. 511. 
 
 t And Folly {doctor-like) controlling skill. It is worth 
 noting, that in none of the various volumes written to show 
 Shakspere's knowledge of medicine and medical men, has 
 the truth of this passage been brought forward in evidence. 
 
59 
 
 The same idea of durability is expressed in Kisses. 
 the cry of Henry's guilty Queen, when parting 
 with SuiFolk : — 
 
 " Ohj could this kiss be printed on thy hand ! " 
 
 2 Henry VI, m, 2. 
 
 The idea has been still further developed in 
 the following anonymous quatrain : — 
 
 A printer's kisses. 
 
 "Print on my lip another kiss. 
 
 The picture of my glowing passion. 
 Nay, this won't do — nor this, nor this ; 
 But now — Ay, that's a proof impression." 
 
 Many of Vautrollier's publications went Second 
 through several editions. In " the " Merry 
 Wives," II, I, Mistress Page says : — 
 
 " These are of the second edition," 
 
 and well can we imagine Shakspere handing 
 volumes to a buyer with the same remark, or 
 asking some patron with whom he was a 
 favourite : — " * 
 
 f . 
 " Com'^t thou with deep premeditated lines. 
 With written pamphlet studiously devised ?" 
 
 I Henry VI, iii, i, 
 
 as the author entered with a roll of "copy" in 
 his hand. 
 
6o 
 
 In the deep mine from which the foregoing 
 quotations have been dug, many others would 
 doubtless reward a more careful search. As it 
 is, numerous allusions, which, though plain to 
 a printer, would seem too forced to the general 
 public, have been passed over. Enough, how- 
 ever, has probably been brought forward to 
 justify the belief pourtrayed in the title-page, 
 viz. That Shahspere must have passed some of 
 his early years in a Printing-office. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A List of some Biographies of Shakspere, and of such 
 PTorhs as refer to the Dramatist's special know- 
 ledge of any subject, including all those quoted in 
 the preceding essay. 
 
(>?, 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The diief biographies of Shakspere are those by 
 Chalmers (Alex.), Cornwall (Barry), Dyce (Alex.), 
 Halliwell (J. O.), Knight (Charles), Johnson (Dr.), 
 Pope (Alex.); Rowe (Nicholas), Staunton (H.), and 
 Stbevens (George). 
 
 The works which treat of Shakspere's special 
 knowledge, of any particular subject, are as follows : — 
 
 Anonymous. — Bible Truths, with Shaksperean Parallels. 
 8vo. London, 1862. 
 
 Anonymous.— Religious and Moral Sentences, culled 
 from the Works of Shakspere, compared with 
 Sacred Passages drawn from Holy Writ. Bvo. 
 London, 1843. 
 
 Anonymous. — Historic doubts respecting Shakspere, 
 illustrating Infidel objections against the Bible. 
 i2mo. Philadelphia, 1853. 
 
 Anonymous. — Shakspere's Plays interpreted on the 
 principle of Races. (Literary Gazette, October, 
 
 1859). 
 
64 
 
 Anonymous. — Shakspere's Medical Knowledge. 8vo. 
 New York, 1865. 
 
 Anonymous. — New Exegesis of Shakespeare. Inter- 
 pretation of his principal characters and plays 
 on the principle of Races. 8vo. Edinburgh, 
 1859. 
 
 Aubrey (John). — ^The MSS. of this Antiquarian are 
 preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 
 
 Bacon (Delia). — ^The Philosophy of the Plays of Shak- 
 s'peare unfolded. 8vo. London, 1857. (Written 
 to prove that Lord Bacon wrote the Plays of 
 Shakspere). 
 
 Barlow (T. Worthington). — Notes on some of the 
 Birds mentioned in Shakspere's Plays. See The 
 Zoologist, 1846, vol. iv, pp. 1539-45. 
 
 Bettertqn (Thomas). — History of the English Stage. 
 8vo. London, 1741. 
 
 Birch (W. J.) — An Inquiry into the Philosophy and 
 ' ReUgion of Shakspeare. 8vo. London, 1848. 
 (Written to prove Shakspere an Atheist.) 
 
 BucKNiLL (J. C, M.Z).)-:-The Psychology of Shake- 
 speare. 8vo. London, 1859. ■ 
 
 BucKNiLL, (J. C, ikf.Z).)— The Medical Knowledge 
 of Shakspere. 8vo. London, i860. 
 
 BucKNiLL (J. C, ikf.Z>.)— The Mad Folk of Shake- 
 speare. Psychological Essays. 8vo. London, 
 1867. 
 
 Campbell (John, Lord). — Shakespeare's Legal Ac- 
 quirements considered. 8vo, London, 1859. 
 
CoHN (A.) — Shakspere in Germany. 4to. Berlin, 
 1865. 
 
 Cosmopolite. — Shakespeare: Was he a Christian? 
 8vo. Newcastle-under-Lyne, 1862. 
 
 Eaton (Rev. J. R. E.) — Shakespeare and the Bible. 
 8vo. London, i860. 
 
 Farmer (Richard, D.D.) — An Essay on the Learning 
 of Shakspeare. 8vo. London, 1821. 
 
 Farren (G.) — Observations on the Laws of Mortality 
 and Disease ; with an Appendix on the Progress 
 of Mania, Melancholia, Craziness, and Demono- 
 mania, as displayed in the Characters of Lear, 
 Hamlet, Ophelia, and Edgar. 8vo. London, 
 1829. 
 
 Fennell (J. H.) — Shakespeare Cyclopaedia, or a classir 
 fied and elucidated Summary of Shakespeare's 
 Knowledge of the Works and Phenomena of 
 Nature. Part I, Zoology. 8vo. London, 1862. 
 (All published). • 
 
 Fritzart (Fr.) — War Shakspeare ein Christ ? Shak- 
 speare war nicht ganz Shakspeare. Oder liber das 
 christliche Prinzip in der romantisch-dtamatischen 
 Poesie. 
 
 H. T. — Was Shakspere a Lawyer? 8vo. London, 
 1871. 
 
 Harting (J. E., F.L.S., F.Z.S.)—Th.e Ornithology of 
 Shakespeare critically examined, explained, and 
 illustrated. 8vo. London, 1871. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 Holmes (Nathaniel). — The Authorship of Shakspeare. 
 8vo. New York, 1867. (Written to prove that 
 Lord Bacon wrote the Plays of Shakspere), 
 
 Kellogg (A. O., M.D.) — Shakspeare's Delineations 
 of Insanity, Imbecility, and Suicide. Svo. New 
 York, 1866. 
 
 Patterson (Robert).— Notes upon the Reptiles men- 
 tioned in Shakspeare's Plays. See The Zoologist, 
 1843, vol. i, pp. 2,49-253, 3 1 7-3 20; 1844, vol. ii, 
 
 PP- 385-393- 
 Patterson (Robert). — Letters on the Natural History 
 of the Insects mentioned in Shakspeare's Plays. 
 Svo. London, 1838. 
 
 Price (Rev. Thos.) — The Wisdom and Genius of 
 Shakespeare. i2mo. London, 1838. 
 
 Rambler (The). A CathoHc Journal and Review. — 
 Was Shakespeare a Catholic? Part VII, 1854. 
 
 Rankin. — The Philosophy of Shakespeare, extracted 
 from his Plays, and interspersed with Remarks. 
 i2mo. London, 1841. 
 
 Rush(W.L.) — Shakspeare a Lawyer. i2mo. Liverpool, 
 1858. 
 
 Smith (C. Roach).— The Rural Life of Shakspere, as 
 illustrated by his Works. Svo. London, 1S70. 
 
 Smith (W. H.) — Was Lord Bacon the Author of 
 Shakspeare's Plays ? Svo. London, 1856. 
 
 Stearns (C. W., MZ).)— Shakespere's Medical Know- 
 ledge. i2mo. London, 1865. 
 
67 
 
 Thoms (W. J.) ^Three Notelets on Shakespeare. 
 I. Shakespeare in Germany. 
 II. The Folk-lore of Shakespeare. 
 III. Was Shakespeare ever a Soldier ? 
 8vo. London, 1865. 
 
 Vehse (Dr. E. Von). — Shakespeare als Protestant, 
 Politiker, Psycholog, &c. i2mo. Hamburg, 185 1. 
 
 Wadd, (W.) — A Medico-Chirurgical Commentary on 
 Shakespeare (^Quarterly Journal of Science of the 
 Royal Institution, 1829). 
 
 Watson (J.) — Religious and Moral Sentences culled 
 from the Writings of Shakespeare, compared with 
 Passages drawn from Holy Writ. 8vo. London, 
 1847. 
 
 Whalley (P.) — An Inquiry into the Learning of 
 Shakspeare ; with Remarks on several Passages of 
 his Plays. 8vo. London, 1748. 
 
 Wordsworth (C, Bishop of St. Andrews). — On 
 Shakspeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible. 
 8vo. London, 1864. 
 
 F a 
 
ON SOME COMMON 
 
 TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS, 
 
 WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE 
 
 TO THE TEXT OF SHAKSPERE. 
 
 ■S* "S* •S* "S* 'V "X* ^X' ■^* ^C •^y ^B' ^P "P "^ ^^ ■X* ■X* ^^ ■%* "^S 
 A J^ J\ J\ J^ ^ ^ ^ ^ J\ JK ^ J^ ^ J^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
5^ 
 
71 
 
 ON SOME COMMON TYPOGRAPHICAL 
 
 ERRORS, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
 
 THE TEXT OF SHAKSPERE. 
 
 ' The true restoration of a single line' in Shakespeare is well worth 
 the best volume of any other English writer." 
 ' Halliwell. 
 
 D'IsRAELi, in his Curiosities of Literature, makes men- 
 tion of a religious work, which, consisting of only 172 
 pages, had an Errata at the end occupying 15 pages. 
 This was an unlucky pamphlet, and in the preface the 
 author expresses his firm belief that Satan himself had 
 tampered with the types, and that the very printers 
 must have worked under the personal influence of the 
 same malignant power. But, without going down quite 
 so deep for a reason, we may take it for granted that 
 in any book, each page of which contains possibly 
 more than 3,000 separate types, there must in the 
 nature of things, be certain typographical errors and 
 oversights, some of which wiU escape both the eye 
 and the ear of even the most practised reader. As 
 Moore says : — 
 
 " 'Tis dreadful to think what provoking mistakes 
 The vile Printing Press in one's prosody makes." 
 
 Fudges in England. 
 
72 
 
 Now, these typographical blunders will, in the majority 
 of cases, be found to fall into one of three classes, 
 viz. : — 
 
 Errors of the ear; 
 
 Errors of the eye ; and 
 
 Errors from what, in printers' language, is called 
 " a foul case." 
 
 The first two classes I will pass in rapid review, the 
 main object of these remarks being to draw attention 
 to the third, which as a source of corruption does not 
 seem hitherto to have received that attention from the 
 students of Shakspere which it deserves. 
 
 I. Errors of the Ear. — Every compositor when at 
 work reads over a few words of his copy, and retains 
 them in his mind until his fingers have picked up the 
 various types belonging to them. While the memory 
 is thus repeating to itself a phrase, it is by no means 
 unnatural, nor in practice is it uncommon, for some 
 word or words to become unwittingly supplanted in 
 the mind by others which are similar in sound. It 
 was simply a mental transposition of syllables that 
 made the actor exclaim : — 
 
 " My Lord, stand back, and let the parson cough," 
 instead of 
 
 " My Lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass." 
 
 Richard III, i, 2 ; 
 and by a slight confusion of sound the word mistake 
 might appear in type as must take. 
 
 " So you mistake your husbands." 
 
 Hamlet, iii, 2. 
 
73 
 
 Again, idle votarist would easily become idol votarist. 
 
 " I am no idle votarist." 
 
 Timon, iv, 3. 
 
 and long delays become transformed to longer days. 
 
 " This done, see that you take no long delays." 
 
 Titus, iv, 2. 
 
 From the time of Gutenberg until now this similarity 
 of sound has been a fruitful source of error among 
 printers. 
 
 II. Errors of the Eye.-— The eye often misleads 
 the hand of the compositor, especially if he be at work 
 upon a crabbed manuscript or a worn-out reprint. 
 Take away a dot and This time goes manly, becomes 
 
 " This tune goes manly." 
 
 Macbeth, iv, 3. 
 
 So a clogged letter turns What beast was't then into 
 What boast wast then. 
 
 " Lady M. What least was't then. 
 
 That made you break this enterprise to me." 
 
 Macbeth, 1, 7. 
 
 Examples might be indefinitely multiplied from many 
 an old book, soT will quote but one more instance. 
 The word preserve spelt with a long s might without 
 much carelessness be misread preferre (" i Henry VI," 
 III, 1), and thus entirely alter the sense. 
 
 III. Errors from a " foul case.'WThis class of errors 
 is of an entirely different kind from the two former. 
 They came from within the man, and were from the 
 
74 . 
 
 brain : this is from without, mechanical in its origin 
 as well as in its commission. As many readers may 
 never have seen the inside of a printing office, the fol- 
 lowing short explanation may be found useful : — A 
 " case " is a shallow wooden drawer, divided into nume- 
 rous square receptacles called "boxes," and into each 
 box is put one sort of letter only, say all a's, or b's, or 
 c's. The compositor works with two of these cases 
 slanting up in front of him, and, when from a shake, a 
 slip, or any other accident, the letters become mis- 
 placed, the result is technically known as " a foul case." 
 A further result is, that the fingers of the workman, 
 although going to the proper box, will often pick up a 
 wrong letter, he being entirely unconscious the while 
 of the fact. 
 
 Now, if we can discover any law which governs 
 this abnormal position of the types — if, for instance, 
 we can predicate that the letter o, when away from its 
 own, will be more frequently found in the box appro- 
 priated to letter a, than any other — that b has a general 
 tendency to visit the / box, and / the v box — ^and that 
 d, if away from home, will be almost certainly found 
 among the ns ; if we can show this, we shall then lay 
 a good foundation for the re-examination of many cor- 
 rupt or disputed readings in the text of Shakspere, 
 some of which may receive fresh life from such a 
 treatment. 
 
 To start with, let us obtain a definite idea of the 
 arrangement of the types in both " upper" and " lower" 
 case in the time of Shakspere — a time when long s's, 
 
75 
 
 with the logotypes ct,ff,Ji,ji,ffi,jgi, sb, sh, si, si, ss, ssi, 
 ssl, and others, were in daily use. There are several 
 representations of old cases in early-printed books, but 
 these are all adapted for " black-letter," the combina- 
 tions and logotypes of which varied considerably from 
 those of the Roman letter. The earliest representation 
 of Roman cases, as used in England, may be seen in 
 that very rare book Moxons Mechanical Exercises, 
 1683 ; and this was undoubtedly the same as in 1632, 
 the date of the First Folio Edition of Shakspere, and 
 remained without change until the abandonment of 
 the long s and its combinations, which took place at 
 the commencement of the present century. 
 
 The design at the beginning of this Tract repre- 
 sents a pair of cases as used by printers in the seven- 
 teenth century. The boxes not marked, being without 
 a definite appropriation, were filled with accented letters, 
 zodiacal, or other signs, according to the language or 
 nature of the work about to be printed. The only 
 accents used in the First Folio were the long vowels, 
 which served to show contractions : as the most handy 
 position, these would be placed as shown in the 
 diagram. 
 
 The chief cause of a " foul " case was the same in 
 Shakspere's time as now ; and no one interested in the 
 subject should omit visiting a printing-oflSce, where he 
 could personally inspect the operation. Suppose a 
 compositor at work " distributing ;" the ' upper and 
 lower cases, one above the other, slant at a consider- 
 able angle towards him, and as the types fall quickly 
 
76 
 
 from his ^ngers they form conical heaps in their re- 
 respective boxes, spreading out in a manner very 
 similar to the sand in the lower half of an hour-glass. 
 Now, if the compositor allows his case to become too 
 full, the topmost letters in each box will certainly slide 
 down into the box below, and occasionally, though 
 rarely, into one of the side boxes. When such letters^ 
 escape notice, they necessarily cause erroneous spelling, 
 and sometimes entirely change the whole meaning of 
 a sentence. 
 
 But now comes the important question. Are errors 
 of this kind ever discovered, and especially do they 
 occur in Shakspere ? Doubtless they do, but to what 
 extent a long and careful examination alone can show. 
 As examples merely, and to show the possible change 
 in sense made by a single wrong letter, I wiU quote 
 one or two instances : — 
 
 " Were they not Jorc'd with those that should be ours. 
 We might have met them darefull, beard to beard." 
 
 Macleth, V, 3. 
 
 The word forced should be read farced, the letter 
 having evidently dropped down into the a box. The 
 enemy's ranks were not forced with Macbeth's fol- 
 lowers, but farced or filled up. In MurreWs Cookery, 
 i6;^2,, the very year of the First Folio, this identical 
 word is used several times ; we there see that a farced 
 leg of mutton was when the meat was all taken out of 
 the skin, mixed with herbs, &c., and then the skin 
 filled up again. 
 
 fitCcW. % £i/U-H^^i.Uo f^ tji'ieA) ^ii.6^h /iey IiJvli. 1iJi{' It^J-A.^-^^ 
 
" I come to thee for charitable license, ... to loole our dead." ^"^^ '^^JlA^ 
 
 Henry, V, iv, 2. ^^^^^ Az:r 
 So all the copies, but "to book" is surely a modern •■2:*«^ u^l^ 97^1. 
 commercial phrase, and the Herald here asked leave ^/^^t^ • 
 simply to "look," or to examine, the dead, for the 
 purpose of giving honourable burial to their men of 
 rank. In the same sense Sir W. Lucie, in the First 
 Part of " Henry VI," says : — 
 
 " I come to know what prisoners thou hast tane. 
 And to survey the bodies of the dead." 
 
 We cannot imagine an officer with pen, inkhorn, 
 and paper, at a period when very few could write, 
 " booking " the dead. We may, I think, take it for 
 granted that here the letter b had fallen over into the 
 / box. 
 
 In " Troilus and Cressida," II, 2), we find : — 
 " Reason and respect 
 Make Liuers pale and lusty hood deject." 
 
 The change of livers to lovers is not very satisfac- 
 tory; nevertheless, an i in the box would be no 
 unlikely mischance. 
 
 In "All's Well that Ends Well," IV, 7:— 
 '' We must away ; 
 Our Wagdn is prepar'd and time revives vls." 
 
 Here revives is nonsense, and an evident misprint for 
 
 reviles. (&r^ -<^ ct-u^-) •&. h-^iflJ- ^-t-^ cAji.^^. . M^^Ia^cj pcM-^J}: /d- 
 
 "No scope of nature" (King John," III, 4), has <2aj^^<i<i ^ 
 bfeen thought by many good critics to be a misprint ^,j^^,^;^^^«i,^ 
 for scape?^^Yxom a typographical point of view, the^^-^^'^ 
 change of letter is by no means unlikely to happen. 
 Perhaps from the same cause the word stronds, which 
 
is found in "King Henry IV," I, i, should be spelt 
 strands, a form not uncommon in Shakspere's time. 
 
 I think sufficient evidence has now been produced 
 to show the possibility, if not the probability, of erro- 
 neous readings having crept into the text through 
 technical accidents, and I am convinced that the appli- 
 cation of the test afforded by the diagram to the whole 
 works of Shakspere would produce some noteworthy 
 results. Before leaving the subject, however, the reader 
 should be warned to notice the double and treble letters 
 marked in the diagram, and so avoid a wrong deduc- 
 tion. For instance, the change of light into sight must 
 not be considered as a question of a single letter — of s 
 in the / box : the diagram shows si in one piece, which 
 could never be taken by mistake from the / box. And 
 so with the other logotypes. — (From The Athenaum, 
 January 27, 1872.) 
 
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