2n"» S. No 63., Jan. 3. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, \m. 

 OUR NEW VOLUME. 



A Happy New Year to You Gentle Eeaders, Valued 

 Contributors, Kind Friends ! Seven times have we thus 

 greeted You at the opening Year ; and never with greater 

 heartiness and sincerity than on this 8rd of January, 

 1857. 



For seven years have We now, with your assistance, 

 been digging in the wide fields of Literature and History 

 for the golden grains of Truth. With what success maj-- 

 be learned, not only from our own fourteen goodly volumes, 

 but from the acknowledgments of many a scholar. 



We are proud of such testimonies to our usefulness. 

 They are a reward for our past labours — a stimulus to in- 

 creased exertions. And so — A Happy New Year to 



us ALL. 



BINGULAB IMPKINTS TO CLP BOOKS. 



Books which have been secretly printed are 

 generally indicated by some disguised imprint; 

 generally metaphorically expressing the senti- 

 ments of the party from whence they emanated. 

 A valuable paper on these imprints has been given 

 by your learned correspondent J. O., in the First 

 Series of " N. & Q." (ix. 143.) ; and a continua- 

 tion from the same pen would, I feel assured, be 

 most gladly welcomed by your numerous readers. 

 My note-book contains a few jottings of this kind, 

 which I have written out, in the hopes that others 

 will follow my example and contribute their mite 

 towards forming a more perfect collection of 

 " remarkable imprints." I cannot do better than 

 preface my brief list by a note from the Intro- 

 duction to the second volume of the Catalogue of 

 the London Institution : 



" Books which have been secretly produced from the 

 press are generally indicated by some peculiarity in the 

 imprint and date, the usual information of which is either 

 disguised or altogether omitted; and such imprints ap- 

 pear to exhibit principally the following varieties. The 

 first, which is the most numerous, includes such books as 

 have simply the words ' printed at London,' or ' printed 

 in the year,' or 'Anno Domini,' or occasionally some 

 indefinite initials, as 'printed by A. B. for C. D.' 

 Another practice was the disguising of the name of the 

 place whereat the work was printed, under a translated 

 form, or a title purely fictitious, as ' Eleutheropolis;' or 

 it was occasionally falsified by the substitution of one 

 place for another, or by the insertion of a nation for a 

 city. * * A third kind of disguised imprint consists of a 

 metaphorical expression of the sentiments of the party 

 publishing the tract ; as in the instance of a pamphlet 

 issued against the engagement of fidelity to the Common- 

 wealth, as being contrary to the terms of the Solemn 

 League and Covenant, the imprint is 'London, printed 

 by the Company of Covenant-keepers dwelling in 

 Great Britain.' In this species of imprint, the allusion 

 was sometimes concealed vmder apparently real names 



and places ; as in one of the many tracts published with 

 the design of bringing on the Restoration, it is stated to 

 be 'printed for Charles Prince, and are to be sold at the 

 east end of St. Paul's.' A fourth method of disguising 

 the imprint referred to the time, which was characterised 

 by some remarkable political or religious feature of the 

 period : as in a tract relating to the impeachment of the 

 twelve Bishops, the date is 'printed in the new yeare of 

 the Bishops feare: Anno Dom. 1642.' A fifth sort of 

 spurious imprint may be noticed, as expressing some 

 kind of concealed authority for the publication of the 

 work ; an instance of which may be given from the title- 

 page of a tract written in vindication of the proceedings 

 of the parliamentary army under Sir Thomas Fairfax, 

 which is dated ' Oxford, printed by J. H. and H. H., and 

 commanded to be published for the information of the 

 oppressed Commons of England, 1647.'" 



1. "De Vera Obedientia, b}"- Bishop Gardiner. Printed 

 in Borne before the Castle of St. Angela, at the Signe of 

 St. Peter, 1553." 



2. " The Schollar's Purgatory Discovered in the Sta- 

 tioners' Commonwealth. Imprinted for the Honest Sta- 

 tioners, n. d." 



3. " The Reasonable Motion in the Behalfe of such of 

 the Clergie as are now questioned in Parliament for their 

 Places. Printed in the Unfortunate Yeare to Priests, 

 1641." 



4. " Mercurie's Message, a Poem addressed to the late 

 Famous now Infamous Arch-bishop William [Laud] of 

 Canterbury. Printed in the Yeare of our Prelate's Feare, 

 1641." 



5. " England's Petition to their King. Printed on the 

 Day of Jacob's trouble, and to mane way, in hope, for its 

 Deliverance out of it. May 5th, 1643." 



6. " England's Third Alarme to Warre. London, 

 printed for Thomas Underhill, in the Second Yeare of the 

 Beast's wounding, warring against the Lamb a?id those that 

 are with him; called, chosen, and fuithfuU, 1643." 



7. " The Citie's Warning Piece, in the Malignant's 

 Description and Conversion [relating to the Siege of 

 Cirencester.] Printed in the leere that every Knave and 

 Fool turned Cavaleere [1643]." 



8. "One Argument more against the Cavaliers. Printed 

 in the Yeare when Men thinke what they list, and speahe 

 and write what they think, 1643."" 



9. " Plain English, a Tract Avritten by Edward Bowles. 

 Printed {unless Men be more carefull, and God the more 

 merciful,') the last Year of Liberty, 1643." 



10. " Mar Priest, Son of Old Martin ; the Arraignment 

 of Mr. Persecution presented to the Consideration of the 

 House of Commons, and all the Common People. Europe, 

 printed by Martin Clawe- Clergie, Printer to the Revererid 

 Assembly of Divines, for Bartholomew Bang-Priest, and 

 are to be sould at his Shop in Toleration Street, 1645." 



11. "The Kentish Faj're, or the Parliament sold to 

 their best worth. Printed at Rochester, and are to he sold 

 to all those that dure to buy them. 1648." 



12. " The Cookoo's Nest at Westminster ; or the Par- 

 liament between the Two Lady-birds, Queen Fairfax and 

 Lady Cromwell. Printed in Cuckoo-time, in a Hollow 

 Tree, 1648." 



13. " The Hunting of the Foxes from New-Market 

 and Triploe-heath to White-hall by Five small Beagles. 

 Printed in a Corner of Freedom e, right opposite the Covncel 

 of Warre, Anno Domini 1649." 



14. " Lieut.-Col. Lilburne's Liberties of the People of 

 England asserted and vindicated. Printed in the Grand 

 Yeere of Dissimulation, 1649." 



15. "The Second Part of the Tragi-Comedy called 

 Newmarket- Fayre, or Mrs. Parliament's new Figaryes. 

 Printed at you may go Look, 1649." 



