Feb. 18. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



143 



LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1854. 



REMARKABLE IMPRINTS. 



More than one pen has considered titles, dedi- 

 cations, and imprints worth a Note, and as there 

 are still gleanings in their track, I take the liberty 

 of sending you a few of the latter ; some from my 

 common-place book, others from the fountain- 

 heads on my own shelves, but all drawn at random, 

 without much regard to classification or chrono- 

 logical arrangement. 



The horrors of the Star Chamber and the Ec- 

 clesiastical Courts produced many extraordinary 

 imprints, particularly to those seditious books of 

 the Puritans, better known as the Marprelaie 

 Family ; works which were printed by ambulatory 

 presses, and circulated by unseen hands, now under 

 the walls of Archiepiscopal Lambeth, and presto 1 

 (when the spy would lay his hands upon them) 

 sprite-like, Martin re-appeared in the provinces ! 

 This game at hide and seek between the brave old 

 Nonconformists and the Church, went on for 

 years without detection : but the readers of " N. 

 & Q." do not require from me the history of the 

 Marprelate Faction, so well told already in the 

 Miscellanies of Literature and elsewhere ; the 

 animus of these towards the hierarchy will be 

 sufficiently exhibited for my purpose in a few of 

 their imprints. An Almond for a Parrot, for 

 example, purports to be — 



" Imprynted at a place not farre from a place ; by 

 the Assignes of Signior Some-body, and are to be soulde 

 at his shoppe in Trouble-Knave Street." 



Again, Oh read ouer D. John Bridges, for it is a 

 worthy work, is 



" Printed ouer sea, in Europe, within two forlongs 

 of a Bouncing Priest, at the Cost and Charges of 

 Martin Marprelate, Gent, 1589." 



The Return of the renowned Cavaliero Pasquill 

 has the following extraordinary imprint : 



" If my breath be so bote that I burne my mouthe, 

 I suppose I was printed by Pepper Allie, 1589." 



The original "Marprelate" was John Penri, 

 who at last fell into the hands of his enemies, and 

 was executed under circumstances of great bar- 

 barity in Elizabeth's reign. " Martin Junior," 

 however, sprung up, and The Counter- Cuffe to 

 him is — 



" Printed between the Skye and the Grounde, wythin 

 a Myle of an Oake, and not many Fields off from the 

 unprivileged Presse of the Ass-ignes of Martin Junior, 

 1589." 



The yirulency of this theological warfare died 

 away in James's reign, but only to be renewed with 

 equal rancour in that of Charles, when Marpre- 



latism was again called into activity by the high- 

 church freaks of Archbishop Laud. Vox Borealis, 

 or a Northerne Discoverie by way of Dialogue be- 

 tween Jamie and Willie, is an example of these 

 later attacks upon the overbearing of the mitre, 

 and affords the imprint — 



" Amidst the Babylonians. Printed by Margery 

 Marprelate, in Thwack- Coat Lane, at the Signe of the 

 Crab- Tree Cudgell, without any privilege of the 

 Cater-Caps, 1641." 



Others of this stamp will occur to your readers : 

 this time the Puritans had the best of the struggle, 

 and ceased not to push their advantage until they 

 brought their enemy to the block. 



When the liberty of the press was imperfectly 

 understood, the political satirist had to tread 

 warily ; consequently we find that class of writers 

 protecting themselves by jocular or patriotic im- 

 prints. A satirical pamphlet upon the late Sicke 

 Commons is "Printed in the Happie Year 1641." 

 A Letter from Nobody in the City to Nobody in the 

 Country is "Printed by Somebody, 1679." Some- 

 body's Answer is " Printed for Anybody." These 

 were likely of such a tendency as would have ren- 

 dered both author and printer amenable to some- 

 body, say Judge Jeffries. During the administra- 

 tion of Sir Robert Walpole, there were many 

 skirmishing satirists supported by both ministry 

 and people, such as James Miller, whose pamphlet, 

 contra, Are these things so? is "Printed for the 

 perusal of all Lovers of their Country, 1740." 

 This was answered by the ministers' champion, 

 James Dance, alias Love, in Yes, they are ! alike 

 addressed to the " Lovers of their Country." 

 What of That? was the next of the series, being 

 Miller's reply, who intimated this time that it was 

 " Printed, and to be had of all True Hearts and 

 Sound Bottoms." 



When there was a movement for an augmenta- 

 tion of the poor stipends of the Scots Clergy in 

 1750, there came out a pamphlet under the title of 

 The Presbyterian Clergy seasonably detected, 1751, 

 which exceeds in scurrility, if possible, the famous, 

 or infamous, Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Dis- 

 played; both author and printer, however, had so 

 much sense as to remain in the background, and 

 the thing purported to be "Printed for Mess 

 John in Fleet Street." Under the title of The 

 Comical History of the Marriage betwixt Hep- 

 tarchus and Fergusia, 1 706 *, the Scots figured the 

 union of the Lord Heptarchus, or England, with 

 the independent, but coerced, damsel Fergusia, or 

 Scotland; the discontented church of the latter 



* G. Chalmers ascribed this to one "Balantyne." 

 In Lockhart's Memoirs, Lond. 1714, Mr. John Balan- 

 tyne, the minister of Lanark, is noticed as the most 

 uncompromising opponent of the Union. I shall 

 therefore assign the Comical History to him until I find 

 a better claimant. 



