747 



STOW, JOHN. 



STOW, JOHN. 



748 



so; and in the dedication of his 'Annals' to Archbishop Whitgift, 

 dated 24th November 1600, he says, "It is now nigh forty years 

 . . . . since I first addressed all my cares and cogitations to the 

 study of histories aud search of antiquities." 



The accounts that have been given of Stow's publications are for 

 the most part very defective, confused, and contradictory. Passing 

 over for the present his ' Survey of London/ about which there is no 

 difficulty, we will first exhibit the statements we have met with as 

 to his other works, that have the air of having been drawn up with 

 the greatest care : 



I. Strype, in an elaborate ' Life of Stow,' extending to 27 double- 

 columned folio pages, prefixed to bis edition of the 'Survey of London,' 

 tells us that the first book Stow put forth of the history of England 

 was his ' Summary of the Chronicles of England,' from the coming in 

 of Brute unto his own time; tliat he set about this in 1562, on the 

 suggestion of Lord Robert Dudley (afterwards the famous Earl of 

 Leicester) ; that when the work was published (it is not said in what 

 year), it was dedicated, " with the continuation and increase thereof 

 from time to time," to that nobleman ; that not long after, namely, in 

 1573, it was enlarged and reprinted, and again dedicated to Leicester, 

 in an address in which Stow speaks of his lordship's "generous 

 acceptation of many works presented unto him by others as well as 

 himself," and states that " he fell upon the study and pains of 

 examining and collecting of this English history five years before he 

 set forth this Summary;" that before this larger Summary came 

 forth, he had published several lesser Summaries ; that " after twenty- 

 five years " (it is not said from what time), his fortune growing low, 

 he addressed a petition to the lord mayor and aldermen, in which, as 

 Strype quotes the words from the original, though without giving us 

 the date of the paper, he represented that for the space of twenty-five 

 years past (besides his ' Chronicle,' dedicated to the Earl of Leicester), 

 he had set forth various Summaries dedicated to the lord mayor, 

 aldermen, and commoners of the city, and that he minded shortly, if 

 God so permitted, to set forth a far larger Summary or Chronicle of 

 the city and citizens thereof than had yet been published ; that some 

 years after he addressed another petition to the mayor and aldermen, 

 in which, after telling them that he was of the age of threescore years 

 and four, he goes on, as before, to speak of the Chronicles (not 

 Chronicle) and divers Summaries he had set forth, " for the space of 

 almost thirty years last past ; " that after his Summary, he published, 

 in the year 1600 (now after near forty years study of history) his 

 ' Flores Historiarum,' that is, his ' Annals of this land,' from the time 

 of the ancient Britons to his own, "which," however, "were nothing 

 else but his Summary greatly enlarged ; " that " this book was set 

 forth again in the year 1605, by Stow himself, with enlargements, in 

 the black letter, in a thick quarto ; " that he intended to publish, or 

 leave to posterity, a far larger volume, but died before he could 

 accomplish that design ; " and where that laborious work of his is," 

 adds Strype, " I know not; only we are told that he left the same in 

 his study, orderly written, ready for the press ; but that it came to 

 nothing. We all know that another edition of the Annals was set 

 forth in folio by Edmond Howes, some years after the author's death. 

 IVrhaps those historical collections are preserved in the curious 

 repository of Sir Simonds Dewes, as some say the rest of Stow's 

 books and papers are, many of which are now reposited in the incom- 

 parable library of manuscripts erected by the Earl of Oxford and 

 Mortimer." Such is the substance of between four and five long 

 wordy columns which Strype devotes to the matter. " So that," he 

 concludes, " Stow's histories, which he collected and wrote, were 

 three, viz., his Chronicle, his Summary of Chronicles, and his Annals. 

 The two latter he printed ; but that Chronicle which he called his 

 largest work was never printed." 



II. The account given by the writer of the article on Stow in the 

 'Biographia Britannica,' is, that his 'Summary of the Chronicles of 

 England first appeared in 1565; that it was reprint -d with additions 

 and improvements in 1570, 1575, aud 1590, and, with a continuation 

 by Edmond Howes, in 1607, 1610, 1611, and 1618 ; that an abridge- 

 ment of this ' Summary' appeared in 1566, and was reprinted with 

 continuations in 1567, 1573, 1579,1584, 1587, 1598, and 1604 ; that 

 there was an edition of the 'Summary,' under the title of 'Annales,' 

 published in 4to in 1592; but that his 'Andals,' properly so called, 

 iirst appeared in 1600, under the title of 'Flores Historiarum, or 

 Annals of England ; ' and finally, that " from his papers Edmond 

 Howes published afterwards that folio volume which goes under the 

 name of Stow's Chronicle," first in 1615, and again in 1631, but that 

 "even this doth not contain all that 'far longer work' which Mr. 

 Stow mentions', aud intended to have published, leaving it in his 

 study orderly written, ready for the press." The manuscript, it is 

 added, "is not in the British Museum, with others of our author's 

 manuscripts," which, as already stated, were among those of the Earl 

 of Oxford, now forming what is called the Harleian Collection. 



III. Watt, in his ' Bibliotheca Britannica,' makes Stow to be the 

 author of no fewer than four different printed works on English 

 history, namely 1, his ' Summary of English Chronicles,' of which 

 there were editions, in 8vo, in 1565, 1570, 1575, 1579, 1590, and with 

 continuations by Howes, in 1607, 1610, 1611, and 1618; 2, his 'Sum- 

 mary of Chronicles abridged,' printed in 8vo, in 1566, 1567, and 1579 ; 

 3, his 'Chronicles of England,' published, in 4to, in 1580, 1584, 1587, 



1592, and, under the title of 'Flores Historarium, or Annals of this 

 Kingdom,' in 1600 and 1604, each time with a continuation; 4, his 

 ' Annals, or a General Chronicle of England,' 12mo, 1573 ; 4to, 1592 ; 

 16mo, 1598 ; 4to, 1602, 1605, aud, continued by Howes, folio, 1614-15 ; 

 and again 1631. This account appears to be a mere jumble of 

 blunders, made up from the ' Biographia Britannica,' and probably 

 the entries in some booksellers' catalogues. 



It does not appear that there are really more than two historical 

 works of Stow's which can properly be called different, namely, his 

 ' Summary ' and his ' Annals.' 



1. The earliest edition of the 'Summary ' was unquestionably pub- 

 lished in 1561, of which there is a copy supposed to be unique, in the 

 valuable library collected by the Right Hon. T. Grenville, and pre- % 

 sented by him to the British Museum. He seems to have reprinted 

 editions of this work very frequently, probably, as Mr. Thorns sug- 

 gests (' Life and Writings of John Stow,' prefixed to his edition of the 



' Survey of London '), " one for every year," and severally dedicated ' 

 to the lord-mayor and aldermen, by name, for the time being. Several 

 of these later editions, published during Stow's life, are in the British 

 Museum. The first edition of the ' Summary ' that we have met with 

 published after Stow's death is entitled 'The Abridgment of the 

 English Chronicle, first collected by M. John Stow, and after him 

 augmented with very memorable antiquities, and continued with 

 matters forreine and domeaticall, unto the end of the yeare 1610, by 

 E. H., gentleman ; imprinted at London for the Company of Stationers, 

 1611.' This volume is a 12mo, in black letter, like its predecessors ; 

 but the type is larger, and it does not seem to contain, with the 

 exception of the Continuation, much more than what Stow had 

 already printed, although Howes, the editor, tells us that, besides the 

 time the present edition had cost him, he had laboured five years on 

 the preceding edition of the work, which appears to have been pub- 

 lished in 16t)7. The present volume has two dedications, one to Sir 

 Henry Rowe, who was lord mayor in 1607, the other to Sir William 

 Craven, who was elected to that office in 1610. Stow's ' Summary ' 

 seems to have been in constant demand for half a century after its 

 first publication ; it was the popular manual of our national history ; 

 hence the book was laid hold of by the Stationers' Company, who 

 probably brought out new impressions of it every three or four years, 

 continued to the date of publication like their almanacs and other 

 similar handbooks. 



2. Of the ' Annals,' the first edition was published in 1580. A copy 

 now before us, in 4to aud black letter, wants the title-page, but appeais 

 to have been printed in 1592, to which year the history is brought 

 dowu. At the end, on p. 1295, the author, addressing the " good 

 reader," says, " I desire thee to take these rny labours in good part, 

 like as I have painfully to my great cost and charges, and not for hire, 

 out of many old hidden histories, and true records of antiquity, 

 brought the same to light, and freely, for thy great commodity, 

 bestowed them upon thee : so shalt thou encourage me to publish a 

 larger volume and history of this island, princes of the same, and 

 accidents of their times, which I have gathered, and is ready to the 

 press, when God shall permit me." Stow's 'Annals,' although of 

 course mentioning the same facts, with inauy others, as his 'Summary,' 

 is altogether a different work from that: even this edition of 1592 must 

 contain at least ten times as much matter as the most extended edition 

 of the ' Summary.' Another edition, also iu 4to and black letter, ;i 

 copy of which is in the British Museum, is entitled ' The Anuales of 

 England ; faithfully collected out of the most authenticall authors, 

 records, and other monuments of antiquity; lately collected, since 

 encreased, and continued from the first habitation untill this i 



year 1605; by John Snow, Citizen of London. Imprinted at London 

 for George Bishop and Thomas Adams. Cum privilegio regise inajes- 

 tatis.' This edition has the dedication to Whitgift, dated 1600, already 

 mentioned, and also a ' Preface or Address to the Reader,' which con- 

 tains the greater part of the Dedication prefixed to the various 

 editions of the 'Summary,' and inscribed to the lord mayor for the 

 time being. In his dedication to Whitgift the author states that 

 his laborious collections have now at length grown into a large 

 volume, " which," he says, " I was willing to have committed to the 

 press, had not the printer, for some private respects, been more 

 desirous to publish Annals at this present;" and he afterwards 

 expresses his hope of the archbishop's favourable acceptance of the 

 present work, as but part of that which he "intended in a more large 

 volume." In his Preface also he describes this edition of his ' Annals ' 

 as an abstract of a far larger work which he has gathered, and meant 

 to have published ; and at the end of the 'Chronicle,' on p. 1438, after 

 soliciting as usual the reader's favourable acceptance of his labours, he 

 adds, " So shalt thou encourage me, if God permit me life, to publish 

 or to leave to posterity a far larger volume, lon since by me laboured, 

 at the request and commandment of the Rev. Father Matthew Parker, 

 Archbishop of Canterbury ; but he then deceasing, my book was pre- 

 vented by printing and reprinting (without warrant or well-liking) of 

 Rayner Wolfe's Collection, and other late comers, by the name of 

 Raphael Holingshead his Chronicles." We doubt if, with the exception 

 of the continuation, there be almost anything in this edition of the 

 'Annals' which is not in the preceding edition of 1592. IS" or does 

 there appear to be much added to the portion of which Stow is the 

 author in either of the editions published after his death by Howes 



