A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898Plomer, Henry R. (Henry Robert)
History
A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898
Plomer, Henry R. (Henry Robert)
England -- Imprints; Printing -- England -- History
Take as an example the little duodecimo entitled _Instructions for
Forreine Travell_, which came from the pen of James Howell, and was
printed by T. B., no doubt Thomas Brudnell, for Humphrey Moseley. Some
of the founts, especially the larger Roman, are very unevenly and badly
cast, but on the whole the presswork was carefully done. The same may
also be said of the folio edition of Sir R. Baker's _Chronicle_,
published in 1643. In this case we do not know who was the printer; but
the ornaments and initials lead us to suppose that it was the work of
William Stansby's successor. The prose tracts again that Milton wrote
between 1641-45 are certainly far better printed than many of their
contemporaries, and prove that Matthew Simmons, who printed most of
them, and who was one of the Commonwealth men, deserved the position he
afterwards obtained. The first collected edition of Milton's poems was
published by Humphrey Moseley in 1645. This was a small octavo, in two
parts, with separate title-pages, and a portrait of the author by
William Marshall, and came from the press of Ruth Raworth. In 1646 there
appeared _A Collection of all the Incomparable Peeces written by Sir
John Suckling and published by a freend to perpetuate his memory_. This
came from the press of Thomas Walkley, who had issued the first edition
of _Aglaura_ and the later plays of the same writer. Walkley also
printed in small octavo, for Moseley, the _Poems_ of Edmond Waller, but
his work was none of the best.
A printer of considerable note at this time was William Dugard, who in
1644 was chosen headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School, and set up a
printing-press there. In January 1649 he printed the first edition of
the famous book _Eikon Basilike_, and followed it up by a translation of
Salmasius' _Defensio Regia_, for which the Council of State immediately
ordered his arrest, seized his presses, and wrote to the Governors of
the school, ordering them to elect a new schoolmaster, 'Mr. Dugard
having shewn himself an enemy to the state by printing seditious and
scandalous pamphlets, and therefore unfit to have charge of the
education of youths' (_Dom. S. P. Interregnum_, pp. 578-583). Sir James
Harrington, member of the Council of State, and author of _Oceana_, who
seems to have known something about Dugard, interceded with the Council
on his behalf, and at the same time persuaded him to give up the
Royalist cause. So his presses were restored to him, and henceforward he
appears to have devoted himself with equal zeal to his new masters.
He was the printer of Milton's answer to Salmasius, published by the
Council's command, of a book entitled _Mare Clausum_, also published by
authority, of the _Catechesis Ecclesiarum_, a book which the Council
found to contain dangerous opinions and ordered to be burnt, and of a
tract written by Milton's nephew, John Phillips, entitled _Responsio ad
apologiam_. His initials are also met with in many other books of that
time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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