These protective privileges, 'ad imprimendum solum', instead of a benefit were a great hindrance to the growth of Printing. Many master-printers even then felt them to be so, 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),[4] controlling skill. _Sonnet_ lxvi. 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, 1. The 'burning' kiss might be thought passionate and even durable enough for any extremity--yet Shakspere prefers, perhaps from an unconscious association of ideas, the durability 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_, l. 511. The same idea of durability is expressed in the cry of Henry's guilty Queen, when parting with Suffolk: Oh, could this kiss be _printed_ on thy hand! _2 Henry VI_, iii, 2. The idea has been still further developed in the following anonymous quatrain: A PRINTER'S KISSES. _Print_ on my lips another kiss, The picture of my glowing passion. Nay, this wont do--nor this, nor this; But now--Ay, that's a _proof impression_. Many of Vautrollier's publications went through several editions. In the 'Merry Wives', II, 1, 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: Com'st thou with deep premeditated lines, With written pamphlet studiously devised? _1 Henry VI_, iii, 1. as the author entered with a roll of 'copy' in his hand. 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, however, has probably been brought forward to justify the belief pourtrayed in the title-page, viz.: _That Shakspere must have passed some of his early years in a Printing-office._ Finis FOOTNOTES: