The Book-Hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and CollectingRoberts, W. (William)
History
The Book-Hunter in London: Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting
Roberts, W. (William)
Bibliomania; Book collecting; Booksellers and bookselling -- England -- London
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'When Mr. Norreys had bought the Horace, and given an address where to
send it, Harley (the second gentleman) asked the shopman if he knew the
young man who had been reading Boethius.
'"Only by sight. He has come here every day the last week, and spends
hours at the stall. When once he fastens on a book, he reads it
through."
'"And never buys?" said Mr. Norreys.
'"Sir," said the shopman, with a good-natured smile, "they who buy
seldom read. The poor boy pays me twopence a day to read as long as he
pleases. I would not take it, but he is proud."'
[202:A] It was in one of these alleys or tributaries that a lawyer's
clerk, returning from his office, carried home in triumph to Camden Town
a copy of Marlowe's 'Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,' 1663, which he
bought for 1s.
[217:A] Concerning the Hande and Starre, Fleet Street, and the renowned
Richard Tottell, 'printer by special Patentes of the bokes of the Common
Lawe in the several Reigns of King Edw. VI. and of the quenes Marye and
Elizabeth,' it may be pointed out that this house, 7, Fleet Street,
exists as before, the only modern addition being the half-brick front
which was placed there more than a hundred years ago. Jaggard, the
bookseller, lived there after Tottell, and from thence he issued the
first edition of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet,' actually printed in
the rear (now Dick's Coffee-house), and the possibility of Shakespeare
having often called to correct the proof-sheets is conjured up. The
house was in turn occupied by many eminent law publishers and
booksellers, and of late years by the late Mr. Henry Butterworth, who
became himself the Queen's law publisher.
[237:A] One of the reviewers of Nichols' 'Literary Anecdotes' says: 'How
often have we seen him standing betwixt these, bidding "his friends
good-morrow with a cheerful face," and pulling down his ruffles, already
too long, till they covered his fingers. Davies had, even while in
common conversation, as much of the old school of acting in his manner
as his friend Gibson had upon the stage; though he is said not to have
been so pompous as Berry, to whose parts he succeeded; and Berry, in
this respect, was thought to have declined from Bridgewater.'
[237:B] Now covered by Charing Cross Hospital. At the commencement of
the third quarter of the sixteenth century, Thomas Colwell, a
bookseller, had a shop at the sign of 'St. John the Evangelist,' in St.
Martin's parish, near Charing-Cross, and a shop with the same sign in
Fleet Street, near the Conduit. It must be remembered that at this
period Holborn and Charing Cross were quite suburban villages, the
former noteworthy as the thoroughfare from Newgate to Tyburn, and the
latter as a sort of halfway place of stoppage between the City and
Westminster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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