—Pericles, 77, 3.
"This man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume."
—2 Henry IV, i, 1.
But in the following:
"The vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear."
—Sonnet, 1. xxvii.
it is hard to be persuaded that direct allusion is not made to the English custom (which still obtains, as any body may see for himself by opening a book printed—wherever published—in England) of placing the typographer's imprint upon the vacant or extra leaf or leaves—where the text runs short, at the end of the volume; just as, if an American publisher, who buys a hundred copies of an English work, may stipulate to have his imprint put upon the title-page (or, perhaps, print his own title-page in this country), the last page of the book itself will invariably reveal whether the actual manufacture was in England or not; an analogy which implies technical information. An image employed by Othello, who takes his wife's hand in his, and says,
"Here's a young and sweating devil."
—Othello, III. 4.