[526] Procl. 638, 656, 659, 687, 688, 702, 740, 752, 775; Arber, i. 430, 452, 453, 461, 464, 474, 502; cf. McKerrow, xiii. A draft Bill by William Lambarde prepared in 1577–80 for the establishment of a mixed body of ecclesiastics and lawyers as Governors of the English Print (Arber, ii. 751) never became law.
[527] Pollard, Sh. F. 15; F. and Q. 4. Mr. Pollard stresses the difficulty of obtaining the hands of six Privy Councillors. Perhaps this is somewhat exaggerated. Six was the ordinary quorum of that body, which sat several times a week, while many of its members resided in court, were available for signing documents daily, and did in fact sign, in sixes, many, such as warrants to the Treasurer of the Chamber, of no greater moment than licences (cf. ch. ii). The signatures were of course ministerial, and would be given to a licence on the report of an expert reader. In any case the Injunction provides alternatives.
[528] Arber, iii. 690; Pollard, Sh. F. 23, ‘From 19o Elizabethe [1576–7] till the Starre-chamber Decree 28o Elizabeth [1586], many were licensed by the Master and Wardens, some few by the Master alone, and some by the Archbishop and more by the Bishop of London. The like was in the former parte of the Quene Elizabeth’s time. They were made a corporacon but by P. and M. Master Kingston, ye now master, sayth that before the Decree the master and wardens licensed all, and that when they had any Divinity booke of muche importance they would take the advise of some 2 or 3 ministers of this towne’.
[529] The references in the following notes, unless otherwise specified, are to the vols. and pages of Arber’s Transcript.
[530] i. 106; ii. 879.
[531] i. 17, ‘No member or members of this Company shall hereafter knowingly imprint or cause to be imprinted any book, pamphlet, portraicture, picture or paper whereunto the law requires a license, without such license as by the law is directed for the imprinting of the same (1678)’; 22, ‘By ancient usage of this company, when any book or copy is duly entred in the register-book of this company, to any member or members of this company, such person to whom such entry is made, is, and always hath been reputed and taken to be proprietor of such book or copy, and ought to have the sole printing thereof (1681)’; 26, ‘It hath been the ancient usage of the members of this company, for the printer or printers, publisher or publishers of all books, pamphlets, ballads, and papers, (except what are granted by letters pattents under the great seal of England) to enter into the publick register-book of this company, remaining with the clerk of this company for the time being, in his or their own name or names, all books, pamphlets, ballads, and papers whatsoever, by him or them to be printed or published, before the same book, pamphlet, ballad, or paper is begun to be printed, to the end that the printer or publisher thereof may be known, to justifie whatsoever shall be therein contained, and have no excuse for the printing or publishing thereof (1682)’.
[532] Typical examples are i. 75 (1557–8), ‘To master John Wally these bokes called Welth and helthe, the treatise of the ffrere and the boy, stans puer ad mensam, another of youghte charyte and humylyte, an a. b. c. for cheldren in englesshe with syllabes, also a boke called an hundreth mery tayles ijs’; 77 (1557–8), ‘To Henry Sutton to prynte an enterlude vpon the history of Jacobe and Esawe out of the xxvij chapeter of the fyrste boke of Moyses called Genyses and for his lycense he geveth to the howse iiijd’; 128 (1559–60), ‘Recevyd of John Kynge for his lycense for pryntinge of these copyes Lucas urialis, nyce wanton, impaciens poverte, the proude wyves pater noster, the squyre of low degre and syr deggre graunted ye x of June anno 1560 ijs’. The last becomes the normal form, but without the precise date.
[533] i. 155, 177, 204, 205, 208, 209, 231, 263, 268, 269, 272, 299, 302, 308, 312, 334, 336, 343, 378, 382, 385, 398, 399, 415. It is possible that the wardens, intent on finance, did not always transcribe into their accounts notes of authorizations. Only half a dozen of the above are ascribed to the archbishop, yet a mention of ‘one Talbot, servant of the archbishop of Canterbury, a corrector to the printers’ in an examination relative to the Ridolfi plot (Haynes-Murdin, ii. 30) shows that he had enough work in 1571 to justify the appointment of a regular deputy.
[534] ii. 35, 301. Collins remained clerk to 1613, when he was succeeded by Thomas Mountfort, who became a stationer (McKerrow, 196), and is of course to be distinguished from the prebendary of Paul’s and High Commissioner of a similar name, who acted as ‘corrector’ (cf. p. 168).
[535] i. 451 sqq.