A notable book from this press was Phineas Fletcher's Purple Island, a quarto published in 1633. The title-page was printed in red and black, in well-cut Roman of four founts, with the lozenge-shaped device of the University in the centre, the whole being surrounded by a neat border of printers' ornaments. Each page of the book was enclosed within rules, which seems to have been the universal fashion of the trade at this period, and at the end of each canto the device seen on the title-page was repeated. The Eclogues and Poems had each a separate title-page, and two well-executed copper-plate engravings occur in the volumes.
We must not close this chapter without noting that in 1639 printing began in the New England across the sea. The records of Harvard College tell us that the Rev. Joseph Glover 'gave to the College a font of printing letters, and some gentlemen of Amsterdam gave towards furnishing of a printing-press with letters forty-nine pounds, and something more.' Glover himself died on the voyage out from England, but Stephen Day, the printer whom he was bringing with him, arrived in safety and was installed at Harvard College. The first production of his press was the Freeman's Oath, the second an Almanac, the third, published in 1640, The Psalms in Metre, Faithfully translated for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints in Publick and Private, especially in New England. This, the first book printed in North America, was an octavo of three hundred pages, of passably good workmanship, and is commonly known as the Bay Psalter—Cambridge, the home of Harvard College, lying near Massachusetts Bay. Stephen Day continued to print at Cambridge till 1648 or 1649, when he was succeeded in the charge of the press by Samuel Green, whose work will be mentioned at the end of our next chapter.
CHAPTER VIII
FROM 1640 TO 1700
aving at length reached what is without doubt the darkest and the most wretched period in the history of English printing, it may be well before passing a severe condemnation on those who represented the trade at that time, to remind ourselves of the difficulties against which they had to contend.
The art of printing in England had never at any time reached such a point of excellence as in Paris under the Estiennes, in Antwerp under Plantin, or in Venice under the Aldi. So great was the competition between the printers, and so heavy the restrictions placed upon them, that profit rather than beauty or workmanship was their first consideration; and when to these drawbacks was added the general disorganisation of trade consequent upon the outbreak of civil war, it is not surprising that English work failed to maintain its already low standard of excellence. Literature, other than that which chronicled the fortunes of the opposing factions, was almost totally neglected. Writers, even had they found printers willing to support them, would have found no readers. On the other hand, such was the feverish anxiety manifested in the struggle, that it was scarcely possible to publish the Diurnals and Mercuries which contained the latest news fast enough, and the press was unequal to the strain, although the number of printers in London during this period was three times larger than that allowed by the decree of 1637. Professor Arber, in his Transcript, says that this increase in the number of printers was due to the removal of the gag by the Long Parliament. There is no proof that the Long Parliament ever intended to remove the gag; but having its hands full with other and weightier matters it could find no time to deal with the printers, and doubtless, in the heat of the fight, it was only too thankful to avail itself of the pens of those who replied to the attacks of the Royalist press. The best evidence of this is, that as soon as opportunity offered, and in spite of the warning of the greatest literary man of that day, who was on their own side, the Long Parliament reimposed the gag with as much severity as the hierarchy which it had deposed.
For the publication of the news of the day, each party had its own organs. On the side of the Parliament the principal journals were The Kingdoms Weekly Intelligencer, printed and published by Nathaniel Butter, and Mercurius Britannicus, edited by Marchmont Nedham; while Mercurius Aulicus, edited by clever John Birkenhead, represented the Royalists, and was ably seconded by the Perfect Occurrences, printed by John Clowes and Robert Ibbitson.