The frequency with which the words print or imprint are used is very noticeable:
The story that is printed in her blood.
Much Ado about Nothing, iv, 1.
I love a ballad in print.
Winter’s Tale, iv, 4.
She did print your royal father off conceiving you.
Winter’s Tale, v, 1.
You are but as a form in wax, by him imprinted.
Midsummer-Night’s Dream, i, 1.
His heart ... with your print impressed.
Love’s Labour Lost, ii, 1.
I will do it, sir, in print.
Love’s Labour Lost, iii, 1.
This weak impress of love.
Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii, 2.
To print thy sorrows plain.
Titus Andronicus, iv, 1.
Sink thy knee i’ the earth;
Of thy deep duty, more impression show.
Coriolanus, v, 3.
Some more time
Must wear the print of his remembrance out.
Cymbeline, ii, 3.
The impressure.
Twelfth Night, ii, 5.
He will print them, out of doubt.
Merry Wives of Windsor, ii, 1.
We quarrel in print, by the book.
As You Like It, v, 4.
Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow.
Lear, i, 4.
His sword death’s stamp.
Coriolanus, ii, 2.
Hear how deftly Title-pages are treated:
Sim. Knights,
To say you’re welcome were superfluous.
To place upon the volume of your deeds,
As in a title-page, your worth of arms,
Were more than you expect, or more than’s fit.
Pericles, ii, 3.
Hear, too, Northumberland, who thus addresses the bearer of fearful news:
This man’s brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
2 Henry IV, i, 1.
Evidently Shakspere had a good idea of what a Title-page should contain.
From Title to Preface is but a turn of the leaf, and its introductory character is thus noticed:
Is but a Preface of her worthy praise,
The chief perfections of that lovely dame.
1 Henry VI, v, 5.
We must not forget a well-known passage about the introduction of Printing to England, which has caused much discussion. It is where Jack Cade accuses Lord Saye: