(F) p. 372. GILES FLETCHER'S VERSES. De Literis antiquae Britanniae, Regibus praesertim qui doctrina claruerunt, quique Collegia Cantabrigiae fundarunt. Cantabrigiae: ex Academiae celeberrimae typographeo. 1633. Haec igitur si forte tibi monumenta priorum Proxima foemincos jactant sacraria sumptus: Tertia quae gelidis Aquilonibus atria pandunt, Quarta vides nostris quae surgunt proxima ripis Aula Cathar. Aula Claren. Aula Trinil. Coll. Cail Coll. Trinil. Coll. 8. Joan Coll, Christ. Coll. Magd. Agmina, nil meritis inferret bella Camoenis, Vivet, et in nullo tua fama tacebitur acvo. En vero qui tecta colunt vicina penates; Proxima quae spatio, tectisque obscura, sed uno I here append the following facts respecting this notable volume and its reputed author, in the hope that others may be able to make the question which it incidentally raises in connexion with our early University Press a subject of more detailed enquiry than has been within my power. In the Library of St John's College there are two copies of the work: the former (Gg. 6. 41) being the original, complete edition; the latter (Gg. 2. 42) being a reprint of pp. 1-163 only, together with the Ansicer to the same, this latter production being attributed by Thomas Baker (the donor), in a manuscript note on the fly-leaf', to 'Dr Cosin,'-i.e. Richard Cosin, English dean of the Arches and M.P., who died in 1597. 1 Robert Beale a noted man for his disaffection to the Eccles: Goverment, has been sayd to be the Author of this Book. The Answere is by Dr Cosin. He' [i. e. Beale] 'seems to disown the charge. See Mr Strype's Life of Archbp. Whitgift Lib. 4. cap. 9. P. 391. Of this Abstract, and Answere, see Mr Strype's Annals vol. 3rd: chap. 19 and chap. 23.' Baker's MS. Note. For Robert Beale, a distinguished politician and diplomatist, and also well known as a man of literary tastes, see Cooper, Athenae, 11 311-4. I learn from Mr Sinker that Henry Jacob has been conjectured by some to have been the author of the Abstract; while Mr Maskell, in a manuscript note to the copy of the Answer in Trinity College library, assigns the latter to Whitgift. The Abstract seems to have been The original volume is described by Strype (Annals, I pt. i. 338) as 'a collection made out of the laws, acts of parliament, canons of the Church, in favour of the Disciplinarians, and en leavouring to prove the deviations of the present bishops in their exercise and government.' the date of its composition is to be inferred from the following passage: 'Whereby I gather, that these offices in cleargy men, haue not bene of any long continuance in England, and that by the ancient laws and customs of England, they do not properly belong vnto them: onely the King by his prerogatiue, hauing power to make barons at his royal pleasure, and to appoint judges in his courtes at his gratious will, hath by the same his prerogatiue, graunted unto the cleargy that which, before time, by the common laws of his empire, did not appertayn vnto them, and that therefore, as the common weale was gouerned, justice ministred, and lawes executed in the King's courts, by the barons, before the time of this graunt by Hen. 2, without the ayde and assistaunce of cleargye men, euen so might the common weale at this day, be as well gouerned by the like gouernment, without any help from any of them; as in deede and truth, the same in matters of policyo and greate state, these 24 yeares hath bene wonderfully gouerned without them. For which of the cleargy men, since the Lord scaled up the eyes of queene Mary, hath once set his foote within the Councell chamber dore, to consult with the nobility of matters of state' p. 217. As the treatise would thus appear to have been written in the year 1582, and the reprint with the accompanying Answer, bears the date 1554, we may reasonably infer that the original work was printed about 1583, and, as it bears no imprint, the question naturally arises, Where was it printed ? On a comparison of the numerous embellishments, ornamented initial letters, etc., with those which appear in the volumes printed at the Cambridge press by Thomas Thomas and John Legatt, I incline to the belief that the original edition of the Abstract was printed by Thomas, at the press which he conducted, shortly before he received his licence in 15531 (supra, p. 293); and with the kind. assistance of Mr Sinker, I have drawn out the following list of the embellishments, etc., together with references to other volumes printed by Thomas and his successor, in which they are also to be found. These other volumes, distinguished by the Greek letters a, 3, y, d, e, ¿, are as follows: (a) Pilkington (Jas.), Forcle and grosse Sinne of Oppression. 1585. Thomas. (3) Rouspeau and L'Espine, Tico Treatises on the Lord's Supper, 1556. Thomas. 1 On p. 293, L. 11, read 1583 instead of '1582': see Errata. (y) Harmony of the Confessions. 1586. Thomas, (8) Stockwood's Danaeus in XII Prophetas. 1594 Legatt List of Embellishments, etc., in ‘Abstract'. 1. Ornament on title, B 1 recto, and pp. 165, 207, 243, 259; d (8) title-page and first page of preface. 2. Ornament above preface: cf. (a) p. 30. 3. Same page, capital T (floriated), do. E, p. 165; do. F, p. 231; cf. (8) f. 2, (y) preface, and (3). 4. Ornament at end of preface and on p 163: cf. (a) p. 27. 5. Initial N on B 2 recto: cf. (8) p. 9. 6. Wood-cut initial on p. 32: cf. (a) p. 30. 7. Wood-cut ornament on pp. 105, 107: cf. (a) title. 8. St John's head on charger, pp. 107, 207, 259: cf. (C) p. 87. 9. Small leaf ornament on pp. 243, 251, 259: cí. (e) A 5 recto, etc. An initial B on B 1 recto, an ornament on p. 31, and a small head of Elizabeth on p. 266, are features which I have as yet failed to find in any of the volumes bearing Thomas's or Legatt's name. M. II. 41 |