Note 417 — QUARRELS OF AUTHORS; (continued 5)

Some of these works still bear evident marks that the “pursuivants” were hunting the printers. “The Protestatyon of Martin Mar-Prelate, wherein, notwithstanding the surprising of the printer, he maketh it knowne vnto the world that he feareth neither proud priest, tirannous prelate, nor godlesse cater-cap; but defieth all the race of them,” including “a challenge” to meet them personally; was probably one of their latest efforts. The printing and the orthography show all the imperfections of that haste in which they were forced to print this work. As they lost their strength, they were getting more venomous. Among the little Martins disturbed in the hour of parturition, but already christened, there were: “Episto Mastix;” “The Lives and Doings of English Popes;” “Itinerarium, or Visitations;” “Lambethisms.” The “Itinerary” was a survey of every clergyman of England! and served as a model to a similar work, which appeared during the time of the Commonwealth. The “Lambethisms” were secrets divulged by Martin, who, it seems, had got into the palace itself! Their productions were, probably, often got up in haste, in utter scorn of the Horatian precept. [These pamphlets were printed with difficulty and danger, in secrecy and fear, for they were rigidly denounced by the government of Elizabeth. Sir George Paul, in his “Life of Archbishop Whitgift,” informs us that they were printed with a kind of wandering press, which was first set up at Moulsey, near Kingston-on-Thames, and from thence conveyed to Fauseley in Northamptonshire, and from thence to Norton, afterwards to Coventry, from thence to Welstone in Warwickshire, from which place the letters were sent to another press in or near Manchester; where by the means of Henry, Earl of Derby, the press was discovered in printing “More Work for a Cooper;” an answer to Bishop Cooper’s attack on the party, and a work so rare Mr. Maskell says, “I believe no copy of it, in any state, remains.”]

As a great curiosity, I preserve a fragment in the Scottish dialect, which well describes them and their views. The title is wanting in the only copy I have seen; but its extreme rarity is not its only value: there is something venerable in the criticism, and poignant in the political sarcasm.

“Weil lettred clarkis endite their warkes, quoth Horace, slow and geasoun, Bot thou can wise forth buike by buike, at every spurt and seasoun; For men of litrature t’endite so fast, them doth not fitte, Enanter in them, as in thee, their pen outrun thair witte. The shaftis of foolis are soone shot out, but fro the merke they stray; So art thou glibbe to guibe and taunte, but rouest all the way, Quhen thou hast parbrackt out thy gorge, and shot out all thy arrowes, See that thou hold thy clacke, and hang thy quiver on the gallows. Els Clarkis will soon all be Sir Johns, the priestis craft will empaire, And Dickin, Jackin, Tom, and Hob, mon sit in Rabbies chaire. Let Georg and Nichlas, cheek by jol, bothe still on cock-horse yode, That dignitie of Pristis with thee may hau a long abode. Els Litrature mon spredde her wings, and piercing welkin bright, To Heaven, from whence she did first wend, retire and take her flight.”