English in Print from Caxton to Shakespeare to Milton

Preface

p r e fa C e ix prefaCe This survey of early English printing draws upon the collections of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Elizabethan Club at Yale University.These libraries hold two of the most remarkable English Renaissance collections in America. The Elizabethan Club, founded in 1911, contains over three hundred outstanding volumes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature, including the first four folios of Shakespeare ,the Huth Shakespeare quartos,and first or early quartos of all the major dramatists. Early English holdings at the University of Illinois are broad and deep, including tens of thousands of fifteenth- through seventeenth-century English works of literature, history, philosophy, religion, science, politics, and culture in general. The collaborative nature of this work—preparations for which included many happy and instructive “show and tell” sessions in each other’s vaults—has allowed us to do more than either institution could have done on its own. Even when both libraries held the same rarity—a First Folio of Shakespeare or Ben Jonson, for example —we gained new insights by getting to know another copy of a great book. The “Englishing” of books begins very early. Already in the late ninth century, King Alfred supported the distribution of books in English and even undertook important translations himself. Once printing got underway in England in the early 1470s, English language, history, and literature could be disseminated more widely through books. This book and the exhibition it is designed to complement look at the history of early English books, exploring the concept of putting English into print, with close study of the texts, the formats,the audiences,and the functions of English books.Its coverage nearly mirrors that of Pollard and Redgrave’s famous Short-Title Catalogue (1475 – 1640).Our bookends are William Caxton,England’s first printer,and John Milton,the language’s most eloquent x p r e fa C e defender of the freedom of the press in his Areopagitica of 1644. Shakespeare, neither a printer nor a writer much concerned with publishing his own plays, nonetheless deserves his central place in our title because Shakespeare imprints, and Renaissance drama in general, not only are well represented in the collections of both the University of Illinois and the Elizabethan Club, but also provide a fascinating window on the world of English printing in the period between Caxton and Milton. Our survey is divided into six sections on the themes of early English printing; the role of printing in the development of modern English as a language; regulation and censorship in English printing; the place of translation in early English printing; play publishing; and,as a kind of coda,the technical aspects involved in the making of English books.Fred Robinson’s introductory essay covers the historical and topical themes of the exhibition and offers an overview of the history of printing and publishing in England. This is followed by item descriptions that place each book or manuscript in its historical context and offer item-specific information on such aspects as former owners, bindings, printers’biography, and marginal notes.Among the highlights of the exhibition are English incunabula printed by Caxton and his contemporaries; the earliest recorded schoolbook in English; first editions of several English Bibles; first editions of Jonson,Chapman,Milton,and others; early English newsbooks; the first four folios of Shakespeare; numerous quartos of Elizabethan and Stuart plays, including the only surviving perfect copy of the 1604 quarto of Hamlet; examples of early printed music and maps; and several examples of English bookbinding. Our selections include many monuments of English culture alongside lesser-known but interesting works that help us elaborate upon the story of English printing, while giving the reader and visitor a sense of the extraordinary collections at Illinois and Yale. The English language remains a work in progress,and the English represented in this survey reflects the variety and vagaries of orthography,style,and typography in Renaissance England. When quoting from exhibition items, we have transcribed the text as it appears in the source, preserving the consonantal i and u, the vocalic v and j, and the occasional vv for w. We trust that the modern reader can adjust easily to this and will appreciate a closer connection to the original.For titles,we have generally followed the practices of the English Short Title Catalogue. References are given to standard bibliographic works and to shelfmarks for both Illinois and Elizabethan Club copies, as well as...