LIFE IN ENGLAND TWO CENTURIES AGO:

Auckland Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3704, 24 June 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

LIFE IN ENGLAND TWO CENTURIES AGO :

A CHAPTfiR is English Social History. [By J. D. Davis.]

SECTION 11. TBE PEOPLE'S LITERATURE!

EVERYONE reads the newspaper now-a* days, and with some classes it is all the literature demanded. It furnishes news and comments on an immense variety of topics'; and form 3in fact the sole library of millions. Such was not the case in the seventeenth century. The newspaper was then a tiny, badly printed, clumsily arranged, uncertain sheet, containing a few scraps o£ news which, if commented on at all, commonly provoked a tirade cf virulence and abuse sufjicient to bring down the press Licenser. But before describing the newspaper of the period under notice a brief account of its origin and growth is necessary. The precursor of the newspaper was the newsletter. It was the custom for noblemen and other persons of wealth to employ a London scribe to furnish them each week with news and gossip from the metropolis. Where the expence of retaining the whole of a writer's services was too heavy, it was customary for several country gentlemen to club together to secure a periodic letter, which was handed about from one to another till it was well thumbed and creased so as to be scarcely legible. The newswriter picked up the gossip of the coffee-houses when the latter became places of popular resort, gave the latest information about the theatres and the courts of iustice, and even occasionally visitel Whitehall to collect a scrap or two relating to the King and Court, After a while some enterprising writer organised an " intelligence office," and employed a regular staff of clerks, who multiplied the newsletters and probably reduced their cost. A considerable number of these old vehicles of information are still in existence, one at least of them dated as late as the year 1712, when Queen Anne bad reigned ten years.and printed newspapers had come into pretty general circulation. The first authentic periodic newspaper was published in May, 1622. It was a sheet Via. size about five inches hy seven and a half. <)n the outside was pnnted the title:— J/Veekly Nevves from Italy, Germanic, ,£^2aria, etc., printed by I.D.for Nicholas mm <? and Thomas Archer, and are to be

sold at thoir shops at the Exchange, and in Popes-head Pallace." The writer of it, though hia name did not at first appear,was Nathaniel Butter, who has been gonernlly considered the fouudcr of the English press. Whether by the novelty of the venture or the ability of Butter, the " Weekly News," became popular, and reached a large circulation. Foreign intelligence was its staple: only occasionally did homo news find a place. The reason of this probably was that the Licenser of tho Pross (whose office was then no sinecure) did not think it worth while to interfere with matters only indirectly touchiug home politics. When newspapers increased in numbers the Licenser interfered and suppressed some of them. In 1641 the earliest authentic report of proceeding in Parliament i-«ued from the press under the title of "Diurnal Occurrences, or thoJHeads of several Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament." It was published onco a week ; and contained ordinary news as well. Within the next five years, i.e., at the commencement of the Civil War, a number of newspapers i were sterted. Tho four most important were *' Mercurins Britanuicus," " M. Prngiuixticus,"and " M.Politicus," all conducted by Marchmont Needhniu, and "Mercurins Aulicus," the work of John Birkenhead. . The litter's character was thus summed lip by a contemporary : " He was exceedingly confident, witty, not very grateful to his benefactors, would lie damnably." Needham wai unquestionably tho ablest man that had yet tried his hand nt journalism. The "M. Britannicus " began on August 22ud, 1643, nnd zealously advocated the cause of the Parliament. For reasons unknown Needham changed sides, and in the "M. Pragniaticus" as vigorously supported King Charle*. Again Needhnra altered his politisal opinions and once more cliampioned tho people's cause in "M.Politicus." B rkenhead with his " M. Aulicus" was on tlie royalist side. A few days beforo the execution of Charles I, a Parliamentary ordinance was put in force, which visited -the owners of unlicensed presses with heavy punishments corporal and pecuniary. Search might be made in :Vl places where the Licenser thought lit for such presses, whence, it appeared, a flood of "scandalous pamphlets, books, treatises and ballads " had emanated. It is stated that thirty-three papers sprang into being during the first year of the Commonwealth. The majority, however, were very shortlived, not a few probably, being strangled by the ordinance just referred to. Tnat enactment, however, fell into aboynnce,and new-papers were not generally treated with rigour under Cromwell. But the times were difficult; faction was powerful; party feeling ran high; Oliver ruled nil unwilling people. In 1653, two months before he was declared Protector, it was ordered that "uo person should presume to publish in print any matter of public news or intelligence without leave and approbation of tho Secretary of State." The chief oupcrs of tho Commonwealth were the "Mercurius Politicus" and " Public Intelligencer " (the latter dating from October Bth, 1655), aud they were both in some degree official publications, In 1659, one yeaf before the Restoration, appeared the "Parliamentary Intelligencer " and " Mercurins Politicm " both of which had state patronage. The necessity for Neodbam's services was nearly over. He obtained his pardon with difficulty when Churles II ascended the throne. He lived some eighteen years longer.

Advertisements do not seem to have baen gcuerally inserted in the newspapers of the Commonwealth, and those which did appear show clearly enough that tho art of advertising was not scientifically cultivated. There is a prolixity about old newspaper announcements which is in striking contrast with the conciseness and point common in these days. The three advertisements which follow appear at the end of. a coDy of "Several proceedings in Parliament" published on 11th September, 1650. " There is in Print an Excellent Treatise, showing the best manner to attain a long and healthful life : with a very nocossary Treatise of the Bathes of Bath. And an accurate Treatise concerning Tobacco. By Doctor Tho. Venner. Sold by Hen. Hood at St. Dunstans Church in Fleet Street." " Gondibert, an Heroick Poem in the English Tongue. Written by Sir William Daveoant, and commended by Mr Hobbs, is now published." " Human Nature or the fundamental elements of Policie, written by the same Mr Hobbs, and newly reprinted, are to be sold by John Holden at the Anchor in the New Exchange." Sir WiUiam Davenant was subsequently poet laureate to Charles 11. He had a weakness to be thought a natural, sou of Shakspere. He fell in with the spirit of the times and wrote licentious plays. The "Mr Hobbs" mentioned in the last two advertisements is the famous sceptical philosopher, who is popularly supposed to havo reckoned self-interest as the motive of all-human action. The Restoration was denounced by most of tho newspapers, and Charles retaliated by reviving with all the old rigour the ordinanscs which had lain in abeyance. The Act of 1662 suppresed "the printing and publishing unlicensed newsbooks and pamphlets of news." The next year Roger L'Estrange, pamphleteer and journalist, was appointed Licenser, apparently on the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief. His career had been an eventful one. He had fought on the Royalist side, had been taken prisoner, tried by court martial, and sentenced to be shot. He waa not shot however, but imprisoned for four years, when he escaped across the water. The Restoration found him living by his wits. He soon bettered his position by the political change, and continued in the office of Licenser with some intermissions till the Revolution. L'Estrange received a royal patent granting him " the sole privilege of writing, printing, and publishing all narratives, advertisements-, mercuries, intelligences, diurnals, and other books, of public intelligence." L'Estrange's monopoly^ was intruded upon by a variety of periodicals, and as Licenser he treated them as might be expected. "The 'sponge'was ever in his hand, and he slurred and rubbed with- | out compunction.'' Othor literature besides j that contained in newspapers suffered mutilation. " Paradise Lost " itself was in danger, One of L'Estrange's assessors, the Rev, Thomas Tomkyns, an Archiepiscopal chaplain, smelt treason in more than oue passage, and proposed to remove them, Milton's "History of Britain" suffered actual excision. The expunged passages were,however,preserved by Milton, and given to the Earl of Anglesea, who published them in 1681. L'Estrange's first venture was the " Intelligencer "which appeared on August 31st, 1663. Another paper ot his was the " Observator," dating subsequently to the

year 1605. He was the first journalist whomade a reputation, which, though none of the cleanest, was a wide one. He laid himself out to discuss political questions in his own one-sided fashion, and the largo circulation of his newspapers rendered loss popular tlie pamphlets and tracts in which principally such discussion hnd hitherto bean carried on The Revolution was tho ruin of L'Estrangc. Ho failed through age or pride or prejudice to adapt himself to the spirit of the times, and in the year 1701 ended hi-i long life in prison, The "Oxford Gazette," published* first in November, lOCS, when the Court was at the Uriiv'.n-aity city in consequence of the prevalence of'the plague'in London, hecame with its twenty-fourth number the "London Gazette.'' For a very long period it was n single leaf, small folio. After the Revolution its improvement was- marked ; and is' was published regularly twice aweek.

While the contest was ratling over tho Exclusion Bill, 1679 (its ohjoct being to prevent James, Duke of York,from succeeding to the crown) the number of newspapers was largely increased. A not unnitural result whs the issue in the May of the year following of a Koyal Proclamation te prohibit tlie printing of newspapers and pamphlets. But the thirst of the peoole for information was too great to be satisfied with this state of tilings, and printers in Holland did their beat to supply the demand.

There worn then no provincial newspapers. Out of London, Oxford, anil Cambridge, there was hardly a printer in tho kingdom, and tlie only press in England, north of the Trent, was at York. So late as 1721 there wera 34 counties without a printer, om: of these counties being Lancashire.

Edmund Boh tin, a Suffolk justice, was the last Licenser. The system lapsed very quietly and without a struggle worth the name in 1694, and Milton's " ireopagitica," published half a century before, had triumphed. Wo have spoken of newspapers at such length that there is not much space left in which to allude to the other literature of the day. Of the immense variety of reading matter nowavailablc for even the poorest readers, by far the largest part did not exist. Tho list of English author* stopped short with Milton. Certain forms of literature, long highly popular, had not been invented. The essay was the production of the next age. Iho novel was later still j and of history scarcely anything worth tho name had been written. The old authors were almost unknown even to antiquaries. It is probable that Chaucer and Gowcr were read with less ca«e than they are now. Spenser wns the poet of a few ; he appealed chiefly to the cultured aud literary. The subjects of which Bacon and Hooker treated were not of interest to the majority. The dramas of Elizabeth's age foil into neglect during tha Puritan regim-, whon a considerable degree of the spirit of Prynne's " Histriomnstix ''. was dominant. After the Restoration when tho theatre again became popular a new class of plays came into favour, and those of the Elizabethan period were many times unsparingly adapted to the altered conditions. A number of Shak»perc's plays had been published in quarto during his lifetime, but without his sanctimi or supervision, and hence they were for tho most part inaccurate and imperfect. Seven years after his deith, viz., In 1623, two of his fellow-players, Hemiage and Condell, brought out a fine folio edition of his complete works. It was of such a size that it could be possessed by tho wealthy only.and therefore could never havo been in general circulation. But this edition sufficed for nine years, when a clumsily emended reprint of the first folio appeared. Then elapsed a long interval, nearly 30 year', before the next folio edition of Shakspcre was published. This is conclusive evidence of the neglect into which our greatest poet had fallen. Milton sold the copyright of "Paradise Lost" on April 27th, 1667. He received five pounds down, and was to be paid in addition five pounds after the salo of 1300 copies of each of the first three editions. Thirteen hundred copies were Bold in two years. The second edition was published in' 1674, the third four years later. It must be confessed that such a sale of a work which had to contend with many external obstacles, and the subject matter of which was not particularly inviting to the general reader, was by no means small. We may with Johnson regard the fact as an example of " the prevalence of genius." A poem of a very different stamp was Butler's "Hudibras." The first part appeared in 1662, two years after the Restoration ; the second part the next year, and the third, which still left the work unfinished, not till 1673. The poem became popular at once, and secured court patronage ; hut the author wns not rewarded in accordance with general expectation. Pepys tells us (26th December, 1662,) how ho tiou°ht the first part of Hudibras in the Temple for half-a-crown. He was so disgusted with it that he sold it to a Mr Townscnd for eighteen pence. The second part ho would not at first buy, and oven when he did it was not from preference, but for fashion's sake. In St. Paul's Churchyard—the principal place for bookshops— Pepys, in December, 1663, went to make a purchase of books, uncertain whether to buy for uso or for amusement. He looked at Chaucer, Dugdale's History of Paul's, Stew's London, Gesner, History of Trent, the plays of Shakspere, and Beaumont and Fletcher; and at last choso Fuller's Worthies, the Cabbala or Collections of Btate, the Delices de Hollande, with the Iwo parts of Hudibras then published. There were no circulating libraries, and any one who wanted to read had either to buy his books, or else stand at the stalls of the booksellers in Little Britain and- St. Pauls Churchyard,and tasto by stealthy snatches the delights of literature.

(To be continued.)

Trust a man to be good, and even if he is not, your trust may make him such. A Chinaman thus describes a trial In our courts : One man is silent, another talks all the time, and twelve wise men condemn the man who has not said a word. JM.S. Little Hock (Ark.): "Can you give me any recipe for preserving fence nosts? Please reply in your next issue. We can't do it. Wo have asked several ladies, and all of them say they have never tried it, believing that it would take too much sugar, and that the thing wouldn t be i much of a delicacy any way. But they say if you want to know how to fix tomatoes or can green corn, they can flood you with inI formation.-" Texas Sifting..